Projects in the Works

A few days ago I took a trip to the local fabric store in my town. It is owned by a lovely lady named Ursula, who designs her own patternless clothes for herself and others. She's quite an inspiration. A lot of her clothes have an art noveau, kind of bohemian flair to them, and she's quite a help to me with fabric coordination for my abominable fashion sense.


She told me to stop in last time I saw her at school for parent pickup. She said she had some new fabrics and thought I might be interested in them. Yesterday (or maybe it was the day before--just can't remember!) I made the trip in and bought my goodies. So here are some of them with my current projects.


First one up. My Simplicity duro style top. It will be sleeveless and further altered (again) from the original design. Here is my sketch on paper of the pattern on the left of my altered pattern with a narrower midriff band, and on the right is my third redesign with a scoop neck with gathers (if necessary--depends on if I'm getting any gaping in the scoop neck style), an even narrower band than before, and gathers below the band in the front and back.



Here are the fabrics for the top. The solid fabric will be the midriff band, and the print is the bodice, of course. The pattern has been retraced and redesigned/altered for my new style.


Second top: The ever popular 2008 style with the circular neckband and front/back gathers. The neckband will be the solid, the bodice the print. I'm using a knit for this pattern instead of a woven, and I don't use a different size either. However, I will make a muslin to make sure there is no gaping before cutting into my intended fabric. The pattern has been traced and cut, but not altered as of yet. ETA--and that neckband! It has to be wider. I was looking at some Anthropologie tops for ideas and the neckband on this top is too narrow. I just widened it and plan to embellish it, some how, some way ;) .

Last up, is my summer dress of Butterick 4183. It will be the style on the right. I will use a straight 14 and remove the excess at the top edge in the front via a dart transfer. I've made this dress before and a size 14 is perfect with a little taking in of the seams here and there, but the gape on the top front edge is 2" (My upper chest is about a size 10). I can pinch 1" (1/2" dart) out of each side in the front/side edge. No touching of the back--it fits just about perfect. Why do I use the 14 instead of my base size 12? Because in this style, the only alteration I'll need is the dart transfer to remove the excess gape. How easy is that! :) Very!!! I was thinking of the Textile Studio Milan dress, but I haven't made it before. Then I'd have to do a muslin and...well I just don't feel like doing a muslin and am going the easy route with a previously used pattern.

So there you go! Those are my plans. And I'm pretty excited about them.