Sewing with a Plan for Houston Quilt Festival 2018

With the 2018 travel wardrobe the idea was to use it to go to both the UK in the Spring and Houston in early November for the International Quilt Festival. So I should be continuing to sew the garments I had planned at the beginning of the year that haven't quite come to fruition.  Instead influenced by my Liberty of London purchases especially the Sungleam Sequins fabric I now have a whole different wardrobe floating around in my head.

The trip is only for 11 days plus three days at work when I get back, so I would like to achieve The Vivienne Files 4x4 wardrobe.

I have to cater for three days in San Francisco, eight days in Houston and three days in Wellington.

The ideas

I pulled out some tops, and a few potential fabrics, that would work with both the sequin bomber jacket and a new pair of Silhouette Patterns Lana's jeans.

There are a few other ideas floating around in my head.  Possibly replacing the True Love trousers with a pair of navy leggings that I could wear under the dresses if it is cold. I also have the idea of using the Liberty Ophelia scarf in a dress as it is a bit small for how I wear my scarves.

Liberty Ophelia 90 x 90 cm Silk Twill Foulard Scarf 

The sequin bomber jacket

I had the idea of using my scrumptious sequin fabric to make a raglan sleeve bomber jacket with contrast sleeves.  The idea of a luxury fabric and utility garment appealed plus if Alice+Olivia could do it so could I. Mine would be a bit more practical with the raglan sleeves in a contrast fabric I wouldn't be rubbing the sequins when wearing a shoulder bag.

Clockwise from top right: Alice+Olivia Lonnie Sequin Bomber Jacket;
Valentino Longline Embellished Bomber Jacket
Rachel Roy Floral Print Duster Bomber

Papercut Patterns Rigel bomber jacket fit the bill and I bought it on-line whilst still on holiday. My first week back in NZ I bought the December/January issue of Vogue Patterns and it practically fell open at the article on the long line bomber jacket. So combined with my inspiration pictures and the magazine article making a long line bomber jacket is in my not too distant future.

Papercut Patterns Rigel Bomber Jacket

I now have the sequin fabric, a wool cashmere for the sleeves, a silk satin for the lining and some wool batting to quilt to my lining. No zips until I have altered the pattern to the length I want and I am still working on the ribbing.

Liberty Artists Bloom Sungleam Sequins and wool cashmere fabrics

Silhouette Patterns 3300 Lana's Jeans

The version made for the UK trip (Lana's Caesar jeans - to be blogged about soon) are absolutely wonderful, very comfortable despite being non-stretch.  There are a few tweaks that I will make to the pattern before the next version but overall I am extremely happy with them. The pattern is designed for non-stretch fabrics and is another winner from Peggy Sagers.

The Liberty cotton canvas was originally produced to make shoes in collaboration with Clarks.  Liberty called this print Small Meandering Chrysanthemums. This is one of my favourite prints so I couldn't miss an opportunity to buy the fabric even though at the time I was sceptical about using it for trousers.

And I just happen to have a pair of the Clarks shoes that used this print (Clarks called the shoes Caviar Gold). They were purchased quite a few years ago from the now departed Wellington department store Kirkcaldie and Stains (affectionately known as Kirks - a Wellington icon 1863 - 2016). Would it be too matchy matchy to wear these shoes with my Lana's jeans?

Simplicity 1284 linen dress

When I went to The Fabric Store to find a contrast fabric for the sleeves of my bomber jacket I also found a linen print and an aqua linen to go with it to make Simplicity 1284. I wanted the aqua linen to be the panel at the top of the dress and sleeves with the blue border of the print at the hem. Orientating the print this way around puts the diamonds on their sides which could have a widening effect. Although I often wear stripes around the body rather than up and down and I really like them that way so this maybe another instance of flouting the rules.

Style Arc Besharl knit tee

The Besharl tee is another garment I made for the holiday wardrobe using two woven fabrics.  It is meant to be for knit fabrics so I thought I would try it again with two red knit fabrics. The front and the stripe down the back would use the red dot fabric, with the plain red for the two back pieces.

The patchwork dress

Reading blogs can be dangerous for the "I wants". Reading Heidi Emmett's blog I came across her "Rectangle Pieced Dress". I want to take one to Houston - after all it is the International Quilt Festival. The style immediately made me think of V9112 which Marcy calls the Cirque dress. I would modify V9112 slightly to a scoop neck with short sleeves plus add to the overall length.

This is Heidi's inspiration dress Folk Print Short Sleeve Shift Dress

V9112 Marcy Tilton Asymmetrical Seam Detail Dress

The top half could be either a navy or black knit.  For the patchwork part I have furtled through my Kaffe Fassett red fabric scraps. Hopefully there are enough scraps for the bottom of the dress but if not there is plenty more Kaffe Fassett fabric in my collection waiting to be chopped up.

Should I take a jumper as well as my cardigan?

Heavily influenced by Kate over at the blog Fabrickated and her EZ Raglan knit-a-long I have started knitting a striped jumper using the Elizabeth Zimmerman technique on circular needles. This is the first knitting I have done in 22 years - memorable because it was our first winter in New Zealand. The garment started 22 years ago for my beloved is still in progress - I hate the wool it is far too scratchy so it is probably more abandoned than in progress.

I have high hopes for this jumper which uses colours specially chosen to work in with my Houston SWAP.

The inspirational book; my colour choices; stripe inspiration - Milly Rainbow Stripe Jumper; the jumper body in progress

It was hard to find soft double knitting wool in five colours to work with my SWAP at the brick and mortar wool shops in Christchurch so I have ended up using three different brands. Just hope they play nicely together.  You would think with the number of merino sheep we produce finding soft NZ wool would be easy. Maybe like everything else these days it has to be bought on-line.

As an aside I did venture into the Midwinter WoolFeast held here in Christchurch a couple of weeks ago but was overwhelmed by the options.  It was also hugely busy, so I left discouraged and empty handed.

Whilst searching for inspiration I found the picture below. When I grow up I would like to knit a jumper or cardigan like this. Maybe after I have knitted my beloved his promised jumper.

Neiman Marcus Cashmere Contrast Stripe Cardigan