Now that both K’s and my wardrobes are entirely DIY’d (incidentally, am I the only one who has trouble saying DIY aloud? I always want to pronounce it “Dee-Ee-Why”), I find myself sketching a lot of potential sewing projects. I deviate from my plans more often than not, especially with K’s stuff, but it’s helpful to consider the holes in her wardrobe so that I’m not spending time on yet another linen dress that will never see the light of day.
What she needs are shorts, and lots of them. All the ones I made last year are beyond risque at this point, and Hooters will be dropping off an application for her at any moment. She also needs a mountain of knit clothing, but I might throw in some cotton too (preferably white eyelet). By the end of summer, I might be a knit expert. We’ll see. Almost everything in the image up there I plan to make in stretchy substrate; some are from Japanese sewing books, others I intend to draft myself. I hope to post them (and a few others I have in the works but didn’t sketch) in the coming weeks. I’m extra motivated to sew like a madwoman to have an easy-to-pack set of clothes for our upcoming Indiana trip. Wovens, as beautiful as they can be, are a pain to travel with.
While we’re on the topic of self-drafted clothes, K has officially put in her request for this year’s birthday dress (it’s coming up at the end of the month! How????). Last year, I wasn’t able to carry out my mission because I just couldn’t risk messing up a perfectly lovely all-white dress. Here’s her sketch for this year:
She explained that it’s to be an all-black dress with fireworks and moons and stars. She wants it to be a Macgyver dress with sleeves that can be long, medium or short, adjustable via a piece of thread attached to the sleeve edge (?). And then there’s some doohicky that makes a cape appear out of nowhere. It sounds complicated and a touch beyond my skill level.
Shall we place bets on how many I’ll actually get done (not including the bday dress)? I’m guesstimating five things between now and July 12th, when we set foot on the plane.
P.S. Surprisingly, I’m sticking pretty faithfully to my own sewing plans!
Hi Sanae,
first some recommendations for some books: i recently read two books of Ely Griffith, the scene is in England, these are crime novels and I love them so far. Same is for books from Martha Grimes, I love her setting in southern England, with curious old aunts and odd lords, dark pubs and all those things. A Perfect read for summer nights.
I love K’s scribble of the dress. My son is also very particular about his clothing, so when I sewing him some garments he always tells me what fabric to use, which button and so on. I like this, because I know he will wear this stuff in the end and I don’t sew another shirt only for the closet.
I’m very curious about the shirts and dresses and skirts you’re sewing for yourself. I tend to wear trousers and pants and jeans all the time. In fact I don’t own a single skirt (9 years ago I wear a wedding dress, but this doesn’t count). I’m curious: did you ever sew a pair of pants? Maybe I forgot about it. Why don’t you sew pants more often? I’m always keen to a good pattern (it’s so hard to find). Maybe it’s because one needs a larger amount of fabric?
Love to hear your opinion
Marit
Thanks for the book recs, Marit! I’m pretty addicted to crime novels, which is a fairly recent development. As for pants…I’ve made one pair of pants from Colette Patterns, and the fit wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t very flattering. I definitely have plans to tackle pants (jeans! I want to sew jeans!) but for the summer, all I want to make are tank tops and dresses, it seems 🙂
Oh K sounds like my grand daughters, they think that I can whip up anything and I find it flattering and really hate to disappoint them. K sounds so very creative, so the apple didn’t fall far the tree!! Can’t wait to see the bday dress you have my attention!!! If you are looking for a good read “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Cutting for Stone”. I just reread “Cutting for Stone” and found it even better the second time.
Loved Fault of our stars! I will have to add Cutting for Stone on my list. Thank you, Karen!
The birthday dress made my day! Can’t wait to see what you come up with 😉
My little girl is ingenious, that one! I’m curious to see what I come up with too! 🙂
Hilarious! I laughed out loud re: the plans for the cape appearing. Maybe she’ll be an engineer. Or a costume designer.
Both good possibilities, Nicole 🙂
K makes me laugh like no other! That bday dress description is simply priceless and uber creative. I love how she thinks outside the box and is so confident in your sewing skills to produce such a garment. I think I recognize a pattern or two in your sketches. Knit is always a win around here with my girls. You simply cannot beat the comfort factor!
It’s knits all the time around here, and yes, she seems to overestimate my abilities quite a bit, Lucinda! 🙂
That sounds good to me. The bday dress I mean. You should make something special that she wants rather than those things you think look brilliant on her, don’t you think? And when you figure out how to make the length adjustable and a cape appear out of nowhere, perhaps a little pattern or tutorial for the rest of us?
Ha, we’ll just have to see about that cape. And yep, I do try to keep in mind what she likes but there’s also the joy of making what I like…compromise is good for both of us, I think 🙂