Stashbusting summary: 2014 and 2015

So as to keep my stashbusting progress all in one place, I'm just going to update this post, originally created in February 2014, with my 2015 fabric usage.  If you scroll down you'll find my intro to the subject followed by a detailed blow by blow of my 2014 usage. 

Total in 2014:  32.2 m used, 3.2 m bought.

2015 running total: 7.7 m used, 3.8 m bought.

January:  
Used:  2.25 m wool matelasse,  2.7 m silk charmeuse, 0.75 m rayon lining, for black skirt suit with silk lining and matching blouse.  
Bought:  2 m lightweight poly knit.

February:
Used:  2 m lightweight poly knit 
Bought: 0.9 m each yarn dyed poly knit and metallic lace knit. 


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In the latter part of January 2014, I joined the Stashbusting Sewalong.  My "stashbusting lite" commitment pledge says:  I commit to sewing from my stash first, and if fabric purchase is unavoidable in order to complete a project, to using at least two lengths of fabric from stash for every length I purchase.   Linings, underlinings, notions etcetera are of course not included: elastics and interfacings are necessities not guilty pleasures. I wouldn't buy them if I didn't have to. They don't count.

Note that I didn't actually commit not to buy any fashion fabric - just to sew twice as fast as I buy, so that by year's end I really ought to have less fabric than right now. 

Why am I doing this?  Because my stash is ridiculous.  Utterly head-shaking ridiculous.  In every other way I'm not a shopaholic, but buying fabric is just too easy.  For a start, there are two fabric stores right at my doorstep. Then, who hasn't impulse-clicked on that BUY button on a late Sunday night! Yep, big guilty face here. Too many internet stores!  It's all their fault!!! Enough, already.  I'm putting a stop to all that.  I view the Stashbusting Sewalong as my very own version of shopaholics anonymous.

What's even more ridiculous is that some of these very nice fabrics I've had for years are languishing because I haven't sufficient any experience in sewing them (for example, silk chiffon) and thus haven't dared cut into them.  A self-perpetuating condition if ever I met one!  So in confronting my stash I'll also be forced to confront my technical limitations, and, one hopes, expand my abilities?  Fearless sewing, here I come!  What's the worst that can happen? 1. a wadder; 2. a wearable but less than perfect garment that might not pass the X foot rule ("if a sewing flaw is not noticeable to the observer at X feet distance, it doesn't exist").  I'll be the first to admit that many of my garments are imperfect, but all that I've completed have been wearable.  So it's time to face the wadder possibility head on, right? 

Another reason is that, yes, I love making jackets and I'd love to make nothing BUT jackets, but one can't show up at work in nothing but a jacket ;)    I must discipline myself to create tops and bottoms to coordinate with said jackets.  I don't make enough of the go-with garments, and not nearly enough skirts or dresses.  Jackets with slacks, with an invisible, usually black, top under the jacket and a scarf to camouflage it, sum up my lazy fallback position. This is my year to try and get some of those dress weight fabrics, knits and wovens, out of their boxes and onto me, as dresses and tops that might want to be seen.  

That's about the extent of it.  Could this be my new year's resolution?  Why not.  For 2014, I resolve.... to love the fabrics I loved enough to buy, and to now love them enough to use.  To create a comprehensive wardrobe, all you need is love....

I'm aiming to keep this page updated with my progress since I took the above pledge, to keep me honest reflect how I'm doing. More for my own edification than anyone else's - I'm simply curious how it'll play out in the course of the year.  I'm also hoping that by keeping track of amounts used I'll gain a better sense of how much I need to make x, y, zed (yes up here in the Great White North we say zed not zee :))) if and when I ever fall off the wagon and (gasp!) buy some fashion fabric again, in the very, very distant future, that is. 

