Family first and then flypaper thoughts

Before I go any further with updates, my daughter and her girls were in the paper at home today re her sewing business, not to promote but...


BTW I have been offered an early retirement from the purchasing department since the $127.00 rick rack binge (yeah but wait till she sees it - this girl has to start understanding that stashing way more than you need is a vital part of the sewing life) but I understand there is an opening in the sewing-on-binding department.


Great.


Now here's what's sticking in my brain today:

• My mother has finished her "who to call when I die" list, with phone numbers and back-ups to kids if somebody is in Florida.
• Where did we get someone this cheerful about everything?
• And I mean everything.
• I would really like to see a female anchor on the news whose upper lip still moved.
• Speaking of which, one thing I noticed about the South was that whenever you make eye contact with someone their mouth immediately goes into a smile mode.
• This is not the case in every part of the world.
• I am fighting my sweet tooth.
• Seems like about time.
• I would kill for a butter tart about now.
• There is no-fat cottage cheese in the fridge.
• In the middle of the ER my mother turned to me and said "You know I am on Linkedin."
• Put her status as looking for opportunities.
• What are they doing to the English language?
• My mom's washer has three knobs "Status", "Modifiers" and "Options"
• What ever happened to "On-Off", "Hot-Cold" and "Normal-Delicate?"
• I think this might be part of a bigger problem.
• Where's that man who brings me cherry pie?
• In Tennessee packing three sewing machines and a bale of yarn around a motorcycle, that's where.
• We will meet up Monday in Florida.
• In Winnipeg you are pretty sure you are not in Florida.
• I'll discuss the third sewing machine later.
• My niece who has been in Guatemala is coming to see my mom next week.
• She has been having cold outdoor showers for 9 months.
• She was happy there.
• She didn't miss butter tarts.
• Why didn't I pack my serger?
• I could have fit it into my canning pot.
• I am definitely going to get right on that Chanel jacket as soon as I see it again.
• I need to sew.
• I love my mom.
• What a piece of work.

Update from Winnipeg

This is an IPad post and slower than usual, so bear with me.

My mom is home from the hospital after a one hour round of farewells to everyone thanking them for the great service and to the entire housekeeping staff for their excellent work keeping the hospital so clean. I have been cooking a lot since we got home , since it turns out that my mom's diet is the same as Mr. Rascal's it has been pretty easy. My deaf sister and 13 year old niece live with my mom and since my niece is currently a vegetarian I have been expanding my repertoire (I am sort of a semi vego myself) and tonight's mushroom burgers were not bad and the buns sort of held them together which was helpful.

The day my mom came home the federal budget was released so she watched that whole thing, analyzing it by phone with her friends and relatives, and once she heard they are not going to produce any more pennies spent the rest of her day rolling pennies to get them down to the bank and doing her tax so her "affairs would be in order just in case."

We have tried to talk to her about not tutoring at the school 3 days a week, driving grandchildren to school and swimming lessons, the altar guild, having her hair done at 6:30 am, and doing errands for half the community, but I think it's more or less hopeless.

In fact I know it's hopeless.

All in all it has been a very good visit, particularly because my mother is still here. I will be going to Florida to meet my spouse when my other sister comes home.

In the middle of it all my daughter's business has continued to grow and I got a Rick rack SOS. My niece and I made an outlet fabric store run and proved that it is possible to spend $127.00 on a bit of ribbon and A ton of Rick rack if there are two of you and you move fast.

Not sure how the app is going to handle this buy here goes . Press publish.

Chanel on hold

This morning I got up and finished hand-stitching the lining pieces together in the body of my Chanel jacket.


Got a call next that my mom was in the hospital - flare-up of an old issue. To make a long story short it looks like just that. She will be in the hospital for another 2-3 days and hopefully not more and then home to see how she goes. 


My one sister who does most of the on site family stuff (isn't there always one in every family, the kid who still is in the same city?) had a spring break trip booked to NYC with her husband and kids starting tomorrow, and she deserves a break. So my husband is driving me to Nashville at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and I should be at the hospital in Winnipeg after lunch.


I thought I was calm and organized about all of this while I was getting ready today, until I spent 10 minutes looking for my car keys before I realized they were in my hand.


You know exactly what I mean.


I'll be doing most of my time in the Health Science Centre - so the Chanel project got bagged this afternoon for the drive my husband and Mr. Rascal will be making to Florida this weekend. I will be flying in later when I can. 


Speaking of Mr. R, my sister phoned me today and told me that my mother's big concern is that if I come it will upset Rascal. Not good for his stomach. His stomach.


You can see what I am dealing with. The job will be to get her to chill long enough to get better.


I have packed my knitting, still working on Christmas 1992. More later.

Updating myself and then again Chanel

Now I have a little bit of time I am going to clean up and update this blog.

I have started with the "About me" and a more current photo.


I had a rare moment of self-realization this week.


