Sew Distracted

Unfinished

I "finished" my muslin yesterday, except that it may or may not be finished depending on where I go from here and what decisions I ultimately make. 

 

This is the blue stretch fabric I bought just for testing a few knit patterns.  It was a $3 nylon/lycra knit, but it has a really nice weight and I love the color.  If there are any scraps leftover it will probably make a lovely swimsuit.

 

In the meantime, what have I made and what do I think of the results?

 

The pattern is McCalls 6165 and this is the under tunic.    I was inspired to purchase this top by Shams' version of this same pattern, and I am happy I read about her top before making my own.

 

The pattern says it is close fitting, but of course it is also for stretch knits, so the stretch factor should be figured into the fit of the pattern.  

 

I bought the Xsm-Sml-Med size because although my full bust is 37", which makes me between a Med and a Lg according to McCall's size chart, my upper chest is small and I usually cut a smaller size and do a full-bust adjustment.

 

When I was looking at the pattern pieces however, I noticed that the width at the bust for the under layer was listed as 37" on the size Small.  Now a size small is supposedly cut for a 31 1/2 to 32 1/2" bust and a 37" top is not what I would call close-fitting.  In fact I once had a 32 1/2" bust and I would have called a top that was 37" at the bust pretty loose fitting.  But, I reasoned, 37" should be perfect for me with a stretch fabric.  Since the top flares out from the bust-line, I figured I would have more than enough room if I cut the small without a FBA and without any other alterations.  This was a muslin afterall.

 

Here are the final results, taken immediately after putting in the second sleeve yesterday, shortly before dusk.

 

(click on photo to enlarge)

As you can see, aside from the bust, this is certainly not close fitting on me and I am in no way close to a small size.  But it does work.  I like the high armholes and the sleeves are not tight, although they look tighter than they feel.  the dimension of the sleeve is actually larger than my upper arms, but I am sure the look of the sleeve will vary with different knits.  With my next top I will probably make the sleeves a little wider.  

 

And now we come to decision time.  As I said, I planned this just as a muslin.  The plan was to make it again in white, to wear with white jeans and this lovely striped mesh knit I purchased from Marcy Tilton.  But I don't have any white stretch knit.  I have off-white.  I had forgotten that.  It is no longer summer anyway, and black will work just as well.  I have black.

 

But notice how nicely the stripe goes with the blue of my test-tunic.  I am thinking I may be able to wear these together.

 

So next up is the tank-top version of this pattern in the striped fabric.  The tank top is cut smaller than the under-tunic, which seems strange to me considering how they illustrated the patterns, but I can work with that.  I will make the medium.

 

At the moment I have not hemmed the blue tunic and I have not finished the neck edge. If I decide I am going to wear this as an actual garment I will have to finish the neck.  I will not use a facing as recommended in the pattern, but I am not yet sure exactly what I will do.  I probably don't have to hem the bottom as the knit is very stable and I have rather liked the unfinished edges of garments, like the Elm dress I purchased last spring.  Certainly this style lends itself to unfinished edges.

 

New Vogues

New patterns are up on the Vogue Patterns website!

 

As usual, there are quite a few things in my cart, which may, or may not end up coming home with me at the next sale.  There is nothing that I need right away, that can't wait until a sale rolls along.

 

I've selected two dresses, 

one jacket,

 

and one cardigan. I am particularly hopeful for the belted version of this cardigan following my recent success with the turquoise cozy.  And of course this one is long enough in the back as well.

I've also tossed in three tops although it is possible that at least one of them will not make the final cut.

 

Turquoise Cozy

Theresa asked that I wear my new shoes to knitting group yesterday, and I obliged although I usually have a personal rule about wearing the same pair of shoes two days in a row.  Besides, it gave me another chance to play dress up in the closets and I haven't gotten any new sewing to show you despite my best intentions.

 

Actually the exercise was quite productive because I figured out a way to wear a garment that I have loved in theory but hadn't yet figured out how to incorporate into my actual working wardrobe.  

