Taking My Time and Taking Breaks

There are eleven groups of lessons in Kenneth King's Jean-ius class and so far I have completed lesson one, the jeans thread tracing.  Slow sewing for sure.  

Marking the jeans you love with thread tracing

Who knew I would make every rookie mistake which meant it took me twice as long to do this step.  

Front thread traced

Back thread traced

What mistakes?  Well, I used a strong milliners needle to do my thread tracing.  Nice sharp point....and a little too late discovered that randomly I had picked up one single thread on the inside of the jeans....which meant clipping and redoing the tracing when I moved the jeans.  

I really struggled understanding and seeing how to make the crosswise grain markings and missed a little phrase of Kenneth's...."lay the pants flat" which meant don't do this with the side and inside seams pinned together as in the previous illustration.  I was quite uncertain about my back crosswise line and kept going back and forth with the class video and my jeans in order to figure it out.  But persistence has paid off and I am ready to move to the next step of transferring these markings.

Meanwhile I am loving Craftsy's decision to create an ipad app that lets me download the class and watch it offline.  Hooray for that convenience.  My sewing room is the unhappiest place in the house to get our wireless connection so this makes my collection of classes so very convenient for me.  I've only downloaded the Jean-ius class and it does use up memory but I think once I've done this process there's no reason to keep it on my pad.
I did do a little retail therapy while prepping for this class.  I needed to buy pins, of all things.  I use Susan Khalje's very fine Japanese pins in my sewing room but they would be too thin and bendable for all the denim pinning that would go on during class.  So of course while I was at Joann's I had to pick up some of the new Vogues on sale this week.

New pins on the left

On the left, the pants are what I really love in that pattern and on the right, I love what Sharon and Margy did with this pattern.  Communing with fabric  Fool4fabric

Add caption

A few more.....

Then an Amazon order showed up with a few items that I had ordered while making my pink flower extravaganza.  These are single needle felting molds for making flower shapes our of wool roving.  Since I am heading out to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival late this Saturday afternoon, I'll pick up some more wool roving for these and future projects.

Last bit of retail news is from a neighbor.  Mr. Lucky and I took Lucky the rescue dog for a walk on Saturday so we could peruse the next neighborhood's community yard sale.  As always lots of children's clothing and my only interest was to look for a souffle dish.  But a lovely woman was selling off items from her parents' home which was being sold.  We picked up a small saucepan, small bowl and these lovely hand crocheted laces.  

Two of them were designed to be pillow edging and the other had been made for the top of a chemise nightgown.  The nightgown fabric is long gone and one of the straps was replaced over the years with similarly colored twill tape.  These were lovingly tucked away in the crochet box, maybe the box that held that crochet thread in the beginning, probably from the 1920's.  I love the lace but I also love the care and re-use effort.  
Speaking of lovely and re-using items, don't you just love the pin cushion that my sister-in-law made for me some years back.  It is too fragile to hold my every day pins at the machine but I am keeping my less regularly used pins in it and put it on the shelf afterwards to keep it safe and admire its design.

Last thing I have enjoyed in the last few days is reading this:

It's the selection for my book group discussion next week and I am glad it was selected.  Not a demanding read but engaging.  Those of you with an interest in historic quilts will enjoy the discussion of English and American quilts....pieced via templates versus applique.  
From Booklist: Honor Bright sailed from England to America in 1850 with her sister, Grace, who is betrothed to a fellow Quaker in Ohio. After Grace’s death, Honor is left in the awkward position of an outsider, searching for her place in an unsettled land of restless change where even the Quakers are different from those she had known at home. She finds solace in writing letters to friends and family in England and in the exquisite quilting skills that tie her to her old life and offer some hope of ties to a new one. Honor’s only true American friend is Belle, the unorthodox milliner who clandestinely aids runaway slaves, even as her rough and charismatic brother, Donovan, hunts them down. Horrified by the realities of slavery, Honor faces the new complexities of the Fugitive Slave Law and the challenges it poses for the Quakers and for her personally.
Nothing but coincidence that I had just read Sue Monk Kidd's novel about the abolitionist sisters from South Carolina and their challenges in opposing slavery and in becoming Quakers.
Now, onward to lesson two.....

