Barbara's Useful SWAP part two

The second blouse I have made from the Jane over-shirt from StyleArc is this one with my Liberty cotton lawn:

There is not a lot to add about the construction, except that I added the split cuff treatment from the StyleArc Sasha shirt to finish the 3/4 sleeves. I have sort of given up totally on full length sleeves. My hands are always busy and the sleeves are always rolled up so it makes sense to just start out that way.

Also I never use any kind of back neck facing on a blouse. Those are just nuisance units in my opinion that never quite fit, always flip up, and look lumpy from the outside since they are usually interfaced. I even find a bound seam a little bulky.

This seems to me to be a big price to pay to finish the little bit of back neck seamline. So even though I try to do quality work every where else I always just serge this seam. I made this decision when I saw that the first shirt I did this on, a 20 year old camp shirt that I put on every summer and my family always says "Mom when are you going to stop wearing that shirt?", has a serged back neck seam and has aged better than I have.

I also find that serge finishing this curved seam keeps in some flexibility that doesn't fight the roll of the collar, which is good.

My other comment on this blouse is that the fabric is terrific. You don't get much real cotton lawn anymore - this quality stuff is much different from just cheap thin fabric - and I am astounded by the fact this blouse neither wrinkles or weighs much at all.

I did some scientific testing holding the blouse in one hand and various other objects in the other and my calculation is this blouse weighs about the same as a 1000 m spool of Gutermann thread. 

This would make an ideal travel piece for hot weather, you could pack it in a change purse, and would be perfect say if you were going on safari and needed something you could rinse in a camp sink and wear the next morning. 

Since I am unlikely to be going on safari this term I note it would also work well for trips to the garment district and meals in the East Village that leave the kinds of exotic stains you know you have to rinse out right away before they set.

Which is a lead in to my next top. 

I am really happy about this one which I am calling my Zany top for obvious reasons and because I am well past needing what looks like a maternity top.

The problem is I used a blue washable marker to mark the pocket placements and it didn't really come out. So of course I went on the www this morning and armed myself with all possible hints:

And it looks like the vinegar may have done the trick.

My husband once pointed out that 110% of all household hints involve either vinegar or baking soda which is true.

I am hopeful I can get this top done before next year.

While I sew I am going to be doing some thinking. 

Plans for next year (again person mentioned above says I don't really plan as much as scheme, which is actually fairly perceptive) and what to write about to respond to some much appreciated blog award nominations.

I have to write things no one knows about me and since I  a) am not that complicated b) think I have said it all here, I will have to think what those things are. Unless you have some questions I can answer.

Now off to hold this top front to the light at the window and see if I have to move onto rubbing alcohol and dishwasher detergent.

Pattern correction

Donna has pointed out I made a mistake when I referred to the blouse pattern as Annie, in fact it is Jane (knew it was a basic name) and here is the link.

Barbara's Useful SWAP part one

For those of you who aren't following these things I am joining in this year's Stitcher's Guild Sewing With a Plan venture - doing the 11 units - six tops, four bottoms and a jacket.

With it being dark and gloomy outside, and cold, with a storm coming in tonight I decided to start off with a bright pink linen shirt.

Nothing in my SWAP is exciting - this is entirely an exercise in wearable clothes for ordinary day wear.

I used a version of the Annie StyleArc blouse, eliminating the yokes as I was short on fabric and for the same reason making short sleeves. What I like most about this pattern is the nice collar/neckline. Also as a gesture to speed sewing, and the less fitted look of the new blouses this coming season (based on the new patterns and more significantly what I am noticing on the Spring collections on Style.com), this is pretty basic and boxy.

Because it was such an easy project I decided to do some wing needle stitching around the collar and sleeve hems.

This is a super easy treatment that works very well in linen. 

Basically all you need is the most simple of reverse action "stretch" stitches (one in which the needle goes in the hole more than once doing that annoying super slow stitching thing) or an "heirloom" decorative stitch that operates the same way on your machine. The stitch I used on my Pfaff looks like a line of small vertical crosses.

On the hem of the blouse I used a plain needle and a reverse action straight stitch and made my buttonholes with the cross-stitch stretch version.

All this minimally fancy stitching was done with a rayon thread, because, well, I found some when I was cleaning out my sewing room on the floor. 

I have decided to just do mostly dressmaker dummy shots of my SWAP garments until I am finished. As opposed to the regular live dummy shots.

Here is the finished blouse and the details:

Now onto the next blouse. Same pattern, my Liberty fabric. A few more days off and I am going to indulge myself as much as I can in staying cozy and sewing before the deluge hits me work.

