Sew Distracted

Aqua

I am still in the painting stages of the closet.  The walls are painted and the trim and radiators have been painted.  And while I am on the subject of painting radiators, why the guy that built this house (before we owned it) baseboard heat in all the closets is absolutely beyond me -- it is the worst thing for my clothes and shoes and fabrics.  So I try to keep it turned down.  But some rooms would have no heat if it weren't for the closets, which also means of course, that you have to keep the closet doors open..... duh!

Well, someday I intend to put in radiant heat under the floors, but that means we have to get rid of the wall-to-wall, which is pretty much everywhere, with no finished floors underneath (gotta love the '70s).  But let's not tell G yet, he'll think he can't retire.  I can wait a long time.....

  So here's the basic color.  The walls are done.  Isn't it a lovely aqua!  The trim is a light blue gray  and I still have to put on a second coat. 

The shelves will be aluminum so the gray trim will look really nice.  It looks so nice in fact that I am glad that I never got around to painting the windows and window frames in the sewing room because I think I will use the same gray.  It looks good with the light green of the sewing room, the turquoise, and this lovely aqua. . 

Isn't it nice to be able to justify having not done something when your were originally supposed to have done it?

I don't know if I have enough of the gray to do the closet doors as well.  I'll do the trim first.  The gray paint is one I have had for years, it is a Martha Stewart color from K-Mart that I used for painting some planters a few years back.  I don't even know if it is still available.  But then, maybe I don't need closet doors.  The room is small enough that they are in the way if they are open and I like to see in.  At the same time having doors does keep dust and light out.  I wonder if I can mount one of those honeycomb shades inside the door frame and get one in a pretty, complimentary color.  Then I can just open and close it at will.  Is there some rule that closet doors have to be a door?

Well, I probably need to think about that a bit.

In the meantime I have been doing some more shopping late at night when I can't sleep.  A package filled with lovely treats came from Lucy's.  I ordered them immediately after finishing my top (and I still haven't cut out another).

I don't have any immediate plans for these fabrics so they just go into the stash, even though my stash is definitely at SABLE proportions (stash accumulation beyond life expectancy)  I don't usually worry about it, although I had been more cautious about buying fabric for a while, just because I wasn't sewing.

As I've said  before, I love my stash for its own sake, and I obviously love pretty fabric.  I do realize that I may be overindulging right now, but shopping as therapy is not a totally bad thing unless you let it get out of hand.  I don't intend to.  I was about to say I was already slowing down, I hadn't bought any fabric for several days, until I got the Fabric Mart swatches yesterday, but swatches provide a whole different level of temptation.

Well, we'll see how I feel tomorrow when I have to put everything in the closet.

I want to thank everyone for all the kind notes.  Surprisingly in retrospect, I wasn't expecting them but you all bring smiles to my face.  Your words and thoughts are a great boon and I am cheered by receiving them.

I have played with the tee pattern in my head and looked at the pieces, but I haven't actually made the alterations to the pattern yet.  But I have a pretty clear mental plan.  I also got a great deal of filing and accounting work out of the way, including the dreaded taxes so that is a great burden off my mind. 

When I am tired and distracted and not quite up to sewing, I browse the web and so there have been several purchases of late, each one small, little treats to perk up my spiritis.  I realize this can't go on indefinitely, but there is a lot to be said for coming home to a package in the mail.

Yesterday I received these rayon knits from gorgeous things.  Visions of spring are dancing in my head.

Operator Error

I have a system for storing fabric.  Well actually I have systems for storing most things.  Occasionally those systems fail, not so much because there is a problem with the system, but because of operator error.  In short, lazy creature that I am, I don't always do what I am supposed to do. Now if I never did what I was supposed to do I would obviously have a bad system, but this is not the case.

Therefore there was no excuse for today.

There was a box of fabric in my closet.  Fabric is not supposed to be in my closet.  I originally put it there thinking I would move it there temporarily as I planned on using the fabric right away.  4 years later is not right away.  In the meantime I had emptied out part of the box, and I had added more fabrics at various intermittent times when I was to lazy to index new purchases and incorporate them into the proper storage area.

Most of these fabrics were indexed with the exception of a couple that were large remnants from other projects.  (maroon linen in the upper right corner and the gray wool below it). I suppose I thought that since I already had a garment, I did not need to re-index the remnant. Short-sighted don't you think?

Other fabrics had never been indexed at all, although I do remember buying them, I would have been hard pressed to find them using the "system".   There was more fabric than I had anitcipated because I had forgotten that I had sureptituously added pieces here and there.  There were fabrics that don't belong in the fabric collection at all.  There were several pieces of bemberg rayon lining, and a few lightweight silks that were meant to be linings.  They should have been stored separately.

