How many projects can you have going on at once???

Apparently in my sewing room ALOT!

Before I go any further.... I just want to let you all know that I have FIXED the commenting on the blog. Apparently it was sending all the comments to deep black hole in cyberspace. EEK!

I'm not quite sure how I got into this state of so many things happening at once (well, I have a little idea) but it is a bit crazy up in here.

ONE
The Sew Chicago ASG Neighborhood group is doing an almost year long challenge for our annual fashion show in October. This year we are doing coats or jackets and my co-leader, Wendy, put together an awesome worksheet which has monthly goals. Every month we have check in goals to share with the group. We have a blog page about the challenge located HERE.  This means that this is a slow sewing project and will overlap with everything else I am doing.

The cover of the challenge worksheet

Samples of my fabric, a double sided cashmere, a silk print for lining and the underlining. Still need to decide on interfacing.

The vintage pattern that I choose. Love it!!

I have chosen to make V1227, an Issey Miyake Coat. So far I have the muslin made and the pattern pieces all cut out. Now I need to cut out the fashion fabrics and interfacing and underling and lining and so on and so forth!


I copied and enlarged the drawing to play with the color blocking options. I'm going with Pink on top and yellow on bottom.

TWO and THREE and more...
I am also getting ready to attend Camp Wardrobe Week given by Camp Workroom Social at Frost Valley YMCA this April. It has been so much fun working with Jennifer and the Camp Workroom Social Staff to get ready. They have been sending weekly updates, inspiration,  printables and so much more! I feel a bit like a little kid dreaming of summer camp and excited to try something new and meet lots of new sewing people!

So far I have 2 projects ready to go. One is all cutout and ready to be sewn, the Sorrento Skirt by Style Arc. The second is a tunic top also by Style Arc, the Daisy Tunic. This one I made a muslin of and made all the necessary adjustments and I also have the fashion fabric cutout and ready to be sewn up.


Left side- muslin sewn from the envelope.
Right side- adjustments made and ready to go.

Left side- muslin sewn from the envelope.
Right side- adjustments made and ready to go.

Tunic pieces cut out of this cool linen I have had in my collection for many years!

I am still deciding on the rest of the projects that I want to work on! I have a pile of fabrics. I'm 90% sure that I will make a muslin of a pair of jeans for fitting. Thinking Cashmerette Ames Jeans or the Ginger Jeans. For these I will take advantage of the fitting help at Camp to tweak. And I also think I will bring some activewear. I really need a new workout bra and top and this could be a fun place to work on that. SO many ideas!!

SO many decisions to make!!

AND
FOUR
I am working on a new dress to wear to my fabulous sister's art show where she will be giving a gallery talk. No pictures of this yet since the dress is inspired by her art and I want it to be a surprise!
The Show will be held at the Tennessee Valley Art Museum- you can see the page HERE.
All of the family is coming in for the Gallery talk, even my little brother from the Netherlands. :) always a happy time when my siblings and I are all together!

AND
FIVE
I am playing with some fabric that is part of the ASG Chicago Chapter fabric challenge. I received a yard of this blue satiny fabric. Definitely polyester or polyester blend. I decided to break out my embroidery machine, clear out the dust from it and give it a whirl! I created 4 different designs and randomly used them to create an all over look. It probably took a little over 9 hours of time to embroider the piece. I looked at it as an experiment and I think it came out pretty good so far. I still have to trim all the interfacing away and give it a good press. Or as good a press as you can get on a poly satin! I plan to pair this with a black fabric most likely the deepest black which is a fine corduroy and make a jacket. Still pondering.

9 hours of embroidery time. Luckily for me this is an embroidery only machine so it does not interfere with my regular sewing!

All over embroidered fabric ready to become something cool! I hope....

Plus, believe it or not, there are 2 other projects that are in the sort of formulating idea phase. Those will have to wait for another time!

Happy Sewing!!

In other News....
We welcomed a new member of the family. Meet Arya, a long haired mini-dachshund. The Princess is delighted and so full of love for her new puppy!

ASG Chicago Chapter 27th Annual Fashion Show and Luncheon

Sew Surprising was the name for this years annual fashion show and luncheon which was so surprising since we hardly had any communication about the event at all! It was like Sew Surprising was kept a as a great big secret.

My very good friend Wendy and I at the luncheon.

This is only my second year being a member so I only have last year to compare to and let me tell you there was a big difference in the level of communication. Unfortunately it had a direct impact on both the attendance of the event and the number of fashion show entries. It was a bit disappointing to see. Less than 100 people in attendance and a grand total of 38 garments... come on, this is Chicagoland.

Any way...Those of us that were there made the most of it and enjoyed ourselves!

I had 3 garments entered in this years show. 2 of which have already been blogged about.
First up was my Yellow jacket and Floral skirt (blogged about here) that I made for Princess Victoria's 2nd birthday and baptism.

The 2nd was my Sneaker corner dress adapted from vogue 1404. (blogged about here) I made this from fabric purchased at the July ASG National Conference in Indianapolis.

The last outfit was part of the Sew Chicago Neighborhood Group Challenge which was to make a button down shirt with collar, cuffs, button closure and one embellishment. In my case the embellishment was contrasting fabric. If you hop over to the Sew Chicago blog you can see the other participants entries.

For my entry I used Simplicity 3684 as my starting point. The fabric is from Emmaonesock. 'Sit, Stay' poly crepe woven, still available here and the black contrasting rayon was from my fabric collection. I made several changes to the pattern after making a muslin the biggest was changing the sleeve to 2 piece sleeve. I will do a full blog post on this soon. I also used my A-line skirt pattern to create a new skirt. This one is a double layer of an over-dyed black rayon woven done with a rolled hem, lapped zipper and waistband.

I also had a garment entered in the fabric challenge. Each year there is a fabric challenge and this year it was a polyester print. I had some challenges with this fabric. One we only had a small piece and it had the tendency to run and to fray :( Due to those challenges I decided to use a pattern where I could ruche the fabric which helped to hide the flaws.
I actually had a lot of fun doing this challenge! It pushed me outside my box and let me experiment to come up with something fun and unique. You can read all about my challenge garment and see pictures of it and it's sister shirt here.

Hopefully next year has a better turnout!