This is NOT my messy sewing room

I know that it will be hard to tell from the photos, but they are not photos of my messy sewing room. Honestly, trust me...have a little faith.

I truly cleaned it up before this explosion of fabric.  I threw away trash and vacuumed all the dirty bits, all the edges and corners.  I tidied up a bit, but not too much.

Reason being my sewing friend Melody/Ody was coming over to help me go through my stash. I wanted help figuring out keeps and not-keeps.  The not-keep is a hard category.  Okay, sometimes it's easy, something is truly ugly, but that guilt thing will pop up and make it hard to pass on (or in some cases throw away.

My goal in the next few days is to sort through this explosion of fabric and sort it into the closet that is designated as my fabric closet.  And the sad thing is that I've gotten lazy and my cats will lounge in the closet too, it's warm and snuggly, cozy like a cave, just what a cat likes.  But a few pieces were ruined from claws, and it was kind of hairy.  I will be washing lots of fabric in the next few days, sorting some into ziplock bags (woolens) and tossing tossing tossing some more.

I also have a hard time parting with patterns, but I want to take the patterns in my other closet and place them on the floor in the fabric closet, then I can use that space for my most current patterns. Hmmm...do you see the pattern here?  I have too much SHIT!

Then on top of it I have a ton of Burdas and Ottobres and I love my Lutterloh books (though they are mostly downstairs on my bookshelf. Just too much stuff.

Here we go with the photos...and please don't be too harsh on me.  I'll update more in the next few days.

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This first photo needs some explaining.  The tall table is my cutting table and the fabrics on top of it are pretty much my keep pile.  The fabrics on the floor are my toss/give away pile.  The fabrics on the smaller table with the fan were also keeps, but a few muslin pieces.  Under that table are drawers for embroidery threads and other items.



This is obviously my sewing machine set up, which right now is also covered with fabrics.  I have my serger, two sewing machines (one is an embroidery machine) and my coverstitch machine.  I have the computer for watching videos.  The totes with the manila envelopes by the window are full of my Silhouette Patterns, the ones I want to keep out for easy use, but to move to my closet.



This is actually a big double closet, the other half is full of knitting supplies, which also will need to be thinned out.  I have totes of patterns I want to move out, all my notions, and other odds and ends.



This bookshelf is outside the room and full of sewing and knitting magazines.



This is the closet I use for my fabric closet.  It is totally empty and thoroughly vacuumed, ready to be reorganized.  I want to put my lesser used patterns on the floor also.



This is often what the closet looks like.  This is a very bad habit I've let happen and when the fabrics are washed and put away, the doors will stay closed and the cats will not be let back in.

Sewing Crisis

Perhaps I need to take a short break from sewing.  I'm feeling discouraged right now, and I think shopping would help a bit.

I sewed a blazer...out of tweed...not what's supposed to be my style, and I look like I'm wearing my grandfather's coat.

And I went through a pile of garments I had sewn, and all of them were too bright or too the wrong color or too tight, and the discouragement kind of grew.

Oh, and I thought I would take in the legs of a pair of white jeans I had, and then the legs were too tight.

I definitely call that a SEWING CRISIS.

I did find a hot pink top and put on my winter makeup and that looks rights.  But style is hard.

A break is in order for now.

My colors were redone

A few years back I had my colors done by Linda with House of Colour.  When I went back recently for my style consult class she asked how I was doing and I said I struggle a bit with the Blue Spring she had typed me as.

She plopped me in her magic chair and started to drape me and said she thought she had made a mistake, and she wanted me to come back sometime soon for a re-drape.

That was yesterday.

We both went in with the idea that it was going to be a quick drape session, but she decided to do a full on from the start color consult as if she had never done it with me before.  She wanted to be real sure and did some extra steps.

Actually, she did a comparison between all four season.  I know they have special techniques they follow, I just don't know what they are.

In the mid 1980's a friend of mine had become a Color Me Beautiful consultant and when she did my colors she said I was an Autumn.  For years I've tried to wear Autumn colors and makeup but I always thought it was a bit harsh on me.

Then I went to Linda a few years ago as I had really noticed the changes in my skin and hair.  I had let it go natural a few times, each time with more gray than before.  I had always colored it so it would be more warm with reds and golden shades.

But once again, even as a Spring, I decided to warm up my hair again, and warm up the makeup.  I've never felt good with peachy colors on my lips.

Linda did say I was a tricky one, but definitely blue based.  Yet I'll get golden freckles that will make me look warm.  I don't look bad with the warm colors, I just looked brighter and more clear with the blue based colors.

This is going to be a fun challenge, one that will slow me down a bit.  I not only have a new color scheme, but I have a style to work on.

I'll go through my makeup and keep out only the winter shades and eventually do what I can with my current wardrobe.

My fabric stash is a sad mess right now.  And I will definitely plan on ordering swatches rather than just always hoping for the best.

Here's my photo from yesterday, it's not the best photo, but it's what I've got.

Some new capris for me

I have the Lana Jeans from Silhouette Patterns pretty well fit for my body.  The legs aren't tight or skinny, the pattern isn't for stretch denim either.

I used a very non-stretch denim for these capris, and even regular denim tends to stretch out a bit during the day, but not this one.  It also has a bit of crisp sheen to it.

