A Near Miss

So far I'm holding fast to my no buying fabric vow. It's been almost a week and payday has come and gone and no new fabric. I'm so proud. There was one close call, though.

While digging around in my stash, I came across a gorgeous blue linen I bought last spring to make a anorak style jacket. (On a side note, the first thing I did after purchasing the linen was to throw it in the washer, give it a good soaking in warm water, then toss it in the dryer. The second thing I did was read the care label. Dry Clean Only. It came out of the dryer practically the same as when it went in. It was soft to begin with, so nothing lost there and now I know I can accidentally wash this fabric.)

I wanted to line the jacket in white and green stripes, which I thought would look very sporty. I found exactly what I wanted online and figured that lining was a legal purchase, since I already owned the main fabric. However...I hate paying shipping, which I would have to do if I didn't purchase a certain dollar amount on this site. Therefore, it only made sense to buy more fabric in order to save money...the exact thinking that makes the stash grow.

I'm not certain what exactly brought me to my senses, other than the knowledge that I was blatantly breaking the vow I'd made to myself less than a week ago and justifying it by refusing to pay $8 shipping. I steeled myself and slowly backed away from the lining fabric. There will be other perfect linings...and besides that, this jacket pattern doesn't have a lining. In the long run I'm probably saving myself some heartache by not lining it.

But green and white stripes would be so cool.

Attacking the Stash--Unfinished Object #1--Wool Jacket

Last winter I bought some blue tweed(ish) wool melton to make a man's vest and when
it arrived I realized that no man needed a vest made of fabric that was so clearly meant for me.

I used McCall's 6441, a Palmer and Pletsch pattern because (a) I loved the lines and (b) I could squeeze the jacket out of it. Fortunately I'd bought extra "vest" fabric.





I didn't do anything fancy, except to put in a back stay made of cotton batiste, since wool tends to give.

I used hair canvas interfacing, which gave the front nice body.

Someone tried to add a little extra hair when I wasn't looking.

I'm always concerned about zipper installation--perhaps because of my early sewing days when zippers went in and came out at least once before they stayed in the garment. This time I saved myself some heartache and actually basted the zipper in by hand before doing anything else.

The zipper tape is then turned to the inside sandwiched between the jacket front and the facing and stitched with a zipper foot. It worked beautifully.

Here you can see a glimpse of the charmeuse lining--a remnant from my son's Dicken's frock coat lining.

I put in 1/2 inch shoulder pads and finished the jacket in all of a day and a half. It kind of makes me wonder why I didn't just muscle through a year ago when I first cut it out, but upon reflection, it might have been the 80 degree days.

A Little Unfinished Business

I am determined to make a dent in my pattern and fabric stashes this year. When I moved to my "new" house a few decades ago, I brought with me seventeen boxes of fabric. (You don't want to know how many patterns I have. Truly.) It's very hard to stash that much fabric in a small house, so I loved having more room for it. However....I didn't do a lot with the fabric in those seventeen boxes. I bought new fabric for new patterns.

Finally a few years ago, I donated all of the quilting fabric to charity. I don't quilt, but quilting fabric made cute kids clothes and when I found the stuff on sale, I stocked up. My kids were in high school when I finally donated, and no longer fancied clothing sporting cowboys and hearts and the like. That left me with three boxes of usable apparel fabric and one box of scraps from clothing I'd made for the kids, just in case one of them took up quilting in the future.

Now my stash is under control, right? Nope. The stash is once again growing,. And growing. I've cut back on pattern and fabric purchases, but I'm still losing ground, so in the name of reducing stash stress, which in turn will allow me to indulge in more patterns and fabric without guilt, I'm making an effort to sew what I have first. And I have a lot.

My first projects were two UFOs (unfinished objects)--a melton wool jacket and a challis summer
dress. I cut the jacket out last winter, then spring sprung and I lost interest. I cut the dress out two years ago, but kept pushing it back to the end of the production line. Both are now completed (hurrah!). I'll post a few details in a day or two, but right now I have a novella calling to me, and since writing is helping to pay for my fabric habit, I'd best get to it.