As were in Me Made May Its impossible to look through your me-mades and not think... I have nowhere to wear these clothes.
My last gripe was having nothing to wear together (See Orphans post.) But I also am jumping on board with Tasia about sewing too much Frosting = (British read icing) not enough cake!
(I hope you enjoyed the top picture as much as I did HAH!)
I am guilty of this, as is pretty much every sewist I think!
Personally when it comes to real baking i'm"all about the cake!"
(loving the Ace of cakes reference?)
I like "cake" items and tops like the Renfrew and other items like my Liberty wrap dress get worn all the time. I'm a colour block girl (in case you hadn't noticed all that brightness burning your eyes,) I can't live without some kind of bright pop of colour. But just because its plain cake doesn't mean it can't have some jam in the middle!
I think that everyones idea of a cake item is different as we all have different styles. For example. Most people would call a plain little black dress a cake item. I own one and its called my funeral dress... Guess what occasions that comes out? My icing isn't necessarily posh items that are too dressy, often its having too much pattern and not enough plain items to balance it.
Cake items for me are good (mostly) plain colour basics like trousers, skirts and tops with nice details. a plain jersey top would be fine but add sleeve bands or a bit of fabric manipulation and its something awesome!
Just take some of the Hot Patterns, New Look and Kwik Sew examples:
Two Jersey styles with lots of possibilities! Plus most of the detailing looks better when you have a plain fabric.
These kind of items that can be made in lots of different ways are what I call the Victoria Sponge of Cake Clothing,
Also good basics have to be made from good fabric for me. I currently have a lot of viscose t-shirt jersey and its just too thin for me! Give me a doubleknit with some staying power and i'd be much happier.
So in my attempt to be sewing more cake in the near future, I am not going to be spending money on cheap quality fabric, (interwebz counts as calculated risk.) plus i'm going to attempt to sew items I know I get more wear out of.
I.e. wrap dresses, jersey tops, functional (over fun) skirts, hopefully some trousers, cardigans etc.
How do you see Cake V Icing?
I have been having this same debate in my head every day of this month, and I worry that MMM is going to be a long one and full of despair at the lack of cake in my closet. I find that I want to make cake and know I need to make cake, but the frosting is more fun - and so I make the frosting instead. I got quite the shock when I moved all of my me made items to my closet and found that I was seriously lacking basic wardrobe pieces. I agree on the doubleknit - definite staying power there!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm a little more prone to cake-sewing than a lot of ladies who sew, because I've found myself increasingly dissatisfied with the fit of the things I find at stores. I'm resolving to make more pants (and especially jeans) in particular, because those are ridiculously hard to fit on me! For me, the big struggle is that I love crazy prints, and I have a hard time forcing myself to sew those solids that would be more cakelike.
ReplyDeleteI find I make a lot of cake items but my problem is I just don't get fabrics that match. I have all these epic tops and skirts and none really go together because I am always distracted by some obscene print. I think I need to jump on your block colours wagon to get this really going!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of cake with jam in the middle! I have a real fear of plain sponge. Although I know a Victoria sandwich or two would be fabulously practical, I have a paranoia about forgetting to put in any sugar or eggs and ending up with... pitta bread? So I tend to throw my sewing energy into mad prints or colours and then struggle to make outfits out of them.
ReplyDeleteI'm liking how far this cake analogy is going. I weirdly understood everything in that paragraph perfectly in sewing terms! xx
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