The Fall Capsule Collection: Culottes

I made these yesterday and today, and I have to say it's surprising how successfully one can sew while giving very little emotional energy to a project:

Butterick 5681 - highly modified

I haven't got a lot of chutzpa right now but I find sewing oddly meditative in my meh state. This project was just the ticket.

In truth, it was just the ticked cuz I did all the hard work when I made similar culottes as part of the Spring Basics Palette last year. That's when I carefully reviewed 2 culottes patterns (one vintage and one modern) to discern the differences in construction and fit. In the end, I opted to make the modern version (with lots of modifications) and I just wasn't thrilled. (Note to new readers: I did NUMEROUS posts on this and you can find the whole shebang if you search under "culottes challenge" or "B5681".)

On reflection, I find an inner leg pleat to be very fussy, not easy to walk in - and essentially weaker than a pleat free version. Seriously, who likes to bulk up the inner thigh, hinging at the base of the crotch??? Interestingly, B5681 comes with instructions for a pleat and non-pleat option (unlike the vintage pattern I was also working from, which only came with a pleat).

This time I used this pattern for Version B (the pleat version) - which I carefully and significantly altered right after the last experimentation (as even then I knew I'd be making these again). I also changed up the waist band, to create my patented "Is it a Waistband or Is it a Facing?"

You can see here that I serged the bottom of the inner waistband and, instead of flipping it under (which would add bulk - which is not my scene, like, ever - but esp. with denim). Then, from the front, I stitched in the ditch to affix the "face-band".

While I really like the fit this yields, I've never been able to find instructions on inserting the zipper this way. It would be one thing if there were a seam at the fold line of the top of the waistband (the way it works when you properly do a facing). Then I could use Tasia's awesome method (see here and here). It's another thing when you actually make a waistband that folds right over the top of the pants unit.

My "method" folds the waistband in half but the fold over section is free from the top of the pants unit - hence the hybrid. So I had to make up a method for sewing in the zipper that would allow for all of the weirdness - but wouldn't look hideous. I succeeded because, frankly, I couldn't get worked up about it. I figured: There's a slot for a zipper. There's a zipper. Put it together. And it worked.

Potentially Useful Note: I decided to interface the waistband piece with silk organza - not my usual choice. Thing is, I find that fusible interfacing on denim pulls away after numerous washings and the waistband goes all weird and loses integrity. The organza gives great stand and doesn't bulk things up. It works with the denim but also functions independently. I recommend it esp since I merely serged the edges with the organza over the denim and everything happily affixed without any onerous additional steps.

I have to say the fit on these is spot on. They're slim in the waist and hip and they gracefully widen in the leg. The crotch is the perfect height (sometimes an issue with culottes). The stiffness of the denim gives them a great, retro feel but the colour and composition of the fabric are very modern.

I also really like the pockets:

Note: If you make these, the pattern gives whack instructions on the length of the pocket opening. Add a good 2 inches. I thought it would be too small. I even measured my hand and added 1/2 an inch, but it's still barely adequate for my man-hands.

Here's something I do, when I sew with denim that might shock you:

I use pen to delineate the markings. If you look centre-photo, where the pocket meets the seam, you'll see what I mean. I also draw on the darts with pen. I actually think it's cool - ridiculous, I know - to see these on denim. It's points to the industrial quality of the fabric, IMO.

All in all, these fit really well. They're very nicely constructed - but not finely so - if I do say so myself. And they helped me to muddle through some free time that I might otherwise spend worrying. Oh - and they're the penultimate project of the Fall Capsule Collection. Not bad, I suspect you'll agree...

So, what do you think of them? I know that culottes are divisive, but let's talk good, bad and ugly!

PS: Thank you SO much for your continuing comments and emails re: my mum. I cannot tell you how much we all appreciate your thoughtfulness and great information. It is inspiring to see how many of you have managed through similar situations, so gracefully. I will respond to everyone - just sometimes I need to walk away from the topic for a little while...

PPS: I saw my naturopath yesterday (my hormone panel came back) and the results are quite interesting - and useful! Next post is about this...

The Fall Capsule Collection: A Worthy T Shirt

I'm getting the hang of T shirts. Between my bespoke pattern - which I've continued to tweak at every opportunity - and my burgeoning awareness of the fabrics to which one must just say no, I'm making a lot of progress.

After my last go round, I realized that I'd need to find an appropriate fabric - harder to do than you might imagine. After some research, I opted to buy online.

