sewing on the edge

The tenement museum

2012-02-11T14:01:00.000-04:00

One of the most affecting things we did in New York was visit the Tenement Museum, a walking tour of a tenement, organized by my smart son.

Really if you are in NYC you have to do this.

From the sewing point of view it was interesting to see how the garment workers managed, and the conditions in which the earlier home-based piece workers lived and worked.

Absolutely unbelievable.

What has stuck with me most though is a story about Fanny Rosenthal. Fanny lived in one two room apartment (toilet down the hall) with her husband and five children. Her husband died young from TB (he was a garment presser) and she stayed on there after the kids had grown and gone.

Over time the building owner decided that to bring the building up to code was going to be too expensive, and he asked all the tenants to move out.

Fanny refused. Refused to leave the place she had first lived in when she arrived in America, raised her family, lost her husband.

In the end the building owner upgraded her apartment only and she lived on there in one apartment surrounded by every other apartment vacant in the building alone for 14 years.

This story really got to me. For a start as a social person I find the thought of living alone in a vacant building for all that time horrifying. Just imagine that. At the same time I also understood her.

I understood that when Fanny looked out her window she wasn't seeing the street as it was, but she could still see her own children playing out there, her husband coming home from work. Those were her best years and she didn't want to walk out of that apartment and close that particular, precious, door behind her.

At the same time I heard that her kids eventually forced her to move, they still lived in New York, in other places where they had moved on. It made me wonder what Fanny missed in those 14 years. What listening could she have done to her complicated adult children, new times she could have shared, grandchildren maybe playing on other streets.

It made me think of sewing, and of grainline. You know how sometimes when something doesn't hang right? Often it's because the grain is off, the pattern piece is not parallel to the selvage like it's supposed to be?

What do you do? You can't change the arrow on the pattern piece, can you. If that's your direction of grain that's your direction of grain. But you know what you can do? Rearrange the pattern piece on the fabric, move it a little bit. Sometimes you just have to do it.

Then it works.

The New York garment district though my eyes

2012-02-10T21:30:00.002-04:00

It's been almost two weeks since I got back from New York and I have still to write about my experiences in the garment district (where I also stayed, just in case).

There is a lot to digest. And as I am sure nearly every other blogger has a better knowledge of this community than I do, what I have to say probably isn't very complete, insightful, or useful.

However if you are a person who is tied to finding whatever they can at the local big box or small box chain fabric store, or someone who orders online and dreams of a world where the fabric is as big as your dreams, if you haven't spent much actual time in this part of the big city yourself, well these are my thoughts.

1. I have seen this part before, the remnants of the schmatta business, from friends of my mother's who used to manufacture in Montreal before re-locating production to China. To a New Yorker what isn't there any more is probably as acutely apparent as what is. The garment district of today is an echo I suspect. But still...

Yes, there are innumerable small shops ( apart from Mood they are all pretty small) selling enormous quantities of sequined chiffon and stuff most of us don't wear, but the actual garment fabric stores that sewers look for are wonderful, but quite numerable.

What you find in the garment district is real quality, not quantity, get that straight.

2. Look up. If you bring your eyes from home you are going to expect to see the best stores on the street. Not so. Mood and Metro for example are on floors in what looks like office buildings - you go into an elevator just like you are going to the dentist except the doors open and there is fabric - messy, gorgeous fabric. Much better.

3. The area is a subsidiary of the garment industry not the home sewing industry, so this is a place for different, for distinctive more than it is for staples.

I understand now why sewists who live in New York (yes that would be you Carolyn) still buy big from places like Fabricmart. The garment district is where you find boucles, mohairs, tweeds, wool and silk jerseys, but not a place where you load up on bargain pant weight for instance.

I got myself some nice Linton tweed and some $40 a yard wool jersey with yarn sort of couched on it and I am still short the pant weight.

But lack of bargains aside ( although I got an excellent deal on the Linton tweed) did I like it there?

You have no idea.

Do you ever have those moments where you just wonder where all the good fabric has gone? Do you ever go into the local fabric store and decide that you are just so tired of trying to persuade yourself that a blend is the same as, that maybe polyesters do actually breath? Do you just walk in and walk out because you just aren't in the mood that day to lower your expectations?

Do you ever just wonder if you will see real fabric again in your life time? The 100% thing, the best there is, the fabric you won't do anything less than your best job on, because that is what it requires?

Do you ever wonder if it's all gone?

Well in the garment district it's all there, an outpost really, of when fabric was fine. You can shop there like they did in the 1920s, the 1950's with your hands in fabric that would have met standards then and meets them now.

To a sewer, going to the garment district is just well, a relief.

A relief.

And here are my pictures:

My coat of a few weeks ago on the street with my most excellent and beautiful son Nat walking beside me. He looks like he belongs there doesn't he? He does.

The famous Mood Fabrics which is vast and organized and on several levels in a big building.

Me at Metro. Note the trance like look on my face, your face looks like that if you finally are in a place you have been trying to get to for thirty years. Note the calculator adding it all up.

Metro Textiles, on a 9th floor I think. A tiny space with fabric rolls and rolls deep. It reminded me of my husband's garage - only the owner knows where what's what but everything still seems to be there.

Will I go back?

You better believe it. As soon as I can. If there was such a thing as a garment district passport I would apply for it.

Now next time, or sometime, if you want to meet up with me there, just email me direct so we can find each other.

Conspiracy theory

2012-02-09T10:05:00.000-04:00

My friend Robin over at a sewing on the side has been making some Style Arc pants lately and having the same extreme success we all have had with those patterns.

I made three pairs of Linda pants in ponte for my trip away. They were perfect. Super comfortable, with a waistband suitable for sitting for long periods of time in restaurants and on airplanes, but with a leg that looked like real tailored pants.

Most of all the best thing about these pants are the fit. Right out of the envelope with these minor, made-for-me adjustments:

1. My waist is 1.5" bigger than the hip measurement of the size I bought. This is no surprise to me. I added 3/4" to the front seam tapering down to normal by the crotch.

2. See belly above and also the ample rear end. I added 1" to the waistline at top at CF and CB and then tapered back to usual by the side seams.

The result is a perfect, perfect fit.

I have made the exact same alterations to the Kerry Cargo pants which I made once in a poplin as pants, and once cut shorter as shorts.

Yes, family members no need to tell me the photos on my blog suck, but you folks are out of town and Rascal's paw shakes when he holds the camera and the shots are too blurry to use. So it's the old back-of-the-door shots:

Yes too I know these are just your old elastic waist units, however the cut is so good that once on and the elastic expanded to Babs size they look smooth and excellent. You have to trust me on this until I can get a photographer around here.

Now get ready for the rave.

I have been trying to make pants that fit since 1972 (yes I know you weren't born yet, but pants fitting was no easier then than now).

I have made gingham muslins, tried 47 different perfect fit patterns (some documented on this blog). I have taken classes, taught classes, pinched, tweeked, taken in and let out.

I have pivoted and slid. I have cloned and drafted. I have bought software, tracing paper, broken countless mechanical pencils, and used more Scotch tape than Christmas.

I have spent enough money on this to have paid for medical school. That is if medical schools accepted people who stopped taking math in Grade Nine (thank you thank old school system of the province of Quebec which had a very francophone view of the importance of arts and languages).

Despite all of this I have still, no matter how much I have tried to convince myself that it was only an issue of not standing right in my clothes, had:

1. A sort of space at the front that would have accommodated a fanny pouch, that is if I wanted to wear one under my pants as sort of a security measure to thwart pick pockets on my travels.
2. A rear end that pulled down when I sat, exposing my vast collection of old lady underwear.
3. Diagonal wrinkles on the inside of my legs that only moved to new places when I tried to get rid of them.

I am not the only one this has happened to.

What if - this is where the conspiracy theory comes in - the problem was pants patterns for sewers that were drafted not to fit nearly anybody, and not me?

Or you?

What if a decent pants draft reduces pant fitting problems to human-sized tasks?

What if there was one or two simple tweaks you could do to every pants pattern that a particular organization produced and every one of those pants patterns fit?

Style Arc has made me suspect this might be true.

To my relief another Style Arc order arrived just in the nick of time yesterday, with the Peta pants Robin made, and with the Sasha blouse too.

I am attaching the pattern shot of the Sasha to show you why I am just as optimistic about this pattern.

Note the shaping of the collar stand and collar, compared to the ruler straight units we usually see, the small front armhole versus the back and the high sleeve cap.

Interesting.

What's missing?

2012-02-04T13:05:00.000-04:00

You might notice that something is gone from this blog.

No more You Can Never Have Too Many White Shirts icon.

Why?

Well you can, I decided.

Have too many white shirts I mean.

Now you know.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I decided after three that I had never been so bored out of my mind with any of my ideas like this one.

This dumb idea turned my sewing into a chore.

Every time I went into my sewing room I saw this huge pile of white fabric and this heap of shirt patterns and they both seemed to say to me "Well Babs, you better get to work or you are going to look like a fool."

Well, so what?

I don't need my sewing to nag me.

Truth is there are other areas of my life I take pretty seriously.

Yesterday I more or less finished up on a really hard distance course I have been working on. It may not be perfect but it really is the best I can do at this stage. In fact, funnily enough, I feel right now I am doing the best work of my life - just when I thought I was going to downshift.

I also put everything I can into my relationships with my family. The best this particular person's got.

Mind you, as my kids will be the first to tell you, it's not always great - like giving my son's beautiful and profoundly polite girlfriend a complete summary of all his childhood illnesses over dinner at a chic restaurant in NYC. She probably didn't need to know what the pediatrician said every visit. But now she does.

I mean I can, and often am, deeply clueless but I give it all I've got when I am.

I try to be a good dog mother.

I even searched the house at 3:00 a.m. two nights ago to try and find Mr. Rascal because his soft complaining woke me up. Turns out he was sitting in the dark in the bathtub waiting for me to turn on the taps so he could have a little drink - he doesn't like the dog bowl water when it has been sitting there, like overnight.

So I can't let my sewing be another thing I have to try so hard at. There simply can't be any duty in it for me.

Sewing is what I want to do when it's time for a break. Sewing can't ever be something that I need a break from.

I have to admit that this morning I am putting the Wild Ginger fitting in that box right now too.

This is just me but as a sewer I work in fabric and in front of a mirror and in front of a sewing machine. The idea of going back into that software and fiddling with the numbers and printing off a pattern and sewing up another muslin and then going back into the software to transfer in and back and forth so I can get out say a camp shirt to spit out just feels like something that is too much work for me right now. That sort of describes what I have already done working all week on my distance course in fact.

So Wild Ginger is going back into the box for a while, at least until it seems to me that will be a fun thing to do.

As to my wonderful friends who signed up to sew white shirts I am transferring you to my blog roll this weekend, which is where you belong.

More later.

Flypaper thoughts, some from the road

2012-02-01T22:07:00.001-04:00

New York city is not in Tennessee.
In TN that middle-aged woman likely has her hair coloured and that baby is her third grandchild.
In Manhattan that middle-aged woman is letting her hair go grey and that's her first child in her stroller.
In Tennessee they have big trucks.
In NYC they have big sidewalks.
Knees are to bodies what zippers are to garments.
Not the same warranty.
In Tennessee they say to me "don't get in a rush."
In NYC I walk faster to keep up.
Why did I forget to buy buttons?
My daughter hired a doula for help with her breastfeeding.
The baby now nurses standing up.
Looks odd works great.
New York is about a lot of small. Small spaces, small shops, small room between people.
It's not anonymous, it's close.
They don't tell you that.
It's sort of comforting.
I heard frogs outside my window in Tennessee.
I swear.
On the phone Miss Scarlett said to me "Babs I am going to go to your house as soon as I can."
That's why I came home.
I love New York.
I love Tennessee.
I live in Nova Scotia.
This is my home.
I was born on the prairies.
You never know.
You just never know.
Anytime I walk into a fabric store I am no longer a traveller.
These are my people.
This is the home I carry with me.

Back home

2012-02-01T10:49:00.000-04:00

Well I did NYC and Tennessee and am back home.

There is a lot in my mind I want to share and I don't know where to begin.

Maybe I should do a series of short posts on specific subjects to share my thoughts.

That is what this blog is to me, a place to unload the things that are occupying my mental space but may not be highly interesting to the general public - you know those people who don't wake up in the middle of the night trying to decide if that sleeve should really get ripped out and put in again, or if remembering to keep my arm at my side when I wear it will be enough. (Decided I can't always carry a purse or wear a newspaper under my arm - so have gotten up at 3:00 a.m. and just ripped it out so I would have no choice in the morning.)

OK

So let's start with packing.

