Inspired by this weeks finds in the Farmer's market:
Salmon with Sorrel sauce
Gnudi (ricotta and spinach dumplings)
The salmon is obviously not local, nor is the parmesan cheese and tiny bit of flour (gluten free) I used for the gnudi. Everything else was inspired by our first trip to the farmer's market this season: sorrel, spinach, fresh sheep's milk ricotta, butter, cream, and eggs from local farms.
I did not sign up for Me Made May, I had doubts as to whether I had enough stuff to do it and I certainly didn't have the willpower, although I do like wearing things I made. However, it occurred to me, as I was perusing blogs, that I had worn something I made the first 4 days of May so I thought I would see if I could continue. As I would expect, as soon as I decided to follow the plan, I was itching to get out of it.
I made it for six days straight. On the 7th, I started out with something I made but then decided I hated the outfit and took it off as soon as we got home from an appointment. The clothes I did want to wear were not made by me. So goes it. I did notice, as I was putting up these pictures though, that I have worn my favorite robe, made by me two years ago, every day this week, including the days I did not wear things I made out in public. So I added the photo anyway. Besides, some of the things I wore in public, were barely noticeable (hand knit socks or a gray tee under the spotted sweater). Yesterday was cold. We went out. I wore something I made.
I am now bored with this exercise; not with wearing things I made, just forcing myself to dress from a fixed and limited palette.
I am however eager to make more things and work them into regular rotation. If I have learned anything it is not to save things for "best". Wear them or let them rot.
Mother's day is the opening day of the Rhinebeck Farmer's Market. We were there, braving a cold wind and temperatures in the 40s for the first produce of the season.
There were some new vendors and farms this year, and we had a good time wandering around looking at the offerings. It is very early in the season yet, and aside from greens, radishes, and last seasons apples, there was not much produce. Luckily for us we love greens in all their forms.
There were more cheese makers than last year, and several farms selling their own meat and poultry. We had grazed beef, lamb, venison, free-range heritage pork, and several varieties of chickens, game birds and rabbits.
The guy who sold fish was not there, and is not on the vendor list for this season, which is a shame, as he had the freshest fish I've been able to buy around here.
We did go to the fish market, which required an extra trip, because I was inspired by the fresh sorrel to roast some salmon with sorrel sauce for dinner tonight.
As for the rest of the day, I intend to spend the remainder in the garden. It is less garden time than I had hoped for, but running to the fish market was apparently more important. Still, if I want to not only get the yard back in shape but actually improve the place and do more planting, I do have to spend some time outside.
I'll leave you with one last photo, the first batch of poppies. I'd show you the irises but they are all lying in the grass after yesterdays rainstorms and wind, staking them back up is my first task.
Yesterday was a good day.
Despite some upsets and delays I got all my chores done and still got a little bit of time in the sewing room. Not that I got as much done as I hoped for, but that really isn't surprising. I did get the front of my skirt placed, cut out and all the thread tracing done, so I am satisfied with that. It did take me a while to get the feel for the hand basting again, and I made a few mistakes in the beginning.
Today was not so good. Or was it? The plan was that I would finish cutting and marking the skirt and its lining, but it didn't quite work out that way. After some tensions early in the day, I let my frustration get the better of me and I frittered away my time catching up with blogs and surfing the internet. Although a part of me feels like I should have been more productive, I also realize that this semi-mindless state gave part of my mind a break, time to process things I was avoiding with serial activity. When I pulled myself together and got on with life, I suddenly had answers to a few questions I had been puzzling over. All in all, a day well spent.
I do sometimes think that it is those mindless daydreaming hours that are the most productive even though they don't seem to yield anything upfront.
There was no sewing time over the weekend as I spent the weekend in spring cleaning and preparation for some rearranging of our living spaces. The movers and junk haulers come some day this week (hopefully), and once a bunch of stuff is gone, and a few big pieces of furniture have been moved, I can get busy settling back in. In the meantime much is out of place and out of the way while we wait.
After a weekend of dust and grime (going through G's old medical library and starting to clean the garage) I felt like wearing something light and bright yesterday. Since it was gray and rainy and cool outside, white seemed perfect.
