Sewing in Denial: Fake Green

 In the early 2000s, there was an odd fabric outlet store that Mom took me to a few times.  It had a small front room with bolts of cottons, a smaller area with a selection of hot sauces, a medium back room with mill ends--mostly upholstery weight from the area office furniture factories--sold by the yard, and a large middle room with tables stacked chaotically with mill ends and offcuts of all sizes of the upholstery fabric, as well as odds and ends of other fabrics, all sold by the pound.  You can probably guess how much fun I had, digging through everything for ~treasure~

You can probably also guess--correctly--that I still have a lot of those fabrics in my stash.  I decided to finally use the big piece of weirdly supple short pile kelly green fake fur to make the coat I'd always wanted to make from it.

There was a slight problem, in that I had, a few years ago, decided that I was probably never going to make that coat, so I then used some of it to make two Minecraft Creeper pillows (one for the kiddo and one for some friends.)  That meant that my yardage was short for the view I wanted to make of McCall's 9634 from 1998

(does the shape look familiar?  This is the pattern that the doll coat pattern I shared last year was based on--I'd been making doll coats based on this pattern since the pattern was new, but it was only for this project that I finally cut the tissue...)

I wanted to make view B, but there was only enough for--with some finagling--view D.  It worked out OK, though, because I am not proportioned like a fashion illustration, so it ended up longer than the illustration makes it seem

Green!

Sewing in Denial: Dancing Circa 1990

In the early 1990s, I had so many scarves made out of this kind of polyester chiffon with lamé brocade sections, so I couldn't resist buying this fabric when I found it in a thrift store

But what would I make from it?  ...uhhh...

You can possibly guess that the fact that I'm posting about it now means I decided to use New Look 6120 for another bomber.

 Honestly, I probably would have considered myself somehow above wearing something like this when I was a teen in 1990--it would have seemed way too casual.  'course, in the world we're enduring right now, it's probably way too formal, so that works out.

Sewing in Denial: Parties I Never Went To Anyway

 Another iteration of New Look 6120, this time with a fabric I knew might cause messy regret

That's the length of iridescent-to-holographic flip sequin ($29.99/yard in JoAnn) I thrifted in 2018, in the form of a "blanket," roughly 30" by 2 yards, with polyester fleece on one side and this on the other, for about $3.  I had no idea what I'd do with it, but, for that price (even minus the labor cost of cutting the stitches holding it to the fleece), I couldn't resist.  I eventually thought...maybe a jacket?  

And now: yes, a jacket.

Sewing in Denial: Wool Jacket in Summer, Unselfish Sewing Edition

New Look 6120 again, and this time following the directions...well...at least...what I remember of the directions. Haven't looked at 'em for years.

A nice thing about this pattern--when made as directed--is that it doesn't, for a jacket, take a lot of fabric, especially when I make it in the smallest "teen" size for the kiddo (who is indeed a few years into the double digits now.  The fact that I have no idea when he'll wear this/leave the house again is moot.)

 

 

Sewing in Denial: Wool Jacket in Summer

 This is, I suppose, a muslin, because I have an odder fabric that I want to use the same pattern for, but this fabric itself isn't exactly throwaway

 There's definitely wool in it--I can tell by how the insides of my wrists itch when I'm working with it.  The iron came nowhere near this project, so I haven't had the chance to accidentally learn if it's blended with any synthetics (like I did with the woolen moto jacket I made in February.)

The pattern I used is a revisit of New Look 6120

buuuut, since there's a big difference between a thick spongy woolly tweed and the fabrics the pattern actually calls for, I...did some improvising.  I'll ramble about that under the cut.

Here's the jacket

Upcycle #7

This is, as far a I know, the last one!  And I rushed it, of course, although not after vacillating over bodice fabric for a few days.

The skirt was this one, which I sewed in 2018 from thrifted wax print

Initially, I had picked out a lightweight aqua twill to use for the bodice, but the color match was Really Not Good, and there wasn't enough of it anyway.  Then I considered using another wax print, but, for various reasons, no.  Then, as I was falling asleep, I had the thought: A black & white print.

So.

Good idea?  Enh.  Finished idea?  Yeah!

Upcycling #6

Many years ago I couldn't resist thrifting a bit of yardage with loads of colors that I usually don't wear, but...butterflies and moths...although...manufactured by Shamash and Sons, so: butterflies and moths rendered in the most direct, unstylized--yet vague--way.

I immediately made a skirt

(the files say June of 2013)

I wore it a lot!  And managed to spatter paint on it from an airbrush mishap (not the first or last time that happened.)  And then gained weight.  But I kept it, because, as subtle as they were, there were still paint spatters, so it was completely inappropriate for donating.

Then I decided to do this whole skirt-to-dress upcycling project.