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Choices…Choices…Choices…..

So, I joined the June Capsule Contest over at Stitcher's Guild and I have been struggling to put together a workable capsule. The problem is not that there is nothing I want to sew, more like there is so much that I want to sew but it is scattered all across the map in terms of styles and garments. Many things don't work into a capsule that fits the required parameters, or is too complicated and will require several muslins or attempts at creating the perfect pattern, and I really am trying to make this as stress-free as possible.

I had three basic ideas in my head, involving three groups of fabrics (click on photos to enlarge in another window):

FIRST IDEA
You might recognize three of these fabrics from my recent trip to Fishman's in Chicago:

Clockwise from the upper left:
>blue duoppioni for a blouse
>blue/brown linen for pants and a jacket
>darker gray organza for a blouse
>Gray wool/silk fabric from Michaels (a while ago)

The problems with this plan are:

!. I haven't refined the pattern choices

2.None of them are TNT's (I know this much)

3. I think I would like the glen plaid in a pair of pants but fitting them will take a while due to issues in pants fit and wandering side seams I have in all pants. My previously refined technique works for solids but not for plaids or stripes. I have an idea that I am pretty sure will work, but I have not begun to test the technique so a contest might not be the best time.

SECOND IDEA

My second plan revolved around this printed linen/cotton blend fabric that I picked up from the sale table at JoAnn fabrics a couple of years ago. It is a home dec fabric and therefore has its issues, but I absolutely love the print and the colors. I want to make a casual jacket but once again I haven't picked out a pattern. For this piece I suspect I am going to have think of a few likely choices, and then I am going to end up laying the pattern out on the fabric and figuring out which shape style I like best with the print.

Below the cotton are two pieces of silk matka which match the colors in the print perfectly. The green will be a sleeveless shell of some sort. I plan to use the red for a dress.

I believe that the jacket fabric will work with all kinds of light colored chino and khaki-type summer pants or white, but obviously to form a capsule, I need at least one more piece and I haven't yet found the perfect coordinate.

Well, there is one possibility:

The middle piece of fabric in this photo is another silk matka, this one is a greenish gray and I think it works with both of my first two capsule plans. It works well with the Michael's wool and although it doesn't match any of the colors in the JoAnn floral print, to my eye it seems complimentary.

Of course, if I use the gray-green, which capsule do I work with? I am sure that I am going to make something with these groupings, but at the moment I am really having trouble focusing my attention on just what I am going to make.

So perhaps my best choice, for the June Capsule Contest, at least is to go with option number 3:

THIRD (AND MOST SUCCESSFUL) IDEA

Again, here are more of my Fishman's fabrics, as well as many of the fabrics that I had swatched for my trip to Chicago. From the top Center:

>two pieces of pink/coral silk duoppioni for a blouse
>yellow/gray/coral cotton/spandex print from Emma One Sock. Jacket weight.
>light weight linen from Michael's.
>light weight knit from Emma One Sock
>taupe silk/linen/nylon rainwear.

This grouping is coming together much better in my head at the moment.

I know I want to make a skirt out of the Michael's linen. The weave of the fabric says "pencil skirt" to me but the light weight and the fact that it is linen tells me I need something with a little more volume. I have two or three patterns in mind which will work and I can narrow my choices from there.

I also have good ideas as to what top I want to make with the deep taupe floral knit from Emma One Sock.

I have plans for another skirt and a blouse which will work with these fabrics, but I don't have all the fabrics out yet and there is one fabric I need to order. The two tops would work with both of the skirts so that should not be a problem. The skirt could be adapted from my basic pencil skirt pattern. The blouse will have to be draped, but will hopefully not be too difficult.

I could also make a jacket using either the rainwear or the printed cotton. I will make both jackets eventually, but I need to refine pattern choices, and I suppose I need to commit to which garments will be my contest entries.

More as I refine my plans.

May 23, 2008
Fishman’s Fabric Haul

I promised to post photos of my haul from Fishman's Fabrics after my Chicago Weekend, a month ago now. I did have swatches of a group of fabrics for which I was trying to find coordinates. For the most part I was successful.

First are two pieces of silk organza. They are two separate shades of gray, a very nice quality of organza.