My daughter was interviewed on the radio about her business (she actually said "I have always sewn" which I realize is right, she always made bags and rectangular things but never garments) and she was introduced as a "Momentrepreneur."


It hit me.


I always identify myself first as the mother, in fact this blog used to describe me as a 'mid-life mom'. Well move over Babs - the mother in the family is now your child and you are singing back-up. And really at my age I am not  mid-life unless I live to 120. Which I just might have to, if I am ever going to get caught up on these projects.


Now, it's Sunday so I might do a little spiritual detour on you.


I believe in prayer. 


Not the standing at God's checkout window placing your order, but I think we should consider the prayers not our own, but maybe the prayers the universe is saying for us. For me prayer is more about listening in than sending in requests. There have been many instances in my life where what I needed to know was put in my path. I figure it's just up to us to tune in and to act on good advice.


This was sort of like that.


Now back to sewing and great comments on my Chanel jacket. Your comments were terrific and got my brain going.


I even went to bed last night wondering if the guy I know at home who machine quilts would do some lining and boucle work for me, say straight lines one inch apart.


Then I decided maybe I should settle down and actually finish my random version of this semi-traditional Chanel jacket before I go onto the next thing.


Am I the only one who always has three projects going on at a time? One under the presser foot and two more in the head?


So I will be spending my last week in this Tennessee hotel room hand-stitching away and we will see how it turns out.


Now I have to tell you one of the best things about being in the US.


Ordering fabric and having it come in a few days, without $40 postage, and duty, in 4 weeks.


So I hit Fabricmart this week and am so pleased with what arrived. Here it is:

Gorgeous cotton and silk, heavyish, a light twill. A Stylearc work shirt for sure, need to use a TNT.

This is black but lightened so you can really see it. I have had the idea of a lace skirt in my head for a while now as a just -in-case-something-comes up where I need a lace straight skirt, so I ordered this but now am not so sure. Fabricmart described this as sort of  felted lace probably because it is a sort of felted lace. Maybe a winter lace skirt? Warm except for the holes?

If you are my daughter shut your eyes. This is primo quality cotton flannelette. Every year I make my daughter pj's for Christmas and she is a green person and hip and this is perfect. Aren't I organized? Christmas already. Of course I won't start these until December 23rd.

This fabric is so cool it's killing me. A lightweight cotton twill in a fifties print. A dress? I am saving it for the perfect pattern so not to waste it.

Now back to Chanel sewing.

Conceptualizing the Chanel jacket

Half way through now I think I am feeling this jacket.


I like the silk charmeuse lining on my skin - I also realize that some leftover Adele top rayon knit would make a comfortable shell to wear with it - Zebra to zebra.


I like the lack of interfacing and serious stuff - let's face it a little hand sewing is easier on the brain than tailoring.


However I am thinking about why I am doing what I am doing.


The whole principle is to laminate the lining to the outer fabric and just turn in the garment edges and cover them with trim. That's really all this project is about - what you aren't doing as much as what you are doing.


It's sort of minimalist sewing if you squint at it.


The fussy part is the leaving enough unlaminated around the seamlines so you can actually sew the thing together and then of course cover this up with lining. Negotiating that requires stopping your quilting lines short, tying off the threads and then handsewing the free lining edges down at the seams.


I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just quilt the yardage, which would be the easiest way to get all the quilting lines on grain, cut out the units from the then "double sided" fabric.


Stitch her up and then just hand sew cover the seams with bias lining strips, which you could run through the bias tape maker as a time saver.


Of course you would have to do something with the hems and edges, I will ponder this while I walk the dog.


What do you think?


Would this be more efficient? Take more time?


Or not?

Lamination complete

I have added this photo to horrify you and to reassure you that I am doing this project in a casual sort of way.

The Chanel/project/muslin/jacket/ better-be-as-comfortable-as-a-sweater is now onto step three.


I basted all the lining pieces to the body pieces and yesterday I quilted them all up. As you can see from the above I didn't do a sterling job but it was a job. My traveling machine with the broken take-up lever came back still broken from the shop, they don't make that part anymore, although my husband had a happy time with the Epoxy last night.


So I did my quilting with my small Janome I keep with me for doing buttonholes with my vintage buttonhole attachment:

It does a wonderful job with the buttonholer, but is a bit small for quilting and I don't have a walking foot with it.


The quilting is done from the right side and since my fabric is black it was hard to see how well I was spacing my quilting lines, although I did get them on grain, which was my priority. So the quilting job looks more like art work than quilting work if you get my drift.


I really could have used a quilting bar, but since I allocated only one afternoon of my life for this job off I went. Remind me not to wear it to the Sewing Guild where they are for sure going to open me up the minute they see my jacket and then go all silent while they inspect my stitches.


I was pretty skeptical of whole process but when I got up this morning and pressed all pieces I was totally amazed to see how well the stitches embedded - you can't really tell at all from the right side that there is stitching. 


What do you know.


