Almost SWAP Time

It's hard to believe, but SWAP time is creeping up. The rules have been posted, and today's the first official day for fabric purchases. (For explanation, see my previous SWAP posts and the offical sponsor site, Timmel Fabrics.)

I have so many ideas. It's hard to focus. I went through my stash today and color-coordinated everything. I think I can get a black, white & blue or a brown, white & pink wardrobe out of the fabric I've got.

There's one hindrance to my planning. We will most likely be moving within the next few months but we have no idea when we'll move or where we'll go. Potential new climates vary, which makes it hard to plan what kind of clothes I'll need. Also, I fear that in January when actual sewing for the contest begins, we will be packed up and on the road, and my sewing machine will be locked in storage for 6 months. It would be impossible to participate in the contest then.

I may have to forego the official contest this year and sew along as best as possible. We are allowed to have 2 previously sewn pieces in the finished collection, so I may just start a sewing spree now and finalize the plan later with a finished piece or 2 when I know more about our location fate. It's not a very organized way to go about SWAP sewing, but it may be the best I can do this year.

I haven't been in the sewing room in months, but I think I'm ready to go back in.

SWAP Time!

Well, my SWAP has joined 30 others from all over the world. See them all here: Timmel Fabrics. It really is a great collection of wardrobes. I did my voting last night. It was really hard.

Here's my SWAP album.

I'm sewing.

I realized I haven't updated my sewing projects in a while. The SWAP is nearly finished. I have about one afternoon's worth of work to do on one dress, and then it's done. The deadline is in a few weeks. I don't know why I'm procrastinating on this, except that I'm just kind of burnt out.

I've been doing some stash reduction sewing and trying some new patterns. I dug into my first Hot Patterns pattern, Artful Dodger Floribunda Tops. Once I got it to fit right I fell in love with it. I sewed 2 tops and have plans for a third.

I also tried the Hot Patterns Weekender Renaissance Top. I'm having trouble with the fit and I'm trying to decide if I keep going with it or use the fabric I had intended for it for a tried-and-true pattern. I think it's more important for me to have anything made in this particular fabric rather than have it sit in the stash until I get around to fitting this pattern. Other fabrics will come along. Or I'll give up on this pattern and move on.

And I made two clutch purses recently from some scraps. I also went through my knits stash and made 3 t-shirts.

I am sewing. I'm just spending more time doing it than posting about it. And once the good camera is back in my hands I'll get some good photos posted to flickr. I'm sick of my laptop cam.

Sunday SWAP Update

This week I made some major progress. I finished the shirt-dress to the left there. It's a stretch sateen that's a little heavier than the pattern recommends. It's from a vintage pattern.

I also sewed a white cotton pique jacket; finished it yesterday. That only took me about 24 hours (and that includes sleeping). I'll get a picture of that up on flickr some time today. I plan on wearing it out today. Suddenly I have a need for nice jeans and nice shoes to wear with my nice jacket.

My last dress is near completion. I put the zipper in earlier this week. It has to be hemmed and it needs a belt. It comes with instructions for making a simple fabric belt, but I can't find a belt buckle small enough (3/4") so I may have to improvise. Also, I'm not in love with the sleeves on this dress so need to think about changing them.

Last but not least, I decided I hate the way my knit top looks, so I ripped it apart. I'm moving it back into the incomplete column. I worked on it a bit yesterday and I think I'm closer to a better fit. I'd like to get it figured out since the other 2 knit tops are cut out and I really wanna salvage that fabric.

My tally:
8 finished (1 coat; 2 skirts; 3 dresses; 1 jacket; 1 knit top)
1 nearly done (1 dress needs hemming and belt)
2 knit tops to do




Edited to change tally: I got the fit right on that knit top!

Sunday SWAP Update

My coat has buttons!

I finally put the buttons on. I decided I want to wear it tomorrow, which means I had to sit down and do it. (I put on Reds and spent 3 hours watching Bolshevicks and sewing buttons.)