I used a terrific jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics. It was well worth the money given that it's just what T shirt fabric should be: a little bit spongy, firm (but with great stretch), of excellent recovery, saturated colour, beautiful hand and terrific drape. It looks and feels beautiful AND expensive. I have to say that the client service Ann provides is excellent and the 3 fabrics I ordered are delicious. Alas, the shipping to Canada is at the very upper end of my comfort zone, and one can only order in full yards, so I'm viewing this as an occasional splurge. OK, a semi-regular splurge. :-)

This T shirt is almost up to RTW standards:

Even the seams line up nicely:

Between my serger (for seams), my regular machine (for pre-serging to ensure alignment and top-stitching) and my cover stitch machine (for hemming), I've got my own little factory.

The fit is perfect, if I do say so myself - well, I did take about 1/4 inch off the shoulder seam for next go around - but hopefully that will give me the narrowness in the shoulders I require.

Over time, I've had to make many adjustments to the flat pattern original:

• It's now observably hourglass in shape.
• The armholes are very high.
• The sleeves are reasonably narrow - 11.5 inches in circumference - and they are shorter than those of the original.
• The shoulders have been narrowed 4 times to get to the point that the seam sits properly.
• I've also modified the crew neck. Mine is not high, nor is it scoopy. (Of course, one reserves the right to change neckline on a whim!)

Unfortunately, when working with stripes - WTF was I thinking?! I DO NOT believe in pattern-matching and, alas, there's no avoiding it here - sleeve bands are a total liability. I should have just turned under the raw edge and cover-stitched. That would have produced a clean line. Instead I badly serged the bands and it's utterly obvious due to a) stripe-wonk and b) BAD top-stitching.

If you want to go undetected, don't create a visual roadmap. And don't work with skinny stripes! They're that much harder than thick ones cuz they repeat that much more frequently...

What I will say is that I bit the bullet and just figured out how to pattern-match. I didn't read about it. I didn't over-think it. I didn't loathe it. I just did it. I guess that's the sign of experience and confidence and I am grateful because I LOVE stripes and I've never felt comfortable using them before.

No doubt, there is no plaid in my near future, but stripes are in the palette from here on in.

So, whatcha think??

The Fall Capsule Collection (Plus The Summer Series): New Things, Made on an Aptly-Named Weekend

OMG, people. My currrent job is nothing if not hopping. I am not complaining. I spend all days working with people to solve problems. I talk on the phone constantly - just like in a movie montage but with less attractiveness and more accountability. Happily, we generally solve the problems. But at the end of the day I wither like a flower that needs water. And, by water, I mean a Cab Sauv. And TV. And the floor (for yoga). (In truth, sometimes, these days I get home and keep working.)

Currently, I'm about 10 posts behind in telling you the absurd number things that are exciting me lately:

• How I've solved the plain beige bra conundrum. You have to read it to believe it.

• How I don't like Fantasie Vivienne or Elodie

• How I've come up with my next "knitting collection"

• How I'm going to get around having made a bunch of T shirts with fabric having the wrong weight and drape (Loss leader: It involves buying fabric)

• How there's this pattern I found (sewing) that I'm really tempted to buy! (Spoiler Alert: It's expensive)

• How I returned my latest purchases on the basis that I can't justify the cost ($325.00) given that I have so many clothes, I can't even wear them all. Not to mention that I could so make both of those items in a weekend - though that sweater fabric is delicious and one of a kind. OK, really that's all there is to that story. No need to turn it into a drama.

• How Gillian made me a fab colour palette that will, no doubt, turn into the backbone of my next sewing collection

• How I'm really psyched about the new season of lingerie - There are pictures!

And then there's the fact that I still haven't updated you on the outcome of my crafting weekend. Let's properly cross this one off the list.

To clarify - I sewed 5 garments and finished a triangle shawl. In case you're wondering, that amounts to LONG WEEKEND INSANITY.

I showed the new shawl blocking in my last post, though it now looks exactly like this (the version I made for my mother in the spring):

The sewn garments are, frankly boring to photo. I made 2 pairs of black yoga pants that are indistinguishable (though one pair is more poorly constructed than the other) and 3 tops.

Here's the scoop on the tops (and let me assure you, the Tshirt sewing is NOT over):

I have no idea what made me think that I could use a) exceedingly firm ponte (without enough of it to cut even my regular size, much less a slightly bigger size to account for additional ease) and b) exceedingly flimsy Tencel (which I've officially decided was crap fabric - this shit has disintegrated everytime I've sewn with it?!)

