T shirts : warning strange picture alert

Over the past week or so I have been making some experimental knit shirts. 

I needed some fast sewing due to the speed of life lately, and I was in the mood to fool around a bit with some patterns I had kicking around.

Worst case scenario I figured I would have something to walk the dog in. That's where I park my wadders.

I have a fairly large dog-walking wardrobe.

I also wanted to try out some new shapes, mainly the wider body dropped shoulder styles that have been sneaking back, to see if I liked them any better than in the last iteration twenty years ago.

So here we go.

My first try was this Stylearc top, which was my first ever colour blocking attempt, owing to the general policy of trying to be on trend when that trend was about to die.  

I am also still involved in my anti-black attitude and part of my motivation was to use less of the scary black print of haunted houses (yes you read that right) that I must have bought in New York at Elliot Berman when I must have been delusional and thought I was edgy when in fact I am live in the small suburb of a small city in a small, northern province where people wear Christmas sweaters at Christmas. Without any irony at all.

Here is the pattern I used:

I made the long sleeved version (see location above).

The shape kind of threw me because it is a current shape, that I have confirmed at Target and other high end stores is IN right now, meaning the body is boxy but the sleeves are themselves skinny as opposed to boxy. This is worth noting as this is a change from the last time boxy T shirts with dropped shoulders were in. In those days your dropped shoulders dropped into wide sleeves. Some men still wear T shirts like that and so do some women who wear their husband's T shirts.

I have seen this with my own eyes. Both cases.

To distance myself from the horror of having once paid more than my mind will let me remember for fabric with haunted houses on it, purchased without irony (see location above) I inserted in some turquoise knit that I have decided is more cheerful than black ( see current phobia above).

This is what that whole experiment looks like.

Excellent for dog-walking:

The first shot is to show you how wisely I have coordinated my bra strap to my skin and the second is to show you, but doesn't, that it is one of those longer at the back tops. A style that doesn't quite grab me since it reminds me of toddlers you are trying to catch and get dressed who run around with the tail of their onsie hanging down. I look I am not quite ready to emulate.

See what I mean about the drop shoulder transitioning into skinny sleeves with the underarm wrinkles that naturally gives?

( I also want to point out that I do not have a giant head and a tiny body - the opposite in fact - but it appears my husband had that lens on the camera for this photo shoot. It gets even better, keep reading).

Structurally the one interesting construction feature of this pattern is a tiny in-seam pocket in the seam between the two parts. This takes about the same amount of time to construct as 14 T shirts and I would like to point out is not entirely useful as it is only big enough for about one bus ticket, which you can hold in your hand anyway. If you really need a chest pocket, say for a packet of smokes, something I don't need, you might want to soldier on but you really should make the pocket bigger.

If I make this again I am going to leave the pocket out.

Moving along, and now to Vogue 8597

I made this top:

I used what turned out to be a fairly emotional fine rayon knit and I can see now that I need to go back in and redo something with the hem, the coverstitch seems to have tunnelled. 

The camera never lies and I often wished it did:

Again you will note the skinny arm thing going on and that lens is still on the camera and I seem to be standing on a deck at high seas.

At least my glasses match.

And on again to my third project of a busy week. No pattern shot because this is an out-of-print so long gone I can't even find it on the site. Vogue again. And cotton lycra and longer to go over leggings which I find is a good outfit to wear on home days when you are doing the laundry or out dog walking.

Here we go on vertical shot and one when the waves were really bad, but shows the purple colour more accurately:

Now off to dry land and off to walk the dog.

Now here's a DIY for the Canadian winter

Going to rush right down to the basement and try this one right now. I mean I don't know what I would do for laughs if I weren't alive. 

And BTW standby for T shirt reviews later today.

