I've been doing a lot of sewing in the past couple of months but it's mostly been making muslins to try out new patterns. Everything seems to be a good start and maybe not quite done. I'll show you.
While at the Puyallup Sewing Expo last month we stopped by a booth with several Japanese cottons. We all bought one or two pieces. I wish I remembered the name of the company and the gal who was the owner because she was so nice to us. She was wearing a tunic made from one of the cottons that I fell in love with. I bought the cotton and she graciously offered to let me copy the pattern. It is a Japanese pattern, I have no idea where you would get it.
I ran over to another booth, bought a roll of pattern paper and my pals helped me find a secluded table to lay it out and trace it. That might be a first!
Here you see my muslin with some fabric I had on hand. The front is a Japanese cotton. I had 1 yard of this (intended to make Diane Ericson's Faultline Vest....I never did but still intend to make it!) The back is a stretch woven that I appliqued a few of the front fabric motifs onto.
One of the things I like about this, which you can't really see in this fabric, is that the back wraps around to the front at the hems. When I make it in the Japanese cotton I got you'll see what I mean.
This doesn't look great on the dress form but I think it's more flattering on. And, it makes up in about 2 hours.
I like this pattern and with our weather changing to warmer summers I think I'll be wearing it a lot.
Here's another pattern I got in Puyallup. This one is The Sewing Workshop's Fillmore Duster. They were so kind to let us try on their samples. Such a gracious thing to do. I made my muslin from scraps. It went together easily and was fun to make. When I make it again I'll either change the collar or make sure it's made with a stiffer fabric. The collar just sort of lays there with this lightweight knit. Could-Woulda-Shoulda interfaced it!
I think I'm going to silk screen a little black onto the light grey stripe and carry it up to the left top a bit. Seems like too much blank space.
Here's another muslin. This is a vest pattern that I've coveted for several years. Marcy Tilton wore it to a DOL back in 2010! I fell in love with it. For years I've been hoping that Vogue would let her make a pattern....but no...
I think poor Marcy finally got tired of me asking and had it made into a pattern and....she sent me one!!! The joy that it gave me is probably not understandable to everyone but there you are, I was over the moon. And SO grateful.
I headed into the bunkhouse right away and started thinking about what to use for the muslin. Unbelievably, I didn't really have enough of anything I was willing to toss if the first go 'round didn't work so off I went to Beverly's Fabrics. I found this quilt cotton on sale for 5 bucks. It's kinda cute, not sure it's me but it was easy to work with.
The pattern came together easily. The first one was a bit tricky since there weren't any instructions. However, I was lucky enough to own a vest made by the same company that had the same details joining the top to the bottom.
So when I was finished with this I went on to make it with a pretty difficult fabric.
This is a techno type fabric with little bitty wires running through it. I had to flat fell all of the seams to encase the wire so it doesn't poke me. Since it has wire the fabric bends and turns and stays in that shape so it's pretty crinkly...not sure I'm going to like this but I'll wear it today and find out! It might turn out to be muslin #2.
I like the collar, it reminds me a lot of the collar from one of my all time favorite Marcy patterns. Sadly out of print.
I'll be making this again soon, I really love the pattern. Marcy, I can't thank you enough!