Sew Distracted

It's About Time.....

I did finish the nightgown today and I am very pleased.  

Here is a picture on Matilda, who is a little bigger than I am, and is wearing a bra to boot. It fits better on me, but I'm not going to share that view.  

The pattern is one of the new Vogues, 8565, a top or tunic for moderate stretch knits.

I did a few things differently.

First of all I used a stretch purchased from Nancy Erickson this month. The silk has crosswise stretch and tests out to be the same as a Hanro nightgown I own and wanted to copy. I purchased this pattern because it was on sale for $3.99 and it is pretty close to my existing nightgown. I am all for saving trouble whenever possible. 

I cut a size 12 through the shoulders and bust, an 8 through the neckline, and actually tapered back down to a 10 through the hips, although I tend to be hippy. This top flared out much more over the hips than the nightgown I was copying.

I cut an 8 at the neckline as I am narrow in the upper chest. I did not do a FBA because the size 12 attern was actually about 1/2" bigger than my nightgown, so the top is fairly roomy. Normally I would say I am about a size 16-18 through the bust. I probably followed the pattern directions pretty closely. They seemed clear enough on first reading, but I basically read them and put them back in the folder.

There were a few mishaps, as I mentioned in my prior post. This was meant to be an easy first project, but even though it is very easy, there is no accounting for operator stupidity.

My original intention was to bind the neckline with narrow ribbon, as in my original nightgown. Somehow during the process of constructing the top, I thought I wasn't up for the meticulously close stitching required so I thought I would opt for bias tape, as recommended by the pattern. That might work for a heavier knit, but the bias tape I had in stock was too thick and stiff for the lightweight silk. I cut the neckline out and rebound it today. I actually like the slightly lower neckline a little better. As you can see on Matilda, it is still nowhere near risque. The final neckline only took a few minutes and turned out quite nicely.

Here Here is a detail photo of the neckline and the 1/4" pleats.

I think I will make the pleats narrower if I make this again as a nightgown. If I use a very lightweight knit, or another stretch silk, 1/8" will be nicer than 1/4" but I do like this nightgown as it is.

I might also lengthen it by about 1 1/2". This one just barely clears my bottom. Now G thinks that is a perfect length, but I continue to believe that another inch won't hurt. Unfortunately I did not quite have enough fabric for that.

I do like this enough that I will make it again as a nightgown. I might even make it as a top, but the top would have to be lightweight and much looser to allow attractive draping around the middle-aged middle.

So all in all, I have started the year well. I had hoped to sew more, but at least I got started. And I sewed up half the fabric I purchased. I think this is a good beginning. And I know I am not going to stop here.

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Almost Perfect

My first sewing project of the new year should have been finished already, and in fact it was, until I took scissors in hand and just cut the neckline off last night before going to bed.

I am using the Nancy Erickson striped silk stretch fabric and Vogue 8565 to make a new nightgown, and I really like the way this is turning out, except for a few miscalculations for whom I have no one but myself to blame.

You see, I wanted a new nightgown and had been planning to trace off a pattern from a favorite Hanro gown, when I saw this pattern among the new Vogues.  About the same time Nancy's newsletter came, the Vogue Patterns went on sale,  and a plan suddenly materialized. 

It would have been perfect if I had stuck to my original vision.  But I didn't.

The whole thing went together beautifully and should have been done in about an hour, not including the cutting.  But, as usual, I let myself get distracted.  

One of the kids called while I was sewing and, instead of waiting, I sewed the shoulder seams while G was in the sewing room talking on the phone and I was half-listening.  That of course means that I was only half paying attention to what I was doing, with the result being that I sewed the back to the front wrong-side out.  Since I was making French Seams you would think I would have caught it before the seams were finished, but no.  Still it was but a minor delay.

Then, because it was late, and I was tired and annoyed with myself about ripping out the shoulders I decided to do the neckline differently than I had originally planned.  The pattern calls for single fold bias tape, and I was just going to enclose the neckline in a narrow ribbon but thought that perhaps the bias tape would be easier, in that I would not have to be as meticulous with the application.  It may have been but I just didn't like it.  It would have been fine with a heavier fabric, in the looser cut of a regular daytime garment.  But I wanted this light and close-fitting and the bias tape was too heavy for the fabric, at least it was not as nice as the narrow rayon ribbon I originally intended to use. 

