Mix and match in red

In my first post of the new year I mentioned I wanted to sew more clothes that mix and match. With the first three garments this year I made a good start. First a pencil skirt in a boucle fabric with a lot of colors in it: from off-white to a deep warm red and a lot ot shades in between. A good basic to start with. The fabric I bought as a remnant piece at a market a few years ago.  It’s strange how the weave suggests an off-grain in the photos. It is cut on the grain (taking out a thread at the start of the fabric, cutting along that cut out thread and then making sure the pattern pieces are on the grain before cutting).

The second one is a top to go with it, McCall’s 6513 that I made last year when the pattern was recommended to me by one of my sewing friends.

And last the Sienna jacket from StyleArc. Too big in the back and I did take in the center seam and re-cut the collar. I MUST learn to use a size or two smaller and do a fba, OR make my own pattern. I quite like it though. It’s made from a thicker wool jersey (the pattern calls for a woven fabric). I thought it might work with this fabric and it does, making it dressier than a cardigan but just as comfortable and warm. This pattern will be used again after I altered the back.

 

  

I have a lovely jacquard weave fabric for a skirt in the same color as the McCall’s shirt. That’s one of the next projects. After the dress that is. Thank you all for your ‘votes’ on this. The dress is cut and I’m off to work on it this afternoon.

 

Wardrobe storyboard

In the last couple of days I gradually made a storyboard for my wardrobe plan. I did not intend to do so, as it takes a lot of time. But doing it bit by bit (and I'm behind my computer many hours a day anyhow) made it word, and it was a lot of fun. Plus I liked to think about what to do with all these fabrics.


The colors for the bottoms are not very good, this is the best result I could make of my pictures. Some patterns are new, some I have sewn before. The Ottobre top is finished too. That makes 3 tops finished.
Now to make one or two pants first. Today I'll trace the bottom right one, from the September Burda issue.

A (almost) 2 hour top

This is one of the knit fabrics I bought Tuesday. The colors of this fabric go with the bottom colors of my wardrobe plan, and with some other clothes I made earlier. It has a special layer with shine, which makes it a bit more special.
As we have a birthday party this weekend for our daughter who became 14 this week (time flies) I wanted to make a top of this right away, with no questions on fit. After considering the Ottobre tee and consulting DD, I decided on the Jalie wrap top 2449, which I made before and like to wear so much. (My review for this top here).

The top is very quick to make, from cutting to finishing it took me 2 hours. Actually a little bit more, as the topstitching was a problem, with very many skipping stitches. In the end I used a Schmetz stretch needle and tissue paper to cover the fabric. This worked reasonably well, but I lost stretch in the hem. Serging the top was no problem at all with this fabric.












The end result, with two combinations from my closet (the linen pants I wore whole day, thus the wrinkles).

Wardrobe / Stash

Last week I wrote about making a wardrobe from my stash. My stash is not very large (I think) and most fabrics I've bought the last two years, untill this summer.
I will not make a complete swap-board with patterns and line drawings to go with the fabrics, this takes just too much time, plus there are some gaps still in my plans. I'll just write about the projects as time goes by.

These are the fabrics I have in my stash for tops that can be combined with at least two of the fabrics for the bottoms.



These are the fabrics for pants or skirts:


As you can see the bottoms are all rather plain. Just basic stuff really. In general I prefer that, so that I can easily make combinations.

To show I do not only do brown/grey and blue, another picture of more colorful fabrics for some other (non related) garments.
The green for example is meant for a favorite winter combination: black pants and black top, with a colourful jacket to go with that.

Wardrobe fabrics 1

This is the first set of fabrics that will be part of my wardrobe plan. My wardrobe plan consists of 6 tops and 6 bottoms. The tops will match with 2 or 3 of the bottoms. Besides the brown/grey there will be a lot of blue.
There's no specific timing for this project, at this moment it is unsure how much sewing time I'll have next weeks, work is taking more time after a quiet summer season.

The striped fabric is the one I decided to use for my Marfy blouse.
On the left are 3 fabrics for bottoms.
1. A skirt with godets fromt the grey/brown fabric on top (Knip Mode pattern or Ottobre). This is a fabric of unknow quality (bought together with the stripes in a sale).
2. Another skirt, probably Butterick B4859, view B, fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics
3. Dark brown pants, fabric bought in a store here. I think I will use the pattern for my white linen pants from Burda, made earlier this year, but omitting the welt band.

2.