Things were a bit hectic in the leadup to Christmas this year, seeing as how we were starting from scratch in our own place this year. Sewing ornaments and other decorations took up most of my time, but I was able to fit in two sewn gifts in the few minutes I had before work in the mornings, sewing with very numb fingers in my heater-less sewing room.
My boyfriend picked out this Alexander Henry muscle car fabric back when we were in the States in August, but he didn’t think I’d have any time to sew him a shirt before spring…
And for my mom I made a KnipMode shirt with a v-neck and wide 3/4 length sleeves out of some beautiful zigzag fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics (I bought plenty so I can have a dress from it, too!). Rather than have a neck facing, I braided together bits of brown bamboo jersey and hand stitched them onto the neckline as a trim. She says she’s very happy with the fit so I’m glad I saved the pattern pieces…
And as for myself, I received my very own copy of Couture Sewing Techniques after thumbing through a copy at the V&A’s gift shop and realising how necessary it is. I’ve already read it through cover to cover and I’m now going back and actually using parts of it (namely, hand hemming to avoid ridges, shaping undercollars, and the non-insane parts of the couture jacket chapter).
I also received the LilyPad Arduino sewing kit (which I already talked about here), and I’ve just got to solder some alligator clips onto the USB board before I’m on my way (you don’t have to solder anything in the sewing stuff – this is just a one-off board to make your computer talk to the LilyPad).
On the FW07 Collection front, I spent all weekend on my trouser suit: first I traced out all the pattern pieces for the jacket and trousers, then cut out all the pieces from the vintage Pendleton wool my grandmother gave me (she bought it from the mill in the 60s and then never did anything with it), and then yesterday I did allllll the interfacing. I want the under-lapels to be in navy satin so I have to wait for that to arrive before I can go much further, though.
