miss bossy patterns

Oh Dear..

Yup, oh dear! No posts in March because I haven’t really got anything to show you. I should have known not to do the Bossy thing – I never did like people telling me what to do! Even though the chosen projects were ones I wanted to do anyway, I hit small snags & immediately found something else to do instead. Bad, bad, bad!

But, I didn’t do nothing. I drafted the jacket front & back & made a toile, leaving the sleeves out for the time being. Daughter No2 wasn’t really feeling the huge collar, and felt the shape at the front was “weird”. Now you see why I didn’t really go too much further? Anyway, I pinned the toile into more of a suitable shape & length for her, but then she had issues with my chosen fabric. She just couldn’t see herself wearing that houndstooth. So I’m stuck – the jacket pattern could be made to work, but now I need a different fabric.

Husband has proved difficult too. Even though I’ve promised him shirts for years now he’s “in no rush”. So no progress on that front.

I have made the pattern for Daughter No1’s Grecian inspired dress and toiled it too, but I won’t get to fit it on her until next weekend when she’s home for University for the Easter holidays.

That leaves me with nothing to show – not a bit. But… I have some linen that I bought at the NEC last week that was supposed to be for a vintage bolero to go with a dress I’m making. However, I made a miscalculation when translating yards and inches into metres and bought too little – flipping annoying! It just may be though, that it will be enough to squeeze another Bellatrix out of! I’m off to try it now, see you on the other side! 😉

Me & my sewing machine, partners in crime!

I love this print, found the image on Pinterest initially & tried to find it on Etsy, but so far have been unable to find the maker. If someone can trace images better than I can, please let me know who the owner is of this, I’d love to buy a print for my sewing space!

Result of Being Bossed Around

It’s official – the most votes in my poll went to……. Drum Roll

The 1935 jacket for Daughter No2!! Husband’s shirt lost by a mere 4 votes! I guess that means I have some work to start getting on with! But – I will also be making the patterns, and garments, for the other offerings. In order, I will make a shirt for Husband, then the maxi dress for Daughter No1 and the wiggle skirt for Daughter No2. They will all get done, in that order, but not necessarily all in March. It all depends on how long this all takes me!

I must just warn you that the jacket might not come out exactly as the picture. This is because Daughter No2 likes to have some sort of input into what she ends up having to wear, & she has some ideas on changing some of the style lines. But stay tuned, it’s going to be a bumpy ride! 🙂

I am really looking forward to the results of all the other polls, and getting to see everyone’s finished garments. March is going to be good for sewing!

Better a little late than never, right?? So, as you may have guessed from the profusion of blogs with polls asking you to choose the next project, the Monthly Stitch has decreed that you, the reader, should choose the project to make in March. Apparently we all have a huge stash of un-used patterns, as well as fabric. Moi, never.. ;p Now I’m not sure how I would ever have narrowed down my 250 vintage patterns & 21 years of untraced Burda magazine patterns to just three, so I have come up with a little twist.

There are four pattern cutting projects I really want to get on with, but procrastination is hampering the start. I want you guys to decide which I start with. I might, just might, use the poll results to rank the order of all 4 projects and do them all, but lets see how we go, shall we? They certainly won’t all be done in March!! 🙂

First up is a shirt for Husband. Poor, long suffering husband. I promised 2 years ago to make a shirt, a few, actually. I even bought 3 pieces of fabulous stripe ex-Paul Smith fabric to do so. I made a shirt block & even toiled it, then we put the house on the market & do you think I can find that stuff?? Oh, I have the fabric – phew! But the paperwork has completely vanished.

Using the last of an Amazon gift voucher, I bought “Pattern Cutting for Menswear” by Gareth Kershaw. I thought I might try it as an alternative to Winnifred Aldrich’s dated styles. It was for research purposes, you know. So that’s offering No1, a shirt for Husband from either of these fabrics, pattern cut from that book.

ex-Paul Smith stripe cottons for Husband's shirt — ex-Paul Smith stripe cottons for Husband’s shirt

Daughter No1 came for a fleeting visit this weekend, and left with a request for some maxi-dresses for the summer. She & Boyfriend are off to somewhere much sunnier & warmer than the UK for a couple of weeks in June, & she’d love something new. I have a dress block all fitted for her and the most gorgeous blue viscose fabric with a large off-white flower print that would make a fabulous drape-y maxi-dress.

Caramel stretch twill for daughter No2, Blue print viscose for Daughter No1

I did a quick sketch, a cross-over front with soft gathers into a fitted midriff piece. Pleated skirt to fall to her ankles. She has trouble buying maxi-dresses, they’re all far too long for her, poor little thing! Anyway, I think this is going to look stunning on the little monster. That’s offering no2.

Offering no3 is a skirt I sketched for Daughter No2 last year, I bought the fabric & everything, but never quite got round to getting the pattern drafted. Bad Mom! The fabric can be seen in the photo of Daughter No1’s print viscose. It’s the most amazing caramel colour stretch twill. She wants a wiggle skirt with pleated detail on a front seam, the sketch in the centre.

There are to be two tabs going opposite ways, fixed with buttons, a simple waistband and possibly a kick-pleat in the back seam.

I did say I had four options, and you would think that the next one would be for me, wouldn’t you?? But I am saving mine for next month… Instead I have a jacket that I drooled over the sketch of so much that I decided to make a pattern (and the jacket) for daughter No2 for Xmas. Needless to say, that didn’t happen! So, it’s on the list for March, offering no4. Here’s the picture again.

Fabulous, no??? I found the image on the New York Public Library’s Digital site. Proceed with caution people, you can get totally lost in there, browsing the most amazing images! So, for the jacket I have a cute grey & black houndstooth wool which may or may not have contrast plain black collar & lapels. It will need a vibrant lining though, so that will have to be purchased. Otherwise the fabrics will come from the stash!

That photo makes the houndstooth look more like grey & grey, but it’s just the lighting. So those are your four options. All are patterns I want to make, none have been used by me before (’cause they don’t exist yet!).

So which one am I to start with? It’s in your hands. You have until Friday, midnight!!

ps, be kind… 😉