Return of the Sewjo

I knew that all it would take is a resorting of my patterns and fabrics to get me back in the mood. My sewing space ended up looking like this for a couple of days:

So many possibilities; so little time.

Am I the only one who takes so long to sew up the fabric stash that the plans for any particular piece might change several times before actually being sewn up? I’ve got stuff that goes back decades! Literally. Luckily most fabric doesn’t go bad. And obviously I have enough storage spaces for it all. Enough spaces that I can actually misplace things. Having an inventory list doesn’t help either. I have to feel the fabric to know what it wants to be. And then by the time I get around to it – it wants to be something else instead! I guess in the scheme of things it doesn’t really matter as long as it finally becomes something that I’ll actually wear, right?

Of course clothing styles are always shifting and even though I don’t really follow trends they do influence my eye to a certain extent. Plus being a certain age and body type along with living a pretty casual lifestyle means that some things are just not appropriate or useful for me. On the other hand, what I wear is not being dictated by anyone else but me. Believe me, I so appreciate that fact! I find most business attire as hideous and restrictive as my old Catholic school uniforms.

So, after ploughing my way happily through those piles I’ve already cut out a new version of Marcy Tilton’s Vogue 8876:

This pattern looks fabulous in every version I’ve seen and on every body shape and age! And it’s just off the fashion trend path far enough that it shouldn’t look out of style any time soon. The one I’m making this time is going to be more of a vest inspired after seeing a version on Pattern Review where someone had left off the lower band and sleeves. I have some gorgeous stretch wool fabric (purchased at one of my Portland fabric shopping forays) in a marled taupe. This is one of the pieces I referred to above that has changed its mind several times about what it wants to be. Now it’s permanently committed because I’ve already cut it out! Mwa-ha-haaa! That was quick and easy since the pattern had already been altered and fitted to me when I made my Stormy Dress. Though I will admit it was a little nerve-wracking to chop into $50 worth of cloth!

Now I have probably a hundred spools of sewing thread in my stash but none that remotely matches this taupe shade. Also there aren’t 10 matching buttons that will work either so this project is on hold until I can get to Dressew. In the meanwhile I’ve started to work on another Tilton, this time Katherine Tilton’s Butterick 5891 View C:

I have no idea why I bought this pattern as a download. Doh. That was early last summer when I was in a hurry and hoping to sew up View A before we headed off on the Great Trek. Didn’t happen. Though I did get all the gazillion pages printed out. Yesterday I taped them all together and now I need to trace off my combo of sizes which will probably be an 8 at the neck and shoulders and morphing into somewhere between a 12 and a 14 at the sides. The shoulder width even for the size 8 is huge – over 2” wider than my basic block – but apparently it’s supposed to hang off the shoulder point somewhat. So I’ll take it in about half of the overhang and I might raise the underarm area a little as well, shaving the same amount off the upper sleeve seams. I hope that will work OK. I’m not really in the mood to muslin this beast first. I want it to fit without being too oversized on me. At least it’s much easier to trace a pattern off the thick paper rather than tissue. I’m not going to cut into the paper because I can’t save the files to my own computer and who knows for how long I’ll have access to this pattern and how many times they’ll allow me to print it. I’m keeping it in it’s original condition just in case.

The fabric I plan for this jacket is a thick but very drapey cotton twill in brown/black. Also from one of the Portland fabric outlets. The pattern says it’s not suitable for obvious diagonals but this twill is quite subtle and I hope it will be ok. On such a funky style I’m sure it won’t matter anyhow. My real concern is the thickness especially around the neckline area where many seams converge. And I want to bind that seam somehow because the pattern direction leaves it rather unfinished. We’ll see when I get that far.

There’s lots more in the sewing queue. Some of it was already there but other stuff got bumped over it in line. For obvious reasons I’ve put the summer stuff on the back burner! Right now I’m into layers.

In other news, Princess Silver Fang seems to have lost her sewjo too so her T-shirt is still languishing. She decided she’d rather go down to Grampa’s studio and play with wood and his sharp tools instead of mine. Her brother Stargazer played happily with the Lego. At least when they weren’t tumbling about fighting like puppies! I would have thought they’d be easier to have overnight at their ages but apparently annoying the heck out of each other (and their grandparents) was far more important than listening and behaving. Good thing it was a short stay this time!