The vest is a little top I made a couple of years ago. I am thinking that I basically prefer a more fitted silhouette but I am working my way into it gradually.
The blouse doesn't fit particularly well anymore and must be worn with a vest, which severely limits its usefulness. As soon as I finish the skirt I will return to the blouse muslin and make a couple of blouses.
Here is a variation, similar fitted lines, with the same jeans, that I wore last week.
This outfit was built around the green sandals.
I am really happy with how these two outfits came out. And I was happy wearing them all day. From a completely personal standpoint, looking the photos also reminds me how far I have come in accepting my body in that I no longer feel I have to walk around sucking in my bit of a tummy, pretending like I am supposed to look like a Barbie doll. It is a small accomplishment, but one about which I am quite proud. It is through these little steps that we come to self-acceptance.
My only issue with this outfit is with the necklaces which, although they are lovely, are really too small in scale for me. I am not a small person and I feel that the necklaces look disproportionate and only emphasize the difference in scale. Jewelry is something else I am addressing in my style reemergence, although I am taking my time and trying to think about what really works and what I really want. In the meantime, I'm all for making do.
Metscan tagged me to post the sixth photo I posted on this blog. When I started looking for this sixth photo, I was struck by two things. First, the process of fitting seems to be a never ending quest; the body changes, the quest goes on. Secondly I was surprised that it had been 5 years since those first posts. Despite all the absences and changes in this blog over the years, I am still here. I was also surprised to see that this post is my 490th post. At a time when I feel like I haven't stuck to much, it seems that I have stuck to blogging.
In March 2005 and I was sewing casual clothes to take on a cruise on the upper part of the Amazon. It was a small boat and I would wear trekking clothes during the day, but I needed a small collection of clothes for the evening, clothes that could see me through the casual and the more formal evenings on a two week trip with a very tight total weight limit for luggage (checked and carry-on combined).
It is not a photo of great beauty; very few of my photos were back then.
I was making a pair of pants and working on fitting issues.
The beige pattern on top is a pair of pants that I had cut the previous September after taking a course with Sandra Betzina. The pattern below it (in white) is for a pair of pull-on one-seam pants which I wanted to make up in a blue knit for the cruise. I had used the white pattern the previous summer several times. This is relevant because the patterns that fit me then, are the ones that are closest to fitting me now.
I posted the photo because of what I was learning about fit. Notice the angle of the waistline on the beige pattern. The crotch depth is much shorter at the center front than it is at the center back, as opposed to my previous pattern, where front and back were the same. I have learned that this is a quite necessary alteration, and it is included in the skirt I am making now and my new pants draft.
The blue linen pair, which were the next pair after the ones I am working on in that photo can be worn now, although they needed minor alterations. I am a little thicker through the waist, and smaller through the hips, than I was then. I have also learned that the waistline on all the patterns fitted at those early Sandra Betzina seminars actually extend an inch or two above my anatomic waist, although that may indeed have been my smallest point at the time. It does make me wonder because I certainly don't remember what I was thinking.
And now on to the second part of this little game: I get to tag ten blogs and ask them to post their sixth photo and tell us why they chose it.
Have fun.
This is not a style blog. And yet, it is, because to sew and knit clothing one must make decisions about style.
As I've worked my way up to deciding what to sew, I've been exploring what I want to wear, using a few basics, as well as an assortment of things that have, so far at least, survived the various purges of my wardrobe. Sometimes I am more successful than others.
Yesterday I wore this:
Inspired by the far more stylish than I likes of Materfamilias, Karen, and Deja Pseu, I decided to create a polyvore on the floor as a record of what I wore.
Most of this outfit has been residing in my closet for years, although the pieces were strangers to each other.
The nice thing about this POTF technique is that I have a record of what worked and what didn't. I can record the smallest details, and I can make notes about what I need to buy, make, change or leave blissfully alone.
Since I love accessories and they are always an integral part of how I feel about a particular outfit, having a detailed photo is perfect. When I find the combination I like, I tend to stick with it.
