Sunday, May 15, 2011

New Fabric, New Ideas, and stuff!!!

I’m still plodding along on the Jacket, and it looks like I should have it finished by next weekend. All going well! Thank God!! I am really starting to become fed up with this jacket… so many pieces! I’ll blog about this in another post.

In the meantime, I did a few other things to keep my spirits up. The April newsletter from Darrell Thomas mentioned a sale, so off I went and picked up a few nice fabrics that will make some great pieces for my core wardrobe. The dark fabric is actually a very dark navy wool suiting, it has gorgeous drape. There’s plenty for a good skirt here. Then there’s an off-white silk charmeuse (what can I say, it’s just Heavenly!) and a very sheer cotton (you can easily see the serged edge - for prewashing - underneath) that should make a nice basic white blouse with a silk camisole underneath of course. Finally there’s the cotton home decor seashell print that’s just fun! I thought it could make a cool shift for going to the pool/beach and hanging around in the garden with the kids this summer.

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Right after I got home, giddy with this new fabric, I got out some pieces from my little stash to start dreaming about what I could do. I put some together just to see: the fine jersey print fabric is the leftover of a Burda dress I made last summer, and is enough for a top, the dark navy is a light-weight stretch cotton sateen from C&M, which should be enough for a slim skirt, and the light beige is a stretch cotton twill from Wazoodle that I got 4 years ago in a free grab pack! I’ll make some capris with this, there’s loads.

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Then there’s this bundle! Two of the fabrics I also got in the same free grab pack from Wazoodle: the print is a cotton stretch sateen and the black is a poly stretch twill. I’ll make another jacket with the print, the same as the one I’m working on now but with 3/4 sleeves, and some capris with the black. The green and turquoise fabrics are lovely cotton double knits that I also bought from Wazoodle 4 years ago, and will make simple T-shirts or sleeveless tops, not sure yet. I thought I’d line the jacket with the white poly satin, but I’m not sure now, maybe just a partial lining.

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I also popped in to C&M Textiles to see if I could find a lining fabric for my denim jacket, and came away with a fun satin polyester in a giraffe print, brown spots on pale blue. It’s really fun, but it doesn’t go with the denim; so it’s now part of the stash.

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Two other things found their way back home with me: a Clover chalk pencil and a magnetic pin holder (in all my years sewing, I’ve never had one, and I love it!) The chalk pencil has a wheel and is so easy to use. Only thing is that the lines rub out easily, so it would be best for short-lived uses. I tried it on the denim in the pic below.

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Then I heard about Fabricland’s 50% off sale (that was a week or so ago), so I went to scope out the offerings on the day that H was over at my friend’s house for the rest of the day after Nursery school. For the first time in ages, I walked around the fabrics at the front of the store and found some really nice stuff. Talk about being pleasantly surprised! I’ll have to go back this week for some cotton/silk that is just dreamy, it’ll be wonderful for a summer tunic.

So, I went back the next day with my Mum, and got the poly/satin shown below, which has lovely blue/pink/orange colours and looks great with the blue denim of the jacket. I’ve since got the lining assembled, and should have it in the jacket by end of Wednesday. But I also ended up getting some gorgeous fabric for a skirt suit and camisole; it won’t be part of the core wardrobe, but it will be a great outfit for dressing up.

2011-05-05 15.24.59  2011-05-05 15.27.09

The mauve fabric is made up of large strands of fibres, and ravels like crazy. I’ll have to sew this with fusible strips in all the seams as Sherry suggests in this post. The satin is polyester, and a bit heavier than what I would like I think, but it coordinates SO fantastically.

One last thing: I found a new fabric shop in my neighbourhood, Paula’s Sewing Basket on Bank St. near Walkley. I thought I’d seen her before and only realized where it was when I got home! Anyway, she’s got loads of beautiful stuff, and all natural fibres. I’ll be heading back her way for sure!!