 

I'm talking about this lovely turquoise sweater of course.  The color is obviously fabulous for me so it always seems a shame that I haven't worn it more.  It is one of those long DKNY wrap sweaters called a cozy and this one was a "summer" weight as it is a linen knit.  The problem was that I never found a way to wrap it that I liked, that didn't look matronly or just downright awful.  Now this could have been partly that I was 30, or 20, or 10 pounds heavier, and admittedly I didn't try it out this summer as it was too humid for even linen sweaters.  But it is a perfect weight to wear now as well.  

 

This wasn't really the look I planned.  It happened because I was standing in front of the mirror holding two corners and saying "now what do I do" and I happened to think this worked very nicely.  It does work very nicely.  

 

After wearing it half a day, and looking at the photos, I wondered how the outfit would look with a belt, and since I don't own an appropriate belt at the moment, I thought I would just do a little coloring in Photoshop to see how it looked.  I am actually a bit surprised at how much more defined it makes my waist, which I think makes me look thinner.  But I am as yet undecided about how I feel about this as I rather like the long flowing look as well.  Not that I should ever turn down the illusion of an actual waist, mind you.  Certainly looking for a belt will expand my options.

 

The other pieces that got rescued from oblivion was the pendant and pair of matching earrings.  They don't match exactly, and they were not purchased at the same time, but they do work well together.  

 

G gave me the pendant first, and several years later I saw the earrings in the estate case of a local jeweler and subsequently pointed them out to him.  I actually like and wear the earrings far more than I wear the pendant, and was thinking of eliminating the pendant from my jewelry box, but wearing it yesterday made me think about it a little more and the decision has been delayed.

 

I see that the length of the omega that I wear with the pendant competes with the neckline of the tee I was wearing yesterday.  I love that particular neckline on tees, but it obviously works best with a longer necklace (or no necklace) and if I want to wear something shorter I need some scoop neck tees, of which I have very few at the moment and none in gray or black.  This will obviously have to be corrected.  

 

I am also seriously considering looking for a more distinctive chain, or getting the pendant put on a strand of beads, in which case I might actually wear it more.  It certainly bears looking into. 

New Shoes

A new pair of shoes arrived yesterday.  I am wearing the today.  How is that for perfect timing?

 

Back in August Sal over at Already Pretty reviewed a pair of pumps by Heavy Machine and offered a coupon for purchase.  I was intrigued by several styles, but this pair caught my eye and I ordered them.

 

I was thrilled that they fit perfectly and felt very comfortable on.  Even though  they are a summer shoe, I thought they would work perfectly during the transition into cooler weather.  Besides they fill a niche in my wardrobe, one I didn't know needed filling until I saw them, but now that they are here I see many possibilities.

 

I really love the tapered chunky heel with the little cut out at the top.  At the moment I think I will be wearing them more with pants, mostly jeans, than with skirts as they seem a little clunky to me.  I know that is the style, and with the right outfit I might change my mind.  Never say never.

 

Today is warmer, in the low 80's, and I am having a "please don't put anything snug near my tummy" day so I wanted something loose and airy.  The blue shoes reminded me of a loose blue organza tunic and the white on the shoes made me think of my white jeans, which I recently replaced with a new pair.  I may be one of the few women in this part of the country who seems to buy new white jeans every August instead of at the beginning of summer.  I haven't worn them yet this September as I was in a softer more muted phase.  That will change however probably as the weather turns colder;  winter always makes me think of the contrast of black and white, or the combination of white with soft light grays and pinks.

 

Anyway, here are the new shoes with the newish white jeans as worn today.   Its kind of a silly pose, but G felt like playing with the camera today and I therefore felt silly and was having fun posing without the pressure of running and jumping in front of the camera before the self-timer goes off.  I'm really going to have to get a camera with a remote.  Eventually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New life for an old sweater

It started with the jeans.  

 

I bought a new pair of jeans from Chicos after reading about them over at Une Femme.  My local Chico's doesn't carry the premium denim line, and doesn't carry tall sizes either, so I had to order them.