I also worked on my last two dresses this week. One is done except for the buttons (of course) and the other is done except for the zipper (which I bought today).

My tally:
6 finished (1 coat; 2 skirts; 2 dresses; 1 knit top)
2 nearly done (1 dress needs buttons; 1 dress needs zipper)
3 cut out (1 jacket; 2 knit tops)




I bought the trim for my jacket today and I hope to work on it this week after finishing at least one of the dresses.

Sunday SWAP Update

I'm puttering along, slowly but surely. I finished one of my knit tops and I've been working on a shirt dress. One of my major motivations now is wanting to get the SWAP finished so I can move on to other fabrics. I washed a bunch of post-SWAP fabrics this week and can't wait to start working on them. My mind is working faster than my sewing machine is right now.

No new pics this week. I couldn't get a good photo of the shirt with the laptop cam.

My tally:
5 finished (2 skirts; 2 dresses; 1 knit top)
1 nearly done (coat needs buttons)
1 in progress (shirt dress)
4 cut out (1 jacket; 1 dress; 2 knit tops)




I bought a new pair of shoes this week to wear with some of my new SWAP (and post-SWAP) clothes.

White Elephant Finds part une

I've been dreaming about my purchases from the White Elephant Preview Sale on Sunday. Of the four kinds of buttons I bought, I decided which ones will go on my coat. The silver half-orbs will go on the pink side, and the brown ones (they have a bit of a braid pattern that's not really visible on the picture) will go on the boucle side. The second photo, of glass buttons and pink buttons, will be put away for something else. Actually, I have more of the silver and brown ones than I need, so some of those will also be put away for other uses. (I'm thinking lots of purses--see the fabric finds I'll post later).

This third picture is linen napkins. There are a total of 20. They are similar in their off-white-ish, "natural" color, but have different woven patterns (of the same color). There are 6 of one, 4 of another, there's even 1 orphan that doesn't match any of the others. I'm thinking that in a large party no one's going to notice each napkin isn't identical to its friends.

I need to think about my fabrics more before I can post about them. I've already taken their pictures and posted them to flickr.

Sunday SWAP Update

I almost let a full week go by without doing anything SWAP-related. But fear not! I took a small, but important, step today. I went to the Oakland Museum of California's White Elephant Preview Sale and bought buttons for my coat. I actually found four different kinds that I liked. I couldn't decide on them so I bought them all. Whichever ones I don't use on the coat will get used for other projects.

My tally hasn't changed since last week:
4 finished (2 skirts; 2 dresses)
2 nearly done (coat needs buttons; 1 knit top needs sleeves)
5 cut out (1 jacket; 2 dresses; 2 knit tops)




I also bought some other goodies at the sale. Maybe I'll share them later.

Sunday SWAP Update

These are my faux-wrap knit dresses from, mmm, I guess two weeks ago now. They are rayon-lycra jerseys in pink sparkle and elephant green.

I've hardly done any sewing this week. I lost some steam. I got my three knit tops cut out last weekend and one of them is nearly complete--just needs sleeves. Then for several days I didn't even look at any fabric. Yesterday, instead of sewing those three tops that could have been done in just one day if I really put my mind to it, I started cutting out my last three pieces--two dresses and a jacket. (I was inspired to work on vintage dress patterns after watching this video on Dress A Day yesterday morning.) By the end of today I'll have those three garments entirely cut out and hopefully the interfacing cut and fused, too. After that all I can do is just keep sewing.

Let's see what my tally is now:
4 finished (2 skirts; 2 dresses)
2 nearly done (coat needs buttons; 1 knit top needs sleeves)
5 cut out (1 jacket; 2 dresses; 2 knit tops)

SWAP Update

It's been a productive few days. I finished my two knit dresses and this morning I cut out all three knit tops. Those should be quick and I hope to finish them in just another day or two, if I don't lose too much steam.

