Dreaming of summer…

…clothes, that is. Since apparently I now live in Alaska instead of the mid-Atlantic, is it any wonder?

Since I didn’t have work until later, I braved the aftermath of Snowmageddon with my mom to go to Joann’s–my original plan for today was to start assembling the quilt, but I discovered that I didn’t have enough of the muslin that I got for the backing, since I had to make the quilt top larger than originally planned. (I guess I might be doing that tomorrow. We’ll see, since I also have the sides for the rest of the ottoman reupholster job cut out and waiting for assembly.) And since I’ve been pondering my wardrobe quite a bit lately, one of the things I quickly settled on is that I’d like to add a simple black knee-length skirt to my wardrobe, since I think it’ll go with a lot of things and the black skirt I have doesn’t always go with everything due to the styling. So I figured I could justify adding some fabric to my stash for that… a linen-look poly-rayon blend that’s not supposed to wrinkle a whole lot. (I know it looks grey here due to the lighting, but it really is black.) I’m planning to give a skirt from the most recent Burda mag a shot for this one. (I also splurged on this great printed knit there, since Joann’s hardly ever has good knits, but let’s just ignore that for now.)

And then when I got home, I was inspired to go through my samples of my current fabric stash to choose a couple fabrics to concentrate on using for some spring-summer clothes. (I spent some time last night partially going through what I have there, and figured I should probably be thinking of sewing additions to that now, and then in the summer I can work on sewing things for the fall and winter.) So here’s what I pulled out to motivate myself to get the rest of this room sewing done so I can make clothes again!

1. An organic cotton jersey knit–it’s really kind of a seafoam green color. I’m thinking shirt #102 from last June’s Burda for this one.

2. A woven polyester in cream, seafoam, orange and a more pinky coral. The most likely candidate at the moment is McCall’s 5809.

3. A purple 60s-printed lightweight sweater knit that I picked up at a dollar a yard several years ago at a Walmart sale. I’m thinking a lightweight shorter sleeved cardigan, but I haven’t settled on a pattern on this yet. I have nothing in my stash patterns or Burda mags that seems to quite fit yet. I’m considering the Riviera Mini-Midi-Maxi Cardi from HotPatterns, but since the pattern alone is almost $20, I’m keeping my options open and will probably save this one for a later project.

4. This crinkled gold-embroidered turquoise is one that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago, I think. And I’ve been eyeing it for about a year trying to figure out what to do with it. I think I’ve finally settled on a pattern I’ve done with crinkly fabric before, Simplicity 5595 (the short flutter-sleeved one).

5. I found some inspiration the other day at EMS, of all places. (That’s where I get a lot of my outdoorsy gear.) There was this cute blouse there with a gathered empire bust, mandarin collar and interesting button closure made out of a stripey sheer fabric. I almost bought it because it was on sale, but then I remembered I had this fabric in my stash and didn’t need to pay $26 for it. I think I can figure something out based off of the May ’09 Burda #110, though I may seriously take the sleeves from, say, #112 of the same issue.

6. This is another one I’ve been eyeing in my stash for awhile, an embroidered twill. I was thinking maybe a dress when I bought it, then I thought it would be perfect for Burda 3/07 #117, and then I thought maybe I should go back to a dress, but I think I’m back to the Burda skirt again. I’ll just need to figure out what to do with the yard or so I’ll have left over.

7: Now I’m not sure what I was thinking when I bought this particular fabric– I’ve never really been a Francophile, not to mention one of the colors is hot pink! But I am in need of some cute summer pjs, so I think these will do nicely. I’m thinking maybe the Jane pjs off of the BurdaStyle site (with longer shorts), since I do have that pattern saved from back when they were free patterns. (Maybe I should just do the shorts from the November ’09 Burda, since then the magazine would be good for something. Although I actually really do like one of the pj tops from this issue too– I just don’t think I have the yardage to make both out of this fabric.)

8. And then there’s this turquoise polyester satin that I got for free–someone passed it to my mom, but she couldn’t use it for quilts so I ended up with almost 4 yards of this stuff! It’s a great color, but I’ve been having trouble figuring out what to do with it since it would be quite easy to make it look too nice for everyday wear (and I’m not sure it’s nice enough for all of those fancier occasions I don’t go to!) So part of it is going to become a jacket lining, at least. I spontaneously ordered some corduroy on sale at Fabric.com for $2.99 a yard to make this jacket (and therefore this is actually probably going to end up as a fall sewing project)–figured this would make a fun lining for it! I just hope the fabric’s really more chocolate than it looks on screen, though I guess turquoise and black would go well together too! Um, and then while I was at it, I sort of got this and this to make those same blouse and jacket patterns that I’m using with the sheer metallic stripey fabric. (Been feeling an urge lately to add some plaid back into my wardrobe, probably a result of that revisiting my teenage style post. I tried to get something to refashion, but Goodwill didn’t have anything in plaid that I liked this time. At $2.49 a yard, I figured I could give it a shot for these.)

And then there’s the one thing I’d love to find an excuse to make, but haven’t quite figured out yet…I have this retro 60s Simplicity dress pattern— I’m thinking the style of the coral, but the length of the turquoise. But despite the plethora of suggested fabrics on the back of the envelope, I just don’t seem to have anything in my stash that is calling out to me on this one! Any suggestions?

I know it looks like a lot, but I figure I can take a day to trace out patterns and then a day to cut out stuff, and then I can probably get through much of this pretty quickly. Barring any major fitting issues, of course. And once I get through finishing that ottoman slipcover and quilting that bedspread and making three sets of curtains…of course, it’s looking like there’s a very good chance that I’ll have snow days both tomorrow (today now, I guess) and Wednesday, so as long as we don’t lose power, I have no excuse not to sew!