Well that was one weird week: otherwise know as more flypaper thoughts

• My hairdresser gave me the chop this week.
• I went in with a picture of an old hairstyle and said I wanted something lighter like this.
• She lightened it alright.
• To about 3/4" all over my head of thin hair
• Spent the rest of the week on the phone to my sister Nancy
• My daughter said you are bald, get a wig
• Spent part of my week not on the phone to Nancy researching hair extensions, wigs, wraps,and tickets to Outer Mongolia.
• Only cheered up when I realized headbands could be a new sewing project.
• Here is a picture of the chop 
• I got a haircut because it was picture day at the radio
• Go figure
• Since when do they need pictures on the radio
• Sometimes Miss Scarlett plays radio
• I have to hide behind the couch because as she says you can't see people on the radio
• Got to vacuum behind that couch
• Making T shirts all weekend
• Restorative therapy
• Going to explain pin and mark in quarters to my next Burdastyle class on Thursday
• I have just the haircut for distance education
• Going to be doing election night chat for the station
• From my friend's house because she has the best snacks
• When I retire I am going to the basement and play country and western music and Motown, nothing else, not politics. 
• Only girl bands and only loud.
• And make T shirts
• Probably also loud

And signing off tonight for all of you out there

http://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_l91cr6o46m1qayn8bo1.mp3

New fall McCalls patterns

I have gone through them all and this is the best of the bunch in terms of wearable style:

more later.

Changing profiles

As you probably have gathered I am a pretty astute follower of high fashion.  

I have after all made a peplum top, even if I was the last sewer to do so, and have made a leatherette skirt which only looks mildly like it came out of an autobody shop although sadly it no longer fits me since the moderate weight loss - and no one in their right mind (which I often am) would bother to take apart and resew any garment that is still off gassing that much.

However a lifetime of following trends when they are about to leave the station, and being on the vanguard of those new trends that never actually caught, I have learned a few things.

OK, I have learned one thing.

It makes sense to watch the way the wind blows because nothing ever looks as dated as something that was most in last year.

Which, if you sew sturdy, is really quite the pain.

So I try in my own way to stay alert to the Big Shifts when they are about to occur.

You know what I mean. 

Those about changes that the clothing czars and czarinas decide to pull once they are well and truly confident that everyone is finally comfortable with a silhouette and maybe even knows how to fit it.

So operating as an early warning system I have been looking at the Spring 2014 collections and can detect one of those big changes on the horizon. You know just when you have refined the TNT patterns.

The New Shape seems so far ( and I have only just skimmed the collections to date - sooo many slideshows) to have this going on:

1. The skirts are fuller (these allows them to declare, no surprise, in about 6 months that the pencil skirt has come back). By fuller I mean a) circle skirts, or semicircles, you know the big hems and no darts and b) your basic A line and even the inverted pleat jobs.

2. Tops are wider, like in 80s wider. This is going to cause those of us who have sort of figured out the full bust alteration something else to thing about.

I figure both of these trends have legs, despite the fact I usually call these things wrong.

My reasoning is that they are easy to wear.  Women tend to clutch tightly to things that are comfortable.

Remember capris? 

They came back for about 2 weeks and then the fashion world and all the What Not To Wear folks declared them total no nos, but guess what?

Everyone is still wearing them, in or not in.

Listen, designers once you let something back into the system that covers up varicose veins you are going to have a damn hard time getting it out again.

This might be a good time to let the pictures say a thousand words, from designer Lam and Lim:

We have all sewn shapes like those before (assuming you are of the generation that remembers working around a fax machine) and we can do it again.

The thing is once a new shape starts taking shape it takes a while for a person's eyes to get used to it. On her own body I mean.

But to dress you must be brave. And to sew even braver.

So I jumped off the cliff this week and made this outfit - one that last year I would have told you was too ugly because the top was shapeless.

In full transparency I must disclose I was pushed off the cliff by the fact I am still in that anti black frame of mind and I have a ton of red wool garbardine that no way in this lifetime is going to get tailored into any suit. Listen I would be retired from suits completely by the time that was ever done, I am so busy, a project like that.

