SEWING matters a lot to me! I've not abandoned sewing for knitting by any means! My current interests take me away occasionally, but its not long before I return to my main area of interest - Dressmaking!
My samples arrived for the rather lovely boiled wool and I took them into work to share with my colleague, Chris, who had also expressed an interest in this fabric which is rather hard to source locally. The colours are fabulous and the swatches are generous, initially I sent her a text to advise we needed to consider an overdraft in order to place an order (and as I'm several sizes LARGER than Chris, I actually need to rob a bank!) but after consideration we decided it was in fact still cheaper to make such a jacket as we'd seen similarly in a fashionable concession within a well known store.
My friend, Chris, is not one to part with her money easily or quickly (unlike me who has only to get wind of something yummy-scrummy and my hand is in my purse before I'd discovered WHAT exactly IS the yummy-scrummy and its not so long ago that I had to be restrained by Ann from purchasing several packs of tea-bag folding papers!) - ANYWAY she found another brand of similar jacket which while still being slightly dearer to buy than to make, we discussed the advantages OF making vs. buying your own clothes!
For me as I'm a very definite "pear" shaped individual with quite specific variations from "standard" in terms of MY particular shape (I'm trying to avoid actually SAYING it but well you get the picture! indeed you can SEE from the pictures what I mean!) its not a quesion of desiring to make my own clothes rather is NECESSARY to make them!
Dresses - DEFINITELY
Skirts - okay, I CAN if I search around and am prepared to accept a lesser fit in one area over another actually buy my skirts
Jackets - INBETWEEN in other words, I have bought jackets however I have to either leave them undone OR buy a style where its shaped in order to allow parts of me to fill out OR I have it done up but the shoulders and neck are sliding off me!
Well I've not decided. yet. I've picked out a couple of new Burda patterns which would suit both myself and this lovely fabric and I may yet decide to splash out and treat myself!
In the meantime, I do have several lengths of fabric waiting to be cut and sewn into jackets, not least a rather scrummy piece of black and silver Linton Tweed "special" purchased - cough - about 8yrs ago .. it should be aged sufficiently now for me to sew up and claim as "vintage"? My plans for this include "something at Christmas". (at this stage, however, I've not actually got anything pencilled in FOR "Christmas" which is lucky. as aswell AS the scrummy black and silver, I have some rather nice pinstripe and four lots of faux suede which is rather more practical!).
When I eventually get myself together, I will post pics of both the fabrics and the accompanying patterns!
4 comments:
Your blog looks great! I'm glad you told us about it on K&C. I know what you mean about comments. I hardly ever get any on my blog. :) Ann
Have you ordered much from Nancy's Notions? I love her catalogs but don't sew enough to make any of it worth the purchase. My mom always sewed clothes for me growing up. It's sad to me now a days it's cheaper to buy clothes (at WM) for me than the fabric etc. to make it myself.
Thank you, Shirley! I think perhaps people prefer to just read, you must share your blog with me, I'd love to visit yours, I'll look on K&C for you/it!
Jules, its not always easy to balance the cost of sewing against that of buying with clothes, particularly nowadays for children!
I tend to prefer to make those items which I would *aspire* to buy but actually CAN'T afford eg quality jackets and also those items where the fit is improved by my making, as compared to purchasing!
I live in the UK and therefore have not the opportunity to shop at NN's btw.
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