Knitting projects are coming along but slowly. More anon.

Dithering

You know I’ve misplaced my sewing mojo when I’d rather input nearly a year’s worth of book and magazine purchases into my database instead. I was surprised to see that I hadn’t done that little chore in such a long time – all the way back to last January! The pile wasn’t all that high either because I’ve pretty much stopped purchasing most of the titles I used to get. They have so little new content and apart from pretty photos I’ve been seriously disappointed in the articles. Or maybe it’s just my jaded “been there; done that” attitude? Seems like craft mags have gotten even farther away from in-depth discussions of techniques, procedures, tools and materials in favour of the quick finished projects. Perhaps the Internet’s proliferation of tutorials and videos have reduced the market for these? Doesn’t matter. I’m saving my money for other things.

One title that I’ve been very pleased with however is Vogue Patterns. They have really upped their game in the past year or so! Beats Threads by a grand margin. But then I’m annoyed with them and their Threads Insider stuff. You have to pay a subscription to access most of their content. I can’t be bothered though I’m still buying Threads. For now. Anyhow, the once-boring Vogue Patterns has reduced the “catalogue” part of the magazine way down and instead includes all kinds of interesting articles. Me like.

My book purchases which used to be rather prolific are way down as well. I only bought 6 or 7 craft books in the past year – much less than my usual vast numbers! Good thing too because besides the financial considerations, I’m running out of shelf space. I’ll have to start moving some back into the attic or finding them new homes if I get very much more. And the second floor of my house may need reinforcement! (Hopefully not.) I’ve even stopped buying books to read and have been making use of the digital offerings of my public library. Can’t beat free! And I can pick books up and return them from the comfort of home. No, I don’t mind reading on my netbook’s screen. I increase the font size and don’t have to hold it like a book (or reader) so it’s easy to knit at the same time. Works for me.

Back in the sewing room, I started picking out the armhole stitches on my thrifted black top. I had already removed the shoulder pads which kind of dates this thing, doesn’t it? Here’s the shoulders on Debbie:

Yes, it’s really black but lightened up enough to see the details. The top is an XL so the waist to hip area fits me but obviously not the shoulders. I pinned up the sleeve to see what happens:

Much better. I plan to take out some of the fullness under the arm and continue down into the side seam above the waist. This is a lovely piece and probably was worth a lot when it was made. The fabric is something I’ve never seen before: 95% acetate/5% lycra in a heavy crepe knit ribbed on the outside and smooth and shiny on the inside. It doesn’t photograph well. You have to feel its drape and texture. Washing instructions say to hand-wash and lay flat to dry. I machine-washed it on gentle and draped in on my sweater dryer and it was fine. Unfortunately it still smells a bit perfumey. Hope that goes away soon. Amazing how persistent some perfumes can be. Wouldn’t matter as much if I wasn’t so sensitive to them. Bleh. Don’t think I’m allergic to this one though. Just annoyed.

I didn’t get very far on the seam picking because it was murky and rainy all day yesterday. Black stitching on black fabric. Even with a good light I was afraid I was going to pick a hole in my lovely top. Instead, besides the inventory input, I managed to sort out what’s supposed to happen next on my Buonasera Tunic. This is the one I’m knitting in navy blue noil silk, top down and somewhat in the flavour of my Rosa Grey Tunic that I made awhile back. I wear that one a lot. This one is going to have a much less pointy hem with lace edging and sleeves (TBD whether 3/4 or long). I’m kind of making it up as I go so each step is a debate. I wanted a bit of lace at the hem so I expanded a simple Estonian edging that mimics the rows of yarn-over holes at the sides. It was a repeat of 10 stitches but I wanted it wider so I brought it up to a repeat of 14. There’s a nice corner too so it’s going to segue nicely. I only have to fudge one extra stitch somewhere to make the numbers work out. Photos coming when I have enough of it knit and enough light to show the detail. Right now it just looks like a dark shapeless bag!

