Sew Distracted

Interfacing the Jacket

I carved out a little time to work on my jacket today, very little time, but now I should be set to actually begin to sew.

Today was interfacing day.

Simplicity 4047 is not a highly structured jacket.  The primary areas to be interfaced are the front facings, back neck facings and the sleeve facings.  I did not interface the sleeve facings today because I am not sure how I am handling the sleeves.

First, however a decision had to be made as to what interfacing to use.    My old standby interfacings for collars cuffs and facings have been Armo Weft and Fusi Knit but I have occasionally used other things as well.  As interfacing varies on each fabric, and I have several interfacings in house at the moment, a little test run seemed feasible.

Fusi Knit             Made the fabric seem thick and oddly stiff.

Suitmaker 660   Did not seem to "thicken" the feel of the fabric but it was almost too crisp for the style

Armani Interfacing from Sandra Betzina -- made the fabric seem too thick and bulky. 

Armo Weft  was very nice, support but the hand changed very little, less on the bias than on the straight of the front, but all in all a nice feel to the finished result.   Pam's Pro Weft seems to be the same interfacing or so similar that I haven't really been able to tell the difference on any test so far.  However, since I have two bolts of Armo Weft (purchased when I mostly sewed jackets) I might as well stick to that for now.

I had just enough Armo Weft washed to interface this jacket.  Once the interfacing was applied and left to cool, I washed several more yards of Armo Weft and hung it up to dry as I have a few more jackets and coats in the plans.

I don't think I will get any further with this tonight.  It is time to get to work on dinner and Monday was so hectic I did not get to the ironing.  Tonight's plan calls for televison and ironing.  If I finish before I fall over in exhaustion I may come up and start sewing, but more likely I will just knit.

Personal Day

Some things are just meant to be.

For some time I had planned that today would be a personal day, a day to sew or knit or do whatever caught my fancy.  I was truly looking forward to it as life has been fairly hectic lately, the weekends have been quite full, and sewing or knitting time were hard to come by.  I was going to have the house to myself for a full day; no workmen, no family, no schedule.  A little piece of Heaven.

But plans change.  G had a family event in Flushing:  a memorial service for an old family friend, a friend of his mother's, involving people I had never met, and indeed whom G thought he barely remembered.  Still he thought he should go, although he thought I should not.  Plans were made, everything was prepared. 

But nothing is that simple.  There was much agitation and the whole thing was getting blown way out of proportion.  One obvious solution to several tense discussions seemed to be that I should go, and drive and that way I could take some people home at night, and no one would fret (except of course for the driver).  So I volunteered.  Bye Bye sewing day.

But for once, Mother Nature was on my side.  Heavy rain and high winds were forecast for today.  And indeed we did have heavy rain, and now the winds have come.  G took the train and I got to stay home. 

And so I had a personal day after all, although so far I haven't actually sewed much, it has still been a time of creativity and renewal.  I went to the gym and took a long tough workout.  I came home and the power was fading in and out during one particularly vicious thunderstorm so I curled up with some knitting  and happily whiled away a few hours. 

And I cleaned up the sewing room, put away the remnants of the nursery set, sorted out my NYS Sheep & Wool purchases, and generally got my space ready for the next project.  And I looked at my next and future projects.

I got out the Simplicity Jacket I cut out in San Francisco (finally!):

I think I made a mistake when I cut this out.  I recall that the sleeves on the muslin were a little short, but I thought to myself that I could fix that as there was another sleeve piece.  I was thinking that piece was an extension, when in actually it is a cuff lining so that the sleeves can be turned up.  I think I can work around this by just turning that piece into a sleeve extension, in which case it will become a design detail rather than a  mistake, but I will see what happens.

Therefore I have decided not to cut the lining yet, but to begin constructing the jacket and see what I have to do about the sleeves.  I do have extra fabric, but I am not convinced I have enough to recut the sleeves.

I also started thinking about a sewing plan.  I know I wrote about needing a few garments in my closet and finding things that went together.  Well, the situation is not as dire as I originally feared.  I have three nice suits, all black, and a beautiful black dress that can be dressed up or down so I am set for dinners out, concerts, and just about any more social event that I would need to go to.  I also have a cocktail dress that fits nicely.

For everyday I have several pairs of chinos in black, gray, and chocolate brown, and corduroy's as well in the same colors. so I am set.  Casual jackets are in short supply, but this will get me through my wardrobe needs.  In short, I am not pressed for something to wear, but I don't want to be confined to those items, and I do need to plan what I make, producing garments that go with things in my wardrobe or planning outfits or wardrobes around what I sew..

