Sewing: More SWAPpery.

Look! That's my SWAP so far, all folded and stacked up.  I have two jackets, four skirts, and a shirt.  So far.

You want the details, right? Right?  OK, you won't openly yawn while I tell you right, right? OK, then.

As previously discussed, I've been working with Butterick 5261, an out-of-print shirt jacket.

I made the first version in November, out of an indigo silk/linen blend, as an Early Bird garment under the SWAP rules. I used the straight-hem version and deepened the hem, giving it vents. I also converted the gathered cuffs to ones with tiny pleats--not a pattern change; I just did the pleating instead of gathering. I dislike gathers.

This was intended to be a wearable muslin, and I was sure that it would be far too big--I used the biggest size rather than working my way through multiple muslins. But as it turns out, I enjoy the rumply oversized result. (It's not quite as rumply as it looks in the photo.)

I put a tiny bit of button and bead gloss on it.

I made a green version after that, as described in this post, but I got the timing wrong for Early Bird, so it's not a part of the SWAP. (I started it after November 5, but didn't finish it before December 26.) I anticipated making lots of additional pattern changes, but in the end I just made a size down, and lengthened it a bit. Then I regretted lengthening and just turned all the extra length up into a Really Deep Hem.

Then, as discussed, I picked up McCall's 6654 and made View E in a soft pale grey knit. I don't have a photo, because I'm wearing it. It's delightfully comfy; I intended these clothes to replace jeans-wearing, but this one is so comfortable that it replaces sweats-wearing. Yay!

Then I made it again in dark grey. Then I shortened it slightly (View E is almost ankle-length on me) and made it in moss green and in black. Then I discovered that the scraps left from the dark grey version were enough to make View...er...the slightly above knee view. So, four skirts. They all look more or like the one on the left.

Next! I made a cotton houndstooth version of the jacket, without any significant pattern changes, but another size down. I'm not sure if I'm happy with it--several small things went wrong. The fabric didn't have as much drape as I wanted, it turns out that I miss the oversized nature of the bigger size, I ran out of fabric and made bracelet length sleeves that I don't know if I like, and so on.

But I committed some pretty nice buttons to it in the hope that they take it over the edge to a success.

Then I made the Style Arc Lauren Butterfly Boyfriend (butterfly? where did I get butterfly the first time I posted this?) shirt. I straightened the shirttail hem, and made it a deep hem with vents.

There were enough flaws to give it a homemade feel, so I decided to just embrace that vibe and give it some nice old-fashioned glass buttons. Now it feels to me like something I might have gotten from a vintage shop.

That's all! I point, again, to the stack.

Next? Another shirts. I'm planning to remove those long folded cuffs from the shirt and just give it hemmed (deep, vented hems) sleeves. And then remove the collar and just use a slightly modified collar stand.

That is all! For now.

Images: Mine.

Sewing: SWAP Again Again

So, I noticed that the really long knit skirts were so long that they were hanging up on the top of my short boots. I was considering taking off four inches next time. I had a length of black woollyish knit that I thought was a bit short for the full-length pattern. So I made a shorter copy in black. Turns out that I would have had enough fabric, but, so be it.

I also timed the sewing. From picking up the prewashed fabric off the shelf, to putting the last stitch in the skirt, was two hours and twenty minutes. McCall's 6654 is a really simple skirt to make.

I realized that my "replace jeans" scheme should include something to wear when I've been too lazy to press shirts--because woven home-sewn shirts almost always need pressing. So I'm adding a black tee as a part of the scheme.

And this wipes out the difference between the more and less ambitious versions, leaving me with (boldface items are complete):

1. Purchased black long-sleeved tee.
2. Early Bird indigo silk/linen jacket.
3. Pale grey knit skirt.
4. Dark grey knit skirt.
5. Black knit skirt
6. Darkish green knit skirt.
7. Jacket two
8. Jacket three.
9. Shirt one
10. Shirt two
11. Shirt three

I may have the green skirt done as soon as tonight. The jackets will be relatively easy, assuming I continue with the comfortably rumply theme of the indigo jacket. Then, for the shirts, I'll need to fit a new pattern, and progress will sloooooow.

Returning to add: Update! Green skirt's done!

Sewing: SWAP Again

OK, maybe every-other-day-ly blogging?

I finished another copy (copy? what do you call another rendition of basically the same thing?) of the knit skirt, in a nicer knit. It's dark gray; the previous one, which I'm wearing again, is light gray. I'm new to sewing knits, and realized (after the hem of the first one "popped" when I got into the car) that I needed a stretchier stitch. I used the "lightning" stitch on my Viking Rose, which I think is a stretch stitch, though I'm not quite positive because I couldn't immediately find the manual. I'll use the same stitch to re-do the hem on the first one.

Next I'll make a dark-green skirt. Then a black skirt. That will more than fill the "skirts" requirement for my SWAP.

Have I blogged any detail for my SWAP? (SWAP: Sewing With A Plan, an 11-piece sewing challenge managed at Artisan's Square.)  I'm calling it the Maybe I'll Do It This Time SWAP, because I keep planning SWAPs and never finish them. The theme here is to have clothes that replace jeans.

I have two variants, one more ambitious and one less, both listed below. The ones in bold are done. I'll probably re-post statuses and fabric choices.

1. Grey knit skirt from McCall's 6654, view E--a long columnar knit skirt.
2. Mossy green knit skirt, same pattern.
3. Black knit skirt, same pattern.
4. Silk/linen blend indigo blue jacket, made between 11/5 and 12/26, and therefore qualifying as an "early bird" garment.
5. Another raglan jacket.
6. A short cape.
7. A drop-sleeve straight-hem woven shirt.
8. And another one.
9. And another one
10. And the same again.
11. And yet again.

And now the less ambitious, again with the completed items in bold.

1. An existing self-sewn gored skirt in a washable black and white "denim".
2. My existing long straight knit dark brown wool boucle purchased skirt.
3. The grey knit skirt from above.
4. The "wearable muslin" grey knit skirt.
5. The green knit skirt from above.
6. The brown jacket from above.
7. The silk/linen jacket from above.
8. Another raglan jacket
9. A drop-sleeve straight-hem woven shirt.
10. And another one.
11. And another one.

Neither of them are very exciting. I have vague ambition of adding a little excitement to the remaining jackets. We'll see.

Um.

That is all.

Sewing Again: Ha!

I finished another thing! McCall's 6654, view E--a long columnar knit skirt. I used a very cheap and disturbingly off-grain knit, so I assumed that I was just creating a muslin to check the fit. But it actually hangs and looks just fine--a nice plain greyish skirt.

I'm wearing it right now as I lounge on the couch. That's what I made it for--I want to wear skirts instead of jeans, but I want the skirts to be just as comfortable as the jeans. This one, so far, seems to work.

But it's not really interesting enough to photograph. So I won't.

That is all.

So, "daily" lasted one day. I'll just declare Christmas as a holiday.

Today is the starting day for the Stitcher's Guild 2017 SWAP--that thing where you create 11 garments in...er...a few months. I should be starting, but I'm typing here, in between looking at vintage jewelry on Etsy.

I've been putting all sorts of things in various Favorites lists, and I'm discovering that I have slightly disturbing taste. A large percentage of the brooches that I've Favorited look like something that could come to life and attack.

And all that glitter craving is leaking into my sewing plans. I'm looking for excuses to add beads and shiny buttons, but puzzling over how to deal with laundering the theoretical garments.

Um.

OK, I really really should try to sew now.

Photo: By D. Sharon Pruitt. Wikimedia Commons.