Sew Distracted

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There is a new tunic, refashioned from two turtlenecks that would have otherwise gone to the salvation army.

I am finally cutting into a stack of fabrics posted in July.

All of this is being chronicled over at PurlsandMurmurs.  Along with cleaning-up, consolidating, and reclaiming the piles and unfinished business of my life I am also consolidating blogs.   Sewing has been on the back burner for a while now, but as I am getting a handle on things I let slide, it is moving forward.  There is and will be sewing.  I hope you will follow me there.

1+1 = 1

I finally started to tackle the pile of things that I thought had potential after the closet clean-out.  

First up:  two identical light gray cotton turtlenecks.  They are a basic, kind of beefy, cotton knit.  I love the color, the softness of the fabric and the weight, but the turtlenecks themselves had some problems.  First of all the sleeves have shrunk over time and are too short.  Secondly the tops are two short and they are a bit on the boxy side.  They must be several years old, back when 21" tops were more fashionable, and I can't wear them with jeans unless I wear some kind of under-layer.  Wait, the turtlenecks are supposed to be my under-layer.

I couldn't get a photo without a cat, so this is the best I could do.  At least the cat wasn't lying on the top, hiding it from view.

Basically the plan was to cut off the turtleneck and make a lower scoop neckline.  I also needed to lengthen the turtleneck so the second top was being used for fabric to extend the length of the first top.    

I found a top whose neckline I liked and traced that to the gray fabric with chalk.  I also  traced a bit of shaping into the side seams as the old turtlenecks were a little bit too big and boxy.  I did not do anything to the shoulders or sleeves, other than shorten the sleeve just a wee tad to make them more manageable pushed up to the elbow.

At first I had hoped this would go with Mine, but it is too light of a shade, and the fabric is too heavy and casual.  I also thought I would make a wide neckband on the new top, but as I started thinking about the top and what I would actually wear it with, I realized that I wanted a fairly long top, something like tunic length, and if I cut off that much fabric from the spare turtleneck, I would not have enough to cut the matching pieces for a faced wide neckline, so I opted for a simple narrow band at the neck.

I just cut the hem off the first top, since I was going to be lengthening it anyway, and as I did so I realized that the sewn up hem band would be perfect for my neckline.  Then I measured and cut the bottom off the second turtleneck to increase the length on the finished top.

It is not perfect but I like this a lot and will wear it, which is more than I can say about the original turtlenecks, which had lived beyond their usefulness.  It is a little loose through the upper chest but it is manageable.  I also made it longer than I originally intended; I don't really know what I was thinking when I cut the top but I suppose I am happy that I didn't cut it too short.  I considered taking the bottom piece off and sewing it up again, but decided against that.  I think I like this just the way it is.

In mid July I decided it was time to start exercising again.  Oh, I had thought about it before that, but in July I finally set my mind to it and actually started.  I had stopped sometime after G had started with his various troubles, about 2 summers ago, when it seemed that I would get to the gym and my cell phone would ring and I would need to go home.  I could no longer walk along the trail near my house because I could not get home in a hurry if I was a mile or two away.  I stopped exercising at home because I seemed to be interrupted every 15 minutes.  

I know, one can exercise in 15 minute intervals, but it really wasn't working for me.  I just gave up.

But this summer I was just tired of being tired.  I want my stamina back, my energy back, and truthfully I wouldn't mind if the exercise helped me take off a few more pounds, but mostly I am just tired of being slow, weak and tired.

I finally managed to wean myself off the antihistamines in early July as well, after a 7 month battle with hives.   Without medications that made me tired and groggy, or hives that made my feet swell and itch, exercise also seemed like a more promising option.   I started slowly, and not perhaps as regularly as I should have.  I skipped a few days when my step-son was here, partially because of scheduling issues, partly because of a couple of minor gluten incidents which brought back the hives, although I caught them early and dealt with them efficiently.  That was my punishment for going along with something I did not think was a good idea just to  be sociable and be a good hostess.  Lesson (hopefully) learned.

Since the end of July though I have been more motivated and more determined to really stick to a schedule and push myself, exercising every day, because I know myself and know that if I allow myself to slack off now, before I am fully settled back into a routine, I will just continue to slack off.  It was not always easy and I was often tired, falling into bed at night in complete exhaustion.

And then sometime last week something changed.  I started feeling a little more energetic.  I started feeling a little calmer.  I started sleeping fewer hours, but far more soundly.  At first I just couldn't go to sleep at night.  I would be up until midnight, 1 or 2 AM and wide awake at 7.    I kept telling myself that I needed to sleep more, although I obviously didn't; and I would get frustrated that I couldn't go to sleep earlier.  One night, when G was particularly grumbly about my being up all night, I made myself go to bed at 11.  I was awake at 5.  It was dark out.  I was not happy.