I ended up with a really nice, orange shell to fit a child (or a very narrow, slender grown up). And a blue exercise shell that was almost too drapey to hold itself up under my arms, especially in light of the fact that I didn't make the armhole binding strips small enough to accommodate the world's stretchiest textile. And a blue Tshirt that fits like something your mother would wear.

Lessons Learned:

• Using up scraps of fabric, just to use them up, yields dubious results.
• Drapey, thin fabrics make crappy t shirts - whether you sew them or buy them.
• If you don't have enough fabric, and you don't sew for children, just put that scrap in a bag and say goodbye.

BUT, to address my armhole raising experiment: It worked. It would have been perfect if that blue fabric had had any structure or if I'd made the armhole binding about an inch tighter. I will make another of these shells, but likely only when I have that amount of extra fabric - of the correct properties - lying around.

Mind you, I'm just getting started with the T shirts...

So, I've got all the yoga pants I'll need for 2 yrs, a couple of sleeping and yoga tops, a new shawl - and a plan. Not bad for a long weekend, don't you agree?

The Fall Capsule Collection: Factory-Style

Sometimes I'm oddly optimistic. For example, I somehow thought I'd have enough of all of my chosen fabric remnants to make garments willy-nilly. Um, here's a mathy little fact:

•  I make knits to fit about 34 inches across (accounting for negative ease). The armsyce requires a few extra inches of witdth, let's call it 36 inches all in, aka a yard of width required.
• Most knits are cut on the fold for a seam free front and back. In light of this, I need 18 inches of width (and 22 inches of length, FWIW) to get a shirt front or back. 
• If I use a 60 inch-width of fabric, that means I've got quite a bit of excess remaining, but not enough to cut another front or back. That would take 12 more inches and fabrics come in standard lengths. 72 inches is one I've rarely seen.

The upshot is that I generally end up with almost enough to make 2 t-shirts with a yard of 60"-wide fabric. But not.

This means I'm kind of fucked for V8323 with most of the fabric ends I have. It needs 2 yards of 60"-wide fabric (I double checked). Hmmm. In fact, I've got barely enough of most of my knits to make a T shirt or exercise shell.

Enter (potentially misguided) resourcefulness:

This represents 2 pairs of yoga pants, 2 KS3115 shells and a T shirt, made from my sloper...

 What you should know is this:

• Only the yoga pants and one of the T shirts is actually "cut according to the directions".

• The orange exercise shell is an XS (approx) in the back because that's all the fabric I had. Given that it's a firm ponte, it's quite possible that it will be too small.

• The light blue exercise shell has a deep slice (width wise, of course) at the waist along the side seam. I'm going to use fusible interfacing to adjoin it, and I also tried to cut it out to the best of my ability, but this is also fucking with size.

• On the blue shell, I also cut the binding in half width pieces, which will need to be joined before I attach them to the armholes and neckline. This is cuz there wasn't a piece of that fabric vaguely wide enough by the time I cut the second bodice shell. I even had to shorten the armhole binding (shorter than the new shortened length I determined when I made the last shell). I hope it will be long enough in light of the fact that this fabric is VERY stretchy.

So, there you go. I've got an altered list of items here - you may note that I'm making more yoga pants than originally intended and I've added a whole extra garment (the exercise shell). So, things are on a slight detour but it's all for the greater good, I suspect.

Today's questions: How much fabric do you need to make a T shirt? Do you find the whole fabric thing terribly wasteful, no matter how hard you try? Whatcha think of all of this? Do tell!

The Fall Capsule Collection: A Bit About My Pants Sloper

A couple of years ago I made a pants sloper. I learned, during that process - which, while painful, was in NO way even half as challenging as making a standard woven top (for me, given my body type) - that I don't need to shorten the legs of pants (my legs are proportionately long) but the rise of pants.

You see, my lower torso is very short and, between my navel and base of my crotch, I am a couple of inches shorter than the length of your average commercial pattern. So, these days, when I cut out a new pants pattern, I always compare the crotch length to that of my sloper. Inevitably I remove the same 2 inches at the lengthen-shorten line. Not a prob.

My crotch curve is also not standard - odds are that yours isn't either. I need to add a bit of fabric onto the front and back crotch seams to give a small amount of extra room given that a) I need to accommodate the bump of my lower abdomen and b) I have a relatively round derriere. Having said this, my legs and hips are proportionately slender.

