loose threads

Inspired by a holiday-festive circle skirt I sewed the other night, I bought two new dress patterns today.

McCall’s ‘Easy Stitch ‘n Save’ M5292 and

McCall’s ‘Evening Elegance’ M5319. Which looked much prettier as an actual sample dress in the fabric store than it does on the package. These patterns will join my growing stash of unsewn patterns, which include:

Butterick Retro ’52 B4790 (reprint ©2006)

Simplicity 4265 (©2006),

and the oldest of the bunch,

Simplicity 7206 (©2002).

I have fabric for all except the “evening” dress, which I grabbed on an impulse while I was waiting in the line to check out. I also have fabric for a no-sew bathing suit and two no-sew skirts (both patterns downloadable from Blueprint magazine) in addition to fabric for a number of handbags that I haven’t gotten around to stitching up.

The ONE pattern that I’ve managed to complete is for a simple, A-line skirt:

Butterick ‘See & Sew’ 4710, which I bought specifically for a lovely (and expensive) animal-print fabric, but I first did a “test-sewing” in a more affordable skull bandanna print called Baddanna. The test skirt is cute and wearable, but technically too big. I still haven’t made the “finished” version with the expensive fabric. I haven’t yet decided whether or not to adjust the pattern, or to save the fabric for a pencil skirt instead.

But, to make fabric cutting easier for all of this sewing that I should be doing, I bought a gigantic 36×60 self-healing mat (on sale for $30!). I will now be able to cut out whole pattern pieces without having to cut/shift mat/cut/shift mat the way I have been doing.

I would pick a pattern to start with tomorrow, but I’m heading with friends to “Créme de la Chrome,” the annual Rocky Mountain Rod & Custom show. And then I’ll find numerous other distractions to keep me from sewing. Okay, fine, I’ll leave the patterns out and allow them to give me dirty looks until I finally break down and start one. Which, if successful, should lead to another, and another…