Sew, I've Been Thinking ...

I'm in the pits of black depression and desperately homesick.  It's been a crappy week and this is all I have to show.  It's not that I don't have things I want to sew, it's just that I can't get out of my own way to pick a pattern, pick a fabric and sew.  In an attempt to kick start something, I went for instant gratification.  This stripe fabric was leftover from a top I made for a red, black and white travel wardrobe in late 2010.  I had just enough to eke out this top from my TNT KS3338, although I had to cut the sleeves the wrong way.  Fortunately there is plenty of stretch.   I may sit down and write a sewing plan tonight and given that I'm barely sleeping at the moment, it will give me something to do.

I made another wrap top from BWOF 02-08-116 with the same variations as last time.  I lengthened the bodice by 2 inches and frankenpatterned the ties from M5974.  I've permanently altered my pattern now because it makes a ho-hum pattern into something that works really well for me. The fabric is Wild Woman Jersey that I bought from Gorgeous Fabrics a couple of years ago and have been searching for the right thing to do with it.  This is a good, basic addition that goes with a lot of things already in wardrobe. Not much to show for the past couple of weeks.  I'm feeling very low and having trouble put one foot in front of the other.  I hope to be back on top of things soon.

Sunday night I went to sleep with my frumpy dress locked firmly in my mind.  When I awoke on Monday I had some ideas, so that evening I unpicked the skirt.  If you've ever unpicked stretch stitch, you know how annoying and time consuming it can be.  From the skirt panels I had plenty of fabric to cut the straight skirt that actually matches the bodice.  I stitched it together and tried it on, but something still wasn't right so I put it back on Vera and walked away. Tonight I came home from work and knew that I had to change the collar.  I cut the neckline from my TNT t-shirt pattern KS 3338 and put it back on Vera while I had my dinner.   I had planned to add a cowl but after eating my first proper meal of the day (it was a rough day) I decided to keep it as a scoop, so I bound the neckline as per the original pattern.  As I was trying it with various colour belts ( I like animal print with red for some reason), inspiration struck....

I started this with good intentions, inspired by this dress from an old Burda from 10-2003.  I traced the pattern with intention of cutting the front and back as one, but what I hadn't anticipated was that the seams are curved to create shape and so don't sit together flat.  I didn't want this pieced look with my fabric, a luscious stretch velvet from Gorgeous Fabrics that has been in my stash for a couple of years.  I decided to Franken Pattern using three patterns from my stash, two of which are previously unused.  I used the bodice from View D of M5975 with neckline and collar from a very old Kwik Sew 2900 polo neck t shirt pattern I bought at the op shop in Mullumbimby.  The pattern is dated 2000 and appears to be OOP.  I then added on the skirt from V8663  .  As it stands, this is a wadder.  I got it all wrong. I think I need to take the skirt off and recut it into something slimmer.  I ma...