I was very successful packing lighter than usual. For once I didn't have to pay any extra for weight and have them put those "Heavy" tags on my suitcase. I had room to spare and could bring my fabric purchases back no problem in the one same case.

I achieved this by:

1. Forgetting to pack my pajamas. A friend of mine who was once evacuated in a hotel fire alarm told me to always travel with good pjs - he said you wouldn't believe what some people wear to bed. Mr. Walmart took care of this on the way back from the airport.

2. Not bringing a rain coat or rain hat (another friend told me a rain hat is a more practical accessory than an umbrella, leaves your hands free, and she travels around the world but I forgot this advice. Also I actually don't own a rain hat and my black collapsable umbrella got taken home by mistake by the undertaker at my father-in-law's funeral because they thought it was theirs, but that's another story).

Of course it rained immediately and for two days as soon as I got to New York but one of the things you learn about the place is that once the first raindrop falls every little shop immediately sets out baskets of umbrellas for sale on the sidewalk. Not many tricks missed in that place.

3. I thought about only one venue when I packed. In the interests of smart packing I packed only one theme - black and grey and my Nova Scotian idea of what to wear in the big city.

Of course as soon as I got to Tennessee my husband's work had a team building thing to which I was invited that involved beer and bowling.

What you think you should wear to a bar in Manhattan and what you should wear in the next alley to a guy named Ace who is bowling 739 are different.

You can trust me on this.

More later.

Packing for trips

2012-01-20T13:35:00.003-04:00

In morning I fly out. First to Orlando where I am overnighting at an airport hotel, and then on to Tennessee to see the spouse. Thursday morning we go to NYC, and Sunday I fly home.

In between making 18 quarts of homemade dog food for the boys (I have a friend from work staying here and a dog walker coming by in the days) I am trying to pack.

I am the World's Worst Packer.

I wish I was more like my grandmother who was a Great Packer. The mistress of the rolled garment, underwear in shoes, and things packed in plastic. She traveled a lot. She and my grandfather had an arrangement that involved him staying at The Store and her going to Switzerland to buy cuckoo clocks (OK she did this only once) or freeloading on relatives who she claimed where "desperate to see me" (she did this a lot, although usually only once per venue).

She was such a great packer she even wore three dresses on top of each other when going through customs after shopping in the States.

But that's another story entirely.

Thing is I too have traveled a lot, used to do it for work, and I should have learned something by now.

I can say with confidence that I haven't learned a thing and am not one bit improved.

This is a nuisance.

My specialty is packing way too much and all of it being the wrong thing. I have a hard time transitioning my head for a different climate then the one I am in. I once went to a convention in Las Vegas in March with a suitcase full of wool leotards and wool suits and big boots. I had sweat flattening my hair the whole time, not really a glam look.

Then there was the time we drove to Montreal for my son's graduation and I packed all our tops in one bag and all our bottoms in the other.

And left the bottom's bag at home.

Good for 200 miles of "I saw it but thought you were going to bring it."

I also am a victim of the "what if, just in case" scenario. I usually pack about five pairs of shoes (rainboots in case in rains, heels in case it's a nice restaurant, running shoes in case I work out in the hotel gym, (I never do), walking shoes for shopping, slippers for the room, other shoes that aren't real heels in case the restaurant is one that I have to walk to.)

You get my drift.

This is why my preferred mode of transport is by car.

With a van, car top carrier, and trailer my husband has to haul to accommodate my stuff when I am gone more than a week and Need Projects, I do fine. On these stupid airlines where they weigh bags and charge you extra for extra pounds and for each bag even things are more stressful.

The big change in my view of this whole issue has resulted from watching my son's NYC girlfriend come for visits.

This kid always looks totally appropriate and chic and, get this, she doesn't check any luggage, she only travels with a tiny carry-on. My first words when I pick her up are always "That's it?"

So this trip I am trying to emulate her Babs style. For me this means only one large suitcase and one normal purse.

And I am only wearing short boots on my feet and only two more pairs of shoes packed. Black, white and grey clothes (remind me to finish those two pairs of StyleArc Linda pants). We will see how this goes.

What are your packing tips? What are your best travel garments?

Vogue 1128 finished

2012-01-18T11:28:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to a sewing group meeting (a member is married to a local pastor so we meet in the church basement, hence the drums in the background - and mainstream churches are wondering why they are losing congregations). While we talked I finished sewing on my giant snaps and snagged one of my cohorts to take a picture.

So this is the unfinal pressed version but you get the idea:

Side view showing how the pleats out of the yoke and at the hem work. You can see I lightly pressed these to reduce the bulge factor, not sure if I will leave this the way it is or steam the pressing out.

The effect of the pleats on the profile of the coat. Actually fairly practical as this would reduce the draft up the backside factor that is particularly relevant to dressing for my climate. Not sure if the sleeves are as wide as this looks or if it was our camera angle - very clear view of how dropped the shoulders are and how wide the sleeves are when you lengthen them. Personally, since I am anything but and inverted triangle, I have no problem with garments that make me look like one.

Of course it isn't too useful that I have my hands in the pockets, but this is one of those cozy sort of comfy coats that you would do that in. I see this coat and this pose and reflective of how I will really wear this - in front of the diary counter at the Superstore talking to someone I haven't seen in a long time.

In the end I went with just the giant snaps and no buttons.

This fabric is loosely woven (I fused light weight interfacing to the whole thing - now that was a fascinating exercise - think that's why they invented TV), soft and heavy and I think the big snaps, which I feel have been too heavy and a disaster on everything else I have tried to use them on, are perfect here.

I am going away for 10 days to the US in a few days and have a lot to do before I leave town. I will post later about the challenges of packing for travel if you are me and will try to do a proper Pattern Review of this pattern before too long.

Now to answer some commenters.

Calypso a TNT is a Tried and True pattern. This means if you kill yourself making something fit you should use that pattern again to try and recoup some of that investment and to avoid wasting good sewing time fooling around on the unfun part.

Petunia re this coat and adjusting it. These pictures will probably answer your fit questions. My general sense of it is that because this shape is so distinctive and oversized it is best just accepted as is. Fitting changes would IMO be lost in the volume. Shoulder pads for example would not be helpful given how undefined the shoulder line is, and actually looking at the side view here, the bubble factor is lower hem more than over my rear end so maybe pressing the pleats down was not necessary.

What do you think?

As promised, sort of

2012-01-15T21:41:00.000-04:00

Consistent with a life time of over promising and under-delivering to myself as a sewer here is my status report on Vogue 1128.

Hem pinned up but not done, snaps and faux buttons still on the table and not on the coat, but otherwise finished.

I really like it in a costume character way. Due to operator precision this is hanging crooked on the hanger and so the welt pockets in real life are in fact more level, no small surprise to me.

I was totally taken back to see that I executed these two vertical welt pockets very well. The secret is the fabric of course. Choose something with the texture of a living room rug and no one, including yourself, will be able to see any mistakes. Put that one away for future reference.

I would have liked to have finished this today, but sometimes life, just like some of the people in it, doesn't seem to be listening.

Not to worry, a new week ahead.

Progress report Vogue 1128

2012-01-14T22:27:00.001-04:00

You might want to book off tomorrow night.

If all goes well I will be posting pictures of my rendition of Vogue 1128.

I will be for ever grateful to Erica Bunker for testing the waters on this one.

Much to discuss. First of all if there was an Olympics for "Pattern photos that provide none of the information a sewer really needs" there would definitely be a gold medal for the folks at Vogue for this one as pretty as it is.

This coat has three really notable features:

1. It is really wide. I am making a 14 and I'm not really. I wanted a coat I can layer to wear while traveling and if I am cold I can layer my spring coat, old winter coat, and bathrobe under this, and could probably also fit in my suitcase - although of course I will never get that through airport security. Oh the old days.

Hell I could even fit Mr. Rascal under there but he would never have the sense to be quiet.

I am perfectly fine with the wideness I should add. I am getting pretty fed up with slick looking coats that fit more or less like the notorious sloper.

I mean who needs a coat that you have to suck your stomach in when you wear it ?

A person wears coats when it is cold, grey, and you more or less wish you were somewhere where you didn't have to wear a coat. To my mind a winter coat has to be comforting, morale supporting, and reliable.

A winter coat has to be On Your Side.

I feel this coat is going to do that for me.

What's working up is what I would call a Dad's Coat. I think you know exactly what I mean.

2. It has really short sleeves, much disguised by the pose. I have to say 3/4 coat sleeves are a dumb idea. They might work with a outfit you would wear to a Royal Wedding, if your forearms are you best feature, but for the kind of weather you need a coat for they suck. I mean you can wear those long gloves, which I own because they were on sale, but those only really work if your garment underneath is sleeveless, well and I am not Kim Novak (please see previous post and pictures.)

And the sleeves of a work blouse and a cardi don't look the best as an alternative - hanging out at the end of a 3/4 sleeve, and only confirm for anyone left wondering that you are not Kim Novak.

All of this is to say I added 6" to the bottom of the sleeve pattern.

3. There is a tuck at the yoke and again at the hem on each side of the back which makes the back of the coat a little like a cocoon coat.

Or it can make you look like you have the world's most giant bubble butt.

I have sort of pressed these into flatter tucks and we will see what I think of this in the light of day.

That would be tomorrow.

I have to say that despite all of this I love what I am seeing so far.

Pattern Master Boutique from Wild Ginger revisited

2012-01-13T20:01:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday I took a day and spent it with two friends who have PMB version 5. Like me they bought it and like me thought that they now had a shortcut to fitting. Hasn't worked out quite that way.

Of course owning expensive and powerful pattern design software does not remove a sewer's need for nearly every new pattern released - but the need for some TNT basics remains.

None of us have been perfectly happy with what we have been able to produce with this program. It all felt close enough however that we decided to explore the possibility of operator error and devote a day to measuring, sewing slopers, and critiquing each other.

Only a sewer would appreciate how a day spent with three middle-aged women jumping in and out of trail garments and running around someone's basement in their underwear was a most excellent day.

What we all learned was this: another sewer is a much more accurate measurer than a husband who largely does what he has to do as fast as possible. So he can get back to whatever much more interesting activity he was engaged in before you interrupted him. You know like napping, looking at vintage motorcycles on eBay, or standing in front of an open fridge door. Not hugely, world important, activities like trying to perfect a sloper pattern for a LBD despite the fact that your actual life doesn't require one except for funerals where, in this country at least, you are likely to attend with your coat left on anyway.

OK. Where was I?

My sloper with pictures.

I am going to alert Wild Ginger and see what I need to do to fix my problems, which are minor. Really with decent measuring help we all three found our products needed only minor tweeking, mainly I think because we all shortened our shoulder lengths.

Before you look these shots I can't help but give you a disclaimer.

We left the defaults on for our data inputer by mistake for all of us. She is 5'1" and I am 5'9".

Therefore this is a mini skirt version. I don't want you to think I am actually delusional enough to wear my skirts this short, and I would have to raise my bust point too. Also the program can't see, so there are things like lowering the back darts for caboose accommodation that even I can see myself I need to do and we pinned out.

And finally this is a fitting garment - a sloper - and not a real dress pattern. I would be nuts to wear anything this form fitting and as revealing of my dumpy self.

I mean can you imagine wearing a dress made out of this? A person might as well forget getting taken out for anniversary dinners if she dressed like this. Forever.

This is why there is such a thing as Design Ease, the stuff that gets added to patterns along with that thing called style so you don't look like that aunt you told yourself when you were fifteen you would never end up dressing like when you were that old - you know really old like 45.

OK my sloper:

A garment suitable for wiping down the tables after a church supper

A dress that Tells the Truth

The Truth with back darts lowered

Don't scare the children Babs.
Note mysterious need to move shoulder seams back as marked. Also little looseness in centre front. We tried to tell ourselves this could be eased in. I hope so because having a single centre front dart will be uncool even in the kitchen in the church basement.

What do you think?

I will let you know what the experts at Wild Ginger advise, but to tell you the truth this is pretty good progress, and the conversation during our fitting day, largely off topic, was fabulous.

Sewing intensive

2012-01-11T09:24:00.000-04:00

I have lots of disconnected sewing news to report, please bear with me.

First of all I am taking the French Jacket course at Patternreview with Angela Wolfe and really enjoying it. Angela's version is slightly less labour intensive than Susan Khalje's - the fabric pieces are serged and not left with 2" seam allowances that are trimmed, the muslin is turned into a paper pattern and not used as a pattern with the seam lines basted onto the fabric, and the sleeves are inserted by machine and not by hand - but otherwise have the same quilting and hand-stitching.

As far as I can make out most of the class is deep into muslin fitting so far - reinforcing that the biggest challenge for most sewers is fit. I have to say it has been a long time since I have put this kind of effort into fitting a muslin, when I have done it it's been more for other people than myself.