Given all this, I usually cut a size to suit my legs and hips and then I add a bit of fabric to the crotch curve while shortening the crotch length substantially. Depending on whether my fabric has some stretch to it, I may also add an inch to the waistband measurement. I do this on a case-by-case basis.

For Kwik Sew 3115 (yoga pants), for which I cut a medium, I made my usual alterations to the crotch curve and length. Interestingly, I didn't need to shorten the pants legs even 1 cm. Thing is, during the version that I made last weekend, I shortened things about half an inch too much, so the crotch of the pants is going up my butt slightly, and there's also some camel-toe action happening. It's not extreme, but for my next go-round, I've added back 0.5 inch of length to the crotch and shortened the hem by the same half an inch.

Even with a firm knit, these pants are not tight in my upper leg or hip, in the way some yoga pants are deliberately designed to fit. They skim. But since I'm sleeping in them - as well as doing everything else chez moi - I don't feel the urge to narrow the hip or leg.

Point is, I've opted for a medium, rather than a small, to better suit my waist measurement and to give me a flow-y fit.

One other thing I've done - to accommodate that lower ab bump (I will disclose that my whole abdominal area has been a ball of mushness for the last while - I sense it's hormonal and I am working to strengthen my core) is to cut a slightly longer piece of elastic (1 inch longer than the pattern calls for) and - this is key - I use 2"-wide elastic, not the 3/8" width that the Kwik Sew pattern calls for.

Why? Well, I don't know about you, but I think it's a bit weird and wussy to have a skinny piece of elastic sewn into the top of a 2.25 inch wide waistband. It also does nothing to support one's waist and below. The thicker elastic gives a nice, smooth waistline.

But...

It's harder to insert, for sure.

What I do (and keep in mind that all elastic has different stretch properties which depend partly on width and partly on the material used to produce the elastic) is to sew a zig zag stitch (as the pattern instructs) not through the middle of the elastic but on the top and on the bottom of the elastic width. The trick is to affix the initial row of zig zag without rippling the fabric or accidentally catching it in a bump. It's trickier than it seems. Sewing the second layer of stitching is much easier, as you already have a fixed point. But you still have to be careful not to catch the fabric.

At any rate, this is how I've adjusted my yoga pants, for my unique shape. How do you alter stretch pants to do the same? Do you use a wider elastic to support the waist? Are you still working on that elusive sloper? What's the hardest part of getting pants to fit for you? Let's talk.

Updated: KS 3115 Exercise Top (See Yesterday's Post)

This is one of the many reasons that I love you blogger friends: You read my insanely long posts about reasonably trivial sewing projects and provide feedback.

I revisited the top pattern today, all set to do what I suggested in my last post. FYI, doesn't matter how short one's dart is, closing a 2.5 inch wide dart, of various lengths, yields a 6 inch span at the hem. Ridiculous. Plus, it makes the armsyce look weird and truncated - like a right angle sort of -  which, when I trued for correction yields - guess what? - the same armscye curve as the modified one used the first time. My proposed fix seems destined to fail. I can see it, even if I can't articulate my reasoning well.

Three of you suggested that I probably need to go down a size. That seems crazy to me, but it's sometimes the way. I just redrew the size small armscye (recreating it with a french curve cuz, natch, I cut into the actual pattern first time around, stupid girl) as it appears that what I need is a higher armhole - not a longer one. (My own armscye is pretty high, and that's probably why I can wear all of those high-winged bras without issue, despite my shortness and short-waistedness.)

It occurs to me today that I graded from a small shoulder to a medium bust in the weirdest way. I didn't draw the armhole in size small and move to a medium side seam. I cut a small at the shoulder and graded to a medium along the front armscye curve. Effectively I lowered the armhole while neglecting to remove fabric as assertively as I should have, where I should have.

There you go. Can't say that my new size small - which if I recreated it correctly is exactly the same as the unmodified original - will solve the problem of 2 plus inches of extra fabric. But I did take off a reasonable amount of side seam at the underarm (like, 2 inches per side over front and back pieces) and raised the curve by about 1/2 an inch. Furthermore, I reverted the front and back armholes to a true size small, rather than something half way between a small and medium.

Hilarious, that I've managed to turn a simple shell into a complicated thing. But not surprising.

