Not living up to my name ....

Well I am still motivated and trying to decide on my next project.   It dawned on me this week that I am certainly not living up to the name of my blog, Sewing with a Plan.  I haven't had any sewing plan at all to date.  My sewing choices have all been made purely on how easy they will be to sew.  Don't get me wrong I have needed dresses as the weather here in Melbourne over summer has been really hot.  The two dresses I made have been worn quite a few times already, and it has been good to have a few successful sewing projects under my belt to boost my confidence.

My problem is I have a wardrobe full of clothes and nothing to wear.  I am sure a few of you out there in blog land often say the same thing.   I tend to buy clothes just because I like the colour or the style but rarely give any thought to what they will go with in my existing wardrobe or how they will fit in with my lifestyle.  I am to put it bluntly an impulse buyer! 

So my plan now is to sort through my wardrobe and get rid of the things that quite frankly I am not that keen on and then look for gaps that need to be filled and make things that I need that provide me with the type of wardrobe I have often dreamed of.  One that is only made up of things I love, fit me, suit my shape and my current lifestyle.

Today I started work going through my wardrobe.  I have been losing weight (very slowly) over the last two years so the first thing I did was get rid of (donate) anything that was too big or did not fit me well.  I was quite embarrassed to see all of those practically new outfits lying on bed.  Some still had price tags on them.  Some I just looked at and thought "what was I thinking"!   Anyway they have all been taken to the Salvation Army Thrift shop and hopefully someone who needs them will enjoy them.

With my wardrobe now nice and orderly I started to look through and see what outfits I could put together with what I have.  I have to admit that things are in a little better shape than I thought they were in the wardrobe.   Now that I can actually see what is hanging there I can see the potential for a practical wardrobe is possible.

The two areas I have identified as seriously lacking are very dressy going out type of outfits and smart casual for the days that I am not working my corporate job. 

So I have decided that a nice smart denim skirt could be the answer for my casual wardrobe.  Even though we are coming into winter here in Australia I think I will still get to wear it with boots and tights. 

Even better was that I have the denim in my stash and a pattern that I think could look good made up in denim.  I have read some good reviews on the Simplicity Amazing Fit patterns so I thought I would give this one a try.  I think it has potential for some nice top stitching to compliment the denim.   Not sure about those flaps on my hips though...

New Look 6144

I can't believe I have been sewing so much!!!   Three dresses in three weeks.  It must be a record for me.  The weather in Melbourne has been so hot for the last few months and I just didn't have many dresses to wear to work.  There is only one thing bigger than my fabric stash and that is my pattern stash! I cannot believe how many patterns I have bought over the years and I never make most of them up.  Such a waste of money, as here in Australia sewing patterns are quite expensive.  It would be frightening to add the cost of them up :-/

Again I was looking for a dress that was easy to whip up for work but something that could also be worn with flatter more casual shoes when I was not working.   I really liked the style of New Look 6144 but had never made anything from a New Look pattern before as most of the time their sizing stops at size 16.  Why I had this pattern in my pattern stash is anyone's guess.   I liked the pleated detail on the front of the dress but was a bit worried it would make me look a bit 'booby'. This pattern is one of the few New Look patterns that do go up to a size 18 so I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to adjust it over the hips.  It was easy to fit this dress on myself also which is something I often struggle to do. I did worry that with just the two darts in the front and back  it may be hard to achieve a good fit but in the end it worked out OK.  I am pretty happy with the way this dress turned out.  I normally would wear something with this to cover my arms but the other day it was just so hot here I threw caution to the wind and just went out and bared my flabby arms. Very brave of me I think. 

I purchased this fabric from Spotlight.  It is cotton with a bit of stretch in which makes it really comfortable to wear.  This fabric was only $12 per meter so I managed to make this dress for the grand sum of $24 as I had the pattern and the zip already.

I know that everyone has made this ...

Yes I know that everyone has made Vogue 1250 but after the success of my Vogue 2988 jacket I wanted some thing that would be quick to sew and work out for me.   I noticed that a lot of my favourite sewing bloggers had made this dress and were really happy with it.  Although most of them were much slimmer than I was so I wasn't sure that it would suit my shape.   Also because this pattern has no side seams I was really struggling to work out how to make it larger over the hips.  A standard pattern adjustment for anything I make unfortunately.

Then I came across Carolyn's version of this dress.  Carolyn is always looking for stylish ways to adapt patterns to suit her shape.  I loved this dress on her!  I think she ended up making another 4 or 5 of them.  

So I chose a piece of material from my stash and started sewing.  I couldn't believe how quick this dress was to sew.  The worst part for me was working out how to increase it around my hips.  I love the way it turned out.  I am not one for wearing sleeveless dresses so I will  wear this with a cardigan.  I would normally not even consider making a fitted dress like this but after reading all the blog posts about this dress I thought it was worth a try.   I have had some nice compliments from people when I wear this so I am taking that as a good thing.  I have a feeling there could be a couple more Vogue 1250's in my wardrobe too ;-)

At the moment I am trying to work out how I could put a sleeve into this pattern.  As the weather is starting to cool down in Australia I need a winter version!

