Flypaper thoughts San Antonio edition

• Really nice day walking around San Antonio Texas with my husband in a newly acquired cowboy hat and Daisy in a stroller
• Yes he did
• It was hot and he needed a hat 
• And the next thing I knew
• Suits him actually
• Have you ever been there?
• The downtown is like a limestone surface of streets
• And walk down some stairs and it's Venice
• River walks, sidewalks along narrow water no guardrails
• Really like Venice
• Who would have thought?
• It was so beautiful I held myself back
• Didn't suggest we find that fabric store
• Filed that away in my personal account as a behavioural credit
• Sure to be cashed in
• Do you know there are roads in Texas that have an 85 mph speed limit
• How good are you at serging in clear elastic in shoulders?
• Working on a new top in the rv
• Always tape my shoulders to stabilize but should do the elastic
• When I try it I cut it into ribbons
• Just lay in down and serge over it says Trudy
• It lies down on her serger but jumps up on mine
• Exactly the sort of thing I am in the rv to work out
• In private and in another country
• So if it takes forever to do right
• We can keep it to ourselves
• Interesting top
• Sort of flared with pockets
• For some reason it reminds me so much of one of the little bags old ladies have for clothespins
• Like I wish I had
• You know the ones with the bias binding that hang on a hanger
• Well this one is going to hang on me
• I am going to find it very handy when I hang out the wash at home
• There is a man in this state park who rides a recumbent bike
• He has a pole mounted across the back
• And two Dobermans attached one at each end
• Sort of like propellers on a plane
• They fly around here while he whispers to them
• Never have seen his wife yet
• Probably in the camper wondering how she got here in her life
• So glad I am not the mother with five small kids in a tent
• Or do I wish I was
• On second thought not sure
• Pretty sure about the man on the recumbent bike
• Lots of DYI around here but none involving flying dogs 
• Yet
• More like cooing to Daisy in a dog stroller
• Short legs can only sightsee so far
• My son in Austin keeps texting me
• More fabric arrived here mom
• Circling around back to Austin for 3 weeks
• Staying in the vicinity means he can still live his life with us in town
• When he can duck out and do that
• Gives me time to think about clear elastic too
• And find that fabric store
• Believe I have a credit

P4P cocoon cardigan

Continuing my commitment to sew more Indie patterns this year I put together this little number, the Cocoon Cardigan by P4P  in the RV last week.

This was the cardigan I cut out at home and then left the fronts somewhere in the house back in Nova Scotia (I am in Texas now long way from those pattern pieces). 

The cardigan had originally been meant to be made entirely out of black and grey stripes. Absent the fronts I picked up some mottled grey with flecks sweater knit at a drive by Joann's and tried to improvise rather than waste what I had.

Once into the swing of piecing I made some cuffs out of some of the bamboo knit I had used to make the head wrap thing a few posts back.

I am not a great colour blocker. 

I reminds me too much of those bright squares of colour blocking that get old so fast when you wear them, and I have never been particularly good at fabric pattern combining, probably because I have never tried it.

However necessity and improvisation is at the heart of most creativity. And it turns out that this cozy cocoon cardigan really is cozy and that I really like the way the different fabrics worked together.

I am probably going to be cutting up different fabrics on purpose from now on.

The pattern is a little different from other cocoon cardigans I have sewn. The body is classic, sort of a big dolman that doesn't meet at the front, but there is an option for slim sleeves to be added for 3/4 and full length versions, and there are several cuff finishes too.

Most interesting to me were that there was a tunic length version and that, in addition to the standard sized band, there was another possibility - a super wide (finished width 6") "shawl collar" version.

This last idea was different enough that I wanted to try it.

Here is the pattern cover shot and the line drawings to give you a better idea:

I decided to try the patch pockets, because it was another fabric change up possibility, rather than the inseam pockets.

Here is the garment on a hanger on a tree in the state park. This should give you a better idea of how it is constructed and how wide the bands are:

On my body, as you might be able to see from the top picture with me in it, the band folds over in half lengthwise down the front and sort of scrunches a bit at the sides and opens up again at the back. Because the knit is so soft it really drapes and the pocket bags droop a bit and are baggy, not surprisingly. This probably looks even worse I realize because I have my hands in my pockets in the picture at the top of the post.

I am sure with the narrower band or a less soft fabric this might look different.

However these are details. 

Unlike most other cocoon cardigans, that are really more a layer for fashion than a layer for warmth, this one, because of the bands and longer sleeves, really is a good wrap for when you need to keep warm. The fronts can be well overlapped if you are really cold and all the fabric of the collar band around the neck is nice and comfortable as well as comforting.

