nemo sewing & frustrations with finding style

So up here in Portland, Maine we've broken the all time snow fall record in this last 48 hours with 31+ inches. Add in high winds, white-out conditions, and snow drifts completely cover my car, it means a couple days inside to sew!

I had been working on a slouchy day dress in a large brown and white floral, a really pretty print, but in the horrible thin, silky, super-synthetic fabric. The construction, while a pain in the but, was actually coming out really well, but once I was able to try it on I decided the style didn't look good on me and have set it aside. Maybe I'll revisit it at a later date and find a way to make it work for me.

That is one frustrating part about sewing right now; I've had a little bit or recent weight gain that's not going away (and on a 5' frame it doesn't take much to change size and shape!), and I just don't know what looks good right now! Styles that use to look good before now don't. And I may look at the picture on the patter and think it would look good, but can't try it on until I've already put so much work into it! Do others have this issue? I need to find some TNT patters and stick to them, but it's just going to be a process until I find them.

Anyway, after that disappointment needed a quick and easy project and decided to try out the free cami & underwear pattern at "So Zo... What do you know?". Love it! Super easy and cute, and easy to fit to my shrimp-y torso! Know I need to find a good source for lingerie elastic so I can make tons of them! Will be even easier if I make them at my Mom's with her serger.

I found this great fabric in the clearance section of Joann Fabric. It's thick and silky, shiny on the inside and matte on the outside with a great black lace pattern print. I wish I had bought more! I had narrowed it down to a few options from my pattern stash:



Yeah, I've recently developed a pattern stash problem... that's another blog post. The shirt pattern is Simplicity, found at Marden's Surplus and Salvage. I couldn't find a pattern number, or any reference to this pattern on the web. Looking at these patterns I realized that they all are designed to be worn at the waist. As mentioned before, I WISH I could rock that look, but I can't. The solution: cut the pattern a size bigger so it sits lower, except I was already cutting the largest size in the envelope for some of these. I bought the size I measure at, especially since I tend to size down because of extra ease built into the pattern. Not going to work in this case, and I didn't buy the next size up. Maybe someday I'll embrace the high waist and can make these patterns.

I only had enough fabric for one garment  and decided on a skirt. That narrowed me down to Simplicity 2003 and New Look 6969, because they had the larger sizes in the same envelope. After draping the fabric a little decided that the print was too busy with the extra pleating of the New Look pattern, which I will so make at some point in another fabric! Plus, I remember seeing an fuller A-line skirt on the subway in New York in a similar lace pattern and thinking it was awesome.

my red cami a lace-print skirt

I still need to hem, but other than that here it is! I got to practice my favorite french seams for a neat finish.  I wish I had enough fabric to make a slim skirt, too. And it I want to, there is enough fabric hear to cut it down to a slim skirt later if I change my mind about this silhouette!