Of course seeing the outfit on the floor is useful, but doesn't really show how it worked on me. That is fine if I know that the pieces fit and how they look, but fit has been an issue lately as it is changeable. More exactly I have been changing and the clothes are not adapting to match. This sometimes leads to unpleasant surprises.
I did manage to get a photo before the day ended though, and although this outfit ended up being not perfect, the results were far from unpleasant. I will admit however that when I first looked at this picture, moments after it was taken, that I was horrified at how baggy and rumpled I thought I looked. Time has softened the harshness of my personal reaction, and although I realize that I tend more toward rumpled than sleek and polished, I would prefer a little less bagginess.
Anyway, here is my assessment:
The pants are growing looser weekly (though my weight is not changing) and this particular pair tends to get rather rumpled quickly. With a sleek, more fitted top this might be fine. With a loose sweater not so good.
This sweater used to fit quite snugly and hug my curves. I liked that fit. There is nothing wrong with a loose comfy sweater, and it might look much better over a fitted boot cut jean. But what I actually want is a better fitting ribbed sweater.
I like this sweater because it is simple and easy to accessorize as it makes no demands of its own. As soon as I saw how loose this sweater had become I was reminded of a really lovely pale blue yarn that had just arrived at my LYS, Invernal by Aslan Trends (color 059). It is an angora, merino, nylon blend and it feels really scrumptious in the hand. Although this sweater is cotton, it is too warm to wear in hot weather and not warm enough for cold weather, so I am leaning toward the wool blend. I do have several blue cotton yarns in my stash, all of which are slated to become other sweaters, sweaters which are still desired and are far more of "speaking" sweaters than background sweaters so they don't really fill this particular need. It seems a blue ribbed angora/merino/nylon sweater is somewhere in my future.
My main issue with this outfit is with the necklaces. I love the look of the scarf with the beads, but I seem to have increasing doubts about long necklaces on me, but I am having trouble pinpointing the problem, if there is a problem. I tried shortening the necklaces, and I liked it but at the same time also liked the proportions of the space when the necklace was longer.
I didn't really have a way to shorten these as I wore them but I am considering restringing the lapis at least (a pearl upgrade is on my wish list). I always liked this length because I could wear it doubled or long, but now I am questioning this, and wondering if two separate necklaces would be a better choice.
As always I seem to have more questions than answers, and I wonder if I just think too much.
Yesterday I finished the skirt muslin. Not much work was needed. I sewed the darts, mostly as they were in the pattern, although I moved one to make them appear more symmetrical on the back of the skirt.
When I held the skirt up to look at it, after sewing the last dart, I thought: "It looks so small". It wasn't. In fact the fit was almost perfect. The waist was a little snug. I no longer have the waist I had 5 years ago. When I looked at the skirt in the mirror I realized that I did not need to let the skirt out all around, that it was snug in front, and that the side seams were being pulled out of alignment by the front. I released two of the front darts, giving myself about an inch and a quarter.
It was almost perfect. I marked the correct waistline on the muslin as the original skirt pattern extended about 2 inches above my natural waist. I wondered briefly if I ever wore it that way, but I seem to recall that I did. It seems that I was a bit of a fuddy duddy in my youth. I think I am much younger now, but perhaps it is merely that I am more confident now although that may be merely self-deception.
I also pegged the skirt a bit. The board straight seams were aging and the tapered shape seems much more flattering.
I regret that I did not take a picture. I was pressed for time, having only about a 90 minutes during which time I hoped to finish the muslin and seam and block the body of a sweater.
Inspired by yesterday's success, I blocked out two hours of sewing time this afternoon during which time I dismantled the muslin and used it to create a new master pattern. I finished out my allotted time by gathering together the materials necessary for a skirt so that I would be all ready to begin laying out the pattern and cutting.
The last two days have been so successful that I decided to try to schedule sewing time regularly, if not every day, at least 5 days a week, in 2 hour increments, for now. That is the plan anyway. I don't quite know how it will go over, it being a unilateral decision and all. It seems to be a commitment I have been reluctant to make, not because I don't want to be sewing, but because I have had trouble giving myself permission to make it a priority.
