Nuts to You

Posting my to-do list here certainly seems to provide me with the kick in the pants I sometimes need. Out of the 5 pieces I recently posted, I've finished both dresses, and I just finished sewing the buttons on Butterick 4985, which is made from some of the oldest fabric in my stash. Actually, it's inherited grandmom stash, so that tells you it's getting up there.

I've posted a closeup of the fabric so you can see the print better - it's got the words hickory, oak, pecan, walnut, chestnut on it, with pictures of the nuts and leaves. How cool is that? While the colors - gray, red and purple - aren't my usual colors, I'm justifying wearing this because there are orange and green leaves interspersed with the others. Close enough, right?

I think the fabric is from the 1950s, but I can't be sure. My grandmom (actually my great-grandmom) died when I was 8, my mom took her stash, and I squirreled away this print before I hit my teens. It's been traveling with me ever since, waiting for the right project. Which this was, I think. Normally I'm not a puffed-sleeve kind of girl (see my comments on the BWOF dress earlier this week), but in this case, it worked with the fabric. And I have enough left over to make a matching skirt, which would turn this into a cute two-piece summer outfit.

Since I managed to finish all my pieces for the PR Wardrobe Contest, I'm debating if I want to enter the Mini-Wardrobe as well. I've been cleaning out my closets and drawers and getting rid of all the RTW that doesn't fit as well as it used to - or as well as what I make myself - and there are definite gaps in my wardrobe.

The rules for the Mini-Wardrobe are either 2 bottoms and 2 tops; 1 bottom and 3 tops; or 1 bottom, 1 dress and 2 tops. In all cases, 1 of the tops can be a jacket.

This would be an excuse for me to use the nice dark gray bottom-weight fabric that's been on the shelf and which didn't fit into the Wardrobe Contest entry. I certainly have other fabrics that would coordinate with it (offhand I can think of a light-and-dark gray stripe jersey that has a yen to be a BWOF top from last year) and most of those would also coordinate with the official wardrobe pieces. Yay! Just not sure if I want to do the extra top or a jacket. I have a few days before May - I'll sleep on it.