Cutting Remarks

Woohoo I got me some sew-jo!  I had a mad indulgent splurge last week [payday, can’t help myself] and ordered shedloads of patterns and fabrics.

 

They’ve been arriving all week, and I finally reached ignition point and got the itch again.  Just a little, but I have put in several hours of pattern prep [which categorically excludes tracing the ruddy things, just selecting pattern pieces and/or taping PDFs thank you very much!] plus pressing miles of fabric, and fusing quite a lot of weirdly shaped pieces of interfacing.

It’s all stacked in a box, and in total, I have NINE garments ready to sew.  There’s a great range of levels of complexity here, from fast-and-dirty overlocker work, to fancy schmancy ribbon and lace embellishment, and another corset.  I still have two items to cut, but I ran out of energy, so the fabric is draped over my bamboo screen, looking at me accusingly…

What’s in the heap?

1] I’m quite ashamed that only one item out of the 9 is for the missus.  It’s a Kathe5rine Tilton shirt, and I’ve done  a quick, rather messy FBA [she’s growing with the menopause: the tissue fit had a sizeable gap at the CF].  I cut it out in the piece of black cotton sateen which was a little too lightweight for my bloomers.  The pintuck/darts are intriguing on this.  I’ve extended the sleeves to full length.

2&3]I’ve cut out 2 tops from an old favourite, Kwiksew 3658.  I had a lovely one of these in  heavyweight lycra jersey, got some food stain on the front, spot treated it…then left it damp in the washing machine for slightly too long.  Mould.  Mould mould mould.  I swore, stropped, and binned it.  Anyway, one in an off-white rib jersey, long-sleeves one in a crazy psychedelic owl print, 3/4 sleeves because there wasn’t much yardage!

4] A fit-and-flare dress in a fabulous, drapey ‘angora-touch’ knit from The Textiles Centre on eBay.  The roses on this panel fabric are about a foot across, too big to do my usual haphazard cutting, so I had to faff for a while and cut it out single layer.  It’s not pattern matched, but should [I hope] be reasonably balanced.  Look away if you have OCD!  This should be cosy but not sweltering with boots and tights.

5]A vaguely Indian tunic in fine Indian cotton voile.  This is a panel print, and I cut it on the cross grain to use the pattern borders.  Curved seams don’t allow for pattern matching, but again, I balanced it reasonably well.  I hope.  This should get plenty of use as it ought to be wearable over a T shirt.

[6&7] My next bits of steampunkery:  I’m going Edwardian, as you may see.  I’d already started to cut out the Laughing Moon cycling outfit, and ran into problems squeezing out the bloomers from my African wax print.  I replaced it with black sateen, and STILL had trouble, but nailed it eventually, as I thought…until I came to fuse interfacing onto the very large lapel/collar piece.  I’d placed the wrong edge to the fold.  Oopsy.  Time for a little judicious piecing, as I used up the rest of the fabric.  Poop.  The jacket is completely underlined in some of the bargainalicious rose-pink cotton lawn I snagged in last week’s retail therapy explosion.  I don’t usually do pink, but this is rather nice…so I found another use for it:

8] Burda Style 7029, a not-historically-accurate [but beautiful]   Edwardian/Titanic-era dress.  I stash busted here, using a piece of grey suiting that’s been around for ages, and teamed it with some of the rose pink cotton [for the skirt overlay and to underline the sleeves and bodice underlay.]  The pink panels will have strips of black lace overlaid, plus narrow ribbon in grey and black.  The tiny remnant of gorgeous flocked black gauze that I shared with lovely Katja when we went to Barry’s some months ago, will overlay sleeves and the high collar.  The whole lot will also have narrow pink piping, fake ribbon buttonholes and decorative covered buttons.

9] Another corset, Truly Victorian E01, a longer and straighter style than my curvaceous Victorian one, this should work well under the grey/pink dress.  I’ve just cut this out in beige coutil, but I might decide to cover it in aqua silk, just because I have some!

And that’s the pile.  I also still haven’t made up the denim riding breeches, no idea why, I just stalled.  [Riding, stalled, see what I did?]  I have a stunning piece of fancy coutil to cut out my ‘Asylum’ corset, and a crazy plan to make a shocking pink wax print ‘equestrian skirt’ from Reconstructing History.

I’m knackered, but not as worn out as our Oscar looks here:  what a bleary chap!