The selection of fabrics shown above is a grouping of black and gray fabrics, with some colors, that I pulled out last spring and never got to.  It was for a little collection I called "Steel Magnolias" based on steel grays and blacks, and the idea that I wanted to combine some high tech fabrics and styles with some soft floaty skirts and more romantic looks as well, using an industrial black and gray base.  I guess I was thinking something along the lines of "small town Southern girl goes high tech" but I never developed it.   

Admittedly part of the inspiration came from a sweater I had just knitted out of a stainless steel and cotton yarn called Tesla .  Now I wore that sweater last week at the Sheep & Wool Festival and although it was loose when I knitted it; now it is much too loose and kept falling off my shoulders.  I will have to do something with ti before next spring rolls around.  I am not sure if that sweater will fit into this collection anymore and I probably need to brace myself for the idea that future wear will require undoing and re-knitting it.

But I have been obsessed with black lately, even before I knew that the  only clothes that still fit were black (strange enough considering that black was not the largest part of my wardrobe) and so it seems worthwhile to stick with the black theme for a while. 

I haven't planned actual garments, except for a couple of pieces, and I don't know if I will actually work out a plan on paper or just kind of "sew as I go" but I will keep you informed.

But that is not all I will be sewing.  I know you remember that I started a Marfy blouse muslin back in August which I still want to finish.  I have some nice lavender fabric set aside for that.  And there are several other projects in the works as well as three rather bulky coatings I want to get out of the stash and onto my back this season.  So there is no shortage of options.

I am also adding this selection of fabrics into the mix:

   
They are all seasonally appropriate.  They will also blend into my black and gray foundation pieces nicely

But now, I have to move on from thinking about sewing to actually working on something.

Crib set Finished

I finished the dust ruffle for the crib today, which means the nursery set is finally completed and ready to wend its way to Tennessee.

The dust ruffle is on top of the stack, a closer look below:

This actually took me 2 hours or better, although this might have been because I worked on it in bits and pieces.  Sunday I spent a half an hour turning up and stitching hems.  Monday I spent another half hour finishing the same.  Today I gathered the skrit and attached it to the box spring cover.  That last step took me an hour.  But of course the first time I pinned it incorrectly, probably because I was totally distracted and had to keep peering out the window watching the concrete being poured around the pool and deck foundations.

I hadn't planned on sewing today.  The concrete crew would not allow me in the kitchen, which is right under the area where the giant spider-like arm carrying the concrete was perched over the house.  I suppse it was a safety issue in case things went wrong.  Still, old friend Wool E. Bear came right after the concrete pour and I managed to pull dinner together, a little later than originally planned while we all chattted and noshed and drank well.  What a lovely evening, filled with good friends, laughter, and good food.

I lied...

Well, actually I just overestimated my ability to accomplish many things in a given period of time.  There remains about an hour's work on the nursery set, but my ability to wrest an hour's worth of time from the intervening days has been slim. 

I confess to opting for an hour's nap on Thursday rather than using that time profitably for sewing.

In the meantime stop and admire the roses:

And Miriam tells me that although Owen is sleeping much longer during the night, she is not yet ready to toss him into the cold hard world and banish him to his own  room at night.

Project Runway Final

So, Jeffrey won Project Runway.  I am not surprised as I kind of expected it.  Jeffrey wasn't my favorite designer, I am not sure he was most viewer's favorite designer, but it is not a popularity contest after all.  But I think he was the most innovative of the finalists and I never thought the winner would be the designer that might appeal to the biggest market cross-section, which might be Ulli, or even be particularly marketable.  Both Ulli and Laura have distinct styles and viewpoints and I think there are strong markets for both of them, but that is not what "fashion" is all about, at least not as it is practiced in the fashion centers like New York, among the fashion magazines and fashion insiders. Michael has talent, but he has a way to go developing that talent.  I am sure he has a future and I think that future is assured.  Jeffrey pushed all the right buttons and his designs were interesting and innovative.  Besides I think Jeffrey has a market, and there are Jeffrey ideas I would copy as well.

That said, I have been a Laura fan since the beginning.  No, I can't wear all her designs, but I still like her style.  But then, all you have to do is look at the accessories I wore to my anniversary dinner last night (and removed as I ran into the watch Project Runway only 10 minutes late) to see that I lean more Laura-wise than Ulli-wise.

Sewing will continue today and the nursery set will be completed.  Then on to garment sewing for all you fans who are merely tolerating my foray into cotton rectangles.  I am actually enjoying the project, which is why I am regaling you with boring photographs of little strips of fabric. 