Vogue 8885, A Hidden Gem

Where was I?  Oh, yes, telling you that I was cold as heck this winter so I wanted some new warmer but stylish layers.  Mr. Lucky is a weekend volunteer ski patroller out in Western Maryland and in the evenings there's usually a gathering at a local restaurant.  Now, "apres ski Western Maryland" is not apres ski Aspen or Gstaad.  No chichi designer duds there on the

border with Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Yet I am at the age where going too casual just makes me look older and unkempt.  I took up a sewing challenge this winter to find some cardigan patterns to add to my sewing repertoire for just such evenings.  I already love Pamela's Patterns Draped Front Cardigan and McCalls 6444 and now here's the first of two.
Vogue 8885 in red merino wool from Fabric Mart

Vogue 8885, mid-February

The pattern version I made is hidden in the lower left corner and seems to be featured as perhaps a bed jacket.  Experience has shown me to look at the line drawings and I liked what I saw, especially that cute back peplum detail

The lapels on the merino wool tended to roll and look narrower than the pattern picture but that seemed like a relatively insignificant issue to me.

I especially like the shoulder princess seams in this pattern, front and back and this cute back peplum.

I sewed the first version from this ugly peachy fleshy color but wonderfully comfortable bamboo knit from Fabric Mart.  You can see the lapel width better on this one since the raw edges don't roll like they do on the merino.  I discovered that it does make a warm and cozy but lightweight bed jacket, perfect for reading in bed on winter nights.  And here's what I was reading in early February:

If the cover doesn't get your attention then a story about a dead woman who either committed suicide or was murdered by her husband might interest you.  It made for a good discussion and was a page turner but I'm not sure I would have read it if it hadn't been our book group selection.  I also wanted to enjoy more than I did Wally Lamb's latest, 

We Are Water  His writing is still beautiful and poignant but the pace was slow and the changing perspectives, which I usually enjoy, seemed contrived.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5.  Might have been my dark winter mood but it didn't have the strength of his previous books.  

Next post, another new cardigan in the sewing queue.

Pattern Adjustments for a New Dress

Yes, it's National Sewing Month again in the US. September is a time to celebrate our passion, but we know the creative, therapeutic and calming effects of sewing are joys that we can celebrate throughout the entire year....from The American Sewing Guild website In my sewing space, however, it seems to be national pattern alteration month....at least it feels like that's how long these alterations are taking me.
This dress is Vogue  8828, 

a plain Jane dress pattern but with great personality bones.  (Don't you hate the pocket flaps under her bust?!) It was one of three patterns that were the result of Sarah Veblen's fitting and sewing retreat in late June.  Sarah pinned and marked all 14 pieces of this dress.

Front of Vogue 8828

on my asymmetrical body and last week I took that marked up muslin and methodically transferred each adjustment to the paper pattern.  (14 pieces because I have to cut a right and left version for each of the seven pieces for a sleeveless version.)

Back....you can barely make out the vertical and horizontal balances lines drawn on this mock-up

Different colored pencils were used to delineate new seam lines from old ones and new cutting lines from old ones.  Sometimes I had to add tissue to parts of a pattern pice, sometimes cut away excess tissue.  After each piece is adjusted I "walk" the seams to make sure they are the same length or have no more than 1/8 inch of a difference.  

Vertical and horizontal balance lines to be marked on the mock-up dress.

Yes, double the pattern pieces to mark and adjust

I finished the first revision by the end of the week and then cut out my second muslin over the weekend.  Earlier this week I sewed up that second muslin and made some more pattern adjustments.  (Yes, it's almost as boring to write about this process as it is to do it.)
Now I have a customized, fitted sheath dress but it's time to make some style changes.  I am planning on a simple sleeveless sheath for the first "real" version of the dress but I heartily dislike the jewel neckline on the pattern.  I've been auditioning some neckline ideas and decided on a simple scoop neckline for this dress.  Yesterday I traced the top seven pattern pieces and today I will draw the new neckline and new facings.  

Pattern work for a fitted dress like this is tedious to me but I know in the end I'll be happy with the result.  I would only spend this amount of time and energy on a fitted garment like a fitted jacket or sheath dress and only do this a few times a year.  It's not my favorite way to honor or celebrate "National Sewing Month" but I've learned the payoff for being careful and meticulous here is an easier to sew, fully personalized garment.
A much more engaging past time for the last week has been devouring this book on my Kindle:

The Warmth of Other Suns .....Amazon Reviews
Isabel Wilkerson, already a Pulitzer Award-winning journalist, has been acclaimed for this thoroughly researched and thoroughly readable account of the internal migration of more than 6 million African-Americans from the South to the North, mid-West and West Coast from the turn of the century to 1970.  She interviewed well over a thousand of these migrants to personalize the census and historic details of this enormous shift in population.  She focuses on the life stories of three of the individuals in particular so there is a wonderful blend of history and personal narrative, a technique that I enjoyed in Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken a few years back.  Highly, highly recommend and I am so glad that my book group decided to read it.