What else have I been up to? T-Man and I got a large percentage of the plethora of leaves in the garden raked up. I also finally got the fall rye green-cover seeds planted in the dye garden. If I’m lucky there’s still time for them to grow a little before winter sets in. We’re slowly getting the yard properly winterised but we’re not quite done yet. Gotta go with the weather and our energy level. It’s a lot of work! Other distractions include the fact we get the biggest Grandbeasties for an overnighter on Friday. If all goes well, Princess Silver Fang and I can finish her Skully T-shirt this weekend. She’s looking forward to using the serger again. Eep!

I seem to be posting about once a week. Best I can manage for now. More anon.

Oy Yoy Yoy

I know I’ve been seriously remiss of late. It seems hard to get back into the writing mode. Or maybe not the writing but the taking of photos seems to be holding me back. It should be fun and not drudgery, right? The dim light that we have this time of year is the biggest problem. Luckily yesterday was sort of sunny so I finally got a few things documented. I doubt I will ever be any kind of great photographer however, especially of anything other than scenery. But that’s ok. One can’t be good at everything, can one?

I do need to document my projects though so even meh pics are better than no pics. In my last post I told you about mordanting silk scarves for eco-dyes. Here’s mine:

They were so pretty I hung them in the window! You don’t get to see the one Sis made because she had to pack it the minute I ironed it. In her extremely full suitcase. With a metric tonne of shopping. Bet that plane had trouble getting off the ground with all the goodies she was hauling! But I digress.

The two outside scarves (as well as D’s) were covered with local fallen leaves and marigold petals and wrapped in plastic before steaming for an hour. We used red maple, purple plum, smokebush, cranesbill geranium, birch, walnut and small woad and weld leaves along with the marigolds. Here’s a detail where you can see the shape of the maple leaf:

D had great fun with this new-to-her technique. It’ll be interesting to find out what leaves and other plant items she can find back in Haida Gwaii to try.

The centre scarf was dyed with a simple itajime shibori technique instead of leaves. It was folded and clamped between offset squares and the open areas smooshed (technical term) with 18-month old brazilwood sawdust goo that I’ve been saving. I have a bucket of it and it barely went mouldy at all. Still smells kind of woodsy in fact. This scarf also was wrapped and steamed in the same pot with the others. However it now needs another layer of something else because I think it’s kind of boring as-is. Maybe logwood or lac or ? More on that when it happens.

What else? While D was preparing for one of her classes, I managed to make a new cover for my sleeveboard:

The old silvery one was completely thrashed. Unfortunately I’m not sure I’m happy with this plain muslin one I made. It’s already getting grubby and I haven’t even used it yet! But it will be easy enough to make another layer to cover this one if it annoys me enough. I also used 2 layers of cotton quilt batting underneath instead of reusing the horrible foam padding and it’s much nicer. Obviously I didn’t do the smaller board mostly because it’s not quite worn out yet. Probably because I prefer the longer one instead so I rarely use it. I’ve had this beast for decades so it has actually held up pretty well all this time. Now it’s good for awhile longer.

Oh and I guess you want to see what I got at the Circle Craft Christmas Market, don’t you? It was a really good show with 300 vendors and so took us about 6 hours to see everything. Sis, T-Man and I were exhausted! I finally succumbed to the Shopping Fever and bought a jacket from the Chrzaszcz booth. I’ve always admired her lovely hand-dyed, discharged and sewn Polish linen clothing but never found the exact right piece before. Now that Maria is retiring from the business I had one last chance and found this lovely crushed jacket:

As always this photo of the jacket on Debbie just doesn’t do it justice. The colours are deeper, the shape is flattering and it fits me perfectly – which is amazing and probably the main reason I could not resist bringing it home! Besides I love linen. A lot.

You might be able to discern a black top under the jacket. This was purchased during our sisterly shopping trip to the Sally Ann. It’s a lovely heavy acetate knit and because it needs a little refashioning around the sleeve caps, I’ll get back to you on it in a later post.

Back to the Market. I also bought some of my favourite Sea to Sky salt from Maison Coté. Jean-Pierre is very funny and happy-go-lucky and I love many (but not all) of his salt, pepper and spice mixes.  They are also occasionally found at Granville Island Market or one of the farmer’s markets locally but I was totally out of the salt and sadly so were they the last time I saw them. I have lots now! (There’s a photo of him in his CCCM booth on their blog here.)

