Shopping Your Closet...

...your fabric closet, that is.

Over the past couple of months I've had a delightful succession of experiences in the sewing room - all of which have been free! (work with me here) because I haven't had to buy a thing.

Yeah, for the better part of a year, I bought - seemingly endlessly - all kinds of fabric - never mind a gluttony of notions - to hoard in the fabric cupboard. But since then, I've made 2 shirts, an iPad case, a skirt and 2 kid dresses without buying so much as a spool of thread.

Scarily, cuz I'm not one of those fabric hoarder types by any stretch (hahaha, get it??), I still have a practically full fabric closet. What's with that??

You may know that I have a strict "if you can't fit it neatly in the fabric cupboard, you can't buy it" policy. And I am too scared to go against my own rules. So, when I hit the (wood) ceiling, that was it. I haven't purchased fabric since. And I'm not hurting.

I do feel that my wardrobe is in need of a painful, fashion-y shot in the ass. All of my recent hand made items have been a) for computers, b) for others or c) for winter. I appear to have no appropriate transitional home-sewn items. And I'm so freakin' sick to death of the 3 pairs of denim pants (2 trousers, 1 denim leggings) I made in mid-January, that I never want to see them again.

I also feel that I've made a few items which I love, but which don't get a lot of play because they're not "basic" enough. Y'all know I love vintage. I'm just not sure how I feel about stuff I've made that's meant to look vintage. I think something may be lost in the translation. And the fit on those items has been a work in progress.

All this is to say that I didn't get my ass in gear to do the Colette Patterns Spring Challenge (who has that kind of foresight in a Toronto winter), but I definitely want to produce a few new, highly-wearable pieces.

A book I haven't given a lot of thought to lately - though one I really enjoyed when first I purchased it - is Sew U Home Stretch, by Wendy Mullin. Wendy is all about empowering her sewist readers by providing "slopers" - or basic garment shapes - which can be modified in any number of ways. In this book she provides a crew neck T, a raglan sleeve knit shirt and a stretch dress sloper. I really love the dress which I've made twice, successfully. Note to sewists with sergers: She does include a reasonable, if accessible, amount of information about using this machine with knits.

I think it may be time to shop the fabric stash for the optimal knit to make a couple of variations on the T (long sleeve, short sleeve etc.) from Sew U Home Stretch.

Here are some fabrics I'm thinking of using:

Soft taupe knit - looks almost woolen but it must be cotton... Steen and Nicole bought this for me when they were in Italy over Xmas.

This is fabric I've had forever! I bought it at Spandex House and had it shipped. Talk about an expensive shipping proposition. You can't see it easily here, but it's an indigo fabric designed to mimic denim.

This is a fabric I've used twice before. I may not have enough to make a T but we'll see. It's a very stretchy rayon that drapes really nicely and stays cool.

This is another one that S & N bought in Italy. It's quite an open weave. I have no idea how it will sew and it's a small amount given that there's a tear rather centrally located. I will try to get a shirt out of it though...

The T shirt variations - and here's hoping I can adjust the sloper to fit me fantastically - will complement the jeans I'll be making shortly with the MPB Sew Along.

What do you think?