It's Like a Dam Broke

For over 18 months, I have procrastinated on sewing. I made plans to make some new clothes back in January of '11—and the whole year went by with nothing sewn.-- Well a bit of mending/altering but nothing much.

Now—I can't stop! 3 skirts altered, 3 new skirts made, 3 dresses altered, 2 new dresses made, 1 shirt/blouse altered, 2 new camp shirts made, 1 linen jacket altered, 1 new cotton jacket made! All in 2 weeks time! Together with some new Tee's (4 so far, but likely another 4 more soon) and 3 simple skirts (made from fat quarters) from last year—And 3 pairs of recycled thrift store shorts—I have a new wardrobe of clothes!

I have to hold back on making more—I am still officially not losing more weight--the scale stubbornly remains unmoved—but working out every day (just 4 days so far in the pool-- yesterday I took off--but I'll be back today)  I notice I am getting trimmer—losing inches—if not weight-- especially in my belly (torso). Of course, I have been making sure to getting some walks in everyday, too--so the pool work outs are just more intensive, organized exercising.

Since summer time is bringing a renewed effort to lose weight—I don't want to continue sewing, (I do, I do!) and sew up the dark reds, plum and brown fabric I have (and have had since January '11!)  I want to wait till September and the end of summer—when hopefully, I will be a still smaller size. 

The 3 new skirts are all wrap skirts—I've shown the first one  (the grey paisley) last week.  Since then, a matching camp shirt.   The next 2 are virtually the same—but the pockets are deeper. Skirt 1 (above--the grey paisley) now  has a matching navy camp shirt, and a dark grey  tee shirt.  Skirt 2, (left)  the black calico, has a matching light blue camp shirt, and black tee.  The third wrap skirt just has a matching tee right now—but a  matching top is coming soon--not a camp shirt--but something simpler.

The dresses? The aqua blue one is almost as the pattern calls for-- not too changed—just the addition of side seam pockets—nice deep ones. The Black linen? Well—some more changes. First--pockets, again—since I think casual clothes with out pockets are insane! Second, a small lapped opening at the neck (a silver button still to come) Third, bias binding, not facings—a much neater look. Even with under-stitching and sewing them down at neck and underarm, the facing on the blue dress still tend to get caught, and have to be checked, and tucked back into place. Too much effort for such a simple casual dress.  Both dresses are 6 inches shorter than the pattern suggests, too.These are  Simplicity pattern 9890—But I couldn't find the pattern on their web site-

The jacket (same pattern)  is a  match for the dress—though color wise, it also matches well enough to be worn with the aqua wrap skirts. It, too, has pockets (not included in the pattern —and lined, slit hems to the sleeves. This means  the cuffs can be neatly rolled back--a feature I  like in a summer jacket.   I shortened the sleeve in the pattern—but not enough—the sleeves are still a bit long for my taste.

So now its time to clean up the sewing table—and floor and get rid of all the threads and scraps, and get back to knitting.

Oops! Since I wrote this yesterday, another 2 skirts chimed up—One just got shortened (it's a drawstring skirt—and sort of self adjusts)—the other, a White Stag jeans skirt got 5 inches trimmed—2 more things that fit again.

And a lime green stretchy nylon tee (that I don't like very much) is going to become  a tank top--that paired with a bathing suit bottom, and a sport bra(both black) -will be a tankini bathing suit.  I have a pretty sarong in lime green and navy--it will be an outfit!