September MAGAM/6pac challenge

I finished two new garments this week in addition to several scarves, since that was the topic of this month's sewing guild meeting.

The first garment I made is a a top that's a muslin of my Sure Fit Designs shirt kit pattern using some really old gray sweater knit fabric from my stash. Still need to do some adjusting to this pattern and I'm afraid the creases in this fabric will never come out, but at least it's done and I now have one more garment to enter in the 6pac wardrobe challenge I'm doing on the Artisan's Square site.

I also made a pair of pants from the Sure Fit Designs pants pattern I am getting close to perfecting using a piece of brown stretch cotton fabric purchased at the Vogue Fabrics booth at the Worcester MA Expo, I believe in 2009.

I wish I had enough of this fabric to make a top to match the brown pants since I love that color brown and think that would be a good addition to my 6pac brown and gray wardrobe, but since this piece was a remnant, I only have a little bit leftover after cutting out the pants. I am still going to try and use it for a top, though, even if I have to use different materials for the sides and sleeves, since I would probably wear a jacket over it.

I am trying to learn a bit more about styling my outfits and would most likely wear some kind of scarf with this top if I were wearing it for "real", but I just threw it on so I could model it for show and tell at my Garment Group meeting yesterday since it was much too hot to wear a sweater knit, even though it is almost the end of Sept. I know I'll soon be longing for these extra warm temps, though, living in the great Northeast as I do...

August MAGAM

This jacket is so old that I don't remember when I first started making it, but am pretty sure the fabric came from the flat fold table at a Woolworth's store! I also long ago lost the pattern that I made it from, however I liked it enough that I took the jacket apart and traced the pieces in case I want to make another like it someday.

I've been not only trying to mostly make things from my stash lately, but also finish some of the things that have been sitting in my UFO boxes for a very long time, and having finally completed this garment is a very good feeling, even though I'm sure it started out as a jacket with buttons and buttonholes down the front, since I've unfortunately grown quite a bit in size over the years.

I've also forgotten what fabric I used for this jacket, but am afraid it has quite a bit of polyester in it since it doesn't wrinkle at all and smells when I iron it, but it's a bit linen like so something I might actually wear, esp since it's a color that I planned to use as the "accent" for the neutral 6 pac wardrobe of browns and grays that I am going to make for the online Artisan's Square autumn challenge. One down, five to go...                                                             

.

                                                                          

July MAGAM/Patriotic challenge outfit

I recently decided to make a pair of white capris using my Sure Fit Designs Pants pattern and the wonderful elastic waistband from Louise Cutting's One Seam Pants pattern and was fairly happy with how they came out, but I needed something to wear on top, so thought I would use a piece of patriotic fabric from my stash to make a vest since the challenge for my July Garment Group meeting was to make something patriotic. Here are the results of my efforts:

I used my Fit for Art Tabula Rasa jacket pattern without the sleeves for my vest since the front and back panels were narrow enough to fit on the small piece of red, white, and blue striped fabric that I found in my stash, a size that also determined the length of my vest, but I think that is a pretty good length for a vest that I will probably also wear with dresses

I made the vest reversible (my favorite approach to vests since all the edges are finished and you end up with two rather than just one garment) but used a plainer print on the other side so I could wear the vest the rest of the year too.

I had to piece some of that second fabric for the side panels since it was an even smaller piece of fabric, something that must have come from a skirt or dress someone once made since it still had a metal zipper in the middle of one of the sections, but I don't really know its history since that fabric too was bought at a rummage or yard sale, my usual approach to fabric shopping these days.

I did buy the fabric for my white pants at a real store, though, since I had nothing like that in my stash, but our only choice for clothing fabric in the Albany NY area is JoAnns and they didn't have a heavy enough white linen to use for my pants, my original plan.  The piece I bought is a cotton and lycra blend which is quite comfy and isn't as see through as even a thick piece of linen might have been, always a concern when making light colored garments.

June garment(s)

When I first joined ASG, I thought people actually did the yearly Simplicity pattern challenge that I read about in Notions magazine, so I decided to try and make a jacket from one of the patterns chosen for 2003, (Simplicity 5687) however just now finished it and amazingly enough it still fits!

I did know where to find the rest of the fabric that I used in that jacket despite all the time that had passed since I first started it, so I was able to make a pair of matching pants (from Louise Cutting's One Seam Pants pattern) and eventually plan to make a top from the fabric left from making the front band that I added to the pattern by following instructions on Asian clothing in an old Sew News magazine. For the moment, though, I was pleased to find a thrift store shell in my stash that worked fairly well with this outfit.

I also just finished working on another project, one that I didn't do from scratch, but which took so much time that I thought it also deserved to be mentioned here.

I purchased a blue linen dress and jacket from the Salvation Army recently for $10 since I loved the fabric and lines of the clothing, but it was much too big, however after taking off about 6" from the side seams and 5" from the length (jacket and dress) I now have something else I can wear and enjoy, esp. since linen really is perfect for the hot humid weather we've been having.