The end of January

I was woken up this morning an hour before I had to get up with the realization that I had to sew some shifts.

One minute I was asleep with my head cupped on my new memory foam pillow in my big warm bed and Rascal pushing hard against my back, easing me closer and closer to the edge like he always does, and my eyes opened wide to the thought that it was time I sewed some shift dresses for summer. I woke up understanding that this was something I really, really needed to do.

Shifts were what we used to call them in the sixties when I was just a kid. Sort of like a sheath (thank you Michelle Obama for solving all my work wardrobing problems with your fashion leadership - a sheath and a cardigan are just my style) but a bit more ease, almost A line but not quite - operationally a dress that is fitted at the neck and chest but loose enough around the hem that you don't have to put in a back vent to walk. Bust darts for sure, and back neck darts, but probably any shaping more than that with seams from below the bust.

Easy to sew and with pique or cottons with enough body no lining required. Cool in the summer and it seems that every summer I feel hotter, like every winter I feel colder.

You can do a lot with at basic pattern like this. Sleeveless or little sleeves, piping, neckline variations - scoop, V neck and fancy stuff like tabs, and little slits in the front, and pockets, different kinds and different places, or versions where it's about the fabric or the colour, and after this grey and black winter colour would be good, coral maybe, or purply blue, sorbet, non January colours. And if you made it plain you could dress it up with jewelry, long necklaces or brooches, I like brooches, or nothing more than a big cuff bracelet, and probably any of these dresses once I had made a few and could sew them in my sleep, could be done in a couple of evenings or over a weekend at least. I could do binding instead of armhole facings, wear them to work, wash them carefully and hang them on the line to dry.

Maybe some I would line.

And then it was 6:20 and I got up to go to work.

The streets and the yards and sidewalks were covered with ice. Lumpy ice like lava that had been thrown over us in the night. I made it into work but I was the only one there. When I was still in my bed thinking of neckline variations the radio should have been on and I should have heard that my school was closed because of the weather. So I let myself in and had a productive morning of quiet work and I called Fabricville to see when the next pattern sale was.

SWAP jacket project

I am sort of informally doing a SWAP this year although I haven't had time to get a thread or storyboard going on SG, sewing it is pretty much my focus and goal. I love the rules this year to make things you would actually wear, a novel concept for me some days, so I am proceeding in my own heavily-distracted way.

I have had a nice rayon double-knit lurking around for a while now and I decided to make a jacket-type thing that was long enough to wear over my Ottobre tunic style top and had sleeves loose enough for the gathered wrists of my tops. I found a pattern in the same issue for something called a "mohair cardigan" that seemed about right, even though it had a slight dropped shoulder that I haven't made in a while.

I got worried though that I would end up with something really boring like a grey lab coat so I experimented with some coverhem top stitching with the serged stitch out on the right side and a variegated black to grey thread. And considering that I was going on what to my middle-aged mind was on a techno trend, I used giant snaps for closure. Because my hand-sewn snaps can be messy I dropped my feed-dogs and stitched these on by machine.

The snaps are cool, and they do add a nice weight to the front of a knit jacket, but you have to live with the fact that there are definite dimples on the right side and it does sort of clash with the top-stitching.

But this was an experiment right?

Also as per pattern I bound the back neckline with a strip of rayon single knit.

I may have over-done the decorative effects, which really are not my style (although I did go through my Jacket Jazz vest stage years ago, till I admitted I felt silly wearing all that machine technique) and I hope I haven't gone back there with this one.

Will I wear this jacket? Sure, it's comfortable and I am quite taken by the giant snaps.

I realize my photos are pretty random, but I wanted to show stitch detail, the snaps from all sides and the inside of the neckline. I have tried to bind a neck seam like this before, in a woven it can be hard to haul the fabric over to cover the seam, but it is so easy in a knit. I bound the whole seam and then flipped the facings to the right side.

I will try to get a picture of this on me in the daylight.

Thanks to Robin

I have had a busy few days and just started to get caught up on blog related activities.

My big surprise is that wonderful-blogger-herself (and mother of a great blogger, check out Daphne's cool, hip blog on teaching in Korea) Robin of A little sewing on the side has nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award. I am pretty happy about this.

