Sew Distracted

Simple stitching

I promised I would do some sewing for the local historical society.  They have many knitted and crocheted blocks that were donated at an annual "knit-in" which need to be assembled into blankets.  Apparently gathering squares is easier than finding willing seamstresses.  

I do actually find the work rather calming  now that I have finally figured out what I was doing.  I didn't like the look of the blanket when I crocheted it together, or when I used a mattress-stitch like seam, too many colors and weights and different patterns were used.  

In the end I am happiest using a simple blanket stitch, which also helps me adjust the tension and gives me a little wiggle room, matching up blocks that very slightly in gauge and size.  I also like the even more minimal stitches seen on the reverse (right in the photo here.

 

I am hoping to put some regular time in this now and finish it up over the weekend.

Back in the sewing room

I was having a lot of trouble getting myself motivated to get back in the sewing room actually making something.  Then, over the weekend I got a comment on my knitting blog asking me if I preferred knitting or sewing.  My initial reaction was "sewing" but of course there are times when I prefer knitting.  

But the question made me think.  If my answer was sewing, why wasn't I sewing something?  And it struck me that there are a lot of reasons, but that if I really wanted to be sewing I should just start.

And so I did.

I knew that I had much unfinished business in the sewing room and I was in the middle of a muslin but I really just wanted something new, something I could wear right now, and I thought I would just whip up a simple knit dress.  I prepped the fabric over the weekend and pulled out the pattern and thought I would get right to work.  But then I realized that yes, I could just do an FBA and lengthen the pattern, and add a little at the hips too, but that what I really wanted to do was make it fit me well, and my idea of fitting well has changed since I took that sit and sew class with Susan Khalje and Kenneth King.

I am no longer happy with things that "were good enough" a few short months ago because now I have seen how they can be better.  I don't quite fully have my had wrapped around the "how" part of making them better, but I now know I can do it.  I don't mind messing up.  I don't mind making a "wadder" but apparently I do mind just whipping up something that is "good enough" when I know I can do better.

But I don't really know how to do better because I am still working through the alterations on my princess seamed blouse.  I intended to use the blouse, once it was fitted, to be the base from which I could work altering other patterns.  But I haven't finished the blouse and as a result I don't really understand how the things I have done completely relate to the whole.  I don't have a base yet.  I realized I needed to go back to my muslin, and that once I have done the necessary work to get the fit right, and translated that to other patterns, then I can whip up a quick little dress when the mood strikes, a quick little dress that actually fits,

 So I finished the shirt muslin I was working on before Christmas.  I was not as far along as I had thought.  I had cut out a new front and sewn it up, but although I had made a new pattern for the back, I hadn't cut it out of fabric yet.  Today I cut the back and sewed up the third muslin and tried it on.  It is pretty good, but still not perfect.  I need a little more room at the bust, I need to shift a couple of seams to get them to line up in a balanced and attractive way.  I think there are some changes to be made to the back as well.  G tells me there are wrinkles.  After I fix the front I shall move on to the back, and then to the sleeves, which will hopefully not throw everything else completely out of whack.

And you know something?  Just cutting out the muslin and sewing it up was gratifying and fun, as much fun as making a new dress.  And I am thrilled that even though I haven't done much sewing yet, it is coming back to me, stitching and marking and cutting and even sewing neatly are becoming simple and natural again, which is major, because when I started up again in November I thought that I was pathetically bad, as bad as when I was just starting.  I embarrassed myself.  I am glad to have gotten past that.

Next up shirt muslin #4.

Vogue: New Website, New Patterns

Vogue finally put up the new patterns, which is good because I had been eagerly awaiting them since the Vogue patterns magazine arrived over Christmas.  With the new patterns came the debut of the new website, which perhaps accounted for the delay.

I like the look of the new site and am not having much trouble with it.  I find it easier to search on this site and I like that there are direct links between Vogue, McCalls and Butterick.  I'm not having any problems with my use of the site, but I dont' demand much of it either.  I do like that they have links to related designer websites.

But on to the patterns.  These are the ones that are currently sitting in my cart although they may or may not still be there by the next club BMV sales rolls around -- I am trying to really think about patterns before I purchase.

