SWAP - 7/12ths of the way done!

The bearded one and I have been doing a systematic cleaning of the apartment in prep for the move this summer and today it was the bedroom. We decided to rearrange since we were cleaning out as well and for just a short bit we had a full wall cleared. I pounced on the opportunity to get my present SWAP items all hung up in a bit of a collage. It's not great - three of them got pulled out of the suitcase and two out of the ironing pile and one's still needing the hems done - but hey, it lets you see where I'm at! Three bottoms finished, four tops, and I've got another bottom and two jackets in progress. The end is actually in sight!

So what do you think?



Looking over the items I'm struck, first of all, at how badly wrinkled they are. Especially the knits. Seriously, aren't those supposed to be just about magically resistant to wrinkles? Sigh. Also they're all so bland at the moment. I might add some cutwork to the purple top. Not sure about the black but I think the cowl's too high and stiff. I just made that today and the hem's waiting for me to set up the double needle in my machine so it's a total WIP. Still, once on and with the right accessories they're all great pieces and I've been wearing the tails off of all of them. It's getting a bit warm for the black and maroon tops but next winter I'd really need them (Wisconsin, here we come!) and so don't mind packing them away. I really dislike long sleeves and sweaters and get so tired of the ones I have so hopefully a couple new ones in the mix will help brighten up those cold days.


On a totally other topic, thanks to Sharon and Rose (Rose and Sharon ... Rose of Sharon - my favorite flower!) for the sisterhood award! Technically I'm supposed to pass this on but I'm already behind with the previous award and I don't want to nominate someone who's already gotten it or forget someone who's richly deserving of it and so ... I'm going to be bad and non communal and all that and just tell you all straight up that I've yet to go to any of your blogs (and, if you've commented or are on my sidebar, I do go often!) and not be inspired and encouraged!




And in a third topic, I'm ebaying the duchess satin silk I originally bought for my wedding dress. If you've been needing, say, seven yards of slightly golden cream silk then, hey, gotcha covered. I figure all of you are fine on silk at the moment but just in case, I'd rather it go to one of y'all's homes than anyone else!

Seven Basics and a thought

Sorry, just haven't been in a post-y mood recently. It comes and goes - give it another month and I'll be posting daily and commenting like mad on all your blogs. :) Does that make me a bipolar blogger? Hm.

Anyway, at Artisan Square someone posted that Donna Karan's returning to her designing roots of her seven basics: Body suit, wrap skirt, tailored jacket, tailored pants, cashmere knits, robe-like coat and evening wear. The idea is that these pieces form a sort of swap, working for home, office, and evening events. Neat, though personally I'm not feeling the items themselves. Wrap skirt? Tried, don't like. Body suit? Love the clean lines, don't so much love the gymnastics of rebuttoning after a bathroom break.

So I present my basics. Not authoritative but, hey, this is a blog. :)


1. Nice knit shirt



Preferably a v neck, in a great fabric and a good, versatile color. For me that usually means black. Hazard of being a tech chic from DC.

2. Trim pencil skirt



one in black, one in denim, and you're ready for most anything.

3. Long but fairly fitted button up shirt



Tuck into skirt for the standard business uniform, throw on over the knit shirt for a loose, casual jacket, or button up and wear over the skirt with a belt cinching it in.

4. Jeans - Dark wash, well fitted, with a bit of flare



Non negotiable. Come what trends may, I NEED my flare.


5. Little black dress



Hey, classics are classics for a reason. Doesn't actually have to be black if that's not your look - any color that plays well with others works. Just make sure it's well fitted and nice enough to go to the symphony in. Throw the button up shirt over it for a nice office look or wear it with the denim skirt for a shell look.

6. Bright wool coat



Because too much black is boring, especially in winter.

7. Gorgeous layering sweater



Pick the neckline and color best for you. Layered over the LBD, button up shirt, or knit shirt it looks fab and keeps you warm. And I'm all about being warm.

----

There they are, the Alicia Jeanae 7 basics. I'm working on making these into a reality with my SWAP. So far it's coming ... I've got the pencil skirts covered, made up one layering sweater, and (not included in the official SWAP as they're not sewn by me) bought a pair of jeans and was given a small collection of fitted longer buttonup shirts. So I'm just missing the nice knit tops (next on the sewing list) and a great coat. Which I really, really need but haven't settled on the fabric. Since we're already to short sleeve weather here, it's not a pressing concern so I'll take my time. :)


So agree, disagree with my choices? Think I'm missing something critical? Got your own choices?