My tally as of this afternoon:
4 finished (2 dresses; 2 skirts)
1 nearly finished (coat still needs buttons)
3 cut-out (those knit tops)

To do: 2 dresses and 1 jacket

early morning random stuff

My laptop cam takes photos in mirror image.

This pattern is the first from my recent Lanetz Living spree that I'll be tearing into. For knit tops for my SWAP I had planned on using a tried-n-true Jalie t-shirt pattern. But I'm going to give this one a try. I'll do a muslin first. Normally I wouldn't for a t-shirt, but this pattern uses a zipper, and I think that's odd for a t-shirt. However, the fabrics I'd like to use are stretchier than the ones recommended (stretchy polyester--ick--I can feel the static electricity in my hair just thinking about it), so I'm hoping I can at least get the v-neck over my big head without a zipper. (Click the image to see it larger.)

Join the campaign to bring "riv" back into use!

Vegan Fashion in the New York Times.

All but the Buttons

It's so close to being finished, yet so far away. There was nothing that interested me in the way of buttons at Joann's. I wore the coat on my trip, in hopes it would cheer me up and inspire me. No buttons. But I did get some much needed notions. Okay, so Photo 1 is the pink side. It's candy pink cotton twill with a smidge of lycra for some stretch. There are welt pockets. Photo 2 is the boucle side. It's a silk woven that has various shades of pink, purple, brown, and some green. Both fabrics are from Timmel Fabrics. This side does not have pockets. It does have little tabs, though, that you can't see because without buttons to accentuate them they get lost in the pattern. Photo 3: See, it really is one coat! Click on any of the photos to enlarge them. I apologize for the awful color in these photos. I'm limited with what I can do with the laptop cam.

I'm not marking this down in the "Done" column yet. I don't want to count anything until it actually is complete. My next project is to work on muslins for my knit dresses and tops.

The Final Countdown

Cue Europe. Or GOB.





I'm taking a break from the sewing machine. I did a lot of work on my coat today. It looks great. It reverses just the way it's supposed to. I need to hem the sleeves and buy buttons for it. Maybe I'll take some snapshots tomorrow. Right now I'm too tired.

P.S. Yesterday my fabrics from Textile Studio and ReproDepot.com arrived. Plus my patterns from Lanetz Living. Plus my swatches from Emma One Sock. It was a good mail day.

Duh!

My laptop has a camera in it! These snapshots will do for now. Here are my first two SWAP skirts. My entire SWAP album can be viewed by clicking on the flickr sticker on the right-hand sidebar.

Both skirts were done with the same fabric. It's skirt panels I got at Joann's on clearance last fall. I bought 2 yards, which included 2 flowered panels and 2 solid gray. I did one skirt with the flower panels front and back and the other skirt all gray. For the flower skirt I used the selvage edge as the bottom instead of hemming it (saved me a few minutes and a small headache -- I really hate hemming).

Origami High Heels, as seen on Manolo's Shoe Blog.

My head is buzzing with sewing projects. I've basically divided up my stash and patterns into four SWAPs:

1) Think Pink! -- the official one I'm doing for the Timmel Fabrics contest (2 of 11 pieces done)

2) Part II of that one (only 9 pieces planned for that)

3) A black & white inspired SWAP (I've expanded this plan to 12 pieces; one piece is nearly done -- a skirt I started last year that just needs hemming now.)

4) A Fall Colors SWAP, including some of the garments I sewed and planned on sewing last fall (4 of 11 pieces done)

If I can complete #1 and do a few pieces of each of the others this year, I'll be happy. Many of the garments I have planned can cross-over and be worn with garments from the other SWAPs.

Yesterday I went through my stash and added some yardage to my bag of clothes to give to Salvation Army. There are some fabrics I know I will never sew and I should give them a chance at someone else's home.

Yesterday I also cut out the solid pink fabric for my reversible coat. Tonight I hope to cut out the boucle fabric for the other side.

