Now that I have my sewing machine back, I’m cookin’ on my new summer wardrobe project! I finished hand-stitching the hem on this skirt Wednesday night.

Yes, this skirt looks suspiciously like this one that I made about a year ago.

I like to think of the original one as the spring/summer version, and the new one as the fall/winter version.

The more I thought about the red piece of fabric that I still had in my stash, the more I thought that this skirt was the best use of that fabric. It wouldn’t make a good top, was probably too heavy for a dress and likely not enough of it for that anyhow. You wouldn’t make pants out of this. And I have gotten SOOOO many compliments on the original version, that I just thought, what they heck, I’ll just make another one of those.

And now I have.

Except that this time I put in an invisible zipper.

Stay tuned — I should have the second version of the vintage dress finished over the weekend!

I’ve been wearing my new shorts and loving them. Lov-ing them.

I managed to finish the new Lisette Market Skirt as well (Simplicity 0449 according to my package, but Simplicity 2211 according to the Lisette web site). Very cute. And very easy. Except when my machine decided to forget how to set the tension half-way through. Urgh. Gave me such fits for the last half of this project. But it’s done!

I like the detail stitching at the seams. This skirt is made of 6 panels. I opted for an invisible zipper on the side instead of a regular one. For the waist you just stitch on bias tape to the right side, turn it to the inside, and stitch it down. Couldn’t be easier.

No pictures of my modeling it, though. My fashion photographer is working these days.

Yes, the back is actually longer than the front. Every skirt I buy from a store hangs shorter in the back because of my bum, so when I make a short skirt myself, I can actually make it longer so that when I’m wearing it, it hangs evenly.

I am very close to finishing my first knitted sweater, and hope to get that done soon. Unfortunately, I may have to take a hiatus from the summer wardrobe sewing, just when I was hoping to crank out several more things. This is due to 1) my sewing machine’s tension has gone way off and nothing I have tried has fixed it. I think it’s going to have to go into the shop, and I just can’t do what I want to do with my old machine (like faux overlock the seams, etc.).

And 2) it looks like I’m going to be doing a web site over the next few weeks and there is a pretty tight deadline. So, there won’t be a lot of time for sewing, especially not if most of my time is spent ripping out crappy stitching with bad tension.

So, this may be a good time to take the old machine in for a spa treatment. And without my machine and the addition of a web site to conjure up, I might not be posting here as much as usual. Oh, and my father’s quilt is done at the Amish quilter’s, so it will be returning to me shortly to put the binding on. Which I would like to finish before my parents visit in mid-August.

I thought I didn’t have anything going on all summer and could just make myself a new wardrobe. What happened to that??

I had a great trip with my friends out to Cape Cod, despite the crappy weather we had most of the time. I promise pictures for you on Friday! I seem to have brought the rain back here with me, unfortunately. It NEVER rains in June here. It has been a freaky summer for weather that’s for sure!

Before I left for Cape Cod I managed to get the fabric cut for the Lisette Market skirt and blouse muslins. My pattern says it is Simplicity 0449, but they had the same pattern with different numbers on it at JoAnn’s when I bought this one, and the Lisette web site has totally different numbers on them. Not sure what’s up with that!

Anyhow, I assembled the muslins for these over the last couple of days.

So, here’s how they look. The skirt is super easy to assemble, and once I got the right size, I don’t think it needs any further adjustments. I haven’t had a skirt this short in ages (and it’s not really all that short!).

The top needs the waist shortened 1 1/2″. No surprise there. And I think I’m going to want to make it a little longer as well. Maybe just an inch or so. The neck looks nice and the darts actually hit in the right place. It’s supposed to have buttons on the placket in the front, but would look nice without the placket as well, I think.

The issue with the top is that while I think the sleeves look nice, they seriously restrict movement. I can’t wear it this way, even though I like how it looks. One possibility would be to take the band off and take out the gathering and just hem it up. It would be a bit wider that way. That might work. I might also be able to do a small casing with elastic instead of the band if I thought I would like that. I’m going to have to play with that a bit.

There is another sleeve in the pattern for the tunic and dress that I could put on this top, but it’s maybe 1/2 or 3/4 length with a big ruffle at the bottom, which is not really my thing.

I’m feeling really super unmotivated today, so we’ll see how far I get chugging out my new summer wardrobe. No rush though. Very few signs of summer around here so far!

It’s a miracle — I’ve completed the first project of my new summer wardrobe sewing in time to take it with me to Cape Cod on Wednesday!