Cool Weather Sewing in August

This beautifully textured wool knit has been in my resource center for several years, back from when Fabric Mart would sell designer samples (short 1-2 yard rough cuts) on hangers on the store side walls.  Now their store is overflowing and has tall shelves along those walls and back rooms filled in the same manner.  Thank you, sewing friends, for making their business grow when so many others have struggled.  
It's a medium grey with green undertones and I wanted a simple pattern that would highlight the fabric's uniqueness.  I turned to my classic and well-loved Pamela's Patterns Draped Front Cardigan. Pamela's Patterns Yes, I could have perhaps tried a new, more stylish pattern but I love this fabric and know that this will be a well-loved and well-worn new garment in my wardrobe.  It's very lightweight but also very, very warm and is probably 100% wool.  (Fabric aside:  I think Polarfleece is the best new fabric of the last century but there's nothing like a wool sweater knit for warmth.) I stitched it up last Monday when the weather was clear and cool, so surprising for Baltimore and early August.  I was still on my "high" from the ASG conference and this cardigan was already cut out and waiting for me in my precut project pile.     

Fabric Mart Fabrics wool knit sample piece

Pamela's Patterns Draped Front Cardigan.....I hesitate to think what number this might be in my wardrobe.

Hmmmm, my precut project pile, let me explain.  I would like to be one of those people who start one project, stay focused on that project and then complete....or maybe even abandon that project.  I am not wired that way but I do learn a tremendous amount from those of you who create like that.  When I have a challenging project, I like to walk away from it and take a break to mull over my next steps.  But I also still like to keep myself in the sewing room and that's where my TNT patterns and precut project pile comes in handy.  I have perhaps a half dozen simple sewing projects already precut waiting for me to pull them out and sew them up, somehwhat mindlessly, while the back of my head is stewing with that next project.  Whatever your work/sewing/living style is I hope it brings yo the same joy and satisfaction....and allows you to stretch and try new things as well.  

Later in the past week our August  days returned to more typical ones...steamy, sultry, lots of rain.  Good for many of my flowers and shrubs although this year the home tomato crop is dismal since we haven't had a lot of hot temps or dry days.  When it's this sticky I'd rather read than handle fabric or tissue paper patterns so here are a few more books that I've been enjoying:

My book group read and enjoyed this one tremendously and it might be one of my top two or three of the year.  
From Goodreads:
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.

The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel.

Someone recommended this English novel from the 1930's after I raved about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry earlier this year.  This was an absolute charmer and a hoot.  
From Amazon:
Who Knew One Book Could Cause So Much Chaos?

Barbara Bunde is in a bind. Times are harsh, and Barbara's bank account has seen better days. Maybe she could sell a novel ... if she knew any stories. Stumped for ideas, Barbara draws inspiration from her fellow residents of Silverstream, the little English village she knows inside and out.

To her surprise, the novel is a smash. It's a good thing she wrote under a pseudonym, because the folks of Silverstream are in an uproar. But what really turns Miss Bunde's world around is this: what happens to the characters in her book starts happening to their real-life counterparts. Does life really imitate art?

A beloved author who has sold more than seven million books, D. E. Stevenson is at her best with Miss Buncle's Book, crafting a highly original and charming tale about what happens when people see themselves through someone else's eyes.

I've mentioned my strong Anglophile streak before and this book seemed to be the "backstory" to my beloved Miss Read books of 20 years ago.  Oh my gosh, what happens when people recognize themselves in those little village novels.....and some of them are affronted by the perspective.  Delightful and I look forward to reading the sequel.
The British Royal Family are in the news this summer with a happy blessed new baby in the family.  (Isn't every new baby boy a prince in his own right?)  This next charming novel takes on the Royal Family in a slightly less obsequious manner.
From Amazon:
An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn—author of Reading Jackie:  Her Autobiography in Books—Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts. Reminiscent of Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader, this lively, wonderfully inventive romp takes readers into the mind of the grand matriarch of Britain’s Royal Family, bringing us an endearing runaway Queen Elizabeth on the town—and leading us behind the Buckingham Palace walls and into the upstairs/downstairs spaces of England’s monarchy.
Enough on the books,  my latest sewing project is a gift for a family member so I'll keep it under wraps for a few more weeks.  Now it's time to get off the computer and walk to the library to pick up a book on reserve.  