And lastly we had one more shopping item on the list: breakfast/lunch bowls. After hunting all over the Market we went back to Mud Sweat and Tears booth where we first saw these:

Yes, T and I decided that we had to get the plates as well! I like the square shapes and the fact that they are not identical but each piece has its own personality. They’re stoneware and quite strong, ok for microwave etc. Hopefully they should serve us well for many years.

While I’m on the subject of the Circle Craft Christmas Market, I’d like to say that I thought there were a lot of really nice items there this year and I know most vendors did really well in sales. But I have no idea how people can buy some of these things for other people, aka gifts. Unless like us, they were buying for themselves? The clothes especially were quite wonderful but very specific non-mainstream  creative styles and sizes and really needed to be tried on. Many were one-offs and there would be no chance of exchanging for a different size or colour if it didn’t please the recipient. This goes for the hats too. I tried on quite a few of them and only one looked any good. And I wear hats a lot! Also I didn’t buy it anyway.

Another thought that occurred to me as we wandered around is that the clothing reflected the designer – not just in style but in body shape. Tall thin designer = long skinny garments. Short older designer = garments that were looser and looked good on more body types. I’ve long held the notion that they (consciously or unconsciously) design for themselves first. Not a problem if you’re selling in the right venue. However judging by the demographic of the buyers, the thin young styles may not be reaching their target market. Attendees were mainly older women. More like me – though probably with more disposable income than I have. Maybe not as brave sartorially though. Heh.

Anything else? I’ve been slowly plugging away at not one, not two, but three knitting projects. None of which are both mindless and portable. Just portable and needing good light or portable and needing concentration or mindless but oversized with a giant cone of yarn to carry about. Bad planning on my part I know.

No new sewing (yet) but grandbeastie Princess Silver Fang was over and we got her t-shirt cut out. She also drew and cut out the skull she wants to stick on the front of it. Sewing will have to wait for another visit. It’s kind of creepy-cute so far. I’ll try to get more photos.

Still Here!

Yeah, I know! It’s been a ridonkulously long time since I posted last, hasn’t it? My excuse is that I’ve been very busy. My sister D is visiting from Haida Gwaii. She’s taking 2 back-to-back classes at Maiwa Symposium with Carol Soderlund using Procion MX dyes. At the same time she’s had many periodontist, chiropractor and hair dresser appointments, gone shopping for clothes (both high end and thrift), investigated Granville Island shops (including Maiwa Supply), and nearly melted her poor credit card. And we haven’t even gone to the Circle Craft Christmas Market at Canada Place yet. That’s on the agenda for Saturday. Whew!

Learning where everything is and how to get around in an unfamiliar city is hard. T has been driving her as much as possible and I’ve gone with her on public transit a few times but D has also had to navigate the system by herself. She’s now the queen of the Seabus to North Vancouver after having taken it back and forth 3 times to the periodontist. Trying to jam everything into 10 days is making me tired just watching. She seems to be (mostly) having fun anyhow though I bet she’ll be glad to fly back to her sleepy island paradise on Sunday.

So I have nothing else exciting to report! Had a birthday, knit some, read some. Oh and I got a new book. (Why are you surprised?)

Peter of Male Pattern Boldness was very excited about this patternmaking text book from Laurence King that is specifically for men. His review is here and he does a much better job of it than I can so if you’re at all interested in patternmaking for the guys in your life, check it out. I’ve actually sewn quite a bit for T-Man in the (distant) past and am eager to do more. He actually wears his recent Newcastle Cardigan regularly so that’s a good incentive, no? I have a shirt in mind for him next.

Believe it or not, men are much easier to fit than women. More tubular; less contours. However they can be very particular about their garments’ styles, colours, fabric choices as well as fit. Except for the rare hipster it’s best not to push “stylish” on them. Even the guys who only wear casual clothes are not going to want anything too different from what they are used to wearing. On the other hand, in my experience if they like a piece it had better be durable because it will get worn to death and beyond. What a challenge! Love it.

Abruptly changing the subject again, I’ve mordanted a few silk scarf blanks in alum so D and I can play with eco-dyeing them on Friday morning before her last class. So hopefully I’ll have something more exciting to show next time.