But then I suddenly realized that I could work out early, before breakfast, and if I got up at  5 or 5:30 I could get an entire long workout in before G woke up.  I could even do an exercise tape or weight work without an audience or interruption.  Suddenly I was eager to get up early and watch the sun rise.  Suddenly, I was starting to have energy again.  

I still have a long way to go, but I am seeing progress and it makes me want to go further and do more.  I am reaching a point where it is easier to make myself exercise even when I don't want to do it.   I am not yet strong, and I have a long way to go with the weights.  I don't think I am up for my old loop around the Vanderbilt Estate, which is 3 3/4 miles round trip from my front door, and G isn't quite comfortable with my being out of touch, yet.  But I am walking, and riding the exercise bike, and my knees are thanking me.  And I have started strength training again.  

I am not sure that I will always sleep 5 1/2 to 6 hours a night, but I am happy now as it is making the process easier for me.  For many years after I went through menopause I slept 6 hours a night most nights.  Actually I would go through 2 or 3 weeks of 6 hour nights, and then 2 to 3 days of 8 or 9 hour nights and repeat the cycle.  I can't say I would object to that cycle should it recur.  But mostly I am just happy because I feel my focus coming back.  And that really is a good thing.

  

Oops. Mail Redux

This fabric arrived before the book.

I was sure I had posted it.  I remember reading my post.  Apparently I did not save it though and I can no longer recreate it.

A selection of cottons. The top piece, the peachy one with the gingko leaves was ostensibly the reason for the order.  I had ordered a small piece, about a yard, for an apron but when it arrived I immediately envisioned it as something else.  

Since I also happened to notice that my cotton print drawer was looking kind of sparsly populated, I took the opportunity to purchase a few other things I thought were pretty.  There are no specific projects in mind for these other fabrics.....yet.

More Mail

David Page Coffin's new book arrived today.   I spent most of my free time today looking at it, reading bits of it, and looking at it some more.

If you haven't done so already, Buy This Book.

I am going to need to make some pants soon enough.  I was thinking I wasn't quite ready for that yet as my attentions are still somewhat running toward scatter-brained.  

This should really help me focus my thoughts.  I have a lot to think about and a lot to absorb.  It should be fun.

Patterns finally filed, and a new one on the way

Did you see the new Hot Patterns Three Graces Tee?  I have been thinking about something along just these lines as I looked at the things in my closet and contemplated what I need to fill in a few empty corners,  and Voilá, pattern needs fulfilled.

Of course, I ordered it.  I am pretty certain that I have fabric to use making it up, but I am still working on colors/what I actually want -- I've never been one to just make something without some sort of plan.

And speaking of planning that pretty much covers what I've been up to.  I had a stack of muslins that I have worked on in the last couple of years, a bunch of UFOs, and tons of plans that I have written about here or just jotted down in various notebooks.  It really is well past time I had some kind of coherent way to keep track of things.  But then, I really let a lot of stuff slide for a long time, and I just can't let it continue on in that chaotic state.  So I am gathering together and making right; working mostly in bits and pieces.  I have time to indulge in my various interests and creative endeavors, but it is more scattered time than before, and I am rather enjoying the slow togetherness right now, still working out balancing time together versus alone,  especially since G's initiative and ability to find ways to occupy himself will probably never be quite what it was.  

I did get time to file the patterns I ordered from Vogue.  It was a large order and it took me quite a while.  I hate to think that there previous orders stacked up on the side of my sewing room floor, waiting for me to file them.  

On Friday, the first day I had to work on it following a whirlwind visit from step-son Adam, I printed out all the catalog pages so I could put them in my pattern notebooks.  Even though this is so much easier now that I can just copy the pictures directly from Vogue's website, faster than scanning in patterns, and far faster than my pre-computerized days when I traced or sketched all the pattern drawings on onionskin paper that I kept in my planner, I was sick of it by the time I was done and the pages were filed in the notebooks.

So I really didn't make the pattern files until Saturday.  I had lots of help from Sam and Moisés, who were practicing an uneasy detente so that they could both be on my cutting table, sitting on the patterns and chasing bits of paper hither and thither while I tried to work.  You see the trimmings from the laminating sheets above right after Moises learned that he could slide on them.  I hoped he would be in the picture but unfortunately he slid right off the table just before I snapped the picture.