Spring Sewing & Refashion

I made another version of Vogue 1790A. I was only partially successful grading the pattern size upward. Note how well it combines with the Vera jacket I knit last year.
The magic waistband just looks too shirred for my taste. The pockets also pucker slightly.
The back looks better, but I should have taken the back up a little bit.
I also had a refashion mishap with this tunic I found at Goodwill.
Originally, I had planned to use the Shiva Paintstiks with a rubbing plate. I practiced with scraps and it looked great. When I tried it on the front placket, all I could see were the impressions of the seam allowances.

Dyesticks are permanent, so I had to improvise quickly. I colored the entire placket and collar band with irridescent magenta. Then I painted a design inspired by mudcloth using Lumiere irridescent gold paint.

Remember when I took a fabric collage class with Cindy Rinne? She showed me that the void in my life was actually a #2 Filbert brush. It combines the best of flat, angled and round paintbrushes. Even with shaky hands after two cups of coffee, the motifs look very satisfactory.

You can make your own virtual mudcloth with this the Smithsonian Institution's mudcloth applet. They call this design the one legged girl with little stars. One leg is rather macabre, so I gave her two legs.

Many sewing blogs have been posting their Spring/Summer sewing plans. I have finished two skirts and refashioned a pair of pants into shorts. I knit a cardigan and plan to knit one more. I plan to refashion another pair of (pale green) pants by dyeing it olive green. I bought some black/white/yellow stretch woven to sew mommy and me shift dresses.

But Iris is on probation for the way she treats her clothes. I told her that I am on strike (not making her any more clothes) until she treats her clothes with more respect. That got her attention. She might earn that shift dress yet.

If I can get over the chronic infections and fatigue plaguing me, I would like to sew two two-piece dresses, a design from a Japanese pattern book in black/white striped hankerchief linen and another from Burda BWOF 05-2009-115A and BWOF 05-2009-116A.
I also bought 4 t-shirts, 2 blouses, a pair of pants and black sandals to replace the very worn shoes of summer.

This weekend, I also entered all my sewing patterns into a spreadsheet. The verdict? Mark has more DVDs than I have patterns. However, watching a DVD is less of a time commitment than most sewing projects. We will both probably die before we get around to using/viewing our entire collections.

Reviewing them is like watching a filmstrip of fashions from the 1980s through present. How is it that I have 17 Issey Miyake patterns, but not the one for the dress inspired by the "monk's robe with no end"? I saw it on eBay, but the bidding had gone up above $200 for that one and I gave up.