Category: stash

I have managed to unpack all the fabric I purchased in San Francisco and integrate it into my fabric collection.  At the same time I managed to move the summer fabrics out of the active stash and back into the collection, keeping some of the new fabrics, as well as some old friends, for more imminent projects.

One of the projects that has remained in my mind revolves around the green challis skirt made last year and reconfigured this year.    I still have the wool which was intended to be a coordinating jacket:

I believe the new silk band on the skirt really makes the reds in this skirt pop and the combination works even better with the jacket fabric now than it did before.  I am really looking forward to making up this fabric this season.

This second photo is the silk that I had put aside for the lining of the jacket.  You see that it also picks up colors in the skirt, but does not quite coordinate with the silk band on the skirt.  I may still use it as a lining, or I may put it aside.  I need to do a little playing around with fabrics and styles yet before I make a final determination on this. 

I do know that I want more of the silk charmeuse that I used on the skirt, and that I do not have enough.  I sent a swatch off to Britex last week and just received a call, after I started writing this post, that they do indeed still have that silk in stock and will be sending me some more.  I am thinking of using the silk to make a coordinating blouse to wear with the skirt, or even perhaps to use the silk as a part of the jacket as well, tying all the pieces together. 

Once I had the skirt and jacket fabric together and started thinking further about using the silk, I immediately recalled this Marfy jacket:

At the moment I am thinking of using the tweed for the jacket with the silk charmeuse for the trim.  I don’t know if I will add an additional trim or not.  I had originally planned to make a longer jacket with the fabric and if I do not, I may have enough extra to make a simple pencil skirt as well.

AT first I wondered if this jacket would be a little too precious with this skirt, but I am inclining more and more toward going ahead every day.  I will have to make a muslin first, which will help me also check out the proportions and styles to see how they go together. 

Strangely enough I must have had wines and pinks on the brain because a fair number of the fabrics I purchased at Stone Mountain and Daughter also coordinate with the rose tones in the green skirt:

and I seem to have developed an entire rose/wine/plum/green collection for fall.

Most of the fabrics are fairly light-to-mid weight; cottons, rayons, and very light weight wools.  I am still anticipating that it will be a while before I will need to break out the heavy duty woolens.

In that vein I also put together a collection centered on blues, grays, and blue-teals.  This one is basically inspired by several Japanese cottons and then evolved from there:

As you see, there is plenty to keep me busy. 

And I still have knits on the cutting table that I did not finish this summer.  They are mostly long-sleeved tops so they still have plenty of wear opportunities this year.  So it is probably time to stop fondling the fabric and start cutting and sewing.

I am still unpacking and putting away from my trip to San Francisco.

Today I unwrapped the trims I purchased at Aida Dalati.  I did purchase two fabrics, one that is for fall, and one that I am holding until spring as I came home to find that it perfectly matched a piece of Zegna silk I got from Michael’s . 

But it is the trims about which I am obsessing at the moment.

This trim is hand sewn amethyst nuggets.  I know exactly what I want to make, but I am not sure if I have the fabric yet (I haven’t looked).  Something this fabulous needs to be a simple trim on a simple garment.  I purchased something very close at Stone Mountain and Daughter, but it is not quite perfect, which is OK, because I was really not thinking of that fabric when I purchased the trim.

I have faith that the perfect thing will turn up.  It always does.

I also purchased a piece of this simple ribbon. I see it as a decorative accent on the front of a simple silk charmeuse or crepe top.  I have gray 4 ply in the perfect color, and I know I can get more of that fabric or get the same color in charmeuse or other silk fabrications from Mood fabrics.  I just need to narrow down my choices, and reduce the clutter of ideas that are currently filling my mind. Perhaps something with layered silks, or satin organza. 

I am always scattered like this, with too many ideas until I finally settle down and the perfect thing falls out of the mix.

Last but not least (actually the second thing I found after  the amethysts above) are these fabulous buttons:

They are cubes and you sew them on at the corner, so they look like dice.  I am having second thoughts.  I believed I knew what I wanted but then I started second guessing myself.  Perhaps I want to use them to make a jacket inspired by this one:

But then, if I do, I need twice as many buttons.  Perhaps I need to think about this.  Perhaps I need to call Aida Dalati and see if there are any buttons left.  Perhaps I was a mistake to post this photo of these fabulous buttons, assuming the ladies who participated in Power Sewing the week after me haven’t already scarfed them all up.

