Summer Sewing Plans

It's been a while, dear readers, and I do apologize. I've just been ... caught up in life I suppose.

Right now I have several projects underway.

1. I still have that jacket for my friend T lying around.

2. And I have a commissioned jacket that I have one little week to finish. I'm starting to panic a bit on that one, honestly. It's Mad Moxxi from Borderlands. I had to paint stripes on the jacket, which meant removing the sleeves so I could paint said sleeves. So now I have to put the sleeves back in, put in the lining, then work on handstitched trim. Plus I have to MAKE striped fabric (white satin + ribbon) for the collar and cuffs. Oh, and then there's the buttons and the snaps and...And I have a week from tomorrow to get this finished.

3. I'm in talks to work on some Lolita style items for a member of the Airship Archon.

4. And I promised my dearest Sarah that I'd shorten a dress for her.

With all that out of the way, I've also started a retro inspired summer wardrobe for myself: black and red gingham plaid shorts and a matching top (maybe even a plain circle skirt trimmed in the plaid...); a red pique pencil skirt; a black and pink plaid pencil skirt (for which I'll be matching the plaid!); brown on brown dotted capris; a measuring tape patterned cotton circle skirt; a turquoise and white striped seersucker 40s style blouse; a pink floral 60s style shift dress (my first use of a vintage pattern!); a pink and white floral print top of some sort; blue embroidered linen for a skirt of some sort; white on white striped sateen that I think is going to be a wrap top; Paris print top using a dress bodice pattern; and I have some green and gold floral print that I'm going to make something out of, I just haven't decided what exactly yet. Patterns I'm using: this Simplicity 1960s retro suit for the red pique skirt and I think the pink and white floral blouse; my first vintage sewing pattern experiment; this Simplicity 1940s vintage top (view C); a couple out of print McCalls patterns that have 5 different lengths for pants and skirts for the shorts, capris, and pencil skirt; and a few different random dress patterns (mostly retro reprints or retro inspired - Simplicity 3780) for the other skirts and tops. I also have this top, something my mother found in my grandmother's things, that I think will go perfectly with the brown capris.


The whole inspiration behind this wardrobe is my vintage Samsonite luggage and a planned vacation in August. I want to go on a trip with my oh so pretty luggage and I decided my wardrobe should be appropriately retro as well. :)
I have a retro reprint sundress that's almost done as well. Just needs a little bit of handstitching, the skirt lining and then the hemming before its complete. It may go with me on my summer vacation, but it's white so I don't know if that would be a good choice... And I'm making a Star Trek comic print circle skirt. That's more just for me, for fun, than for this wardrobe idea, but I may be able to incorporate it. That's probably first on my list because I need it for something in just a couple weeks.