Can you stand anymore JCC?

I came home from work dog tired...I mean I went to bed at almost 1 am and was back up at 5:45 am to go to my day job...well I really just crawled out of bed, showered and threw on something and left. Thank goodness it is a casual week in my workplace!

It took me awhile when I got home to get it together to take pictures...but they are done and sent off to Elizabeth - the host of the JCC.

However, I wanted to share with you my favorite pic of the dress...

I love this dress! It met and exceeded all of my expectations from when I was "dreaming" it up! I love the movement of the pleats...I love the brown accents...but I especially love how feminine the dress makes me feel!

I promise I'm moving on and talking about techniques and patterns and other sewing stuff in my next couple of posts...I'm just so thrilled to be finished with these JCC pieces!

Done!

First I want to thank you all for your encouraging words both here and via email.

Second, I never thought that I had sewing ADD but I must because what else would have possessed me to sew a vintage dress that had no relation to my JCC wardrobe last weekend! If I had just stayed on track, I would not have been rushing tonight to meet the deadline!!

Third, I finished sewing the last button on at 11:38 pm tonight. Then I snapped a few quick pictures on the hanger...full blown dress up pictures will have to wait until tomorrow because I have until July 4th to get the pictures to the leader of the JCC Contest.

I have much to say about the sewing of the jacket ~ both the things that I liked and disliked. I am still trying to decide if I will make it again! One part of me says yes...that there are aspects of the pattern yet unexplored...and another part of me says no! I guess I just need some time and space to properly evaluate that experience.

Also I know that I still need to post about how I made the box pleats for both this dress and the vintage one...so look for those soon. My sewing machine and serger have been turned off and they will stay that way until the weekend. I have a few days off for the holiday and have several dresses with some vintage details that I want to make...yeah I'm still staying home and sewing...another DD starts college in the fall!

Okay, construction pictures are up on my Flickr Album. And I will leave you with two pictures...garments are still on the hanger...

I love this sleeve detail...

and one of the jacket over the dress...

I was concerned this wouldn't work but it does, it really does! *LOL* Okay, I'm taking my tired self to bed...more later...

June 30th doesn't end until midnight, right?

Here is where I stand...

June 30th doesn't end until midnight right? So technically I can come home tomorrow, finish up the jacket, take some pictures and submit it all before 11:59 pm...or am I pushing it too close?

Well...I'm committed now and I can almost see the finish line...so this is what's left on the jacket...

1. Hem the sleeves - then sew the tab and button on.

2. Finish pressing the hem up, add hem tape and stitch it down.

3. Make buttonholes and sew buttons on.

4. Insert shoulder pads

5. Give it another good pressing

I can finish all of that by midnight tomorrow night, right? And if I don't I guess you guys will be the first to know...but....I....am....not....quitting....yet! *LOL*

One more pic for the road...and I would be absolutely, positively NO-GOOD on Project Runway...I am not at my best under pressure...

taking my tired behind to bed...

I think I can...

I am stopping for a break 'cause if I don't I won't finish this jacket...which is a major PIA!!! Why oh why did I pick a new pattern for my last piece? Because somewhere in my twisted brain I thought I would have 2 days or the entire weekend to work on it instead of just one day...

I am weary so please forgive me...but I think I can...I think I can...finish up this last piece so the JCC is done...

Okay...I'm going back in now...too bad I have to go to work tomorrow or this would be a no-brainer...

I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

she mutters as he heads back to her sewing machine...

Three Down and One to go!

As the title says..."three pieces done and one more to go!" Okay that's an expansion on the title but hey I can see the finish line, and I'm a little giddy! The first three pieces of my JCC wardrobe are completed and ready to be worn...

...All three pieces...

...SW Mission Tank and pants...

TNT dress with banded sleeves and pleated bottom.

Tomorrow I will work on the safari jacket and this wardrobe will be done.

I have to make or buy an accessory...so my official entry will have two accessories...a scarf tie for the tank so I can have a bowtie look on the blouse and a belt for the jacket...made from the pattern.

However my real new accessory is these shoes...purchased just for these new pieces! Gosh I love a new pair of shoes...though they won't arrive in time for the official end of the contest because I waited to long to order them!

Tomorrow is one more piece and pictures...and of course I will share here when its done!

Friday Night Snippets

I know that I haven't posted here this week, but believe it or not I haven't had much to say! *lol*

My vintage pattern fabric obsession is still in full swing.