Catching My Breath with Sewing

I don't know what you do when life is hectic, stressful and full of decisions.  Me, I just want to sew something.....anything.  Thank heavens I've been able to find the time to do just that during this past month.
Mr. Lucky and I packed up the car, the dogs and headed down the road to our FL condo a little over three weeks ago.  Since then it's a frenzy of cleaning, grocery re-stocking, and now the start of the process of putting our place on the market this year.  Yup, it's been a wonderful ten years but we're older, poorer and ready to live in one place and that's going to be Baltimore.  We're still young enough to love the vibe of city and suburuban life although maybe we re-think that decision in five or ten years.  In the meantime, we're re-painting, getting a contractor to do some delayed projects, moving stuff (lots of fabric and patterns and craft supplies is what makes up that "stuff") into a storage unit, de-cluttering and generally stressing out over selling a place when we haven't done that in 28 years!!  I'll fill you in on our saga over the next months but first let me share my sewing projects.  Because sewing and reading are what I turn to when all of life overwhelms me some days....and my dear friends are tired of listening to me ramble.  

I was able to cut and sew two simple tried and true dress patterns over the course of a few evenings.  The first one is Simplicity 3678 with view C's scoop neck.  I really like the neckline on this version and think it deserves to become a tunic top sometime in the future. I was missing my northern sewing friends and thinking about them (especially as I was loading up fabric to take to the ASG chapter meeting for their fund raising sale) when I decided to add a touch of faux leather to this dress.  Very last minute I added a thin band of brown Ultra suede light from a scrap I had been given years ago.  It has enough stretch than I can still pull it over my head and bodice since there's no zipper in this knit dress.  Nothing too out there but makes me smile knowing that I added that little detail because of their inspiration.

Simplicity 3678 View C

McCalls 6201 with lucky in the background

The second dress is another TNT, MCCalls 6201, a sheath dress that I can sew rather easily since it too doesn't need a zipper when sewn up in a stretch woven.  I've had this wild pink leopard print I think since the first year we came here and I was shopping the local WalMart fabric tables.  Rather Florida, don't you think?  I was always going to make pants out of it and now that I have the Elle pant working for me, that was my first idea.  But you know what, it's one of those inexpensive stretch wovens that will not hold up over time....and won't like being a pair of slim pants that get stretched and don't recover well.  So it too became a simple unlined dress and I'll get a season or two of wear from it.
And when I get heart palpitations and minor panic attacks at 2 am (I know, I know, nothing life threatening whatsoever but clearly something is going on in my unconscious), here's what I do to distract me late at night....find some engrossing books.  These two hit the spot this month.

From Amazon:

A New York Times bestseller and a moving Civil War novel about a young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon

 

Fans of Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, Cold Mountainby Charles Frazier, and The Postmistress by Sarah Blake will love this New York Times bestselling tale of the Civil War. Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Eager to run away from recent heartbreak, Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of two surgeons, who both fall unwittingly in love with her, and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the difficult birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career against all odds. Rich with historical detail-including cameo appearances by Abraham Lincoln and Dorothea Dix, among others-My Name Is Mary Sutter is certain to be recognized as one of the great novels about the Civil War.

I'm not usually a historical novel reader but this year I have been enjoying several tremendously.  This was engrossing and compelling reading and so impressive for a first novel.  I highly recommend it.
Now for something totally silly and light:

A dear friend and dog lover had recommended this one a year or so ago when I was raving once again about "The Art of Racing in the Rain."  This is no where as serious as that book but is a light detective story narrated by the dog side kick, Chet.  Sort of like a Janet Evanovich story with a dog narrating it.  Wonderful escapism.
It's good to be back blogging and sharing projects and opinions with kindred souls.  Hope that your sewing projects provide you with what you need much as mine have been doing.

LBD....Little Burgundy Dress

There's been sewing going on in my house and it's about time that I put it down into this record.  I've been avoiding blogging, heaven knows why, but I do like having this diary-like record of my days, weeks and life so it's time to catch up.

