A small thing but…

I got to sit on the couch and finish this little shawl on Christmas day. I've wanted to be able to just relax like that for a long time. It turned out to be the best gift of all. I started out going in another direction with this yarn, it's from Knit Picks, "bare" sock yarn. I dyed it in these autumn colors then forgot about it; must have been before I decided I wasn't knitting socks anymore (they wear out too fast). After I rediscovered it I thought about working up a straight rectangle stole in an openwork squares, modular knit pattern by Iris Schreier.

The fabric is more dense than what I did finally and I knit a piece about 15" long and just as wide before I realized I didn't have enough yarn for a stole. So I frogged it. I like the openwork pattern and will maybe incorporate it as an edging for a sweater; something with bigger yarn. Something like the Sweater Spin 2011 group on Ravelry maybe?? I think I have enough fiber in here to dye and spin, and have been mulling over my requirements since I joined the group.

So far I know:

• Must have an open or V-neck.
• Must have three quarter length sleeves.
• Yarn should be no more than sport weight if I intend to wear it at all.
• Soft, no scratchy- scratchy.

Other aspects like color and design haven't come into focus yet, also whether to dye the fiber first or after it has been spun. More, later.

Into the Vortex… nice!

This is my version of "Vortex", a Knitty pattern. I am down with the silly hat, though this hat is stepping all over full bore crazy. I pulled some leftover hand spun wool from the stash for this one. Looking forward to making one for my dear boy, whose dignity will not brook the over the top "poink!" Sweet child has no idea what becomes of dignity after awhile.

Got tired of looking at that wadder green blouse below. I can't believe I haven't updated this in over a year. I have been busy though, doing some of the stuff I started this blog to highlight, and working like a dog. There's a lot I'd like to show & tell but for now, because I simply could not look at that blouse one minute longer, I'll post some Christmas cheer. We can't be called materially wealthy in most categories you could name but we can hold our own when it comes to Christmas ornaments. The accumulated treasures of at least 3 families means we have some very old stuff. Stuff with that tarnished patina the lifestyle stores are selling at a premium. These elves were part of my husbands dowry. The green elf's costume got terribly faded though, so a few years ago I knit him another one. This is a nice sort of treasure to manage, we can pretty much, do whatever we want with it, the ornaments only have sentimental value in our minds so we don't have to get all precious with them. My husband regularly GLUES old favorites back together, and that becomes part of their charm.

The old glass balls are known to crumble in your hands. We like to express alarm when it happens but even the eleven year old is onto it now, he delivers the shattered ornament to his Dad and they assess its condition and how it could be repaired, then he fetches the appropriate glue. It's part of our Christmas Ritual.

Slow SWAP

Here's the first piece for the 2009 wardrobe SWAP.

hmmmmmm____.

I suppose it's OK but I think that collar is trying to back out of the picture. It might not be missed if I open that seam and let it run off into the woods.

I'll consider.

I must press on however, 31 days or no, October will be over before I know it. Back to the grindstone.

Stash SWAP 2009

The President reminded me today that success is necessarily built on failure. Therefore, I am not going to let my past failure to complete either of the two SWAPs I entered deter me from having another go at it. If I finish in time that will be a good thing. In the past, all I've needed to do is announce my intention to join a SWAP, then the pixies get indignant at my hubris and usually find me some illustration work to do. All of a sudden, there's no time to sew. That would be a good thing too, considering. So, forward––– march!

I have no right on earth to go fabric shopping of course so went into the stash for project materials.

The Pattern Review SWAP requires ten garments. Five tops, four bottoms and one topper, a jacket or coat, a cape, I suppose for the really dramatic, would be alright. I have ever been averse to the very idea of capes myself. I always imagine a cape would be a dangerous liability if you had to escape from a subway car or a stuck elevator. For this same reason, I am equally opposed to flip-flops in town. Nothing seems more foolhardy–– but I digress.

I began with the topper fabric, a wool broadcloth I have had for about twenty years. It is a salmony terra cotta color (absolutely the choice of someone 20 years younger than I am). I spent some time pulling yardage out and trying to make connections. Of course none of the stash was acquired with even a faint notion of compatibility. I got some things going but the next day, realized it wasn't right. Then I remembered the

Color Schemer program. I'd played with it once on line and went back again to find coordinates for the salmon/terra cotta. The program is aimed at web designers, allowing them to test out page design color schemes. Above you can see some of what I came up with. And once I started, I realized this is also the same information in a number of the painting books in my library as well as an excellent book by Deb Menz: "Color Works". I decided that I didn't have to restrict myself to either a complementary, split complementary or analogous palette since I wasn't likely to wear all the items at once. All I have to do is make choices that coordinate with the topper color; oh, ----- and make garments that can be worn with that topper. By this I'm referring to fabric to garment compatibility. That dark green velveteen can't be made into a shirt because that would be uncomfortable to wear under the jacket, for me anyway.

I just realize one fabric is left out of my storyboard up there.

This is a wool jersey from my mother's stash. It will turn into one of the tops.

I did have some consternation about my penchant brightness and color contrast. I'd checked out a Hot Patterns interview where the nice lady forecast the monochromatic palette for the upcoming season. Then I saw this photo on my favorite fashion site: Advanced Style. Well alrighty then! This is where I'm headed.

I've been looking to replace the go-to black nylon purse I was not clever enough to buy two of when I had the chance. I bought it at the 99¢ store; that's just how devoted to fashion I am. It's main attraction is that it is not too big. I don't want a purse that wears me or that I have to fumble around in to find things. I thought I'd found in Walmart (sorry to drop names) a cute replacement with rainbow polka dots but it would not accommodate a wallet, keys, sketchbook and pens, cell phone and lip balm. That's when I discovered yet another thing that has vaulted onto the list of things up with I can no longer put: Purses with Black Linings. I can't see into a black purse that's deeper than six inches.

