Anniversary outfit

I finally cleaned my sewing room. It took some doing and about half way through I really needed a nap. I had coffee instead. There's something about an organized space that just gets the creative juices flowing, which then leads to an unorganized space. Weird. 

I got out my patterns and fabrics for my new summer projects, even though the sky is terribly grey with low angry clouds, decidedly not summery. I have a vision in my head for this first outfit. A pencil skirt with a light flowy blouse. There's always a risk when you create; will the product look anything like what you imagined? Will it look good on you (or your couch, or bed etc) will it look better? When it does work I suppose the risk is what makes the reward so worth it. I'm hoping to wear this for my anniversary dinner, if all goes according to plan... The floral blouse fabric is from Robert Kaufman and is as light as a dream, holy smokes does it feel good. I stumbled upon a pattern that matches what I was imagining pretty close in a book I already had (huzza!) The Colette Sewing Handbook I love Colette's instructions, they are always easy to follow. Sometimes I think they're sizing is off, which can be really frustrating. The blouse will be fine and I'm hoping since I'm using knit for the skirt it will be more forgiving.

This second outfit I'm not as sure about. I bought this knit fabric online because I have a vision of several comfortable knit dresses in my closet for summer. I picked this particular fabric because it was 100% cotton (great for summer right?) and I loved the teal color. It is so heavy! Not at all what I expected. And, the fabric has snagged in a couple places when I pre washed it! It was not terribly expensive so I'm still going to use it and hope for the best. At the very least it will give me an idea if this dress pattern is worth making again. I hope it is because I prefer dresses and skirts over the way shorts look as long as it's comfortable. These patterns aren't cheap, either, so using it again is something I hope to do.

The Moneta dress pattern from Colette. A pattern made for knits
and comes with a bunch of collar options.

This brings me to my conundrum. How do you pick out clothing fabric? Cottons are easy, I work in the shop with the most fantastic cottons ever, but if you want something like knits or bottom weights the choices in stores are pretty slim. If you have tips I'd love to hear them. Especially for summer fabrics, primarily knits. I always thought cotton was the best for summertime but maybe there's better options?

Don't forget about our headband giveaway. All you have to do is enter a comment on this post to be entered to win. We'll choose a winner Monday.

I hope all your sewing plans are successful

Happy Sewing

Love,

Jessie and Sue.