They were purchased to go with another piece of organza, to work with a particular set of garments:

Unfortunately in the intervening time my plans have changed so the garment I described to my companions is now going to exist in a different fabrication. Needless to say these organzas will be used. I am fairly picky about organza, the cheap stuff really makes me itch and is not worth the agony incurred when using it in a garment.

Two colors of silk duoppioni, the perfect shades to coordinate with a particular fabric, and another piece of duoppioni which coordinates with my original fabric as well as with a stunning piece of linen I found at Fishman's.

Here you can see all the fabrics that I was planning to work with, the original fabrics which were already in my stash, and the new additions:

Well, actually, I don't have the organza in this photo, but you get the idea. I will be telling you more about these fabrics over the next few days as I plan the garments I intend to make. At least some of these are also possible for the June Capsule Contest over at Stitcher's Guild, about which I will also be writing.

There is one last piece of fabric I purchased at Fishman's, A stunning piece of linen, destined to be a dress:

I want to write more but now I have to head out to dinner and my hotel for the night, where I unfortunately do not have internet access (because my portable computer is still not working and not yet in the shop).

We had big thunderstorms here this afternoon and lost power briefly, phone/internet service for several hours and we also lost our water supply. There was one big, really really close lightening strike. I suppose that the electricity in the ground fried the pump that operates our well.

I won't know more 'til tomorrow. DH thinks we are going to camp out here without running water for the weekend. I am not convinced.

May 21, 2008
Yipee Ki Yo!!

When Marji told me that the May Knipmode had the pattern for a particular Bottega Veneta dress I knew I had to get a copy.

It arrived today and I am thrilled. I can’t wait to make the dress. And there are couple of other things I like as well — a Valentino suit perhaps? A blouse with a fabulous ruffled neckline?

So now I am officially overwhelmed with ideas of things I want to sew. Just think a year ago I thought I had lost my style and I found just getting dressed to be stressful, now I want the world to go away and let me sew, sew, sew. Well, I also want time to go out and wear all these new creations once I have made them.

I know I also promised to post pictures of the fabrics purchased at Fishman’s. Those have arrived too, I just need to get them photographed.

May 19, 2008
Last Concert of the Beacon Season

We went to a fabulous concert today, the last concert of the Howland Chamber Music Circle, and it was truly lovely. In fact I rave about most of these concerts and the last two have been exceptional.

Today we heard the Peabody Trio perform the Beethoven Trio in B-flat major, the "archduke" and the Schubert Trio #1 in B-flat major. Somehow it didn’t connect in my brain that both were in B-flat major until I wrote this, I suppose it is not the kind of thing I notice or would notice, another sign of something lacking in my education and perceptions of the world I suppose.

G tells me that the Beethoven "archduke" is one of his favorite pieces of music and this performance was fabulous. I love this trio, and although I wouldn’t quite call it a favorite, there is something about Beethoven that just thrills me to no end. I love the mix of fun and seriousness, humor and pathos, like everything in the world is wrapped up in a piece of music. In the B-flat major trio, the third movement is incredibly ethereal and moving, one can almost get lost in its beauty.

But then, just in case you have allowed yourself to wallow off in a fog of otherworldly beauty, Beethoven slaps you upside the head with the beginning of the fourth movement, which proceeds without pause like a jolt of lightening. Now that the listener has been shocked out of his or her reverie, it is hard not to smile at the irrepressible humor in the final movement, bubbling along and escalating into the fabulous conclusion. The audience almost rose up in unison at the last note with great applause (and this must have been the practice run because the swell of rising listeners was perfected for the repeat performance at the end of the Schubert)

Ah Beethoven and Schubert, how better to end the season. Not only that but we had more Beethoven three weeks ago, when I was indulged in a breathtaking performance of my favorite quartet. The Alexander Quartet played Beethoven’s String Quartet #13 Opus 130 with the concluding Grosse Fuge. I don’t know why I don’t think of this piece more often. Each time I hear it in its entirety I think it is just perfect. I don’t believe I always heard the quartet played with the fifth movement (the Grosse Fuge) and I do remember that the first time I heard the complete original work with the included Fuge, I was STUNNED. I can’t imagine the quartet without that ending, it ties everything up . I am amazed that it was dropped, although not surprised at Beethoven’s chagrin that it was not liked. I believe he is reputed to have said "asses", or did I dream that?

