Cutting

I spent part of yesterday afternoon and evening cutting out a few simple projects to work on during the next week or so.  I probably could have cut more but as usual I spent a lot of time diddling about daydreaming, playing with patterns, caressing the fabric, and just generally enjoying the process.  It is really nice to be able to indulge myself this way sometimes, instead of just rushing to get something finished.

Most of these projects are simple and somewhat experimental.  I have no idea if a couple of them will even work out, but that is not really the point, I want to try them, and although in a way it sounds wasteful, I am not as interested in having a new garment as I am in the process itself and making it work, or if it doesn’t work, learning something from the experience.  Of course, having new clothes is usually a wonderful by product of my efforts.

First I cut the yellow linen, which has a stripe of a thin sheer thread, almost like a lurex.  I have had this fabric for quite a few years, from the days when I was mis-cast as an autumn, and I have been unable to part with the fabric because I love it so much even though I could never wear it next to my face. 

It is a lightweight linen, probably more of a top weight but I am going to make wide drapey pants.  I thought I would try making a pair of drawstring pants, perhaps only modified drawstring this time.  I still like the idea of drawstring pants more than I have liked the actual results on me.  As the fabric is quite light and sheer, it will be suitable for having extra width and the pants will be lined with matching bemberg.

I took a lot of time cutting out the pants, partly because I had to press the linen again as it had been folded on the shelf, and I allowed myself the luxury of pressing at leisure and enjoying working with the fabric and day-dreaming a little.  I traced the pattern pieces onto the fabric, as is my wont,  inspected everything before cutting and then finally cut and stacked the pieces.  I find that I am much more accurate using this technique as opposed to pinning the pattern to the fabric and cutting from that.  I like having the actual lines and markings on the fabric and it saves me much time later on when I am tired or distracted with other things.

Then I cut out the green knit.  This is one of the cotton knits I ordered from Nancy Erickson in January.  I never got around to cutting this one.  The pattern is a designer vogue pattern, Vogue 2483, probably OOP,  meant for non-stretch wovens, the only part of the pattern I am interested in is the top.  As this knit is really not that stretchy it might work, but I tried to allow for that when cutting.  This was the pattern I originally wanted to make from this top but had second thoughts earlier in the spring.  The knits are nice and I wear the periwinkle pieces a great deal but I am not as happy with the fabric itself as I had hoped so I don’t mind experimenting with the green.

The fuchsia is a remnant of a cotton knit I had made a dress out of a long time ago.  I had enough for a top and I saved it but never made it up.  I spent a lot of time with this piece of fabric because I couldn’t decide what pattern to try.  My first choice wouldn’t work because I did not have enough fabric, the second idea was a design adaptation I couldn’t work out in my head, the third choice just didn’t appeal to me somehow.  In the end I decided to use this to remake an old t-shirt type pattern from the 80’s that I used a great deal, Vogue 7128.  It is pretty over sized and was meant for shoulder pads at the time.  I thought I would play with re-doing the shoulders and sleeves and trying to reuse the pattern.  I always loved this top and surprisingly some of the tops I made with this pattern still fit pretty well.

Of course I will regale you with the details of my successes or failures as they occur.