I loved this Guy Laroche dress(1155) when I first saw it in the magazine and it is one of the pattern that has had me haunting the site for three weeks.  I still love it.  I think it would be fun to sew and wear.  I would make it longer, and I have a few issues with the front closure, but I think I can work those out.

 This Donna Karan dress (1159) really intrigues me also.  Truthfully I kind of had a bit of a love/hate attitude in the magazine and I am not a fan of this print in this dress, although the line drawings have made me reconsider the possibilities.  I distinctly don't like the way the diagonal lines on this particular print look with the diagonal seams in the back of the dress, over the bottom.  But that could just be a sign of impending fuddy-duddy status, and I certainly believe it could be better managed in a different fabric.

 While I am talking about Donna Karan, I am also seriously considering 1168, the blouse and pants.  The fact that G also loves this look and raves about it every time he sees me looking helps.  I think this has a fabulous insouciance that could really add a spark to dressing for casual summer events.

 There are several pretty, girly summer dresses and for the most part they just aren't me.  I keep coming back to this one by Tracy Reese though (1158).   I am not convinced I am going to keep it in my cart.  It is a little low cut in the back, and although I could adapt the design to something I liked even better, I am increasingly thinking this is something that I can best use as inspiration for creating something from one of my existing patterns.

 Last on my list is this Very Easy Vogue pattern.  I have skirts like this one, it is pretty basic. but I love the look of the short jacket over the high waisted skirt, and I have learned that these little cropped boxy jackets can be quite flattering on me.  

 

How a search for Indian Groceries yielded a pattern and what I learned

One day, when I still was under the influence of my cold, G and I took a trip down Route 9 to the lower part of our county.  We wanted to go check out a couple of Indian Groceries and see what they had in terms of fresh produce, as well as procure a few things that might become pantry staples.  Although I found a small selection of fresh vegetables, including a few things that I can't otherwise find at my regular markets, I did not find what I was looking for, namely fresh fenugreek greens.

After we left the last Indian Grocery, to which we will return, we realized we were only half a mile or so from the Middle Eastern market I used to frequent and so we thought we would stop in and see what was in stock.  Unfortunately the market was gone and a dentist's office now stood in their stead.   As we stood out front, remarking on the dearth of good ethnic markets in the area ever since the Thai grocery closed I realized that we were right next door to JoAnn Fabrics.

Now I don't usually shop at JoAnn.  I stopped shopping there after patterns were available on the web because this particular store never put the new patterns out on the sales floor until 4 or 5 weeks after they were released (although they were very prompt at pulling discontinued patterns), and the new patterns were never available during the sales.  But I was there.  I knew they had a sale on McCall's Patterns.  I knew there was a pattern I was interested in.  So we went in to look, and I bought a pattern.

 Now I really like the pattern, just as I really like the Michael Kors dress which obviously inspired it.

But I am having a few doubts.  My recent experience organizing the fabric stash has made me think about my tendency to buy things on a whim without really thinking about how much I actually have or what I actually need.

And I am having a few second thoughts.

McCalls is not my favorite pattern company from a fit standpoint.  They cut large.  The patterns are too broad through the back for me and usually the bust point is too wide as well, wider than either Vogue or Simplicity.  When I look at this pattern, according to the illustration the princess seams run outside the bust point.  This may be attractive on a slender young woman who is not particularly well endowed but it is a look that I personally find aging.  Given that this pattern line is usually to wide through the bust, and that the style is cut even wider, this pattern would need a fair amount of alteration to work for me and yield an attractive dress.  I am wondering if using this pattern would actually be more work than just altering one of the many princess seamed sheath dress patterns I already own.  

I am realizing that I need to stop acquiring the newest latest thing just because it is the newest latest thing, and think about what I have and what actually works for me.  I don't actually regret the purchase.  Even if all I get out of it is the realization that I need to think more about what works, it was a reasonable investment in education.  For about the price of trip to Starbucks I have turned a corner in my thinking about patterns.  I will probably compare this pattern to a sloper that fits, or another pattern and work from there.  I may or may not use it.  But I will make this dress, or a reasonable facsimile.

It seems to be about time that I actually start thinking, rather than just reacting.

Adieu Sweet Tori.

 Tori passed away yesterday afternoon.  She was indeed in heart failure and continued to decline despite all efforts.  She was young, almost 8 years old.   

