This year, one of my personal sewing goals was to quit sewing with black. In fact, I said “No more black at all. Period.” When I started experimenting with sewing for myself, I sewed with black. Black linen, black cotton, black silk, black dresses, black blouses black pants, black skirts, black black black. Monotonous, but generally tasteful.
I also made a goal this year to severely limit the fabrics I buy, with the intention of learning to become a more thoughtful consumer (not to mention saving money). Both of those goals helped teach me which colors work well for me, as well as how to combine them in a pleasing way. When taken together, these colors look rather bright, but when mixed with my other clothes they make more sense.
I dyed some tencel-linen blend fabric blue recently using iDye. (I also dyed the aqua colored voile pictured, to see what would happen.) I played with this photo to show the texture of the fabric.
iDye is very simple to use. I use it for many of my dye projects and find that it generally holds the color well. (Tip: Wash the fabric a few times after you dye it, drying between. I wash with like color loads, it helps freshen the colors, too. The dye doesn’t bother my washing machine, in fact it seems to clean all the gunk out of it.)
This 1930’s ensemble pattern finally arrived. It was a sad, sopping wet little package on my rainy front step but luckily LanetzLiving knows what she’s about and the patterns were wrapped in thick airtight plastic bags.
I have a suspicion that this skirt might prove one of those excessively useful skirts I want to make over and over in different colors- a “new basic.” Bonus- it fits on 1 yard of fabric!
The only change I’ll make is to add side slot pockets and either a super-high waistband or a contour band. It’s very long, reaching within 6 inches of the floor. Suggestions?
I know I slacked off uploading patterns over Christmas, I’ll finish out the sizes shortly. Apologies if you’re hanging out for one, it will be there soon.
3 Hours Past the Edge of the World 