Yes I am back!

Well it's only taken me two years, but I have finally come back to trying to start my sewing blog.  The idea of creating a sewing blog to keep me accountable didn't work.   I had such good intentions when I entered those first two posts back in 2011 but I just couldn't get my sewing mojo back.

The problem was that every time I made something I just wasn't happy with how it turned out.  It never looked as good as I hoped it would and I felt I was wasting my expensive fabrics on wadders.  So I just stopped sewing.  I got it in my head that it just isn't possible to look good in anything if you aren't size 16 or below.  I know that is silly now but that was what my crazy mind was telling me.

Then out of a necessity I had to sew something for myself.   Out of necessity you ask!  Well Steve's gorgeous daughter Simone told us she was going to get married in Paris on the 4th January.  As usual I shopped around for an outfit to wear but could find nothing that really suited me or more importantly fitted me.  As it was already quite hot here in Australia our winter clothing was  already out of the stores.  I had never been to Europe in winter before but I knew it would be MUCH colder than a winter here in Australia could ever be. Possibly even snowing.  

What could I wear that was still a little classy but warm?  The wedding was just going to be for family and close friends.  Not a big affair.  Just 25 of us.

A year before I had started making Vogue 2988 (sorry OOP now) in the most beautiful fabric, which I purchased from Astratex here in Melbourne.  I paid an absolute bomb for the fabric. It was an imported European wool and cashmere blend that came in panels.  The colour of the panel started off as black at the bottom and graduated through to a animal print then up to a lovely taupe colour.   Because of my size I needed to purchase two of these panels and I think they were around $80 each!!!  I don't know what possessed me but they had made the jacket up as a sample in the shop and I just loved it. 

The problem was that the sample in the shop was a petite little size 10-12 and I needed to cut a size 20-22.   So when I cut mine out it looked nothing like I envisioned it would be on me.  So I did what I normally do and stuffed it into a plastic bag and put it away in the cupboard.  I was so angry at myself for wasting that beautiful fabric. 

While thinking of what kind of jacket/coat I could make for the wedding I remembered that beautiful expensive fabric and went searching for the bag.   When I pulled it out and looked at it again I thought it could look nice with a classic black wool crepe sheath style dress.   When I tried it on, to my delight it was too big :-)    Fortunately I had sewn this to the stage that all it needed was the lining attached and I was able to alter the fit of the jacket easily by just running it in through the side seams up through the arm. 

This isn't the black dress I wore to the wedding.  The black dress I made for the wedding is at the dry cleaners at the moment.  I will do a post on the fun and games I had making that shortly :-)

Butterick 5347

Ok, I have finally made a decision on what to sew first!   The weather here in Melbourne today is 40 C (that is 104 F) and it looks like it is going to stay pretty hot all week.    I have a cupboard full of fabric and no cool dresses to wear so I have chosen something pretty straight forward to make up.  I had this green cotton batik fabric in the stash and thought it would be OK to use for this dress.  I don't love it, I don't hate it so if the dress doesn't work out that well I won't be too stressed.

This Butterick pattern looks like something I could whip up in an hour or so.  I just hope it doesn't end up looking like a sack on me.

Where do I start?

Well the sewing room is tidy and the fabric stash in the cupboard is organised.  I cannot believe the amount of fabric I have in that cupboard.  While I was organising the fabrics into the plastic containers, I remembered just how much I paid for some of that fabric.  Frightening!  I hope my husband never reads my blog! 

I have some beautiful italian linens and expensive cotton voiles in amongst all of that fabric.  I have a feeling that I hesitated to use these fabrics because I considered them 'too good', which resulted in them just being stored away, lost in that mess that was my fabric stash. This year I am determined to find the right patterns  to make them up in.

Along with that huge fabric stash, I also have an enormous amount of patterns.  Most of which have never been opened.  Whilst I won't commit to not buying any new patterns during 2011, I am going to make a conscious decision to try and use my existing patterns whenever possible.

After many years of working in the corporate world my circumstances changed at the end of last year.  I use to work as a marketer and now I am trying to establish a new career as a real estate photographer.  Needless to say the kind of wardrobe I need for my new career is very different.   Now I need smart casual clothing that still looks professional when I go out to photograph homes.  None of the stuffy corporate stuff anymore!

Welcome to my blog!

Hi my name is Julie and after many years of reading sewing blogs I have decided to start my own for 2011.

Yesterday I when looked in the cupboard in my sewing room I  was shocked to see how out of control my stash of fabric has become!  I have made a new years resolution to not buy any new fabric this year.  The fabric for every item of clothing I sew this year must come from my stash. For me this is a huge challenge.  I am hoping by starting this blog it will help keep me honest and accountable.

The first step was to sort through the mess in the cupboard.  There is no way on earth I could possibly achieve my goal in the mess I was in.  This is now done check out the transformation!




I have to admit I am very ashamed of that first pic.