She is missed.

Status update

I am a little slow getting caught up with things, apparently including managing more frequent posts.

 I finally got around to reading the new Threads Magazine, which arrived between Christmas and New Years.

It is an interesting issue with several fine articles, but what really interests me at the moment is the fabulous article by Kenneth King, showing the fitting technique he used with me when we were fitting my shirt and my pants.  The illustrations are far more clear than anything I could do to even partially explain.  This technique was really fabulous and changed my way of looking at pattern fitting.

If you haven't read this yet, and I realize I am a little slow here, please do.

I am making progress on my goals.

We are cleaning, this is something G and I can do together and it helps him feel a little more useful, although I would not have anticipated this a year ago.

I am not exercising an hour a day yet, or even every day, but I am working on this.  I still have trouble exercising without breaking into a major coughing attack, and days I exercise, I have a much harder time settling down to sleep without major coughing attacks at night.   I have however, lost all the holiday weight, so I am more relaxed about the workout schedule.

I am knitting, and getting some reading in.  Sewing not yet.  Reading and sewing are the hardest things as these are the things I tend to get completely lost in, where I lose track of time, hunger, and the presence of anything else going on the world.  A little hand sewing can be interrupted, reading the newspaper or a magazine likewise.  But as for losing myself in a book or a sewing project, these are things about which we are still negotiating boundaries.

I do think I will be sewing this week.  I have had a bad electrical switch in my sewing room, where I have trouble getting the lights to come on (it is not the lights but in the switch) or to stay on once I get them on.  I will cut off the power and rewire the switch today, or at least that is my intention.

I also have a kitty in kitty ICU today in critical condition on oxygen and IVs.  We don't yet know, if we will ever know, if it is the primary cause is a heart condition or a major infection; at this point we are merely hoping she will pull through.  I am very distracted and scattered, and I may cancel plans that require attention and thought (like wiring) and curl up with a blanket and my knitting.

Outfits.

I know I've asked this question before, but when you sew, or even when you buy fabric, do think about single garments or outfits?  

I've always been an outfit person.  When I see a fabric I love I think about what it will go with either in my stash or my closet.  When I buy multiple fabrics I often think of the outfits they will become.  Historically the same has been true when I sew, well except perhaps for the last year or two, not because I wasn't thinking about the outfits, but because I would get started and then never get to the coordinating pieces.  

I seem to think of my closet as outfits too, although I have a pretty sports-wear based wardrobe, and I love the idea of just having x pants or skirts and a bunch of tops to go with them, I still tend to dress in outfits, not really in a mix-and-match kind of way. So although my style may be sportswear oriented,  I tend to think of the contents of my closet in terms of complete looks more than as a collection of players, and I love bringing in a new piece (either purchased or made) and exploring all the possibilities to find new favorite looks.  

 Here's what I wore yesterday running errands.  This was the first day actually that I didn't come in from the cold and collapse into a limp pile barely able to function beyond the heaving coughing spell.  I took the photo a while back and posted it over at SG so it is not so recent; the picture of the sweater below is how it fits on me now. 

In fact, one of the things I have been doing while I have been laying about is playing a version of paper dolls with the contents of my closet by organizing pictures and uploading them to the TouchCloset app on my new iPhone.

I wrote about this long ago when I first got the app, but I hadn't managed to photograph the clothes that I am wearing now or the outfits that work.  I really wanted to have a good assessment of my closet before I started making new clothes.    Here is the same outfit as put together in TouchCloset:

Playing with the pictures and putting together outfits has really helped me to get some kind of handle on what works now, what I can wear now, and what I need to make to get the most out of the things I have or need/want.   So I've been lining up the players and making these "critical" decisions, such as "I like top A with Jeans B, but not with Jeans C".  

Silly organization freak that I am, with nerdish tendencies as well, this kind of thing makes me very happy. 

Even a simple thing like a dress becomes a potential outfit as it must have shoes, and jewelry or a scarf or a jacket or something.  And I tend to gravitate to favorite combinations.  

 I've even been known to make a dress to go with a pair of shoes or boots, to design an outfit around a belt or piece of jewelry.  Silly yes, but I feel more together.  Here is my Touch-Closet outfit from today; just a sweatshirt and jeans as I was taking down the tree and putting away Christmas decorations.