These arrived this week:

McCalls 3145
"A Pounds Thinner" Pattern
copyright 1972

Advance (Sew Easy) 3289

Simplicity 6276
copyright 1965

And I just won this one on an Ebay auction:

Simplicity 4889

I know that I said that I would stay away from there (Ebay) but I just keep getting sucked back in...at least now though I am only buying one or two patterns at a time instead of 15!!!

I also got this amazing gray linen blend border print from FashionFabricsClub:


My fabric closet holds quite a few pieces of gray and navy fabrics but mostly in wools for fall and winter. I managed to put together this collection of fabrics to make several more pieces for work...I just have to figure out when to sew it!

Solid gray linen (FFC); gray linen/blend border print (FFC); cotton/linen blend (Rag Shop); ltwt. cotton sateen (Metro Textile)

And I took a picture of this tag:

Since so many people seemed "curious" about the fact that I knew exactly where and when I bought the fabric for the Vintage Vogue Dress. This is just something I do...every piece of fabric that comes into the house gets tagged. The little white tag tells me yardage, fiber content, where I bought it, if it was pre-treated, and in the early years I put the year on it or if it was a store tag (i.e. Fabric Mart/Rag Shop) the year appears on it. It helps with knowing how much fabric is available when I'm thinking about a project and if it was pre-treated!

I also want to clear something up from the last post about the Vintage Vogue dress ~ the back yoke DOES NOT have bound buttonholes on it. I made machine stitched buttonholes and added an extra buttonhole and button to cover the yoke fully. When I re-read what I wrote it sounded like I made bound buttonholes and I didn't...making the pleats was bad enough! *LOL*

So this weekend will be dedicated to finishing off my JCC pieces. There are already some amazing entries up for this contest and I need to get mine finished and photographed so that I can move on! I have quite a few ideas running through my mind for more summer dresses and I need to get them made into garments!

Last update - I am in awe of all of those who have made their coat muslins! I don't even own the muslin fabric yet and realized that I am going to be sewing mine in late August/early September. I just can't sew that far ahead of the season! Issues...I know! *LOL*

Have a great weekend and hopefully finished JCC pieces soon!

At the week's end...

Well it's Saturday morning and I've made it through another grueling week...

Since it was such a trying week, I haven't thought much about sewing...geeze that statement is scary!!! However, I did work out the sleeve for my JCC Dress, so I will finish the dress up this weekend...and I've also decided to make the pants from the JCC Wardrobe as my third piece too...keeping me on track to finish up with my final piece - the jacket next weekend.

On another front, I really have become fanatical about vintage patterns. I found some new sites (thanks Marji!) that have really inspired me and of course some more patterns have followed me home...

Of the new ones, this one is really "talking" loudly:

It arrived this week from Lanetz Living, it's envelope is a little tattered, the pieces very yellowed with age...but the most priceless part of this pattern to me is the instruction sheet:

I now have fabric in the wash waiting to make a "wearable" muslin of this dress, using the "idea" from the vintage pattern and my TNT dress pattern, hopefully I will end up with a new dress to add to my Summer of Sophisticated Dressing garments.

This also showed up this week:

Just the white/black paisley silk charmeuse portion of the picture...it is matched with the black linen purchased several months ago because I want to make a summer/early fall version of my Easter Suit. I have been diligently searching for a black/white silk print that would work for the inserts, the lining and another SW Mission Tank. I think this one fits the bill and says me at the same time! This is just a peek at a future sewing project.

So my weekend sewing plans are:

*complete the JCC dress

*make the JCC pants

*work on the vintage Vogue pleated dress

Updates tomorrow!!!!

Sliding into Second

This month's sewing is all about the June Capsule Contest...and as previously stated I planned on sewing one piece a weekend until the four pieces are finished.

This week's piece is ~ "The Dress"...and although it's not completed, I wanted to show you some of it's progress. However, I have no pictures of construction. I started working on this dress today and all I wanted to do was sew and enjoy the journey. There were a lot of details that needed to be worked out from my basic idea so I took my time and just sewed.

Here is where I am soooo far...


I know I broke my rule and showed it on my body but the flat pictures just don't do the components of this dress justice as you can see here:

My favorite parts of the dress is the changed neckline...the regular neckline on my TNT dress sits closer to the neck. For this version, I scooped out the neckline and added the brown linen facing to break up some of the pattern.

The other part that I am just loving is the pleated bottom...I can't believe I got this to work the first time with just a little thought and determination...I will share how to make the pleated bottom on another post...

Originally I was going to make this a sleeveless dress but now to me it's crying out for some sleeves...so that will be the last component to add to the dress and it should be finished.

