I will never clear my stash!

I keep adding to my stash faster than I can sew from it. I had really good intentions this year to attempt to keep my stash under control, but more keeps coming in than going out.  (I just smiled when reading this just before hitting publish because it sounds as though fabric is just sneaking into my home when I’m asleep, or something. Yeah, that’s what it is – it has nothing to do with me going to my local fabric shop far too often.)

I have sewn a couple of things.  The first one is yet another Burda 02-2010-104 (this is definitely the second-from-last of these because I am bored with them – I have one more already cut out and once that’s sewn I’m going to hunt for a new simple skirt pattern).  This is another of those cut down from a longer skirt.  I had finished this before my last post, but hadn’t yet taken photos.

It’s made from a fairly stiff cotton that I’ve lined so I can wear it with tights this winter.  I love black and red for the winter because it’s wintery, but cheery*.

I’ve also sewn one item from my last post.  I was hoping to sew myself a new dress for my birthday (Friday just gone), but by Thursday evening I hadn’t got around to it and then Mr RTS came home from work with some sort of bug (something stomach flu-ey) and although I’ve seem to have avoided catching whatever it was, there wasn’t much point in having something new to wear when we wouldn’t be leaving home all weekend.  (He seems much better now and will probably be going back to work for tomorrow (Monday) morning.)  I am really pleased with this dress and I think this pattern is now officially a TNT.  It’s Simplicity 2615.

The photos make it look very orange, and although it is very orangey in artificial light, it’s more of a very bright red in daylight.

I think the pattern twinning looks worse in the photos than it does when I try it on (and it’s probably one of those things that only other sewists would notice anyway).  The orange patches also seem to “pop” more in a flash photo than they do in real life. I did try to avoid pattern matching as much as possible but I didn’t have a lot of extra fabric to play with, and I couldn’t be bothered to fiddle around with single layer cutting for something I knew was going to be a casual, dossing around the flat, dress.  It may not be the most sophisticated of dresses, but it’s really comfortable and I know I’m going to wear it a lot.  I like, and wear, my previous version a lot, and I like this new one a lot more.  The previous version was supposed to just be a wearable muslin, and became a wear all the time dress, but I think it’s now going to be relegated.

I’m now considering making another one, possibly using the fabric that is my current blog header.

I’ve had this fabric for quite a few years, waiting for the right project, but I don’t think that a perfect project is going to turn up, and the above dress could possibly be a good one. (In case it isn’t obvious from the photo – this fabric is flat with a wavy, eye-watering print.)

Over the past few months I haven’t posted about every new fabric acquisition (because that would just be boring) but I bought a few fabrics over the past few weeks and want to mention some of them here because re-reading my own posts after a couple of months often brings projects to the top of the queue.

First up is a different colourway of the peacock print above.  I was really pleased when sewing my newest dress today to discover that this fabric handles really well, and holds a crease (somewhat), because it is a poly crepe-de-chine.  I was worried that it might be horribly slippy and/or shreddy and/or all the other things that can be horrible about polys, but this one isn’t at all bad.  This makes me happy because this colourway of the print also makes me happy.

I have been good about not buying random fabrics recently, and this one was bought with the intention to make this fabulous dressing gown/housecoat/robe or whatever you call it in your part of the world.

I was going to say this will be another dossing around the flat garment – but I think it’s more of a “swanning around the penthouse, darling” garment.  We do live on the top floor** so once I’ve made this I think I’m going to start referring to our flat as “The Penthouse” whenever I wear it.

The next one is a teal/black, tiny check, lightweight suiting.  The plan for this is a long-sleeved version of my TNT Simplicity 2888. The pattern does have a long-sleeved version that I seem to have managed to crop out of the photo! The only minor difficulty with this is that I seem to have perfected inserting an invisible zip, but this fabric is probably going to need a centred or lapped zip and I hate, hate, hate putting them in.

Next are two silly fabrics for a definite dossing around project.  The fabric for the top is a jersey

and a cotton fabric for PJ pants to go with the top.

And, yes, I am aware that they don’t really match – but they go together in a “Nope, I am not leaving the house today, and you can’t make me!” kind of way, which is the entire intention of the outfit, so there!

Last is a fabric for a dress that no-one in the world, except Anne from Pretty Grievances, seems to have made.  I don’t know if it’s the 80s vibe, or what, but it isn’t appearing on Pattern Review or anywhere else in the blogosphere. I loved the pattern as soon as I saw it (and before I’d seen Anne’s version, which is fabulous) but have been waiting for the right fabric.  I spotted this fabric a few weeks ago, but passed it up because I didn’t know what I’d make with it.  I was sorting out my patterns a week or so ago and when I came across my copy of Simplicity 1939 I knew that the fabric I had seen would be perfect for it.

It’s yet another poly crepe-de-chine. I intend to make the view in the photo on the pattern envelope, but without the strange black bits at the hips. There is a danger of this running into beer stein or muu-shroud territory, so I will muslin it first.  Of course, making a muslin means that this fabric could end up just increasing my stash.

I suppose as I’ve mentioned my stash more than once in this post I should post a proper update.  At the beginning of the year I had 250.25m.  I have sewn 65.15m (feels like I’ve sewn more but that’s what my notebook tells me), and my current stash stands at 365.90m which means I appear to have bought about 180m this year. My notebook tells me I have bought around 170m this year, but I’m not going to worry about a 10m discrepancy when I have too much fabric!

This week I am going to attempt to sew all the projects mentioned in my previous post, so that I can start cutting those mentioned in this post.  The dress I made today was probably the most complicated of all those projects (and it wasn’t really remotely complicated) so I have a fighting chance.  Wish me luck!

* hands up anyone who thought of a dwarf when they read that word. (If you did – you know what I’m talking about, if you didn’t – never mind.)

** of two floors 🙂

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