Now of course I was aware of the Grosse Fuge before, and I don’t really remember if my father’s recordings of Beethoven’s quartets played the 13th in the original version (5 movements) or in the altered version as I heard the music and absorbed it but didn’t really think about it until after I left home. But I certainly know that I have heard quite a few performances of the four-movement 13th, more than the five-movement version. It is such a shame too.

So, two fabulous concerts.

Oh yes, the Schubert was nice too, how could it not be? It is such a fresh, bright, cheery piece, and as I said before it was followed by a great welling-up of the audience in appreciation.

May 18, 2008
Home

We have returned from our travels and I am busy doing laundry, sorting through buckets of mail and generally trying to get life settled back into some semblance of normality — when I figure out whatever normal is supposed to be.

I had intended to post while I was away but the portable computer is down, I think I probably did something stupid one night in a sleep-deprived state of frustration — but fixing that is yet one more thing on my to do list.

I did finish the robe before we left, and it proved to be the perfect companion to the pajamas.

At first I had great, over-ambitious, plans. I was going to use French seams and make everything just so perfect, but the reality of a certain lack of time brought me to my senses. It is quilting cotton after all, no reason to go crazy. So this ended up being simple sewing, serged edges, simple seams, no fuss.

I traced off a pattern from a favorite robe so I pretty much knew what to expect, except that the cotton fabric has much less drape than the rayon of the original robe. I made all the narrow tubes for ties and sash loops then turned them at the doctor’s office when I was playing chauffeur one day only to find that in the end I didn’t really need them all. At least they entertained me for a bit.

I decided I liked the robe better without the sash. The cotton is stiff enough that the robe was not flattering belted and tied, but it hangs gracefully on its own. I ended up using a simple hidden hook and eye and leaving it at that.

We came home to find the irises in bloom, apparently the only bit of springtime cheer going on up here. Although it was warm in Tennessee, I am told it remained cool here the entire time we were gone. Despite the fact that the pool was opened before we left, and the solar heater is running, the water is still a chilling 63 degrees.

It looks like summer is still a little ways away. But of course that could change tomorrow.

It does however strike me as somewhat funny that although I am still hoping for warm weather and don’t yet have my summer clothes out and in circulation, the new Harper’s Bazaar has arrived and is filled with predictions and plans for fall clothing (despite the Nicole Richie’s summer frock on the cover).

Right about now joining Marji’s coat sew-along sounds like a good idea.

May 17, 2008
Tagged!

Materfamilias tagged me for the following meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

As it happens, I am in the midst of packing preparations and I have two books on my desk, stacked one atop the other. One is the book I hoped to finish, but have not, and the other is the book I hoped to take with me and begin, but will not.

Because I cannot decide, which book to use, and because the precedent has been set, I shall post from both:

From Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals

If he wanted a seat in the U.S. Senate, however, he would need the support of Ohio Democrats, a task that would not be made easier by assaulting a Democratic president.

Of the four future presidential rivals, only Edward BAtes matched the vehemence of Lincoln’s opposition. He charged Polk with "gross & palpable lying, " arguing that the true object of the war was "plunder and conquest."

And from the other book, Jonathan Coe’s The Rain Before it Falls comes this passage:

She came back from dinner that night rather early — at about ten o’clock. Beatrix and Thea had already gone to bed. I poured Rebecca one of those brandies for which we were rapidly starting to develop an appetite, and told her of Beatrix’s request.

Well, now I really want to start reading that new book and find out what is going on, but alas it will have to wait. The anticipation will be sweet indeed.

But first I need to share the fun and pass this on to five friends.

I select Liana, Marji, Grace, Gina, and lastly Lisa at Blackwater Park (if and when she finds the time, which may or may not be likely).

That said. I am going to shut down the computer and prepare myself for vacation mode. I will have my portable with me, and I hope to get time to post as I do have things to share, but frankly, that 20 month old darling of a grandson gets first dibs on my attentions, so we’ll see what I get to…no promises.

May 5, 2008
Oooh! Fabric!