Now that the dress is almost done, I know which jacket pattern I'm going to use to finish the mini-wardrobe. It is Butterick 5194 . I have also made a change to my garments, I am going to make a pair of my TNT pants instead of the TNT straight skirt.

So 1.5 down...2.5 more to complete...I'm sliding into second...and I'm almost at home base with it!!!

The first piece is done!

Last week I looked at the calendar and realized that I had four full weekends in June...which meant that if I made just one piece per weekend, I would fulfill the requirements of the June Capsule Contest. It would also allow me the opportunity to work on other things, if I dedicated one day of the weekend to the JCC piece.

I chose to go with the easiest piece first...probably because there were several other pieces that I really wanted to sew this weekend. Sewing the easiest piece ~ the Sewing Workshop Mission Tank in the silk charmeuse print ~ at the beginning releases me of the "obligated" sew item and leaves me free to complete the "whatever I want" items!

So, here is the SW Mission Tank. I am showing all of these in flat garments during the construction phase and will submit final pictures of me wearing them for the contest requirement.

There is nothing new or revolutionary about this tank...same old construction techniques...easy peasy, one, two three, sewing. But these pieces are absolutely necessary to my work wardrobe and will not only work well with the JCC pieces but also with two other brown suits currently in my closet. Like I said, "Brown is the new Black!"

Piece one is done and next weekend I will begin working on the next one...have no idea which one that will be...but as soon as it's done I will share it with you!!!!

Remnants

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! They were all really and truly appreciated!

~Closet Clean-out

Here is an outfit that I made like 8-9 years ago.

I bought 10 yards of the rayon challis from Fabric.com for $1 a yard. The outfit consists of a blouse, a straight lined skirt and a long lined flare skirt...all the pieces were made from TNT patterns. I also had a RTW light blue sweater that went with the pieces.

It's been pulled from the closet because I tried it on this weekend and it's just barely fitting...it also looks real '80ish so into the Goodwill bag it goes. Reluctantly, but it does free up two hangers and a little more space in the closet so that's a good thing!

~Questions and Answers

I promised to do this last weekend then got caught up in a political rant so here are the answers to questions found in the last few posts:

Vintage Ebay Post

Adrienne asked, "Is the sizing different on vintage patterns than on the ones being made now?"

I really don't know. I do know that the sizing is smaller than it is in today's patterns but how it relates to me is anyone's guess. I have started working on the bodice of my vintage Simplicity dress and I've added quite a bit to the waistline to make it fit me...but again that could just be me! So if someone with more experience sewing vintage patterns wants to leave a comment about this, please feel free to do so!

Both Myra & Debbief asked, "What pattern number is it?"

It's Simplicity 5891 and the copyright date is 1966!!!

The Vintage Experiment - Part 1

Linda asked, "Am I going to use the new vintage patterns as is or morph them using my TNT patterns?"

It depends on what the pattern is. Some patterns I bought just for their design details not caring what size it came in...like the pattern I used for my Easter Suit. And some like the Simplicity pattern Sharon sent me, I am going to use as is. Use will definitely be determined on a case-by-case basis!

Anna asked, "How does it fasten up? Does the pattern include an underslip?"

It has a zipper in the back and no there isn't an underslip included. Since my final fabric is the white/black toile, I was planning on underlining all of the pieces except for the sleeves and the tie.

New Look 6779

Faye asked, "Did you use an invisible zipper?

Nope. I am probably one of the few sewists that is not converted to the invisible zipper look. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to perfect this technique...who knows? It's just a center back zipper inserted into the dress.

June Capsule Contest

Carol asked, "What accessory are you making?"

I am making a necklace...I found the perfect one that I want to copy in this month's InStyle.

~Do you wear what you sew?

Dana, who blogs as "Lean Mean Sewing Machine" wrote a post about this showing what she wore for a week. Now I started out good...meaning I took a picture of what I wore the first day and then I would come home and forget all about taking a picture, or get out of my clothes before my photographer showed up home, etc. Finally, I realized that there was a better way to do this. See sometime during the weekend I take some time and pick out the garments I am going to wear the following week based on my work calendar. I iron them and include accessories so that I just need to pull an outfit off the closet wall in the morning...making my morning get dressed time about 30-40 minutes. Since I am starting out so early in the morning, I attempt to stay in bed as long as possible! *LOL*

So this is what I'm wearing this week:

1. Michael Kors knock-off red/black linen dress, completed Summer '07 with black RTW sweater.

2. Pink Chanel knock-off dress, completed Spring '07

3. Black/White v-neck cotton dress with RTW white sweater, completed Summer '07

4. New NL 6779 - blue/white cotton sateen dress

5. White linen blouse (TNT Burda-Summer '03), RTW white cotton knit tank, black/white floral print cotton pique skirt (TNT McCalls skirt - Summer '03).