The whole process has made me more aware than ever of the value of TNT basics. I can't imagine putting this level of work into every garment I made and you can be sure that this jacket pattern once perfected is going to be made a lot.

Here is what I started with, my usual flat pattern measurements to a pattern that already came with D cup sizing, square shoulder adjustment, 2" in length and extra at all seams because there is more weight on me than my shoulders:

Even still I have been fussing around doing this, to get the bodice fit right, taking in the upper back seam above the waist, letting it out over the butt, and taking in a total of 1" above my bust across my upper chest:

Basically I have sewn, resewn by increments, taken out previous stitching lines, pressed and fitted. My plan when this is all done is to cut along the final stitching lines, transfer this to paper and add seam allowances.

And I have even got to the sleeves yet which, judging by the class chat is where the real fitting challenges lie.

A few fitting facts I have picked up at the class:

A princess seam that comes out of the armhole, as opposed to the shoulder, is easier to fit. Of course. That little peaking thing at the front armhole is a usual issue.
A lot of women have a too long shoulder seam, which droops of course, but also means the jacket pulls when you lift your arm. Apparently the thing you aim for is a jacket that doesn't lift when you raise your arm.
A too low armhole is the other thing that makes for a shifting-while-you-raise-your-arm jacket. A higher armhole is also a very good thing.
Patterns have too much sleeve cap height, trim some off if you want.

I have also been introduced to the very interesting idea of the 3 piece sleeve. This is made by cutting the sleeve straight down from the shoulder circle to the hem, parallel to the grainline, and of course adding seam allowances. You then add the vent to the bottom of this seam, removing it from the front to back sleeve seam. The idea is that this shows off the fancy vent detail on these Channel jackets, you know the ones with the trim and buttons.

The three piece sleeve of course also adds a great fitting place for those who need less or more sleeve/arm space but don't necessarily need a larger actual arm hole.

Here is what my three piece sleeve pattern looks like. Note that the seam is parallel to the grain line and not to the existing sleeve seams:

I will keep you posted on this jacket's progress.

I will be diverting myself a bit though on another necessary project.

In a week and a half I am going to Tennessee for a conjugal visit and also going to stop off to see my son in NYC on the way home. I have decided that my Costco dog walking coat and my black lint collector coat are not up to this trip.

I need a neat cool coat.

I have had Vogue 1128 for ages but haven't made it up because the pattern picture made it hard for me to really evaluate it.

Then what do you know? The incomparable Erica Bunker has just made this coat up and it looks terrific of course.

So now I have my coat project. I have this wool in my collection and these weird but I like them crocheted buttons that I am going to use with giant snaps sewn underneath. I am not doing real large buttonholes in this fabric, not machine made, which would be a disaster and not bound because the weave is pretty loose, and I don't feel like it either.

I am now on the clock with this project but thanks to the New Hampshire primary the fabric is at least block fused now.

Of course being on the clock is a total contradiction to the speaker we had last night at the sewing guild, a fellow from the art college speaking about "Slow Sewing."

I of course am already pretty good at slow sewing but what he talked about was more mindful, sustainable sewing, built to last stuff with a lot of recycling. It was pretty interesting and here are some of my take-aways:

Garment production and maintenance consumes a larger environmental cost than any other industry in the world, after military production.
25% of the world's pesticides and herbicides are used in the production of cotton.
Much of these toxic chemicals remains in the fabric. (This explains the organic cotton baby stuff - BTW I have also noticed that most of the organic cotton, eco cotton out there is made in the USA which for those who care, and I do, is a reason to buy local).
There is a theory, the name of which I forget of course, that says things want themselves to be made and that this energy finds people who get that done for them. This means us but it also means the garment is in charge. This theory is not that out there. I definitely know a whole pile of garments who had minds of their own and a totally different purpose than I had in mind. I have also great personal experience with garments who didn't want to be made at all.

Over all this talk was a lot different than say the one I am going to be giving next month on how to sew knits. I was going to talk more about stitch length and things like that.

Enough.

Off I go now for a day of trying to work out PMB software with a couple of friends.

A clarification

2012-01-07T18:16:00.000-04:00

I didn't mean my last post to sound like I was considering not blogging, far from it, just don't want to feel bad if I don't post as often as I would like, or at least publish all I have written in my head. I feel I am getting to know my commenters and I don't want to lose touch with you if that makes sense.

Now back to stream pressing my boucle.

Thanks.

It is what it is

2012-01-07T14:55:00.002-04:00

The subject line from this post is one of my husband's favourite lines. The car explodes the week before Christmas and has to be replaced (it didn't this is just an example), the business partner absconds with all the funds (it didn't this is just an example), or the world is about to come to an end (it didn't this is just an example) and my husband asks what he can do and then says "It is what it is" and moves on.

This approach of course denies him the hours and hours, OK days and days, he could be spending on the phone with extended family describing What Went Wrong, and the sub-category Whose Fault Is It?

Think of all he is missing.

There are times however when this is the most appropriate subject line.

Like now in reviewing the new Jalie soft sports bra.

It is what it is.

No, there is not a lot of support. How can it with no underwires, power net, and in cotton/lycra? This is a comfort bra, meaning it is comfortable.

There is no lift and separate, there is no boost, there is no front and centre shape. This is not a going out bra, not a good shape under a sweater bra, not a my-god-it-looks-just-like-you-bought-it bra.

It is however the bra I am wearing now.

Excellent for wearing when you have to wash the dog's feet because the dummy finds the tiniest bit of muddy water under the ice in a puddle on the walk and then goes and stands on it and falls through and just looks at you until you lift him up and carry him 22 miles back to the car where he just snarls at you because you are taking him home when he still wants to go for a walk.

It's a good bra to wear then.

It is also excellent bra to wear knitting while watching Republican primary news (ask, me just ask me, anything I am totally up to date, too bad I don't vote there - once a politico always a politico), or reading a book called 1,500 family favourite slow cooker meals, because you are so busy knitting purses, sewing underwear, saying "holy shit, that's a lot of work" while you watch the videos for the Classic French Jacket PatternReview class you signed up for on that afternoon when you decided you needed to get your game back, to cook properly.

Good to wear when you do that.

Now here is the review with the disclaimer and a few introductory comments.

First in the interest of decency this is on the person who is not my clone and not on me.

You are welcome.

She is sort of flatter than me but you get the idea. I have also cleverly pinned my Smoothie panties to her front. Use your imagine to figure out that on a person these pull flat and are in fact smooth.

One comment about the Lingerie Secrets Smoothie pants before we move on to the bra.

The instructions have you sew all the elastic in flat and then sew the seams. This of course makes for easier elastic stitching, not anyone's favourite part, but you do get this lumpy raw elastic thing going on at the top of the seams. The instructions say at that point to zig-zag a bartack to hold that down, but as you can imagine, in these hands, through four layers of elastic, that stitching is sort of messy, OK really messy.

So for most of the ten or more pairs I have made this week I have reverted to stitching the elastic into a ring and then inserting it. Much neater and I need all the neat I can get. Here is the beginning of what is now a large pile of underwear. This does not look much like French Classic Jacket :

Now the bra. Speaking of messy you might observe the topstitching around the cups is a little that way. That is because I creatively sewed the cups inside out and the basting shows. I could take it out but I am not. For sure I would rush and poke a hole with the seam ripper. Not what you want to do to your dog-feet-washing bra.

In actual fact there is more space between my bra bottom and the top of my panties. Thank goodness.

Note the excellent Koolaid dye job

The bra require fold over elastic which is helpful if you once went nuts and bought a ton of it and can't figure out where to use it. Particularly if you got a good deal on 500 yards.

Nice high sides - this is one of your secure units, aimed to hold back the jiggle more than represent

Make up your own mind about this bra.

My only advice would be if you are making it out of random cotton/lycra like I did consider going down a size. This fabric is really stretchy and I found the band in particular needed to be reduced at the centre back. Also in my next version I may even put Power net in as a layer between the two band layers to add some structure.

I think I am going to do the next version is Grape.

I will of course be making more Real Grownup bras but I admit to you to liking this one. It is sort of the garment equivalent to the lunch you make yourself when no one is at home - whatever your comfort food is. Tell me.

Before I take the dogs out again to a different park a few things:

1. Yes I am going to get into this French Jacket thing. Pattern going to get adjusted tonight. I realize I am a contradiction in terms on this. I am attracted to Channel jackets because they are supposed to be as comfortable as sweaters and this life needs comfortable. Also I like hand sewing and think I even remember how to do it. However as the videos revealed this garment requires some definitely non sweater like discipline. Might be character building.

2. I love comments but wonder if responding in the comment section is where to do it. Would you read that, go back to it? I had an interesting one last post from a reader who said this blog doesn't sound at all like other writing I do. This is true. My blog is my personal voice, obviously unedited and irresponsible. I am even taken aback when I run into someone who I don't know very well who responds to something personal I have written - I sort of think "gee those were private thoughts" but then again I did put them out on the internet didn't I? It's an interesting experience.

3. Some of my favourite bloggers have suspended their blogs or written recently about a bit of road weariness. Truth is I never post as often as I want or share all I compose to you in my head. Always a lot going on around here. So I am just going to do what I can do and make sure my blogging is not an obligation to me.

It is what it is.

January 1st, 2012

2012-01-01T20:17:00.000-04:00

Happy New Year.

My husband went off this morning to three months in Tennessee, with two visits planned for me during that time.

For the first time in my life I will be alone in the house, that is if you don't count dogs. No kid in the basement, nothing.

It occurred to me that for the last few decades with work and family I have had this line running through my mind "If I only had 5 minutes to myself."

Well, you know now I have. Three months to work only on online courses, to be done at the dining room table, babysit as required, sew and blog.

You have been warned.

The first thing I did as soon as I got home from the airport was to cut out 12 pairs of panties.

I have just made a pair from Jan Bones' Smoothie pattern and I love them. This pattern has been well-reviewed on Patternreview, all raves, so I won't add to it but to say this is a great pattern. Here are the features:

1. Your basic stop just about an inch below your navel pantie, but with the side seams moved to the front so there is no clear discernible seamline.
2. Good solid bum coverage. Right around and tucked in. This is useful if like me this is your biggest and best feature. Nothing hanging out, nothing bisected by an elastic line that shows when you wear pants.

These panties do the job and are nearly identical to a fancy expensive "invisible" pair I bought at Soma last year.

Now store bought panties are cheap. Who would make them and why?

1. See above on style.
2. Possibility of much nicer fabric. I used all my good 2-way cotton, rayon and bamboo knit scraps. So these are sort of cost neutral projects. This particular pattern encases ordinary 1/4" braided elastic so no fancy notions are required, although you could add those if you had a previous reckless purchase of some fancy elastic to write off.
3. They are super quick projects that you can make when you need to see that needle go up and down in some fabric but are not able to fully engage brain.

There are no illustrations as test pair one is in the wash. I intend on making a bunch up tomorrow, with a Jalie bra.

That will give you something to look forward to.

I also have to sound off.

One of those annoying Huffingtonpost over 50 articles recently did one of those truly annoying "things to never wear or do over 50" articles and listed "granny pants" meaning panties that go up near your waist, as one of the no-nos.

Women over 50, it said, should wear thongs, like elderly French women apparently. You know the ones they tell us never gain weight despite a diet of wine and goose liver and would rather shoot themselves in the head then ever run down to the drugstore at 11:00 at night in tennis shoes to get milk/bread/toilet paper without full make-up on over their exfoliated pores.

Listen. I don't buy this thong business so you might as well give it up. That includes my sister Nancy who claims they are comfortable. Look, a string up your privates is a string up your privates. Don't tell me you don't notice.

And if you have a nicely padded seat to sit on let me tell you nothing beats "The Smoothie" for just that.

Great pattern, even if the envelope drawing is a little dull.

Samples to follow.

Training bras

2011-12-28T23:15:00.012-04:00

Today I watched my Newfoundland bound son drive off in his moose whistled truck and, second son to exit in the last 24 hours, I felt like my world was coming to an end. Then I remembered this guy is 25 and I had done a pretty good job of stringing this mother thing along this long and so I decided the best thing to do with the rest of my life started with going down to the basement to start dyeing bra elastic with Koolaid.

It is amazing what you can achieve with a broken heart, a mason jar of hot water and a package of cherry and a package of strawberry kiwi. Pretty cheery.

I am going to try a new bra pattern and panties tomorrow continuing my rehabilitation.

BTW my kid is still on land. They held the ferry in port due to rough water and a storm and he is sleeping on board and they will try again in the morning. He sounds pleased with this further adventure.

Whew

2011-12-27T19:42:00.001-04:00

Well we are on the other side of Christmas.