Never ignore your basic vision for a garment.

I fretted all day Friday, but didn't have time to get back or patience to get back to it.  Finally last night I decided I was never going to rip the bias tape off, and I just took scissors to the garment.  There is plenty of room for a lower neckline.  I will attach the ribbon later today.

Kreativ Blogger

Oh My!

 

Pam who is the author of Off the Cuff Style, has awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award and I am completely thrilled and honored.  This seems especially amazing to me as I have felt lately that any creativity has been locked up in my head and I have not been the best blogger.  

I have been treading lightly around the cusp of creation lately and now I feel I must really allow myself to plunge right in.

Here are the rules:

1. Copy the award to your site.

2. Link to the person from you received the award.

3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.

4. Link to those on your blog.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you have nominated.

This award has been sweeping the sewing blogs the last couple of days, and I am a little late to the party.  There are so many blogs I enjoy that it is hard to choose just 7, and I shall try to choose 7 that have not been nominated multiple times, but then I am a little behind in my blog rounds as well. 

Shannon at Hungry Zombie Couture always has interesting things to say and inspires me to no end with the incredible number of marvelous things she turns out.  

Another blogger who completely awes me with the fabulous things she sews and knits, her amazing skills and her incredible generosity is Marji who writes the bog Fiber Arts Afloat, A Misnomer.  I still want to be able sew and knit like Marji when I grow up.

Or maybe I want to knit like May, over at May Studio.  I risk damaging my keyboard every time she posts a new creation because I can barely stop drooling.  She is a fabulous sewist also.

Continuing on with the knitting sewists, or is it sewing knitters? I only recently discovered Lisette's blog La Cubanita Cose.  Now I look forward to every new post and the wonderful things she creates for herself and her family.

Another new blog, to me at least, is Gry, whose blog, From The Stash, just blows me away with the marvelous things she creates.  She makes me look at the things I want to make in a different way.

Nancy creates beautiful quilts, sews fabulous bags, knits, and has a gorgeous garden among other things, which she shares in her blog Not So Fancy Nancy.  Her sense of color always thrills me and sometimes I go back and look at her posts over and over again.

And last, but by no means least is Sewing in the City, which always makes me smile. Fabulous clothes with a modern-retro sensibility and a talent for prints.  No wonder I keep coming back.  

There are all kinds of wonderful bloggers out there and I enjoy following so many.  I think we are all creative bloggers.

 

Random Bits

So much has been happening: 

The kitties we are adopting are coming tomorrow instead of next week and I have been shopping and fussing getting everything ready for them.

Matilda has a new pair of legs.

My new Vogue patterns came and I have cataloged them as well as some older patterns and added them to the files.

I've been given an award that is going around, but I can't share with you yet because I can't link and I am having trouble uploading pictures.

I'll leave you with this (the only picture I have been able to upload today because the file is so tiny)

Neiman Marcus must be getting desperate.  Too bad my budget won't allow me to participate, not that I am sure I would have.  Spending money just to save on something you weren't going to  buy anyway is no savings.    But I suspect Neiman's doesn't want me to think that way.

Waiting for patterns

I got a package yesterday.  The first month of the year is not even over and there is new fabric.  Two pieces from Nancy Erickson, a lovely periwinkle or lilac knit, and the navy silk with a bit of stretch,

The navy was washed and prepped and is ready to go,  The lilac knit is a little further down the list but I have immediate plans for the silk.

I was hoping that my order from Vogue patterns would arrive today.  I had a block of time, I have the fabric ready, and I am just waiting for the pattern.  But alas there were no packages.  The next two days are pretty busy, it may be Saturday before my next opportunity to work on anything,

The time was put to good use, probably better use even, because I cleaned out the drawers, boxes, and piles of UFOs and decided what I would really make and use. Those projects that made the cut have been sorted by priority and are now all ready to go.

But the blue silk project comes first.

Reflections on the new patterns at Vogue.

The new Vogue Patterns have been up on the website a few days now and you know I am just not that thrilled.  Maybe it was just that I was awaiting their debut so eagerly.  After all, I got my magazine last year and usually it is only a week to 10 days before the patterns appear on the website..... Or am I deceiving myself?