Yes, the box of fabric arrived from Kashi yesterday evening.

It took me all day to get around to taking the photographs.

The Fuschia rayon lycra jersey was the first fabric I chose.  There were other things I kind of had my eye on, but that was the first fabric I found that really screamed "buy me".  So I did.  I bought lots, thinking something along the lines of top and skirt, or sweater set (and skirt) or dress….vague ideas at best so I needed to be prepared.

Then I was talking to Carolyn and my eye fell on this wonderful cotton voile print.  I am talking about the orange fabric in the middle here.  This is not a print in which one can get lost in a crowd.  I immediately thought of a skirt to wear with the knit.  The pinks are the same.  I immediately thought of something floaty, with multiple layers of fabrics, and perhaps asymmetrical pieces.  Then as I was watching the others shop, I saw someone pick up a really fabulous piece of deep pumpkin/bunt orange silk.  I remember charmeuse, but it might not have been. I was sorely tempted and my idea started to change.  But I did not buy the orange silk because I suddenly remembered that I might have something similar sitting at home, and I did.  That lovely piece of orange silk twill will become the lining for the skirt that will be made of the orange cotton.

Kashi showed us some fabulous silk prints that had just come in and this one really stuck in my mind.  He had it in black, and this wonderful bright navy blue.  Now I don’t do particularly well with classic navy, but this one is wonderful.  So I wandered around thinking about it.  As usual with a successful purchase I had an image forming in my mind of a dress, but a printed dress with a coordinating, or contrasting for that matter, print as well.  But I didn’t find anything.    I decided to buy the silk print anyway and just after he cut it, someone came in and bought some of this perfect navy blue silk, the perfect blue to go wtih my charmeuse.  It was not what I was originally thinking but immediately my thoughts began to transform themselves.  I took some of the solid as well.

Remember that burnt orange charmeuse?  Kashi had

it in purple too.  Purple is a much better color.  This one is actually deeper than it appears in the photo, purples seem to be hard to photograph. 

Then I pretty much sat down and let others shop and tally up their purchases.  I was done cutting and just needed time to get my order written up, but I was happy to look at what everyone was buying and ooh and ah their purchases.  Then, just as we were writing my order up, I saw another silk.  Truthfully I had seen it before, but it hadn’t clicked with me until right then. 

I am sure you know what I am talking about; you see a fabric you love but you can’t for the life of you figure out what you would do with it.  There had been another fabric like that at Kashi’s, a beautiful deep dusty plum printed eyelet, but I passed on that one.  This next fabric spoke to me but I couldn’t quite understand its language.  And then it occurred to me:  bias.  Cut the fabric on the bias.

Again I am thinking about a dress, but I don’t have specific patterns in mind.  I never commit myself to anything until the fabric is cut.  dreams are free after all and I reserve the right to change my mind.

I have been playing with fabric.  I have been re-arranging, sorting, storing and generally thinking and dreaming about fabric and projects.  Newly purchased fabrics have been cataloged and filed in the collection and a few old favorites have been brought out to perhaps become new summer garments.  At the very least they will inspire summer garments.

This is a stack of fabric that I have added to one of the cubbies in the sewing room.  They come from all periods of my collection.  The aqua fabric near the middle is the Armani fabric I posted after shopping at Leandro Fabrics a few months ago.

What these fabrics have in common is that they have companion pieces that are dancing around my head as potential outfits.  Some of these plans are quite nascent now, for example the armani jacket is still vague in my head although I do still intend to get to it this summer, probably a little later when things have calmed down a bit, perhaps as late as July after visits from step-children and others are past.

Some of these projects might be completed sooner, but none of them are on the immediate production list.  I still seem to have a few stacks of knits I want to work through, and perhaps a few skirts.  At this point simple projects seem to remain best, and I am loathe to start some epic project only to have it delayed until the point that it just becomes another UFO.

