Pantone Colour Trends Fall/Autumn 2017

I don't usually put much emphasis on the Pantone Colour Trends each season. I am pretty sure what colours I like and most importantly, I have a huge stash of fabrics in my home that I have to use, regardless of whether the colours are fashionable or not! However it's always interesting to see the Colour forecast to see what they have come up with each season. For Fall/Autumn 2017 they have 2 palettes: one of New York and one for London:

Fall 2017 New York Palette

Fall 2017 London Palette

After taken a quick look at the colours of my fabric stash, I think I have Navy Peony, Flame Scarlet, Tawny Port, Neutral Grey, Shaded Spruce and Autumn Maple. So I guess I do have trendy colours after all! Now I just have to figure out what to make. Time to look through my Pattern Stash......

A revamped Facebook Store - I'm learning to set up as I go

I'm not the most savvy with Social Media. Believe it or not, I don't even have a data plan on my phone! So setting up my little shop on Facebook is quite a learning experience. I just revamped my little shop and now I have created a button for it:

So if my dear blog followers have some time to give me some feedback on my dismal attempt in setting up this Facebook store, I would greatly greatly appreciate it!

Me Made May 2017 Outfits: May 18-20

Here are my outfits from May 18-20.

May 18:
Today is super hot and humid! I'm wearing a me-refashioned top (from a men's shirt), me-made linen cargo pants, a me-made necklace and thrifted shoes.

May 19:
The temperature suddenly dropped 20+ Celsius! I'm wearing a thrifted top, me-made silver knit scarf, and a me-made long skirt.

May 20:
I'm going hiking in the nearby forest with my family. I'm wearing a me-refashioned merino wool sweater (from a huge XL men's sweater) and a me-made hat.

We are very fortunate to be a very short drive to a nearby forest. My kids love going there.  All over the forest there are these white Trillium flowers that thrive on the forest ground. They are the symbols of my province.

Wardrobe Sudoku Garments - RTW prices

Since I haven't shopped RTW garments/accessories for a long time, and I used all stash fabrics/notions/patterns to make all the Wardrobe Sudoku Contest garments, I thought it might be a fun idea to find out approximately how much I would have to pay for all the garments/accessories that I have made for this contest.

I went online to do a quick check on the sale prices of garments that have a similar look and made with a similar fabric. I concentrated on the items that are on sale because I probably wouldn't have paid full price for those items if I was shopping at the stores. I didn't factor in the 2 pre-sewn garments for this exercise.

1. Red/Green polyester chiffon blouse - approx. $30
2. Red stretch cotton woven slim pants - approx. $40
3. Grey stretch woven slim pants - approx. $50
4. White striped tunic shirt - approx. $45
5. Red floral cotton tunic - approx. $45
6. Large Denim patchwork tote bag - approx. $30
7. Medium Denim patchwork tote bag - approx.$25
8. Large Wool paisley wrap - approx. $55
9. Long green chiffon scarf - approx. $15
10. Grey knit cardigan jacket - approx. $50

So all the items I sewed in the last few weeks with existing materials would have cost me approximately $385 if they were all on sale. That's 2 week's worth of groceries for my entire family! I am just happy that I can make my own garments and accessories. But at the same time, I'm quite embarrassed how large my fabric/notion stash really is!

Sewing Resolutions for 2017

I am not really big on New Year Resolutions, simply because I don't really follow them. So I suppose my 2017 Sewing Resolutions would be to get out of my comfort zone and do something different or learn to make something new, for example:

• new types of fabrics
• new sewing techniques
• new types of garments
• new combinations of skills
• new sewing patterns (my own patterns or whatever patterns I have in my stash that I haven't used yet)

I am happy with the sewing projects this year and I have learned some new techniques (e.g. I just learned how to narrow the shoulder seams on a 1990's jacket). I'm looking forward to learning more of everything regarding sewing and refashioning in 2017.

I wish you and your family a Happy and Healthy 2017!!

Sewing Pattern Destash Sale!

For too many years, I have too much fabric, too many unopened patterns. Although I have stopped buying new patterns for a while, I still have way too many of them! And my hubby has finally given me an ultimatum: Clean out the sewing area so it's not a hazard for adults and children! I have bags and bins of fabric lying on the floor, boxes and bags of unopened sewing patterns everywhere. It's time to clean it all up.

