Sewcation 2023

 I need some new clothes, clothes that fit this body that I now inhabit, so every day off I've had for the last two weeks has been spent in the sewing room.  

I started with a winter coat I almost finished over 5 years ago, hemming and hand stitching and cutting the collar down to size.   I hung it up when I was done, and saw that my hemming had caused the front to bunch up.  I took out what I thought was causing it, but it still bounces up.  I'll need to take out a lot more stitching, and I wasn't interested in going backwards, only forward!

So I pulled out a denim jacket I cut out over four years ago, and worked on it.  I finished it this morning, and will wear it to work tomorrow.  It took me a week just to find the right buttons, and I think these work pretty well.  

When I was looking for the buttons, I found some sweet flannel prints at JoAnn's, somewhere I never buy fabric, due to past experience, but this was too cute, and too cheap.  It was $2.99 a yard, and I may regret it if it rips or falls apart, but it's cheaper than muslin to try out some pattern alterations on an old favorite shirt from the "90's.  I've added to gathers to the top to make it go over my hips and waist.  Updates will be posted!

And there will be more.  I'm making a nightshirt out of a piece of flannel from Mom's stash, which needed more fabric from the JoAnn's flannel sale.  That's next into the sewing machine.

    The gray will be a dress, and the fuchsia will be a blouse TBD.  I also got a new pattern from The Modern Sewing Company for some pants.  I bought a PDF, and sent the file to a company in California that prints them on wide paper.  It's called the Pattern Printing Company, and they did a great job.   I'll be buying more PDF patterns now, since I know they can do it well and cheaply.  I could never see myself printing on my little home printer, then taping together 50 sheets to get the pattern in its entirety.  

    I've been knitting, too, mostly at work or in the evenings or when I reach a particularly problematic problem in the sewing room, but no progress to show you.

The orchids are starting to open.  Here are the first four.  

Have a lovely end-of-January!