Shirt collar
There has been sewing happening, albeit of the “one seam a day” variety. The shirt is taking form. I considered and tested doing flat-felled seams, but have abandoned the idea for this project, anyway. Maybe the next one…
Shirt back
Last week I got an unexpected call from an Aunt—she and my uncle were on their way into town and wanted to take us for dinner. Mr. Isis feeling a bit sickly, the girls and I trotted off to the far side of town (in rush hour traffic) and had a lovely dinner with them, over the course of which my aunt mentioned that she had three boxes of fabric in the car for me.
Free Fabric
Now, as has been mentioned before, I am not one to look gift fabric in the fibre content (or whatever), but I also knew that my aunt probably did most of her stitching fifteen to thirty years ago.
Yes, ladies and gents, the 80s called, it wants its fabric back.
"Heirloom" fabric
I am pretty sure I recall my cousins wearing sweaters of this gorgeous period fabric in, oh, 1988. Tyo figures it would make a good nightie. Or boxers. Or housecoat. I was thinking interlining inside a jacket where it will never irradiate another eyeball again. We’ll see.
Cottons
On a more promising note, there were some nice cottons. I quite like the paisley print, and the colour of the pink broadcloth. And see the red polkadot on the bottom left? Look familiar?
Yes, I now have two metres MORE of the exact same fabric I used for my niece’s and Syo’s polkadot dresses.
Faves
I think my personal favourite of the whole lot is these two, though. The tan colour is a a fleece/fun-fur thing, the black print is a weird, faintly stretchy woven that for some reason I really like. I’m picturing the two together in a fur-lined hoodie of some kind… maybe similar to this one. Although my fabrics are not quite so lush.
There’s also a strange snowman quilt-kit-thingy half-completed. It scares me.
Anyway, thank you Auntie for the hand-me-downs. I shall do my best to make sure they get the usage they deserve. 😉
Tanit-Isis Sews 
The collar looks really good! Flat felled seams aren’t difficult; you just have to be slow and meticulous. But they are pesky.
Nice free haul! Maybe use the “heirloom” pieces for muslin? Speaking of fleece, the book is on its way to you… finally. 😉
YAY!
I figure I’ll save the flat felled seams for a slightly more substantial fabric. One that I can pick out my mistakes without completely destroying the fabric 😉
I was thinking muslin (especially coat muslin) initially, but the stretch is a potential problem. I won’t rule it out, though.
I get a similar effect to flat felled seams by making french seams that I “tack down” but running a stitch line parallel to the seam. They look pretty when they’re finished. 🙂
Fun fabric haul, and I agree with Tyo about the nightie for the striped stuff–sweater knit? That’s actually what I thought when I first saw it and thought it was a knit of some sort. Or you could make her a tracksuit. 😉
That would’ve been the smart thing to do… In the end I did a regular seam, finished with serging, and then pressed it to the side and topstitched it down. So it’s got a bit of the right “look”…
Yeah, it’s a fairly thin polyester sweatshirt-fleece.
Great fabrics!!! We SO missed you in NYC!!!
Aww!
Free fabric = total score!!! I’m seeing some kind of funky-wear-it-with-low-rise-slim-fit-narrow-legged-jeans-gillet (vest?) with maybe kool-but-not-crazy-hippy-look-fur-trim on it out of the tan – paired with some awesome ankle boots, a dash of rockin’ ‘tude and a long-sleeved Lydia tee :)!
I can see it! The only problem is I have a completely zero success rate with wearing any vest I’ve ever owned. 😦
I would totally use that ‘heirloom’ fabric. I think it is fantastic and I’m sure I’d annoy my family members with how much I wore my new t-shirts (or whatever). I could even see making the girls matching clothing with it. I guess I’d better enjoy the fact that they are somewhat open to what I dress them in now, huh?
Hehe! Yes, enjoy the freedom to dress them while it lasts… mine got very opinionated very quickly…
The shirt is looking all dread pirate roberts-y. Granted your red dress is nothing like Buttercup’s, but I think some sort of glorious Princess Bride type thing could come out of this 🙂
It is, isn’t it? Ooo, I do like that. Hmm, now I’m going to need to go hunt down my copy again…
That’s some tidy stitching on that collar! Is it crazy that I like that 80’s fabric? Make a cool tee from it.
Hee hee. Y’know, if it didn’t have that dreadful polyester feel, I might consider it…
And thanks about the stitching! I’m not super thrilled with it myself, but it’s passable.
I think you just need to save that fabric for another 15 years and then sell it for an outrageous sum on Ebay. Except for the scary snowmen, donate it, because as much as it scares you, it will strangely delight someone else.
LMAO! Yeah, it’s that fine line between old and tacky and “vintage”, isn’t it?
The snowman certainly delights my kids…
I wonder if the poly knit would be good for leggings? I was going to suggest pajamas too, but it looks like it might be too thick for that. I was thinking of my favorite nightie as a child, which was basically an extended version of a peasant top in nylon tricot. Sounds horrifying, but I loved it!
It’s not stretchy enough for leggings (it’s like a rather thin sweatshirt material). It would be all right for nighties (I think you may underestimate the warmthliness of Canadian sleepwear, especially when Mom gets Environmental and starts turning the thermostat way down at night in the winter)—my kids have and wear plenty of fleece PJs.
Ah, those horrific favourite nighties. I wore (and loved) my pink flowered granny nighties almost until I met my husband. Embarrasing, in retrospect…
That neon is hilarious! A hoodie? I’m so curious what will happen if any of my stash gets that old, who’ll get it, and what they might think and do with it.
How nice of your Aunt to think of you! I love the black print too, not so much the neon – but you never know what will be cool when your girls get a bit older! I just cut out some ‘vintage’ red spot yesterday – it was an off-cut from my first job, and I gave it to Mum years ago because I hated it, then stole it from her last year because I loved it, and hopefully will have a new dress today. What goes around comes around as they say!
Personally I think a girl can never have too much polka dot fabric. Those knits are hilarious, just added some much needed comic relief to my screaming three year old kind of day.
If I was the fainting type, I think someone telling me they had “boxes of fabric for me in the car” would do it. And the great thing about 80s prints is that they will be easy to use as muslin fabric (if you need any convincing to make muslins!).
Those cottons are really lovely, I like the red-and-white pokda-dot a LOT. That acid yellow looks mighty promising also… How nice of your aunt to pass on such a massive stash! And if you don’t love the printed neons, and I agree they do look a mite tricky to pull off, at least it will come in handy for muslins.
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