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Monday, January 3, 2011

New Year's Re-sew-lutions by Kimberlee

One of the things I have trouble doing if finishing a project.  I'll get discouraged and put it away, then start something new, or more likely become excited about something new!  So here are my Re-sew-lutions for sewing that I will finish this year.  It should be interesting to see what I manage to hold to.  In no particular order! This is Butterick 5398, one of the first patterns I bought and possibly the best bang for the buck (literally, it cost a buck), considering it is an entire wardrobe.  I've tried to make the very easy dress a few times - once I was short on fabric after I had cut the rest, once I cut all the fabric but it fell apart during sewing, etc etc.  But I love these designs, and want to do them all (in the same colors, too) as the patterns - except for the pants, which are no great shakes.  I also want lime green flats now, too. The Yellow One from B5045. I don't know what it is about how the yellow is cut, but it looks super comfy.  I want to make it out of some fabric that is both casual but fancy at the same time, and I'd be happy to take ANY suggestions! Something awesomely retro. I have yet to make a retro item (Ren Faire notwithstanding, but possibly too retro), but I really want to make something that looks straight out of a classic movie.  I love these robes(B5152), and I'd get a lot of use from them, as I practically live in pajamas. It would be really cool to make a fabulous retro party dress, too, which brings me too... I've had this pattern, Simplicity 2444, for a very long time as well, but I've been waiting for a dress form to finish it.  Now that I have one, and a muslin for the bodice, I'm excited to make a custom fitted party dress.  The PR patterns are a little funky, more exactly the instructions are, and were definitely too much for a beginning sewist.  I'm making the pink dress in the drawing, as I'm not a "huge bow" kind of gal.  More power to you all who are, but it's not how I roll. This dress should be easier but I may be cursed.  S2472 is a dress/tunic option with a really cute belt.  Like, supercute.  Why did mine wind up looking like a tshirt and why are the instructions for the belt mystifying? I'm open to any fabric suggestions!  Much like this pattern, the next re-sew-lution is mostly made: I was into capes before anyone else.  One of my most beloved pieces of clothing is a poncho/cape I bought at Top Shop for 50 lbs (when one pound = 2 dollars!).  I knew it would be a while before I was on a High Street again, and it was so perfect and army green, and then I had to go get cash out because there's some chip in English credit cards that American cards don't have, etc etc. But this was over 3 years ago!  Now I want to make this cape, and C (the blue one) is at home, all cut, but for some reason there is no lining, and without a lining it has about a two week wear-season here in MN.  So I created a lining which I have to figure out how to put in, and want to make a hood to go with it.  I don't know how to make a hood, so I have been studying the hood on my beloved cape like crazy, hoping to match it. A great pair of pants.  I'm terrified to make pants.  I just don't know how to.  Before the end of the year, I will make a pair, learning how to... ...by following a book learning course.  This wonderful book, which was on my Amazon wishlist and was picked up by a friend, is like a sewing 101 course for beginners, and one of the things I dearly want to do this year is to start at the beginning and, with Betty's help, follow it in order.  At the end, I think I'll be a much better seamstress and of course have a wardrobe made to fit my body perfectly.

Make a tee shirt quilt.  Several sites have instructions on this, and I plan to follow a mix of traditional quilting and the instructions in Generation t (love this book!).  And if this is a way to preserve something for an eternity, why don't I.. ...make an Infinity Dress. The latest issue of Quick Stuff to Sew has an infinity dress pattern that I am dying to try.  In fact, I am dying to try a LOT of things in the mag, and elsewhere, but I figure things that are a day project don't need to be listed here.  Inspiration is everywhere, and one site I'm often inspired by is BurdaStyle.

At least one of these projects.  Ideally, I'd get to all three.  The Talea Skirt is already cut and ready to sew, and that leaves me deciding whether to do the dress or the jacket next.  Thoughts?

Overarching Resewlution

Make Something that Can Be Sold
Get 100 Followers
Have Enough of a Wardrobe to wear all my own clothes for 2 weeks
Posted by Magpie Shinies at 2:21 PM Labels: design, dresses, knitting, patterns, sewing, tutorial, wardrobe



Thank you for visiting our nest! Penelope (excerpt)

I sorted cloth and scissors, needle, thread,

thinking to amuse myself,
but found a lifetime’s industry instead.
I sewed a girl
under a single star—cross-stitch, silver silk—
running after childhood’s bouncing ball.
I chose between three greens for the grass;
a smoky pink, a shadow’s grey
to show a snapdragon gargling a bee
I threaded walnut brown for a tree,

my thimble like an acorn

pushing up through umber soil.

- Carol Ann Duffy People with Excellent Wit & Taste