I just have too many patterns and I need to admit to myself that I will never have enough time to sew all these fabulous patterns that I have accumulated. I should let other sewists enjoy them! I started by going through my Vogue patterns - the unopened, factory folded ones. I have put them on the Sewing Pattern Destash Facebook page and my own Facebook page. Check here if you are interested. Next I'm going through the other brand's unopened, factory folded patterns - Simplicity, McCall's, Butterick, Burda, Kwik Sew, etc. I will be adding more unopened, factory folded patterns on my Facebook page every week. So do check it out from time to time if you are interested in getting some cheap unopened patterns! ;-)

What to do with a Mountain of scraps - Patchwork clothing!

I had been looking at my mountain of fabric scraps: each piece too small to even make a skirt or a sleeveless top. What could I do with them without throwing them out and thus contribute to the landfill? My answer: Patchwork clothing!

I looked through Pinterest for inspirations. There are some really cool patchwork ideas for jackets, dresses, pants and skirts:

H&M patchwork jacket - how awesome and fun it would be to wear this to work!

A Steampunk patchwork skirt

This is lovely and so boho - but unfortunately not age appropriate for me....

This is really lovely and unique and I LOVE sweater dresses!

These patchwork clothing are truly inspirational. I now need to go to my scrap box and refashion pile to see what I have to start my patchwork project.

Wardrobe Stash Cleansing - the Plan

Since ranting about wanting to pare down my wardrobe to a sustainable level a few days ago, I decided to set a self-challenge: to cleanse something from my wardrobe stash every week between now and the end of the year. To accomplish this challenge, I need to put a plan in place.

First, I will deal with just the Fall/Winter garments and accessories. I will lay out all the wintry items, photograph them, and wear different items each day for the next month to test their wear-ability. I will then evaluate each items in with the following questions:

1. Does it fit?
2. Is it comfortable?
3. Is it warm?
4. Is it practical for day to day purpose (e.g. driving, grocery shopping, taking care of young children, running after children, carrying heavy loads, cooking, etc)?
5. Is it beautiful?
6. Does it have great sentimental value (e.g. given to me by a special person, me-made items that took lots of sweat and tears, etc)?

I think I'll probably falter at the last question regarding sentimentality since most of my wardrobe consists of me-made items. Perhaps I will end up purging all the store purchased stuff from my wardrobe once and for all! LOL!

Also, once I have catalogued all the items in the wardrobe, I will be shocked at the actual volume and be shamed into purging at least some of them.

I have called a couple of local charity shops and sadly they have confirmed that they would sometimes throw away donated items that didn't have tags on them. They said that the tagged items (especially the known brands like H&M, Gap, Zara, TopShop, etc) were the ones that sell well whereas the custom made stuff (no tags) stayed on the racks forever. So they would rather not receive them. How sad! I will need to find a good home for them somehow if I do decide to purge them.

Help! I'm trying to pare down my Wardrobe - A Rant

I feel like I'm sounding like a broken record: I have too much clothes in my closet! I need to pare down! But most of the stuff in my closet are me-made or me-refashioned items, I have a hard time parting with them. (See the same old rants here and here). And even if I donate them to the local charities, they may just throw them in the garbage bin because my me-made clothes have no tags that indicate brands or sizes. That would defeat the purpose of donating and recycling my clothes!

So when I read a recent post from one of my favourite bloggers Zoe Edwards about trying to achieve a 'sustainable wardrobe', I was nodding all the way! However, I still don't know what to do with my very large me-made wardrobe.

What do you think I should do? Should I have a online yard sale/car boot sale of sorts to pare down my wardrobe? Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Random thoughts: Gwen's embellished boots

As I have mentioned before on my blog, I'm really grateful that I sew. I love having this kinda useful hobby (better than a gambling hobby perhaps? ;-), I can replicate a lot of things that I like or my kids like at a fraction of the cost. My creative outlet relaxes me and is very therapeutic for me. My hubby is happy when I sew which means I'm not buggy him or complaining about things (sewing is vital for marital bliss! LOL!).

As for copycat fashions, I saw on an entertainment blog about these boots that Gwen Stefani wore recently. Apparently lots of fashion blog readers were salivating for them:

Source

They are really not my style but I thought it wouldn't be difficult to replicate those embellishments on a pair of plain black ankle boots. I don't know how much these actual boots cost but I think any seasons crafter can do a DIY version of this. You need some chevron ribbons, some knitted band and then some zipper tapes, sew them together and add some lose yarn at the back. Then slide the whole 'cuff' on top of any plain black stiletto ankle boots and you have the look of these probably very expensive designer boots!

