Bits and pieces

• I replaced the blades on my overlocker today and the fabric chewing problem I have recently experienced ~~~magically went away. Score one for reading the manual and actually doing what it told me! /o\ To be fair, it doesn't give any indication of how often the blades might need to be changed. That said, I've had the machine for almost 4 years and I bought it second-hand, so I probably should have realized that the blades needed changing before I panicked about the mess it made of the seams of my green tee. At any rate: non-fabric-chewing overlocker = progress on my next garment!

• My next garment is a pair of StyleArc Barb trousers in ponte. I cut them out the other day and today I zipped along with construction right up to the point of putting the elastic in the waistband... and realized the elastic I ordered for them hadn't actually arrived in the post yet. So there'll be a slight pause before they are finished. I tried them on without the benefit of a waistband and, eh, they're all right I guess? They seem to be designed for someone with rather more butt than I possess, so I may have to do some surgery on the back before I finish them.

• I am making grand plans for spring/summer sewing, I think mainly because I am so sick of winter. This is unfortunate since it's only 9 February and there's some way to go before it's even spring, really. It's not been a bad winter by most standards, insofar as so far at least it's not been particularly cold and we have had only one day with a merest hint of snow, but it has been extremely EXTREMELY wet. I am very tired of grey skies and rain. We could do with a long dry summer to make up for it, but probably it will just be slightly warmer and still extremely wet. I have a raincoat in my plans, is all I'm saying. (But also shorts and tees and various other more summery things.)

The Ottobre 02-2016 technical drawings

• The other reason for planning summer sewing is that the Ottobre spring/summer issue preview went up recently and put me in mind of it. I was initially pretty pleased with the new issue, but I feel like I need to walk back my opinion on further thought. I think I was just happy it wasn't doing a Burda (I have to admit that most issues of Burda have still been mostly unappealing to me so far this year) or even compared to Ottobre last year, where I felt tepid at best about both issues. However, several people pointed out on the PR thread, there's a lot of re-treading of patterns Ottobre have done before. Just how many A-line side-dart dress patterns are they going to do? Though, there have also been loads in Burda too lately, and they are in all the shops, so I guess they are reflecting that trend pretty accurately. I'm not so sure about the peplum tops though -- I haven't seen nearly so many of them about this year and I am not a big fan of the look anyway. And heaven preserve me from jumpsuits, ugh, I am so ready for that trend to be OVER. However, all that said: I am happy for a woven kimono tee with a dart (13) -- so much easier to FBA than creating a new dart! I like the look of the shorts (3) and the shirt with the concealed button placket (4). I also kind of like dresses 7 (the crossover bodice) and 19 (the maxi princess seamed dress). Overall, I am probably a slightly warmer level of tepid about this issue. However, I will almost certainly at least muslin the shorts because I can't find a fly-front pattern I like in my Burda collection.

Vogue 8805: an option for my ponte remnants?

• I spent some time today going through my scrap bags and deciding whether I could cull much of it. I really struggle with what to keep and what to throw away when I finish garments. I ended up keeping a handful of wovens if they are in pieces that are large enough to cut e.g. waistband facings, pocket bags, contrast cuffs etc, plus a small bag of pieces suitable for patchwork (cotton prints, mainly) plus some larger knit remnants. I have four pieces of ponte that are 70-80cm long. I feel like that should be enough to make something but I am not entirely sure what. Straight knit skirts, I guess, or if I could find some that went together maybe I could make Vogue 8805. I hate colour blocking, though, not because I don't like how it looks but because I am rubbish at picking colours that look good together! Any other suggestions for remnants?

• I also went through all the fabric I had designated for muslins to see if it was worth keeping all of it. Sadly, I made a lot of fabric buying mistakes when I first started garment sewing and I therefore have a LOT of fabric that eventually got shoved in a box marked "nothing made from this fabric would be wearable outside the house". I didn't end up getting rid of anything today but I do feel like I have a better grasp on what I actually have and how I might use it. One thing I did decide was to try a dye experiment on one piece of (allegedly) linen fabric to see if I can move it into a more useful category as well. I say "allegedly" though because the more I look at the fabric the more I wonder if it's linen at all and whether it has any poly content. I guess I'll see when it comes out the dye! (I am waiting on that in the post as well.)