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Making Plans…not for Nigel, for me!

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The Westwood skirt is almost done [blog post already written, have some patience will you?!] and so it’s only right that I’m planning and plotting to get a nice big batch of stuff cut out ready to sew in the little bits of time I’ll snatch from my marking season.

Teaser

Florals:  I’ve had this pattern for YEARS.  I bought it on impulse, then went off it, then liked it again…but it takes a LOT of fabric.  I have this outrageous tropical print which I also bought on impulse a few years ago.  There isn’t enough, so I thought I’d cut out some of the pieces in this bit of old sheet that used to do duty as a door curtain.  Might work, might not, let’s see!

This morning, at work, while my poor students wrestled with their first exams, I taped together several PDF patterns which I’d recently bought.  On ‘The Sewing Place’ there are a couple of challenges I plan to tackle- one for florals, one for using scraps, and one for ‘Sewing With a Kind of Plan’ which will end in October I think.  Thoughts so far…

Scraps:  well my dears, so MANY scraps!  I might do some crazy piecing, and see what transpires…

SWAKOP: This needs to be made from 3 ‘sets’ of three garments, 2 tops and a bottom in each [no sexual innuendo, behave!]  There are rules on what has to coordinate with what, and you get a wildcard.  Some garments can be pre-made or RTW.  I’m looking at a blue/green/purple colour scheme here, and have moved various bits of fabric around to see what goes.  The Westwood-esque skirt will be there, with its jade jacket.  I need some plain white tops, so they’re going into this collection.  I unearthed a stunning piece of heavy silk satin, jade green with gold metallic paint splashes.  That’s going in too, assuming I can squeeze something out of it!

I’m so in love with my two pairs of Brenne trousers that I think I may need more to get me through the summer.  Secret pyjamas or what!  OK, not so secret, they are ridiculous but very comfy…I need a plain black pair of ‘Ebony’ trousers too, they’re so smart, but feel like pyjamas.  Are you detecting  a theme?  I used to sneer at people that put comfort above style, hey ho.

GOT to work this in somewhere along the line!

One of the patterns I want to use for the SWAKOP is the ‘Afternoon Blouse and Shift Dress’ from Handmade.  I downloaded this ages ago and forgot about it.  I have some lovely white linen, and some white cotton gauze in stash, both will be useful for a short while until I get tea or red wine on it!  This is one of the PDFs I put together today- very very easy, no trimming of pages BUT masses of waste, and SEVENTY ONE PAGES if you print the whole file.

I spotted these beauties this week, and immediately succumbed.  Flared trousers, with a soft waistband?  Yes please!  Shorts that aren’t voluminous mummy monstrosities? [they make my legs look like sticks]  Yes please!  I’m going to rummage and see what stretch fabrics I have that will be of use- there might be some more stretch denim somewhere…they so remind me of the loons I longed for in the 70s.  Greenstyle Creations, if these patterns come together, I will love you forever!

Chelsea Pants PDF Sewing Pattern XXS - 3XL

The missus loves both of these too, so there may be several in the pipeline…

The fourth PDF is the amazing ‘Joker’ shirt from Okistyle.  This one is for the missus, and will be in the heavy self-stripe white stretch cotton I used for my Juliet shirt.  I may incorporate some piping to show off the seam lines

Pattern for white shirt JOKER

You see, not ALL about me lol

ALSO I need to get that wedding dress finished.  I stalled after attaching the miles of tulle and zipping it up for safety…out of sight, out of mind it seems.  That has to be the priority.

AND of course I need to get the ‘cathedral dress’ ready for August bank holiday, when we go on our big steampunk weekend.

So what do you think?  Enough to be going on with I think.  What are you planning?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28 thoughts on “Making Plans…not for Nigel, for me!”

  1. Love your fabrics. Also the greenstyle pants. Where did you find the pattern? Please share
    Marcia

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  2. Where did you find the greenstyle pant pattern – great looking. Like your color combinations.
    Marcia

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  6. I LOVE the purple and green and look forward to the Westwood skirt. The trousers look very low-crotched to me and give me images of a tot walking along trying to pull the diaper into a comfy position, so I hope it is not like that. It would be for me!

    That song was always strange, sinister, and very catchy–amusing to see them being hard men while lipsynching–that one on the backing vocals seems to have the worst time of it but it all works out.

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      1. It’s good they suit you. I think I am a ‘make them giant’ type of clothing person, since tight things that might look and/or feel bad on me make me…er, look and feel bad!

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      2. Ah but there has to be a balance- too giant and it just looks like you’re wearing a duvet cover. I’m a firm believer that the clothes MUST fit your body somewhere, not just hang off it…much more flattering, especially if you can distract the eye with colour and pattern!

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      3. I agree, and it works for others–I’ve been a stage manager for musicals and did not dress them the way I dressed me!–but my brain does this sort of ‘stick it in a bag and deal with it later’ thing. It mostly comes from staying home and working online way too much lately and having the only style critic be my cat–poor health just sort of gave me such a hard time that it has been the least of my worries. When I work more in my office, or get out more, I wear at least smaller burlap sacks…

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      5. You make an effort, though, so it can look casual but not like Ole Mad Ron in the Terry Pratchett books. I, on the other hand, look like a baglady sometimes, yer basic pj bottoms or jeans and teeshirt, and nothing stylish or chic about it–

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  7. I am terribly envious of the Ursula fabric. Over the past few years I’ve come to terms with the fact that I find the villains more relatable than the princesses. 🙂

    I’m trying to pull together a few new pieces for the Pattern Review Weekend (my first!). I’ve been muslining the Judith dress by Boho Banjo, but I may just make up the skirt and go with a TNT top, as it’s a bit too much of a sack, even for me.

    I ordered a couple of Marcy Tilton patterns from the latest Vogue sale, but I don’t think they’ll get here in time. As it is I’ll probably be finishing something on the train. 🙂

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  8. I just spent 45 minutes going through Greenstyle’s catalog. Can’t wait to see how your makes turn out, the designs are great!

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  9. I’m going to make those Brenne pants too (only joking – they are trizers, of course!)
    Can’t wait to see the Westwood skirt. Oh and I suggest you don’t go out this weekend. For some strange reason there’s a lot of union jack and stars and stripes bunting about.

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  10. I need to see these pyjamas-not-pyjamas pants (trousers) you’re talking about! Then, I need to figure out how to make some for myself! If I could respectably (I’d take semi-respectably) get away with living in my pjs, I would. There are times I need to leave the house, so I need a great pair of snazzy (you know, not ratty) looking pair of pyjama pants (trousers).

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