Break for Crochet

(very much not me)

I've really been enjoying all the sewing the SWAP is forcing me to do but homework's began to pile up. In college, during a reading-intensive semester, I learned to crochet while reading so I decided to do something yarn-related as my SWAP jacket. Found a couple nice patterns last Friday and picked up some appropriate yarn on Saturday and started crocheting! After a few false starts I settled on this short sleeved jacket and started!

So far I've made it through the shoulders, which is more than I usually managed. I tend to get quickly bored while crocheting though reading while doing it helps a lot. It's a really basic lace motif that, once I got it down, meant I could stash the rather confusing directions and just go with it. So far I like result fairly well ... I'm not using the exact yarn they recommend, mostly because I forgot everything but the recommended oz by the time I got to Michael's and so just went by that and my favorite colors. I did find a gorgeous, slightly variegated dark green that'll look great with everything in the SWAP so yay to that. However I forgot that I tend to be a tight crocheter and the yarn isn't draping like the picture. I'm hoping that the weight of the whole thing will cause drapiness but, at the moment, it's a little bunchy and stiff. So we'll see. The good thing is that if it fails out I really haven't lost anything. It's forced me to plow through some reading assignments so if that's all I get out of it that's fine. Still, I wouldn't mind a pretty wrap. :)

SWAP Item 1 - DONE!

(me at 12:30 at night after camera difficulties. Really need better pic)

And there was much rejoicing.

So my first SWAP item, a t-shirt, wasn't exactly in my original plan. But as the idea is to sew for a week in your life and I've discovered I love a nice, fitted, tee, it made sense to incorporate one in. Then, on Sunday, I gave blood and as a thanks I got a small bottle of gatorade and a one-size-fits-none XXL t-shirt ... well, it seemed like a good time to pull Vogue 2925 out of storage and finally test out that nice shirt pattern. After all, the donor shirt was actually quite nice, black with a surprisingly non-ugly logo on it, and since it was free it made for a good test.

And it worked!

The pattern is absolutely fab, insanely quick to put together and seriously flattering. It's two pieces with four lines of gathering and I kinda cheated and put in just one line of gathering stitches at each. The less than perfect gathering really seems to fit with the slightly-off-kilter logo printed on the front. I basted the side seams together to make the next step easier, then serged those same seams. My two machines are right next to each other and already kitted in black thread so the extra step took hardly any time at all. I then fitted my sewing machine with the double needle and an extra spool of black thread and used that for the neckline, armcycs, and hem. They totally look like coverstitch hems for the price of a double needle. Heart! The armcyc was a bit hard to do this way, especially with the underarm seam. It's a lot higher and tighter than expected, probably because I couldn't do the however-big hem they wanted on it. Note for next time: cut out 1/2" deeper armcyc. Fortunately fabric rubbing off my deoderant doesn't bother me all that much but I know many people absolutely hate it so FYI.

Oh, I cut a size 10 whilst being a 14 in Vogue sizing. I like things more fitted and, since I bought the 6-8-10 sized pattern, it was the largest option I had. It's exactly as fitted as I wanted it to be (what're the chances? No complaint, though), just about form fitting but not at all binding. Just like you want an all-purpose t to be. Or I like an all-purpose t to be ... I guess I'm not all people. But there it is, a new life for a huge t-shirt! And a new shirt for me! Today, after some work, I want to get my denim skirt cut out to go with this shirt. We'll see how that goes, for now I'm just very happy to have gotten the first of the 12 items done!

SWAP Thoughts I - The Plan (duh duh DUH!)

This year I'm in a very good position to actually participate in Sewing Guild's SWAP- what with sewing as a business and teaching sewing classes my machines are far more accessible than they've ever been before and I finally have a nice cutting table. Also sewing consistently has really helped me as a seamstress - I'm becoming better at eyeballing things, sewing quickly, serging, and even just cutting out. Additionally I should have the time, what with Christmas and winter break.

