Sweet Creek Sewing

I made this polyvore to help me remember all the things I want to make this fall. I have already finished one of the tops and most of one dress (the white tank and cream dress). This plan includes 5 tops, 5 dresses 2 skirts and a sweater. Also shown are a crocheted purse and a missoni scarf. I plan to make those as well. Ambitious I know. I have been inspired by The Sew Weekly (awesome blog btw) to try to complete one item a week, which seems a manageable goal. So far I have done more like 1 item every two weeks. So I need to find a way to squeeze in more sewing time. I am trying to be more intentional about actually completeing things. Its hard to fit everything in though. Tasia had a discussion on her blog about this last week and it seems I’m not the only one who works, has kids pets, husbands etc to fill up all the free time, and yet sewing is imprtant to me so I am trying to find a way to make it happen more. I hope to post some completed objects soon!

Fall Inspiration

gericooper — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:49:03 +0000

Fall Wishlist by gericooper featuring a striped t-shirt

Falling Snow Frock, $498
Perthshire Dress, $168
In A Twinkling Dress, $70
Picnic In The Park Dress, $60
J.Crew Wool self-tie sweater, $200
Anthurium Blouse, $50
Craft & Creation Top, $58
Stripes & Light Tee, $40
Linville Falls Skirt, $88
Acting Out Skirt, $88
ADRIANO GOLDSCHMIED 7958 INDIGO COTTON / POLYURETHANE TOMBOY 7YR DAM, 164 GBP
Jet Lag Apple Cargo Pant : Women’s Pants | Buckle.com, $129
Mrs. Woodward’s Camisole, $30
UGG Australia Women’s Rosabella in Chocolate, $200
T-Strap Sky High, $275

I have been sewing. My poor little blog doesn’t really reflect that though, eh? Well mostly due to an out of commission camera I have neglected to post here lately. I have a new camera though so I am going to try to post more now. I made the above collage on polyvore to organize my fall inspiration and sewing goals. I have already made a dark floral dress like the “Picnic in the Park” dress. Pictures and a review soon. I am looking for inspiration for a white dress, I am debating between a shirt dress style and something simpler like a tank dress, the one above combines both of those elements which could be a good choice. I tend to like to wear cardigans over my fall/winter dresses, so I usually prefer not to have sleeves.

I am really loving that plaid “Perthshire” dress above and the “Falling Snow Dress”. I guess I know what I will be sewing next, a dress! ha ha.

I have some finished summer sewing to post, I can take pictures now that I have a camera. I did not complete my wardrobe on time for the contest. I did finish some great summer items though, that I love. Will try to post those later this week.

Fabrics for My Wardrobe

gericooper — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:08:20 +0000

The top fabrics

coral cotton- jj blouse from burdastyle
pink knit- self drafted jcrew knockoff
white rayon- see previous post (completed top)
striped knit- pattern undecided
aqua eyelet- self drafted sun dress
cream knit- S 2603

floral cotton lawn- Michelle from burda style
grey stretch twill- anthropologie knockoff cropped pants
floral cotton sateen- jcrew pencil skirt knockoff
stretch denim- jalie jeans

So that’s the plan so far, I may change the striped top into a solid grey one with shirring at the neckline.

Finished top

gericooper — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:58:22 +0000

I finished my first top for the wardrobe plan. It’s the one from the previous post “summer top inspiration“. I really like how it came out. It was self drafted by me using my personal sloper that I developed. I am finding my personal sloper to be so helpful when sewing. I use it to test drive patterns by comparing key points, like the shoulder slope and width, placement of the waistline and bust point, length of garment etc. It really takes the guesswork out of fitting commercial patterns. I drafted it from my personal measurements from a book called “Now It Fits”, it’s probably out of print now but alibris or amazon probably has some available. If your interested in learning to draft your own patterns this might be a good place to start.

Things I learned sewing this blouse

hand basting is a good way to make sure trim matches at the seam line
don’t use regular colored pencil for marking it is hard to wash off
shirring is a good way to loosen an overly tight fit without losing your shaping( I added a shirred panel in the center back bodice)

Detail shot

Summer Wardrobe Contest

gericooper — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:25:27 +0000

I don’t know what it is but I just love these wardrobe contests. I guess they provide a real structure to my sewing and force me to work within a plan and finish things. I decided to join the wardrobe contest over at pattern review this summer. To enter you must make 10 items, 4 tops, 4 bottoms, a topper and one free item. All of the items must coordinate. This year the twist is that you must use a current summer or fall trend in one of your items. I’ve made up a tenative storyboard, based on my summer short list of sewing. My trend quotes come from Fashion-Era.com.

Wardrobe to Sew by gericooper featuring J Crew

Summer Top Inspirations

gericooper — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:48:23 +0000

Summer Tops by gericooper featuring Anthropologie tops

Floral Ruffle Top by Rare**
$74 - topshop.com
More TopShop tops »

Stripes & Light Tee – Anthropologie.com
$88 - anthropologie.com
More Anthropologie t shirts »

Super Looper Tank – Anthropologie.com
$58 - anthropologie.com
More Anthropologie tops »

Creative Outlet Tank
$58 - anthropologie.com
More Anthropologie tops »

Molde Manequim – Camisa Laise – Tamanho 38 – R$4,50
lojaabril.com.br

I love polyvore, it’s so fun to play with. These are the inspirations for the tops I hope to make this summer. I am currently drafting the white one shown on the model ( upper right). It’s almost done and I can’t wait to start sewing it! It was from an online pattern available for sale from Manequim magazine, but I couldn’t figure out how to buy it from Brazil so I just used the line drawing and photo to self draft a pattern. I hope to start sewing it soon.

Planning

gericooper — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:03:54 +0000

For my next project I will be making a pencil skirt in a floral cotton sateen. I was inspired by this skirt from JCrew.

Also I saw my fabric over at this blog, made into this great skirt (scroll down to April 15th for the post), also an inspiration.

I will be using M5375 now OOP. I will need to do some major alterations to the pattern though. I will ommit the front fly and pockets as well as the back pockets and belt loops. I will be lengthening the skirt and adding a kick pleat as well as changing it to have a back zip. I have made this skirt before and I really like the fit of the waistband and hips so its a TNT (tried and true) this will be the 4th time I have made this skirt, each time I vary the details so they hardly look alike. You can see one version that I made last year here.

Composite-Spring Mini Wardrobe

gericooper — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:33:44 +0000

Here is my composite picture for the wardrobe contest. Well I am off the finish my entry on Patternreview . Stop on by and look at all the contest entries and vote for your favorite. Voting begins tommorow.

Top- Third Wardrobe Item

gericooper — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 01:20:05 +0000

This is a top from the magazine Burda World of Fashion. This is from the 8/2007 issue design 105 B. It is pretty simple, I made a few changes, mainly to leave off the collar and to change the sleeves from a puff sleeve to a cap sleeve. I like the color a great deal. I am pretty happy with the fit. Overall its a nice basic that fits well into my wardrobe. One more item left, another knit top. I gave up on the white linen jacket. I sewed it about halfway but I didn’t like the look. I just set it aside for another time. Still debating whether I should even bother with it. I am pretty excited that I am finished and will be able to enter the contest. Yay for getting things done on time!