Sew Distracted

Eye Candy

Yes, the box of fabric arrived from Kashi yesterday evening.

It took me all day to get around to taking the photographs.

The Fuschia rayon lycra jersey was the first fabric I chose.  There were other things I kind of had my eye on, but that was the first fabric I found that really screamed "buy me".  So I did.  I bought lots, thinking something along the lines of top and skirt, or sweater set (and skirt) or dress....vague ideas at best so I needed to be prepared.

Then I was talking to Carolyn and my eye fell on this wonderful cotton voile print.  I am talking about the orange fabric in the middle here.  This is not a print in which one can get lost in a crowd.  I immediately thought of a skirt to wear with the knit.  The pinks are the same.  I immediately thought of something floaty, with multiple layers of fabrics, and perhaps asymmetrical pieces.  Then as I was watching the others shop, I saw someone pick up a really fabulous piece of deep pumpkin/bunt orange silk.  I remember charmeuse, but it might not have been. I was sorely tempted and my idea started to change.  But I did not buy the orange silk because I suddenly remembered that I might have something similar sitting at home, and I did.  That lovely piece of orange silk twill will become the lining for the skirt that will be made of the orange cotton.

Kashi showed us some fabulous silk prints that had just come in and this one really stuck in my mind.  He had it in black, and this wonderful bright navy blue.  Now I don't do particularly well with classic navy, but this one is wonderful.  So I wandered around thinking about it.  As usual with a successful purchase I had an image forming in my mind of a dress, but a printed dress with a coordinating, or contrasting for that matter, print as well.  But I didn't find anything.    I decided to buy the silk print anyway and just after he cut it, someone came in and bought some of this perfect navy blue silk, the perfect blue to go wtih my charmeuse.  It was not what I was originally thinking but immediately my thoughts began to transform themselves.  I took some of the solid as well.

Remember that burnt orange charmeuse?  Kashi had
it in purple too.  Purple is a much better color.  This one is actually deeper than it appears in the photo, purples seem to be hard to photograph. 

Then I pretty much sat down and let others shop and tally up their purchases.  I was done cutting and just needed time to get my order written up, but I was happy to look at what everyone was buying and ooh and ah their purchases.  Then, just as we were writing my order up, I saw another silk.  Truthfully I had seen it before, but it hadn't clicked with me until right then. 

I am sure you know what I am talking about; you see a fabric you love but you can't for the life of you figure out what you would do with it.  There had been another fabric like that at Kashi's, a beautiful deep dusty plum printed eyelet, but I passed on that one.  This next fabric spoke to me but I couldn't quite understand its language.  And then it occurred to me:  bias.  Cut the fabric on the bias.

Again I am thinking about a dress, but I don't have specific patterns in mind.  I never commit myself to anything until the fabric is cut.  dreams are free after all and I reserve the right to change my mind.

Monday Musings and Reminiscences of a trip to NYC

Well it seems that time just got away from me and all of last week went by in a blur.  There are several posts that were composed mentally but never committed to paper or computer and now they are lost in the ephemera.

At the beginning of Father's Day Weekend I still had such high hopes of leaping into my sewing.  I wanted to make a dress to wear the next Friday (i had been hoping to do this for some time) to meet some friends during the day and to go to the symphony with my DH in the evening.  But sewing time was not available and on Monday I realized that it was simply not going to happen, and in fact I had worked myself into such a lather of stress over not being able to sew that my creative instincts were literally being strangled.

I know when this happens it is time to step back.  I told myself that I didn't need to sew.  After the first day, when I thought I looked like a sack of potatoes and was convinced I had nothing to wear, I calmed down and looked in my closet only to find that I did indeed have clothes and that I looked fine and would look fine on Friday.

That obstacle overcome, I was ready to curl up and read a book, deal with the many meetings that were scheduled last week, and just relax.

Then Friday rolled around and I went in to NYC to meet Carolyn and a couple of other sewing friends for lunch and an afternoon of shopping.  It was a fabulous afternoon with fabulous women.  Carolyn, who is much more together than I have been of late, has already written all about in far more charming detail than I think I can muster. 

After chattering away through lunch, completely wrapped up in our conversations and oblivious to the fact that the restaurant was emptying out and potential shopping time was slipping by, we suddenly came to our senses and headed out the door.