There has been no sewing this week, although I still hope to whip out a simple robe in the two days remaining before my departure for Tennessee and DSD’s doctoral hooding.

However, a package arrived from Vogue Fabrics with my Chicago purchases. It included this:

The silk duopioni on the left is an odd shade of gray/brown/bronze that happens to pick up the colors in a group of fabrics around which I wish to build a small grouping or collection. In fact all the fabrics in this photo blend into that grouping and are in the color families I was seeking out.

The two left fabrics were on sale for $2.99 a yard. The two organzas on the right are 54" wide and were also on sale. I purchased more than I will probably need for my group, although I might use them as underlining. I am not worried about finding a use for these. Organza is a basic and these colors are perfect colors for blending with many of my fabric choices.

Then we get to the frivolous stuff, the fabrics that were not in the plan. One was on sale, one was not.

This cotton lawn was light and felt sinfully soft and smooth. It is a good shade of red for me and I love the geometric pattern. At $2.99 a yard it seemed like I would be foolish to resist. It will become a lightweight summer top.

I also purchased this lovely wool. Several of us looked at it and decided it wasn’t quite right. When I went back for a second look it seemed like it was the perfect shades of gray with a touch of brown and muted blue that I wear well. When I saw that it was a panel and the size of the panels I knew what I wanted to make and so, after further consultation with Patti and Patty, it went into my bag. Since this will be a fall project I will not start it now but I am planning to put it in my bag for San Francisco in July, when I will be participating in another Sandra Betzina sewing week. It looks like I am developing a sense of what I will be sewing that week and I will start gathering together my projects and setting them aside the end of this month, when we get back from Tennessee and the Carolinas. I will update you more about the plans at that time.

The package from Fishman’s has not arrived. One fabric needed to be ordered and I was told it would be about a week before they would be able to ship. If it arrives Monday I will post photos. Otherwise, since I am leaving for 10 to 12 days early Tuesday morning, it will all have to wait.

I DID finish one knitting project:

This is the tee I have been working on knit from Trendsetter’s Binario yarn. The pattern is by L’Atelier in Redondo Beach, CA and is part of a set called "Compare and Contrast". It was the sweater-of-the-month for May 2007. Hey one year late, not so bad.

I have started the contrasting vest that goes with it, but I have already worn the tee once over a thin cotton turtleneck. It may be May but it is still cold here. Unfortunately it has been cold and gray, gray, gray, so photo ops have been limited. Perhaps by the time I finish the vest, the sun will have come out again.

May 3, 2008
Notes from Today’s Paper

There are quite a few interesting articles in today’s Wall Street Journal, but two things in particular have stayed on my mind.

I have long been fascinated about the various inquiries and arguments over whether or not language imposes constraints on how we think. An article in today’s paper provides some additional information: How the Brain Learns to Read Can Depend on the Language.

Here are some relevant quotes:

Among children raised to read and write Chinese, the demands of reading draw on parts of the brain untouched by the English alphabet, new neuroimaging studies reveal.

Now I don’t particularly find it surprising that language affects the way one thinks. Languages have different structures. Languages can differ widely in their content, with one language having far different emphasis or descriptive content for certain things than another language might use. Whether these differences are entirely cultural (does the culture influence the language or the language the culture?) or something else entirely seems not so simple to discern.

It does seem obvious to me that people who are reared in different cultures do not make the same assumptions about life and human behavior, despite the tendency of many people to assume that all people “think like us”.

This next bit is telling:

To learn the ABCs of English we essentially harness our listening skills to a phonetic code. To become literate in Chinese, however, we must make much heavier use of memory, motor control and visual-perception circuits located toward the front of the brain. Children can master the 6,000 or so Chinese characters used in Mandarin and Cantonese text only by laboriously copying them out over and over again, until each abstract form becomes second nature.

Therefore, if the way we process and organize information is inherently connected to the language in which we organize and process that information, then the way we use our brains would also be different. This would have wide ramifications in terms so many things. This is probably a very naïve stretch for me to be making as I have no training in these matters and I may be jumping to conclusions that are completely out of line.