First I am a new blogger; this place is strictly a place to record my own thoughts (basically life, family and sewing, which to me in this head are sort of all the same thing) and I am pleased that another sewer has found what I have written at all useful. I believe they call this peer-reviewed, which people say, wisely, are the only reviews that count.

Secondly I am very pleased because Robin's is one of my own favourite blogs. I have learned new techniques from her (that turned over elastic top on pants for instance), and am endlessly interested in her cheerful approach and continuing projects, which pretty much always look like things I want to make myself. Thanks Robin, coming from you this is particularly nice.

Now the rules, as I understand them, are that I talk about seven other blogs that inspire me. Easy to do, so many great bloggers out there that invariably brighten my days: (previously awarded bloggers should consider themselves included:

Debbie Cook of Stitches and Seams

I always learn so much from Debbie's blog and I want to acknowledge her generosity in going to all the trouble she does to explain techniques. I admit I have had a very under-used coverhem serger that I essentially used to finish seams, but inspired by Debbie's wonderful coverhem instructions I am now using it with comfort and confidence. Thanks to bloggers like Debbie who help other sewers learn.

Lori of SewForthNow blog and podcast.

Lori's podcast in particular has breathed new life into my must-do-wish-I-was-sewing jobs like the floors, the rowing machine, and cleaning under the stove. I hate wasting my precious spare time on non-sewing related activities and thanks to a gift of an iPod, Lori and her great, topical sewing podcasts I have been able to turn drudgery into something that interests me. Thanks to bloggers and podcasters that make every activity sewing related.

Ruthie of RuthieKsews 

Ruthie is the Queen of the SWAP and always manages to pull together several beautifully coordinated SWAPs every year, and best of all, she does it with fantastic and classic colour. Being lousy with colour myself I really admire sewers like Ruth who have a natural sense of it and so Ruth has inspired me to stretch and grow and enjoy colour. Thanks to bloggers who help us see a brighter and more interesting world.

Marji of Fiberartsafloat 

Everything Marji touches is first class. Her garments are gorgeous, her fabrics always look to me like art objects they are so fine, and her knitting, well take a look at her knitting. I have only seen mittens like that in museums. Marji's blog is my favourite place to go when I want to see things made that I could never do, but it comforts me to know someone else knows how to do them. Thanks to bloggers who share their quality.

Cennetta of the Mahoganystylist

When I was engaged in my pants experiment I got lots of good smart tips from Cennatta's blog. To my mind Cennetta owns fit. Her clothes are wonderful and fit her like glove, absolutely first class. Best of all Cennetta has taken the time to show the rest of us how she does it - her pattern and flat pattern alterations are very helpful. Obviously a perfectionist and another inspiration. Thanks to bloggers who remind us the remarkable difference real fit makes. I realize just now that Cennetta has already been nominated, so just let this be more confirmation.

Kristy of Loweryourpresserfoot 

Kristy is a real life sewer and a modern one. I love her work clothes and jackets, but let's face it, it is the new baby pictures and the maternity clothes that get me. Plus Kristy has to get a special award for the best blog name in the www and for sharing her life and sewing as a part of that life. Thanks to bloggers who share their good news.

The slapdashsewist aka Nice Girl on Pattern Review sews an amazing number of cool, stylish, retro garments and goes to the trouble to give really detailed descriptions of how particular patterns went together, in often hilarious detail. This is my blog stop when I want to smile and check out new pattern ideas. Thanks to bloggers who make us laugh.

I have been sewing too, and will post details of that project tomorrow, but before I hit the bath, my sewing magazines and my Ovaltine (such a wild life), let me just say this:

Thanks.

Repurposing

Like most women my age I am going through the transition of having my children go out on their own, sometimes far away from me. For those of us, and that would be most of us, who have the fleeting feeling sometimes that the best time of our lives was when we and our children were living together in a sunny and safe cocoon of simple routines, when we wonder if that was our best zone, and maybe it's gone, I think it is important to remember all the families we are part of in our lives.

After all if I had stayed totally enclosed in the family I had my own happy childhood in, I would have missed the family I started myself. And if I try to hold on to a certain version of my children now, I will miss my place in their new lives and new families. Sometimes the best of us has to be cut up and sewn in usefully as pieces in something else, like a new quilt, or like the buttons we cut off good old coats and save until we can use them again.

