Kathy's Wardrobe

We're still recovering from our trip out west to the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA. We always look forward to our annual trip every year. It's great to see familiar faces, customers and vendors alike. Every year we try to plan our wardrobe, filtering inspirations that we've been collecting into a final garment. Kathy did an amazing job of that this year! Her look was very cohesive, fun, creative and extremely wearable. Take a look!

This year I had the help of several snow-in days at home to give me extra sewing time before our week-long trip to Puyallup Washington for our annual largest trade show, Sewing & Stitchery Expo. For the first time in years, I was fairly organized in my wardrobe planning.

DAY ONE

I have developed a total fascination with the nylon/wool boucle we carried this season. Using the charcoal gray boucle to make a short Balboa Top was a real experiment. But, I loved the result. This is constructed with the raw-edge technique of flat lapped seams and raw edge hems.

Linda outlined this technique as a tutorial in 2013 Sew Confident: Raw Edge Construction.

The West End Pants are ikat silk. Again, not too confident how such a wild print would show in a wide pant. They are a little bold, but I will wear them all summer.

DAY TWO

My Balboa Topper fabric combinations developed from a fashion magazine tear page I have had on my office wall for two years. It was a blocked wide dress by Ivan Grundahl. I found the wool check in my stash and all the rest came together.

Worn with leggings and knee-high boots at the show (left). Also, experimenting with a black skirt (right).

DAY THREE

This was my favorite outfit. Again, taking a shirt pattern (Siena Shirt) meant for a lightweight woven and trying the thick boucle.

This is the Siena Shirt lengthened to a total 34 inches back length. To reduce all the details of a collar and collar stand, I made the collar from our Now Shirt pattern. Two small openings are left in the front seams for a narrow belt to come through. My inspiration for this came from a white wool coat I saw in a catalogue some months back.

DAY FOUR

We are usually in a wind down mood on our last day. I made a Cortona Shirt from Japanese cotton fabrics. The pants are again West End Pants in a subtle gray/black knit. I added the Ann's Cardigan in a black and gray wool knit.