On shirts, Cary Grant and airports

I have been away for a week now, visiting my son in DC, visiting my husband who is working in Tennessee, and doing my part to help out the American retail economy. The DH will be home for a week at Christmas and then going back. We don't know for how long and I have been taking advantage of his current US address to have things shipped to him, some of which I brought back this trip, some he'll be bringing back later.


It was a bit of a shock, a nice surprise but still a shock, to walk into his suite  and see it filled, and I mean filled, with fabric boxes. Fabric.com has free shipping you know for orders over $35. Since that is about what I would pay for duty I would have been a fool not to have spent my fall clicking that "add to basket" button.


In addition I have been on the Joann's website most mornings and texting him pattern numbers to pick up for me when there are sales. The guy's a sport.


Anyway.


It appears I now have a collection of every shirt pattern that has yet to be discontinued and about 50 yards of white fabric of various kinds, textures, weaves, and potential applicabilities.


It's not often I amaze even myself but I managed it this time. It is safe to say I am set up to make more shirts, once I get this Santa's Workshop thing wound down. That in itself deserves a post.


Back to my travels. There isn't a lot to do waiting for planes, except knit ( I finished second son's hopefully NYC style socks for very nice girlfriend in Newark airport between flights - only person who was having a good time there for sure) and look at the magazines.


Well, I picked up the GQ Style Manual because it had a cover line about shirts and boy is it ever good. I think any sewist would get a charge out of this one. So much detail about the tiny variations of men's clothing. So much talk about fit and quality, so many good ideas, I have to tell you, if you are shopping for an young man on the list.


Who knew that silver tie clips were back? That you never button those little buttons on the collar of an Oxford shirt? That the best way to iron a shirt is with the ironing board backwards? Some of it is obvious if you sew, or are anyone's spouse or mother, a lot of it was new and food for thought.


There are two things about this magazine that are particularly great. 


The first are the shots of men like that one pictured below who really knew how to bring out the best in a shirt.


The second is the shirt section which has this sidebar from Style Guy Glenn O'Brien on why "that white shirt is always right," p. 29:


I have a veritable Pantone book of colored shirts, but it wouldn't bother me to give them all up for the Don Draper white shirt that virtually every businessman wore daily until the late '60s. Nothing looks dresser or richer than a crisp, immaculate, high-thread-count, perfectly fit white shirt. Nothing sets off a tan better. Or a dark suit. You can always supply color with a tie of cuff links, but that white makes you look brilliant. And white won't clash with anything else you put on. My grandmother insisted that a gentleman wears white shirts at night (if he has time to change), and she has a point. My favorite is a placket-front French-cuff shirt from Charvet. It works with a tie, but you take away the tie and you have a perfectly smooth and clean look. It also doubles nicely with a tux and eliminates the need for studs.


The only thing I might disagree with is the last few words. 


Case in point.

Sewing like a survivor

The last two weeks have been strictly W.T.B. (way too busy) with frequent moments of S.O.C. (spinning out of control).


Well Christmas is coming up. See midnight knitting post.


I also have a full-time day job. End of Term means lots of marking, explaining to students that the last week of classes is getting kind of late to figure out how to make up marks, and of course getting all that stuff organized for next term.


I have also been cooking for Mr. Rascal. 


He is now on a diet the vet gave me which involves making casseroles of low-fat chicken rice and vegetables and trying to freeze some so I am not cooking for a dog for two hours every other night - except for those nights when I have realized I should have left more head room in the mason jars which all exploded inside the freezer.


When I caught myself driving through my own dinner at MacDonalds last week, because I had spent so much time cooking for the dog I didn't have time to shop or cook for myself, I thought to myself well this is just so S.O.C.


Thing is Mr. Rascal is doing so amazingly well on this new diet and so is my son's dog Birdie. In fact they have been springing out of bed extra early to stare in anticipation at their bowls.


All I can say at this point is that when the time comes to sit judgement on my life well I sure hope there are some dogs on that committee.


Which brings me to sewing.


In the background of all of this I have been attempting version 2.3 of our baby's winter jacket. 


First version had a pin head sized hood and that got ditched.


Not wanting to make that mistake again I cut a larger size for version 2.0 but that turned out to be something she could wear in junior high.


I much reduced that by huge amounts at all seams and made it shorter too.


Version 2.2 was small enough in the body but big enough in the hood, which was good, but a couple of inches too short. I over did it, surprisingly.


No point in a polar fleece lined, insulation interlined bomber jacket for a 15 month old.


At this point I have to admit that I was in a seriously pride-involved state. I mean I am proud of my sewing. This is my first grandchild. I have made a whole series of great winter coats for kids over the years without any problems. Why was this one taking a bad turn at every turn? Why was I being tested? Why was this happening to me when I was both W.T.B. and S.O.C.?


It then occurred to me that because this was a project with high emotional/vanity stakes for me it had become one of those projects that just sets out to break you.


Well forget that.