I do really like the jacket in pattern 1098, and there are a couple of other things I like,  but I am still wavering.  I put a few patterns in my cart.  But I haven't bought anything yet and I have a feeling that the cart will get smaller and smaller before I get to checkout.

Am I growing wiser with age?

Or is it just that I have been sorting through and organizing my pattern collections and I am much more aware of all the fabulous patterns I have, and all the fabulous patterns I want to make. Certainly as I look at the patterns I want to make each and every one of them, and that is a good sign.  I am storing up all that sewing spirit, just waiting until the weather is right for it to burst into bloom.

In the meantime, I have time now, and I even have desire to sew, but I know that I will just hit a wall unless I deal with a few more of these piles, like the pattern piles I have been working on.  There is also the pile of UFOs and some refashions too that are taking a big toll on my psychic sewing energy.  I might be happy with a couple of knitting projects at a time, although there are too many of those too, but I am not happy with all of the UFOs in my space now and I can't bear the thought of adding more.  

So I liken the time I am spending in my sewing room now to putting down roots.  Pretty soon the roots will have stored up enough energy and then there will be no holding back.  

The other two patterns are Vogue 1087 and Vogue 1090 respectively.  I like them both, but they both fit into the "maybe-yes, maybe-no" category.  I don't have plans to make either one right away, but the Michael Kors is the most likely.  The Donna Karan pattern is just so interesting though, and I have no problems with buying a pattern for pure inspiration and "how did she do that" value.

And yet, I may not.  I think I still have to just wait and see what sprouts.

I shall entertain you with a picture of the lovely tote bag my mom sent me for Christmas.  I think it is really lovely and beautifully done as well with all kinds of nifty and useful pockets inside.  It is currently functioning as a knitting bag and harboring a nascent pair of socks.

Otherwise the beginnings of 2009 have been devoted to getting back on a schedule.  I like being able to be open to inspiration, but I also like a plan and a schedule and am much happier when things run in a particular order.  There is a certain amount of security and satisfaction in knowing "if it is Monday I should be doing X".  I can always throw the schedule out the window for a treat, but at least I know everything is getting done and I rest a little more easily in that knowledge.  Of course, when DH was not well, the schedule was abandoned and everything revolved around him and I was always fretting that there was something I wasn't getting to.   By putting the controllable part of life on a schedule I am much freer to enjoy the unexpected upsets and fully follow creative inspirations in my free time without some little nagging voice grumbling in the back of my brain.

This week's free time has so far been devoted to re-acquainting myself with my closet and it has been a glorious time indeed.  Suddenly I have been able to see the potential in things that I have fretted over for years.  Combinations seem to be cropping up willy nilly and I am thrilled to discover them.  There are also clothes that fit and even look good, but don't somehow look like "me".    I am just amazed that my long absence has resulted in this kind of focus on what works and what does not.

One advantage to not sorting through the closet and only having a few clothes available during the fall was that I have learned that a few perfect things are far better than a closet full of  things that are lovely but not quite right.   My goal is no longer to have lots and lots of clothes but to have those things that work and I love wearing.  I am sure, if I keep sewing, the lots and lots thing will occur anyway.  In the meantime I want to think about what I make and what I  buy and be certain that it works.

That sounds far grander than the reality, I am sure.

I still manage to get dressed

We once had a receptionist who was a great and efficient worker, but she had some chronic health conditions.  I could tell she was having a bad day when I walked into the office and she was sitting at her desk in full professional makeup.  She had once been a model and her way of coping with physical distress was to go out of her way to mask the trouble and appear as pulled together and polished as possible.  Once you got to know her it was pretty easy to determine how she felt by how much or how little makeup she appeared to be wearing.

Which brings me to a question.  How do you present yourself to the world when you feel particularly miserable?  Do you fall apart and just run around in sweats, or do you put out an extra effort to look "better than your best"?

I ask because I am currently suffering through a case of hives and there are days when I frankly don't want to get out of my jammies, much less face the world.  I do manage to dress and go out but I have noticed a couple of things about what I will accept and what I will not do:

I try to make-up but only emphasizing the best and downplaying the worst.  Since I don't have pancake makeup there is no point in trying to hide the hives on those days they invade my face; best to try and distract the eye by emphasizing something else.