Here is what I learned:


1. With all difference to Claire Shaeffer I am not going to bother with the basting next time. I basted all Thursday and took out the basting all Friday. This is not A Good Use of my Time. I will just use a million pins next time and take them out as I go.


2. Trying to find the grainline (all the quilting lines need to be on grain) in black fabric is the pits. If I do this again I am definitely going to use a fabric with a real dominant thread I can follow. This is sort of a herringbone semi-boucle and not ideal.


3. In my online class the stitching was done on the right side of the fabric, which makes sense because the garment pieces are cut to size and the lining is cut bigger, and of course you have to stop the stitching about 2" from the edges so you can get in there and sew the seams. Next time I will do the first row from the right side following the grain and then flip it over and use this one line of stitching as a guide, use a quilting bar, and work from the lining side so I can see what I am doing.


4. I was nervous about doing all this quilting on fabric of dubious loft so I did my quilting 2" apart, next time I would be braver and do them 1" apart for more secure lamination although this will be fine once the seams and everything are sewn in.


5. I didn't have a walking foot and I know just enough about quilting to know that if you stitch all the lines in one direction you will get warp so I stitched up one line and down the other, I stitched across the bottom from one row to the other, turning it, ( see lovely illustration of inaccurate sewing above) which also reduced the number of threads I had to tie off. (Apparently you never back stitch in couture, makes sense when your stitches are going to show on the right side).


6. The deal when all this is done is that you take any thread ends and pull them through between the layers and tie off. To save my mind I pulled on one thread from the right side until the bobbin loop showed, grabbed this (both threads were now on the right side) threaded them both through a needle and the pulled and knotted them between layers.




Next of course I will stitch up some structural seams and see how this looks.


Seems awfully light to me so far for a jacket, and I remain skeptical. I am not sure if I am culturally (as a random person) all that suited to this kind of sewing (the precise kind) but we will see.

Chanel sort of

I can't thank you all enough for the comments to my last post. 


This has helped me decide what to do next.


Since my main travel machine is now in the shop (freak accident, my shirt caught and broke the take-up lever) a little hand-sewing is in the cards.


I am definitely going to order that Stylearc Coco jacket when I have a fixed address. In the meantime decided to jump in with my current version of a pattern (a Simplicity jacket that was so big that I took days taking it in and adjusting it and I do not recommend it) and my new approach to classic Chanel technique:


Do it in sort of a relaxed Babs way, and if it works out it works out and if it doesn't it doesn't.


Since this is my general life philosophy I am comfortable with this approach to this project.


Sometimes when I take a sewing class with other sewers I am amazed at how precise they are, how exact they measure, how careful . Now I am not totally reckless but I think I have more a feel for sewing than a precision in what I do.


There are a couple of things about the Chanel project that appeal to me:


1. No interfacing and heavy construction like sleeve heads. I like light clothes that don't get in my way.
2. Simple design lines. Princess seams and only patch pockets. No tricky lapels or welts that require Thought.
3. No separate and then attached lining. Sometimes this is a pain, I feel like I am making two garments.


What I don't think I will like:


1. All that slow hand sewing.


My intention is therefore to try to breeze through it. Pre-apologies to wonderful, brilliant sewists like Bunny who are so excellent in their hand stitching, and to anyone else who knows how to make one of these jackets properly.


OK. Here we go:


Step one: cut it out using the muslin which I cut apart at the basting lines, eliminating any seam allowances which I had to chalk in. Added 5/8" (yes I know) and 2" hem. Used the sleeve (which I converted to 3 piece- see earlier post) patterns as is as they were OK more or less. Paid attention to grain. If this works out I will make up a brown paper pattern piece with the seam allowances added in for the future (don't hold your breath):

The back looks weird I know. I added a bit to centre back at the bottom for butt coverage but hope it is not as exaggerated as this.

I then pinned the cut fabric pieces wrong sides together to the lining, single layer, and rough cut around each piece because the intended quilting should pull it up some. I will trim the lining down to match once the quilting is done.

Next I flipped the unit over and did sort of relaxed messy basting. Having the pins on the other side was a good idea as it meant my basting thread didn't get caught in the pins. If you do this use a long needle for basting to speed things up. I also used a cotton thread to baste so it would be easier to break if my basting stitches get caught, as they will, in my quilting stitching lines:

I did get only two pieces basted up yesterday. Then I had to go and finish the cherry pie before my husband came home and wanted to eat it.


So far to good.


You have to break this up and having HBO as I do in the hotel room is helpful. I can't imagine basting all these pieces up all day, day after day.


The way I see it this is a bit like teaching a course.


Every course I teach is 24 lectures. 


Now if you thought on day one about 24 full classes of having to think of interesting things to say you would just go home and lie with a cold cloth on your head and maybe read magazines. However, and I know this from experience, if you pretend to yourself that you only have to be intelligent and interesting of 1.5 hours (one class) you can do it. And before you know it you are marking the final papers and telling yourself it wasn't that hard after all.


Basting is just like that.


May do the sleeves today.