I had about a yard of fabric leftover from the blue skirt so I made a little short sleeved jacket. It was easy to sew up. It's a little big through the upper chest. I didn't make a muslin and on the Kwik Sew patterns I'm at the very bottom end of the medium size for my bust. A lesson to remember for the next Kwik Sew top I make.
I cut out the Manhattan skirt out of the citrus print (oranges on a bright green background) and had a bit left over for a purse. I didn't have quite enough for all of it but this was fine because the pattern actually called for it to have contrasting fabric. This will work well because the fabric is a bit busy. I was also able to squeeze out the pieces for a matching cosmetic bag for inside the purse. But I didn't have contrasting fabric, lining or the zippers and webbing needed for the project. And I thought making a purse would be easy! So of course this called for a trip to the fabric store. I found the perfect orange fabric for the contrasting part. The fabric is called "trigger", which I've never heard of. It is canvas-like and matches the weight of the citrus print. For the lining, I chose a bright green and white check (tiny checks) in the quilting cottons. I also found some orange and white striped cotton that would make a sweet blouse to wear with the skirt. Total take: .75 yards of the orange trigger, 1 yard of green and white checked fabric and 2 yards of orange striped fabric. Alas, the store didn't have the zippers I wanted to I had to go to another fabric store. They were also having their big 4th of July weekend sale (oh horrors!) and I found some cute cotton shirtings in summery stripes and plaids. I picked up two 2-yard cuts. They also didn't quite have the zippers I wanted but they'll do. I did have some restraint against driving out to a third fabric store.
I didn't have quite as much restraint with on-line fabric shopping however. My husband asked me to make some wheel covers out of canvas for the trailer - it sits out in the sun everyday and the tires are getting beat on by the sun. Purchased wheel covers are expensive - more so than they need to be. The purchased ones are probably out of a sun-resistant and mildew resistant fabric, but since we don't have rain until October, sun is the primary problem and I think the canvas will work fine for a while. Of course I knew of a good source for the canvas and they just happened to be having a sale. Fabric.com had a surprise coupon from 10 to 50% - you didn't know how much the value was until you selected it. On my computer at work, the value was 15% - not bad. But when I checked my coupon on the Powerbook at home, it came up at 25%. Woohoo! Even better. I filled my cart with the canvas (5 yards), some trim for pillows (5 yards, but I'm not counting that in my stash), some beautiful hand-painted embroidered cotton I've been eyeing for a while (2 yards and 3 yards), oriental brocade (2 yards) and some stretch twill (2 yards) that I couldn't resist at $3.04/yard even before my discount.
Then I couldn't resist seeing what Emmaonesock had to offer - even after my unhappiness about the yardage of the last order. I just can't resist her nice fabrics. She often puts small cuts of fabric, either the last pieces of fabric she's been selling or a single cut that was all she could obtain. Those one-time single cuts are often really special and there was one that caught my eye. Usually they catch everyone else's eyes as well and they sell out quickly. But I managed to snag the 2-yard piece of this:
I also bought 1.5 yards of red stretch denim that I'd been thinking of getting and to help make the shipping more worthwhile.
I might add that Quicken suggested we make a scheduled payment to Emmaonesock. Not a bad idea! Fortunately my husband has a sense of humor and more importantly, understanding of my fabric obsession and a love for me.
So, dare I tally the fabric? 25.25 yards. Well I am sewing - my citrus print skirt is almost done and together with the top I whipped up = 2 yards of fabric sewn. I have the contrasting fabric and orange/white striped blouse fabric washed so my next project will be to work on the purse or make a muslin of the blouse I want to make. So many projects...so little time.
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