One son is here

One son is here - these are not the same place

I am here

My middle son left a few hours ago to go back to NYC where he belongs.

I am going through my usual and thankfully temporary wrench. I always have felt that my mothering with kids at home was me doing my best work, but let's face it that's done now. This is the one child who really left home definitely when he was the youngest, at 19, and he immediately went off into the world, traveled, studied, and did just fine for himself.

Our time since then has been visits shared with so many other people, and I always feel I missed some sort of a stage with him, of adjusting to living along side an adult, as I was able to do with his siblings who lived here in the early adult stage. You get to know each other on new terms when you have the privilege of day-to-day time with them. So when he comes home I sort of look for the kid who last lived here and doesn't anymore, and he sort of sees the mother of a teenager, I'm not that person anymore.

We need more time doing ordinary things now he is in a place where he is likely to stay.

So I will be in New York for a few days the end of January and again if I can organize it in February.

As I have said before I am a little stressed about making a regular space for myself in New York. I have lived in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, and Melbourne Australia and traveled many other places. It's not that I don't know big cities. But I am more of a neighbourhood kind of person and I have to figure this out. I know I just have to.

Maybe it's my past and maybe it's that I have lived here in Nova Scotia too long. After all I grew up in a small prairie town. Do you know I was 18 before I had seen the ocean and regularly been on an escalator?

How about that?

And this is the kind of place where I know so many people I think I could just lie down anywhere on any sidewalk in this city and yell and someone I know would show up and say "Barbara what are you doing lying down there on that sidewalk?" I am quite sure this would not happen to me in Manhattan but I may be wrong.

Tomorrow my youngest son is leaving home to go to work in Newfoundland for a while at least. Unlike his brother who boarded a plane with his crystal glasses as carry-on and the New Yorker app. on his iPhone, this son is packing up a truck and going to drive 5 hours to a ferry, go over night on the ferry, and then drive 14 hours across the island of Newfoundland in the winter. He is mounting the moose whistles on the truck tonight. This is not a joke. The interior of Newfoundland is crawling with moose, but not people, and they regularly stand on the road and more or less fall over cars. At several tons each this is not a good thing. However if you don't drive at night (and he better not) and if you have a special kind of whistle on your car that they just can't stand, they move out of the way and you live to tell the tale (which he better).

I also suspect they do not need moose whistles in Manhattan, the place where no one would tell me to get up by name if I was on the sidewalk.

And on New Year's Day my husband heads off to Tennessee for the winter, although there will be visits/trips you better believe that.

I wonder how this all happened when it is so cold outside.

I am feeling disoriented. All I know for sure is that I am going to go off now and freeze a bunch of turkey in single portions and then I better get back into my sewing.

Yes I really need to sew.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T22:48:00.000-04:00

From my family to yours.

May you get your dishes done, may you get one really good sewing gift even if you have to buy it yourself, may you be wise enough to know that not all families are perfect, and not holidays like a dream, but have someone in your life who makes you realize it might all be true after all.

My sweater was appreciated, my socks a hit, and the grow bags fit.

Here is little Heidi on her way to bed in her's:

And to all a good night.

Now on to sewing and flypaper thoughts

2011-12-22T10:59:00.000-04:00

Only 1.37 of a sock to get knitted and I am done.
Would some good knitter tell me how to fix my ssk? My k2tog are neat, my ssks are loose and looked like some pigeon knit them.
Last week we got a call from Costco to throw out that Tabouleh.
You know that rare impulse purchase because I am knitting too much to cook.
Recalled for Listeria.
My son and I ate two tubs.
Not fair in a house where we grow our own organic Kale.
Looked at each other for signs for three days and then forgot about it.
Kale makes you strong. Body and teeth.
I have thrown out my rash inducing retinol and am now washing my face in baby oatmeal cereal.
In my mind there is a direct line between these events.
DIY.
Skin's great.
Kale helps.
I am renting my tablecloths and napkins this year.
Thank you Auntie Nancy for the idea.
I think I ordered a big package of red bra strap elastic and fasteners last night when I was sleepy.
Not sure, I was trying to ssk at the time.
There is sure a lot of sewing for self backing up over here.
Thank you McCalls for the Spring patterns.
Nicer than usual.
Going to cook for two days now.
I am doing the recipes that say "fast and easy" spouse is doing things that say "complicated and involve ingredients we have never had in this house before."
Sent me out of celeriac root and I came back with Japanese Daikon.
This is a large radish.
It does not look like celeriac root.
It is however a root.
Apparently this is not close enough.
Now we are going to have Vietnamese sandwiches on Boxing Day.
Calls for Daikon.
Since these things are not made in a crock pot I will not be involved.

In closing here are some shots of what my spouse brought to my knitting location for dinner last night. From a recipe from this family friend. Going to miss that man when he goes back to Tennessee.

At least I have the dogs and the crock pot. And a whole lot of red elastic.

New year's thoughts sort of

2011-12-22T10:40:00.000-04:00

Every year I order a Moleskin diary. They have the days of the week on one side and a lined notebook page on the other.

This is really useful in meetings when people say things and you can grab your diary and look serious and responsible while you write things like "Spring wardrobe gaps: replace black skirt, make three new fun tops from knits."

My fingers must have slipped when I Amazoned this year (I have maintained my festive season mall boycott) and what arrived was a mini version of what I usually order.

One the left is my current diary and on the right 2012:

I was a bit annoyed with myself until I realized this was A Sign.

You see recently I have been having some conversations with a variety of people that have reminded me there needs to be a statute of limitations on some of the stuff that gets passed on from year to year.

Every life and every family has some of this.

How many generations should anyone pass on what happened in the war?
How many nights should anyone lie awake thinking of an old betrayal?
How many years should anyone resent the sibling who was always presented as prettier/smarter/more successful?
How many decades should anyone discuss that someone could have should have married better, done more with their education, never left that job?
How long until that mistake has been forgotten?

This made me realize that the common family activity to explain people by recapping the above in fact functions primarily to just keep it all alive - to write it into next year's diary before the year has already begun.

What if the diary was smaller and there wasn't any room to do this?

Sleep sack pattern

2011-12-18T14:49:00.000-04:00

I have just finished two sleep sacks for the little girls for Christmas. I was totally appalled that my daughter was spending $60 for Growbags for the kids to sleep in.

Babies these days don't sleep with blankets or bumper pads or stuffed toys in their beds - all those things we used to load up the cribs with. In fact even as they get bigger they still sleep in these sleeping bag units. Miss Scarlett had a sleepover here last night and she was cruising around in her's for hours this morning, having perfected walking in a bag.

I have had a good look at the expensive store-bought ones and looked at the patterns in the books which typical for many kids patterns seemed to me to be too wide in the neck and the chest.

So I went on Etsy where the young mother sewers hang out and found this pattern, which looked to my eye to be very similar to the ones you buy. I have been picking up some of my crafty type patterns on Etsy recently and am pretty happy with the results.

Here are my two versions - prototypes for my daughter to evaluate and for me to do a better job next time. The outside is flannel and the inside a coordinating fleece which of course I realized was going to stick in the zipper teeth - so my top-stitching is a bit erratic.

The only changes I made to the design were to add a little topstitched square at the bottom of the zipper ( you put the separating zipper in upside down) - a detail I saw in the commercial ones.

I also rolled the body back so I could sew as much as possible of the lining to the zipper by machine, sort of a bagging technique, rather than rely totally on topstitching from the right side to catch the lining on the wrong side next to the zipper teeth, as was suggested by the pattern.

This sewer has been around the block enough times to know that was not going to work without angst, so I attached the lining and then did my anarchist topstitching to finish more for decorative effect and to stitch down some of that fleece fluff away from the zipper.

My list is shrinking. Only a bit of knitting and some organizational work.

I have been pondering how to fit in a large crowd to sit down for dinner on Christmas Day and yesterday I had the bright idea that because my living room is bigger than my dining room I could switch the furniture for just a few days.

I have suggested this to my returned spouse.

He has just gone off for a nap now.

Nothing like the holidays.

On the festive home stretch

2011-12-17T09:44:00.000-04:00

First of all here are some shots of my daughter's playgroup at her house where I did an impromptu how to turn the heel on a Christmas stocking lesson.

They may have me back to do "how to hem pants rather than take them to the tailor's." I can't believe young mothers are taking pants to someone to do this. My daughter knows to bring that stuff over to my place:

My daughter has a nice house they are slowly fixing up. They bought it from a man who was recently a widower. He was determined to have his house go to a young family much against his realtor's horror so he practically gave it away, and I mean gave it away.

It is an interesting place. The former owner was a bag man for a political party and there is a full bank-sized safe in the basement. His wife was a great entertainer and the kitchen has two ovens and even a built-in indoor BBQ with a chimney up through the kitchen ceiling.

The house also has come with a ghost. As far as we can figure the lady who spent her life hosting there was not quite ready to leave. As a result the toys are moved around in the night and the cushions on the chairs rearranged and straightened up at military angles. It's not a bad vibe and we figure that when she has it all out of her system she will move on. It must be hard to let a place go you spent your whole life maintaining.

Back in this world my Christmas production is on the home stretch. Four pairs of socks, one housecoat, one knitted cardigan, three pairs of pajamas, and two baby sleep sacs by tonight if I get moving.

Then I am just going to do some back-up knitting. My husband comes in at noon today from Tennessee and this place will move from Santa's workshop into Santa's test kitchen.

All of this virtuous sewing for others, which I do because the homemade gifts go over better than the store bought with adult children (or they are too diplomatic to say otherwise when I tell them I nearly killed myself getting this all done on Christmas morning), has my own desire to sew for myself boiling along inside.

To satiate this need I have been happily ordering patterns, specifically the independents for a change, and have some Pamela's patterns, more Style Arc, Brensan and Jalie's on standby on the runway.

I have also signed up for the French Jacket online class on PatternReview.

Yes, I know I have the books and a fair idea what is involved but after finding out what a difference a good teacher made to my bra-fitting I decided it would be a treat for myself to be taught. So far in the warm-stage the commentary and notes have already been very helpful.

I had some difficulty finding fabric though until I contacted Fabricmart and will wait till I go to NYC in January to source the trim.

I am looking forward to all of this.

Thank you and details

2011-12-13T10:04:00.000-04:00

First of all I want to thank my commenters on the last couple of posts.

The knitting advice has been so useful, helpful, and interesting. (Rebecca I am intrigued by your cardigan recipe, what do you mean join at the sides? Do you mean you knit the whole thing as one piece?) And thank you too Karen for the lead on that sock yarn, I have some on its way.

It means a lot to me when folks go to the trouble to comment on something I have written and to help me out.

Since last we spoke I have that sweater done and it's downstairs drying from blocking. I have decided it was a smarty pants pattern - just because you know a technique doesn't mean you have to put it in everywhere - all those dozens and dozens of short rows were unnecessary I decided - reminded me a bit of those wearable art jackets that used to be around that had every known decorative technique on them.

All I have left now is a couple of days of sewing to do, more knitting, and my spouse will be home Saturday for two weeks.

Like many women of my generation who got married young and then had children I do not have much experience living alone. Even in my single mother years I was still a mother.

So for me to be on my own while my husband is sent off for work for long periods is an interesting and educational experience for me. A life stage I kind of skipped and am learning how to do now.

I come from a big and interactive family.

I think I was about 35 before I was ever in a room by myself.

In my house "being alone" was regarded as a sickness. I remember having a visitor stay with us once and my mother frantically calling us into the kitchen "Somebody get into that living room - he's in there reading the paper and He's Alone, someone go in an talk to him." Silence, in the house I grew up in, was evidence that someone wasn't doing their job.

And working, having a bunch of kids of my own, pretty much has filled up my own silences.

So it's a novelty to learn to be by myself.

I miss my husband and living with an advanced level eccentric and excellent cook. He's fun. But being on my own has been good for me.

I was reminded of this over the weekend as my two sisters-in-law and I took my mother-in-law to show her the apartment we have picked out right near me. This is chapter two of our campaign to move her in from the country where she has still being living since my father-in-law died into the city where we can help her out more. I think she will be really happy to be near family but the process of making a decision about what she herself likes is almost too much for her. She says she still hears his voice in her head telling her what to do, what she likes.

Now women of my generation can hardly imagine that but my own unfinished business is learning how to live when there isn't anyone in the living room I need to go and talk to.

Being so busy with my projects is taking care of this, and of course having two dogs around who are permanent children is good too.

Still, it's interesting and important to be doing this.

Now off to my daughter's mother-baby group.

Someone over there is in tears because she can't figure out how to turn the heel on the Christmas stocking she is knitting for her little baby. I just got the 911.

