Flypaper thoughts

• The spouse is now at the North Pole
• Promised the girls if he sees Santa he will take a picture
• Unless Santa is too shy
• Didn't want to take a scarf
• You sure know who grew up in Manitoba and who didn't around here
• The scarf is to breathe through so you don't freeze your lungs
• Everyone knows that
• My sister wouldn't wear hers one year
• Noticed white patches on her cheeks
• Frozen solid
• Girls in grade eight were always getting taken to the hospital because their nylons froze into the skin of their legs
• Prairie girls everywhere will know one of these girls
• They smoked young too
• I need more TNT top patterns
• I put the scarf in the bag
• Same morning Mr. R went in for emergency bladder surgery
• Couple of stones to match the rocks in his head
• A fox terrier may win best in the show but that doesn't mean you can take him to water and make him drink
• Putting a smidge of tuna at the bottom of the bowl to get him to drink down to it
• Vet gave me a 10 mm. syringe and said use this to force him to drink three cups a day
• Worked out that means 75 syringes I have to get past those black gums every day
• Works out to a syringe every 5 minutes hours I am awake
• That's when I came up with the tuna idea
• Really want to sew a T shirt
• Spent the last 12 hours in the ER with my daughter
• Did you know you can have gallbladder attacks when you are pregnant?
• Well now you know
• One of the doctors couldn't take in the fact she has had five pregnancies, two of them misses
• Really?
• Really?
• I couldn't take in such a bonehead graduated medical school
• Sit down mom 
• All good now and I took her out for breakfast and forced her to eat an egg white omelette
• When I got home the house was dark and cold and the power was off
• I went to bed Valentine's day with a guy with a cone on his head wrapped in my polar fleece housecoat
• To be clear it was the dog in the housecoat
• Life is full of surprises
• The lights went on at 3:00
• I was planning on cracking those remaining 39 papers this weekend
• Think I am going to thread up the serger instead
• You know exactly why

Don't dis the lounger

Thanks for all the great comments. 

Word from my community and my own eyes when I looked at those shots myself have sent the brown skirt into the garbage can and the grey one down for a 2" hem shortening job.

I think my earlier box pleated skirt in a knit is best for winter professional wear, and I will use the Susan skirt again in something brighter/lighter for spring and summer.

My plan is to be in New York next Thursday through Sunday and who knows what me and my credit card will turn up. 

Now on to current sewing.

My friend Mary and I from the sewing guild have a secret.

We both are secret admirers of the lounger. 

You know that garment more associated with stiff bouffants, days of the week pill boxes (I actually remember I have one of those I use for trips), the thermostat on high, and beige broadloam, than fashion forward chicks like us.

That said there is something to be said for an outfit specifically geared to watching Downton Abbey after a person's bath while she knits socks. 

Specifically. 

And really who cares what I wear to watch Downton Abbey. Certainly not Lady Mary.

So here it is, as previewed in my neckline fix post.

Bet you wish you had one:

My husband heads off for two months up north Thursday. I decided a racy picture would be a nice thing to send away with him. In Nova Scotia this qualifies as a racy picture.

Two skirt reviews and evidence of why I am ditching the black

I have continued with my comfortable skirt sewing experiments and in the process, using up my drab stash.

I have just decided the black and grey I worked in for decades isn't me.

When I see photos of myself dressed like this, as you will too here, I wonder what I was thinking - except from following every bit of fashion advice I ever read which was to have a good classic wardrobe of basics in classic colours.

I mean really.

I may be basic but I sure am not classic and that should have been my first clue.

Now moving on to what you are really interested in and that would be two pattern reviews.

The theme of this one is cut counts.

Here are the two patterns:

The Susan skirt from Stylearc:

This is basically a knit circle skirt sort of but with a back yoke and a shaped front panel to distribute the fullness at the hem but keep it closer to the body at the hips and waist. 