A few surprises have materialized as well.  As I put fabric away in one of the fabric closets, this set of buttons fell out:

Buttons are not supposed to be stored with fabric. In fact I wonder what I was thinking because I would never use these buttons on the fabric with which they were cohabiting.  They are awfully pretty though, large, heavy metal with rhinestones.  Somehow they don’t say summer to me so they will be put aside, with the rest of the gold buttons, until the pefect garment comes along.

The package arrived from Metro Textiles late yesterday afternoon. The box was rather large and DH rolled his eyeballs; I could see he was about to open his mouth as well when I sent him a rather withering glance. He wanted to see what was in the box, but the price was that he had to check his tongue at the door.

Once I had gotten home Wednesday night, and throughout Thursday, the thrill of the hunt had worn off a little bit and I feared that I had been over-exuberant.  Well, I was, but I love all the fabrics I purchased.  I really indulged in cottons, especially cotton eyelets, but I have no regrets.    Although I really wanted brown eyelet, and didn’t buy it, I am pretty happy with the eyelets I did get.

But first, the non-summer fabric.  This is a really beautiful Teal/Gray tweed with the embroidery along one edge of the fabric.  It is perfect for  a simple straight skirt, one which is sure to get lots of wear.  Although it is not a summer fabric, there is still plenty of time to wear it this spring before it has to be put away for next fall.

But then, on to the cottons:

This is a beautiful lightweight cotton print that I just love.  I am not sure what it will be yet.  It may be a bit "much" for a dress for me but it would certainly make a lovely blouse or skirt.   

For me, this was my most daring purchase.  This is not so much because it is bright, which it surely is, I love color, but at first I was uncertain about the combinations of the yellows and yellow-olives, but it seems to look really good.  I also love prints, but this is not the kind of print I usually wear, it is almost too bright — unlike the other prints I purchased, which you can see below.  When I opened the box this print still brought a big smile to my face, and I couldn’t wait to pull it out, a sure sign that it is not a mistake.  I think I just have to look at it a bit, have it floating around the edges of the sewing room, until I decide what it wants to become.

These two prints are eyelet fabrics and I love both of them.  The top one was love at first sight and the second one had to grow on me a little bit.  Both are destined to become summer dresses.

I might have purchased too much yardage, especially of the lower one, but as I am not sure what kind of dress I am making, and the price was very good, I am not worried.  When I first think "summer dress" I tend to think of sundresses with long full skirts, the kind of thing that tends to eat yardage.  I love the coolness, and the romantic way I feel in a long soft skirt.  And I don’t fret as much about my pale legs in long skirts with sandals.  But in recent years I have made more close fitting summer dresses as well, often shorter, only about knee length.  For that kind of dress there is too much yardage.  We shall see, what materializes but for me these exuberant prints still call for exuberant dresses, not calm, cool, tailored dresses.

Then I got this wonderful lightweight polka-dot cotton with the embroidered border!  It looked black to me, but Kashi said it was navy.  At home it still looks black, and if it is navy it is such a dark dark navy that it is virtually indistinguishable from black; but then there are so many blacks out there it hardly matters.

For me this screams feminine floaty dress and so it shall be.  I have the perfect shoes already.

Of course there were more eyelets.  The black and blue one is going to become a skirt, probably from that same pleated skirt pattern I used several times last summer.  The white one will be a blouse of some sort.

Both of these fabrics are destined to be summer skirts as well. The darker blue fabric with the cut out embroidery will be a pleated, knee length skirt, probably again using the Simplicity 4186 pattern that I used last summer, but perhaps I will try something else.

The fabric on the right is actually a bit more muted than it appears in this photo.  It consists of strips of different fabrics and textures in the same color, including some embroidery and some lace.  This will be cut on the bias and made into a longer skirt. I am planning along the lines of this skirt from the new March 2007 Burda WOF:

I think I have enough yardage, although I guessed when I was at the store as I hadn’t really "planned" on looking for something for this skirt.   If this doesn’t quite work, I have no fears about finding something that will work, and will yield a skirt with a similar feel.

All in all, although I have a lot of fabric here, I am not feeling particularly guilty about these two fabric buying excursions , to Leandro and Metro Textile.  I had been feeling the need to sew new pretty clothes and there is little that fits right now (except evening clothes in black) aside from my basic day-to-day chinos and a few tees. Even including the Leandro fabrics, I have spent less than I usually spend on spring clothing shopping and I haven’t shopped for any clothes this spring.  I might yet, but I am not very inclined to do so, even though I have never wanted to be a person who sewed ALL my clothes.  And although it is true that I could have probably shopped my stash for a good bit of my spring sewing, I am still excited about these new spring treats, and I know, having looked already, that there were no eyelets hiding in the stash.

