Spring/Summer Palette Challenge 2012

It seems that only one force is great enough to bring me back to my sewing machine after a too-long absence. The Colette Spring/Summer Palette Challenge.

To be fair, I actually have sewn quite a bit in the last few months…all blogging evidence to the contrary. It’s just that very little of it has been for my own wardrobe. First, I took a hand-sewing class at FIT, a local college, where I handmade a silk charmeuse half slip with lace trim. Then, I worked on a local theater production and hemmed pants and sewed buttons like a demon. But my own fall and winter wardrobe benefited very little from all this handiwork.

I think it’s time that changed, don’t you? It all started with an image. Before the announcement was made that the palette challenge would be back on, I found myself drooling and dreaming over this beautiful photograph:

(Photo from Lena Hoschek catalog.)

Images of summer on the Isle of Capri filled my head. Wearing white eyelet sundresses while riding around on a bright orange Vespa (with a picnic basket full of bread and fresh olive tapenade, of course). Blue skies, puffy white clouds, tranquil turquoise waters and gorgeous, deep green foliage dotted by yellow, pink and red blooms. Ah, beautiful. Now I’ve never been to Capri — and I’m not sure that’s where this photograph was actually taken — but it’s how I imagine it would be.

And then I discovered that my daydreaming of Italia had already manifested itself in my small fabric stash. In fact, some of the very same colors that filled my fantasies were part of my Popsicle inspired 2011 Spring Palette Challenge. I guess these are just the colors that say summer to me.

I’m actually glad that I’m feeling inspired by a similar set of colors as last year. It means that my modest collection of 2 pieces (a jacket, a blouse, and a skirt) will have some coordinating items this summer.

Now to figure out what those items will be.

The Mad Dash

I woke up this morning and realized that, with exactly two weeks on the clock, I have seen only three of this year’s Oscar contenders. And one of them is Kung Fu Panda 2.

That will never do. So I am on a mad dash to see about 20 more of the year’s finest films in time for my viewing party (which may just consist of me and a bottle of Bordeaux). Is it even possible? I’ll let you know how it goes.

Style Icons: Wallis Simpson

This gallery contains 8 photos.

A recent post over on the Coletterie blog has me thinking extra-hard about style icons. These are the women who I hope to channel when I wiggle into  a pencil skirt, pair it with a frilly little blouse, clip a … Continue reading →

What comes first? An age-old debate

I have mentioned that I read a lot of different sewing blogs (see the links over there on the right for just a few). One common theme I notice among them is that many of my fellow sewists have sizable fabric stashes. Not this chica.

As much as I wish I could surround — even swaddle — myself in yard after yard of printed pretties, my cramped NYC digs just won’t allow for that. Yet somehow I have an enormous quantity of patterns. Don’t believe me? Check it out:

Spring Palette Challenge: To Be Continued…

Happy April, y’all! With the start of the new month comes lots of rainy days (at least it does here in the northeast) and the end of Colette Spring Pattern Challenge. Technically.

My initial plan was to sew a blouse, a skirt, a jacket and two dresses. You’ll notice the conspicuous absence of any dress progress. So I will be continuing sewing these pieces into the next month. At the end, I will have to track down a photographer and do a full fashion shoot of my “collection.” And tulips. Because spring photos should always have tulips.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery – Talbots and the Spring Palette Challenge

Talbots is one of those stores I have spent much of my adult life making fun of. It has just always seemed so stuffy, old and decidedly bourgeois, I couldn’t imagine myself ever wearing anything from there. But either the brand is undergoing an overhaul or I am turning into a stuffy Muffy in my old age. Because this bright, ladylike skirt from their Spring line inspired me:

I had planned to make a pencil skirt (namely, the Burda Jenny) as my next project for the Spring Palette Challenge. When I lost my ambition to print and trace and yadda yadda, I was left floundering about what to do next. Thanks to Talbots, I came up with this:

Full Yellow Jacket: Spring Palette Challenge #2

Finally, a second piece for my Spring Palette Challenge (SPC). The pattern for this is Butterick 5214, a recent reissue of a pattern originally released in 1947.