Kristy, whose blog is called, "Lower Your Presser Foot" has spent this last week posting daily about her work outfits. Go over and check out what she wore! I'm inspired to sew more suits after seeing her garments!

~June Capsule Contest

Today is June 1st so the sewing can begin for this contest. I have my plan and I know that I will refine it during the sewing process. Already I'm being influenced by some of the mini wardrobe entries that were submitted for the PR contest. It is really intriguing to me how well planned some of these are...I mean I knew I could get 4 outfits from the 4 pieces but some sewists have gotten 5 and one even got 6 outfits! Now that is some serious planning and it's making me rethink my jacket component!

~The Great Coat Sew-Along

First, I am amazed at how many people are participating in this!!! Second, I have to admit that I haven't given my coat much thought except to search some internet fabric sites for fabric because I don't own any coating fabric. I do know what pattern I'm using - Vogue 7978, View D:

I do know that I want a black, knee-length coat and that's all I know! *LOL* I will probably post all of my sewing information regarding the coat on my blog so that I can keep track of my progress and have my notes for future coat making projects...

Finally, if you've gotten this far...thanks! Thanks for reading my ramblings faithfully, thanks for leaving wonderful and thoughtful comments...even when you don't agree with me! And thanks for including me in your enjoyment of this fiberly pursuit...

Brown is the new Black

My 4 piece capsule for the JCC Contest is of course for my work wardrobe - do I sew for any other reason?! And since we can't use black in the collection, I went with my next color choice ~ BROWN! I so wanted to use color in my wardrobe choices, and went through several gyrations but reality set in and I realized that color and prints are best used in small bursts for my work wardrobe.

The base fabric is a rayon/linen blend in a color called Treebark from Fabric Mart. I will make a jacket, skirt and pants (which won't be entered into the contest) from this fabric.

The brown leaf print is a linen from Textile Studios. As you can see, it coordinates perfectly with the treebark fabric. I will use this to make a variation of my TNT dress. Yes, I'm back to TNT patterns cause that New Look one scarred me! *LOL*

Brown/tan silk charmeuse from Fabric Mart - this is a remnant piece which was used to line a jacket that sadly remains unfinished...but I will get to it come fall! This will be a kewl and breezy tank to go with the jacket and skirt!

This is my collection:

Jacket
A trendy little number that will be finalized after the dress is done. I want it to work with the dress so I've got three choices - the winner will be determined by which one works best with the dress.

Dress
The "star" of the collection - TNT dress pattern with a twist

Skirt
TNT straight lined skirt

Tank
SW Mission Tank reporting back for duty

Yes, I know there's a lot of TNT patterns here but I want to play, not fit! And I'm going to be working on my Vintage Bow-Tie Dress while sewing up the collection, and there will be plenty of fit opportunities there!

Shew...now that's the decided I can start sewing this weekend!!!!

June Capsule Contest

I've just entered the June Capsule Contest at Stitchers Guild. Elizabeth (ejvc) has challenged us to make a 4 piece capsule - no black allowed!

These are the rules:

The contest will run June 1 - June 30.

1. The capsule will consist of four garments and one accessory (purse, belt, headband, jewellery, etc). One of the garments must be a top, one must be a bottom, all the tops must co-ordinate with all the bottoms and the accessory must co-ordinate with them all.

2. One of the items can be purchased and one can be made before June.

3. All the other items must be sewn, knitted, crafted etc during June.

4. Twist: no black items.

5. Everyone who tells me they want to enter the contest and makes at least one item can vote on the winner.

6. At the end of the contest people can send me photos and I'll post them in sets on Flickr. We should have four photos - one showing all the garments (composite or hanging or whatever) and three of the wearer modelling the items. No flat photos of the clothes please.

There is a prize involved but honestly I'm not joining the contest for the prize! It will be fun to sew some pieces that will work together and that I can plan - yeap, I said it folks, plan out! My mind is churning and I'm already thinking of what to make! Oh, how I love to sew a wardrobe!!! And this works in with my crazy lifestyle...I usually turn out at least 4 garments a month and this gives my sewing a little direction...and I get to plan...yeah, I think I mentioned that already! *LOL*