Butterick 4147 has the selling point that I could see myself using each of the bags included. I made view E, a design I've been curious about. I think it is made to stay on the shoulder better than just a straight strap. Constantly hitching something into place (like a shoulder strap) is another thing on the aforementioned list.

I used a home dec suede cloth. Found it on line, on sale, I no longer remember where. I liked that there was a pocket to hold cell phone or iPod on the strap. It can also be worn across the body.

For a good portion of the sewing, I marched my sewing machine along turning the wheel by hand. The fabric is thick to begin with and sewing through three or four layers of it, interfaced, was not going to happen quickly. My machine has a device that makes it stop dead in it's tracks when it encounters to too much to sew through. I was using a size 110 needle, thinking that's what upholstery fabric called for. It was a little easier with a smaller, size 90 needle but sewing slowly is the answer here. This fabric is dense and not easily punched through. I made the stitch length longer and when topstitching was called for, longer still. I used gold, top stitching thread used for blue jeans on top, regular gold colored thread in the bobbin.

For the lining, you're asked to use the same pattern pieces as for the front, back and sides. What I used was more home dec, a yellow and white striped remnant.

Here you can see the extra pocket I added. I knew there would be a problem using another sturdy fabric for the lining, how could it fit inside the bag if the pieces were the same size? That was an issue, and unless the bag is turned inside out, the lining bunches up to fit. Another thing to consider is there are some tightly curved corners in this pattern, too tight to press flat. I trimmed them and mashed them a bit with the iron but the fit between lining and bag wouldn't be satisfactory if this were a jacket. When I first put some items in the bag then pulled them out, the lining came along with so I did some back stitching down one long seam opposite the zipper, feeling for the suede cloth seam allowance underneath the lining. I continued this stitching along the bottom seam line as well. Now it stays inside.
Here's an example of one tight corner, this is the main part of the shoulder strap, it has to be smooth here. With the difficulty of sewing on the interfaced suede cloth and the narrow radius of this turn, I stopped and marked the stitching line. This was also the place to go slowly. Another method would have been to baste along the seam and then sew.

Two 12" zippers and two 1" D-rings are all the hardware necessary. For you purse mavens out there I stumbled on a new trimming store in the garment district. Botani Trimming inc. I do mean new, it looked like they were busy filling hundreds of little drawers when I showed up. They have a large selection of much nicer D-rings than I was interested in as well as all kinds of zippers and buttons.

The pocket flap closes with Velcro but maybe I'll add this Sculpey button. I'll try the messenger bag next.

It's a Housedress!

Thanks to my dear Madeline for this wacky fabric, of indeterminate vintage (1970's?) I used to test New Look 6863.

It worked for me. It has become easier for me to think through making new patterns from my sloper than to take a pattern out of the envelope and pin it down, wrestling with it to correspond to the sloper, figuring out, with the multiple sizes where seam lines are, etc. This is a pattern it would have been simple to just copy but I want to have the skill to alter a pattern as an option. I referred to Nancy Zieman's "Pattern Fitting with Confidence", which re-states material from "The Sew/ Fit Manual, A guide to making patterns fit by pivoting and sliding".

I started by comparing my sloper to the pattern. I lined them up from first the shoulder then the waistline. I decided to use the center front waistline to start my adjustments. I'm 5'4" and that 1 1/2" to 2" difference between me and the pattern companies' models isn't all in the legs. Some of it is in the shoulder area, from nape of neck to under arm. It could also be from under arm to back waist. I think it makes a difference. Things hang from the shoulders but the armholes are anchor points, garment length must be accurate there. It wouldn't do to use that lengthen/shorten tuck positioned in the bodice under the armhole if the discrepancy isn't there. Can you picture the dress with too deep armholes, keeping you from raising your arms, that has you always tugging the waistline into place because you compared your back waist length to the pattern's and shortened it? I think I made that dress___ more than once. This problem would be more pronounced in something with a waistline seam, not this dress.

Looking at the pattern, I cut a size 14 at the shoulders, extending to size 16 directly under the arms tapering out to add about 1 1/2"at each side seam for a total of 3" more width at the hemline. I also added 1/2" to the front waist length alone after I compared my front neck to waist length to the pattern's, making allowance for a C cup.

I traced another sleeve, making it elbow length. In the sleeve cap area between the notches, I followed the size 14 line, extending at the underarm to size 16. If you don't do this, the armhole of the bodice will be larger than the sleeve cap. When I sew this again I'll shorten the sleeves, the length was awkward (you notice I'd already started folding them up) and giving myself a little more ease in the sleeve width. My fabric wasn't particularly stretchy. When it's hot enough to wear this light weight knit, I don't want to feel anything on my arms.

I added the pockets without the drawstring and added 3" length at the hem. I've lived through miniskirts__twice, which is as much as any sane woman ought countenance in my not at all humble opinion. I can't say what men should be permitted when it comes to miniskirts.

On Pattern Review, Sheila457 inspired me to make this dress. Do check out her review here. She uses a beautiful border print that shows this dress doesn't have to be a housedress at all. She also has notes on the neckline construction related to the stretchiness of your fabric choice.

I put this little bit of turquoise rick-rack at the neck here for no good reason other than it matched. I also included the little ties in back which nailed the it into the housedress category. That house dresses are marked by cuteness confuses me because there is nothing cute about housewifery that I've encountered, nothing.