If a sewer can't understand making new things, who can?

On applying elastic

I forgot. There was a new twist on applying elastic to the top of garments that I learned from my Ottobre instructions that is worth sharing.

First this is how I usually do it, and probably how you do too.

The circle of elastic is sewn into, well a circle, and pin and marked in quarters. The quarter points are also marked on the garment. The elastic is then stitched/zig zagged/serged to the top of the waistline, stretching to fit between the quarter points. It is then turned and flipped over and top stitched from the right side.

The issue with elastic always of course is that the more stitches you put into it the more it can lose its shape. I have inserted more than my share of bowed out waistbands.

What the Ottobre pants pattern instructions suggested instead was that the circle of elastic was pinned to the inside of the garment at the quarter points and that vertical basting length ditch stitching was added at each of these (which on the pants meant centre front, back and each side seams) and then the elastic was flipped to the inside and topstitched down at the casing line. I used my coverhem which I am trying to use as much as I can these days to increase my comfort level.

Note there was no first line of stitching to attach the elastic to the top of the waistline, only the final stitching of the casing. This eliminated one whole line of needle holes in the elastic and I found that the lines of basting were far more effective at holding the ring of elastic in place than pins, which can move into the diagonal and shift the elastic pretty easily.

Definitely this is the method I will use again, particularly with the coverhem- it was nice not to worry about pins.

Learn something new everyday. Particularly if you sew

Sew like a crazy person

No one is going to give anyone in this household a prize for photography, that's for sure.

But that's not the point.

Yesterday I decided to make a pair of fleecy pants that did not fit into my SWAP, were not on my sewing to do list, and took me away from priority jobs, like cleaning this house.

After a busy week and much human and dog traffic that included wet boots and paws, trekked-in salt and everyone passing through here on the way to other missions, and not doing much maintenance along the way, what I really needed to do was some deep cleaning.

But I didn't. Chilled in my bones all week (do you know the feeling? Your bones are cold and no amount of hot baths, sweaters and even hot flashes can warm them up) I wanted to sew cozy. Real bad.

So taking the advice of my long ago babysitter who advised "Don't worry dear the dust will wait for you, the little people won't." I sat down and sewed. I used a the yoga pants from Ottobre 2-2008 for the top of the pants and the Jazz pants for the longer legs and this is what I got.

Not what I was expecting because the last time I made anything like sweatpants it was when they were in style and these are almost more like leggings with looser bottoms. Really comfortable (because this is a family blog I am not posting the side and back view) and I will definitely wear them with longer tops and to walk Rascal.

The fabric was weird. Something that Fabricmart called a Sweater Knit but actually is more like an interlock on the right side and a micro fleece on the inside. I also cut out a jacket to to with it. Yikes. I am I starting to sew stretchy pants suits? Senior style here I come. Might get to that today, after I deal with the dust. Mrs. H. was right. It waited for me.

This is leading somewhere.

Last night I braved the cold and went out to a hall to a friend's surprise birthday party. He has had a difficult year with his dad dying, and his sweetheart decided a birthday party with the surprise sister flown in even, would do him good.

It did.

Great big huge party with a live Big Band dance band made up of a bunch of the kids who play and of course mittens.

You see that years ago my friend decided he was bothered by single mitts lost on city streets and on snow banks. He saw that so many of them were hand made and it made him feel bad to see someone's expression of caring for someone else left alone in the slush. 

So he started to bring them home and hang them on his clothesline. The deal was that if you came to his front door with the mate he would give you the partner back. Most winters he has hundreds and hundreds of mitts on his line. People write him sometimes with stories. "My favourite aunt knit me these grey mitts before she died and I think I lost one when I got off the bus and I would sure like to find it." And he sees what he can do.

This friend of mine has had a pretty interesting career in public life and politics but actually the mitts have sort of defined him, that and he is a wicked ballroom dancer. 

So we were asked to each bring a single mitt to the party and when I walked in the hall was hung with clothes lines and thousands, and I do mean, thousands of mitts of all kinds on them.