Since I am now an expert ripper-outer this sounds like just the job for me.

Late night elf work: Family ban alert

2011-12-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

I have spent the last week coming down from term, helping my daughter with the kids, and getting some Christmas stuff worked through.

I just can't stand the stores during the holidays so it's either handmade or shopped online.

I laughed and laughed though when I saw this label on Meg's blog:

I am working on exactly that kind of project now, a sweater for one of my sons. I am about 10% of the knitter I am as a sewer and I made the mistake of thinking I could actually make this:

I have knit sweaters for the other kids and it was my NYC son's turn.I got it in my head that since the designer was in Brooklyn and young it would be something he would wear. Yes, I know.

Like a lot of young knitter designer patterns it has more emphasis on structural knitting - short row shaping and I cord and fashionable techniques than traditional patterns. What I call mathematical knitting, based on my personal observation that a lot of good knitters are good at math, which I am not.

Getting this thing wrestled to the ground has involved as much ripping out as knitting and hours on Raverly and iTunes watching fast videos made by people who actually know what they are doing.

The sleeves have just about done me in.

Since the whole thing is knit in the round (good thing I hate sewing up knitting - those yarn seams just don't look sturdy enough to the sewer in me) you have to pick up the stitches for the sleeves and knit those on double pointed needles.

In my case this has involved knitting on 5 needles and every time I come to turn a short row (took me the first sleeve to figure that out) I sort of haul the whole unit around and slide half the stitches off one of the needles, put those back on the needle and try again.

Every once in a while I stop and check on things and if you were here next to my Lazy-Boy you would be hearing a lot of "What the hell?"

I admit those sleeves are going to involve some hole darning to get them to look like sleeves, and the underarms look sort of like Rascal knit them.

By the way here are some pictures of my assistant elves obviously exhausted by all they have been doing to decorate the house and get things ready:

Matching dog beds I hope you notice.

I should have sleeve two done today and then I will spend some rescue time with a needle and wool and put in the zipper.

The thing is I actually have learned a lot of new techniques making this and if I made another one now it would be fine.

Maybe I need another label that says- "The next one will be better."

Once this is done I have only some sewing to finish and this morning that looks like a piece of cake then I think I am due to be a Lazy-Boy myself.

Bra school

2011-12-07T10:10:00.002-04:00

Well I am done.

My classes for this term that is. Now I can pick up my creative life for a bit.

Last Saturday I kicked that off with a fantastic day with bra-maker extraordinaire Tory LeBlanc where we custom-fitted and sewed a prototype bra.

I have made bras before with some success but wanted a second opinion on fit. What I got at Tory's class was actually far much more.

First the final product:

Now this just looks like a fairly standard bra but what you can't see is the best part, a completely flawless, can't-be-improved-upon-in-any-way, fit.

Can't show you that since this is a family blog and I can see the headlines now:

Middle-aged teacher posts pictures of herself in her underwear on the internet. Students mortified.

Back to the bra. Absolutely perfect, not a wrinkle, not a tweek required, great comfort, and terrific support. I started out by saying to Tory that the thing I didn't like about self-made bras was the seam, which showed in T shirts, and she told me that with the right fit and construction you can't see that seam.

She's right.

I wore this bra under a knit top yesterday and it was as smooth as those ride up foam-cup numbers you get from the store.

I cannot recommend the help of a good teacher, this teacher, enough. Tory only teaches small groups, there were only three of us in the class, and she gives private lessons. There is time enough to get the fit right and to really have good advice on technique. I, for example, was told to use more pins, I did and it made a huge difference:

I think the difference between teaching yourself how to make a bra and a good teacher is the experience gap. Tory has made thousands and frankly she really knows boobs. I ended up with an altered band size (I am between sizes), a different cup size, and a totally different underwire size than I was expecting.

And it worked.

Tory also give more designer classes on how to customize the basic pattern to a different style, and she thinks I should make a bustier. To be honest I think I have about as much use in my life for a bustier as I would say, a dog sled, but changing things up a bit from the standard issue might be interesting.

The one thing I can see myself getting into is dyeing and here are some samples of bra fabric done in Kool Aid. The darker samples are those that were left in the Kool Aid a long time and the lighter ones just went in and out:

Finally here is her email as Tory says she is interested in doing workshops for groups anywhere who are interested.

Now off to work on my neglected house and my Christmas projects, more later.

Flypaper thoughts

2011-12-01T08:31:00.000-04:00

My last real class of the term today.
Now I think I will miss them.
New year I am going to make a Chanel jacket.
About time.
Mainly because someone said it was like wearing a cardigan.
I like cardigans.
Looks like I am going to be asked to teach more distance courses in the future.
This will suit me very well. I can knit while I am online with the headset.
Two dogs, one ball in a house while there is rainstorm outside is crazy.
There would be no Christmas at all if we left it to the men.
Just a turkey and no vegetables.
And presents bought at Canadian Tire (just what it sounds like) at 5:00 p.m. Christmas Eve.
I can't find Jarbo Garn sock wool anywhere.
It is the only yarn bulky and soft enough for fast socks.
The one mail order place I tried ran out.
Might have to go to Canadian Tire.
My last child to move out next month has suddenly started to clean up.
A sign he is ready to go.
He broke the vacuum.
They all are neater in their own places then they were here.
Do you send out Christmas cards anymore?
A few students have brought me some.
Happy holidays written in big careful first year script.
I am excited about my bra-making workshop on Saturday.
I have made bras before but the teacher is funny.
After teaching all term I want to be taught.
My husband is going to be home two weeks at Christmas.
He can buy the turkey.
And walk the dogs.

Restorative therapy

2011-11-28T21:22:00.001-04:00

I am heading into my last week of classes and exams. I have had a good term and great students, but we have pretty much worn each other right out.

So I am lining up some restorative therapy for myself.

I know some women go to a spa and get wrapped up and steamed when they need restoring.

I did that once with my friend when we were at a convention in Vegas. We went to the day spa at the Hilton and ended up hysterical with the giggles the whole time because we, a couple of girls from Nova Scotia, had traveled all the way to the desert to get wrapped in seaweed. Made complete fools of ourselves in serious company so after we went out and had our fortunes told and then took our good pores out for Japanese food.

Off topic.

OK, some women go to a spa, or buy a nice bottle of wine and light candles. Not doing that because my husband has left me a case of his pretty-good homemade wine.

And those candles.

Do you ever wonder about those movies where they are in rooms or around bathtubs and there are about 400 candles already lit?

I mean usually it's some beautiful single mother entertaining Matthew McConaughey, and she has put her two year old to bed and she still has time to light all these candles before dinner.

Or it's Meg Ryan or somebody in a bath recovering from her sleazy husband's affair soaking away in a gorgeous bath with at least 500 candles in different sizes all lit around her bathroom.

You know just before the day where she shows someone her dress, this old thing I threw together, and they offer her a job as a head designer for Dior. So there sleazy husband.

OK, all I want to know is who lit all those candles? A single mother with a two year old? A woman who 20 minutes ago discovered she is dead broke and there never was pension fund after all?

How long do you think it takes them to light all those candles?

Who puts them out?

Where are they stored between crises or romantic evenings?

Under the sink? I want to know. The back of the linen closet? Down the basement?

Would you ask Matthew McConaughey to hold the two year old while you went down to the basement and got out all those candles from the shelf next to the Christmas decorations and that wreath that is mostly now only strands of glue gun glue and a few wobbly pine cones?

And don't they worry about fires?

On topic.

So this is why I am not soaking in bath surrounded by candles (and the combination of hot water and my husband's aged a full two week wine is probably not good for my blood pressure) and why I am not at a spa.

So instead I am restoring my soul with what I know will work for me when this week is over. This just arrived from Amazon:

And Saturday I am treating myself to a full day bra-making workshop.

It couldn't get any better than that.

Vogue 1137 Mom's version

2011-11-27T15:42:00.001-04:00

Having discovered what a cinch Vogue 1137 was to make I decided to use it for new, warm, housecoat for my Mom. She lives in Winnipeg, Winterpeg to those who were born there like I was, and a place where the police directing traffic used to wear long Buffalo coats, which must have weighed 800 pounds but certainly were warm.

Dressed for warmth in Winnipeg

In fact a famous Winnipegger went down in the Titanic in his Winnipeg Buffalo coat, probably was not the best for staying afloat when wet. Much like the wool bathing suit my own grandmother, also from Winnipeg, made me wear one summer to keep me "warm in the water." When the first wave hit me and I got wet I went down and I could hardly stand up.

That's wool for you, when wet.

Needless to say I went synthetic with my Mom's housecoat and used Polar Fleece. To make it easier for her to get in and out of I put in a long separating zipper. The front of this pattern is sort of overlapped at the front so it looks closed when you wear it, which I like. Just like the bust darts that give this a little shape.

I left off the dramatic cuffs because I thought they might get in her way. I cut the sleeves back a bit to make sure the really narrow part was gone so they are sort of 3/4 length, or 2/3 length, or 1/2 length now. My sister Nancy says if the sleeves turn out to be too short when Mom puts this thing on she will sew something on the bottom for me.

Actually my mother who is very short has been complaining for the past 50 years that all her sleeves are too long.

Be careful what you wish for.

Here it is:

The pockets are parallel I promise. This must be an optical illusion.

On to other Christmas present making - although this is going to be a hard act to follow.

The light at the end of the tunnel has red and green lights on it

2011-11-26T09:36:00.002-04:00

I am entering a new season.

My husband left for Tennessee yesterday and will be there until spring, with one week off a month during which he will come here or I will go there. He is astute enough to have integrated some fabric shopping and family visiting into this arrangement so I will be OK.

On the way down he stopped and visited his cousins in Boston on layover:

As photographed by a young member of the family.

Like nearly every Acadian (French) Nova Scotian family a bunch of them moved to New England at various stages for work, and even a generation or two later all come back to Nova Scotia frequently. The group you see here must come back to Isle Madame off the coast in Cape Breton four or five times a year at least and they were all born in the States. The same is true of my son-in-law's family and every Acadian family I know.

My dogs marked the first night we were batching it by being up every 1 and 1/2 hours to see if anything was new happening in the yard. We have a lot of wet snow and they didn't get a lot of exercise yesterday. I will be running their little paws off today - although they are now exhausted and passed out in the living room.

I have one more week of classes and then a term off where I do nothing by my own thing and work on building some online courses which I can do from my dining room table.

I figure this will be the first time in 24 years that I won't be dragging myself off to work somewhere in the winter. I am really looking forward to having some time to collect my thoughts and remember what I do when I don't have to do for anybody else.

This weekend I am free to sew, mostly finishing up Christmas presents, and having a friend over for dinner tonight where I am going to be serving her the easiest thing I can think of as possible.

BTW on Vogue 1137. I decided to make my mom a version for a housecoat - big pockets and separating zipper up the front, and I hope it works out. The thing with that pattern is that the sleeves are cut quite narrow below the biceps ( you might want to be careful about this and cut them wider for yourself.) I have tried it on about a fifty times and tried to recall how wide her arms are.

Off I go for a third coffee and to do some dog glaring.

Vogue 1137

2011-11-21T20:18:00.000-04:00

Here it is, a quick version of Vogue 1137. Pardon the lack of baseboards in the background, all part of the process.

And I have my arm in the air as part of my very clever sleeve display strategy.

OK, so how did I get here?

Every holiday folks show up in the morning before I am organized, or I sit around and do that present thing and later look at the pictures and think I didn't look completely or even partially organized in the old robe with jammies hanging out.

So I decided I needed to get more elegant. Only problem of course being that neither I nor my life are elegant, and I don't really have a lot of sewing time right now.

Enter Vogue 1137.

The issue before last Vogue Pattern magazine did a neat version of this pattern morphed by a clever staffer into a coat. Really clever, it also featured a skirt made out of a vintage apron pattern, which I can guarantee you is not an idea I would have ever thought of.

Anyway. I have been looking for a coat pattern that grabs me for a couple of seasons now-trouble is I have worn enough winter coats by now to have a picture in my mind of what I want, but am not seeing that same picture in the pattern books - so I had the idea that maybe I too could morph this pattern into an acceptable coat.

But as a coat uses up a lot of good expensive fabric I decided to make a muslinish out of something, and figured I could use some nice cotton velour I had hanging around, in a much richer blue than this picture shows, and kill two birds with one stone.

This is my verdict.

I like it.

I mean the sleeves are cut-on so there is not a lot of sewing, I used the collar as is (but left out the pockets because I ran out of fabric), lengthened it to accommodate tall me, and wacked in an invisible zipper down the centre front. The pattern is for no closures so this worked out fine without alterations.