That darn Pattern Stash

I have decided to deal with my Pattern Stash by entering the Pattern Stash contest on Pattern Review. I have no grand hopes on winning, as the winner is decided by who sews the most new patterns, but it's just a way for me to sew, try patterns I've had collecting for ages, and not worry about perfection.

Here's a quick view of some of my options:




I did my first pattern today from an old vintage (1980....ouch) Simplicity pattern.  I so totally would have sewn this top in high school.  Basically I did, but not this exact pattern.  I made a gazillion Hawaiian camp shirts back then.

My changes were in the sleeves for the most part and I added a bit over the belly and butt.  This pattern is a half-size pattern, which I think is a woman's petite, and it fit me wonderfully.

The fabric was a linen from FabricMart online; it was possibly a linen/cotton blend, but I don't remember.



It's kind of nice not dealing with all the extra lines from today's multi-sized patterns.

Not talking much about the whole style thing yet

Hey, I was pretty impressed to see I had views on the post from the other day, and even a comment, considering I'm one of those lazy bloggers. I blog for myself so it doesn't really matter all that much, yet at the same time I do learn from others so hopefully someone learns from me.

Like I said, I haven't started to talk about the whole style thing yet, but needless to say, I'm not what I'm always trying to be.  Maybe that makes sense, maybe not.

I started to work on a pattern I started on in the past but never completed.  This is the Eureka! Pants that Fit pattern from Fit for Art.  I think I won it once from a Pattern Review contest.  I can make pants that fit, I'm shaped like a soft block, but I don't always like how I look.



One thing that keeps popping into my head after the style consult was that it's not about my body (though it is to some extent) but more to how I feel about clothes and my personality and such.

I made up a quick muslin today starting with the size M with the Back 2 (there are 3 back pieces per size - flat, medium and curvaceous....my words, not theirs.)

Now I will post the first few muslins and you will have a peek into my messy sewing room also:

These first two are on my phone, straight out of the envelope with no darts sewn in (eek.)  But you can see the balance lines are all straight.






Instead of just making a hem I shortened 3 inches above the knee.  Other alterations were to let out the waist so I could put darts in the back.  I also did some tucking and darting out to make the fit better.  You don't get to see that all, it's pretty much "fitting a la Peggy Sagers."


This is a completed photo on the cell phone, doesn't the front look great, a few wrinkles in the back but I've accepted that we have to move around and this fabric has zippo stretch.  It's a nice menswear wool/poly blend.  I have enough to perfect a 2nd pair of pants if I choose.



Here I had my son take a few photos out in the garden and this is the harsh reality.  There are always more folds than you think.

Whoa Baby! Had a style consult and this kind of blows my mind

A few years back I had my color analysis done as I was feeling dull and drab.  I probably should look back through this blog to see if I commented on it at the time.

Just recently I saw my consultant doing a live Facebook webcast and I realized I had been putting off doing the style consult, because like usual, I'm always waiting till I'm skinny again.

Oh Annette...get a grip...skinny is, skinny isn't, it's just a body.  And what I like and who I am really isn't all that different no matter my size.  I've been skinny and I've been fat (oops, now) and the styles don't change terribly much.

The talk in my head does though.  I have this thought of what I "should be" now that I'm an "older woman" and more "mature."  Ha ha...if you know me, I'm so not mature.

So back to what I was talking about.  I saw the webcast and decided then and there to contact the consultant and make an appointment.  That appointment was yesterday.

I wore a shift dress I had finished sewing the day before.  I'm trying so hard to dress up and to be a lady and dress properly.  The dress had a medium to large floral print on it.  I wore it with slide on sandals and large tear drop silver earrings.  I looked okay, I never feel great in what I wear.

We were to bring a few items we love from our wardrobe and a few we don't like and perhaps don't know why.  I wadded them all up in an Aldi bag, along with a few onion peels and a receipt still in the bag.

That's about as put together as I get.

Linda, the Consultant, asked how I was getting along with my "colors" and I told her that I tried but that I felt I was struggling still.  One thing I noticed the entire time was how she listened to all the words I would say.

She commented that my nail polish wasn't a "Spring" and I said that I didn't like the spring colors on my nails, they weren't right.  Honestly, I keep trying, but corals and such don't "wow" me like a dark intense color does, or just something funky or sparkly.

Then she she plopped me in her color chair and flipped a drape over me, and we both said we liked it, then the next and both of us sort of sighed...it wasn't as good.  She went through a bunch and it was becoming clear to me that the slightly bluer shades were better.

When my colors were done before we decided I was a Spring, and in the House of Colours world what is called a Blue Spring.  It's basically the Clear Spring you'll see from other systems.  The blue range is best.

We're all still just a jumble of DNA, and colors are just a bit of a random mix in the bowl.

I will be going back soon as she thinks I was typed wrong, and that I might be what they call a Sprinter Winter.  Which is a Winter that looks like a Spring, versus the Spring that has some of the winter colors.

But I have hazel eyes, and golden freckles, and it is confusing.

One when I was having my foundation color matched at the Bare Minerals store, two of the employees were arguing over my color.  One was saying I was cool, since my undertone is cool, yet the other said I was warm as I had warm freckles.

I have always felt fairly neutral, able to lean either way.

Before we get into the styles though, I'll wait until we get the new color analysis done.  There is no need to focus on sewing new clothes if my colors aren't right.

Well, here's a little taste of the analysis information.  I don't have any other photos though.  I'll try to remember to take some when I get my colors redone....just for fun.