The first stop was MJ Trim  where Carolyn needed some trim for a special project and I just looked around hoping to learn some of the secrets of Carolyn's remarkable ability to come up with the perfect trim for a project -- one that enhances the garment without overpowering or drawing too much attention to itself.

Here are Carolyn and myself contemplating a few trim choices.  Carolyn had good suggestions for everyone's trim choices and also gently set us straight when we were contemplating bright pretty colors and trims that simply made too strong a statement on their own -- not that they weren't worthy, but that their very strength of character (and price) made them suitable only if a specific project was in mind.

I don't often managed to keep a project in mind when I am in a trim store....I just grab for anything pretty and all rational thought just leaves my head, but I did find one trim that was deemed useful and versatile, and Carolyn had ideas that had never occurred to me:

This little light and airy sequined trim is perfect for me.  I immediately had one idea for its use and then Carolyn gave me new ideas.  Now that I am home I have several potential projects in mind so I do not think that this is something that is going to languish very long.

Well, that depends on what I actually get around to sewing.....

We also looked at buttons, where Joanna found the perfect button for a handbag she is knitting.  I avoided looking at buttons (except for Joanna) as I have a sizable button collection which does not need general expansion except when I need a specific button for a specific project. 

But I was entranced by the various sew on rhinestones and jewels, especially these sew-on jewels.   You know there have been a lot of these jewels showing up in the spring collections, and there are also a couple of things coming up for fall.  Looking at these little gems, and thinking about the photos I have saved in my inspiration file, I began to get an idea for a project that might materialize later this fall.  I have the perfect fabric in mind, and an idea is taking shape, but I will have to work out the specific details first as I will need to determine how many jewels I will need and in what shapes and colors.  Look for an update as we get closer to the cool weather. 

Then we all trekked over to Metro Textiles, where I thought I was fairly moderate in my purchases, but then moderate is a rather vague term.  Carolyn was definitely in control and she adhered to the principles of her fabric moratorium admirably.  While we were at Metro Textiles, we met Trina, who recently started a blog, the slapdash sewist and who writes wittily about sewing and the pleasures of turning out fun clothes that are far more clever and interesting than anything I ever make. 

Friday night I met G in the city for a symphony concert and we had a slow weekend without any sewing.  Doesn't this refrain begin to get boring after a while?

But I am waiting for the fabric to arrive.  Kashi said he would ship Monday so I expect my package today.  If I am lucky I will get two packages of fabric today, as I was back in NYC on Monday, meeting another friend, and I ran back to the garment district to stop in at Rosen and Chadick, where I had actually made a reconnaissance run before meeting up with everyone for lunch on Friday, but even then, it was late Monday by the time I got to the store, so the package might not have gone out until today.....

Now, I want to sew and waiting for fabric is sooooo boring....

(you know I have nothing else to sew in this entire house).

How Michael Ondaatje changed how I think about Sewing

I tell myself I have been having trouble finding time to sew, but that Is not exactly true. I have trouble finding time to lose myself in sewing, and that is an entirely different thing.

It came to me this morning, making breakfast, a task in which I don’t tend to lose myself, that this is precisely what I am missing. It is easy, with sewing, to lose myself, to get all wrapped up in the task, which is perhaps the greatest reason I am not a good 15 minute a day seamstress. A mere 15 minutes is enough that I am a goner, that time disappears into the fog and I am sewing. I can’t escape that fog of steam, the rhythm of the needle running up and down, the hum of the machine, the allure of turning something flat and two dimensional into something else entirely. So I wait, not always patiently, until I can steal away a little time.

In the past I have done a lot of sewing in the evenings, but then I had a husband devoted to his work who often did not struggle back to the fold before 8 PM and 10 and 11 were not unheard of. I still have the darling husband of course, but he is home, and evenings are spent together more or at least it is looking like that might become the routine – I haven’t completely settled down to it yet, but I am in training, and he waits patiently. Knitting, which I love but which does not engulf my attentions in quite the same way may benefit from this change in ritual.

I have actually tried working in the sewing room (on sewing not work – which still occupies the same space) but it has not gone well so far. I don’t brook interruptions by life as well when I am sewing, and finding interruption free time has been difficult, except in the evening, but then I am torn by the competing calls of my creative side and the love of my life. At the moment these primary forces are still in a state of negotiation.