I was the one who had a great Christmas

Hi folks. Hope you had a great holiday.

We had a lot of sickness around here. In the end all colds and aches proceeded to stomach viruses and everyone went down but me. 

The little girls and I were really the only ones who were on deck on the day so I made the dinner (with my spouse emerging from his sickbed to do the turkey which he would have to be more than dead before he would let me do it) and we ate it.

Their dad lay on my couch and cracked jokes and everyone else was pretty out of it.

I got a big meal made anyway including driving some of the dishes over to use my daughter's oven and picking them up just before and generally enjoying being useful.

One of the great pleasures of being a mature mother is that as long as everyone is together you are thrilled and think it is all just wonderful.

Now I am counting down the last of my 50s I finally understand my grandmother at these events.

You know when you give them some department store slippers and the grandmother talks all day about how they are the best slippers she has ever had? 

Well they really are.

Or the part where she watches everyone fill up their plates and says that the neck is her favourite part of the turkey?

Well it is.

So the really nice part of having a few Christmases under your belt is you know it's marvelous you are all there.

So what would a Christmas story be without illustrations?

Here is my son who flew in at great expense for the holiday (and has taken 3 days to get out - please join our family in a permanent ban of United Airlines who are getting the international "We couldn't care less award") and was hit with every bug we could throw at him.

Here he is on the floor after announcing his back was so sore from lying in bed he needed a back walker (apparently the Korean folks in his neighbourhood in East Village do a great job with this). 

His niece and sister were happy to oblige:

As you can see he had an excellent Christmas and I am sure has already booked his trip back for next year.

Miss Heidi took advantage of all the activity in the living room to get into the Stuff Under the Kitchen Sink so her day was pretty complete too:

So a great holiday all around.

If you are the person who now eats turkey necks.

And I have started Barbara's Useful SWAP.

More on that tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

I am on my way to bed now and going to practice knitting the last inch of the last sock by iPad light.

We have been hit with colds and then a violent stomach virus. Miss Scarlett was in getting IV fluids last night, now recovered, so our day tomorrow is going to be streamlined. My DH is the latest down for the count, and I hope he has enough strength tomorrow to tell me how he does the turkey.

Christmas is an interesting time. It brings families together again and I am lucky that ours likes each other. I am not anticipating any arguments etc. over the pie about world issues -  I think they are all too weak. Viruses included we are grateful to be together and lucky to have little kids with us.

Of course it changes every year. It occurs to me that mothers, in particular those who feel kids at home was prime time, hope that when those people, now away, come home they will bring those times back with them but of course they don't. There are girlfriends who are missed, new lives, new dreams, new commitments. But it is still good, very good and if a mom can lie in her bed and hear just for one night the sounds of her kids in the house again that is a pleasure whose significance she can keep to herself.

They have no idea.

But it doesn't have to be the same every year and it won't, but having new people and new ideas added just makes it seem to grow to me.

And in my life that includes you.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Detour activities

How are your preparations going?

Sewing is suspended, since I don't have anything Christmas related left, and because I can no longer see my own stuff due to the mountain of unwrapped presents on my sewing table.

With so much on the to-do list it was logical that the next thing I did was go buy about a sewing machine carrying case full of ginger and set up my spouse to peel it in the kitchen. (Use a spoon it is easier).

I then took two days off to make ginger marmalade and pickled ginger and to drink ginger tea (boil for 10, steep for 10- with the requisite honey and lemon ) which successfully beat the cold I am fighting.

This make no sense at all, which will be the reaction I am sure of the family when they get this stuff for Christmas.

However about the only activity I can rely on to calm me down when I am overloaded is canning.

Go figure.

Here are my pictures:

Once I have faced the wrapping all I have to do, apart from the Christmas desserts and a potato thing I have been making for 25 years and am sort of sick of but will continue to make because it everybody is used to it, is a pile of alterations, hemming, and loose buttons that have come home from NYC.

I am going to try this method for hemming jeans for the first time, has anyone tried it?

Onward.

The last of the Christmas sewing (unless I think of something else)

I decided I wanted to make my son's girlfriend an apron.

She is sort of one of my heros.

When I first met this girl she had one of those fast track big jobs in Manhattan which she quit and went to intern at a restaurant. You see she really loves food, in the way that you and I love fabric, and she decided to live consistently. 

Since that initial decision she has become an operations manager for several very high profile restaurants and is now also doing her master's in food science.

It took a lot of nerve to do what she did, and I just totally get how she feels about what she loves.

So.

I have tried a couple of hip looking apron patterns and was not happy at all. They were skimpy and contrived and the techniques were silly.

