Patternreview fabric stash contest 2015

Patternreview runs a fabric stash contest every year.

The object is to sew the highest number of (linear) yards of fabrics that you've had for at least six months. Though I've mostly sworn off contests for this year, I'll participate in this one. While I don't expect to get near the top of the list, I'm usually sewing from my stash anyway, so I may as well join.

In the interests of juking the stats efficiency, here is a preview of a few of my longest, narrowest pieces of fabric. These may or may not be among whatever I end up sewing in the next month.
I'm not including a couple of heavy coatings I have lots of—I can't see forcing myself to sew them into finished coats within one month, even if the weather doesn't make that prospect unappealing. The above include cottons, rayons, silks, and one synthetic. I'll see how things go.

Burda 8544 (and a swayback alteration I didn't end up doing)

One of my few recent finished projects is this nightgown.

I'd considered doing a form of swayback alteration, which would have shifted the back neckline down, lowering the shoulder-neck point and requiring the shoulder seam to be redrawn. The new cutting line would have been as marked here:

The idea is to remove the extra length at CB by taking it out all the way up at the top of the pattern piece. (Incidentally, I'm not sure my issue is really a swayback so much as a high round hip that can't easily be fit by patterns without princess or waist seams.) In any case, I pin-fit this and found it seemed unnecessary; I think the cut, in my size and this fabric, is roomy enough in the hips that it isn't an issue.
The fabric is a navy jersey of some sort, and the lace is one of the last ones I bought from ELingeriA in Germany before it closed. Here it is in more detail, but less accurate color:

The fabric is meant to be cut away underneath, but I didn't do that here. The lace pattern shows up better against this dark fabric. I also made the long sleeves the usual tapered shape, instead of adding the circular flounce as intended by the pattern.

This pattern is long out of print, but it seems the main details should be easy enough to imitate. It's essentially a loose, lengthened T-shirt with the lace applied across the front, covering the bust darts. The back is plain, which ordinarily might bother me, but I think in this case it's just as well not to put any potentially fragile lace there.

Rokko's and the Punjabi Market fabric stores

I went to look in Rokko's Sarees & Fabrics the other day; while I didn't end up buying anything then, if I had no fabric at home (yeah right), or had more of a need for formalwear, no doubt I would've found something. Rokko's seems to have quite decent prices and a very good selection of certain types of fabrics. I noticed dressy synthetic and silk fabrics, sheers, allover laces in many different weights and colors, costume fabrics of the types you'd use for dance or figure skating, wool suitings and coatings, many velvets and stretch velvets, some faux furs, and, of course, many saris, as one would expect from the store's name. There were also ready-made skirts, blouses, and children's clothes, and fleece blankets at low prices. Some old Yelp reviews of this store said it was very disorganized, but that no longer seems to be the case.

Also, I went through the Punjabi Market area briefly on the way back. I didn't have time to try to do any shopping there, but for the record (and what is not always clear from sites such as Yelp) many of the area's fabric/sari/bridal stores have closed over the past few years, or moved to Surrey, following the majority of their customers. This is definitely true of Frontier Cloth House, Rani Fashions, Guru Bazaar, and Arora Cloth House, which have all moved, some of them quite some time ago. As of early May, the fabric/clothing stores I remember seeing still on Main were Mona Cloth House, Nurmahal Fashions, Amrit Fashions, Wescana, Mohan Cloth House (possibly very soon to close) and a few smaller stores.

A quick little UFO

So yeah, I've got a backlog of pattern reviews to do, and I haven't been great about starting any new projects that need much planning. On top of that, I've been doing fun things like spending quality time with memtest. Anyway, one thing I did finish recently was this little bag:

I had the main piece all knitted and ready to go, together with the handles, sitting in a drawer for oh, about three years. Two main reasons: a) I thought it should have a lining, but didn't think I had anything suitable on hand; and b) after sewing another similar little bag with rigid handles, I realized I don't especially like using this style of bag. I'd much rather have a shoulder strap, and I find the openings on these things unwieldy, even with fairly generous slits left on either side of the handles.

In the end, I just used muslin for the lining; that matches the handles well enough. It remains to be seen how much use it gets, but hey, at least it's finally done, and I do like how it looks.

The pattern is Patons' Cabled Bag; the yarn is Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Seaspray, used double.