 

On me, the waist hits at my actual waist, not below as shown on the model, but the fit was otherwise good, so I thought I started checking the closet to see what might work with them style-wise and color wise as they are a rather interesting shade of grayed brown but not a taupe.

I immediately realized that this Peruvian Connection cardigan was a perfect match.  I've had this cardigan several years, and I  although I love it, I've had a hard time actually wearing it.

The color of the cardigan itself is actually a little dull and dark on me, and I can't really wear it unless I pair it with a top with a rich cool color like the turtleneck shown.  Luckily there are several of "my" colors in the print, so finding a coordinating blouse is not difficult.  

Finding a coordinating bottom, that goes with other things in my wardrobe, has proved more difficult, as I really don't like the way it looks with black, despite the black in the pattern.  

Perfection does not always fall so easily into one's lap however.  The color match was perfect, and the sweater fit, but the boxy shape wasn't all that flattering, perhaps another reason it has sat neglected on my shelves for some time.  

I was about to throw it in the Salvation army basket when I stopped myself.  If I loved the sweater enough to hold onto it so long, why not try to alter it. What could I lose?  In the worst case I would have a sweater I still couldn't wear.  So it might end up in the trash rather than in the donation pile; that was a risk worth taking.

 I pinched out the excess fabric at the waist and figured I could easily take out four to five inches, tapering to nothing below the sleeves and at the hip.   When I looked at the sweater pattern, I noticed that if I tapered the seams in one inch on each side I could make one of the black diamond shapes meet perfectly at the waistline, which meant that not only would I not mess up the pattern, the perfectly placed diamonds right at waist level would add another illusion of waist-shape to the garment.

I wanted to do it the seaming on my Bernina rather than on the serger as I felt I had more control.  I put on the 1C foot and selected the double overlock stitch, marked my reference points so I would take the same amount out on both sides and started sewing.

I was a little nervous before I cut the fabric.  But I gritted my teeth and did it anyway.

I am rather happy with the results. The photo at the top of the post shows the sweater after the alterations were made.  I didn't think to take a before photo, I was just too caught up in the excitement of the moment.  In fact I was so excited that I wore the sweater and the new jeans that day, even though it was too hot to wear a turtleneck, and the little camisole I wore with it didn't provide enough color to keep the cardigan from making me look as washed out and tired as I felt.  Never mind, it was a happy kind of tired.

A Quick Update: Lunch at the CIA with Marji

Yesterday G and I picked up Marji and Jeff and went for lunch at the CIA.

It was a glorious, clear, warm sunny day, although it started out a bit cool in the morning with fog on the Hudson.

 

Marji started out with this gorgeous sweater she knitted from Karabella Aurora 8 although the sweater quickly came off as the temperatures warmed up into the 70s.  We wandered around the grounds, chatting all the while, perused the bookstore, and followed all this with a lovely lunch at the American Bounty Restaurant.   Marji and I both had the Grilled Peach Salad and the Roasted Monkfish.  I think I am not alone in feeling inspired to try cooking a few new things after that lunch, and I picked up a couple of fresh local peaches at the farmer's market this morning to try my own hand at grilling peaches for salad.

 

 

 

 

First I must cut a path through the forest

Marjorie just went past my house on her boat.  And I was so excited, waving, flashing a weak flashlight, and texting that I forgot to take a picture even though I had the camera all set up on the tripod, focused and ready.  That is just like me.

The muslin I wrote about a week ago is still sitting there waiting for me to sew it up.  It will take less than an hour even if I decide it works as a wearable garment and I decide to finish the seams and/or hem it.  I want to sew it, I want to wear the garments I hope to make from this pattern, and yet I am seriously lacking in motivation.

 

Myrna hit on the crux of the issue in her post yesterday, "Getting to Done" .  There are a few things piled up on my cutting table and in my sewing room that "have gone on too long and gotten emotionally heavy".  I realize that I must free myself of some of this weight before I can proceed.

