Every little thing

One thing that I promised myself with this blog is that I would write an honest account of my sewing. Whether big or small. Here is a small thing. For the Princess. She's grown longer lately and so many clothes are looking short. She loves leggings and would wear them all the time. Sometimes though leggings on their own aren't the right thing to wear. So what's the compromise? Skirts over the top of course. She decided she wanted a denim one. Of course I couldn't find one - not one! Not to be daunted we trooped off to our LFS and sourced about a metre of mid weight denim with just a hint of stretch. It was great fun taking the Princess though the process of fabric, style and finishings selection. She has some firm (and good!) ideas. So we landed on a straight skirt with an elasticated waist. But she wanted someone to break up the plain denim. Hmmmmmm... How about some top stitching? In pink? Awesome! So rather than two pieces of skirt, we made four and top stitched all the seams in pink - with proper top stitching thread. She loves it! I'm hoping for a photo with it on her shortly but in the meantime here is a shocking hanger shot. The pink of the stitching is very washed out.

Knits?

So I've had a go at sewing georgette, with some success, I thought I would stretch myself further and try working with knits (hahaha- no pun intended - really!). Having got my stash organised on the weekend, I rediscovered a few metres of a two-way stretch black knit. I had this slated for a wrap dress (Burda 7871) which still pushes my buttons - great for trans-seasonal dressing. Boy, am I looking forward to things warming up.

I've decided on the longer length (view A) but with the cute shorter sleeves (view B).

I've cut it out. I like cutting knits. Maybe I'll like sewing them too. I'll keep you posted.

Stash confession

Oh dear! I kinda had a vague idea that I had a stash, but now I have the concrete evidence. I had some extra time on the weekend so I pulled out all the fabric I could reach (and yes, there was some I couldn't get to in the time I had available). I then took samples from each piece and stuck them in a notebook with the following information: description (composition, weight, name of fabric type, width), shop and date of purchase, and meterage. I also included ideas about what I have planned with the fabric. I really enjoyed the process - I like ordering things. When I finished I sat back and flicked through the book, and flicked, and flicked. Oh dear! 38 pieces of fabric ranging from 0.5m to 4m. Total meterage is 58.7m. Phew! That was a bit cathartic.

So now, what am I going to do about it? I'm going to have to make a stash busting commitment. I'm a bit late (like over half a year!) to join a stashbusting sew along but I can still make the commitment here. Here goes...

I, Emma, commit to only using my fabric/notions stash for the remainder of 2013, except for lining or other notions to complete a project, and these I will only buy one project at a time.

Wheeeeeee! That feels great!

First up, a black cotton knit. Slated for a wrap dress. I could do with another one of those. Stay tuned.