Stitcher's Guild Reloaded

Mary - thanks for your comment! Yep my SWAP collection is starting to shape up. I think by tomorrow I will have my major coral outfit finished - skirt, sleeveless top, cardigan-type thing, and. . . . a tunic made from a kimono I dissected. The fabric has huge black stylized moths stenciled on it! Close to bats! Stay tuned!!

Mary - I really like the 'planning stage' photos of your dress fabrics with the skirt and cardi. Beautiful combinations of fabric! I would so look forward to seeing the finished dresses! And I am glad you decide you feel comfortable with this style, as I think the silhouette (and your styling) looks smashing!

dementedfairy - another wonderful garment. I do love those colour combinations, just up my alley.

Crazyquilter - also colours  that I like! And unexpected combinations, that lime green looks great with the teal and purple! I wish I would be as good in combining colours.

indigotiger - you've got so much done already! I am looking forward to more photos.

Oh Angelina I just now read your post, I am glad the surgery went well, and am hoping the 5 weeks goes by quickly!

I am plodding along. I imagine I'll finish, but I'm not putting any pressure on myself to do so, as this starts to take the fun out of it for me. I will probably keep finishing up the blue items, unless another shiny object comes along to distract me.

Angelina, glad to hear surgery went well. I do wish you all the best for the recovery!

Thank you all for your good wishes ... The surgery seems to have gone well from a technical standpoint, but it'll be a while before we know how much my vision was affected. I already have some of the visual field back, so I'm optimistic.

The keeping my head down for 5 days is going to be a real challenge ... But it will be worth it if it saves the vision in that eye. I'm planning some projects for the future. And the travel restrictions should be lifted in time for my planned trip to the big Paducah quilt show at the end of April.

Thanks again, all,

Angelia

@angelsweb , I hope you recover soon from that detached retina surgery. How terrible that you have to go through this. It sounds as though you were referred to a top notch place for the surgery, so hopefully it has gone well.

Take good care of yourself and heal quickly. I wish you all the best.

Kathryn

Angelia, I was sorry to read about your eye.  Many years ago when I was teaching our superintendent suffered a detached retina. It was no walk in the park, but he did eventually heal and retained his eyesight.  I pray the same will be true for you.

Thank you, CCL.  I am really enjoying wearing the dresses. 

Thank you, Mary! I'm happy after all these years of wanting to, to finally be trying some IA style pieces.  I'm especially glad to have found a TNT "frock" pattern. I'm still waffling back and forth on whether to add the second ruffle to my teal dress.  I like the idea of a second ruffle and I already have it cut out, but I'm worried it will make the dress too long to layer well with the black dress even with the drawstrings.  I guess I should just pin it on and see what I think.

I added the photos of the drawstring casings for my teal dress to my SWAP thread.  One of her new designs has four drawstrings, two in front and two in back with narrow pleated trim on the hem.  I may try that for my olive dress.  Well, olive assuming the dye plan works out.  I keep putting off dyeing the fabric because I'm afraid it won't wind up the right color.

I loved doing the multi colored/thread size crochet edging, but I will probably stick to black and one thread weight on my planned "Elliott" as it will be more versatile.  The lady I got the idea from made some fabulous cropped cardis with the crochet trim.

 I'm glad to read that your style crisis is resolving itself.  I think it's pretty common for us to want to rethink our look occasionally, especially after a significant weight change.  I like the idea that you can always go add more embellishing later if you want to. 

I think you look adorable in the photos you posted with the dress fabrics and your RTW cardi.  The style still suits you IMO.

Have you seen the new Ivey Abitz spring and summer look book? It's a winner with lots of new designs.  I really like the clever lacings on the Chevallier Cardigan, especially what they are calling a "leaf" in the description, but also the front pieces.  I'm going to try to add those to my planned Burda pattern, once I get brave and trace the pattern off.  Whew!  That sure looks complicated.

DementedFairy, I'm really enjoying your purple and teal pieces. 

Wow, Eva, those jeans look awesome on you!  If I had jeans that fit that well, I might actually wear them more often.

I got my next piece cut out, the teal leggings from two identical thrifted tops.  I'm hoping to get them sewn tomorrow, but Hubby just said we need to start the taxes in the morning.  Hopefully he will sleep in and I can sew first.

I played around a bit with my teal dress.  The first photo shows it over the black dress I made earlier.  I enjoyed wearing this outfit to church on Sunday.



The next photo shows the teal dress over the raspberry one that I made as a muslin for the Sydney pattern that I'm using.  That one doesn't have the drawstrings.  I also made a sash from the raspberry fabric.



Today I cut the teal leggings from the two identical thrifted tops.  It was close, but I managed to get them cut out.  I thought I would probably have to add fabric from a third t-shirt which would need to be dyed.  I'm glad I didn't.

Here are the photos I took of the drawstring casings when I was sewing my teal dress.

The casings before I stitched them down. They are an inch from the bottom to leave room for the ruffle to be sewn on and still have the casings open at the bottom. You can see on the sides where I had to piece the fabric because it was too narrow.



Inside of the dress showing the 3"x 10" casings that I made for the drawstrings. They are stitched down the center and each side with the top and bottom open. I ran the drawstrings out the top so the strings wouldn't show. The side is an extension I added for the side seam casing.

The side seam casing after it was sewn. I first sewed the side seam and then folded the flaps down and stitched along the edges, leaving the top and bottom open. The extra seams are where I had to piece the fabric because the skirt I made it from was too narrow. Same for the seam going parallel to the bottom.

I haven't been posting - just too busy with work.  However, I have been watching and am inspired by so much eye candy.  I find it fascinating how several items in what one might think of as lagenlook are so very different and inspiring - I love the special touches IndigoTiger employs, the drawstrings on crazyquilter's dress - oh my gosh so cute - and oh, Mary, I really like the streamlined chic!

I am always so amazed by what everyone is sewing. Sharonspils, your dress is a perfect example of how you make it look so easy, but what really takes mastery of skill to pull off.

Melinda, gorgeous stenciling. 

I know I missing tons, but I realized I haven't been sharing with you all my awe about your work...and wanted to fix that quick!

Thank you for brightening my day.