 

My basket that normally holds projects that are "in process" is overflowing.  That is the pattern for the shirt muslin I started in New York last November you see on top.  I gained weight and put it off, then by the time I lost the weight and was ready for it was to hot to even think about wearing the shirt, so I put if off again.  We are now getting into shirt-wearing season and I need to work on that again.  There are more things piled up behind the basket, and beside it, behind the pile of file folders:  a lightweight sweater vest called Sheelagh, and a fine gauge alpaca cardigan which I could be wearing today.  These have to be sewn up and finished before I make anything new.

 

The pile of paperwork is on my table because I have been seriously addressing a plethora of financial issues.  There are no problems, but, even though we have been married 24 years next month, our finances were always managed separately as his and hers.  Except that the last few years I have been managing everything.  It no longer makes sense to manage the accounts as separate and unrelated entities, and it is time for us to stop saying "what is mine is yours" and actually make it so.  I had everything filed and then we went through a period where I was pulling all the files out every day to get at something else or change something, so the paperwork just took up residence on my cutting table until the process was done.  We have finally reached that point.  

 

On top of that pile of paperwork is a bag of yarn that arrived yesterday.  Although I say I am knitting from stash, it is not completely true.  There is a package of fabric on its way to me as well.  Don't worry, I will share.

 

What you don't see here is a large pile of skirts and garments that just need minor alterations or refashioning to make them useful, and an even larger pile of sweaters which are knit from yarn that is too good to give away.  I intend to unravel these, wash the yarn, and knit them again into something wearable now.

 

I don't intend to finish everything in all these piles, but I need to make a dent in them, and get them organized in some fashion so that I actually work my way through them.    I need to get these piles to the point I have reached with the front yard:  the work is not done, but I can see the underlying structure now and plan what to do next without feeling overwhelmed.

 

In the meantime I have a busy weekend continuing into the first part of next week.  I'll be back on Wednesday, hopefully with some actual progress to share (or at least pictures of fabric and/or yarn)

 

 

 

 

Gardening Style

I've been all wrapped up in some yard clean up, sewing room clean up, and closet clean-up as well, and I hope to find my way out of it soon enough.

 

In the meantime, G has been practicing taking a few photos off and on over the summer, re-learning a bit of basic photography using my old point and shoot camera.

 

So I thought I would do a little post on gardening-style, or in my case lack of style.   Here I am doing a little early morning weeding with wet hair and G's old Mohonk sweatshirt, which I cut up and made my own after I found it in one of G's discard piles (finally) a year or two ago.  This thing is at least 30 years old, and it shows, but that makes it perfect for gardening, painting, or what have you because it is just warm enough and I don't worry about ruining it.

 

It seems to me, that despite the image we intentionally portray of ourselves when we are out in our "public" clothes, there is another whole self that is comfortable at home when we think no one will see, or we are comfortable enough with those who do see us, that we don't care.  But at home style is just as much a part of who we are, as what we wear in public, perhaps even more so.  

 

I have occasionally thought I would make some "gardening clothes" but I never quite get around to it, always finding something to co-opt that works perfectly at the moment, usually something that is just about to go to the recycle or trash bin such as these old worn-in and ripped jeans which have since become cut-offs.

 

Although I love fitted tees, they are not really my preferred gardening clothes.  I prefer something loose and baggy, something with no danger or riding up or baring some part of me I'd rather not bare (or which hide my tum)  This has been especially relevant this summer when there always seem to be workmen around.   But this is George's favorite gardening picture, and it shows my normal garden mode -- ripped jeans and big sun hat in the summer.

 

I used to wear big solumbra shirts but the ones I have finally wore out and were three sizes too big.  I didn't replace them and thought I would make something in a style I liked better (they were pretty ugly) and I even bought some fabric to do so.  But so far it is just sitting in my stash.  This summer I've been wearing a couple of old shirts culled G's seemingly endless supply. I think I have many years worth of gardening shirts hiding in his closets.

 

In the end, I think I've finally come to accept that my preferred gardening costume is the old, the comfortable, and the broken in.  Since I seem to be often kneeling or crawling on the ground, I like straight or loose jeans or pants, preferably cropped or rolled up to ankle length as shown here, but I will wear whatever is around.  