But how is this morning different? How did I discover something I had been missing? It was not the pan of chicken fajitas, peppers, and eggs.

 

Blame Michael Ondaatje. I got up early this morning, but I was a little draggy yet and a little stiff, so I curled up in a chair and continued reading my current book, Ondaatje’s newest, Divisadero. When I was interrupted it took me a little bit to come out of that world – the world of the really good book. It is more than a story, it is more than the beauty of the writing – there a quite a few writers who do one or the other beautifully. But this craft of fiction, where you can create an alternate universe almost in the telling of the tale, that is a rare skill. I am not sure if it is a skill or a gift. I suspect it is both because even a gift must be honed and mastered.

Admittedly I had trouble getting into this book and I am not convinced that is Ondaatje’s fault, but perhaps a symbol of my own fractured attention span of late. The book is complicated and it seems to weave together completely separate and unrelated stories – but then again they are not (separate that is) just as life is separate and distinct but not at all so. Everything intersects and reflects and is echoed again and again. So now (and I am well beyond the half way point) I pick up the book and immediately get pulled away from what I was thinking and doing into another room in my mind, a room that at this moment seems to be reserved for this book. I turn the pages, open the mental door and go somewhere else, only to be startled later when someone knocks.

 

And it struck me, later, standing at the stove, that when I sew I either use a different part of my brain or I use it differently than I do with the rest of my life and the transition back can be difficult – hence the trouble with interruptions. It is like some part of the circuitry has been put in some kind of “sleep mode” while whole new systems have been opened up and turned on. But the process of shutting down and reawakening my “normal life” mode is time consuming and sometimes harsh. So sewing, at least for me, is about more than just the making of clothes, although that is the most obvious aspect.  It is about art, and thought, and then to some extent about life itself. 

Of course in realizing that sewing makes me think differently I also realize that sewing time is then even more vital to keeping the whole mental machine going.

And although with realization can come resolve, resolve alone does not reconcile the competing needs that life brings. I still need to work out a way to combine sewing time, with living time, and work time, and also gym or exercise or at least activity time, because the body must be kept as well maintained as the mind and the creative spirit.

 

She's making a list...

Today was supposed to be a Perfect Sewing Day, but well, it wasn't.  In fact, the sewing aspects of my plan for the day were completely not realized and now, although it is only 9:30, I am having trouble focusing on the idea that I could start now.  So I have been refining my list of things that need to be sewn.

So although I am rather chomping at the bit at this thinking-about-sewing thing without enough actual sewing going on, I think I will ramble about my recent sewing thoughts, before they too get lost in the general shuffle and focus on other things that seems to be my life right now.

It kind of dawned on me this week, actually as I was out in the garden pulling weeds, that it is summertime and I have done very little of my summertime sewing.  Now I don't need much in terms of new summer clothes this year but that is really besides the point. I was thinking about clothes and the clothes I want to make.

Carolyn  posted a picture of a really cute new tank top she made from a pretty piece of border eyelet that she got from Kashi at Metro Textiles.  Now I bought that same eyelet or a very similar one, back in March but haven't made it up yet.    So I started thinking about those fabrics, purchased with such high hopes in early March (see this post ), before my life changed, and started thinking about which of those fabrics I really needed to make up now.  Not surprisingly, I have come to different conclusions that Carolyn, but that is one of the things that makes this sewing community so interesting, we have so many ideas and approaches to this shared passion and there is always something more to learn.    Now I don't see that particular fabric as particularly trendy and I can see ways to use it.  But although I realize that there are fabrics that are trendy, for the most part I think it is how a fabric is used that makes it trendy.  I don't think I buy many fabrics that are limited to a short time-span for use.  Now I could use those fabrics in a way that would limit their life, but I am pretty consistent in my style, and there is very little that I make or wear that is "of a season".    Of course Carolyn has her style sense much more on the fashion pulse than I, and I tend border more on "fuddy duddy" so perhaps I should pay more attention

Anyway, so I have been thinking about what I actually want to get made this season, and there are a couple of things from that Metro Textiles pile that I want to get made up really soon.  And there are a couple of other things, two of the bundles on the pile I showed you here  and a few other things I still need to pull out.  So when I have a few moments here and there I shall prepare a list and a pile, not neglecting that big old stack of knits either, so that when actual sewing time presents itself, I will be raring to go.

But....

