Happy Tuesday, everyone!
After a very busy and emotional weekend, I am exhausted! Saturday was action-packed, and the band played our last show EVER. I cried on stage, sang and talked myself hoarse, and stayed out until 1:45AM socializing and eating pizza. Totally worth it. After getting up at 5:45AM and having no nap, Sunday was spent strutting around a Golden Age mansion in 1920’s underwear (and some actual clothes sometimes) and then wandering around said mansion trying to figure out how many hours it would take the owners of the house to find me if I just picked a bedroom and crashed for a while.
Saturday was so busy that I didn’t have a chance to unpack or photograph my latest fabric delivery until now. I got some great stuff!! A very sweet friend gave me a generous cash gift (like, so generous that I felt terrible accepting it, but did anyway because we’re both stubborn and what kind of asshole turns down a gift from a woman at her wedding?) and I decided to spend it on more fabric. Because duh. I placed my first-ever order with Fashion Fabrics Club about 2 weeks ago, and apart from the speed (or lack thereof) with which they ship orders (seriously: order entered and confirmed on May 20, order received on May 31–Missouri to Ohio, mind you, not international) I’m really satisfied. The fabrics are as-described, but I haven’t checked yardage or grain on anything yet. Almost everything I ordered was a remnant piece, and the prices were really good, in my opinion. I even got some things for Tom!
Black stretch denim! The color isn’t easy to photograph, but it does have a slight brown undertone.
Rayon/poly blend–6 yards of it!
Really soft and slinky knit in a loud color
More t-shirt knit!
Another knit; this one didn’t photograph well, but is lighter and brighter than it looks here.
Wrong side (I think) of the double-faced twill
This side looks so cool!! It’s very close to the color of my Hawthorn dress.
Future coat! The coating is a blend in dark green and white, and the lining is a minty poly charmeuse.
I’m really excited about all of these pieces. I got three different knits for t-shirts for Tom; he likes all of them very much, but I am not looking forward to working with the bright orange rayon jersey! It’s curled up along the cut edges already, so I know it will be a bear when I get down to sewing it. Time to get busy researching how in the hell to stabilize such an ornery fabric! 
The denim will likely become skinny pants and/or shorts for me, and if I have anything left, maybe shorts for Tom. (See?? I am VERY considerate. 🙂 ) All these cuts are WIDE, so it’s not out of the question.
The yellow and black rayon/poly blend will become a Robson trench coat, and I’m nearly ready to pull the trigger on some beautiful 1940’s yellow plastic buttons for it. I need to buy underlining for that project yet, and I’m thinking I’ll probably use black cotton broadcloth or something like that; since the plaid is so loud, I don’t want a lot of weirdness on the inside!
The double-faced twill is really cool and lighter than I expected. My original plan for that stuff was at least one more skirt from Simplicity 1281 and possibly a pair of shorts, so we’ll see how I do!
The coating and lining fabrics in the last photo are especially exciting for me. I bought a pattern on Etsy (which is basically like my heaven at this point) for $6–it’s a coat pattern from the 1920’s for a girl (probably about 13 or so), and I bought it because 1) it’s awesome and 2) the bust measurement matches mine. I’m expecting to have to grade it a little bit, and probably lengthen the arms and widen the shoulders, but I’m really amped about it. This coating fabric seemed like the perfect material for such a classic coat, and the lining is close enough in color to look classy while still being a little surprising, which I love. I’m looking forward to trying some legit tailoring techniques on that project (OMG hair canvas and pad stitching and roll lines)!
In other news, my sewing space has never been as put away as it is right now: we had the band over for a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity last night, and I had to clear off the table so we could eat and play. I even made cheese dip–with REAL cheese–from scratch! It was a lot of fun, but I’m looking forward to getting all my gear back out and hacking into some of this stuff soon. But what will I make first?!?!?!? I have too many ideas, but I’ve got to start whittling away at my stash, which is so tremendous that my bin lid doesn’t so much close as levitate on top of the pile within!
PS: Voting for the Pattern Review Vintage Contest 2014 starts TODAY! Go here to see all the lovely garments people have made over the last month, and if you’re eligible, vote for your favorites! There’s an awful lot of talent in that gallery, which is wonderful!
Life in A "Mads" House 