Simplicity 2364 as a dress

First up, my LBD....better known as my Little Burgundy Dress.  I've been in love with the Simplicity 2364 top for more than a year now and decided to try it out in a dress.  I love it!  I used burgundy stretch lace (maybe from Jomar) and burgundy slinky...really nice stuff with the rayon in it for great weight and drape.  I've adjusted my photo to better show the contrast.  I had enough fabric so I made a top in the same fabric which will head to Florida with me in November.  Basically I added 20 inches to the top hem area.  Now I have plans for another version in navy.

The rest of August's sewing was productive and  filled with a lot of repeats.  When it's hot and humid or I have other more challenging things on my mind, it's not wise to start a new complicated sewing project.  The pattern adjustments I make need a clear head and August wasn't the right month for that.  But sewing something fun and easy is a great distraction and break from other tasks.  So here' s look at what else got made up last month.

McCalls 6201 dress

Vogue 7823 in Fabric Mart linen

Five Pamela's Patterns Magic Pencil Skirts...skirt pattern

One self-drafted silk chiffon poncho

I also enjoy a thoroughly distracting, fun book when I have other more distasteful tasks in my life and here's one that fit the bill.  Loved it, loved it.

USA Today's #1 Hot Fiction Pick for the summer, The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.
For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.
Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond--from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women--Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

I seem to be on a historic novel kick this summer but have been disappointed by the few others that I have read.  This one was well-written, interesting and rewarding to read.  I had not seen the good reviews on this one, found it at the library by accident and it was a delicious diversion for the last weeks of summer.

Next post, how I spent my summer vacation....and how my first quilt is progressing.  Until then, it's good to be back in the blog world and back to some more "serious" sewing now that fall is in the air.

A Little of This, a Little of That

Big shout outs to those of you who emailed me or made comments and shared about the Thundershirts Thundershirt on Amazon for Sam.  It reminded me of watching the movie Temple Grandin (hope you see it if you haven't already) and her discovery that animals are less frightened when they feel constrained around the torso.  I'll give the shirt a shot since there's a money back guarantee.  Thanks for such useful advice.  I know there are a bunch of other animal lovers out there who don't want to see our pets suffer if they don't have to.

Simplicity 2603

Continuing my month of pictures, here are two Me Made May outfits for the day.  It was warm and humid this afternoon so I wore my Simplicity 2603 top for my exercise walk.  (That's my ipod I'm holding and hoping that the automatic timer will work on the camera posed on top of a box....yes, there's a tripod coming from Amazon next week.)  

Pamela's Patterns Magic Pencil Skirt

Here's dinner with friends at a local Indian and Nepalese restaurant.  Fun and delicious time together and I'm wearing one of my many Pamela's Patterns Magic Pencil skirts.  


In between a visit to the dog park and having FL condo board business to conduct long distance I did get in some actual sewing time also.  I finally cut out the lining for a tweed jacket I started at the January sewing retreat.  I attached the patch pockets using a technique from Louise Cutting in Threads 121, the wonderful Chanel jacket issue.  
Cut and interface the patch pocket.  Iron down the top hem and then baste (she suggest gluing with Steam a Seam 2) the patch pocket onto the jacket front.  There's no lining to the pocket, just that fusible interfacing.  

Can you see the pocket?

That's the pocket basted in place on the jacket front.  Without a lining or seam allowance it lays very flat on the surface of the jacket.

Cut 1" bias strips of the fashion fabric, in my case a silk, rayon and cotton tweed.  Curve the bias strip right along the seam allowance of the pocket.  Stitich in place with two lines of stitching 1/8 apart down the center of the bias strip.

left side unfluffed, right side fluffed

Use an old toothbrush to fluff up the edges of the fashion fabric bias strip.

Finished pocket in place, still flat but with the raw edge texture that I like so much.  

Both pockets sewn to the jacket front.

I also spent about an hour today finishing this very interesting book.  This is the sequel to Lisa See's previous novel, Shanghai Girls.  In this one the young daughter, Joy, is angry at her mother and aunt for a long time secret about her birth and runs away to become a supporter of the Chinese revolution.  It's full of drama and historical details about China in the early days of the communist revolution.  Highly readable and quite educational as well.  
Now I'm calling it a night and settling in with Season 3 of HBO's In Treatment series and a glass of wine.  I just started a Netflix DVD trial subscription and I can see how dangerous that queue list is.  I've already added some British and Canadian TV series to my lists.  I'm missing Mr. Lucky tonight but he's doing a good thing visiting with his family.  
Here's hoping you have good things in your life this weekend.