I'm going to take my time with this. The print is rather large and I want to spend time playing with placement of the pattern. I'm in no rush after all. I although I feel in a way "desperate" for pretty new clothes, I don't need them to go anywhere in particular. Jeans will see me most anywhere I go. What I actually want are not just any pretty clothes but things that are just right. I'm sure I will make mistakes along the way, but getting the things I want, the way I want them, is worth time and the risk of wadders.
At one point yesterday the entire family was busy in the sewing room.
G was bored and wanted something to do, so I set him to work. First I had him cut up some old sweaters I had felted, then had him cutting old t-shirts so that I can use the pieces for other projects.
Meanwhile, I was cutting up foam board, attempting to make drawer liners for my thread and bead cabinet.
As you can see from the photo, that first tray was a little rough.
I have an antique chest of drawers I use for storing thread, beads, belt buckles and similar things. I picked it up years ago at a second hand store and although I love it, the bottoms of the drawers are splitting and bowed with age. Things fall through. It occurred to me that I could just line the drawers with foam board and this would solve the problem. Not only that, I realized that although I had been storing thread in a single layer in the drawers, I could actually use the foam board to make two trays, and store two layers of thread in each drawer, doubling my storage capacity. This is useful because I had a few bags of thread sitting around on the floor, thread my mom generously sent me, waiting for me to find storage space.
While I was measuring, cutting, and creating the thread storage trays, you can see that Moisés was busy helping me sort the thread into piles by color.
I only purchased three foam boards because I wasn't really sure how well my plan would work out. One board almost makes two thread trays. More exactly it makes two bottom pieces, four long side pieces, and three short side pieces. I made trays for two drawers, and succeeded in storing most of my basic spools of sewing thread in these drawers, sorted by color. Polyester and cotton threads are mixed in the same drawer. Although I have grouped similar colors together, I have not yet sorted each drawer in any orderly fashion. I might do that someday, if not putting them in a strict sequence, at least just putting spools of the same color next to each other.
I need to pick up more foam board to finish the project. I need one more drawer to hold the larger spools of Mettler thread, and also to hold top stitching thread and buttonhole twist, which are not mixed in with regular sewing thread. Silk thread and embroidery thread get their own drawers.
The top two drawers hold cones of Metrosene thread for the serger. These fit in a single layer in each drawer. Belt buckles, beads, and a few things (belts and necklaces) that need repair are in the lower drawers.
I think this plan is working well and it will be much easier to find the appropriate thread now as I will no longer have to sort through bags and boxes. If I put multiple spools of the same color together, it will also be fairly easy to see when I am missing or low on important colors and to replace them as needed.
I'm running behind this week. I have things to share, but am also having trouble with sciatica and a lot of pain in my arthritic hip, the one that was injured several years ago when I fell down the stairs. I don't know why both are acting up now when they've been quite for a long while now. The weather? Does the general inflammation from my gluten reaction last week allow an opening for other things to flare up?
Right now though, sitting, bending, and moving are all difficult and standing or lying down are only slightly better.
I'll merely share the other Elm piece I picked up in Chatham a couple of weeks ago.
It is really a simple rayon knit dress. Actually two dresses sewn together at the shoulders, the inner dress has a deep ruffle, and the outer dress has nice pockets.
When I purchased the dress I tried it on over jeans, and this is basically the way I intend to wear it most of the time. It does look nice also as a dress, with bare legs and this is how G likes it best. Come hot weather I may or may not wear it that way. I am not yet convinced that it is not a little too short for a woman in her 50's, what with the ruffle and the bare legs, although it might work well with leggings and ballet flats.
I do really like this with the jeans. The jeans are a little long for these particular boots, but it rained all weekend and these are my waterproof boots, as opposed to the heels I usually wear with these jeans. And unlike my previous attempt at a long tunic over pants, this is a look I love and will actually wear, in fact, have worn a good bit already. Perhaps it is the layering opportunities afforded by the sleeveless dress as opposed to the sleeves of the Eileen Fisher. Perhaps it is just that it has just a little more shape. Perhaps I have just gotten wiser with time.
As to that Eileen Fisher dress, it became a nightgown, and one I still wear. G particularly likes the way it slips seductively off the shoulder as I move.