The "Don't Get Too Excited" Dress

Fabric:  About 2 yards of drapey, cotton from a yard sale my mother-in-law picked up for me.
Pattern:  Simplicity 1987 Year:  2012?

Notions:  1/4" elastic, hook and eye closure, thread

Time to complete:  Should have been 4 hours, instead it took 8

First worn:  Last week to work with belt, cardigan, and boots

Total price:  $0.99 for the pattern, fabric was free, and I had the elastic and closure.

Wear again?  Yes

Yes, this pattern says "one easy project" and really it is telling the truth.  But in Toni's sewing world, nothing is that easy.  Especially when I thought that I was on a roll - I got too excited.  I had cut out the pattern in record time, I was sewing along thinking that I could wear the dress the next day, I was doing so great.  That is until I tried to serge the bodice before attaching the skirt.  You all know how sergers work, right?  See, they have this little knife.  The knife cuts.  The knife cuts through fabric.  The knife cuts nice little triangles out of fabric.  RIGHT OUT OF SIMPLICITY 1987! 

Yes, my friends.  I had a serger casualty.  I swore and then I retired for the night.  I got up the next morning thinking that everything was going to be OK.  I had some extra fabric, I'll just unpick the back panel that got munched and sew it right back in.  Good as new.  Well, it so happened that after I unpicked that back panel that I figured out that I did not have enough fabric (more swearing).  So, I was stuck.  As luck had it, the day before I saw a little tutorial from The Slapdash Sewist on how to repair holes in fabric.  I repaired that gaping gash of a hole and here you have it.

The fabric is kind of '80s but isn't that fashion nowadays?  I'd like to make this dress again but a little longer and with a little more drapey fabric.  It has side seam pockets which are kind of fun to have.  These pictures are of me the night I finished the dress.  I wore it the next week to work with a black cardigan, a brown braided belt, and my new Tony Lama cowboy boots (that I love).  All in all a pretty easy project.  Just wish it was a little easier (I have only myself to blame!). 

The last picture is the dress on Ms. Antoinette.  Terence gave this to me for my birthday.  I need to spruce her up a bit, but isn't she lovely?

Already Pretty - How to Balance a Long Torso

I emailed Sally McGraw of Already Pretty a while ago about my long-torso, short-legged body type and she posted my dilema and her recommendations on her style blog.  Go check it out!

Spring 2012 Palette

If I had a spring palette - or should I say if I had the luxury of sewing or buying a new wardrobe each season (who does this?) - my Spring 2012 color palette might look something like this:

According to Pantone, the hot Spring 2012 colors looks like this:

I'm close.

I'm so torn because by the time I get back into the sewing groove, spring will be over and I'll be behind everyone else.  I guess that means I have to move on to Summer.  So I think my summer wardrobe sewing challenge will include:

• 1 pair of shorts
• 2 summer tops
• 1 summer dress
• 1 skirt
• 1 lightweight blazer type jacket

I think that is pushing it a little but I need a goal.  Now the questions is how am I going to do this at the same time as the The Sew Weekly challenges?  I'll have to fudge and combine efforts I guess.  The next step is looking for some patterns and fabric.  I'll look through the stash and let you know what I come up with.

Why, hello there!

If any of you know me - you know my favorite movies, among others, are Ten Commandments and Ben Hur ( I know, right?).  I was looking for a title for this blog where I could use a play on words with 'so' and 'sew' and all of a sudden it came to me:  So let it be written, SEW let it be done.  Kind of goofy but totally cool at the same time.  This blog will be public unlike my personal blog and will probably only feature me.  If and when I do make things for my children, I will only post pictures of the item.  You'll have to go on over to my personal blog (see right for link) to see pics of the kiddos.

Anyway, to jump start me into sewing again I have signed up to be a contributor to The Sew Weekly.  The Sew Weekly is a sewing blog where the moderator chooses a theme each week and the contributors submit their weekly creations which get highlighted on the website.  Last year there were a total of five contributors and it was fascinating watching each of these ladies sew a piece of clothing around a theme each week.  I was totally hooked.  This year there are over 130 contributors - but like me some haven't been very good about keeping up with the Joneses.  There are definitely regulars and hopefully soon I can be one of them when I am done studying for the PE in April.  I have a lot of patterns to sew up and plan on completing at least one new piece of clothing per month.

I started subscribing to the Burda Style Magazine and have a gazillion patterns so I'm sure I'll be able to keep up with the themes.  I also don't want to buy much fabric this year - I plan on plowing through my fabric stash.

Stay tuned.  I'm pretty excited about what the year has to bring.