I tend to grow attached to things and hate to let them go even when I know they have seen better days.  I've come to accept that I am perfectly at home in the old, the worn, and the tattered.

 

Old Boots Reclaimed

My labor day weekend this year has been something of a working holiday.  The weather has been cool (thank you Earl) and I have enjoyed working out the yard a little bit but not enough due to the other distractions in my life.  I also planned on using this weekend to tackle some of the other jobs on my to do list, I list I recently realized I had been ignoring for the last month, and I am happy to report that one or two big items have been crossed off said list.

 

One of those items was climbing up to the top of one of the closets and pulling out the big box of boots to see which, if any, of its treasures could be reclaimed.  I packed this box away 4 years ago when I realized that I had a collection of boots that would no longer fit over my calves.  I put them away hoping that I would lose enough weight to wear them once again.  Following some weight loss, and my recent coming to terms with the fact that my feet are bigger than they were and no amount of weight loss is likely to change that, it seemed time to face the boot backlog.

 

Luckily there were a few treasures that once again fit and could regain their rightful places in my closet and on my feet. 

 

These boots are by Walter Steiger, and I admit that when I pulled them out of the box my  heart clutched a little bit because I loved them so much when I purchased them and I truly hated to see them go.  For some reason, much as I love Walter Steiger shoes, they do not sell well on eBay, and I thought to myself that if they did not fit, no one would want them.

 

This lovely pair of Walter Steiger boots was joined by its cousins, two pair that I purchased the following fall (5 years ago) in a very similar style.  The only difference is that the two new pairs have lower heels and are a full size larger, something that absolutely shocked me at the time.  Little did I realize then that this was the first indication that my feet were growing once again.

 

Which reminds me that the  purple and the tan boots are both supremely comfortable, and the spotted haircalf boots, unfortunately, are a little snug in the toes on the left, but not the right.  Like many people, one foot is a bit bigger than the other.  Haircalf really does not stretch much, but I am wondering if my local shoe repair guy can stretch out the toes just a little bit on the left to make these more comfortable.

 

Or perhaps I am just fooling myself and I will, in the end, have to admit that I have one more pair of boots to add to the pile that are slated for sale or donation.

New Month, New Project, New Boots

I cut the first muslin from the blue fabric yesterday, and was happy to be doing it even though I had originally thought I would be so much further along this week.  

 

I was feeling so proud of myself, telling myself "see you did work on more than one project in one month" and then I realized that yesterday was September 1st, and it was a new month already.  So far I have managed two skirts in two months.   I'm going to be daring and say that this month I will make two garments.  I actually want to make more than that, but as we have seen, my record in that department has not been particularly good.

 

In the meantime I have done some more shopping.  In fact I did more boot shopping.  I wanted a pair of black ankle boots with fairly high heels, higher than the heels in the black boots I wore when modeling Avril, and those are mid-calf anyway, which I manage to convince myself is not at all the same thing.

 

As usual, I spent a lot of time in pursuit of the perfect boot.  The fact that I was shopping online was not a time saver as there were so many more choices, and most of them were not quite what I wanted.  Or worse, I would see something I would like, it would not be available in my size, and I would fritter away more time searching for other vendors.  Bah!

 

I kept falling for a lot of fairly sophisticated "city" boots.  Does anyone use that terminology anymore: city or country??  Anyway there were boots that I would love if we had a different lifestyle, a lifestyle I once had an may or may not have at some other  time in my life.  That part is irrelevent, the "will I" or "won't I" question, because the point is that I need boots with a heel that I can wear for my life now with the clothes that I wear now.  

 

Perspective is always good.

 

I ended up with these boots from Frye.   They are the short version of the Harlow Campus Boot and they are just exactly what I wanted even though I didn't know it until I saw them.  They also make me smile because my first pair of Frye boots ever was a Campus boot, purchased my freshman year in college.  I loved those boots.  They were not nearly as sleek as these, but I love the idea that there is a campus boot for every age.