Clothing is more difficult.  Everything itches.  Bras are hell, but at the same time I don't feel I can go out without a bra.  There are very few women in their 50's or older who can truly look fabulous and pulled together without a bra of some sort, and I am not one of them, especially if one goes for more fitted or tailored clothes.  

Of course there are some wardrobe styles that are probably more suitable to "hives dressing".  Consider Eskander (shown here courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus respectively)

Here is clothing that would gently skim the body, causing less distress to sensitive skin and hiding the presence or lack thereof any supporting garments.

Another contender might be Issey Miyake, another master of clothing that hints at the body underneath.  Perfect camouflage for those less than perfect body image days.  With the right accessories and attitude, one could still look pulled together.  

(Miyake photos courtesy of Elle.com)

Unfortunately these garments don't grace my wardrobe although there are certainly patterns along the Eskander vein, and older MIyake patters also fit in this ethic.  So I could of course make them.  It might even be a good idea to have a camouflage garment or two, but hopefully the current plague will not last long enough to warrant much in the way of protective clothing. 

Nonetheless I am grateful for my collection of turtlenecks as they hide a multitude of sins and eruptions while offering options for protective cover in the form of layering.

It really is too bad that the IRS is unlikely to agree that a new wardrobe would be a justified medical expense.

Meltdown

It seems that the line between just right and too much is very very fine.

Now I have a stash, and I love my stash.  I am happy to have my stash and I am very very rarely overwhelmed by it.  It is all put away, I love looking at it, absorbing the colors, and I love playing with my stash too.  I never purchased any yarn with the intention that it should go in a stash although it all too often happened that way.  Every skein came with a dream, a vision of what I might knit.  Its just that my eyes are obviously way bigger than my ability to knit up those visions and turn them into reality.

But something happened this weekend that just tipped me over the edge.  Actually it was a couple of small things.

Remember how I said I was organizing a queue of projects, that I had them all together, but I didn't yet have a coherent list.  Well, I thought I would work on that.  I knew there were a few stray projects hiding in corners of my office, and a few small bags of yarn, but I knew what they were and I thought I knew what they wanted to be.

That is I thought I knew what I was doing with all my yarn. That was until I came to this pile of Cascade 220.  I remember buying it.  I remember talking to some friends in knitting group about which color would be best for a particular sweater, I just don't remember what that sweater was.

And it was driving me crazy.  Suddenly it was all too much.  I had yarn that I knew I bought for a particular purpose, the fact that I can log on to ravelry and find all kinds of wonderful ideas that would be perfect for this yarn was beside the point.  I wanted to know why I bought this yarn,this yarn which was sitting in my yarn closet, this yarn that I had no place to store.

You will be happy to know that I did not start tearing the sewing/yarn room apart.  I am particularly proud of myself about that.  And I did, by browsing through this blog and my lists of sweaters I liked, remember what I wanted to knit with this yarn, or at least I think I remember.  I haven't actually pulled the pattern out.

But suddenly, I had too much yarn.

Now I haven't bought new yarn for a couple of months, or almost a couple of months.  Some yarn came in December that I ordered way back in the summer, but that was bought months ago, and I have some yarn on hold at Yarn Central, which I actually meant to buy 6 weeks ago, but I haven't been to the store during that time.  But I haven't bought yarn.  And I am not sure I want to buy yarn because I really need to knit some of the yarn in that yarn closet to make more room, and I have more UFO's than I even care to think about.

But I also looked in my stash for yarn to possibly make some mittens.  I found two perfect colors of yarn.  I can imagine mittens out of each yarn.  I looked in the Selbuvotter book and I looked on Ravelry and I know exactly what I want to knit.  But the yarns don't go together.  I can envision a mitten with each one of them, but not the same mitten.  To fulfill these dreams I need to buy two more colors of yarn to go with the yarns already in my stash, so I can make two pairs of mittens.

There is a kind of odd logic to it, isn't there?

Once upon a time I would have said that buying yarn to finish a project from stash yarn doesn't really count as buying "new" yarn.  Self delusion is an important human survival tactic, no?

I do want to knit the mittens, and we are talking about very small quantities of yarn here.  But I just can't quite do it.  I am still in full overload mode.  

Perhaps next week.