There were UFO's hidden in the box, where there should have been no UFO's.  Obviously I was trying to take "out of sight out of mind" to new levels, hiding the UFO's outside of the UFO storage area.

The beige texture knit is stable and not too stretchy.  It has been cut; the pattern pieces are still attached.  I had planned to make the Sewing Workshop's San Diego Jacket.  I cut a size extra-small?  I recall it is fairly oversized.  Is it so oversized it will still fit? 

The green silk matka was supposed to be a suit.  The pants have been cut.  Again the pattern pieces are still attached (along with a sizable portion of my pin collection -- I wondered what had happened to all my pins.).  These I know are too small, I haven't work the previous pair of pants made from that pattern for over 3 years.    But I love the fabric and still  have enough to cut a jacket, or another pair of pants. 

What to do?  What to do?

I think I am going to cheat a little on the UFO front.  The San Diego Jacket may fit.  I know I have some navy wool suiting cut out for a jacket that may or may not fit.  I will check and put the fabrics that are cut but two small in a rubbermade bin and set it aside for a few months, until May or June.  If they don't fit by then, out they go.  If they do fit, they get made.  No more excuses.

And I think I better pull those pattern envelopes and put them with the respective UFO's, or remove the pattern tissue from the fabric and file the pieces.

And I found this lovely piece of linen which I had completely forgotten.  Well, I recalled purchasing it when I saw it, but prior to that, I had no memory of it at all.  Isn't that terrible?  I usually have pretty good recall about what fabrics are in the stash; I might need to look up precisely where they are stored or how much I have, but I remember what is there.

It is definitely time to sew more.  And this piece should go on the list for spring.

The velvet comes home but its future is unclear

I picked up the Elna at Style Fabrics and also bought the purple velvet.  I can't capture the color exactly on the camera:

I had hoped to make the de la Renta dress.  Unfortunately there is not enough to make any kind of dress, only enough for a skirt.  I bought it anyway as it has been on my mind so heavily.  I think it needs to sit in the stash a little bit and acquaint itself with a few other pieces,  make a few friends, perhaps determine what it wants to be.

How do I store silks and linings?

Lest you think I am more organized than is truly the case, I have a confession to make.  I made a mess of my new organized sewing room.  I did it by dumping out the contents of the silk and bemberg drawer

You see, while I was working on Pointy Kitty, who is now winging her way to her new owner, I was thinking about future projects and washing and preparing fabric.  I knew I needed some lining fabric to match a certain maroon fabric and I was sure I had something that would be perfect. 

Now silks and linings have always been a problem for me.  Folded on the shelf they slip and slide and fall over and make a mess every time you attempt to remove one from the stack.  For some years I had stored them in a plastic tub, which kept them contained but still meant that I had to take the whole slippery mess apart whenever I wanted something.  The new studio contained an expansion of this system.  The fabrics were stacked neatly in a file drawer, but as soon as I started looking through the stacks, chaos ensued and the fabric started slipping and unfolding and generally just getting in my way.  In a fit of pique I just unloaded everything onto the floor.

But what to do?  This certainly makes working in my office a little more difficult, piles of silk and rayon everywhere, slipping into places they would be better off avoiding.

Luckily two busy busy days at work gave me ample opportunity to think and little time to take action. 

I know many people roll their silks.  My problem with this was always keeping it together, and finding shelf space.  Shelf space is at a definite premium in this house, a situation that is not likely to change.  I would love to have all my fabric on shelves where I can gaze upon it lovingly...but this is not likely to come to pass.  Boxes and drawers are the only option.

So, it occurred to me that I could roll the silks, use paper wrappers to label them with yardage and whether I had washed them or not (some of the pieces are quite large) and store them.  They would be easy to sort through in the drawer, easier to store, and there would be no slippery mess.

I started today. 

The process will take a little time, but nearly as much time as I spend sorting through this drawer, dumpling the contents and refolding and storing everything.

Pinks

My fabric order from Thai Silks arrived, including the proposed fabric for the contrast fronts on the spring coat.  Of course since, I was placing an order for one piece of fabric, it seemed such a shame not to order more, so three pieces actually wended their way cross country to my house:

The pink piece on the far left is for the coat.  The rose fabric in the middle will either be a dress or skirt and blouse, and the plaid dupioni is intended to be a spring/summer dress.

After reading all the discussions on SewingWorld and Stitcher's Guild about sewing with silk thread, I decided that this would be the perfect test project.  I had previously ordered a sample booklet for Tire silk threads and I ordered threads for this project.  I ordered silk topstitching thread as well, to give it a try.

Then, I went to S&S to pick up some more Mettler thread, my normal sewing thread, because there were a couple of colors I needed for the stuffed creatures.  While I was there they were very happy to show me the new embroidery threads they were carrying, including this lovely top-stitching thread:

I was, of course, tempted.  So now I will have to play with topstitching and see which one I like best.    Well, actually, I have to test the pattern first...

