Happy New Year!

I have been neglecting this blog, but not neglecting the family. I know you will get that.

So here is a quick catch up before I go make a cake for tonight's dinner.

First off here is a picture of daughter, mother if my three grandchildren, in a dress I made for her.

It is the Ballet Dress by Indie design Dixie DYI. Like many indie patterns it had an illustration and text gush (did I actually write gush, sorry about that) that made it easy for a hip person like my kid to go for it.

As a pattern it had issues and was not particularly well drafted. In the end I lowered the neckline, changed the treatment for applying the binding (which was sweatshirt style not dressy dress style) and re-cut the armhole and sleeves so they didn't bind, and note that Katrina does not have heavy arms at all.

In the end we got a dress that we were both happy with and got a lot of wear over the holidays.

I am usually a fan of many of the Indie patterns, Stylearc, Sewaholic, Noodlehead and Grainline (mostly) produce excellent patterns with good current wearable style. Others demonstrate that the ability to upload a .pdf do not necessarily reflect pattern quality worthy of the price.

That said the great Indie patterns are truly great and I do not intend to miss out on any of them.

Which leads me to my own sewing New Year's resolutions, and I am interested to hear yours:

• Explore more Indie patterns and report honestly on them. I want to nurture talent but also to protect new sewers who deserve, as we all do, to be facilitated, not frustrated by the patterns they purchase. Every time I run into a problematic pattern instruction or drafting issues I mentally see a picture of some young mother, the woman I once was, getting in a little hopeful sewing time while some child slept. I hate the thought that a pattern issue might cause her to think the problem is her when in fact it is simply in trying to execute the impossible. I don't want anyone to give up on sewing.
• Blog more. I have a real busy life and often hold off on posting because I don't have super pictures or something profound. However I do think thoughts and see a lot of humour in life so I think that might be enough some times. I am in no competition here.
• Save some time by coasting by some things on the www. If you blog has crossed the commercial line in my head or if you approach me to ask if I will pay $25 to be your pattern tester (true, this happened this morning) I am moving on. I got a lot more sewing done when there was less to read. I am going to post a blog roll soon of what I actually do read most days.
• Sew more from my stash, in fact as much as I can. I have reached that critical mass stage where the fabric on my shelves has started to oppress me, feel like a to-do list. How did that happen?
• Go through my patterns and ditch anything I am not going to sew this year. I have to make room for new ideas.
• And finally the big one: Sew nothing in 2016 for any other reason than it a) gives me joy to think about it b) can teach me something new.

Now over to you.

What are your sewing resolutions?

From Santa's workshop

I have been neglecting my blog lately, but that is probably a function of focusing on my family and getting ready for Christmas.

I had a non teaching term this fall and for the first time in decades have been able to get more of what I can get done for the holidays.

Hands up if some of the pressure for December for you is the continuous process of giving up on your to-do list or if you have ever sat at your desk after 6:00 p.m. and piled things into the Amazon cart.

That's been me, but less so this year.

So to give you an idea of what I have been doing since I haven't been blogging, here are some pictures. (Some shots, like the Christmas dress I made for my daughter a few weeks ago are still to come).

Here is Miss Scarlett in front of the children's hospital where my daughter works, waiting for her to come out so we can take her home:

For the first time ever I did not do the big tree in the corner. 

To fit that into my living room every year I have moved out a chair and this year I decided I really needed the seating. My Pinterest daughter came up with the idea of a table top tree. I fought the idea thinking this was part of the slippery slope that might one day lead me to sitting in a dark house at Hallowe'en so I don't have to hand out candy. Or having a small pink fake tree on the coffee table while I sit there in my fluffy slippers.

However I have my real tree still and all the random, not decor, heavy on memory decorations that represent all my Christmas to date:

And here are thirteen pint jars of my sister Dawn's wonderful antipasto recipe. It is sitting on top of a 130 year old treadle machine my parents gave me when I was 16, painted up by a neighbour, in one of those years when my dad went to grad school again and money was tight. It worked wonderfully BTW:

Here is the recipe, it is really great and simple:

This shot is Mr. Billy exploring my table top tree. My daughter's tree doesn't have anything on the lower half since Mr. Bill is very good at yelling "Ball" and hurling the decorations across the room:

One of my slower projects has been clothes for the American girl dolls. Basically these involve the same sewing time as the same garments would be in adult size. Let me tell you the doll sized jean jackets have been put on hold:

Finally as I have said other years my little neighbourhood is famous for its lights. In fact some evenings we have as many as four tour buses going up and down the streets. (It is a point of honour if they slow down in front of your house). My own place is well decorated but these shots are of other houses near me that I snapped on an evening walk. 

My neighbour who lives in the one below told me that one evening when she came home late from a meeting, her husband was out of town for a few days, and there was a car parked in front of her house. Tired she went up to bed but was detoured by a knock at the door, "Would you mind turning on your lights?"

That's how it is around here.

