Thursday, March 30, 2017

Sewcation Outfit 1: Toaster Sweater and Margaret Pant


I just sent my mom off to the airport after a lovely three weeks. She came to town to hang out and we divided our time between traveling (Mandalay and Bagan, Myanmar plus a few days at the beach in southern Thailand), sightseeing, eating and, of course, sewing.


Sewing-wise, my mom came with several planned projects, some already cut out. But she also added several to the list once she got here and had the chance to peruse my prodigious fabric and pattern stash, too.

At the end of this sewcation she had three new pairs of pants, two summer-y tops, a sweater/sweatshirt, a blazer, and a few partially completed projects (a summer robe and seven of twenty batik Dresden plate quilt circle thingies, help me out here quilting folks). Basically a whole wardrobe to take her back to March in Massachusetts (still quite chilly) and then help her transition into spring and summer!


The first of those sewcation outfits, the most wintery of the bunch, was a group effort...

Since she liked mine, I whipped up a super quick Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater #1 for her. The fabric we purchased locally here in Bangkok. It's a thick cotton sweater-like knit that is a bit curly on the edges, but soft and quite substantial.


We went with a size medium at the bust graded to large at the hip for her, which worked pretty well. We shortened the sleeves about two inches, I believe.


The pants are the Style Arc Margaret in a size 14 with the legs shortened two inches (my height does not come from her side of the family). She brought this stretchy black sateenish fabric with her and I had some bengaline for her just like mine, so we assembly lined sewed two pairs in record time. She manned the sewing machine and I serged, pressed and pinned.


Hopefully these two pieces will be wardrobe workhorses for her! Some of the other things we made during the sewcation are less practical, but still lovely. These items fit firmly into Camp Cake rather than Camp Frosting, though. She's even packed the sweater in her carry-on so she can change into it when she arrives in Massachusetts, which is scheduled to have snow the day she returns!

The look on her face in the photo below indicates that she now understands how hard it is to take photos in winter clothes on my hot Bangkok balcony: