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I want to thank everyone for all the kind notes. Surprisingly in retrospect, I wasn’t expecting them but you all bring smiles to my face. Your words and thoughts are a great boon and I am cheered by receiving them.

I have played with the tee pattern in my head and looked at the pieces, but I haven’t actually made the alterations to the pattern yet. But I have a pretty clear mental plan. I also got a great deal of filing and accounting work out of the way, including the dreaded taxes so that is a great burden off my mind.

When I am tired and distracted and not quite up to sewing, I browse the web and so there have been several purchases of late, each one small, little treats to perk up my spiritis. I realize this can’t go on indefinitely, but there is a lot to be said for coming home to a package in the mail.

Yesterday I received these rayon knits from gorgeous things. Visions of spring are dancing in my head.

March 28, 2007
Bits, Pieces, and Unexpected Changes

Burda Tee: I am wearing the new tee today even though it would look much better with my gray pants. Unfortunately both pairs of gray pants were at the cleaners and I did not think it appropriate to run there first and dress behind the press. Also, I had to be out at 7:00 and my dry cleaner was not open at that hour. So I wore black. You don’t get to see much of the tee:

When I attempted to take photos without the cardigan I ended up with a terrible chipmunk face so those photos have already been moved to the trash bin. I don’t know if I was shivering because I don’t normally have that much of an overbite (it is cold and gray today) or it was just bad photographic karma.

Anyway, you saw the detail photo yesterday.

I was dreaming about pattern alterations and this top last night and I came up with all kinds of simple and complicated schemes. But when I woke up and looked at the top on me I realized that I messed up the top of the front sleeve piece, the one that forms the side piece along the shoulders. I changed the angle of the sleeve cap where it meets the body of the shirt, I needed to change that to match the changes in the front pattern piece. But I left the top of the sleeve the same so that the angle of the neckline relative to the sleeve was inadvertently changed. When I changed the angle of one seam, I should have changed the other one so that the relationship between the two seams was properly maintained. Hopefully this is an easy fix.

I will be making more of this shirt, as I do like it, especially in its original shape, and it suits me right now to continue obsessing about a single pattern. I am not usually this focused, once a pattern has been made once, I want to move on, but right now I like the familiarity of this pattern and the idea of new tees.

Embroidered Tweed: I decided that I am going to make the simple V-neck dress with the embroidery on the bottom. I called Kashi today and he is sending some more fabric so that I will be certain to have enough, and more than likely, too much. But I have ideas about what to do with any excess as well. You will have to wait until fall to find out what they may be.

Retirement: Part of the reason that I am so content making one tee pattern over and over right now, and the reason that I find only a few minutes each day to sew, is that life has gone a little haywire on me of late. Last Thursday G announced to the office that he was going to retire, effective the end of this week so I have lots and lots of work to do. Although we stop doing our normal business this week, the office will be open for some time as I collect payments and close out the accounts receivable and so forth and so on. I am already drowning in paper. The staff will be working until mid April but that still leaves lots of work for me before and after they leave. Of course, eventually the books and the corporation will be closed and I will be ~~unemployed~~ retired as well.

Piles: In anticipation of this retirement G has been cleaning out his office and has brought about 20 years worth of various financial and other records home for me to sort through as well as various other items he has saved up in the office over the years and we have piles of stuff everywhere. Of course I have piles too. I have the piles that constitute our income taxes which I am very late in doing this year (but which I must finish before the accountant comes on Thursday to discuss both our personal taxes and various corporate issues). I also have the piles of shelving materials that arrived for me to set up my sewing room closet, and the pile which consists of paint which must be put on the wall before I build the shelving unit. And there is all the piles of fabric that will occupy the sewing room closet when I am done. They are currently in the guest room. I expect guests on Monday.

The Unexpected: This has all hit me at once because the unexpected occurred. My darling G had his annual physical 2 weeks ago and learned he had a tumor in his lung. The next week was filled with fear, trepidation, doctors visits, and eventually some relief, when we learned that the invader had not metastasized and there is hope for a surgical solution. Now we are running around dealing with many tests and procedures in preparation (we hope) for surgery, for which no date has been settled. What is settled is that something will happen, G will retire, and he can no longer keep it a secret from his family.