I was out at a friend's for tea in the afternoon and we were talking about finding clothes that are long enough (she is much taller than I).  That reminded me that I love these jeans because they fit so well, and G always says very nice things when I wear them, but they are just low enough at the waist that most of my tops, at least the RTW ones, are a tad to short.  So I made a note that I need tops to wear with the jeans. That will be something you will see showing up before too long.

The Short List

 One of my favorite Christmas presents was really just a stocking stuffer.  I really do love this little green and pink jeweled tape measure.

Inspired by Marji's post  I thought I would post my plans for now.  Like Marji I am working on a type of "1 hour plan" and my goals sound a lot like Marji's. Basically I want to get away from a life that seems to revolve around to reacting to things out of my control and get back to some sense of doing the things I want and need to do.

To wit, every day I will:

*  exercise 1 hour.  I was doing this routinely from late July to early October.  Then my schedule got disrupted and I never got back on track.  I want to put that routine back in my life.  I don't believe it contributed that much to my weight loss (which was more diet) but it did help me firm and shape and it did wonders for my attitude and sense of self.  I am not here yet.  At this point I break out in a hacking cough walking the roughly 50 feet from my bedroom to the kitchen.  But the cold will end and I will work my way back up to exercise.

* spend one hour cleaning. I have a big house.  I don't like to clean, but I abhor mess.  There is no other solution to maintain sanity.

*  Knit 1 hour.  I have been basically doing this.  I usually knit in the evenings while I sit with G at the television.  But some evenings I have other things to do.  I don't tend to let myself knit during the day, but I am giving myself permission to do that as long as I get knitting time every day.

* Sew 1 hour.  I am not back in the sewing room yet either, and it still has the wrapping paper and christmas ornament boxes on my cutting table.  I never take my tree down before the 6th, and given how run down I still am, I doubt I will get this cleared up until everything is put away this coming weekend.  Then I sew.  I was making good progress with 1/2 hour a day in early December; an hour will be better and I will move forward from that.

* Read 1 hour.  I mean read something for myself that I want to read.   Not the mail.  Not bills.  Not the newspaper.  I finally accepted that I get really grumpy if I am not reading anything.  Yes it means less creative time.  It means more happy time though.  

I am very confident that I can do all this although I can't just start my day and set the clock and do each of these things, no matter how much I would like to.  It will probably take most of January to establish priorities and get settled into this kind of routine.  I can spend more time on whatever I want to do or need to do on any given day after I've put in my minimum commitments.    But I can't spend my time running from crisis to crisis anymore.

Promises, Promises

I am not one to put voice to my new year's resolutions.  I've not done so in the past and I see no point in starting now; besides, you've heard it all before.  I hope and dream and plan and promise and nothing comes of it.

I will go so far as to say that this has changed and even though you have yet to see proof positive of that change, I can assure you it has occurred:

Here is what has (and has not) happened since my trip to New York:

1.  I made the changes to my shirt pattern, but have not yet finished the 3rd muslin.

2.  I spent many many hours measuring, folding, and cataloging the fabrics that have piled up in the guest room and guest room closet.  As a result I found many things that I love and want to make.  I have a fabulous stash. I want beautiful clothes.  I must use this stash to make things I want and love to wear and I must not be tempted to buy new things until I have made garments from the fabric I actually have.  To that end I have decided that I can only purchase one piece of fabric for each 4 garments I make.  I'm not good at yardage in/yardage out or counting by the piece.  The problem is not that I don't love my stash but that I need to make it up.  This may not be a year long goal, but it is most definitely in effect for the first six months.  Oh and by the way, I have not finished cataloging fabric and that must continue as well.

3. I cancelled a trip to Knoxville to spend Christmas with my grandson only to have said grandson's family decide to drive to New York at the last minute and spend Christmas here.  I spent the week before Christmas  baking, cooking, decorating, and generally preparing for a family Christmas complete with a visit from Santa Claus.

 4.  I have spent the last week with said grandson, having a grand old time.

5.  Everyone has gone home and left me with the worst cold I have had in  many many a year.  To that end I am spending a lot of time curled up on the sofa with the cats, movies and some nice books.  There are times when sewing really should wait.

Back soon.