The cut of the front panel means that the side panels fall along the "straight grain," although knit doesn't have a grain you know what I mean, the lengthwise direction. This cut keeps the sides hanging straight down with a flare a the bottom and prevents the pointy look you get when an A line or wide bottomed skirt is cut like an A.

Does any of this make sense? Or only to me?

My point is that the cut is clever and the extra seams make a difference.

Here is that skirt on me in some sombre straight from the Gulag colours you are only going to see on me when I am doing the wearable muslin thing.

Imagine this skirt in coral like the picture and we would both be happier:

Probably I should have tucked the top in and worn a belt, and probably not the shoes I bought on the Golan Heights (for real) but at the time these pictures were taken I was nursing a finger that had been sliced open washing the slicing attachment from the Cusinart which just goes to show that a person is safer, not to mention happier, spending her time sewing rather than doing dishes.

I have my hand up to prevent blood loss, although do you know peroxide is wonderful for removing blood stains?

Next skirt.

This one is the julep skirt from SkinnyBitchCurvyChick:

The fabric is a knit with sort of a fake leather thing going on, bought when Carolyn and I were on a rampage in the garment district last year.

Now this pattern is simple with a front and back basically cut like large A shapes with the back part sloped down to one of those draggy hems I don't really like.

In fairness to the pattern maker I did take a lot of this back stuff off - just didn't do it for me as a work skirt for the winter and besides the inside of the fabric would have shown - and as a result it is uneven and looks more like a incompetently sewn skirt than a skirt that is supposed to be uneven at the bottom - operator error.

What you will notice, and I did as the hem circumferences are similar, is how the flare in this skirt is so centralized and less well-distributed. Basically down the front with the sides sort of pointing out.

I really am happier with the first skirt.

The lesson here, and one I knew but keep forgetting, is that the more pattern pieces often the better the fit and the design.

Now that's that. Onto something brighter.

Two pattern reviews

My sewing has kept ahead of my blogging this last week. I find making things easier than finding the time to take pictures. When my husband leaves next week I will probably be resorting to on the dressform shots or being brave like Carolyn and trying to take pictures remote control.

Things have been busy. 

My daughter is near the middle of her pregnancy and last week was dealing with a husband who was away for work for the week and a round of Norwok over there. I did what I could to help her out and that included one night where I stayed over to change and wash sheets while she held the bowls.

You get the picture.

The week was a bit of a blur between work and helping out but I had some nice sewing surprises. 

The first was a batch of six new Stylearc patterns I am dying to try and a shipment of some really nice knits from GirlCharlee fabrics.  They only carry knits but I got some terrific practical T shirt prints, good cotton lycra for some more day-to-day Elles, and some ponte. I am particularly impressed with the ponte. Good quality, good stretch. BTW the Girl Charlee site posts the stretch factor of their knits which is really useful if you are making some Stylearc pants for reasons in my earlier review.

My latest sewing produced a hit and a miss.

The first of these was Vogue 8951, a semi miss.

Here is the pattern shot:

I didn't do the extended hem at the back, personally that look still looks like a saggy diaper to me, and I really expected this top to be pretty straightforward and the top useful.

I used a ponte with good body and interfaced the collar and facings of course.

What the picture doesn't show, and I should have checked, is how low and wide that V is. Showing cleavage day-to-day may work for some people but those people sure didn't grow up in small towns in Manitoba. There we saved that for New Year's Eve and even then put on a sweater.

So I was sort of kicking myself for having burned some good fabric on this one, and in the end put on a silk scarf which makes it wearable. Here are the shots, see for yourself:

Since I always push up my sleeves, why do I forget sometimes not to just make them 3/4? A very good question.

This makes a few patterns now from the Vogue conglomerate that has produced clothes I am not comfortable in and makes the money I spend on ordering in the Stylearcs I can make many versions of more sensible. (In a previous life I was a spin doctor, see I can even still do it to myself).

Which brings me to my skirt experiments.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I teach a first thing in the morning class at the top of a hill. I am always running up that hill and since my work skirts are all straight skirts this is not always as easy as it sounds.