In the meantime, while I am still trying to get my head around summer, fall is just around the corner and the magazines and catalogs are starting to roll in.

Look what came in a catalog from Bergdorf Goodman:

Alberta Ferretti wool and cashmere; $1990.

Dream on.

I think I've seen a pattern I can adapt that from.

Monday Musings

A collection of random thoughts on sewing, clothing, and other fiber-related thoughts.

I have been sorting through the fabric collection and in one box, hidden among the neatly folded fabric I found a small stash of ribbons and trims.  Now currently I keep ribbon separately, in a drawer under my file cabinet, but this was not always the case.

I had almost forgotten this beautiful deep maroon trim.  It is darker than it appears in the photo and very long.  I also only have a short piece, not a full yard, about 32 inches total.  I have no idea what I thought I would do with it, but I do recall I fished it out of a remnant box and paid about $1 for it.  Looking at it this weekend all I could think of would be ends on a scarf.  I could use doubled silk chiffon or georgette and put the trim on the ends, or perhaps I could knit something out of a fine silk yarn if I can find the right color, perhaps  a simple stitch with just a bit of a lacy pattern just a little bit above where the trim is attached.

I found this in the same box.  I have much more of this, at least 4 or 5 yards.  I have no idea what I planned to do with it, but there are far more possibilities.  I don't think this will be used this summer.  Although it looks heavy with the embroidery, the background fabric is actually a very lightweight cotton, almost like a fine batiste or voile.  There were a few other ribbons and trims as well, not as inspiring individually, but perfect for some project or another.  They have all been added to the trim drawer, which reminds me that I have piled a few things in there lately without organizing them, so it is time to do that again soon.

I was at JoAnn Fabrics last week looking for some patterns on sale and I picked up this newest issue of Quilting Arts Magazine.  Now I don't quilt, and really have had no interest in quilting, but I love this magazine.  I have an ever expanding collection although I only buy them when I happen to see one.  I love the ideas and it always makes me think about sewing and art and fiber in new ways.

I curled up with this magazine one afternoon this weekend and passed a happy hour or two just perusing the pages and dreaming.  If anything will ever get me interested in non-garment sewing, this magazine might do it.  And if it doesn't that is OK too because I love the way it inspires me to think differently and look at things differently.

Perhaps I should just get a subscription because I get so much pleasure just from reading each issue.  I suppose there is a place for inspiration even if never directly leads to practical applications.

I didn't make this skirt.  I bought it at Sears last summer when I suddenly lost a lot of weight and needed something to wear in a hurry. It was early July and already on sale.  I paid something like $10.00.

I actually have worn it more this summer than I did last summer, even though I suppose it was last summer's trend.  Although I still get compliments every time I wear it.  I needed to sew the hook and eye back on this weekend.  Why do commercial closures always come off?

Anyway mending the skirt made me think about summer skirts and seasonal clothes.  This is definitely a trendy item.  But I still love it.  I would love to find prints like this to sew up, but I never quite manage to do so.   I have, on occasion, thought of cutting up my grandmother's old printed tablecloths, but the fabric is heavier, and I somehow can't convince myself that I wouldn't just look like I was wearing an old tablecloth.  I like vintage to some extent but I can't pull off full-on-vintage it is just not my style. And although I have a friend who could make a skirt from a tablecloth and look fabulous I don't have confidence that I could pull that off.

But the skirt does make me think of seasonal styles and prints and fabrics and remind me of some of the lovely things I bought at Metro Textiles earlier this spring, with great plans to make them up.  What I really need to do is take some time and pull out a few pieces that I think must be made this summer and make them up.

And while I am thinking of current styles and fabric and design inspirations, I am also behind on my cut and past activities, making collages of my magazine style clippings.  I managed to look through the ever expanding box of clippings and put together two more pages using just a fraction of the inspirations I have saved from the last couple of months:

I don't know why I can't manage the same kind of time and attention to detail and layout that I give to these very personal collages and apply it to our photo albums, which are woefully behind.

tee muslin progress

I must stop this now! 

I am referring to this tendency to think "oh it is only a muslin" and use whatever thread happens to be on the machine without giving any thought to the possibility that I might actually like the finished garment.  As a result I get things like a navy tee with white and hot pink stitching.   Well it could be worse -- at least these threads won't show through.

As you might surmise I did actually stitch up the tee muslin on Tuesday night.  And I loved it!