Really I have been very happy to put this one since I made this cardigan. I feel both well-assembled and snug in it.

Definitely a pattern I will be playing around with again in future.

Peek-a-boo pattern's Park City Pullover

As you know I am interested in exploring patterns beyond the Big 4. Over time I have found that some independent pattern companies are simply doing a better job with fit that more closely resembles RTW, than the usual pattern companies, and also give us access to styles that are also closer to what real people are actually wearing in their real lives.

My admiration for StyleArc patterns, the pants in particular, and Jalie patterns is well documented in both my wardrobe and in the patterns I review on this blog.

As a result I intend to sew even more this year and to expand my horizons in as many ways as I can.

So for this reason I decided to make Peek-a-boo patterns Park City Pullover for my husband. I knew he needed a fleece jacket before our trip, all those state parks and campgrounds, and of course all those golf courses too.

My husband is hard to fit, or to be more accurate he finds it hard to fit himself. He is a trim fit guy but his shoulders and chest are proportionally larger than the rest of him. If left unattended, something we try not to do,  in a store he will buy himself XL tops (because they are comfy), completely ignoring the extra fabric that flaps around his waist and hips.

His approach to dressing has made me highly motivated to do more sewing for him. 

So when I saw this front zipper jacket from Peek-a-boo  I thought it would be a nice quick place to start:

I have had good luck with Peek-a-boo for kids clothes and for the diaper bag and diaper bag I made my niece in the fall. 

Like many independent designs the instructions are incredibly detailed, well-illustrated and carefully explained. As someone who has worked with new sewers, and seen them struggle through cryptic standard instructions sheets, I really appreciate any pattern designer who goes to all this trouble and makes sewing so clear and easy.

My husband is of average height but as someone who also sews for very tall sons and sons-in-law, I appreciate too that this pattern also has complete tall pattern pieces - another plus for a new sewer who would need them.

Now onto how the pattern worked for me.

Pluses:

The sizing was great. The large gave my husband the perfect amount of ease in the chest and shoulders but was trim everywhere else. He has more or less worn it nearly every day here on the road.

Minuses:

The details need a little work and there are some changes I would make next time. Here those are:

• The pockets are the standard inseam tear drop pocket units. These are fine in something with a long side seam but as soon as my husband puts his hands in the pockets they hang out below the hem.

He isn't really that sad about the pockets, just got him looking down in this picture! I actually think this shot makes us even for all those pictures he has taken of me that make me look fatter than I actually am ...

If I were to make this again I would use one pocket piece, sew it to the back piece at the side seam, tape turn and topstitch under the seam allowance at the pocket opening in the front piece and next topstitch the pocket piece to the front of the jacket to make the pocket. 

Does that make sense? It would fix this problem.

• The collar piece is a straight sided rectangle. You see this a lot but it makes a collar that stands up straight from the neck, rather than being curved into it, and a jacket that hugs the neck a little is warmer. A curved neck piece would fix this.

• Finally the construction of the band attaches a little awkwardly to the front zipper. There is no way if you follow the instructions to have a clean serged edge all the way up to the zipper. Following the instructions this is what it looked like before I finished the short unfinished part by hand:

I am sure I can find a way to wrap so it turns out more neatly.

So my final feeling is that this is basically a nice, well fitting pattern, great for beginners, but definitely needs some refinement to be as good a pattern as it could be.

Insta project

When we are on the road my husband does 100% of anything related to food. Buying, cooking and cleaning up. 

The kitchen in an rv is tiny and he loves to organize it. This is a man of a million systems. Also when he was growing up his father, a man of multiple enterprises had a restaurant he sometimes worked in.

My husband also says cooking is to him what sewing is to me, something creative that relaxes him.

So our agreement when we are on wheels is that I stay out of the kitchen and do all the dog walking, the laundry, and my many projects. I also do the phoning people up and talking part. I am better at that than he is.

Every once in a while though I feel guilty. Women of my generation have somewhere a little voice that says if you aren't working all the time around the place then you are pulling some kind of scam.

OK I am pulling a scam here, but the scamee seems happy with it.

Occasionally I wonder out loud about things we could do so he would have less cooking to do. My daughter-in-law has just bought an Instant Pot and I thought maybe those are a good idea. Of course I am the princess eater here not on the production end of this operation, but it's a nice thought right? Like those 50s husbands who used to give the wife a new vacuum for Valentine's day.

Any one out there have one and think they are really really good?

I mean Valentine's Day is coming up right?