So last night in desperation I called my daughter, who always has the answers, and she said "Mom if you are running out of time and need something hip get yourself right on Pinterest."

Which I did and found this simple pattern. My daughter is also one of my heros. The dimensions were excellent, although I did simplify the instructions - sewed the ties and the ruffle onto one apron body and then bagged the whole thing through a small hole in the bottom after I had sewn the two apron bodies together.

Here it is, totally reversible in the shambles of what is left of my sewing room:

I would have wished for slightly hipper fabric but this is all the store at the bottom of the street could cough up last night at 8:00. New Year's resolution - stock pile more cool cotton prints - they are good for gifts.

Well for weeks now I have been saying I will get right onto the cooking and cleaning and wrapping once my sewing is done, and I am finally there.

Unfortunately I had forgotten when I made such grandiose statements that I would much rather be sewing than doing all that other domestic stuff.

However a deal is a deal.

Just before Christmas sewing

About this time in the pre-Christmas run-up I face my reality.

• The iced butter cookies made in a variety of interesting Christmas shapes (for which I have bought a heavy duty icing unit, plus cookie cutters):
•  Are now Rice Krispie squares made of red and green Rice Krispies.
• The diabetic special jams for my nice sister-in-law:
•  Are now a purse organizer and a retro plastic bowl made of recycled plastic (yes I know).
• The quilted wallhanging, still not started:
• Has been packed away where I hopefully will not be able to find it next year.
• My nice Vogue Christmas dress pattern and fabric:
• Is still on the shelf and I am working on a festive apron instead.

What I always do manage to do though is any special Christmas sewing for the little girls. So when my daughter called and said she would like something for them to wear for pictures Christmas Eve, I was right on it.

Here are the results of today's efforts, jammies for the little one who is still toddling, and a nightgown for the one who only wears dresses.

Not very complex but a fun break:

  
I would like to put a red bow at the necklines and might try to do that tomorrow.

A comment on children's patterns. 

I was very frustrated with my pattern choices for these simple garments. I needed something basic and even though I did major trimming, both of these garments were way too wide for little people, and our girls are long and thin.

I decided I am not going to get caught like this again trying to find a simple kids pattern at the last minute, so I ordered Sure-Fit's children's kit which I used for my own children a long time ago with great success.

Let's see what I get done tomorrow and what drops off the list. 

Hope your own preparations are progressing and stress-free. A couple more little things and I think I may actually get some pre-SWAP cutting done before the 26th.

I am a better garment cutter than cookie icer anyway.

I knew that. 

Fabric sources

In response to a question from badmomgoodmom my city prints are from Fabric.com and one at least is on sale now here and the other one is here.

All I can do to resist ordering more. Do it so I can't.

Sewing skyscrapers or some of my SWAP top ideas

A few trips ago to see my son in the States I came home from New York and decided I needed to do something to feel close to his day-to-day life.

Logically I ordered in these two pieces of fabric for shirts which have, naturally, city scenes on them. 

This is the kind of nutty stuff you don't let your children know you do.

Maybe somewhere in New York City there is a woman whose kid has moved to the coast walking around in a blouse with sea gulls on it (and people wondering why is that woman wearing that weird shirt - except if she was in New York no one would think anything was at all weird).

I am reminding myself of a woman I know who stalks the webcam aimed at her sons' workplace every morning (they have both moved away to work) to see if she can catch a glimpse of them arriving at work. 

I am glad to say I am not in that place anymore but certainly respect anyone who is. It is a stage, even mothers go through them, but I think so many helicopter parents at school (yes some come along to university) have done a lot to keep me this side of the edge. 

Assuming you broadly define the edge.

Back to fabric.

Here they are, each destined to be one of my tops for the navy half of my SWAP and the black/grey other part of my SWAP:

I completely love both of these prints, which also have a fifties feel that is dear to me since that was the decade in which I was myself launched.

Obviously these are going to require tailored type patterns and I have these picked out, not sure which one for which print:

I have made the bottom one already and am due to try the top pattern too. StyleArc fits me.

I also have this fabric bought in London when the same son was living there. I got it at Liberty in a moment of brain freeze when I actually converted the currency exchange the wrong way, and thought it was half as expensive as it was, where in fact it was twice as expensive, in Canadian dollars, as the price tag, but the way I was working things out I actually spent four times per meter than I realized (thank you Visa statement) if you follow me, although I can't:

I really need to do something with this fabric. It is a cotton lawn and therefore more blouse-like so I will be using my StyleArc Annie pattern which is my TNT blouse:

All of these shirts will be Really Useful (might name my SWAP that) with my basic pants and I think I will enjoy making them simply because I love the fabric.