Well, I had reservations, which should not surprise you in the least.  The tee was great, loose and comfortable but not completely shapeless, without those big folds that come at the chest/arm when the shoulder/sleeve are too square for the body underneath.  But it was way to big.   

Now I "know" that the CJ pattern is cut large.  It is meant to be roomy and Christine has that "sew then shrink" thing going on a well.  But I also always seem to think that I am much bigger than I really am  -- that old "jolly green giant" syndrome rears its ugly head.  Or it might have been a new variation I will call the "Jabba the Hutt" syndrome after seeing pictures of me with baby Owen.  (That refers to a picture of me taken from the floor looking up at my thigh with baby Owen bouncing on it -- a less flattering photographic angle has not been invented).

Of course, I don't like pictures of me unless they are at least 10 years old and then I feel like the person in the photo is someone else entirely.

But I digress...

The size issue was pretty simply resolved by taking in the tee at the bustline, and angling out to the hem, as you can see in the photo to the right.  The pink line is the new cutting line, as opposed to the blue (old) cutting line.  As you can see I took in a little over an inch at each side of each piece (4 inches total) just extending the sleeve edge inward  and up just the smallest bit and then angling down to the original line at the hem.

The finished tee looks much better.  You shall see photos once I finish the neckline and the hems. I shall finish both muslins and wear them.

But not much has happened on the sewing front since Wednesday morning, when this alteration was made.  Well I altered the actual pattern last night -- does drawing two lines in pink marker count as sewing time??  I think it might.

More sewing later.  Well, if I can get off the computer and get to the gym that is.

Stolen minutes

Do you ever have those days where nothing is quite going right and you are driven to distraction?

This afternoon was like that. 

Tuesday is still a working afternoon for me and I was trying to close out some accounts and work on a few recalcitrant clients and get statements and letters out, as well as work out some details with former employee accounts but instead I was engaged in a steady stream of ridiculous phone calls.  I don't mind the phone generally, but these calls were all unnecessary stuff -- sales, and obstinate people who didn't understand words like "retired" and "we're not interested" or just plain old "no".

Bah. 

Then the power was flaking in and out...not usually a problem as I have a huge UPS under my sewing table/desk, and the phone line was blinking in and out with static.  What is going on in  my town today?  It is perfectly lovely and cool, a little breezy, the kind of day where I would rather be in the yard.

So then the computer starts jamming up.

What's a girl to do but cut out a muslin for the next iteration of the tee shirt project?

I knew there was an advantage to having the office in the sewing room.  All those wasted minutes waiting for the computer to reboot or the cable modem to power back up can be put to good use laying out fabric and cutting out a pattern.

It is nice to be working on something again.

But tonight I am getting together with Alexine for knitting and tea and a bit of talk.  When I get home, after dinner, I have to plan out the menus for the rest of the week and make a grocery list. 

If I still have time and energy I can probably whip this up tonight and see how it fits.  With only two pieces, it should be a quick job.....

and if not, well, there is always tomorrow.

New Inspirations

The long family weekend was grand but now the creative itch is truly ready to be scratched and I need studio time.

Still, today was reclamation day, you know that day after visitors have gone, and yes there does come a time when the children, although they are still family, become visitors.  Today was spent wandering around putting the house and our minds back to rest in their normal state of personal clutter and being.  Tomorrow, or perhaps a little bit tonight, will be time to work on projects.

Two things came in the mail that lit that creative spark though.

First, Neiman Marcus sent me a packet of postcards touting the St. John line:

You can also get a view of this at the Neiman Marcus Website  which will let you look at the details more clearly.

I just love the jacket, and although it is a basic style, and even the laced fabric trim comes back repeatedly, I think I must really make something inspired by this look.

I am shooting for fall though.  I might have a red that will work, but I am not sure I am limiting this to red on this look.  After St. John has already done red with leopard.  I just might have to do something else....

The other source of inspiration in the mail was the new June issue of Patrones and it looks like another inspiring issue.  There are quite a few things I like, although there are some which I think the photo does not enhance.  And there are several things that I am currently enamored of which will require some modifications of the pattern or my weight before they could be worn.  But neither of those requirements stop me from dreaming.

Truthfully there are more.  But I haven't even made any of the numerous garments that inspired me from the last issue, although there are several in the plans.   

Stay Tuned.