So last week I decided I needed something I haven't worn for decades and that is a skirt with movement, and in a knit.

This led me to the Stylearc Allison skirt:

I am still working my way through my black fabric stash and made this one out of a rayon ponte. It was an easy sew.

I was of course iffy about the waist since mine left town some time ago but decided I needed to just see how it went, knowing this in advance.

So these are shots taken before I went out the door to work yesterday.

In case you are wondering, yes you are in fact looking at a purple top and purple tights. I have been enjoying adding colour to my life and in my teaching evaluations last term one student, undoubtedly one of those who wears jeaggings and has plugs in her ears, complimented me on my kicking style.

Not sure what that really meant, I never the less still let it go to my head and give me courage to wear exactly what I never would have worn in my previous corporate life.

Of course being black you can't really see much of the skirt in this photo but it should give you some idea of the swing of it and its suitability for hill climbing.

Next up are more skirts and waiting for spring.

Flypaper thoughts

• Been doing a lot of sewing.
• Reviews and pictures will trickle by you soon.
• In the mood for this instead tonight.
• Spent the day trying to feel sorry for myself.
• Really hard.
• Love of my life is leaving soon for two months above the Arctic Circle.
• You read that right.
• So far north and any further he is on his way back.
• Serves him right.
• I will have to find the remote on my own.
• He has the attributes that matter most to a Canadian wife.
• He can make a person laugh even in February.
• Even on a Monday morning in February.
• He shovels the snow.
• He makes nachos when you want to sew.
• I notice when he is gone.
• This week my workplace was shut because of a blizzard.
• Half my evening online class didn't log in.
• Said they thought we were cancelled because of the weather.
• You see what I am up against here.
• Started some clothes to have self pity in.
• Velour housecoat in case I decide to age this way or become a hoarder.
• It involved the Rule of Corners.
• If you are a new sewer let me explain.
• If you set in something with corners only one will turn out.
• Or if they both work, they will be different.
• This is a rule.
• When I was a young pup sewing wise I would have ripped it all out.
• Three times.
• And made holes.
• I now know better.
• My daughter had ric rack at her place.
• Pretty much if you have ric rack you are in business.
• Woke up at 11:30 Wednesday night and my step daughter was standing in the hallway.
• She lives in England.
• Not in my hallway.
• They were coming for a visit and they got stuck in a snowdrift on the way to her sister's.
• We thought the flight had been cancelled.
• Good thing I am close.
• And I always have a lasagna in the freezer.
• English boyfriend thought snow was so neat so l he dug out my walk.
• There is potential there.
• Ric Rack cheered me right up.
• Even went and fixed the holes the spouse's felted mittens.
• It is very helpful in this life to be shallow.
• The best thing about grandchildren is that a kid is back in the house.
• And it's you.
• I will be in Florida in April.
• Pretty sure Miss Heidi put a toothbrush down the sink.
• Will know when the pipes get cut open.
• But we are not missing a toothbrush.
• This is getting exciting.
• My grandfather's first pharmacy was on the way to the North.
• Place called Flin Flon.
• The store was called Gateway Drugs.
• You can't make stuff like this up.
• My dad was named after the president of their best selling product.
• Sanitary napkins.
• Norval.
• That was my dad's name not the sanitary napkins.
• What do you expect.
• After that my grandfather called him Skip.
• Wonder if there are any nachos left.
• May all your problems be fixable with ric rack.
• That is not an Irish blessing.
• It should be.

Fooling around with the Kristen dress

I pretty much enjoyed doing three pants patterns and comparing them and might do more of that kind of thing in the future. 

I love fooling around with new patterns. 

Right now I have some semi-duds, a top and a skirt, both new patterns, I will talk about in the next week or so, but right now I want to share my experiments with the Kristen dress.

I originally made this dress here and really liked it. 

