Thank you for posting about your collecting habits... my favourite is from Seth, who's a friend and an all 'round good guy. You can poke around and find it, but I will say that if you're lucky enough to be friends with him you may find yourself the recipient of things like pie birds and apron pants (or more accurately, Apron Chaps). Edited: Austen has come through with this!
Part of this Stuff Liberation has been about me getting serious about getting the fabric in my life under control. I don't want to waste it, but I do want to use it. During the Me-Made-May I pulled all the hand sewn stuff out of my closet and wore it (sometimes begrudgingly) every day until I had made it through the pile. The things that felt the best were pretty obviously the things I wear all the time anyway. It was also obvious that I needed to get serious about sewing with knits if I was going to get serious about sewing most of my clothes.
I have a pile of cheap knits that I am sacrificing as muslins-- I bought most of them at the Fabric Depot outdoor sale where they are often 1-2 dollars/yard. The Depot is woefully lacking in good knits otherwise, and I buy the really good stuff at Bolt or Rose City Textiles where it's still reasonably priced but much nicer quality. Buying a bunch of different fabric weights helps me figure out what pattern will work with what weight. There are big differences and sometimes the results are horrifying. I didn't look good in 1989, and I don't feel like reliving it now. The patterns for each muslin came from both Sew U: Home Stretch and Check and Stripe (you can find it on etsy, too).
Rainbow Brite was made up from a super stretchy and slightly heavier jersey and the short sleeve Check and Stripe pattern. I have had very good results with turning under the fabric slightly at the neck and top stitching it down. I make sure I'm not stretching the fabric too much as I go, and so far I haven't had any problems with ruffling.
The brown top is a slouchy scoop neck (from Sew U) that has no sleeves! Well, it has a drapey thing that might count as a sleeve, but they are not set in. The jersey is extremely light weight and slippery as this would look crazy un-good with something heavier. Well, Sly Stallone via Rocky 2 would not think so, but I do. I raised the scoop about an inch from the original pattern and finished the neck and the hem with a rolled hem on the serger. Serger! I still really recommend Home Stretch if you want to get into sewing with knits. The patterns are good, but I would buy it for the construction and modification how-tos on their own. Wendy goes through everything in categories ranging from "getting by" to "pro" and thanks to my new, ginormous purchase, I finally read the serger chapter.
I've started moving on to the good stuff, although I'm still working on the perfect 3/4 length sleeve, boat neck t shirt pattern. I'm getting closer, but I said PERFECT. And look! There's going to be a Self-Stitched-September. I still have some time.
