It’s Furbelow Friday! No vacations for me, because my brain never shuts off (I’ve tried, believe me) because I love what I do and what the heck, I’ve already scalded my fingertips off years ago, so I’m pleating up a storm today. Dyeing that white sheer to match the silk, this is going to be FUN to make. ❤
What is the only thing that these ruffles, pleats, and ruches need? A breeze! ❤
Counting down the hours before we hit the road to Clockwork Alchemy 2017 in San Jose and we’re excited. It’s been a somewhat chaotic year between orders, design work, and handling the estate of my deceased mother and we’re looking forward to taking a little break. At the same time, it’s one of the high points of the year since we’ll be entering two dress designs in the fashion show and we’ve been working non-stop for the past two months to get everything ready. I can’t reveal the specific designs yet but rest assured that they’re going to be exciting and draw upon the natural world for inspiration.
Here’s a little hint…
Stay tuned- we’ll have more soon! Now to get some sleep… 🙂
In anticipation of traveling up north to San Jose for the Clockwork Alchemy 2017, I am attempting to finish up some old projects that have lingered on for far too long and one of those is this men’s shirt that I started back in March. Long ago I decided that I needed to update my modern wardrobe so I resolved to make some shirts comparable to ones that would be made custom and utilizing finer fabrics with interesting patterns and colors. Fortunately, I have easy access to Mood fabrics which offers a wide variety of Italian shirting fabrics and the choices are nearly endless and after great deliberation, I settled on a purple/white/blue striped lightweight cotton:
For the pattern, I used a McCalls shirt pattern (6044) that I modified to better fit my long torso and simplify some of the assembly steps.
However, while the fabric is exquisite both in terms of color/pattern and finish, it was difficult to work with because of the slick finish; the fabric would constantly shift while running it through the sewing machine or even when simply cutting the pieces. It took me a lot longer to cut than I had anticipated because of the need to pin EVERYTHING securely. Also, in the course of sewing the pieces together, I was forced to redo seams whose edges had shifted out of position- Mr. Seam Ripper was busy throughout the sewing process.
In the end, it was worth the effort and I learned some valuable lessons about sewing with lighter, more “wander prone” fabrics and so now I have another shirt for the modern wardrobe:
I apologize for not having as many pictures as I would have wanted but unfortunately, life got in the way. However, I will be making more “modern” items in the future so stay tuned for more. 🙂
Coffee break in the outdoor office, it’s going to be another long day in the atelier. You don’t want to know the work pace I’ve been keeping, but I swear…it’s this house that keeps up the creativity. My “new normal” is truly a blessed one and I am grateful for it. 🙂