Me Made May outfits - May 17 to 24 and a mini rant

Another week of Me Made May fashion! This past week had been hot and cold. It dropped down to almost freezing point for a few nights and then climbed up to the mid 20Celsius by noon. It makes it difficult to plan outfits.

May 17:
Me Made cotton voile dress (New Look 6615)
Me Made red coral and tiger eye necklace

May 18:
Me Refashioned thrifted yellow cotton eyelet top (from a skirt)
Me Refashioned RTW jeans
Me Made turquoise semi-precious stone necklace

May 19:
Me Refashioned thrifted silk dress
Me Made wood beads and semi-precious stone necklace

May 20:
Me Refashioned black crewneck top (from a turtleneck)
Me Made charcoal skinny jeans with my tried and true McCall's 5273
Thrifted pearlized leather jacket

May 21:
Me Refashioned thrifted grey short sleeves merino sweater
Me Made beige houndstooth A-line skirt
Me Made stash fabric remnant pink polka dot scarf

May 22:
Me Made blue wool mix boucle kimono style jacket
Me Made jeggings

May 23:
Me Made pink sweatshirt fleece jacket
Me Made black polartec windbloc pants - McCall's 5273 again!

May 24:
Me Refashioned RTW sweatshirt
Me Made black polartec windbloc pants- McCall's 5273 again!
Me Made stash fabric remnant scarf

 

The is only another week of Me Made May outfits coming up. What I have learned is that I have too much clothes! I had some repeat garments but no repeat outfits. This is obscene! i feel bad that I have so much clothes that I don't have to repeat an outfit for an entire month! And yet I am continuing to add to my wardrobe with my monthly creations. I could donate some clothes but I just have a really hard time parting with items that I had made and enjoyed wearing. It would be great to give some of this clothing to someone I know but unfortunately no one I know has my odd measurements. What should one do?

Sewing cures Negative Body Image?? A Rant

I have a young daughter so I'm always interested in studies about mental and physical health of young girls and young women in our society. Of course, we hear about negative body image and eating disorders amongst young women (and young men too now) frequently which concerns me a great deal. However, this past week I also read somewhere (sorry can't find the article anymore) that Sewing one's clothes had helped some young women change their negative feelings about their bodies.

I totally agree with that article, especially for someone like me with a very unusual body shape. If I had to buy all clothes from the stores and not know how to sew or alter these RTW clothes, I would be very depressed as well I think. In truth, the main reason I started sewing for myself years ago was that I could never find anything from the stores that fit properly, and that I always had to make lots of alterations on those RTW clothes myself.

Now that I wear mostly self-made clothes, I feel more comfortable and more confident than when I relied only on RTW clothes. How liberating is it to be able to custom make something just for my body? This applies even more to items like fitted jeans and swimwear. How many times did I hear my female friends tell me how depressed they got after going on a jeans or swimwear shopping trip? Of course, the ability to create something wearable also gives me great satisfaction and is extremely therapeutic for me.

My daughter is now old enough to understand that I make my own clothes and I make clothes for her as well. When she sees something in the stores or a picture in a book/magazines, she doesn't ask me to go to the store to buy it. Instead she asks me to make one for her. I hope that when she is a bit older, I can instill in her the love of sewing, the love of creating one's own unique garments. And most important of all, she doesn't need RTW stores/designer to make her feel bad about her body because the RTW clothes don't fit her properly. I want her to know that her body is fine the way it is; it's just the RTW clothes are of the wrong fit and poorly made.

My son still doesn't care about fashion much. He is happy with my creations for him. Once in a while he would ask me to add a simple applique (e.g. a number, a letter, etc) to his t-shirts, or make a bag for him with Thomas the Tank Engine on it. But most of the time he doesn't really care much about his clothing. I hope to teach him how to sew as well (he loves all kind of machines) in the next  year or so and see how he gets on.

No ideas for July MAGAM Project - A Rant

Once in a while I get into these periods of a sewist's block - similar to a writer's block. I can't decide what to sew next because nothing seems really 'inspirational' right now. After all the work of making that wedding dress, all the excitement and inspiration seem to have dried up. To be frank, I HAVE MADE EVERY GARMENT I NEED ALREADY. I have made more than I really need. There are dresses/jackets/pants/hats/skirts/shorts, etc that have been sitting in my closet that had been worn only a couple times. Those items are very low in terms of their Cost per Wear which I'm not happy about. There are special occasion dresses that had only been worn once!

