The fat lady is keeping her gob shut…

Not me, the one who needs to sing before it’s all over!

The ‘at risk of redundancy’ process [standing at a whopping two months today] has got as far as the powers that be letting us know that ‘those at highest risk’ have now been informed, and the next stage SHOULD be over by Tuesday 14th..  Meanwhile, they apparently can’t tell the rest of us that we are now safe, we still have to wait on tenterhooks until they nail things down.  Holidays start this Friday, my stomach is in knots, and I’m going [not very quietly] crazy.

So I’m off to do some sewing.

Currently on the cutting table- Vogue 1440 Donna Karan shirt, in dark grey stretch poplin, and New Look 6656 tunic/shirt in that gorgeous silk/cotton chambray.  Also rather grey now I look at it again, which is not my usual choice…but I love ’em both.

I’ve made both of these previously for my wife, but these are all for me!  The DK shirt for wifey was documented here earlier, and ran into some issues, despite being overall a thumbs up project.  I’m having a bit of a shirt phase, so hope these will get plenty of wear before the all-too-brief summer dies completely.  I’ll be adding a modesty panel on the NL6656, as it just has button and loop fastening, and who wants to see my tatty old bras? [yes, July is lingerie month isn’t it?..]

I’ve lost patience with wifey ever getting round to deciding what she wants made out of the lovely lilac-y Thai dupion silk that I snagged on ebay some years back, and it goes so beautifully with both these grays, [hmmm, grey or gray?] that she’s snoozed too long, and I’m snagging it back for either trousers or skirt. 

Maybe this little delight?  V9114 by Kathryn Brenne.  I’m not sure if the silk might be a tad too stiff…but that does look like linen, and the hand is similar isn’t it?

I also have some very delish deep blue ponte to make some easy stretch trousers, I’m thinking of sticking with current favourites Misty or Flo from Style Arc.  They won’t take long.

Meanwhile, here are the pics of those Style Arc tops I cut out eons ago, and finally sewed at the weekend.  Already been worn to work, and a very useful stash busting exercise.  I really recommend this pattern if you’ve got a belly, but want some non voluminous tops for the summer!

I’ve got no idea why two are blurry and two aren’t, but by the time I realised, I’d changed into slobbies, so no more pics today!  This is the inside of the tops, just showing that I underlined the chiffon parts of the body in powernet for decencie’s sake.  It doesn’t show at all, very successful.  The chiffon was a tiddly bit that’s been in stash for yonks, I think it may actually be silk, it’s very very fine and delicate. 

Purple stretch is a stash remnant, a rather evil fine jersey that plays games when sewing.  The finish on this is far from perfect, but I suspect the chiffon may explode after a few washes anyway.

Another shot of the inside of the red one.  The chiffon here is an ombre poly.

It’s leftover from a beautiful corset/bodice top I made for wifey about 7 years ago for one of our vampire parties. It shades from a vibrant red to a deep brown.

Vampires of the Red Court, Halloween 2009

This is cobbled and pieced to use what I could while keeping some symmetry.  The upper bodice pieces are double layered, the sleeves are single.  The main body pieces are an ancient stash delve- some raspberry crepey stuff that I used in costuming about 20 years ago.  It was probably a bargain bucket ragmarket remnant.  Not my finest hour, either of them, but eminently wearable.  Back necks fasten with a thread loop and small button, but I just yoink them over my head.

Right, enough of this, time to sew.