The next election will likely be my friend's last. And I can tell you from my observer standpoint in a job there, that once you leave government it is as if you have never existed. That's how it works. But in life, and at a milestone birthday you think about these things, it actually is your interests and your hobbies that say who you are, and what people attach to you, are attracted to in you.

It may be your pastimes are what lasts.

So sew all you want. When the phone is ringing, when you should be cleaning, making supper, and doing responsible things. 

Surely a good life is the sum of all the time you have had just doing what you enjoy.

On stashing

The issue of to stash or not to stash is a burning one in our world, and no doubt the reality check of the recession/depression/slow down is sensibly making us think over the whole fabric collection thing. Two of my favourite bloggers Marji and Carolyn  have written articulately about this, and they have me thinking, and so has the weather.

This week I have been thinking a lot of my background. 

Because it has been so damn cold.

Tuesday I woke up to an email from my sister in Winnipeg who has a 10 year old and a 12 year old (I got married young and had kids young, my sisters did the later marriage and baby thing, but that's another story) that said this:

It's -48 this morning and our Mom is parked outside my door at 5:30 a.m. to take her grandchildren to the pool. Not too many seniors at that age would attempt that without a thought. She lost her husband 16 years ago and look at her now. In some ways and I mean some ways I hope I am just like her.

We grew up when all the winters were like this one and we learned to plan for it. When you grew up in rural Manitoba you have this thing in the back of your mind called "The Big Storm". If the Big Storm came would you have enough in the house to get by? (The fact that half of the family went through the Depression working on the railway, on the farm, or trying to hold on to the one family business really made this part of our culture). So our freezers were always full and there were always cans under the stairs.

I think this has affected the way I look at fabric.

When the Big Storm comes will I have enough to sew?

So I have gone through huge stash collecting stages, regrettable stages of stash busting where I made up totally inappropriate garments from wonderful fabric (some Quick-'n-easy patterns in good silk still haunt me), and back to where I am now.

Collecting with a strategy, because it is so nice when there is a big storm, fiscal, emotional, or just because the local fabric stores have gone down the polyester print drain, to be able to reach out and put your hands on exactly the right thing.

But to be smart you have to do this strategically. To my mind the way a good librarian would build a great book collection.

Here are my rules:

1. Buy large amounts of solids, buy small amounts (one garment only) of prints. AACA (after a certain age) too much print on one body is too much. A top or a skirt, a dress if it's quiet, no more. It is a waste of good money to have 3/4 yard of anything left over and you can't use a print, most prints, twice in different garments without people noticing, most of all yourself.

So 5 meters of black anything for me makes sense (in 3 different garments this same fabric will look like 3 different garments, not repeats). Anything more than 2 yards in a print is just going to make me upset because of the waste.

Distinctive fabrics (this season's colour, print or texture) can and should be purchased only on an as needed basis, i.e. you will be cutting into it this week.

2. Never buy on price. OK, I, and no one else I know, is going to stick with this one because a deal is a deal. However I find this helps : I ask myself how this same fabric will look after 5 washes. That usually does it.

3. Exception to Rule 2. Stock up on notions. I am sure I am not the only one who has been shocked to see how much thread, interfacing, and buttons can add up at the cash, more than the fabric itself in some cases, many cases. If you get a deal on silk lining that you can use in a coat - buy it. Keep the fixings around.

Nothing gets a deferred project on the move faster than having everything you need in the house.

Which brings me to my big revelation of the weekend:

Most of my money-wasting-don't-really-need-it purchases have occurred when I just "ran out to get some thread". Keeping those fevered trips down to a minimum is the best way I have found to cut back on poor stash additions, and to keeping myself under financial control.

So to me the issue is not whether or not to stop stashing, but how to stash smart.

The way the vendor situation is developing, and the way the choices are narrowing, I am not totally convinced that fabric purchasing will soon become more work than it is now. So I better get a start on this.

Am I the only one who doesn't wish she could get into some sort of fabric shopping time machine and go back to the fabric stores of her youth where Egyptian cotton, decent shirting, Swiss dot, and sandwashed silks were there by the bolt?

OK, off I go now. To sew up some nice warm fleece pants and stay inside. I hear we have a big storm coming.