So, if there's one thing that I think is fairly obvious, I normally gravitate towards bright colours. Throw in a bold print and I'm even happier. However, in August I suddenly seemed to gravitate towards ALL the black fabric. So much so that I even ran out of black thread. I never run out of black thread.
I sewed five different garments in the month of August and three of them were black (save for the dress that had a tiny white spotty print on the black background). What a contrast from my eye searingly bright orange tropical Charlie Caftan!
My first black garment I sewed was the Marcel Dress from Chalk and Notch. I used a rayon challis that I have had in my stash for a few years and chose the long version of the dress. The Marcel dress is a whole lot of dress.
I wasn't sure actually how I felt about the sheer volume of it, so did make a waist tie in the same fabric to see if I liked it cinched in at the waist. It's not bad, but there's something I still am unsure of. I had a bit of gaping in the bodice that I tried to fix and made a dog's breakfast of, so now there's a bit of pulling, but I think the only way to correct it, would be to take the top of the bodice off entirely, cut a new one and reattach. Which seems like a lot of work for a dress I'm not in love with. Although I'm actually thinking of taking off the bottom section from the last tier down to see if I like it a bit better with a little less length. It might be just the fabric too. I think the volume would have been better suited to a brighter fabric. Or maybe it's just generally I'm suited to brighter fabric. We'll see... maybe I'll appreciate it more next summer.
My next project I sewed up was an Oasis Top from Sinclair Patterns. It's the first women's pattern of theirs that I've made. I did make a men's cardi for my husband last winter that both he and I were really happy with - me for the pattern drafting and sewing of it and him for the fit and the style of it. I wasn't sure though how a women's pattern would work out. I initially bought the Oasis to make the dress, but though making a top version first would be a good way to check out any issues I might have. I had none. The top was perfect. I didn't even add any length to it! The great thing I've discovered about Sinclair patterns is their sizing includes petite, regular and tall. How handy is that?!?! Like the Everton Cardigan I'd sewn last winter, I was really impressed with the pattern drafting.
The Oasis top has become a go to top for me. I made it in a pointelle knit from The Fabric Snob that I picked up at their VIP night back in June when they opened a location in the city and it's in constant rotation! (Can I just say how excited I am that they have opened that location? It's conveniently located in the south end of the city, a short drive away from my husband's work and right on the route I take whenever we go to Costco or the zoo... although my bank account might not think it's as convenient as I do. ha ha!)
My third project in basic black is another favourite. Made out of The Fabric Snob's boyfriend knit in the "Robert" colourway, my Love Notions Sunday Romper is the comfiest garment I own. If it was at all hygienic or acceptable I would never take it off (alas, it does have to get washed and I'm pretty sure people would start to look at me funny if I wore it every single day)
I made the dolman sleeve version and used the cropped leg length and it is definitely LOVE. With it's double v-neck design it's super easy to get in and out of, which is an extra bonus when it comes to jumpsuits. I though it needed a little something to define the waist a bit better (or my lack of defined waistline in any case) so I made a self tie belt to go with it. Did I mention I LOVE this outfit? I keep toying with the idea of making a full length velour one for Christmas Eve this year. I've had that velour in my stash for about four years now for a Christmas Dress, but maybe a Christmas Eve jumpsuit would be better? What do we think of that? Would it be too much? Hmmmm. I need to ponder this more.
So those were my three garments I made in black. With the left over scraps from my Oasis top and Sunday Romper I decided to try my hand at making some undies. While I've sewn just about everything under the sun, that is one thing I've never bothered to make, although I keep meaning to because I've got so many left over jersey scraps.
I'm not going to show you them. That just feels weird for me. But I'll tell you that I tried out three different patterns - The Acacia from Megan Nielson, the SoZo Undies from the So Zo What Do You Know blog and the DL21 pattern from Make Bra that is now called the Retro Panties patterns. The first two are free patterns. Acacia requires a sign up to Megan Nielson's newsletter and So Zo has a link that you give her a donation if you'd like - did you know she also has a brand new podcast out? It's called Check Your Thread and I've really been enjoying it so far! The third pattern is under 5 Euros, so a pretty good bargain. I will definitely use up my knit scraps on the Acacia and the SoZo in the future, but personally I think I'll skip the third pattern. It a good pattern and I like the design, but for me personally I like the fit of the other two better and for a scrap buster type project I just can't be bothered to fuss with doing a lot of fit modifications.
So that brings me to the end of my month of sewing a lot of black fabric. I'm craving all the colours and all the florals now even though I ended up with two new favourites and a sundress (that maybe just needs to wait till the heat of next summer hits for me to properly appreciate it)
School is back in session though as is tackle football for the boys. Which means between feeling a bit run off my feet during the day and then getting home from work in time to turn around and head back out to the football field four nights a week, I've been too tired to even head into my sewing room let alone work on any projects. So I'm not sure when I'll next stop by to talk crafty persuits with you because I think any progress is going to be slow as molasses until I get into the groove of back to school.
PS: I don't mean to sound humdrum about work. It's exhausting to be sure, but so great to have students back in the school and back in the library. It's crazy to me to think I've not held proper classes in the library since the 13th of March, 2020. I hope with the vaccine/mask mandates here in our province it will help keep us in there this year! It's been such a delight to see the wonder on the student's faces as they rediscover the library, and some discover it for the first time. My travelling library gig last year sufficed, but this is so, so much better! I'm excited about all the possibilities this year holds!
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