And as shapeless as it was I knew, and was right about this, that this would be an easy sew.

At least I didn't do it in beige.

I actually really like wearing this outfit. It is suit like enough when I need that and easy and comfortable to wear.

But best of all I finally got to use these buttons, and how cool are they:

Best part of the project.

Bright spots dark spots

First the bright spot.

I did my Burdastyle seminar on Thursday.

I just had a blast. There is nothing like a captive audience of folks to listen to your opinions about interfacing and pressing to give a girl a good time.

Really I just loved it and am looking forward to one on knits next month and sleeves in November. I have so much I want to say about sewing and this is another way to have that conversation.

I am thrilled.

O.K. on to the dark spot.

Today the husband and I were in a golf tournament where if there had been a prize for the worst drives our foursome would have won, at least my end of the foursome.

Afterwards there was a lunch and because it a husband's work thing there were draws and prizes throughout the meal and since they are all in the engineering field the grab bags contained knives, flashlights, and golf balls with the big door prize a set of cordless drills. They kind of threw the prizes around and said "OK if you are finished eating see you next year." Let's say it was not exactly run like a shower if you get my drift. I thought it was hilarious and the man holding tightly onto his ticket to see if he won the drills didn't see what so funny.

But it was. If you were me it was.

Back to the dark spot.

OK.

Every foursome had their pictures taken. I looked at ours there I was black shoes, jacket, and pants. I looked like someone who was there to park your car.

It was at that moment that my style came to its final screeching halt.

For my whole working life I have been a black basic sort of girl. 

It's logical.

It's economical.

There is always something to go with something and there is always a black version of whatever you want to buy.

It made packing for business trips a breeze and accessorizing a snap.

It made it easy to go to New York.

I knew what to wear to a black tie and to an office party and a funeral and a speech.

According the lady who did my "colours" in my mom's living room in 1978, black is my colour and I have been working around it ever since.

The problem is.

I look like someone you would give the keys to.

I look dull and lifeless.

I look like I am wearing a uniform for a company at which I am not the CEO.

I look like someone else and not like me.

So the black has to go and leave me behind.

But how exactly am I going to do that?

What about the twenty pairs of black shoes?

The black leather bags?

The boots?

47 yards of black you know what?

The question is:

For me what is the new black?

Flypaper thoughts

• Lots of sewing but none to show.
• Working on my Burdastyle webinar for this Thursday
• Just making the pieces I need for pictures.
• Will get back to the rest of the garments later.
• Two jackets and a suitish thing.
• Shape appears to be going out of style.
• Same thing happening here.
• I have a student who paints little landscapes on fake nails then glues them on.
• Pretty impressive.
• Next thing is the assignments.
• My favourite foods may be crabapple jelly and rhubarb pie.
• This realization is part of why I am going to start phasing out black from my wardrobe.
• Maybe if I don't look so serious they won't expect it.
• Maybe they will know who they are really dealing with.
• About time.
• I can feel the serious reservoir getting pretty low.
• May not refill it.
• Why do children start to whine only when their mother comes to pick them up?
• Why do dogs get up to pee 5 times in the night only when my husband is away?
• Why do facing pieces always go missing?
• Why do they come back only when you make new ones?
• Who is around to answer these questions?
• The hard part of getting this webinar ready is knowing what to leave out.
• I am going to be haunted by the "I should have saids"
• Fall people start "activities."
• I think someone should start a book club where the rules are only funny books.
• The last one I tried exposed me to the fact that only books of suffering get prizes.
• Three months of all members saying they really didn't like the book.
• Too bad, the food was pretty good.
• How about a funny book club where you can come in your slippers and at break you eat rhubarb pie.
• And you can ask people how they get their eyeliner on so straight and they show you.
• After the pie.
• Do you think in the webinar I should say cut twice the number of facings?
• Will someone other than me let the dog out?
• Back to the sewing room.
• Call me when it's dinner.