When I made the Halloween Varsity Jacket, I combined New Look 6120 and Simplicity 8175 on the fly
I liked the result so much I wanted to trace off properly-merged pattern pieces for the front and front facing. And I did! This project was to test the merger.
The merger was a success! I'm still not so sure about the actual garment.
When I visited the craft thrift store in May, one of the 10¢ patterns I grabbed was Simplicity 9757 from 1996
Which I had back in the late 90s, too. I attempted to make it once, in I believe view B, using a light pink knit with a faux quilted texture and a simple black outline, somewhat crudely-drawn Ancient Egyptian print. My skills weren't up to that combination of fabric and pattern (or getting a correct pattern size by grading between a smaller bust size versus hip size) and I may even have tried to use bias tape to finish the neckline and arm openings? I'm not sure if I ever even finished it, because it was going so bad.
Things went better this time.
The previous post, showing what I got from last Sunday's visit to the creative re-use thrift store, included a small length of a lightweight light green woven (which the burn test suggested might be a cotton silk blend? maybe short staple noil-y kinda silk?) and a copy of Simplicity 8085 from 1987
which I did not purchase with intent to use together, but the combination suggested itself very quickly. Having thread and buttons that matched (somewhat) prompted me to go ahead and try it.
I did not have any suitable lace, and I ignored other aspects of the instructions, too. As I usually do.
I was very good, after dropping off the many many bags of mostly fabric to donate to the creative re-use thrift store, at not choosing a comparable amount of fabric to bring back home.
I got: 1¼ yard of black tubular rib knit that at least feels cottony; 1¼ yard 44" minty(?) green cotton; 2 3/8 yards 45" ivory that I'm now doubting is pure cotton. Edit: Did a burn test on the ivory, it very thoroughly melted. So. And, since I had the candle lit, I went ahead and did a burn test on the green, and it...skeletonized? Does it contain silk??
I was hoping to get some solid cottons in good weights for shirts, and the heavy ribbing was a nice additional find.
This place usually has a little box of vinyl samples, and I found several that should be good for doll purses. Someday.
The red one is technically not vinyl--the plastic layer is polyurethane instead of PVC. I just thought that was neat.
I also grabbed a small package of aida cloth remnants, for whenever I finally try punch embroidery.
The bulk of my purchase, however, were 10¢ patterns. So many 10¢ patterns.
My friend and I had been planning for weeks to go back to the creative re-use thrift store, and I wanted to donate as much as I could--I largely turned a critical eye on yardage fabric I probably never would use, and similar odds and ends of lace and trim, and craft stuff I hadn't touched for years (if ever.) I emptied some storage boxes/areas and made space in more, which, yes, would allow me to acquire new stuff, but the real intent was just to...generally eliminate things. I get a lot of satisfaction, at this stage of life, from honing my craft and hobby stashes. (It's not exactly the Konmari approach, but it's similar.) I made enough space that I could move some things, which had been in an annoying storage situation, into a concealed storage spot, and now it makes me happy to look at where the stuff used to be and not see it sticking out anymore. (I will never be a minimalist, but clutter doesn't sit well with me, either.)
The creative re-use store's website says they don't accept fabric donations under a yard--I know they do accept calico in quarter yards/fat quarters, so I did donate some of those (and a quick chat with the register lady said they accept smaller cotton pieces that can be used for doll clothes--she tried to sell me some bags of those, but, heh, nope, I have so many I could donate to them...) I have two big bags of scraps--one of calicos and one of everything else. My storage concerns need to figure out what to do with them, as well as leave space to keep filling future bags, because I will always generate a lot of scraps I'm not personally prepared to use for doll clothes or patchwork.
ANYWAY.
One of the remnants of fabric I didn't want to keep but I thought was too small to donate, leftover from a skirt I made last year, I decided to sew into a Thanks item for the friend, who is the one who drives to the place (friend has a Prius, so there's less...uh...ecoguilt about driving a long distance to a thrift store.)
Vintage metal zipper, too.
Unfortunately, my brain had apparently decided that these six die roll projects were in reality One Very Large Project, and getting to this last one was like getting to buttons on a shirt (or vest) in that it was accompanied by the feeling of "I just want this done so the whole thing will be finished" and things got...rushed.
I will say, it does work for proof of concept!
Rolled a 4: Patch Vest! (at this point I want to mention, with great amusement, that I didn't have to re-roll any of these.)
Patch here means patchwork, just like the previous project, and vest is view B of New Look 6514.
The vest pattern is completely straightforward and reminds me that I do want to make more vests
just
without cutting a lot of 2" squares from scrap fabric and taking over a day to assemble them into panels just a bit bigger than the pattern pieces first.
Once that was done, though, zip zoom and the vest was finished