In the meantime while I wait to hear from my consultants (that would be you folks) and am engaging in some Insta projects.

When you are living in an rv Insta projects make a lot of sense, particularly the ones you cut out at home (and remembered to pack all the pieces of) if you have promised to stay out of the kitchen, since that more or less leaves just the bed and the driver's seat.

I started with my all time favourite Insta project- this neglected and quite amazing Jalie shirt, described, accurately as V neck and high back:

Now this is the cover shot of the version with a zipper.

I made mine without the zipper and also without the bike helmet and the bike shorts. Seemed like a good idea.

What is amazing about this top (you can add sleeves if you want they are included) is that it essentially can function as a great tank or under cardigan type top and can be made in about 30 minutes.

The upper part of the top, the V neck, is made by laying two front pieces on top of each other (they are sort of rectangles no neckline shape at all) sewing a short 5" line of straight stitches up the middle at centre front, and the folding the pieces, wrong sides together, to each side.

That's it. 

A beautiful V neckline with zero sewing around it, no points of the V, no binding, just a nice folded edge that lies beautifully.

At this point I should stop and say I am fully aware that the above description makes no sense at all and only marginally describes the picture I have in my head, so your main take away here is - no sewing - super easy.

As far as V necks go this one's a scam.

After you have done what I have described, properly because the directions make sense in the pattern, all there is left to do is the back, lower front, side seams and turn and stitched hems around the armholes and along the bottom.

Here is my version - a black knit with a sort of a built-in texture wave I like, modelled in a non kitchen part of the rv, meaning next to the bed and in front of the bathroom door. I am posting two more or less identical pictures because I couldn't decide which one was worse:

Full RV view in my glasses for this interested.

After my busy day yesterday the serger seemed to be too heavy to lift off the floor and put on the table so I sewed this whole unit up with a straight stitch on the Rocketeer using that stretch Eloflex thread.

I know some folks have had issues with that thread but I learned a few tricks that kept it working just fine in my old 60 year old travelling machine:

1. Wind the bobbin slowly. If you whirl that bobbin around too fast the thread will stretch on the bobbin and retract in the stitches, puckering them.

2. Sew slowly and steadily. When I sped up the thread obviously got stretched thin and tight in the tension disks and then broke. When I kept up a conservative and constant pace this did not happen.

3. I bypassed the little thread guide just above the needle and this eliminated any possible fraying. Eloflex looks to me to be a 2 ply twist and is quite stiff. The stiffness means that it dropped down to the needle without having to be further held close, so dispensing with that last thread guide was fine. It also meant that this thread guide which is quite tight didn't get a chance to saw away at the thread.

I also have an idea, untested as this machine has few fancy stitches, that the simpler the stitch the better this thread will perform. A complicated stretch or multi action stitch would probably stretch and strain it a lot and that might contribute to the issues some sewists have reported. 

I wonder. 

Now off to dinner. I have some Indie pattern reviews coming your way and then I think I am going to do a series on hand sewing, like I did on hemming knits.

Does that sound like a good idea?

A day of much weirdness

I am back in the rv after a trip to Winnipeg for my fabulous mother's 90th birthday. I have posted pictures of that trip on my Instagram.

After a busy time I was looking forward to walking the dogs, talking to my husband, and a little sewing.

Things didn't turn out that way today.

Instead a man I know well and like a lot, a former head of a political party at home, had to resign because of allegations of sexual impropriety with a staff.

Yes I know. Him too.

This meant instead of a nice quiet day I had to do some radio commentary and a TV interview via Skype from the rv, with my husband frantically running around to get me set up and to keep the dogs out of the shot.

If you are interested, and you are probably not, here is a link to the TV interview.

The day left me rattled, as far as I had known, this was a decent man, nice wife, lovely daughters.

I needed to sew to get myself settled again.

So I pulled out a cardigan I really wanted to make and had cut out at home before we left. 

Turns out that I also left the front pieces back in Halifax, probably in the garbage, probably long gone to the landfill.

So. 

Well some days its best not to expect too much.

Appreciating that this was not a point in time to raise my expectations I settled on making myself a head band unit I had made for my daughter, DIL, and niece for Christmas.

My hair is nothing to write home about at the best of times and camping hair is the sort of thing you want to cover up. 

It seemed a good day to make a head wrap so I did.

Here is the terrific free pattern I used from Patterns for Pirates. Super easy. PFP has some other cool free patterns too - all worth a look.

This headband can be worn as a head wrap, a slouch hat, a neck cowl, and well as, well a headband.

