Earlier this year I decided it was time to made some red outfits. When I first started sewing for Gene I only made two outfits, one to sell and one for me. After a year or so of doing that, I started making OOAK's. In 2008 I decided to make the most of my designs and started making small batches of each design. I didn't make sense to me to work so hard on making a new design to only make it once. I limited the size of my batches to about 8 outfits usually, unless I could squeeze out one more from my fabric. I think there are many advantages to my system: I use up the fabric, it is efficient, and I don't usually have a problem selling my outfits. The biggest drawback is I haven't worked with any real colors for a long time now.
My red list started growing: The red lace dress from Grace Kelly's "Dial M for Murder", the red suit the the Countess wears in "Sound of Music", Travilla's red wool suit with the black fur sleeves (part 2), a red version of "Rear Window's" black cocktailer, etc.... I started designing the different outfits and cutting out all the batches back in February. I figured it would take me only a month or two to finish everything. If course my eyes are bigger than my time. It probably wouldn't have been so bad but after I cut out all the lace dresses there were a lot of scraps left over. I got the "brilliant" idea to make lace and chiffon cocktailers like I had last year. Thirty-five lace bodices later, I really started wondering about my sanity.
Now I haven't been sewing these red outfits the whole time, I did get distracted doing quite a few commissions this Spring and Cub Scouts really sucked a lot of my time away from sewing this past Summer.
I think the grand total is 107 outfits. It wasn't so bad while I was working on the machine work. I just kept plugging away at it until all I had left to do was the hand-work. The hand-work is taking forever, and I am getting sick of it. I decided a few weeks ago to focus, focus like a laser beam, or at least try to. I am now finishing one style at a time, making the pattern to sell, and selling the outfits.
I hope everyone likes red. I have at least 6 more styles to finish and sell of various batch sizes. After all the red is done, I will then only make one style and the pattern at a time. My goal is to have a new batch of outfits and its pattern to sell every 2-3 weeks and not go months between posts and sales.
Focus Diane, Focus.