When I get these things made up I will have a lovely spring/summer wardrobe.  And if I don’t get them made up I will have nothing to wear.  I don’t intend to put these away in the fabric closet.  They are sitting right out on the end of my cutting table, inspiring me to make them up.  They won’t all sit there for very long.

I know I told you that I went shopping at Leandro fabrics when I was in Tucson a couple of weeks ago.  I also promised to show off my purchases when they arrived.  Well, they arrived last week, but I was mired in the vicissitudes of life and did not get a chance to open the box and fondle the fabrics until today.

They were worth the wait.

You will notice that I was obviously in a blue frame of mind.  I don’t usually plan to buy fabric in a particular color, but it seems that as I wander through a fabric store on any given day, I tend to be drawn to one color or one color palette.   That Monday at Leandro Fabrics, the theme was obviously blue.

Both of these fabrics are by Armani.  The top fabric is a very soft drapey chenile made from a combination of fibers.  This fabric is on their website but the true color, at least on my monitor, is closer to this photo than the one shown over at Leandro’s place.

I had originally gotten a swatch of this fabric two years ago, and I loved it then but couldn’t think of what to do with it.  I wavered back and forth and ultimately did not buy it.  Then I regretted the decision.  When I looked at Leandro’s website before traveling to Tucson I was surprised to see that the still had this fabric, and although I wanted to look at the actual fabric on the bolt again before making a decision, I knew that I would probably walk away with a piece.   

While I was wandering around the store I saw the beige and blue jacquard stripe linen that is pictured under the chenille. The color is very subtle and it was difficult to photograph.  I am going to make a soft jacket with the chenille and the linen will be used for a pair of pants and although I haven’t picked patterns yet, I have an idea in my head of where I am heading with these pieces.

When I first saw this cotton I walked by it.  I liked it but I couldn’t picture it yet in my mind.  It didn’t take long before I was back fondling the sample.  This is going to be a simple summer skirt.

Continuing the blue theme, I also got this lovely double faced cotton stripe.  I don’t know exactly what it will be yet, a top of some sort, but beyond that impression no decisions have been made. 

I am surprised that I have chosen so much blue this time, although none of these are true blues, which are not my best even though I am basically cool complected.  Usually I lean either toward the greens or the purples.

But don’t worry, I didn’t get out of the store without at leas one piece of purple fabric:

This purple fabric is actually darker than it appears here.  I seem to have the most trouble getting purples to come out true on my camera.  The original is definitely deeper and duskier than what you see here.

This is a very lightweight purple crepe with a nice texture.  I think it will be perfect for a fitted dress.  Since it is wool, and a darker color, I will wait until next fall before sewing this.

I adore Laura Foster Nicholson ribbons.  Usually I buy them to use on some special gift another and I never indulge in any for myself.  But when I heard that they were on sale  through the end of February, I had to indulge.

I think the sale has been going on for a bit, and many of my favorites were gone, but there were still plenty of treats from which to choose.

Now, will I actually use these on some little treat for myself?  or will save them up and give them to someone special?

We returned from Tucson yesterday and I am busily catching up with life but have not yet found the time to greet my sewing machines in more than the most cursory fashion.

I did indeed go to Leandro fabrics and you will get an update on that excursion when the package arrives, either the end of this week, or more likely, early next week.  Needless to say, several pieces of fabric were purchased, at least one of which was planned because I had perused their website before I left New York.  The new store is much smaller than the old one, and many of the fabrics are only available as swatches in the store, but they were very accommodating and went to the warehouse to get a couple of bolts I needed to see in larger scale while my DSDIL and I went next door to El Charro Cafe for margaritas and guacamole.