Fabric Arrives!

Dave, the UPS guy, came today with my package from EmmaOneSock.  As usual the fabrics are as lovely as promised.  I was thrilled when Linda called me to say that only fabric was short on yardage, most of the things I chose had been there quite some time and since I ordered a fair amount of some of the fabrics, I was surprised to get everything.   

These fabrics were chosen for my DSD, I am sure inspired primarily by Penelope the dressform, whom we worked on during the Christmas break.  I am fairly sure she will love the gray salt and pepper rayon jersey.  The two teal fabrics, a linen/rayon blend woven on the bottom and a rayon jersey on top, will look beautiful on her, but I am not as confident about her taste concerning this color.  Luckily it looks good on me too (backup plan).

Of course I had to order something for myself as well and these two are mine.  The teal/purple cross dye wool/silk stretch is the limited yardage piece, but it will still make a lovely blouse or top.  The red/taupe reversible wool jersey double face is absolutely stunning.  G came by during the photo shoot and was almost drooling over this one.  He did inform that although he loves his daughter, he was happy that this one was for me.  Made me smile.

New fabric additions

Wednesday I met Mary in NYC.  The fabrics I purchased at Mood and B&J arrived yesterday.  Today my fabrics arrived from Sawyer Brook.

These are the B&J fabrics:  the blue and violet are cotton poplin that I will use for some casual summer suits.  The white with green dots is a really lovely Swiss cotton dotted Swiss voile, which I purchased primarily because of the green dots.  I love dotted swiss and I love green, how could I go wrong? On the far left the rose pink tweed will be a jacket and I have a lot of things that will go with it. 

The purple wool, 2nd from left, is my only non-summer fabric and was purchased because I wanted to make a skirt with feathers on the bottom after seeing a photo of one by Marni in the new May Vogue Magazine.   I went to  M&J Trims and purchased the feathers first as I figured that would be the hardest part for me as I get really picky about that kind of thing.  Then I looked a couple of places before finding the fabric I wanted.  My skirt will not look at all like the Marni skirt and is more fall oriented.  Still, I can't wait to make it:  Here is a picture of the fabric and the trims:

I am really eager to make this even though I might not wear it right away.  If I don't get it made this week, I will be going to San Francisco for one of Sandra Betzina's Power Sewing weeks and I will take it with me.  Who knows, I might even be able to wear it.

I started looking for the tweed at Mood, but didn't find anything I wanted for the skirt.  I bought silks this trip, mostly for linings.

The black with the paperweight design was just pretty.  The other three were purchased to go with specific fabrics and you will see them in the near future.  The peachy fabric on the far right can be seen in more detail below with the cotton from Sawyer Brook.

I am planning on taking this combination with me to work on in San Francisco.  I am stil planning on making the fairly straight DKNY jacket; It will be a very casual jacket, purposely minimally structured and I think it will be a lot of fun.

Summer Roses

Since I spent a good bit of time "resting" this past weekend, I had plenty of opportunity to get into trouble.    A packet of swatches arrived from Sawyer Brook while I was away and now I have succumbed to the lure of new fabric:

   This rose cotton/lycra sateen caught my eye right away.  I immediately thought of it for this suit:   Valentino Suit courtesy Bergdorfgoodman.com

I originally thought of making this in a stretch poplin or perhaps a cotton/linen with a little bit of texture or cross/dye interest.  But I really like the rose cotton.  However, the suit in rose strikes me as being a little TOO feminine and flirty for me.  I would like the very feminine shape in a color like gray more than pink.

I think the pintucked and tied jacket idea would work beautifully over a pair of pants however, something like this pattern from voguepatterns.com, Vogue 7685, photo courtesy of my scanner as I have had this pattern for about 8 or 9 months but haven't made it yet.  It is still available however.

The jacket could be made sort of like a cross between a blouse and a jacket, something without all the tailoring and interfacing.    Kathryn at Sewing World posted this pattern a couple of months ago and I ran right out and purchased it:

Of course here it looks too light and blouse-like.  I would probably put together some cross between this pattern and a jacket pattern.  I know I have several suitable options but have not yet looked through the pattern file for likely candidates.

I also ordered this kind of interesting striped cotton:

which I am thinking of using for a jacket to wear over the pants, possibly over the blouse as well, depending on how I make the rose blouse/jacket.  I am thinking of using this pattern, Vogue 2738:

A DKNY now OOP.  I think this combination will make a nice casual, fun summer jacket.  Of course, there is always the possibility that the fabric will arrive and I will wonder what I was thinking.

Well, the fabric is on its way and only time will tell.