I interfaced the cuffs and am currently under the delusion that the cuff detail lifts this velour housecoat into elegant territory. It certainly looks better than what I wore under the tree last year.

Will I make a winter coat out of this pattern?

No probably not.

The sleeves are a little narrow and the collar pretty close, great for a housecoat but not roomy enough for an overcoat, but my "muslin" is useful enough for me not to care.

Flypaper thoughts

2011-11-19T18:05:00.000-04:00

Finished my housecoaty thing.
I have a beautiful slip stitch.
Who decided cover-it-all loungers had to go out and unwrapping robes with bulky ties that make you look pregnant even when you are post menopausal had to come in?
I saw snow out my own window yesterday.
It melted but I know it is waiting.
Miss Scarlett told me I was a good girl.
Don't you think Demi Moore has to be happy she no longer has try to be younger than she really is any more?
She seems to have to come up with a new boob size for every man.
That's got to wear on you.
One month and a bit to Christmas.
Does anyone bake anymore?
Are there any old guys still left who eat fruit cake?
You don't think it was the fruit cake do you?
I am going to spend the next two weeks when the marking is done making home made presents.
I am going to spend the two weeks after that trying to find somethings I can buy that are the value of home made presents.
I have to find my Temptations Christmas CD somewhere.
I am getting myself the movie channel the minute that man leaves the house.
I think I am going to make a shocking pink velour lounger with a zipper up the front.
So there.
I think Demi should have one too.
Anyone have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that won't kill you. Whole wheat maybe?
If I am going to be making my own coffee in the a.m. for a bit there's going to be good self-care.
Particularly once it snows.

Love in Canada

2011-11-18T17:28:00.001-04:00

Here is what a loving mate in this part of the world says before they head off to the South for most of the winter:

"I'll miss you too, but guess what?"

"I got you a new snow shovel. Ergonomic, look at the handle on that sucker."

Back to marking.

Still here

2011-11-18T08:37:00.000-04:00

I want you to know I will be back to blogging and sewing when the dust settles around here.

The end of term paper marking crunch with the attendant meetings with amazed students who say things like "But I always got 90s without doing any work in high school" or "This mark has had a serious impact on my positive attitude to life".

And of course great work from most students. But it still all has to be marked.

Lots of life going around too. My last kid at home is getting ready to go out of province to a new job just after Christmas, little Heidi was down at Emerg with breathing problems after a cold (fine now) and my daughter's dog is now blind in one eye with a detached lens after a collision with a ball.

I have been caught up in classes so my husband has stepped in as usual to help everyone out. Helped son buy a truck, went over and walked the baby, and took Miss Scarlett to work with him two mornings this week to give my daughter a break.

Miss S was a big hit apparently in the Materials Lab and had quite a good time too at the courthouse where Poppa had to go for some business. And he has been cooking and bringing me dinner so I could mark.

Are you interested in this at all? Never sure if these details are totally boring or not, but feel if I am not sewing or posting I should let you know why, those of you who have been kind enough to follow this blog.

I really appreciate my husband. You see I didn't find him and marry him until I was 48 - with enough life experience to understand it's the quiet ones you have to watch. He has been so good for us.

Also I am feeling particularly appreciative because yes he is going away to Tennessee again this winter - although with a much improved schedule of three weeks away one week off. Some of those weeks off will be at home, the week before Christmas thank god and a week in January when we are moving his mom into the city to an apartment near us. Other trips will involve me on routes that will take me close to my NYC son and the garment district.

I have to tell you that negotiating a settlement for another winter apart was fairly time intensive - I was fine once I reorganized the whole idea in my head as "three weeks to sew without interruption followed by one week of fabric shopping."

It's all how you look at it, and how you can get it arranged in your mind.

I had a funny conversation too with my mother this week who was doing her annual round up called "How everybody turned out" which she does as a warm up to her annual outrageous Christmas letter - you know the one that forgets one person every year or explains her position on same sex marriage.

After reviewing everyone's lives she said to me that despite the challenges I have had on and of in my life like everyone else, she has never worried about me. I found this statement, from a professional worrier, interesting so I asked her why.

"Because you sew," she said. "You can always cheer yourself up."

Well how about that?

The best laid plans

2011-11-11T19:32:00.000-04:00

You know I did some sewing today after all. Interrupted by Another Flood.

I could hardly believe it when the waters started rising in the sewing room floor once again.

My side of the street has really taken a hit. My next door neighbour has had the remediation folks in there on two separate occasions lately - she has it all torn out and new floors put in and it happens again.

Fortunately for me I live with my remediation crew and lately he has been at home for all events. He had a sump running in the sewing room with a discharge hose running out into the bathtub in the downstairs bathroom. So we got through it alright.

There was nothing much I could do but I felt it would have been in really bad taste to be working on a 50's hostess gown style velour housecoat while he was sweating it out with the pails.

So I only cut out and stopped and then went to work on Christmas presents and made sure I made appreciative noises at the same time. I felt that was more virtuous and expressed my solidarity with someone being so useful.

Maybe better luck on all fronts tomorrow. I am convinced I'll look great walking around the new kitchen in this get up.

About today

2011-11-11T19:22:00.000-04:00

Karin pointed out that today is Armistice Day in the UK and what we call Remembrance Day here in Canada. Both days I suspect were designed to remember those who died in the world wars, unlike the American day which seems to me to include those who are still serving now.

A sensible inclusion I think.

So I hope I didn't offend anyone with my post yesterday about this being a day off.

Because I actually do remember.

Near me there is a neighbourhood where every street is named after a young man from town who died in World War II. I drive by there often and wonder about their mothers. How did a whole generation, several generations in fact, send all their sons away? I also take Miss Scarlett to a park named after a boy from the neighbourhood who died in Italy with a letter about this place, addressed to his mother in his hand.

I wonder if the park made her feel any comfort, I hope so.

In case you didn't know tomorrow is International take the day off day

2011-11-10T20:37:00.000-04:00

O.K. enough with the life getting in the way.

Yes I had a flood, yes my house has been productively ~~trashed~~ renovated. Yes I have 120 hysterical first year students this term. Yes my husband may be away again this winter. Yes Christmas is on its way and all my projects for other people are only at the mental sewing stage. Yes I have neglected my blog for reasons above.

We are turning the page tomorrow folks with International take the day off and be totally irresponsible day with the full potential to be the first day of the rest of my life.

You see the flooring guys are coming tomorrow to put in floor in the kitchen and hall and points in between. I have decided that the only safe place for the dogs and I is going to be down in the semi put together sewing room.

I am getting up at 7:00 am, packing snacks, taking the iPad and the boys and am heading down there for the duration. I have a bathroom down there and if the boys feel the urge I am passing them out the window.

You might think I am joking about this. You should know better by now.

My lack of sewing lately has worn away at my nerve endings.

I have a few Christmas projects to work on but my main event is going to be a housecoat in navy velour from this Vintage pattern:

Vogue pattern magazine last issue did an outstanding feature on using vintage patterns in updated ways and I was truly inspired.

So I am doing this longer, closed at the front with a zipper.

This is project is part of an approach to life I am thinking about.

You see the bug top was fine for a black tie one off but it's my family and myself who see me most in my day-to-day clothes. Around Christmas for example, and hell if my husband goes away again and its me and the dogs at night in the sewing room or knitting on the bed with our Ovaltine and CNN, myself by myself, why shouldn't I dress up for that?

I mean whatever happened to hostess gowns? To robes that were non ratty enough to talk to people in, in person not just on the phone.

I am channeling my considerable inner Doris Day. We will see how that turns out.

All in the family (but children of mine don't read this)

2011-11-06T10:20:00.000-04:00

Time for a visual update. My renovations and flood recovery are continuing. The system seems to be that for every thing that gets added, one thing gets taken down. Like a wall.

All of which is good. I am amazed at the space hidden all these years in my house, consumed in awkward corners and unnecessary built-ins. I feel the house can breathe now, despite the disruption.

Here are the kitchen cupboards up and my contractor getting the floor ready for the floor guys this week.

Tons needs to happen but this is really starting to look great. All due to my husband's hard labour in the evenings and weekends, not to mention the disaster relief he has provided downstairs.

An unusual bit of news though was that his company would really like him to go back to Tennessee again until the spring. Stay tuned on that one, currently my circuits are overloaded at the thought.

Which means of course I have gone into creative retreat until I understand what's going on.

I am aware that December 25th is on next month's calendar and I have started to go into high gear on my Christmas projects. My own vision for the holidays sees me relaxing with a glass of wine and some baking in a nice living room once classes are over - not locked in the bathroom trying to finish knitting socks like last year until 3:00 a.m.

Once the Tennessee rumour started (not that I don't love TN but I would rather be there than get calls from there) I headed down to the sewing room and the few cleared surfaces and started three pairs of pajamas for my daughter using the excellent Jalie pattern she loves and which has unfortunately been discontinued. If I don't get recruited to help with the leaves today these will be more or less finished by supper:

No idea why this shot is off kilter except that this is consistent

I have also, thanks to Herman Cain (you are sooo lucky I am not writing a political blog) and other news stories, been able to get considerable work done on a son's sweater. Am still figuring out what to say to the other son who also wants a sweater - god I hope I am not heading back to bathroom knitting.

And finally the best for last. Here are my girls, Scarlett and her new sister Miss Heidi at Hallowe'en. Miss Scarlett in her pink dog suit done to her specs:

Now off for leaf avoidance.

Question for you

2011-11-03T20:47:00.001-03:00

I feel really bad about not posting, but life has been dense.

OK, the update.

I was definitely the only person who wore a bug suit at the event last night. A couple of people even told me that they couldn't believe I made my outfit. I am sure they were being honest.

The high point for me of the whole black tie event though was seeing my students. Some of them were working as servers, some where on the door. I had a moment just while I was leaving when one girl found me in the hall by the coat check and said " Come here give me a hug" and she told me that I had given her confidence to be herself. That meant so much to me.

Is there anything we can do as adult women that is more important than giving a young girl faith in herself? What a protection that is from what we adult women know really lies ahead.

I want to tell you a story.

I once had an important job. Good salary, great pension, fancy title, etc.

Well then one of my sons graduated from high school and I went to the ceremony. I had one of those moments standing in the auditorium and I looked at the graduating class and I looked at the teachers and I thought, their lives have been worthwhile, their work goes on to the future. And at that moment I knew I should have been a teacher, like my dad who left a good profession and went into the high school classroom.

You know when my dad died we had to put speakers on the outside of the church so all the kids who were standing in the street could hear.

Well the universe noticed and let me be a teacher too,

What matters in life?

There is a lot should have mattered to me that didn't. In the end all that really matters to me is young people and my sewing. And looking at other women who sew and really seeing who they are. Does that matter?

Does it matter that when I see someone's mother, some women in jeans and a hundred obligations. Some woman with a few extra pounds with a to-do list from last week, and so many people asking her to be someone - that I can see a focus on a bound buttonhole, on those pants that finally, after twenty years of trying that really fit, that I can see someone there really trying.

I notice.

That, in my bug suit, is who I am and what I see,

Sewing is the spirit man, sewing is the spirit.

New Look 6051 bug suit

2011-10-30T12:06:00.001-03:00

After a very fun sewing day with my local guild in a church basement I was able to produce this version of New Look 6051. It is sort of a poncho thing in bug fabric as part of my some-old-little-black-dress disguise.

No doubt some of you are going to look at this and think "is she crazy enough to be wear that?"and I can only answer, yes I am.

Of course on the night I will wear proper jewelry and deal with the hair somewhat, but for the purposes intended this is fine with me. Question for you though. You can see the grey coming in here. I decided to let my colour go in the hope that it would be good for my fine-thin-disappearing hair, make it thicker maybe or healthier, but is this a good or bad or useless idea?

Next. Back to the sewing:

Technical notes are :

1. No, the pattern did not call for an asymmetrical hem. You can achieve this exact same look in the privacy of your own sewing room by sewing the waistline elastic on crooked. Not that hard to do if you concentrate.

2. The pattern called for two button holes in the front, as waistline casing and a drawstring. I did not do any of this. Reasons- I am not so crazy as to do buttonholes in chiffon. And there is a local to this location policy, to never put details over our stomach.

Also zig-zagging on elastic on the inside was fastest, even faster if you do it crookedly. That's a tip.

So you see I am almost back under control here, and if there is any doubt here is a candid shot of my contractor/husband, entertaining me. And no I did not put his head through the wall. ~~Tempted... Not really.~~

What a guy, you can see why I married him.

Back in business

2011-10-28T21:52:00.000-03:00

OK.

The house situation is not much improved yet, and there have been a few events - like the time today when a demolition 2X4 flew across the room and hit me in the leg. Big bruises and sitting on the bed with ice and complaints that only some online fabric shopping would make up for the duress ...etc.