After Leandro we continued on to ButtonsNBolts  where I was much more restrained. I love Buttons N Bolts and it would be the perfect local fabric store if I had a local fabric store.  I was very attracted to some lovely rayon batiks when I first entered, visions of sundresses and flirty summer skirts danced in my head, but I managed to flick the mental "off" button and walk past them.  I was on a mission for knits and I promptly headed to the back of the store where I actually saw several things I liked.  I only bought one piece though, some rayon jersey in a lovely glowing purple.  Although I was tempted by many things, and although the store carries many fabrics that fit into my lifestyle very well, I have a large enough collection of fabrics for casual clothes, one large box of which I purchased at Buttons N Bolts last February (and we know how little sewing I did last year) so I had to remind myself that "there will always be more fabric".

Besides which, with a couple of pieces from Leandro, that purple jersey, and a little bit of jewelry, I had pretty much done my shopping for that trip.  Here is the fabric with my new earrings:

We picked the earrings up in Bisbee on Sunday.  They are Bisbee turquoise in a chocolate matrix, set in gold and I absolutely adore them.

How could I resist?  Dark chocolate brown and turquoise is one of my absolute favorite color combinations — so you know these will be getting lots of wear.  Besides, they are set in gold, which I prefer and have gold wires so that I can actually wear them without having to have them reset.  Silver and my ears are not compatible.  Obviously these were just waiting for me to take them home.

 

Well, I have had every intention of posting my thoughts on the new Vogue patterns and I have also had every intention of starting a muslin of a marfy blouse pattern.  But, well intentions aren’t good enough are they?

Instead I have been playing in my stash.  After the Monday cleanout, I carried everything a step or two further.    In that box in my closet,  I found this knit, and much as it initially pained me, I realized that I am just not going to sew it up.  I know what I wanted to make but it will not look good on me so the fabric sits, and sits and …., well you know how it goes.  And yet I hadn’t been able to bring myself to let it go.

But then I was reading several threads on Stitcher’s Guild about stash storage eliminating dead wood from the stash and this made me think about some of these fabrics that are just sitting here, fabrics in colors I once would have worn, but probably won’t any more, and I thought that perhaps they could find better homes.  And then I thought about the Artisan’s Square Marketplace and and the benefit auction that Marji  so generously set up, that I thought this might be a good place to offer up a few fabrics.

As I looked through the index cards that summarize my fabric collection I immediately latched on to a collection of camel fabrics.  Now camel is not a color I am going to wear.  For years, when people thought I was an autumn I might have worn camel, but I never really did, only as a neutral and then I mixed other colors with it.  But I thought I "should" wear camel, and I had been well brainwashed into doing what I thought I "should" be doing.  It was not hard to find beautiful camel fabrics which I loved, still love in fact, even though I will not wear the garments made from them.

So I offered up a few.  For the most part they are fine European Wools, but there are a few other things mixed in, mostly camels and beiges but again, I have had my misguided plans as well so there is a piece of polar fleece that took up a huge space on my shelf.    You can see the goods here: Mardel’s fabric auctions.  Take a look, it is for a good cause, and the fabrics are nice too.

And the nice space cleared by the polar fleece alone has given me space to store the fabrics I bought on sale from  Lucy’s fabrics  and Textile Studio over New Year’s weekend.

I promise to discuss patterns soon, because I think this is a good crop. 

The fabrics I ordered from the Fashion Fabrics Club  wool sale arrived today!  I was completely surprised; I had almost forgotten I had ordered them.

The taupe wool is lovely:

I had ordered it with some trepidation because taupes can be difficult.  True taupes are a great color (non-color??) for me, but often I see something described as taupe and it comes looking much to yellow.  This one is quite nice, has a lovely texture and a nice light spongy, crepey feel that will work very well for a versatile suit.  I really have no plans for it right now, the color and the price were right, and I can always use a good taupe wool.

The other fabric I ordered was kind of a menswear plaid that I hoped to use for a dress.  Here is the fabric with the proposed pattern:

The fabric is not quite what I hoped from the description and the online photo, but it is still nice.  I am not sure if I will like it for the dress, but I might, and the price is right.

We’ll see.  As well you know, my plans for sewing seem to be way ahead of my actual sewing success of late.   It’s not that I haven’t planned and set aside time for sewing, I have.  And it’s not that I then fritter that time away doing other things either.   It just seems that no matter what plans I make of late, life gets in the way, things come up and my schedule is shot to …. well, you know where it shot to.

Well, tomorrow is another day.