I am much to easily pleased.  If it requires a sewing machine and an iron I am more than likely happy, no matter how mundane the task.

Bumper Progress

When you are the world's slowest sewist, and you are terribly distracted, promising to make things for other people is probably not a good idea.  It gets done, but it gets done in "Mardel time" not in "other people time".

In short, I am still working on the crib set.  No surprise really.  I had hoped to sew a good bit on the weekend, but that was a naive hope at best, if not completely delusional.  Weekends are not my best sewing time.  Although the weekdays are often filled with work and other "tasks that must be done", weekends bring distractions of their own, and can go through periods bordering on constant bedevilment.

Oh well.

I have actually made progress though, and good progress at that.  When I suggested this I had no idea how many details were involved in making a crib bumper.  I am consoled by the thought that mine, although plain and not covered with cutesy animal appliques, is turning out quite nice, nicer than the many bumpers we examined in Babies"R"Us .

Sunday, due to the bedevilment issue, I was probably not in the mood to sew, and found that although the sewing was not difficult, sewing batting onto the twelve pieces of the bumper, and most annoyingly, trimming said batting out of the seam allowances, while it stuck to my hands, the fabric, and everything else, shredding in the process, did not make for the most relaxing of sewing projects.

Monday evening was better.  The next stage of construction consisted of making ties to attach the bumpers to the crib.  This required 16 strips of fabric which must first be sewed into tubes, right sides together:

A gap was left in the middle of each tube to allow for turning:

I broke the process into batches, just to avoid having to turn everything at once.   After all the tubes were turned, the openings were stitched closed:

which was actually more enjoyable than trimming and turning all the tubes. 

And then, finally, late last night I sewed on the 32 pieces of Velcro.

This portion of the project gave me considerable pause before I started just because I found the directions in the pattern somewhat confusing, and knowing my own natural inclination to do things backwards, I was terribly afraid of messing it up.   I'm the kind of person who tries to push doors that are supposed to be pulled, and the woman who filed all the books in the house alphabetically from right to left even though I know perfectly well that everyone else does it the other way.  I have also been known to write in notebooks from back to front as well, but that is neither here nor there.

So what was the problem?   

My problem was the way in which the instructions for applying the Velcro were written in the pattern, McCall's 4328:

The instructions do not use the standard terms "hook" and "loop" to describe the different sides of the Velcro tape, but instead use the terms "soft" and "hard" as in "Cut sixteen sections from soft side of VELCRO, each 3 1/2" (9cm) long" and then continues to instruct the hapless sewist to then cut the shorter sixteen pieces from the stiff section. This may be standard sewing terminology, but it was not familiar to me.

Hook and Loop I understand. Soft and Stiff???

I picked up the pieces of Velcro, each side of the tape seemed equally stiff to me, one was not more flexible than the other, my interpretation of soft and stiff.  What to do?  I really didn't want to mess this up.  I finally decided that by "soft" they must mean the "loop" side of the Velcro because it is kind of soft and fuzzy looking, although it doesn't really feel soft to me.  I would have understood "fuzzy" or "curly" more easily than soft.  Therefore stiff must mean the "hook" side, which I would have called "prickly" or even "smooth" comparatively speaking.

And so they are done and the bumpers are ready for final assembly.  If I got the Velcro thing backwards, I really don't want to know.

I petition the power sewists for strength

I would like to honor all the sewists who come home at the end of the working day and actually get into their sewing rooms, or closets, or sit at a table and sew.  I don't seem capable of doing it.  I admire their stick-to-itiveness.  I admire their energy. They must be the power sewists.

Tell me all you fabuous sewists, how do you do it?

Here it is Friday morning and I have not sewn in the evenings this week.  Of course I realize I am spoiled.  I am used to working a rather flexible schedule, partially from home, and often I can do creative things during the day and I spend the late evening hours at my computer working away on all the office accounting which often works well because G usually straggles in after 10:30 at least 2 or 3 nights a week.  But this week I am very much behind at the office and have been working full time all week, and I have been working daytimes because my car is still in the shop and I have to work out this car-pooling schedule.

So I leave work and go to the gym and come home and make dinner and collapse. Between work and sleeping badly all week I was ready for bed at 8:00 last night, about the time I got home (early night -- we ate out, no gym) when I am usually in bed around midnight and up around 6 AM. By the way, I slept late as well since there is no trip to the office planned today, I didn't wake up until 7, after nearly 11 hours of sleep.  It make up for all those 4 hour nights earlier in the week (and no I didn't sew in the wee hours either)

Well, actually I exagerate.  Tuesday I ripped out part of the baby blanket I had made and photographed on Monday  The decorative topstitching on one side had made a buckle on the underside of the fabric so I ripped it out and redid it.  That was Tuesday night.  I started about 9:30 and finished about 11:30.  It took me far longer to rip and press that fabric flat and smooth so I could re-stitch it without more trouble than it took to actually sew the seam.