As for my kids, they have lots of gently used hand-me-down clothes. It would be wasteful for me to make more clothes for them since they outgrow their clothes so quickly. Besides, my daughter is super picky and only wears a fraction of the clothes I made her.

My hubby also has a lot of clothes. In fact, he just dumped a whole pile of clothes from his closet to my Refashioning pile because he didn't need them. My mom did exactly the same thing last month.

However, I really NEED to make new things. It gives me joy, put a little excitement in my life, gives me something to look forward to, nourishes my soul, works my brain, etc. So I tried to find ideas from the articles in my Threads magazines. In the latest issue, a few articles caught my eye: Bra Making (haven't tried that yet), dying fabric with ice (that's interested - something new to learn), using salvage as trims (I did that when I made bags but haven't tried that on garments yet). Bra making is definitely a skill I want to acquire but I already have enough RTW bras right no. And bra making supplies seem to be expensive. So I guess I'll have to look in my scraps stash to see if I have enough interesting selvages to embellish a self-made garment. Otherwise I will buy some fabric dyes for experiments.

So I still don't know what I'm making for the July Make A Garment A Month project. The theme for July is 'Sew your Wish'. Unfortunately I think I fulfilled that already in my June Wedding dress garment!  There are lots of special occasion dresses that I 'wish' I can sew, but I have nowhere to wear them (no special occasions coming up!). Wouldn't that be a waste if I can't wear them? Since it has to be a garment, I can't just make a funky bag for a friend and submit that as a MAGAM entry. I'm really out of ideas for my July MAGAM project! Any ideas?

Pantone Autumn 2014 Colours

Summer has just arrived in the Northern Hemisphere but Pantone has already published their Fashion Colour Report for Fall 2014:

Source: Pantone.com

I like some of the stronger, jewel tone colours - Royal Blue, Aurora Red, Sangria, Bright Colbalt and Cypress - which usually work better for my colouring. The other colours don't work so well on me. I think I already have fabrics in Sangria, Bright Colbalt and Cypress in my stash. I don't think I want to think about sewing Autumn/Winter clothes just yet. It's hot and I don't want to be handling wool fabrics right now.

What do you think of the Pantone Fall Colours? Do the colour reports really influence your fabric choices when you are sewing?

Bridal fabric shopping - a rant

So I went to a couple of local fabric stores to see what kind of bridal fabrics they have. Well, not much! I'm indeed surprised. I thought that they would have lots of those. However, all I found was some itchy polyester lace, heavy crepe back satin and some cheapy polyester satin. They don't even have something simple like white dupioni silk! Does it mean I have to travel an hour to the city centre just to get some bridal fabric? What's going on with the fabric stores in my area? To be honest I have met less than 5 people in my area who sew, and most of them were quilters. Where are all the garment sewists? I guess I should not be surprised at the lack of selection for apparel fabrics in my neighbourhood.

My dear friend (around my age) who lives in a suburb of Montreal has 2 fabulous fabric warehouses in her neighbourhood. When I visit her, we always go to the fabric store because I just can't believe the selection, the quality and the prices of apparel fabrics they offer there. Does it mean there are more home sewists who sew garments in her city than mine?

Anyways, I am not going to visit my friend soon and I really need to finish this wedding dress for the photo shoot. I guess I'll just base my fabric choice on how photogenic it is than my personal comfort. Sigh.....

April is Spring Sewing Month!!

Is Spring finally here yet? In my part of the world, you just never know. Right now I'm still seeing snow out on the sidewalks. I remember one year when it was still snowing in the first week of May, and then the next week it was between 5-10 Celsius, and then the week after that it was in the 25+ C. So Spring was only for a few days between Winter snow and Summer heat!

Since Spring is so short here, I'll concentrate on making summer clothes and layering (jackets, cardigans, etc) on top in case it's not warm enough yet. But the colours will definitely be more cheerful than the usual black, grey, navy, dark greens that I wear all through Fall and Winter. And the fabrics will be lighter and airier. I can see polka dots, and florals too!