I am a survivor of more sewing rescued disasters than anyone I know. In fact you could almost say I am in training for this - and if fixing up mistakes were an Olympic event, well let's just say Canada would be looking at a gold. I have had so much practice.


So I sewed on an insulted extension at the bottom to make it long enough (when I was supposed to be finishing my marking today) and then stitched a line below the join seam so it looked like a casing and put in some elastic cord and added some cord locks (it's great to have a sewing room that is a repository of 20 years of random purchases) and I think it looks just fine. Almost like it was intended.


Take that you jacket.

Midnight express

I am sitting up most nights doing Christmas knitting. Last night I finished this hat for my nephew in Winnipeg. It's a pattern used by knitting volunteers for soldiers in the Israeli army and is fun and easy to do. Of course if you aren't watching TV movies at the same time your stitches would be neater. 


On that subject though, what's up with Jennifer Aniston? I swear I have watched three movies of hers in the last couple of weeks and that girl hasn't cracked a smile once. How do you make so much money just from looking crabby?


Maybe she should knit. Or sew.

Well I think there is a point

I am getting through my last week of classes and getting the kids ready for exams. Despite all the angst every November over late assignments and "why are my friends getting better marks than I am" (well kiddo they are working harder), there isn't a day that I don't say to myself thank you, thank you for getting me out of corporate, government, political life and into this classroom. Students are sooo funny. They really are so engaged. Their days just fascinate them.


Maybe, thinking of my crazy father-in-law who continues to do well despite bouts of trying to check himself out of ICU because he has too many things to do, that's the secret - keeping engaged.


I ran into a woman I have known for a long time in the fabric store last night. Well-known local sewing person and former sewing teacher - been in the middle of everything. She was surprised that I was sewing for our girl, she has lots of grandchildren now but all out of province "what's the point of sewing for them? I don't see them in what I make." She also said that some days she realizes she has put on one black and one blue sock but thinks that at a certain stage "What's the point? no one will see it."


And I thought of some of my female students who get up early on exam day to straighten their hair. 


It's about showing up ready to go. Being alive is worth that.

A great collar tutorial

Fellow sewer Lisa has put together a great Flicker tutorial on making a collar with a stand.


As she doesn't blog but is sewing along with us I thought I would post the link here 


Lisa this is so helpful, thank you so much for going to the trouble to do this.

You would have to be a sewer to understand this

My son-in-law doesn't.


In addition to related time on the phone and visiting my father-in-law, I made my granddaughter a snow suit, got the jacket done this weekend.  Lined, insulated, zipper guard, hood, the works. 


It was a MacPhee pattern I had used a years ago for my kids and for the nieces, so I put this thing together quickly without reading the instructions.


I must say I did a beautiful job, the top-stitching was great.


So where is the picture?


The trouble was that when we put it on our girl it was so tight at the neckline and shoulders it wouldn't do up (and yes I measured).  The hood was tiny for her brainy head. It was obvious to me that I was looking at one very well-made wadder. I mean clothes from Grandma aren't supposed to make you cry because you can't move.


So off it came and I went home to regroup. Seems in my haste I forgot the hood insert piece which accounted for the tiny hood and also that I under-estimated the effect of a layer of polar fleece and two layers of needlepunch ( don't want the baby to get cold) in the shoulder fit of what I remember now was a pattern that tended to be a little tight in the shoulder.


So out it went. My poor son-in-law is shocked that I am not going to rip it apart and try to fix it - and why I am just going to learn my lessons, try the roomier Jalie pattern, and just make a new one. He doesn't get that this is actually easier on my nerves (and I have the fabric to do this) than to fiddle around and take out that top stitching and probably still not be happy with the result, which would undoubtedly still be not quite right.


One step forward, two back.


But I think another sewer would understand. 


We after all are the folks who invented the term "wearable muslin" which translates to "I was expecting a wadder but think I can wear this around the house." Every once in a while you get a throw-away and its sort of a price you pay for being in this game.


Comes with the territory, just like the nice surprises that turn out better than expected, just like I am sure the next version of the winter jacket will be.

What happened to the weekend

First here is a shot of my first shirt finished except for the buttonholes. Hope to get those and a picture on me taken this week. I really love the shape and find the sleeves nice but not too fussy.




There was a delay in production with the new Friday that my almost 84 year old father-in-law had a heart attack and was in a hospital in a town about an hour away. He is doing fine, amazingly in fact.


He spent last week in the woods by himself, got a deer, butchered it, distributed all the meat to “old people” picked and bottled 25 pounds of apples for pies and then went to bed and had a heart attack. 


He wants to be out of the hospital by next weekend to install a sump pump and says he has to rebuild the landing on the back door of his house (the one he built last year) because as they were wheeling him out he noticed that it was not well-designed for emergency workers and stretchers – says it should be an easy job.


He is in ICU and when I first went in to see him he was chatting away, calling all the nurses Florence Nightingale and telling them he was getting the best care in the world but it was time he went home because he really doesn't have the time to "take a week off."


It actually was a bit of a lift to sit and talk with him. We can't do a thing with him of course, but maybe that's not a bad thing.