On top of that, my closet's hitting a point where I either need to spend time sewing or spend time shopping. Sewing is far more fun.

I don't have a 100% set plan yet, though I spent a good part of last night drawing and cutting out paper-doll clothes to figure out good shapes and I'm feeling fairly good about what I have. For whatever reason I find I'm drawn to empire waist tops with narrow bottoms. Paper-doll time convinced me that this is not a good look for me unless I like the baby-bump look. And while that's a recent trend, it's not one I really want to deal with right now, not here where everyone around us are testing just how many small kids can squeeze into a two-bedroom apartment. Current record holder was, I think, four with a fifth on the way. Yeow.

Anyway, no baby-bump clothing. Narrow tops. Narrow tops are good.

So figured that much out.

Beyond that I'm still playing around. One SWAPer brilliantly divided her weekly life into percentages and built her SWAP around that.

So what's my life look like?

Charted it out by dividing each day into thirds - Morning, Afternoon, and Evening.

I spend...
40% of my waking life at home either doing homework or working (building inventory, mending, or teaching classes).
35% of my waking life in class or the library
10% of my waking life at church (though 5% of that time is evening service so less formal)
10% of my waking life out and about, ranging from date night (what are those again? we need to get back in that habit) to shopping.
5% of my time working out (ok, that's a bit generous - but I'm an optimist).

Worked out that means I need ...
40% Business Casual (A)
45% Nice Casual (for design studio time, evening service, and errands) (B)
5% Sunday Morning Nice (C)
5% Date-worthy (D)
5% Work-out wear (E)


Right now I'm seeing that working out as...

- Pair of brown corduroy pants (A, B)
- Corduroy skirt (A, B, C, D)
- Yoga pants (B, E)
- Black (brown?) jumper (A, B, C, D)

- Scoop neck knit shirt (A, B, E)
- Cowl-neck sweater (A, B, C)
- Button-up blouse (A, B, C)
- Big shirt, tunic length (A, B, C)
- Pretty camisole (B, C, others when mixed with wrap
- Brianna tunic/wrap (can stand alone as top when wrapped) (B, C, D)

- Fun mid-weight coat (A, B, C, D, maybe E though I don't work out outside)

Playing with all the different combos, minus coat, that works out to pretty close to the right percentages. Yay!

Now to start looking for colors. I love the idea of Winery colors and have around here somewhere a great little collection of paint chips just the right shades. Somewhere. Sigh. Until then, think dark browns, blacks, berry red, wine purple, and olive greens with some California Blue skies. That's the broad idea, I'll narrow as I find the fabric. :)

A few of the pieces that didn't make the cut -

August Wardrobe Plan pt. 2

A little more 'bout this plan...

My original plan was to do some various colors with black. Because I live in black. Hey, I'm a former semi-goth from DC. Black is life. Other colors are for accessorizing. But digging through my stash I realized that I've only got a few lengths of black fabric and all of them are pretty specific. There's the workout-type black knit, the cutesy lightweight black knit with little flowers in the fabric (hey, it was $1 a yard), the black stretch velvet, the black lace ... no plain ol' black wool, suiting, or denim. I clearly need to go shopping. What I did find was brown. Lots of brown. Lots and lots and lots of brown. And a beautiful peacock blue that just lit up when it got near that brown. Hm. Maybe my stash is trying to tell me something. So I decided to listen and start pairing up fabrics with patterns. Here's what came out.

Button-Up Shirt - The pattern's an old 50s shirt that I picked up for some absurdly low price at Half-Price Books. Love that place. The fabric comes from my mom's stash and is really wonderful stuff - while I suspect she bought it in the quilting cotton section it's so soft and drapey that it deserves to be made into a nice shirt. The only problem is that it, like many fabrics from my mom's stash, didn't survive my childhood sewing attempts unscathed. A good half of the 2 yards has various shapes cut out of it along the selvages, limiting how much I can use. I THINK I can get a short-sleeve blouse out of it but we'll have to see. Oh, well. I have a cambridge blue solid shirting fabric (actually Symphony Brocade from Joann's, but I use it as shirting) that will work if the pink won't. If I must take that rout I'll probably do some cream top stitching along the collar to get my 3 colors in for the contest.