For these shorts I used the exact same pattern that I used for my second pair of pants. These are based on the pattern from the Sew U book, but modified with the slant front pockets from the Built By Wendy/Simplicity pattern 3850. I left off the pocket flaps on this version and cut off the legs to make them shorts. That’s pretty much it!

And after doing this fly installation, what, half a dozen times now, I am very happy to announce that this time I did it completely correctly for the first time! I simply used the notes I made during my midnight zipper revelation, and, voila, a perfect fly!

I used another Heather Bailey fabric for the waistband facings and pockets. This is fun to do, but in this case was also necessary, since I didn’t have enough of the khaki left to cut out all the pieces.

This project was great for multiple reasons: 1) I had already made this pattern twice before, so I could go straight to making the real thing without a muslin, or even buying a pattern, and 2) I basically made this from my stash by using leftover khaki from the pants, as well as the Heather Bailey fabric, interfacing, and a button that I already had. I only had to buy a zipper and thread (and the thread doesn’t really count, since I’ll always use khaki thread). That’s it. Sweet! Oh, and 3) I now own a total of three pairs of shorts!

And just so you don’t think it was all wine and roses, when I was ripping the buttonhole open I ripped a bunch of the stitches down one side of the buttonhole and had to do a repair job on it. No sweat. The button will cover it up.

I’m very happy to announce that a second version of the vintage dress may be next in line, because we just got in at the shop a tiny purple and dark brown print that is PERFECT with that Jay McCarroll fabric I want to use. PER-FECT.

Today I am on my way to Cape Cod, and I am looking forward to a fabulous weekend with my friends! I wish all of you equally fabulous weekends as well, and I’ll see you back here when I return!

Monday afternoon I hit the JoAnn’s Simplicity pattern sale and scooped up three of the new Lisette patterns for $1.99 each. Score!

I’ve been thinking, as the weather FINALLY begins to turn warm around here, that I don’t have a lot of good summer clothes in my closet. And that it’s time to do some serious summer sewing. So, I dug through my stash to see what I have on hand that I could use to make some new clothes!

This is what I came up with. These are either garment fabrics or quilting cottons that I own enough of to possibly make a garment from.

On the top left are brown and khaki twills. These are leftovers from a couple of pairs of pants I made a while back. I’m thinking possibly a pair of shorts based on those pants, or maybe the short skirt from the center pattern?

I also want to make another one of the vintage dresses that I just finished. I have my eye on my new Jay McCarroll fabric over there in the bottom right corner, but I would want to find a coordinating fabric to do the front and back yokes and probably the pockets and belt in. Nothing in my stash and nothing at Bobbin’s Nest, so I’ll have to shop elsewhere if I stick with that plan.

I also want to make the passport dress, which is the one on the left above. Maybe in the brown linen with the turquoise flowers? I got that in Vietnam, like the linen of the other dress I made earlier this year. Which means I don’t have a lot of it, but that dress doesn’t look like it would take a ton.

I’d really love to find a great top pattern, and I’m hoping the one on the model in the middle pattern will be cute. But I think it’s going to need a really lightweight fabric to work out, so maybe one of the blues? The solid blue is a shirting fabric I also bought in Vietnam, and the blue with the white objects is a vintage bit I picked up somewhere. Or that shirting might be really cute as the top of the dress on the right, if I make the version in two colors. But I don’t have anything to go with it really.

And I really like the shirt dress on the model in the pattern on the right, but I know I don’t have anything that would work well for that. And then I have some fabrics that I have enough of but don’t know what to do with. The tiny yellow flowers is a Momo Wonderland print that I also have in red (made a Mendocino sundress out of the other one), but this color does not work up by my face. Oh! And I just remembered I have a couple yards of another Momo Wonderland print like this one but in the tomato color in the same twill. What to do with that?? The big floral is a Heather Bailey FreshCut fabric that doesn’t really work by my face either, but is probably too light colored for me to want to make into a dress or skirt. And there’s a chunk of that Dagmar Plaid left as well on the bottom left.

So…. first thing is to see if I have enough of anything to make the things I’m considering. Then I can decide what to do with the fabrics. I’ll make a muslin for any new pattern I want to make and if I like it, then I’ll start thinking about acquiring more fabric if I need it.

I wonder how much I’ll actually get made over the summer? Not much if my sewing room is sweltering, as usual in the summer. Might have to move sewing to the living room!