On the issue of quickie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.