As a result my dear husband put together my sewing room for me which now is the only really organized space in the house and all that really that matters.

And tomorrow I am going AWOL and joining a sewing guild splinter group at a local church basement to sew for the whole day.

Let's talk about that Black Tie Bingo.

It is a charity event where people get dressed up and are handed daubers and a bunch of people who have never been in a Bingo Hall in their lives laugh nervously and try to figure out their cards. I am going as an invitee at a table bought by the local gaming agency ( think State Lottery Corp. if you are in the US) because I know some folks who now work there. It is actually the only serious table at these events - that's one table where you don't have to explain the odds or the rules of the game to anyone.

Now what to wear. I have more or less given up on whipping together one of those nifty Vogue patterns due to present conditions, so I am reverting to Plan B.

Plan B is my standard wool crepe Little Black Dress, except I refuse to wear it as a standard issue. I can tell you right now that if there are going to be 400 women at this event 398 will be wearing black dresses with pearls, and the other two are new hires in club outfits.

And I have a general rule about dress-up clothes and this is it.

Never spend more sewing time than the event itself.

Two hour cocktail party - two hour unlined dress.

Six hour wedding - six hour rendition of a TNT in fancier fabric.

You get my drift.

Now factor in no time to sew at all.

I figure that what I should do is some kind of poncho thing or a trendy whatever to disguise the same-old-LBD.

This is my pattern, I am ashamed to say I bought a pattern for this as I could have figured it out. If I wasn't out of time and recently under water.

I have bought a sort of chiffon with little sparkly eyelashes on it in dots ( if I wasn't tired I would show you) and tomorrow I will see if works at the sew-in day.

I showed the fabric to Miss Scarlett, who was over here this afternoon, and she looked at it and said " I like your bug material Babs. Are you going to have a beautiful bug face for your party?'

She was under the impression that this was a Hallowe'en costume.

But then again she is only two.

But now I am worried. The girls at the sewing guild splinter group with give it to me straight I know.

If all else fails I can wear it for the Trick or Treaters. We usually have hundreds and hundreds of kids. Our street is a long one on a hill and I swear parents from all over the city bring their children to the bottom of our street, drop them off, and then wait at the top of the hill.

More later, with pictures I hope.

What sort of eye shadow does a beautiful bug wear?

My internet has been soggy

2011-10-25T20:53:00.000-03:00

I feel bad about not posting, something I really enjoy, but conditions have not been ideal around here.

I told you were were gutting/replacing the kitchen, which turned into tearing out most of the ground floor. Well that involved moving everything downstairs.

And then downstairs went under water.

Along the way we lost internet too - so I have been a person without a sewing room, without internet, and with all her patterns more or less like an old newspaper someone left out in the rain.

I am not complaining (and to those of you who were nice enough to pm me, I haven't been able to get back to you, but will now try to) and in fact I am OK about all of this. Since I am fairly used to chaos, having caused a lot of it my own self in this life I am sure.

The thing is though that when things get too much I generally regroup by going down to my sewing room to look things over - and well that option is not available to me now.

Here are the pictures:

Birthday flowers from my daughter- so much appreciated in all the mess

When the water is rising you just throw things to high ground - not an ideal work environment at present.

The emergency drainage hole that was put into my sewing room floor, after the floor was taken out in a huge rush and thrown out the window. Noticed DH posted a comment taking issue with my description that this was just a hole in the floor - apparently it is much more than that. He didn't want my readers to think he breaks concrete floors for any other than strategic reasons.

This used to be my downstairs bathroom floor - the water was shooting up this drain like a geyser.

Enough about me.

On the sewing front I will be making Miss Scarlett her "beautiful pink dog suit" tomorrow night after work on the kitchen counter.

She needs a lift.

She has adjusted to the new baby sister very well if you don't count the only wearing one yellow rubber boot and a diaper to eat dinner, the "DON"T LOOK AT ME" comments and the fact she has developed a lisp from trying to talk with a soother in her mouth "JUST LIKE A BABY" even though she never had one when she actually was a baby.

Oh, to be a mother of a two year old again - not sure if all my stories that my daughter, Miss Scarlett's mother, and her brothers, were far, far worse are all that helpful. Grandmothers think things like the boot and the soother are hilarious particularly if they can go home to their nice orderly quiet home to sew.

That is if they had a nice quiet orderly home with an intact sewing room in it.

One last thing.

I have an invite to a black tie thing next week - and I can see my box of fancy fabric - but I can't get at it. I would have to climb over the dehumidifier and two shop vacs to get it and if I slipped I would fall down the Useful Hole in the Floor. I have fabric in there that has been waiting years for a chance to play Black Tie Bingo (OK it sounded classier before I told you about the Bingo part).

Maybe next year.

But don't for a minute think I am not sewing up marvelous things in my head.

What is plan B?

2011-10-20T22:04:00.001-03:00

Flypaper thoughts:

Storm today, road washed out.
Sewing room under 6 inches of water.
Husband got home from work just in time to lift machines and fabric to safety.
Tomorrow is my birthday.
My mom sent me a Home Depot gift card.
Good thing.
Each son has asked for a sweater for Christmas.
I have a feeling they mean Christmas this year.
Last time we drove from Nova Scotia to Tennessee I knit two dish cloths and one sock.
They have to be kidding.
However my sewing room is under water.
I have to stop talking to the TV.
What's with those Viagra type commercials where the couple are suddenly transported to two bathtubs where they start to hold hands?
I have three children and I have never held hands in twin bathtubs.
And I am not going to start.
The minister of finance is taking me out for lunch tomorrow.
I knew him before this happened.
Knowing him it's going to be separate checks.
My husband had to take a sledge hammer to the concrete floor in my sewing room to make a place for the water to drain out.
So far it has just filled up with water again.
Now the floor has to be fixed.
The dogs want to know why they haven't been taken out for a walk.
Dog pee is a highly effective solvent on floor tile glue.
Just so you know.
I have just eaten two chocolate cherry blossoms.
Thank god.
I mean that.
So far I have cast on one sweater.
That's it for today.
Try again tomorrow.

Technical notes Butterick 5533

2011-10-18T07:18:00.000-03:00

Here are my thoughts on this pattern.

I like the jacket.

I am glad I made it and will wear it a lot. It's corduroy as the pattern suggested, despite the bulk of the many top-stitched pleats at the back, it isn't too puffy as I had feared.

Of course the back detail will date a bit. It is sort of the last vestiges of the empire look but because it's in the back I am hoping not quite as distinctly that. For the couple of years I will probably wear this to death I think it is more interesting than a simple camp coat would be.

It felt odd to be working in corduroy. I can't remember the last time I sewed this fabric. To me it is sort of a fabric from my past. When we were kids my grandmother and mother used to make us spring and fall jackets out of this stuff, lined with flannel to go with the corduroy pants we wore for our entire childhoods. It's tough stuff and actually so easy to sew like all cottons.

I have written before, and won't rave again, on the dumbness of a pattern that is obviously a warm type jacket without included pattern pieces for lining. I made my own in the easiest way possible out of Kasha lining - you know satin stuff on one side and flannel on the other. It is Nova Scotia after all and the leaves are turning.

Here is my cheater lining technique:

1. Cut out one of everything but the collar in lining. I bagged and lined the pockets.

2. Because of the large back piece with all those pleats I didn't want to trap and pull that with a straight lining so I trimmed about 12" from the centre back and made what is still a large box pleat in the lining piece that attaches to the yoke. Here is a bright picture:

3. I turned under the long unnotched edge of the facing and top-stitched that to the front lining pieces to save myself the thinking time of calculating the seam allowances to connect the two. This added two layers of bulk to the facing area but I don't mind that - just beefed up the interfacing and actually gives the front nice support.

4. I have bagged linings a million times but don't do that much anymore. I find the lining shifts a bit and I have to sometimes pull the sleeves down or worse the sleeve linings seem too short and hike up the sleeves a bit. So here I stitched the sleeve lining by machine to the armhole seam allowances and slip stitched the bottom of the lining to the inside of the sleeve hem so I could control the ease of the lining. I made a box pleat of the sleeve lining at the top of the sleeve cap to deal with the ease.

5. I stitched the lining/facing body unit in after having machine hemmed it. Of course the lining takes the place of the back neck facing and it is neat.

6. I then turned under and slip stitched the seam allowances of the lining body around the sleeve top. I realize most instructions that have you sew the lining in around the sleeve top have you do this in a different way - machine stitch the body to the armhole and then slipstitch in the sleeve top but I don't like doing this. You have to ease in the sleeve cap with hand stitches etc. and that requires care and thinking - so much easier to deal with the straight body raw edges.

So that's the lining, and it works.

Only other caution I would note about this pattern is that the sleeves are surprisingly narrow at the wrists. It was OK for me because I felt this would make the jacket warmer (and again where are the lining pieces?) but you might want to check this for individual fit. Also one view of this pattern shows the shaped sleeve bottoms rolled up like a cuff and they are too short to do this. I had to do what is shown in other views and have them down to make this sleeve long enough.

If you want a cuff, add.

Finally there is a fair bit of weight at the back with those pleats so shoulder fit is important if you want to be comfortable. If you typically do a straight or sloped shoulder adjustment make sure you do it here.

That's it. A very practical, slightly stylish, probably date stamped garment that is perfect for the casual side of my life.

Butterick 5533 quick shots

2011-10-16T21:31:00.001-03:00

Here is this jacket:

Now on me in the yard in jeans grabbing dogs and not doing the leaves as intended:

I am not really styled here, unless you count wind and dogs, but this is a lined corduroy jacket and this is exactly how I will be wearing it.

I will write some detailed technical notes tomorrow (got a few assignments to mark before I go to bed) and there are definitely some thoughts I would like to pass on with some detail shots, for the benefit of anyone else who might want to make this.

I have one other thing I would like to share tonight.

I got a long detailed email over the weekend from the woman who was my first important boss. She is now 80 and her email was full of her activities and the long list of people she was driving, buying groceries for, supervising their healthcare, visiting, moving, packing and unpacking. It made me tired to just read it.

This woman never married and had a great career where she totally micro-managed us. She once sent me out to buy new panty hose in the middle of the day because the shade I had on were not the right match for my dress. I kid you not.

She was also the first person we called at midnight one night when a group of us had gone out to socialize/dinner and had left an industrial prototype (one of two sent to North America for testing from the factory in Europe) in a car in the parking lot - where it was stolen - undoubtedly by a competitor - and she actually, somehow, managed to keep the bunch of us from being fired. I would have fired us.

This woman was, and is, a powerhouse.

Reading her email this weekend, and seeing how she has moved from a very useful work life to a very useful retired life, I had an insight and this is it:

It is really important how you spend the older half of your life. It is your one chance to show that you paid any attention at all in the first half, that you did more than just let it all go by. How you are when you are older is your best demonstration that you didn't just have things happen to you, you learned from it.

When you are older, and how you do it, really is your evidence of your life's work.

And doing it in a red jacket is probably a good idea too.

More on this pattern later.

On the issue of quickie

2011-10-15T20:28:00.001-03:00

Right now I don't have enough time to sew and it is getting on my nerves.

You, of all people, know what I mean.

The sewing I have also been able to sneak in has involved a lined jacket - not a hard project - but involved and slow. It should be done tomorrow and there will be pictures up. Most definitely.

Carolyn and Debbie Cook have talked about the concept of a quick project and that has really been resonating with me.

You know there was a time when I traced Burda lined jackets and made them. When I made those fully lined wool suits for work. And I didn't mess them up.

But somehow along the line, the line that involved a more complicated life with harder jobs and with older kids who do things like have new babies and two year olds and need help, I need to sew in tighter circles. From concept, to execution, to my back in a day or two or over a weekend. I like to have an idea on Friday and wear it to work on Monday. And then on to the next thing.

What's happened to me and my sewing?

I have a confession to make.

I often look at the blogs of other super sewers - folks making muslins of tricky jackets, under-lining with china silk, and hand basting the hell out of every thing, and I wonder if I have lost my game, if I should try harder.

But I think there is a little bit of balance here. I did my achievement sewing more in the days when I was home full-time with kids and trying to match socks and trying to find a supper all participants would eat. At that time in my life my sewing represented some kind of quality work.

Now, when my day job requires more out of me, I want to sew to try a new pattern. To have something fresh to wear maybe, but mostly just for a few hours of having fun, fooling around.

You know I don't think that my ability to sew complicated stuff has left me as much as my life has broadened a bit. In some ways, I don't know how else to say this, I just don't feel I have anything to prove, to myself in particular.