Even when readers in both languages looked at the same written characters, the brain activity was different……Arabic numerals of standard arithmetic – used by readers of Chinese and English alike – activate different brain regions depending on which of the two languages people had first learned to read

But even though math is “universal” we still need to find a way to make sense of it in our minds. Upon reading this G remarked that his father, who was completely fluent in English and never used his native language of Hungarian, always reverted back to Hungarian when doing math. G specifically remembers his father checking his homework and doing all the figures in Hungarian, although he otherwise never spoke it. But the way he learned math must have been tied into the way his brain processed his native language.

I find this completely fascinating. And now I have something else to explore further.

And in one of the columns at the end of the Weekend Journal, I find this: Not by Tuition Breaks Alone. In a personal account of one child’s attempt to apply to college from an economically disadvantaged school, we get this:

But what stands between disadvantaged kids and college is not mere money. It is orderliness, attentive mentoring and simple organizational guidance. Public schools used to be the great equalizer in America – the institutions that allowed the children of immigrants and the descendants of slaves to become fluent in the English language and prepare them for careers. In too many urban areas, they don’t perform such basic educational functions. But they don’t offer structured environments, either, for the few students who are trying to lift themselves up and get a better educational experience at college.

Go, read this, and think.

If we, the middle class, the educated, and yes the “liberal” elite continue to pull our children out of the public schools we are abandoning a whole generation of children. I can think of several of my college friends who pulled themselves up from nothing to win scholarships to elite schools and who now send their children to private schools. Or they “sacrifice” themselves by moving to further and further suburbs, leaving the cities behind. Is this not denying future generations the very opportunities they were able to grab hold of. We worry about the poor and starving in countries far from home while we deny our own disadvantaged souls a chance at achieving the American Dream. In once sense we are denying our own history. Is this really the world we want to create for the coming generations?

May 2, 2008
Fun in Chicago

I was incredibly fortunate to be able to spend this past weekend in the company of a group of fabulous women who all share a love of sewing, fiber, and for some knitting as well. Barbara, Diane, Patty and I all converged on Chicago to join Patti and share laughter, food, fun and fabric shopping.

I love this picture of Diane because it captures all the fun, laughter, and friendship that filled the weekend.

Here are Barbara and Patty perusing the remnant tables at Vogue Fabrics Saturday morning. It was fun fabric shopping with fellow fiber fiends, and although there was some enabling going on, there was also considerable thoughtful advice and clear-thinking discussions of what works, what doesn’t, and why we should be discriminating in what we buy.

We were fortunate to be able to meet Cennetta at Vogue and she joined us in a tiny booth for lunch which was fabulous primarily because we were all were able to share so many ideas with enthusiasm and laughter. You should go check out Cennetta’s blog as she is a far more organized and thinking photographer than I, as I managed to carry my camera around but mostly forget to take pictures.

I’m working on that, although perhaps far too slowly.

I did, of course, do some shopping. For me that meant more at Fishman’s than at Vogue, although I found some lovely things at both. Luckily Fishman’s had the perfect coordinates for a grouping that has been haunting my thoughts for some time now. I had shopped my stash but had not found just the right compliments. I found one piece at Vogue and the rest at Fishman’s and you will be seeing it all as it arrives and evolves.

Don’t expect the evolution right away. The Fishman’s order is being held for one piece which was not in stock, and although I was initially disappointed not to have the fabric immediately, I also realized that I will be away for about 10 -12 days the beginning of May and wouldn’t have gotten to it before the trip regardless. It is so nice to have something that I have been fretting over finally begin to take shape and evolve into a coherent collection.

The only sad part of the weekend was that Carolyn and Marji couldn’t join us. They were missed.

April 30, 2008
pyjama top

I was going to just show you a flat picture of the pajama top but, lucky you, you get this one instead.

I’m all packed up and ready to go now, and it is just as well that I didn’t get to the robe, although the complementary prints will look nice together. There is no more room in my bag.

I really like this top, and will make it again, in a softer fabric. As you can see, although it looks fine, in the right fabric it really needs to be looser with more drape and float, but in this fabric that would be just unattractive. I certainly don’t need any extra room in the shoulders though, and should probably do my forward shoulder alteration to the shoulders and armhole/sleeve head and then add from the FBA down.

We are departing tomorrow for Boston, where DH will visit his sister, and I head off to Chicago on Friday.

Have a nice weekend.

April 23, 2008