All week I have been trudging to my sewing area

In my last post, I explained that our family vacation was waylaid. So I have had nine days at home to fill. Once our vacation was cancelled, the teenagers quickly made plans with their friends and picked up some extra days at work, so that left me with nine days to fill.

I went to the movies (3x), I watched some of the Netflix DVDs that always seem to be around and I never watch and I read one of my novels. I slept late. I went shopping with my mom and sister and I visited a friend for an afternoon. But I never realized how much time is in nine days when you don't fill the majority of it with work or planned activities. So at some point every day, I trudged to my sewing area.

Trudged is an interesting verb to use isn't it. But I went because I should go not because I was overjoyed to go. And I went because it seemed like such a waste to have all of this time and not use it to sew. So I trudged and I made myself persist. Now, after you see the pictures you are going to think I am a nut! But, please remember this is my God given talent. This is one of the things I do best and I have been sewing for over 35 years so I have a little experience....

Okay, this is what came out of my sewing room this week.

I finished up the "One Hit Wonder" pieces by turning them into a short sleeve top and a matching skirt. The skirt has a ribbon detail on each one of the four gores that I used to break up the circle print. I did this because I was too lazy to lay the pattern pieces out so that the circles would match at all the seams. I frequently use embellishment to hide my laziness! *smile*
Only the tank dress ~ made from a black rayon/linen from FFC was actually started and completed this week. The other two pieces were just finished up this week.

This is my "Brown & Orange, Circles & Stripes SWAP"

I have been collecting these different fabrics from various internet sources for about two months. Represented here is 5 yards of a cotton/lycra jersey, 4 yards of an orange midweight linen, and 2 yards of an orange stretch woven print from Fabric Mart. There is 5 yards of a brown midweight linen from Fashions Fabric Club. Two yards of a lightweight stretch woven Anna Sui print from Emmaonesock and 4 yards of an eyelet stretch woven from Timmel Fabrics. All the pieces were definitely purchased with this SWAP in mind.

The eyelet pieces and the Anna Sui print skirt were previously made but all of the other pieces are new. There are a few RTW tank tops included because they were so inexpensive to buy and they help to fill out the wardrobe.

The list of garments are:

1. TNT flare 4-gore skirt modified to an 8-gore skirt w/zipper & waistband added. Made from the orange linen from FM. This skirt was underlined with silk organza and lined because the fabric was very see through.
2. Burda WOF skirt #125 from the July 2006 issue. This skirt was made from the orange cotton/lycra jersey purchased from FM. And even though the pattern instructions say you should use a stretch jersey ~ the skirt did not turn out how I thought it would. Don't know if I am actually going to wear it yet!
3. Brown linen city shorts from Vogue 8264. Fabric purchased from FFC.
4. Brown linen pants made from TNT pants pattern. Fabric purchased from FFC.
5. Sewing Workshop Mission Tank made from more of the orange cotton/lycra jersey from FM. I modified the neckline so that it has a v-neck instead of the tighter u-neckline.
6. Burda OOP cardigan made from the orange cotton/lycra jersey from FM. Pieces made to wear together.

Yet to be completed are:

~ The orange linen jacket that is being made from the Tamatsu dress pattern that I used to make the tea dyed linen dress. This is cut out and has quite a bit of work yet to be done on it.

~ The orange circles & stripe stretch woven fabric that I am using to make a tank dress out of from Butterick 6082 - OOP. This is cut out and almost complete.

~ A white/orange green floral stretch woven that I purchased from Timmel Fabrics to make a skirt. What skirt ~ I don't know! Just know that I want one more skirt to go with this wardrobe.

And finally ~ one more picture of me actually wearing some of the garments!

I am going to write about the different garments and sewing processes during the upcoming week. But in the meantime, if you want to see pictures of each garment, they are in my Yahoo photo album:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cnorman_98/my_photos

In the folder, "Brown & Orange Circles & Stripes SWAP"

More later.....