So here goes:

2014 total:  used = 32.2 m               bought = 3.2 m

February: used = 11.5 m                         bought = 0
Royal blue velour lounge suit for DD (2.3 m, 1.5 m wide)
Brown multi stretch silk georgette long sleeved blouse (Burda 10-2011-128) 1.8 meters (1.3 m wide)
Sapphire blue silk jacquard long sleeved blouse (Burda 10-2011-128) 1.5 meters (1.14 m wide)
Navy-white silk habotai sleeveless blouse         1.0 meters (1.14 m wide)
Brown cashmere three-piece suit (top, skirt, jacket) 2.2 meters (1.73 m / 68" wide) 
Brown silk jacquard lining for above top and jacket  1.8 meters (1 m wide)
Chocolate brown silk jacquard sleeveless blouse 1.3 m (1 m wide)
Green-blue python print silk crepe long sleeved blouse and matching scarf 1.9 m (1.14 m wide)

January: used = 6.7 m                           bought = 0
Yummy Pyjammy:  navy lightweight fleece trousers   1.5 m
                               and long sleeved top  1.3 m
Olive thick fleece warmup trousers   1.5 m
Black poly techno-knit at-home trousers  1.5 m
Scarf to top sleeveless blouse  (1 square yard)  0.9 m 

August:  used = 3.6 m                             bought = 0
Green and tan silk paisley cocktail (mother of the bride) dress and matching head scarf.

November:  used = 5.2 m                         bought = 1 m
Grey wool boucle jacket, skirt, and colour-blocked top, plus matching silk blouse:  2.6 m of the wool boucle and 2.6 m of silk twill for jacket lining, trim, and blouse. 
I bought 1 m of black ponte for the colour-blocked top. 

December:  used = 5.2 m                          bought = 2.2 m
Lace overlay jacket with silk jacquard lining and matching skirt with rayon bemberg lining. 2.7 m of the lace overlay, 2.5 m of the silk. 
I bought 2.2 m of a wool blend matelasse for a project currently underway.  

Burda 12-2008-113 python print blouse

I'd used the 12-2008-113 pattern back when it was new, and made four tops out of silk charmeuse.  They wear beautifully and still look great, in fact are terrific except for the fact that they show wrinkles more than I like. I loathe ironing my clothes (ironing during sewing doesn't count).   As a working person, my morning time is limited, and what little of it I have is preferentially devoted to talking to plants and squirrels or running. So it's not surprising that I shifted my silk allegiance from charmeuse (always fabulous as lining) to types less likely to wrinkle, such as crepe and jacquard.

I got this beefy silk crepe at the beginning of the year (before my Stashbusting pledge) from Emma One Sock. It doesn't wrinkle at all.  And the pattern and colour scheme are fab.  

The pattern repeat is even from selvedge to selvedge. It looks uneven only because a bit of the fabric is folded over along the left edge. 

So gorgeous, in fact, that willy-nilly pattern placement wasn't going to happen.  Since I was aiming to make this top to go along with my recently made blue jacket, I wanted to emphasize the blue pattern details, so I placed the python zigzag at CF and CB.

This is a raglan-sleeved pattern, and the sleeve is made of two pattern pieces: a back and a front.  As I was laying those on the fabric, it occurred to me that I could emphasize the zigzag on the sleeves as well by combining the two pieces into one piece with a curved dart at the top. 

One-piece raglan sleeve keeps pattern details intact.
I lengthened the princess sleeve to full length.
The sleeve hems are lightly shirred with 3 mm elastic.

 That little tweak worked very well.  Fortuitously, the width of the garment is such that the zigzag is also repeated at the side seams, though imperfectly of course, as the above pic shows.  That's what the pattern would likely have looked like on the sleeve if I'd blindly stuck to the two-piece sleeve pattern.  

How do I like the top?  Well enough for not having verified my prior thoughts on it.  The upper back is a little tight when I hunch forward, so I'll try to cure this problem in a future version with either a CB box pleat or widening the outer sleeve a little, or both.  And I ought to have remembered Burda's penchant for low necklines: a bit more of my bony sternum is visible than I care to show. It can and will be camouflaged with a necklace of some sort, but still. The next version's neckline will be 1" higher.  Maybe 1.5" higher. 

Spot the lady cardinal on the birdfeeder over the left shoulder?

Fortunately, I had laid out the pattern pieces carefully and had enough yardage to leave a nice wide strip of selvedge-to-selvedge fabric.  I sewed this into a 45" long tube and now have the perfect ascot to cover up my excessive frontage.  Together, it all looks great under the jacket.

The blue jacket is now nearly wearable, but all my bottoms are in shades of black or grey.  Navy, or something with navy, would be a good idea for a well coordinated outfit.  

Last words?  I'm learning to be more patient with my sewing. I did quite a bit of basting as I went along, and french-seamed the whole lot, even those curved darts at the top of the sleeves, enjoying both the process and the result. Yea! 

