Refashioning in My Heart

I just signed up for the Wardrobe Refashion. I have held its base intention in my heart since the first time that I heard about it a year or two ago. I didn't officially join in at that point, but here I am now really making the commitment. I have so much fabric and so many pieces of clothing! In addition, I also have very little interest in participation in the greater fashion machine. I know what I like and I have all the skills to make those items for myself.

I truly begin today by having replaced the jeans on the rack (even though they were on sale and were the first skinny jeans that have looked at all good on me) and returning home to finish off a dress that had been languishing unfinished.
Pattern: Mccalls M5893
Very good pattern, just don't ignore the fact that it calls for stretch knits (only necessary in the bodice).
Fabric Story: Skirt is Amy Butler purchased at 50% off; green with brown polka dots that has been used as an accent once before; the bodice is cut from a tshirt (michaels XXL adult for $2.50 on sale; will continue to count that as a fabric purchase). Remaking the bodice was the step that caused this to languish; I hate backward motion. It took about an hour (to make it the first time ignoring the need for stretch and the second time to integrate the fix) and all was well.

It's Snuggly!

For some time, my dear Mr. C has been wishing for a snuggly Ushanka. He spied this rich purple fur hanging out in my stash a while ago and proceeded to beg that it become such a snuggly hat - not request but beg. As I have been slowly moving my enormous stash to our tiny apartment, I brought this fabric home as covertly as possible. However, I was not covert enough. He saw it and wanted to know when I would be making his snuggly hat. I found the opportunity to torture him a bit until Christmas; I responded that I would not be making any snuggly hat with this fabric and would instead be making the baby a bear. It nearly brought up tears (insert evil laughter here). I used Vogue 7981, which seems to now be in their out of print section.

I did have to redraft it so that it would fit my handsome hubby's XXL head (25"). It ended up fitting perfectly. As long as I was there, I figured that I would make it a father/son moment and make one for the little beastie, which I need to let out. Kids' heads really reach close to adult size quite quickly. These are pics from our post Christmas trip to Portland, where Snuggly hats were well worn and appreciated.

Different than an apple

I needed some teacher gifts asap. I hate gifting blindly, as in not knowing much about the recipient. As I moped around the craft store, dissappointed in settling on two matching generic gift, I remembered that I did know that his main teacher likes to cook and incorporates that into her lessons often. Then, I wondered around the store some more trying to think of how to use this remembered knowledge. Stumbling upon this double quilted chili fabric made it click - potholders. They are teflon fabric lined.

I added the handle covers since I have been needing to make some for my own kitchen. Also teflon fabric lined.

I purchased 1/2 a yard of the cotton and 1/3 yard of the teflon.
I then cut out four 9" squares and four 9"x4.5" rectangles from the cotton. Next I cut out four 9" square from the teflon. I finished the edge of the rectangles with 7/8" ribbon used as a binding. Then I sandwiched the front, hanging tag, pocket flap, and teflon. Stitched, turned, and top stitched. FIN.
For the handle covers, I improvised a pattern from my cast iron pan handle, cut out fronts and backs and matching teflon linings.

Easy and hopefully well liked.

I am here.

SO, I do really stitch stuff.

I am a bad blogger though. If I get it together enough to blog, I usually hit my knit blog first. Then, I am blogged out. Or, I just have not set up current picture of my stitching.

Today, I am a little excited by some design ideas and by renewing play on a favorite website, COLOURLOVERS. This made today the day to start treating this blog with some more respect than an entry once every millenium. I will come back to why I mentioned Colourlovers later, after I have taken the next step in my play with thier tools.

Right now, I want to fill you in on my current sewing obsession. I love to make my new husband custom shirts in wacky cottons. He loves it, too. It is really all he wears (partly because that is what fits, too). We have a good time picking out fabrics together and we also have a good time seeing people's reactions to his crazy collection. I am also obsessed with these items because they are really the fruition of all the skills I have learned through many years of sewing and tons of love poured in to achieve high quality and durablity. Sometimes, the timing of the shirts coming to his side of the closet is a slow dribble because they take a lot of hours with the flat fell bound seaming (it is like sewing a garment 3 times). However, on our honeymoon, I finished 3 and just finished 3 more for his recent bday. This more than doubled his rotation, which have made him an equal mix of famous and notorious at the high school at which he instructs. For Xmas, he is getting a few more (I hope).

This leads me to rant that stupid Simplicity pattern Company has discontinued two very fine Mens' patterns: 4287 and 9469. They have a pathetic set of patterns to fill this measly section as it were and now they have diminished it greatly by putting those two out of print. Unfortunately, I have the nasty habit of not taking great care of my patterns since I quickly tire of dress patterns and they are so cheap. These shirt patterns are classic though, so I am going to have to order the out of print copies and reinforce 'em and treat them like gold. The best result yet though has been from combining components from 3 different patterns, so I am likely to tranfer those components onto better pattern paper and keep those like something far more precious than gold.

Below is a fashion slide show of all the complete shirts that I could get my hands on (one is nearly absent as it is being worn to work currently). The shirts appear in chronological order. All I have to say is that I coulod have rocked the recent menswear challenge on Project Runway; as I have not only made these many shirts, but pants, zoot suits, vests, ties etc.

My name is Anne, but you can call me Annie

Only people I love have ever been entitled to call me Annie.* You can call me Annie. Here's why: I adore working in costume and wardrobe. Therefore,by the transitive property, I love wardrobe; You are attached to wardorbe or costume too; so, I love you.



This blog will be a lightly informal place to get to know this aspect of my professional aspirations. To amplify the informality and the get-to-know-annie vibe, I am showing you a couple of pictures of my family. My son is in the upper left hand corner - I really hope that when I ask him what he wants to be for halloween next year, he will ask for something more fanciful. Some early wishlist items include ghost, as in a white sheet type. My heart cries a little at the simple thought. My fiance is pictured with me on the right side here. We are gussied up for a formal dance from two years ago at CSUCI while he was getting his teaching credentials. I whipped out my gown and a formal vest for him. Just in case you ever find yourself making Vogue 8048, there is a mistake in the illustration for attaching the vest pockets. The pieces are illustrated upside down. No worries - by the time that you make it the 3rd time, you will remember that you do not want to rip it out and self correct when attaching the pocket lining to the 4th vest.

Since I get the feeling that I shouldn't be sharing about the stuff I have worked on that hasn't been released yet, so I will mainly be sharing hypothetical project, drawings, and finshed seamstress work.

*My great love, Mr. K, will probably never call me Annie again because it was spoiled for him long ago by another. Our love goes on despite that spoiler.