Knit Shirt - I'm so in love with this vibrant peacock blue fabric. Sadly by the time I found it there was only a yard and a little bit more left on the bolt. Sob! I brought it all home to love and care for and I think this pattern will do it justice. I want to add some elbow-length bishop sleeves (still looking for a pattern to swipe them from) but not certain I can get all that from the fabric I have. I plan on making up a wearable muslin in some purple knit that's been aging in my stash for half a decade and that'll help me see if I can do it. I'll make it work one way or another. :)

Jumper - I'm usually not a jumper fan but I figure it's time to try. Besides, I haven't found anything else to do with this odd but beautiful knit corderoy. I found it back in the sales room at Golden D'Or at something like $1 a yard and so I HAD to bring it home ... but what do you do with fabric like this? I thought maybe a skirt but the sad truth is that your average knit skirt pattern requires too much gathering at the waist to look good. Pants might have worked but that requires finding a pants pattern that doesn't look horrible on me. So when Simplicity came out with this pattern I figured I'd finally found a purpose for this fabric. Sure, they're not a perfect match - the gathers will have to be eliminated and I'm not sure how I'll do that front collar, though eliminating it and replacing it with a narrow band appeals to me at the moment. But overall it's the best fit I've found. I have some black knit to test out the fit with and hope to make that up this coming week.

Skirt - I adore the current high waist look and just have to have my own. I plan on using the top from the first Vogue (the high waisted one) and then add in the back vents from the second. That'll actually just mean making a few adjustments on the first Vogue since it's got the back princess seams already and vents are simple additions. I have a beautiful faux suede that shows up every fall at Joann's and is surprisingly easy to work with. It's got more drape than I'd really want for this look so I'll have to add a lining to smooth it out over the thighs and some underlining for the high waist to keep it up. I did just make an elven archer costume out of a green version of this fabric and it draped far better (like real suede) than I expected so I have high hopes for this one as well. And I must remember to pick up more - I have so many ideas of different suede skirts I want to make. You don't think that would label me, do you?

August Wardrobe Plan

It's way past my bedtime so I'll save all the details until tomorrow - for now here's a peek at my super-secret planning board. :)

In progress: Simplicty 4047

To start off my SWAP I cut out and began sewing the shirt in this wardrobe out of some heavy black mystery polyester. Unfortunately this will probably have to suffice as an unwearable muslin... The poly fabric is giving me as much trouble as it physically can. Each and every seam and dart (and this pattern has a number of them) is ruching up and the entire effect is very cheap and very handsewn (in the worse sense of the term). Since I'm not certain the fabric is the problem I need to play around with some scraps and use a smaller needle, different thread, and try holding the fabric taunt as I sew. If any of those provide a cure I might go back and try and salvage the shirt. Otherwise I'm not entirely sure. I'd like to make this shirt in something shiny black but now I'm a little tired of poly. I love working with cotton but I've yet to see a black cotton I really like. Mostly they just look faded and worn. So I'll keep my eyes open next time I go fabric shopping. Hm, maybe silk ... now wouldn't that be lux!

SWAP early ideas

Here's my plan as it stands right now. At some point I'll take pictures of the fabric to prove that the colors really do go together, despite how it looks in the plan!

Winter 07 SWAP - Getting started

This will be in installments mostly because that's all the time I can give right now (schoolwork and all that) and because I like to think outloud and posting in installments is one way to do that.

So the overall SWAP plan ... After going through my patterns and fabric I've come up with a collection that I'm calling, for lack of a more creative title, Forty-Naughts Night. The idea being that it's a mix of 40s and current (the "naughts" as some call our current decade) styles with an evening color scheme - lots of black (my DC background coming through there), dusky purple, dark denim, and olive green.

At this point I've only decided on the 8 separate pieces (4 tops, 4 bottoms). I know the pattern I want to use for the jacket (the Threads trench) and I know I want it to be non-black but that's all I know at the moment. I figure I'll get a better idea after some fabric shopping. The two dresses, however, are still very tentative. Since they only have to match the jacket (though it would be nice if I could layer them with some of the tops or skirts) I'm willing to give them time to brew a bit.

And that's it for now. Not much, I know, but I promise to post my wardrobe pattern and other separates later for your critiques!