Sewcialist Sewing at its Best – Sewing a Rainbow, part I: Red October

Being a #sewcialist is awesome, amirite?

We chat via Twitter and Instagram keeping all of us posted on the progress of our latest sewing project.

We ask for and give advice about muslin fittings, fabric choices, and top stitch thread color choices.

And, every now and then someone gets a great idea that EXPLODES into a wonderful collaborative sewing project.

Awh, yeah!

What started as a few people discussing red as the “new neutral” morphed into “let’s-all-sew-something-red-in-October” which turned into #RedOctober (courtesy of Lady Katza).

Here are the rules (or lack thereof) as written by Leila at The Three Dresses Project:

• Make a garment in red fabric. If you want to only use red accents, go for it. Get some red going!
• Post your finished garment in October (or sooner, everyone has the right to get excited) to your blog and add some photos to the Sewcialists Flickr page so we can see all the makes together. Don’t forget to link to your blog so we can read about your project.
• Tell your friends to join in making a red garment in October. Why? I know I like playing sewing with my best buds. Everyone’s welcome!
• One last thing, use the tag #RedOctober on twitter and Flickr and such so we can find each other’s stuff.

Saavy, eh?

Wanna join in?

(Gillian made us a darling badge to promote #RedOctober. She has several sizes made and ready for grabbing in the Sewcialists Flickr pool)

Also, since us #sewcialists can never stop at a good thing, #RedOctober is now part of a series called #SewingARainbow.

Every other month we will choose a color and sew from there. So far, this is what has been decided:

RED OCTOBER

GREEN DECEMBER

BLUE FEBRUARY

You can play along every other month with the theme, or choose only the months or colors you are interested in. No rules, only fun!

Here’s what I have decided to make for my #RedOctober Project:

It is vintage 1960s Simplicity 8381 that I will be sewing up in a luscious brick red (not as dark as the photo) ponte knit fabric that I will accent with navy buttons, a navy zipper, and lots and lots of navy top stitching. I know I am going to sew the dress version with pockets and longer sleeves, but I haven’t decided on if I want to include the collar or not.

What do you think, collar or no collar???

If anyone thinks this pattern looks familiar it is because Sunni at A Fashionable Stitch recently posted about it and I vowed to shamelessly copy her.

So far, I have made a muslin and the fit is a little off in the back, but nothing a swayback adjustment won’t fix. Also, I need to add a little more ease in the hips. Then I can slice into my ponte!

As for

My current plans (subject to change due to my mood whimsy 🙂 ) are to sew up Bluegingerdoll‘s new pattern, the Peggy skirt in a dark (olivey?) green wool/wool blend:

I will certainly do the button tabs, since they are interchangeable on all waistbands, but I haven’t decided which waistband to sew yet:

View A – light blue skirt above OR View B – dark blue skirt above

Thoughts?

Happy Sewing!

PS: Anyone know of a good source for a nice dark olivey green wool or wool blend? I would love something like a Harris Tweed type fabric, but here in the US I don’t think that will happen.