Decluttering and more clothes sewing

Been over a month since I last wrote, but have spent most of the time going through all the clothes in my closet, trying to get rid of enough stuff so I could put the new things I have bought and made in there, but despite the fact that I took five bags of clothes to the City Mission, things are still awfully jam packed.

Maybe someday I can really downsize since I mostly wear the same few things over and over again, in fact, could, as a friend of mine with a winter condo in SC said, easily live out of a couple of suitcases.That doesn't stop me from continuing to try and make new clothes to wear, though, even though I hardly ever wear them!




The vest I made in March had a specific purpose, to show Linda Lee how one of her Sewing Workshop patterns turned out when I took a class with her at the Worcester MA Expo in April, a pattern I had bought when Linda last visited Worcester (in 2005!) but of course had never gotten around to using.

I wanted to try and use a drapey fabric for the SW Peony vest, but the piece I chose was so flimsy when sewn together that I decided I needed to add another layer so cut up a rummage sale dress made from what I believe is African fabric.

Linda's instructions for lining the Peony vest were so good that making my new top reversible was fairly easy, but I'm afraid the two layers ended up being a bit stiffer than I wanted, however Linda seemed to like the way it looked and took a photo of me modeling it to put in the Gallery on the Sewing Workshop site. The picture hasn't appeared yet, though, so maybe she was just being nice!

I also decided to finally make the 6th piece of the 6pac wardrobe I began as part of the Artisan's Square fall 2014 challenge, a jacket that has the collar and slight hi-lo hemline of the super popular McCall's 6844 pattern with the sleeves (which are apparently too tight in the McCall's pattern, I didn't even try since regular sleeves are often tight on me) and sides (my sides are much straighter than this curvy pattern) from my Sure Fit Designs shirt kit pattern.

I used the same gray performance fabric that I bought at JoAnn's (the only option for clothes fabric in the Albany, NY area) and used for a pair of pants in the fall but I had to cut out two backs since my first one had permanent yellow writing on it indicating it was the end of the bolt of fabric. I had planned to also make a sleeveless top from that fabric to go with my jacket and/or pants, but unless I can figure out a way to make that yellow writing look like a design element, that's not going to happen.