Sewing

I finished my two SWAP skirts last night! Two garments down, nine to go. Unfortunately I don't have any pics. Something is wrong with the camera I have; Mike has the good one with him. I can't seem to get pics from my phone onto my computer. So for the time being no new, original pics. Oh well. I guess I can use the time I would spend uploading and editing pics on sewing instead. Next up: Cut out the reversible coat.

(Pic from Mansker's Station; it's titled "Sewing.")

Well, there was no snow on the mountaintop. Hopefully it will happen at least once this winter. I wonder how long winter lasts here? Yesterday felt downright spring-like in the afternoon.

I have officially started my SWAP. I cut out 2 skirts on Sunday. I'll be able to sew them up quickly. This week I want to complete those skirts and get my reversible coat fabrics cut out. I had wanted to finish the coat first, but decided to increase my number of completed garments (from 0 to 2 of 11) with two quick ones so I'll feel more accomplished. (My garment list is here.) My two months of uninterrupted sewing time starts today. There are 13 weeks left to the SWAP contest deadline. I'd like to stay ahead of the one garment per week average this year.

In other news, I finished reading Candyfreak last night and I'm going to concentrate all my reading time on finishing Foucault's Pendulum. I have less than 200 pages to go.

I bought some patterns from Lanetz Living this morning. I may tweak my SWAP a bit to work one or two of them in.

It's raining again. I really should finish the hem on my raincoat first, then go run errands with it on. But I really want to get the errands out of the way first so I can spend the rest of the day warm and dry inside.

Inspired by this post from the Project Gay Boys, I am unplugging my glue gun for the rest of the holiday season. I've made a few ornaments, wrapped the presents, shipped those presents, mailed the cards, and cleaned the house. I think that's enough. With Mike home and my mom coming to visit, it will be nice to just relax and ignore the glue blobs showing on some of those ornaments.

Pic from Lanetz Living doll collection.

I zoomed through my raincoat yesterday. Got those sleeves in. Made the lining and attached it. All I have left to do is hemming. I even made the belt yesterday. I was in the zone.

Soon I'll be diving in to SWAP sewing. At first I wanted to make the coat right away to get it out of the way. Then as I was working on the raincoat I started thinking "Do I really want another new coat right away?" Now I'm thinking that I do, since it's not raining today and so I'd look silly wearing a raincoat. Especially now that I know how quickly I can sew it up when I put my mind to it. It will be nice having two winter coats (3, actually, with one being reversible) to choose from.

Rainy Day Project

I'm making my raincoat from Simplicity 4403, View C, the one with the tie closure. I was planning on doing the exact same version for my SWAP reversible coat but in my work yesterday I realized 2 things: 1) I don't want to do this collar again any time soon and 2) Making this look exactly the way I want it to on both sides is going to be more work than I'd like to do. (One of the points of SWAP is that the garments are supposed to be quick and easy so you don't get tired of so much sewing.) So, after I pulled my collar/facing apart last night I sat and thought about the reversible coat. I really like this pattern and it's fitting well so far. In looking over the pattern pieces and instructions, it looks like View A or B (the 2 on the right) will be easier to do. I'm even thinking that the boucle side could be A, with the tabs, and the solid side could be B, with the pockets and contrast collar.


The reason I had to pull it apart last night was because I ignored a very important rule: Never sew when tired. Luckily I had the sense to stop before I attempted attaching the sleeves. I'm also glad I made myself take it apart last night so that this morning I could sit right down at the machine and sew it back together. I hate starting the morning with seam-ripping. It's such a negative way to start your sewing day. (You may be looking at the time stamp and thinking "This morning? But she wrote this post this morning." Immediately after the cats woke me up at 6:20 a.m. I re-sewed the collar/facing, even before I had my coffee. It's a miracle I could even see straight. I'm having a second cup now, before I work on the sleeves.)