Here is me in some of those versions, artfully shot in the inside of the rv with my frazzled self inside. The fabric is a lovely bamboo knit from Fabric Crush:

I am pretty sure all I want to happen tomorrow is,

Nothing.

Might make more of these though.

Flypaper thoughts Comfort Inn edition

• Five days on the road now
• Currently in Georgia, tomorrow in a state park in Florida, in Panama City
• Been pretty chilly
• Tour director says if we stay in the rv it has to be without water
• Pipes freezing etc.
• Mommy doesn't do no water
• So it's been road side Comfort Inns because they take multiple dogs no problem
• Have Miss Daisy with us and Birdie, my son's dog who is on to relocation in Austin
• At night I go and walk the treadmills in the hotel "exercise rooms" to unkink

This is the team as documented by the tour director whenever I leave the room at night:

• No need to ever ask me why I have a dog
• Who says older women are invisible?
• Do you know it is possible to order a significant amount of fabric on an iPhone with a dog wrapped in a blanket on your lap
• With a pillow on that lap
• The blanket and the pillow and the head under my elbow is so someone can pretend she is not where she is
• Hang on guys
• We're parking soon and Benny is at the other end of this trip Birdie
• You just hang on
• Listen
• Whatever are the Big Four going to do?
• Four pattern companies now owned by one entity
• So many patterns that already look identical
• I am waiting for the call
• Even got my phone plugged into the front of the car just in case
• Waiting for them to call and ask me what to do
• You'd help me out
• Well, I would say, maybe you can start with the instructions
• Like stop telling new sewers to staystitch knit necklines
• Or make basting stitches and ease in sleeves in T shirts
• Try writing the word serger in
• And stop listing "faille" as a suggested fabric on the back
• You don't even remember what that fabric is
• Admit it
• And how about not having all the coats unlined so a sewist has to figure that out herself
• If Google doesn't stop changing sewist to sexist
• I may just have to stop Googling
• That would show them
• I'm going to be adding to the list all night in my head
• Of what the Big Four should do
• In case they find where they put my number
• My husband did a DIY security system
• An iPhone and thermometer pointed at the front door from the inside
• He gets an alert when someone moves and he checks it out
• Did that man duct tape this to my china cabinet
• Don't even have to ask
• Best not to picture that
• So far we can report that the relatives are coming and going
• As expected
• Some are studying in the quiet
• Some sleeping over after concerts
• Is that mail on the table?
• Decided he isn't going to respond to the alerts any more
• Turns out home security is a violation of privacy
• Do you know that instead of packing enough underwear
• I packed enough fabric to make enough underwear
• I am pretty sure I am going to get a cowboy hat in Texas
• Miss Scarlett says sure Babs just don't say my name out loud when you wear it
• She is growing up
• Kind of too bad
• Her sister and brother will think I am beyond cool
• 6 and 3 are good ages
• Gee I love these trips
• Except the no kids part
• Apart from that every minute of it
• The truck stop where they pack up six rolls with two chicken pot pies to go
• Two days' supper out of that one meal
• The fact I know every place a dog can pee between the giant plastic peach in Georgia and the Canadian border
• Seeing other's peoples homes flash by my window
• What are their stories?
• This week it was 25 years since my wonderful dad died
• On the exact anniversary the phone rang
• He won a prize from the gas company
• His name is still on the bill 
• A quarter of a century later he is still lucky
• A sign says my mother
• Of course this is dad
• Kind of comforting
• Next week going to fly back to Winnipeg for her 90th
• Having a party
• Here's a list of my friends she said
• Over a 100 people
• Turns out nearly all can come
• We are renting extra coat racks
• You've been to Winnipeg in January?
• Those policemen on Portage Avenue still wear buffalo coats?
• If they do we are going to need those coat racks
• I think we had better roll some extra sandwiches too
• We are all wearing fascinators
• Google it if you are too young
• And if you are still Googling
• Not out in protest
• Haven't worn a fascinator since we put on white gloves for church
• And felt particularly fasicinating
• About 800 years ago when I was 8
• Apparently 90 feels the same as 8
• Kind of comforting too
• And to finish, another picture
• The one I told my daughter I wouldn't show
• She's far away right
• Jalie's wonderful pyjama pattern on Christmas morning in some nice thick flannelette
• Pretty beautiful daughter for someone who was up early with three kids I thought:

•  I never looked this good when it was me

A podcast interview

Well folks for those of you who might think I just have to be better organized and more serious in person than in print well here's evidence that I am not.

A fun interview I did just before the holidays with the Clothing Mavens is now up.

Enjoy.