I have been meaning to get back to it and had two fabulous pieces of ponte from Mood I wanted to cut into. Nothing, nothing, nothing is as energizing as good fabric, in happy colours, and a pattern you can trust.

Note to the audience, for whatever reason the colours are not quite so blazing in real life, and yes my photographer should tell me my hair got messed up during the quick changes. 

Done.

O.K. The first dress was in my coral ponte from Mood, such nice hand to this fabric it more or less makes a person who has been stuck with too much crap fabric in the past,  to just cry.

Unfortunately the same person did not have the brains to buy quite enough. So there was some piecing done adding a seam under the bust which I hope looks like it is supposed to be there. 

With this new seam I decided the darts might look busy so I eased in the dart to the side seam with perhaps some success or perhaps not.

Also because the fabric was beefy (you will know exactly what I mean by that) I took the side seams in a lot to eliminate the A shape. 

And because I have a chicken neck I also added a silk scarf I got at my vintage second hand source.

I could be told to tone it down, good advice, if I were a toned down kind of girl. Which I am not. You will figure that out for yourself when you look at these shots and I trust someone somewhere is doing my toning down for me. It is probably very much needed.

A shot outside the sewing room I decided to do because the colour is more accurate and it shows the neckline without the scarf.

Second, I decided to try Pam's collar ideas, linked a few posts back, in another ponte. Because this would obviously make it a pull over dress I eliminated the back seam and the zipper, which I realize could be done in any version of this dress.

I love the collar but probably should have interfaced it. I didn't because in the planning stages I was concerned about having all those layers of ponte making a bulky collar anyway. So the collar sort of flops a bit but I am fine with that.

I love, love this dress. Which BTW I made with the original side seams. You can see the difference not taking it in makes.

I am so, so happy to have a good TNT basic knit dress to fool around with and you can be sure there is a lot more fooling around in my future.

Three Stylearc pants patterns differientated

O.K. here we go. 

As promised a highly scientific examination of the differences between three Stylearc patterns, the Becky Yoga, the Elle and the Barb. The thing about the Stylearc pants is they fit an amazing variety of shapes - due I think to some great drafting and an excellent crotch curve.

With of course the requisite quick and dirty shots in my basement done by my quick and relatively clean spouse who always seems to be on his way to other projects here we are.

The theme of this review is : the degree of stretch is the factor determining success. 

Each of these pants has been made by me in a stretch fabric that was not the right degree of stretch for that pattern and I produced either a wadder or something too uncomfortable to wear.

Each of these patterns was also made by me in fabric with the right degree of stretch and I had great success.

My assessment of what fabric worked with what pattern seemed to me to be worth passing on.

Here goes:

The Becky Yoga pant:

The first pair I made was in what I thought was a highly stretchy light ponte knit in which 4" of fabric stretched to about 6".

I could barely fit one leg into the first leg I sewed up and the centre front came no where near the actual centre front.

On an impulse I grabbed the most stretchy knit I had on hand, in purple no less, a rayon interlock that stretched 100% , meaning that 4" stretched easily to 8".

The result was a highly comfortable pair of purple yoga pants that I will be wearing in the basement to do my so- called exercises and no where else.

Here is the general shape of these pants on a hanger:

Here are these pants on my general shape:

Yes I know but no one is going to see these except you and www. I will do anything for education. Note these pants have a nice high waistline.

The Elle pant:

I made these a year ago in a stretch woven, about 25% ( 4" to 5") stretch and they made my body look like a teacup - legs with a ball on top. Plus I couldn't move in them.

This time I used a cotton/lycra terry with 50% stretch  and am super happy with them as skinny pants. I have them on now and they are perfect for blogging.

Here they are on a hanger, you can see the leg shape:

And on me:

Husband decided the black pants didn't show up so he threw an old cotton sheet over the family photos. Who am I to argue with a man with a camera in his hand and better things to do?

Finally, here are the Barb's in stretch corduroy (25% stretch this would be a minimum IMO).

On the hanger:

  And on me:

Any questions?

Now back to the lab.