In Which I Liken Making A Top to Extreme Skiing

I was going to tell you about the yoga pants I made over the weekend but then last night I went off-road...

Note: For those of you who have any interest in KS3115 yoga pants: Don't worry, you'll have lots of opportunity, very soon, to hear all about them - how I slightly modified the pattern (yet again), how they turned out (well, but they'll be better next go around, on the weekend, one hopes, since I've made more changes still). Fear not.

Anyway, my version of off-road is not exactly extreme skiing (a propos of which: watch this doc. It's fascinating and I could give a shit about extreme skiing). My version involves looking at a pattern envelope next to an extra half-yard of fabric and thinking: hmmmm, I could totally make that exercise top to match those yoga pants which would totally spice up my fall capsule collection. And by that exercise top, I mean the one in View B, with the v-neck:

So out came the scissors.

Remember, my goal is fun and not complicated and I suppose, for the most part I succeeded. I mean, I made a top on a Monday night. Note: That's largely because my headache took a vacation and my kid banished me from the room with the TV as she had a friend over. (On that topic, my child feels that I am a terrible embarrassment and will not bring friends to the house. So, the fact that she had a sleep-over here for a change, even if it means I had to put 20 dollars on the table for pizza and stay off the main floor, seems like a step in the right direction. Yes, I have become this bedraggled shell of a parent.) But back to the story...

I opted to cut the shoulders in a small, grading to a medium at the underarm. I never do this kind of alteration but everyone else does, and it seems to work for them. On the plus side, the shoulders fit perfectly.

Other pluses include:

• The top is totally wearable for exercise, or for real life (when made in work-appropriate fabric). 
• The instructions are excellent, as are those for the pants. 
• You can actually make a top on a Monday night, even if you don't sew quickly.

Weirdly, when I made this top - and thank goodness I did things like pin together the side seams to check the fit before serging - there was a huge excess of fabric from the front armscye leading towards the bust apex. Like, enough that I had to take out a dart, on each side, that was 2.5 inches wide.

Did I mention that, when you create darts of that width (it wasn't a long dart, happily, or I can imagine what kind of a disaster that might have been) ON THE FLY, some pretty scary things can occur. Like one dart can end slightly higher than the other. Or, both darts can be, say, an inch too high. Then there's the fact that, unless you want to cut the darts - which is something I avoid unless there's a lining to protect the cut fabric from the wrong side - you have to deal with a freakin' 2.5 inch armscye dart - the armscye you will shortly thereafter have to bias bind around. But wait - there's more: How many stretchy exercise shells have you seen with armscye darts, pointing to the boob??

Let's leave all that for a moment. Let's wonder how it is that I managed, while making a size medium (the bust measurement for which is 38 inches sewn, mine is 37.5 inches), to have 2.5 inches of extra fabric to remove from the side of the armhole. Does it have something to do with the fact that I graded from a smaller to a larger size? I really don't think so. Does it have something to do with the fact that I should have made the small? I mean, with negative ease, that theory is a possibility. But I assume the finished sizing accounts for that.  I should say, this extra armscye fabric thing does happen to me when I make woven garments, but never with stretchy knits that aren't particularly tight anywhere. This top fits, not loosely, but certainly not super closely.

I do love the fact that I made a top that fits (albeit with weird bust darts) and that I averted near disaster, as said disaster emerged, with nary a moment of fear. I kept my wits and actually drew the dart onto the paper pattern (to the best of my ability given that I was working with a half-constructed garment). See, even at that point, I knew I'd want to try to make this top again, on the weekend, when I make the next pair of yoga pants. (Oooh, more coordinated outfits!)

Then I realized that I can't rotate a dart at the best of times - this theory defies the laws of physics, people! - so, this morning, I called S, my fitting friend (whom I haven't spoken of recently, but with whom I have many meaningful sewing and other conversations).

In five seconds, she was able to explain that, to remove the dart from the armscye area, aka correct the fit by rotating the dart, I need to:

a) draw a vertical line from the hem to the bust apex, then
b) close the armscye dart, then
c) cut the vertical line from hem to the bust, to re-flatten the pattern, and create a dart there (to the extent that it's necessary. I sense it might not require a lot of spread from the hem as my armscye dart is quite short in as much as it's wide...)
d) In as much as I will not close the new, vertical dart (cuz darts on exercise wear are weird), I will have to remove any excess fabric, which will have collected at the bodice front as a result of not closing that the vertical dart, from the side seams.

