Outfit With Energy

Yesterday marked the beginning of the second week of my new routine. So far, it's working great. The early morning studio time is starting my day out just right and I'm learning to make appointments after lunch and keep the mornings free for me. And, I'm enjoying early morning walks without too much effort in the clothing department followed by dressing for the day. This is good. It...





... renews my enthusiasm for making creative clothing. I was slipping back into the jeans and a black t-shirt uniform-ish-look with far too much frequency. I prefer playing with what I wear which is...





... exactly what I did yesterday. Along with designing t-shirt possibilities, another assignment - from Diane - was to take the photo of me in that outfit with energy as she calls it - the one shown bottom right in the image below - and lengthen the top into a dress. I did that by cutting apart the sections of the line drawing, spacing them appropriately on the paper doll me, and filling in the missing pieces. The resulting dress could be fun to sew... especially for summer... maybe as part of my cruise collection.





While I recognize that knee length is perhaps my best length of skirt - and I really appreciate all the feedback on that topic - the bottom line is that knee length cannot be the only length I wear. I like more variety than that and really like the trumpet shape above left as well as a long pencil skirt. On the weekend, I researched dressing the pear shape both from the minimizing and the showing off your curves perspectives. Trumpet and pencil are on those lists so they're staying on mine. Figure flattering and emotionally successful dressing is in great part about what you pair together as we discussed with the 1/3 - 2/3 or 2/5 - 3/5 ratios. I'll be focusing on those ratios and on the prefect shoe. I can see it too makes a difference. Above - left to right - are the Burda OOP 8213 skirt, the Burda OOP 8157 pants, and the Butterick 5891 top with The Sewing Workshop's Trio Pants. I'm playing with these shapes right now. Today is...





... pant day. I have twelve line drawings of the Burda pants to fill in with a variety of designs, some hopefully asymmetric. The original image was taken slightly downward making me look a little more hip heavy than I am. That's okay. If I can flatter this image, I can flatter reality. Later on, I'll explore what height the tripod should be set at for the best image and measure that height so I can duplicate it easily.





I've sewn four Vogue 9057, view A, tops,  The first was the pink pajama version and the second was the white and paisley version. These were the same fabric, different colorways, and I really like both of them. The third was a turquoise polyester rayon blend and it's okay. The fourth I hate. It won't get worn.  It was sewn from a 1 x 1 cotton knit rib and feels really thick on, not flattering. I'm sure there's a better use for that fabric. I'm done with t-shirts for now - at least until my Marcy order comes. I'm moving on to woven garments starting with...





... my first outfit for Sew Expo using the black, white, and grey combo above. The print will be the Butterick 5891 top with sleeves - as opposed to the jacket shown on the pattern envelope. The black is for adding details to the top. Both are cotton. The grey heavy linen is for pants, either the Trio Pants shown above or the Urban Pants. Right now, I'm leaning toward the Urban Pants for the front seam detail although that's easily added to the other pair which is already traced, sized, and read to sew. Hmm... we'll see what happens.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - twelve t-shirt designs