Big time catch up

It is pretty apparent that I have been AWOL for a bit. I am back now.

Here's what's been going on.

First, as many of you know, I take care of the three local kids during the summer when my daughter, who works alternately three and two day a week needs me. I also like to be able to help out at other times too. It is fun but let's say those guys are pretty busy. I had three myself and so I recognize that stage where each one of the three is at a different place in development, and there is usually one doing something surprising off line too.

But because I also had three there have been many moments when I have sat and watched them, usually at the pool place we hang out at a lot, when I felt the sweetness of children in the summer. All the wet towels, all the fights that needed breaking up, and the many, many bowls that I washed after our baking sessions, were a thousand times repaid by those moments. 

I am sorry to see summer end.

Also on the personal front I retired finally and completely from teaching the end of June. I just felt I was getting too busy to work on someone else's schedule. And decided to leave while I still had something in the tank. 

I have always been an admirer of George Foreman.

Rather than climbing back into the ring one more time he invented the grill. So much better to be that guy on TV with the grill than a shadow of your former self dragged out of the ring because you couldn't think of what else to do.

Man am I deep.

So after my retirement, and with all the yelling one more time on that water slide and that's it we have to get home, I took a while to think about what my grill was going to be or, more importantly, if I even needed one.

I folded fabric a lot and I cleaned my house. I wrote a bit on a sewing mystery novel that is about real things that happened to me.  Some parts I think are really funny and in some still laboured. I found things in my house I had forgotten I had and projects that reflected my high ambitions.

I did some real tailored sewing, will be posted at some point in the Fabricville newsletter, and then I will do some more detail here. In the meantime here is a glimpse. For some reason the light caught my hair and made it look white, can't be true.

I also made and sent off a sleeveless version of the Yari jumpsuit to my daughter-in-law in Berkeley. Amazingly, because I had made this exact same pattern before and it fit perfectly, this one in a slightly looser linen turned out way too long. This makes no sense to me at all.

She is arriving this coming Friday with the rest of the crew (I will actually have my entire family plus one of my sisters here together for nearly a week) for a wedding. I am dying to get my hands on this jumpsuit and shorten it.

All that said, because we know that every sewer always points out the problem before anything else, Maddie looks great in this:

Honestly who would have thought jumpsuits would come back and stay so long? It's getting to the point where I am thinking I even need to make myself one.

It is interesting and exciting to think I have a different sort of life to plan and sew for now. My head is filling up with patterns I want to make. 

Now what are you fall goals for life and sewing? I am making the assumption the two are not too far apart.

Back on track, the Yari jumpsuit

Now folks I realize my blogging has had its ebbs and flows this last six or months or so. If you have been reading you know that we have had our adjustments to make this year. Lately my focus has been even more so on family. That slowed down my posting. I have been sorry about that. I feel I have a relationship with my readers and I think about you a lot.

Things are settling down. 

My daughter's MS diagnosis has been finally definitely confirmed and all that stuff they say about the new normal is in fact true. She is strong and smart and her medical care is excellent. We are going to be fine.

During this period in my life I have sewn a lot for everyone else. It has been a way of keeping myself on an even keel and of, without words, a way to say to people I loved them.

So this has meant that my writing as had its busy times and its quieter times while I have sewn instead. And because many of the things I was making were "surprises" I didn't show them or talk about them here.

I have decided however that sharing things on the blog with other sewing people is different than sharing the real thing in person. As a result I am going back to show and tell as I make things, while the process is clearer in my mind.

So here we go.

My daughter-in-law's birthday is in June, but I will be seeing her in Nashville next week. So I asked Maddie what she would like to me to make her for her birthday. She sent back a picture of a jumpsuit she had just bought and a note that as a mother of an infant, she really liked the pockets. Here is my version:

My daughter also is interested in jumpsuits (never thought I would see those again in my lifetime) so I had a pretty good idea what was out there. In this case the pattern I found that looked most like the picture Maddie sent me was the Yari jumpsuit by True Bias.

Here is the pattern picture:

Maddie's choice was not belted so I didn't do that but otherwise made the pattern as per instructions. 

I used a linen with some rayon added that I washed and dried on a low heat because I knew this garment would be going into a household where that made the most sense.

This was an interesting pattern. 

It has a lot of long pattern pieces, front, side front, back side and back, seamed. This meant a lot of long but easy seams and a lot of top-stitching but I kind of enjoyed that. The big and useful pockets were easy to do of course because the sides were contained in those seams. They are nice and large.

The only issue I had was with the bottom of the front placket.

 Always these days now my daughter is sewing too, very competently as she does every thing, I eye instructions wondering if a newer sewist would find it hard to do. 

The bottom of this placket, depending as it does on some pretty precise clipping, really is a potential Danger Zone. I managed, but even while doing exactly as instructed and it turned out as it was supposed to, the many layers of fabric in that small area make a bit of a lump that shows up under the soft linen more than I would like. I pressed as much as I could, to the point that more pressing might make it worse, but mentally figured out a better way to do it.

I think your eagle eyes will be able to pick out what I mean in this shot - no mistake here but the layers do distort. (I am thinking as I write this that this is exactly what every sewing person does - only see what they are not happy with first in any garment).

I am pretty interested in plackets at the moment. I have been reading a lot of old sewing books and am amazed at how many really nifty ways of sewing plackets, in the days before zippers were always the default, there are and how many of them are so easy to do - much easier than the technique used in this pattern.

I think I would have used a placket that was more of a patch than and clip, twist, and turn for this linen and probably will next version I make. (I know I need to do some blog posts on some of the cool techniques I have unearthed!)

All that said I am really happy with how this looks. Who would have thought a jumpsuit would look elegant?

Well maybe not on me but on Maddie this will look elegant.

My daughter has added two more jumpsuits to my queue so there will be more of these coming up.