Here are just some of the spring/summer looking stuff in my fabric stash and my refashioning stash that I'm considering working on:

(from left clockwise: patterned silk, brocade, teal silk, red silk, white embroidered linen/cotton, red linen)

Do you have a long Spring season in your part of the world? Do you have a specific Spring Wardrobe? How is your Spring sewing coming along?

March is 'Travel Friendly' Month

This month's sewing/refashioning theme is Travel Friendly clothes/accessories. Our family travels by car frequently because we have close family/friends living about 700 km away. I'm used to packing the absolute essentials for myself from 4 days to 4 weeks. The kids' stuff takes a lot of space already and in the winter with all the extra gears and layerings, it's even worse. We have done car travel with the kids in every weather conditions imaginable (shower, pouring rain, gusty wind, snow, sleet, whiteout, freezing rain, etc). All our clothes needed to be travel friendly for all occasions - including outdoor sporting activities, and sadly including funerals which we unexpectedly had to attend a couple of years ago.

This month we will have to do the long car travel again. The packing is even more difficult when it's in-between seasons. I already have lots of self-made travel friendly clothes but I would like to add some variety to it. I will also be posting my Travel Packing for this trip later this month.

So have you sewn a Travel Wardrobe for different seasons? Are there any particular Travel Friendly garments that are musts for your trips?

Spring 2014 Pantone Colour Trends - Not for me!

(source: Pantone.com)

I just checked the Pantone Colour Trends for Spring 2014. It's all very pastel-like. I don't actually think I have any fabrics in my stash that are in these colours. I could do some fabric dying but these Pantone Spring colours actually don't look good on me. So I suppose I'll just ignore these 'colour trends' and look for some spring-like fabrics in my own stash to add to my 2014 spring/summer wardrobe.

My first 2 muslins - A Great learning experience and A Disappointment

I had never made proper muslins before. Almost all the clothes that I had made for myself so far have semi-fitted waists, which meant that I only had to fiddle with fitting the chest, back neckline and arms. I knew from making pants that I have a short front waist and high hips at the back. But I wouldn't have to worry so much about these areas if most of the non-pants clothes I have made were empire waist dresses/tops, loose fitting clothes.

I wanted to make a nice fitted woven sheath dress so  I decided to make proper muslins using the new McCall's 6887 (separate pattern pieces for A/B/C/D cups) and Simplicity 2404 (Amazing fit series with separate cup sizes as well). Both of these dresses are very fitted with fitted waists. It took a lot of adjustments, re cutting, resewing, etc. I don't have any cheap muslin fabrics so I just used my good linen blend and cotton twill fabrics.

It was such a learning experience! They were not wearable muslins, but I learned so much. For example, due to my high back hips, I had to make a sway back adjustment, even though I have a flat seat. Who knew? I thought sway back adjustments are for ladies with nicely rounded bottoms! And then I learned that I had to fold out the neckline because of my barrel upper chest. I carefully transferred all the adjustments onto the paper pattern. Most important of all, I also realized that with my rectangular body, it's best for me to wear slightly A-line dresses with undefined waistlines. That made the exercise of making muslins for the 2 patterns useless in the end.

Now that I had done all the' muslin-ings' and corrected the paper patterns, I'm not so keen on making the actual dresses anymore. It's almost like once the puzzle had been solved, the thrill of discovery was finished. Now I just want to do a muslin on another 'unexplored' pattern in my stash instead of sewing with that same pattern again! Isn't that just a waste of my good fabrics and my time? So although I learned a lot with the 'muslin-ings', I'm also a bit disappointed about it because I spent all this time and nothing to show for it! Oh well!

Blog-spiration! Another Amazing Blog to enjoy and learn from

Since I'm a self-taught sewist, I learned my basic sewing techniques from books in my local library (not much on sewing) and lots from the internet. There are many wonderful, generous Bloggers who are willing to share their experience, knowledge and techniques on the blogsphere. I'm soooo grateful for those bloggers. One of the blogs that I am obsessively reading lately is StudioFaro's 'Well-suited'. She is an amazingly knowledgeable lady from Australia who posts these intriguing pattern puzzles weekly for sewists to solve. There are many lovely patterns that I would love to learn how to adapt from my tried-and-true patterns that I have already tweaked for my body. She has truly inspired me to think more out of the box, and try to take bigger risks in modifying the designs of my TNT patterns.

Go check out her weekly pattern puzzle now! Thanks StudioFaro!