I also actually finished knitting my youngest son's sweater. This took me about a month, breaking my own land speed record and expectations. I pick him up at the airport today coming in from Texas so I go this done under the wire for sure:

 I also made twenty pair of polar fleece lined felted wool mittens. My husband has been collecting wool sweaters for me from consignment shops as he toured around rural areas for work. They should be warm:

So back to the workshop, with extra dogs in the house and a husband booking tee times down south for the winter, I need to stay focused.

More later.

I stand corrected, or in this case educated

Well first of all my apologies, cosplay, of course I get that. Makes perfect sense. Speed readers unite.

I know all about anime, and can spot a steampunk outfit from across the street, but this one has passed me by, or at least my neighbourhood in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I read more, once I read the helpful comments, and realized that I understand cosplay, and like all women have been doing this, dressing in character or like a character, so much of my life.

Hands up if you ever suited up for work, or heaven forbid are old enough to remember when dressing for success meant a version of what men wore right down to the little scarf numbers (Palmer and Pletsch did early do-it-yourself instructions) that were lady ties.

Haven't we all done this? Haven't most women dressed the part at some stages of their lives, or tried to redefine themselves with wardrobe changes?

It is a really interesting question.

The bride who feels like a princess. 

The woman who is caught by a co-worker out getting milk and is horrified someone she works with has seen her without make-up. 

The way you feel in your first heels, like a real grown up woman. 

The way you want to get out of those heels the day you decide you are wearing them for someone else. 

Why you put on your lipstick when you have had bad news. 

Why wearing flannelette pyjamas makes you sleep safe like your dad was still in the living room.

Everyone is so sure the way women should look and we try so hard to pick up on that.

What are you wearing is the first most important question.

I wonder if we are really asking, who should I be?

Or how much unlike you can I risk.

At some level I think sewers, an undoubtedly cosplayers, are exploring this - one trying to find self definition through self expression, possibly the other trying on different ways of being.

As for me right now as my own life is opening up again, post child raising, work more strategic than routine, I am wondering if it is time to dress the outside like the inside - which is something I am going to have to do myself. 

Wonder what that is going to look like?

Early spring McCalls

Just when I was about to further descend into Christmas preparations with the usual combination of self-delusion and over ambition, I had a good reminder to stop taking myself too seriously with the arrival of McCalls pre-spring collection - reflecting the trend these days to move onto the next thing before you have experienced the first. 

(I remember the melt down of my youngest son once in a department store when he saw the "Back to school" displays up on the last day of school before the summer holidays.)

There was one knit dress I liked, mainly because there was some waistline gathers rather than the usual knit dress belly articulation that seems to go with interesting bodice treatments:

There were also a few that are definitely not making it into my to-do pile, although I assume that they are exactly what some folks are looking for, and I am trying to act now as if I am sophisticated enough to believe that is true, or that I actually know these folks:

No these are not Halloween costumes but something part of a cultural phenomenon called co-play, which I had to Google and I suggest you do too, which was a term I had, until I did that, assume meant you let someone play with your truck without hitting them over the head at daycare.

I have to give McCall credit though for going after new sewing communities, if not this one.

Remember my dress for the wedding?

I know I know I am a crappy blogger photographer and who just rushes off shots so she can go onto the next thing.

That said I did promise you all a while ago a picture of the dress I wore to my son's wedding (Marfy sort of burgundy dupioni ).

Well just now my most excellent daughter-in-law sent me this picture, of me dancing with one of my son's very best high school buddies.

I had asked Maddie if she thought I should let me hair go natural (that would be greying) and she sent this along with a note that I would maintain my "spark and energy" even in grey and white.

This kid's a real catch.

So this is my wedding dress project picture, in action:

I had a real good time at that wedding. Real good.

Drive by

Yes I have been sewing my brains out, but because friends and family read my blog I can't show you what until after Christmas.

Speaking of which I also hope to finish a dress for my daughter today, a Christmas party emergency number. We will get shots of that.

On an aside the current issue of Collette's Seamworks ezine came into my mailbox today. I was struck by some of the photos, but this one in particular which is a wonderful illustration of what a difference dart placement makes. I am brewing a review of Indie patterns soon, but this is a case of why remembering the basics in execution is worth the thought:

A hope post

A few months ago I got a call long distance from my son Ben who is doing some work on windmills in Texas.

Driving across the job site he saw a small, sick, starved dog on the side of the road. He was at work but stopped anyway and picked her up. He couldn't keep driving.

He called me to ask me to get on the phone for him to find a no kill shelter in his part of Texas.

That took some doing. In fact every place I called, and he was working the car phone while he drove, they told us that they would have to put down any sick animal he brought in.

But they don't know my Benny.

In the end he located somehow a woman who was running a private rescue for sick and mangey dogs who told him sorry no room left, so many needy animals.

Ben went over there anyway and with a donation and offer to volunteer he persuaded her to take in the pup. He kept in touch and helped when he could.

Now months later here are shots of that little dog. Happy, fit and now placed in a forever home in Colorado. They call her Dreamy.

This little story reminds me that bothering to help and not giving up are principles to live by.

You never know, you just never know, we all need to remember that.

My Ben and the dog he found.