Now I need more silk crepe. Did I really say that?! Oops, the wagon is wobbling already!  I-must-resist--I-must-resist... 

From scarf to garment: the one-yard top, and pattern comparison

On one of my visits to Montreal, I was tempted by a couple of silk crepe scarves crumpled up in a "going for a song" sale basket of an Indian clothing store.  Not because I wanted scarves that particular day, but because the silk was a wonderful springy crepe with lovely print designs, and I thought they could easily be converted to simple sleeveless tops.

This time, I used the downloadable Marfy 1913 sleeveless blouse pattern. Rather than using the standing collar pattern, I simply bound the neckline and armscyes with bias strips.  Since I don't care for the fashion faux pas of peeking undergarments, I didn't pleat as much of the neckline as suggested on the pattern piece.  Per pattern design, I did insert the elastic in the hem; in the pic above, the hem is pulled down to make the shirring visible.

The print is is so beautiful:  are these lilies?  irises?  not according to the leaf, which I don't recognize at all. Any guesses? And, though at first glance it all appears to be monochromatic in tones of cornflower blue, close examination shows that there are green and brown tonalities as well, clearly visible in the leaves.

The scarf had a rolled edge that I unpicked before testing the layout. Laid out flat, it's a perfect 36 inch square:  since India is a metric country, as is Canada, it was clearly made for the American market! As it turned out, the two main pattern pieces fit perfectly in the square:

I cut size 42, with wide side seam allowances.

The orange pin heads mark the shoulder corner of the back piece moved from upper left to lower right.

The front, at lower left in the upper photo and lower centre in the lower one, was cut on a fold, while the back (at upper left in the upper photo and lower right in the lower one) was cut with a center seam.  The remaining fabric at upper right provided more than enough 1.5" (4cm) bias strips for the arm and neck edges.

Since the neckline is high in this pattern and a back opening is necessary, having a centre back seam was functionally useful. I made a thread chain loop and found a blue button that's a surprisingly good match to this fabric.  A self-covered button would also be great. 

 Here's the finished top again, this time with the elastic hem loosened upwards, giving a short blouson effect.

Silk crepe is my favourite of all fabrics for sleeveless tops. It wears like iron, feels like butterfly's wing on the skin, is warm to the touch without burning, breathes beautifully, and has a springiness that's superbly comfortable.  Some years ago I drafted a simple sleeveless top pattern, and have used that ever since as the basis for variations not just in silk but also linen and poly.

Silk crepe tops:  self-drafted pattern with pleated neckline, early 2013 at left, early 2011 at right.  

So how does the Marfy pattern compare with mine? My pattern has a scooped out neckline both front and back, making any additional opening redundant. The Marfy neckline is high, so even without the standing collar it needs a neck opening.  Note that though it's originally placed at CB in the pattern, this opening can easily be made into a design element  in the front, either angled towards the sleeve or at centre front, perhaps with skinny bias tubes to tie into a pretty bow instead of a button or hook.

Though not readily visible in the finished garments, there are other minor differences between my pattern and the Marfy. My pattern has shaped side seams for a closer fit in the waist, a higher armscye, and its outer shoulder is less cut in towards the neck, for more secure coverage of these pesky undergarment straps.

Self drafted pattern, box pleat variations:  at left, patterned red silk crepe scarf with short hem and two hem pleats; silk-cotton blend at right.

So, will I make the Marfy 1913 top again?  Of course, and at least once with the standing collar!  it's great to have another top variation.

Joined! 2014 Ready-To-Wear Fast and Stashbusting Sewalong

Like Groucho Marx, who is famous for his line I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member, I tend to be a non-joiner.  But I do recognize the pleasure of companionship of the like-minded, and have on occasion deviated from my anti-social individualism.  For example, though I've since removed the badge from this page, I participated in Go Chanel or Go Home.

That particular sewalong began in July 2009. It was terrific.  We learned the classic design details and steps of construction of a Chanel jacket, and watched each other's progress in making the real thing.  Though I'm yet to make one using all of the classic techniques, I made two jackets during that sew-along.  The vented three-piece sleeve and the patience needed for all the extensive trim application were my biggest takeaways. And slowly-slowly, I'm edging towards the no holds barred, full blown couture techniques real deal. Soon.

