Sew, I've Been Thinking ...

This pile of stuff on the chair is bits and pieces of six shirt muslins and a pattern that has been chopped and restuck so many times there is more tape than paper. This is part of an outfit I am making for the too muscular man in my life. When I say too muscular, I don't really mean that he's TOO muscly, it's just that he's too well built for a regular shirt pattern. His chest and shoulders are about six sizes bigger than his waist, so to get a pattern to fit his chest, the waist goes around him three times. So I've chopped and redrawn, done a sloping shoulder adjustment - years of weight lifting have created a big wedge of muscle near his neck that has become the biggest fitting problem I've ever encountered - and now I think I have a reasonable fit. I was a little suprised to find that there is a complete dearth of sewing patterns for men. I can find voluminous business shirts and basic pants, but what about funky, modern wear for modern men who don...

My July sewing is progressing nicely. Here's what I've achieved so far. This is the Vogue 8409 dress nearly completed, save for the hem which will be sewn tonight whilst watching television. It's been a really easy pattern to construct, even with the addition of a self drafted lining. I put in a regular zipper, but then took it out and put in an invsible one. Much better that way. I only lined the front of the bodice and the skirt, not the back of the bodice. I'm not sure why I decided to do that, but it works fine. Depending on what I make it out of next time, I may do the same again or I may line it. The cuffs need extra handstitching. This has been the only time I found myself frustrated by the microfibre. Otherwise, it's been a dream. Here is the other thing I've worked on this weekend. The chenille knit long cardigan dress thing. It looks like a sack on Vera, but it actually looks quite nice on with a wide crocodile belt and my brown and caramel FMHFM boots...

Thanks to Margaret left a comment on my blog, I now know there is a July sewalong. Here's my official notification of what I intend to sew; The Vogue dress shown in my previous post A gold knit/chenille long cardigan/dress thing from a 70's vintage pattern. I aim to wear it over the dress or it can stand alone as a dress (I think - it may be frumpy - we will see) A pair of pants of perhaps winter shorts - think hotpants and boots with the long 70's cardigan The BWOF wrap top from the JCC that I rather foolishly decided not to make at the time I will post some sort of story board tomorrow.

The June Capsule Contest is over and judging has commenced. The standard of work is spectacular and in a way I'm not sorry to have pulled out, even though my garments were techinically complete in the time frame. My work is simply not up to the standard of the others. There has been talk of continuing the sewing spree into July, but I don't know if it's official or not. So I'm challenging myself to my own July Capsule Contest. My aim is to complete a further four garments this month, to complement the previous garments and extend the wardrobe in another direction. Stitches Magazine does this regularly, each issue adding 4 - 6 garments so that by the end of the wardrobe (which may have spanned a whole year) the garments may not match the garments from the beginning, but form part of an extensive wardrobe that spans seasons. To this end I am starting with a dress. It's Vogue 8409. I'm making the version in green using a lovely brown paisley microfibre I purchased ...

In my haste to complete the June Capsule Contest, I neglected to check whether or not my garments would actually look any good together. They don't. This is my skirt. It looks pretty crappy hanging on a hanger against my crappy curtains (which only go up in winter). It's Vogue 8426, which Karen made so much better than I did. It fits really nicely on me, not so on Vera. She's not made for wearing skirts, hence the picture on a hanger. I'll never sew this skirt in corduroy again, however. I think I'll try denim like Karen's. Now, whilst my skirt goes really well with the jacket shown here in all it's completed glory, except for the thread trimming that happened after the pic and it goes spectacularly well with the Go Patterns dress (which I love to pieces), it does not go with the Plan C blouse from last post. In fact, it looks really bad. It makes me look fat, old and frumpy. I'm not showing those pictures. The Plan C Blouse looks great with a slim fitt...

Here's my Plan C Blouse. It's BWOF 1/2008 style 107. I made this in the first week of June before I started the rest of the capsule, with the intention that I could wear it to work with the skirt and jacket. It looks pretty crappy on Vera, but it sits really nicely on me and is the most unbelievably soft and fine cotton. In hindsight, I should have used a slightly stiffer interfacing as the neck drops a little. I've also made version 108 from this same issue, which is the same blouse with short puffy sleeves and a cute round collar. It's a great style and the design detail on the front makes for a close and flattering fit. Here's my accessory. It's made from a kit I purchased from http://www.nicolemdesign.com.au/ and was incredibly easy to make. The picture on the right shows how it matches the walls in my living room. I highly recommend this bag to anyone. I've never made anything like it before and I would say it took me around three ho...