More tops to follow.

Lets try SWAPPING

Listen. I love watching other sewists develop their own Sewing with a Plan Wardrobe. 

It is inspirational.

I have even attempted a few in the distant past and was either a) a drop out b) ended up with a wardrobe that suited the contest rules but not me.

This year's rules are much more liberal. So I am jumping in with the intention of only getting together some Useful Clothes.

This will be a real challenge for me as I am a sort of go-where-the-mood-takes-me sewer and what I don't really need in my busy life right now is a pile of things that has to-do written all over it. 

However I have decided that if this is not my only sewing but just my directed sewing, and if these are all garments I need and will definitely wear, this is an exercise worth doing.

Of course there is a major appointment coming up December 25th and I have some Christmas sewing/knitting/cooking to get done first but I can start this project in my head can't I?

That is after all where I do my best sewing.

O.K. here is the current plan.

I figure I will do the most boring combination, four bottoms, six tops and one other that works with all separates.

This I really could use. 

Today I will talk about my bottoms patterns, do the tops tomorrow, and my struggle with an coat/jacket thing Monday.

Feel free to give me advices.

My bottom garments are going to be pants. 

Since the refinement of a basic pencil skirt and the revelation of the Magic Skirt I am skirted out for a bit, and of course when you move ahead in one area you fall behind in another.

I have looked at my current favourite pants patterns and they are of course the StyleArc Lindas:

and the pants from this Vogue pattern, which I have in black gabardine and wear whenever I can:

These last pants are sooo comfortable and the fit is great but of course I made them first time as per pattern and they are really short. 

In the warmer weather with flats this is fine but when I want to wear them with short boots or in anything a bit cooler there is the bare leg thing to deal with. I have compromised with some fishnet knee highs which are good but not tremendously cozy, and since these aren't lined, anything longer in a sock or tights has those sticking to the leg things going on and I struggle enough with lack of cool to be dealing with that.

So clearly I need these exact same pants but with about 2-3 " more in length.

I have some black and some navy gab I am going to be making these up again. 

I am doing a black based subset and a navy based subset (2 bottoms and 3 tops in each) and a neutral coat to tie them together. So happy the SWAP rules this year allow that and don't require 11 garments in one colour family which is a condition that more or less makes my head explode.

I want to give a shout out to gabardine pants. 

If you do a good clapper type pressing job a pair of gab pants  you can get through any day looking pressed, and if you let them hang out on a good hanger, they can be reworn without repressing. I really appreciate anything I can haul out of the closet and can put on without having to go down to the ironing board again.

This pattern is also more stylish looking that it should be given that it is roomy in the hips, thighs, and stomach and but still has the slim legs. This is an elusive combination but makes me feel as comfortable in these as jammies, always a goal.

OK so that's two TNT pants patterns. 

I would also like to nail down a stretch woven pant that had a similar comfort level and a slim leg. The Linda pants are good but they are widish at the bottom which means you can't wear a widish top without looking like a fridge.

I tried the StyleArc Elle pant but that was skin tight as in leggings and in them I looked like an eggcup.

A tall eggcup.

Enough said about that.

The Elles were not TNT material obviously unless I was going to give up all self-respect, something I don't have on the agenda.

I am having another kick at the ideal though with this new pattern (I do love the SyleArc crotch fit) the Claudia:

I will be making an actual muslin for this (something I generally don't take the time to do) because I really want a pattern like this. 

It has some good features like a higher waist ( I am so over the belly overhang thing) and I am wondering about the dart at the back leg.  I mean there has to be a reason, I just haven't figured it out yet.

And SyleArc I am noticing the ankle length which I will be fine-tuning to work with my reality.

So that's what I am hoping to have done before the sewing opens on the SWAP competition December 26th. My bottoms cut out and the Claudia pant either on the cutting table or the garbage can.

Sounds like a plan, or at least the thin edge of one.

Now off the do the tree.

Oh and BTW for spam reasons I am asking for comment moderation, hope that is alright with you. I watch for comments like a hawk so if you are an actual sewer and not someone trying to sell me Ugg boots or worse your comments will appear shortly.

Word verification for comments turned off

Sorry  about that. I was having spam issues and thought it would help. Guess more of a nuisance than a help.

Petite Plus Wrap dress review

I am home now after a week in Winnipeg to visit my mother and other family there. I went to Christmas concerts, swim meets, and did a little sewing/alterations for my mom.