Wednesday, I caught a ride home from the gym early so I got in around 9:30 and still had to sort through the mail and make dinner.  By the time G got home at 10:30, and we ate, it was bed-time.

Thursday, well Thursday was a waste. 

No office today, but lots of work.  I have software programs, paperwork from the new computer, an overflowing stack of bills to pay, and tons of financial and investment reports piled across the cutting table directly behind me.  I must have everything ready for my meeting with the actuaries on Monday. After I work my way through the piles I can sew or knit, or perhaps I will wimp out again and collapse with a good book.

Oh power sewists -- send me strength.

A quilt for Owen

Today was a working day, albeit a light one. My car is in the shop for two days getting a broken axle repaired so I was working from home, and although some clients were open and wanting their materials ASAP, many were closed.

I took advantage of the slow day to get to finally start a little sewing between the interruptions:

The quilt is made of the three fabrics to be used for the crib set,  The lime green border surrounds the two blue fabrics that are used in the rest of the room.  I have been hoping that the green can be used to tie the two blues together, and unify the set.   It is reversible, blue on one side, blue-violet on the other side.  The colors are all pretty, and they are pretty with the green, but I don't like the blues together.

This is one of the reasons that I don't usually like sewing for other people.  I get all excited about the idea, and I love making things for my grandson, but I dislike making things that someone else wants but I don't like.

Selfish, selfish I know. 

But I enjoyed sewing the quilt.  I should finish the rest of the crib set in the next day or two. 

But first I have a new computer to install.  Yeah that's right, the old computer died a slow death.  I could have resurrected it, but I my heart wasn't really in it, this was the third of fourth equipment failure on this computer, all under warranty, but each time the computer is harder and harder to get going again with different generations of hardware that are incompatible.  There comes a time when throwing in the towel is the best recourse. 

Widows and Orphans Need Not Apply

My closet is filled with widows and orphans.  There is actually no real shortage of clothes that fit, except perhaps for blouses, but each piece is isolated into itself, adrift and alone, with few if any companion pieces that will elevate it into that most desireable of units -- an ensemble or outfit.

This is new and unfamiliar territory for me.  I like clothes.  I like to shop.  I like to sew.  And I have been pretty consistent in my taste and style for some years now.  I can't describe that style, but it all seems to go together.

Things got a little dicey as I gained weight, but it didn's slow me down that much.  Loosing weight however has been different. It happened faster.  And the weight did not go off in the same order it went on.

Suits that once fit don't.  Things that used to go together don't, or look so totally dumpy and dowdy I would be depressed to walk out of the bedroom in them, in fact lookng at myself wearing some of these outfits makes me want to crawl back into bed.    If the pants or skirt fit, the jacket is way too large.  If the jacket fits, the pants are probably a little snug, but there are exceptions.  It's more than the pounds.  The weight has redistributed itself in new ways, like my fat cells are playing twister and finding new ways to configure themselves on my body.

Well, it is not all that bad.  I have black pants, casual narrow black pants in several lengths to wear with heels or flats.  I have dressier black knit pants of the St. John variety to wear with several tops.  But no jacket that fits looks good with any bottom that fits, except for a few tried and true casual options.  These are fine for running around town and going to Wal-Mart, but not for everything.  I have one nice suit -- a little on the dressy side, not a business suit and it served me well for going to the symphony and dinner last night, but I shall quickly grow sick of it if ite mains the only think I can wear for dressier occasions.

The green skit I made goes with one sweater well; the jackets I thought would look good are too big or too dumpy. There are no blouses.  The second option, which has been in my photo album looks dowdy even though the same sweater set looks lovely with a longer skirt.  I do have fabric for a jacket that will lovely with that skirt.  It is a wine and green tweed, predominantly wine (oh no, will the green shoes go?) but it will expand my options considerably.

So. there is sewing to be done.  And for the first time in probably 20 years I can't just make whatever pops into my head, inspires my imagination or just happens to be lying around. 

I must PLAN.

I must make a series of outfits that coordinate.  I must make things that work together, or at least work with items in my wardrobe that I care to save (perhaps both).

And so I am starting on to work on a plan.

to be continued.....