FWIW, I'll also have to cut about an inch of length from the armhole binding next time, because I cut the binding in size medium and my armscye is actually a morph of small and medium. The extra binding length, plus the dart, has made that section of the bodice a bit less firm and fitted than I'd like.

This actually seems straight-forward from where I sit now. In front of my computer with a snack. Can't wait to see what the weekend brings!

Today's questions: Have you made this top and, if yes, what do you think? Have you encountered the extra armscye fabric dilemma when working with knits? How did you fix it? To what do you attribute it? Let's talk!

Fall Capsule Collection: How I've Been Planning

So, you know what I'm planning to finish and make anew, this autumn. At the risk of fancying things up, I decided I had to give it a name. I mean, how will I title things, categorically, without a name?

I've done my best to make the name, such as it is, entirely unprepossessing. (Now that's a word you don't hear every day!)

Brief recap: I'm going to make:

• 2 pairs of yoga pants (KS 3115)
• 2 t shirts (My own pattern, based on a sloper by Built By Wendy)
• A mock wrap top (V8323 - the surplice style, with 3/4 sleeves)
• Culottes (B5681) in denim
• I'm also going to finish 2 outstanding - and let's hope that's how they turn out! - knitting projects - a triangle wrap and a pretty complicated, fitted jacket cardigan

For starters, my darling is back from the spa! (Scott told me, as the machine arrived, that it was the first time he'd seen me smile in days. In my defense, I've been managing a hideous headache for more than a week - at the "wrong" time of the month, just to fuck with all of my methodology - and I have no idea of what's what. Only that everything is miserable when you're in pain.)

Here's an inventory of work done:

It stands to reason, though I was unaware till I went on this journey, that vintage Vikings are amongst the most expensive to service (a few independent quotes bears this out). Apparently they take longer to look over, not all mechanics are schooled in their ways, and the parts are hard to come by, should you need them (in the scheme of things). For your info, including courier, both ways, taxes and all the things shown on the receipt, the final bill was $180.00. That's not negligible given that the machine itself, including delivery from America, cost $350.00. Mind you, if I don't have to worry about it for a couple of years, and it works beautifully, it will be money well-spent.

I have only just briefly tried the machine and I have to say it feels different - much smoother - and the stitches (with barely any tension adjustment) are lovely and even. Now, I'm not getting excited till have a chance to see things in action on a variety of fabrics. Just sayin', it's starting off well. Note: The machine is under full warranty for 3 months.

What I intend to do next, in aid of getting used to it (to return to the topic of the Fall Capsule Collection), is to practice stitches on my capsule-chosen fabric swatches, to ensure I use the best needle and settings on each.

Here are those swatches:

For the yoga pants:

Black ponte - very nice weight and gifted to me by Susan which formerly I used to make this Tiramisu...

Mystery exercise fabric in indigo, which recently resurfaced. I know it looks black but it's not.

For the wrap top, either of these fabrics may work (though they will fit completely differently given the difference in fabric properties) - in addition to the black ponte above:

This is the fabric I used to make that crazy tricky, Grecian beauty: Vogue 1287

I used this fabric, long ago, to make V8413, a really lovely and practical garment I somehow manage never to wear.

For the T shirts:

This fabric made V1027, that dress I really didn't enjoy making, but which I've worn rather a lot (even though I could have made the bodice longer and the stitching stronger where the belt-tie meets the waist.

And this fabric, which looks like nothing in the swatch, is the GORGEOUS Modal I used to make the Coppelia...

If you think you've seen them all before, that's cuz you have. Well all of them except for the dark navy exercise fabric (mystery textile). I don't even think I can tell you were that came from - and it's the only one I can say that about. I think it might have been the Spandex House, years ago. Well, it sure is gonna come in handy now!

My point: When I use these fabrics in the context of new patterns, I don't think anyone's going to be able to identify them with pre-existing garments, made in the same fabrics. I suppose we're about to find out.

I don't really care, though. These are basics. They're not there to dazzle, but to blend elegantly with other pieces. The fabrics are good so I'm not concerned. As long as they suit the pieces I make - and as long as those pieces fit properly - they will serve me very well.

Today's questions: What do you think of my machine service bill? Does it seem reasonable? And how do you feel about my chosen shipping to and fro option? What are your thoughts about my fabric choices? I know the swatch photos aren't gorgeous, but I'm curious to know which is your fave. Let's talk!