She is an 85 year old petite plus and updating some clothes for her involved the same series of alterations - shorten, bring in the sleeves to account for narrow shoulders etc. As always larger sizes seem to be designed as if a person was large everywhere, and neckline and shoulder fit is a challenge.

It is interesting to me that exactly what I had to do to make her purchased clothes fit are already built into the Petite Plus patterns.

I made this wrap dress for her, which she likes, in the unwrapped version. We like the fit in the neck and shoulders and the fact that the V neck does stay close to the body. In addition to being drafted for a short, fuller figure this pattern has some fitting features I liked:

• Three piece sleeve. Next version I am going to take advantage of this and narrow her sleeve from the bicep down, the three seams make custom sleeve fit easy.
• Back neck darts.
• Optional front and back French darts. I left these in the back to give the dress more shape but left them out to accommodate her waistline.

Here are the pictures. 

I think my mom is a pretty sharp 85 year old (she has never coloured her hair) but then again as the person actively involved in raising my 14 year old niece (including 6:00 a.m. runs to the pool most mornings) she leads the life of someone about 30 years younger and it shows.

(She would want to add that after seeing these pictures she is off for a new bra-fitting - welcome to the world of revealing blog photos Mom).

 

I am pretty impressed with this pattern and am even thinking of playing around with a down-sized version for myself. This is a great basic.

On other news I am finishing up my term and thinking about all I have to do in the new year. My resolution is to find more time for myself and I am not sure how I am going to accomplish that yet.

I have also decided to do SWAP this year and that will be the focus of my sewing for a while. Might make for some dull blogging but I think this might be a good year for a Useful SWAP.

In the meantime, I am back and wish you all the best as we count down to the busy season.

We all need a laugh tonight

See subject line.

Suffice it to say that work this week has been one thing after another, after another, after another.

But somehow the gods of humour, who usually stand by me pretty good, swooped in and gave me what I need.

How in earth did I miss the new Butterick patterns?

My email is mostly out of control. It seems that a lot of stuff is going into my Spam folder, including the notices from Vogue and co. which I miss, even when I periodically clean out my five hundred spam messages asking me where they should send the million dollars I won, or warning me of the dangers of surgery I never had, and telling me that there are lonely married seniors in my area, not that I believe that for a moment since they all have dogs.

I sometimes wonder what random searches I ever did that has attracted some of this lint.

For example I am on some Google alert about Spam. 

The kind in the can with the aluminum key that breaks off and has that block of jellied pink jelly drop out like a lump onto the plate. 

Personally I haven't eaten the stuff since my grandmother died but Google thinks I do. You know every time you open your gmail you probably have ads across the top about online M.B.A.s

Me I see recipes for Spam. Spam El Fresco (sandwiches presumably for picnics) and even more frighteningly Spam bourguignon, Spam fettucini,  and Spam mousse.

A different recipe everyday. 

I am trying not to take it personally that somewhere the world's largest search engine has decided I am running a low brow operation around here.

You don't think I have been outed by Google Maps do you?

Some random shot of me eating cereal on the front steps (done a lot on my street), blogging in a polar fleece housecoat at 11:00 on a Saturday morning in front of a sink full of dirty dishes.

Anything is possible. There is no privacy anymore.

OK, back on topic.

Well, something came over me tonight,  it was like a little voice in my head was saying:

"Stop with the marking, stop with the marking, go have a look at the Butterick site."

I mean it was eerie how this urge came over me.

Well anyway I opened a new window, one without any student papers on it, and surfed on over.

I was not disappointed.

Some real beauties there:

Can't you just tell from her face what this model  is saying here between clenched teeth. "If you laugh one more time you are dead."  The world's first below the boob flying bow. Words for once, almost fail me. Where was that bow before it dropped? I have seen crocheted dog coats with more class, no insult to dogs or crocheters.

Another nervous model. This little number would make my mother look like a hooker. OK obviously designed for folks whose legs are their only good feature but no way anybody's husband wouldn't say "yeah but where are the pants to that outfit?" This is sort of a pre-wadder, you would know before it got that far.

It takes real skill to made a size zero look like she has a big butt and a big belly but this one manages that. The skirt is in pleatherette BTW in case you missed the point the first time. Even I wouldn't have worn anything like this to a junior high dance which is about the most extreme statement I can make about lack of style since I believe I set new standards for poor taste throughout those years.

A sleeping bag dress. It has to be.
This unit has to convert to something useful. I am willing to lay money that if you undo that zipper and unfold the middle you have a nice little tent that sleeps five.
This dress has to be a disguise of some kind.

There you have it. I am all cheered up.

No idea why I am no longer getting notices from the pattern companies when the new patterns come out.