So that damn jacket is going in the out basket tomorrow. Then I am making a "beautiful pink dog suit" as requested for Miss Scarlett, I am going to get going on a Christmas present for one of my kids (no further details in case anyone family member reads this), and then I think I am just going to get up on my weekend mornings, go down to the sewing room and see what I feel like at that particular moment.

These days that's how I sew.

How about you?

Flypaper thoughts

2011-10-14T08:41:00.000-03:00

Here we go this rainy morning:

Sometimes your life is about you, sometimes it's about other people.
Good to be who they call.
You can still sew in your head.
Woke up wanting a plaid skirt, first time I have had this thought since grade seven.
Being a good parent is doing yourself out of a job.
Someone told me that in a Boston playground 25 years ago.
Doubt if my son can take is dog with him when he goes off to the new job in Newfoundland.
Will have to choose my moment to ask my husband how he feels about driving to Florida with a barking fox terrier and a Border Collie running in circles in the back seat.
Someone has to herd the luggage.
Maybe later.
After I tell him I have invited my entire family to take turns joining us on vacation.
Maybe I space this out.
Had a meeting with Successful People yesterday but was late because I ran into students on the steps.
Decided the only difference between being young and old is the amount you laugh.
Consider this seriously.
Facebook makes my head explode.
Politicians, relatives, students, and professors all want to be my friends.
My worlds collide.
Facebook is no place to push your latest book, article, campaign, or social commentary.
See laughing above.
All I want to read the BVM posts so I don't miss a garment or a sale.
And see baby pictures.
If I defriend you don't take it personally.
Why do the pattern companies even publish jacket and coat patterns they call "unlined."
Who would ever make an unlined wool coat and be happy with it.
After they stood up after having sat down.
If I didn't need to be warm I wouldn't need a jacket or coat.
Why do they give multi-sized and multi-cup patterns but no lining pieces?
It is a pain to draft these myself.
Why not include the lining pattern pieces and say "If you don't want to add a lining don't use these pieces."
I still haven't had my pattern instruction writing job offer come in yet.
I want to get up early and go to the market downtown to buy fresh collards.
The deal is I can have company if we ride the motorcycle.
Seems fair.
Where do you start with a student who thinks Wikipedia is an scholarly source and People magazine is a journal?
I am letting my hair go grey.
The students are helping me with this.
I figure if I wear enough lipstick I should be OK.
Colleague at work said her hair is a lot thicker since she stopped dyeing.
Worth a try.
I have to get my knit on if I am going to get even half what I want done by Christmas.
Is it possible to knit on the back of a motorcycle.
While raking leaves.
While doing the dishes.
While marking papers.
Walking dogs.
Plan B is to go to bed early and watch the news.
Good thing the US election has these super long campaigns.

Pattern thoughts

2011-10-08T14:25:00.000-03:00

Life is settling down, more on that later in flypaper thoughts; right now I have groceries on the counter waiting to be put away. It's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend.

So of course I am blogging about patterns.

Two bits of news.

Brenson patterns has an interesting concept called Shirt Club patterns. Basically it means all components in this line are interchangeable whenever possible. I have been meaning to investigate these patterns for a while now because that seems like a cool idea.

I will be starting soon. This month I won a pattern from Bren for leaving a comment on her blog. I am really looking forward to seeing how this pattern works and possibly exploring more. I will keep you posted.

Also on my radar is this new Jalie bra pattern.

I already make my own bras with Bra-Makers supply Classic Bra pattern and I won't be going back to store bought again. For the first time in my life I have the lift I need and am very comfortable.

However nearly every bra pattern out there has a seamed cup and there are just some garments, like knits, that won't work with.

So this makes the new Jalie pattern intriguing to me. However as a D cup I really wondered if it would give any kind of decent support. To give insight into this good old Jalie has provided some real women shots of ladies with different cup sizes on the site. You go look and decide for yourself.

I am definitely going to be running this bra pattern, and the Brenson shirt pattern, through the Babs Pattern Testing Laboratory in the very near future.

Jacket BTW is mostly done, just needs lining and buttonholes.

More on that later, the counter calls.

I will be back soon

2011-10-05T20:55:00.000-03:00

It's been a busy last three days - here is what has happened in that time frame around here:

Miss Scarlett has a new sister, Heidi, born this morning. Great delivery, perfect baby.
I slept over to take care of Miss S. Went into her room this morning "Hi Babs, you are wearing jammies, cool."
My middle son is now in NYC and loving it.
2.5 hour plane ride.
My youngest son has had a job offer in Newfoundland.
1.5 hour plane ride.
My sister was hospitalized with a serious heart issue - turned out not to be that, more tests.
Tech person at school moved my online midterm out of my section by mistake. They then moved the final back in instead by mistake.
45 students wrote a test on material I haven't taught them.
45 students assuring me they studied for weeks and would have got 100% on the right test and would like me to take that into account.
My kitchen cupboards are in and I have no idea how to use the storage space I have been waiting 20 years for.
My mom fell out of bed and really hurt herself. Still cheerful as hell as per usual though.
I made significant progress on my corduroy jacket - ran down to the sewing room when I could for stress relief.
Made a substantial contribution to the financial stability of Fabricmart as I felt I needed further stress relief.
Little Heidi is perfect. Just perfect.

Those new Vogues

2011-10-01T14:08:00.000-03:00

I have been waiting for new patterns to think about and almost missed out on the notice for the latest batch - they went into my Spam folder! Made me wonder if Someone has been fiddling with my computer.

I must confess that there was less here that I immediately want to sew - correction - less here than suits my life right now.

Of course many of these are holiday dresses and I am not sure if I will need one that fancy this year. My school does just a lunch, but my husband's company used to have a big black tie affair and it was always worth dressing up for that. However they have recently been bought out, by a very good company, but one with clearly different priorities. The social committee has been disbanded and I am hearing very non-black tie words like "voucher".

It's not looking good brocade-wise.

It seems like most of my holiday dressing is going to involve aprons not ball gowns, and I am going to be spending more time walking in the hall at my daughter's trying to get a burp up than on the dance floor.

So although there are several evening dresses I would like to make, I am not sure I will have anywhere to wear them. Strapless, I seem to remember, doesn't work so well with burp spit ups.

That said there are a few I am considering be putting into the old online cart, and a few I would have sewn, and here they are:

I usually don't do the oversize thing but this is a white shirt and would work with my narrow pants and maybe a skirt - I will probably negotiate a length between the short and the long version, but will not be doing the diaper thing at the back unless I try it and it surprises me.

This dress I like, and would use some of my double-knit collection unless I find some suede I like. I remember these blouson dresses from early in my career, but what I can't remember is if they suited me or not. I will ponder this for a really long time. What do you think?

Now these two I would sew if my life changes:

Evening suits are a good idea. Good for those times you have to do a work function at night, like a fundraising dinner and someone corporate has bought a table and you get asked at the last minute because who they really invited cancelled, and you need to look evenesque but not sleazy. I am also thinking through how this might look in a wool or something (subtle colour block - greys and black?). It has potential and if I were more creative I would see what that was.

Finally:

I completely love this and am sure it is not me, except maybe in personality. To wear this I need someone to organize an evening wedding where there is a major cocktail thing going on and good music and I can dance until I am the last person left. This is a completely a dancing dress, and definitely the kind of thing you wear only once. But still worth it. It does not have "voucher-from-work" written all over it however.

So that's it. What did I miss?

Sewing presents

2011-09-30T07:58:00.000-03:00

I think I mentioned last time that I make a lot of my Christmas gifts. Primarily because if I make it folks are too polite to say anything except it's wonderful, and secondly because I find that whole stores-at-Christmas thing so depressing. Carts piled high with weird stuff and and Visas being handed over with slight pauses.

It's not so much that kind of world these days.

In my early morning cruising with coffee this morning I came across this site which has collection of interesting small pattern companies, many of which I didn't know.

It's another interesting reflection of the new sewing world of young mothers. The Etsy girls - good basic sewing skills who are adding in a lot of personal creativity in that place where many of the rest of us invested our time in carefully reading instruction sheets. The projects are easy and, considering the demographic, highly focused on bags, aprons, and children's gear.

It seemed to me this morning that if you have a huge gift list like I do, some of these patterns might be good for knocking off some quick projects.

I was particularly taken for example by this applique whole cloth quilt, which since I am not a quilter, has huge appeal. Looked to me like something my kids would go for:

What do you think?

Finishing up

2011-09-29T08:06:00.001-03:00

How about that.

I finished my son's shirts and since he arrived home last night, gave them to him. They fit fine, looked great in fact and he said he would wear them to work.

Of course I don't have pictures. He is staying over at Miss Scarlett's. I have to start taking my camera with me and will see if I can corner him for shots before he goes.

He is a sharp dresser and like most men particular about what he wears. Have you noticed that? Even if all a guy wears is T shirts and white tube socks they still will have very specific ideas about what tube socks and what T shirts. It's incredible. You have to get it right. I find that takes more focus than I have sometimes and also because this son is my only one away I like to do an excellent job with anything from me he takes away with him. I want him to always know his mom is thinking about him.

So last night when he told me the shirts were great I immediately said "I will make you more" while my daughter dug me in the ribs and whispered "what are you talking about those shirts nearly killed you." Of course I will make more but fortunately am out of great shirt fabric right now.

I am about to enter my season of making-things-for-other-people with the holidays coming up. I have found that as kids get older they appreciate things that are made for them more. In my case this is going to involve tons of knitting and some more sewing.

So before that hits I am going to finish off a few odds and ends.

Here is one of them, a dog walking jacket I still have cut out from last year. I have this in corduroy, as suggested, and will be highly surprised if it works at all with all those pleats in the back. But I knew I needed a camp coat type thing but wanted something more campy for my walks every night in the woods with those crazy dogs. The woods BTW that are full of deer this time of year. We see 6-8 white tailed deer every night and I really think I should dress for the occasion.

Here's my pattern, and I will construct this over the next few days when I should be doing other things. What do you think?

My mojo is high this morning, too bad I have to go off to work.

Testing, testing

2011-09-27T07:48:00.000-03:00

I have one of my son's shirts now done. Beautiful fabric from Michaels. I am going to try to get the other one's plackets unpicked today after work and that whole one done before he leaves for NYC on Sunday.

My husband is walking around saying "only two more days to that baby," Miss Scarlett toilet-trained herself yesterday, my dishes are still on the bed in the spare room, and I am washing my pots in the laundry room. I have deadlines at work and need to get in there shortly.

So of course the first thing on my mind is sewing.

It should be of no surprise to anyone that many of my best ideas go nowhere.

For instance I had this brilliant idea that I would test and report on a variety of basic sewer's sewing machines (as opposed to the fly-me-to-the-moon kind). I even sent off a few emails to some of the companies and offered my astute services.

So far not even an "are you nuts?" back. Hope is dimming on this project. I may even be forced to sew some white shirts.

I love testing things and even have some experience.

Years ago, when my kids were little, Threads had me test scissors.

A big box of a gazzillion scissors came to the house and we had three happy days cutting things up.

It was a riot. My middle guy, then about eight, was particularly good and by day two was saying things like " Good weight in the hand, nice grip, good points." We stopped testing when someone tried to pink the living room rug and filed our report.

I contend I gave those kids a wonderful childhood. Even though I was once toasted at a wedding as the "mother who made the best Hallowe'en costumes and the worst lunches."

Which reminds me I better make mine.

Flypaper a.m.

2011-09-25T10:19:00.000-03:00

Here we go again, blogging when I should be cleaning.

My DC-then London-almost NYC son is coming home for a few days this week en route.
Time to finish those shirts I have been working on for 1.5 years
Why did I put those sleeve plackets on backwards in the spring?
I wasted an hour of sewing time researching cognitive degeneration on the internet.
Where is that really good seam ripper?
You know the one with the dog tooth marks on the handle.
Who decided to replace the chocolate bar dispenser at work with energy bars?
Shouldn't there have been a vote about that?
At 4:00 p.m. a girl needs Mr. Hershey.
I offended the medical profession this week.
Felt bad about that, particularly about those who also sew.
My husband says the new baby is coming this week.
He went into a trance while doing the dry-wall and predicted.
My sewing guild has just changed the Sewing with a Plan Group to a just-finish-something group.
We are all happy about that.
I want a new sewing machine.
I don't care about embroidery, 500 stitches, memory, mirroring or advanced anything. Just give me a nice stitch and a Reliable Buttonhole.
That costs less than it would take to convert this house to solar energy.
I would have done the shirts earlier if my buttonholes were trustworthy.
My current machine is a former top-of-the-line.
I am no longer going to my hairdresser of 20 years.
I have changed up from someone who says "Oh god what can we do?" to someone who pats my shoulder and says "you have a very nice personality."
Why did I wait this long?
Dogs can smile.