Last year, Thewallina hosted a Little French Jacket Sewalong.

I didn't spot that one until it was fairly far along, so didn't have the option to join, but I still love how she had organized the main page with links to each step, as that allows me to review the techniques even now.

I also participated in the 2008 Great Coat Sew-Along, which didn't come with a badge, but sure got fantastic results from everyone there.  I made a lightweight wool tartan wearable muslin that still serves me well as a throw in my ever-frigid Canadian office, an easy Burda cocoon short coat, and, my piece de resistance, a siege-of-Stalingrad-worthy greatcoat. Apart from these results, which still form the backbone of my winter wear, the most valuable takeaway of the project was the creation of a true muslin and the sew-along members' helpful comments in correcting fit. The lessons on underlining, interlining, and various approaches to lining were also terrific.

But, of course, there are many, many more sewing related community activities that I have yet to join. Just to mention one, and it's a recurring theme, is the "Sewing with a Plan", or SWAP, which makes its appearance every year and is tremendously popular.  For 2014, it's an "Algebra SWAP". Why haven't I joined?  Lack of time to plan a story board, and a niggling feeling that I'd be too impatient to actually complete the requisite 11 or so garments without getting distracted and in the allotted time.

So this year, I joined two groups in which one commits NOT to do things!

Sarah of GoodbyeValentino.com is hosting a Ready-to-Wear Fast:  the group's members commit not to buy ready to wear clothing for the year.  How easy is that?! Over the past few years I've managed to accrue quite a comprehensive sewn-by-me wardrobe, and right now can't even imagine buying anything off the rack for myself.  And the fast doesn't include one's menfolk.  Yea! I won't have to sew men's shirts or jeans or anything! Waaaay too easy.

Secondly, Tumbleweeds in the Wind has announced a Stashbusting Sewalong.  Definitely in!  My "stashbusting lite" commitment pledge says: I commit to sewing from my stash first, and if fabric purchase is unavoidable in order to complete a project, to using at least two lengths of fabric from stash for every length I purchase. Notions and linings not included, as I don't stash any of those.  Sneaky, eh? I didn't actually commit not to buy any fabric - just to sew twice as fast as I buy, so by year's end I'll have less fabric than right now.  Whereas the RTWF commitment is easy, not buying fabric will be hard. Very, very hard. I know there's always more fabric, but the fabrics out there are so wonderful, they're nigh impossible to resist.

So, to bust the stash I must sew: and I better get at it!

Rainbow jacket: finished!

Declaring a long project completed is a very satisfying moment.

 

I see a slight imperfection in the way the chain lays on the right pocket.  A couple of stitches ought to fix that.

Below is a close-up showing details of the trim: the yarns I threaded through the chain are quite varied. There were at least four different ones in each. I tried to match the predominant surrounding colours.  Now that I see them all together, the pocket trim seems a bit too blue to me. There are blue, green, and navy threads in there, yet the photo makes it appear very monochromatic.  I know it's all a matter of personal taste, yet a purple thread might improve matters and bring it closer to the sleeve trim.

And  on the live "dummy"; as my photographer remarked, the quality of the photos is limited by the subject matter :(

The pic above shows all that's wrong with hooks:  the jacket doesn't ever really close or stay closed.  I'm not crazy about hook closures.  I'll move those hooks inward and maybe that'll suppress the center front gaposis.

In my previous post, BeccaA asked why I included structured jacket techniques (chest shield, sleeve heads and shoulder pads) in a cardigan style jacket.  Hmmm.  First, I wanted to do the Chanel style quilting to an underlining to begin with.  The fact that I had no room for 1" seam allowances aided in that decision:  the classic cardigan method simply wasn't feasible here. Then, when the sleeve issues arose, I knew that sleeve heads would be necessary, so that dictated the other "structured" touches. And I like a structured jacket.  My red version, which has no shoulder pads or chest shield, feels slouchy and (perhaps because it's a little on the big side) sloppy.   But there's one more thing:  a question of self confidence.  I just wasn't sure that I'd have the patience to do all that piecemeal hand-sewing of the lining, nor that I could make it look good enough.  Really.  As it turned out, this jacket took a lot of hand work, so I now suspect I probably could manage to produce one using only the classic cardigan jacket method and see it through to the end.  

With sewing, there's always a next time! :))