I may be in and out of this blog, depending on my sewing, my general state of mind, and the time available.

March 26, 2007
Burda WOF 12/2006 #107

When did I last sew? When did I last write? Oh yes, that was Thursday.

I did take those extra 15 minutes on Thursday to finish the swirly tee, but it was not fated to be. I put the tee on Matilda and pinned up the neckline, then stitched it up. I had to try it on to mark the sleeve hems, even though they are marked on the pattern, and it was a good thing I did because I shortened them by an inch.

But the neckline was funny, with extra fabric on one side and it needed to be turned up differently. It seems that Matilda and I are not shaped exactly the same through the upper chest. That’s OK because the top looks better on me than it does on Matilda. Unfortunately I did not have time to rip out the seam, repin it, and do the hems so everything got put aside until today, when I took a break after hours and hours of accounting work followed by a few more hours of shifting and filing of what appears to be a never ending pile of paperwork, but more about that later.

So here’s a partial view along side a shot of the first draft (that seems so long ago).

As you can see the neckline is quite different, but nothing shows. I kind of liked the wide low neckline as seen on the original pattern, better than my redrafted neckline, although I realize that it was perhaps a little revealing for everyday wear. I see that I changed the angle of the front trying to cover the bra straps and I wonder now if there was a better way to do that, a way where I can get that angle and swoop that I see in the all white version. Of course the fabrics are quite different in the way they stretch and hang as well. Still I think the white is more flattering, and the swirl more mundane and boring, not that I won’t wear it and love wearing it. I just hope there is some happy middle point I can find in adapting this pattern to my body.

All in all, it is nice, and wearable but there are things I still might change. Although I did not change the shoulder pieces or the back neck, the second top has excess fabric at the back of the shoulders that I did not see in the white top. I wonder if that is caused by the changes in the shape of the front, or if it is caused by the different fabric.

It seems there is always something more to learn.

Here’s what I did:

As you can see I raised the neckline on the right side and also made the front narrower under the arm, changing the shape of the armhole opening. I then made corresponding corrections to the sleeve pattern. Although you can’t see it here, I also added some increased room through the bust because the first top was a little snug and the second fabric was slightly less stretchy than the front. If you look closely at the photo above you can see that I still get some wrinkling and I probably need to add a little more, especially on the right, where the shoulder curves in more and there is a more dramatic change from the fullness at the bustline to the smallness under the arms and at the upper chest.

Here is the altered front piece in full view.

To me this looks very asymmetrical, more so than I think I appear when I look at myself in the mirror. When I look at the photo above I can see that a bit of asymmetricality, although the wide point of the top hits at exactly the same place relative to my bra strap on each side.

But other than adapting the pattern to my own idiosyncrasies, it was an easy top to make and I will make it again. I highly recommend the pattern.

The only thing I really did differently than the pattern was make a
double front, especially since the white fabric was a little
transparent. The pattern calls for a front facing piece that ends just
below the bustline. But I really don’t like facing pieces, and by
lining the front you have the opportunity to hide the side seams so
nicely, giving a lovely finished look to the inside of the tee (as if
anyone is looking).

And the only part of the process I had trouble with (aside from the comedy of errors I call fitting and pattern alteration) was hemming the sleeve. I am not sure how to double needle hem a narrow sleeve hem easily and well when it is too narrow to wrap around the sewing machine under the needle.

I kept holding out an inch here and there and stopping and pulling and turning, hoping desperately that I wasn’t catching the underside of the fabric and sewing the sleeve closed. There is probably some obvious solution that I am just missing, aside from making the sleeves wider, but I like close fitting sleeves at the cuff and my wrists are not large.

March 25, 2007
Distracted by dreams of future projects

No, I haven’t finished the swirly dotted tee. I have it all constructed, and it is fabulous, but I have to hem the sleeves, bottom and topstitch around the neck and shoulders. This should take, what 15 minutes? Ha!

Well, getting that off my chest felt much better.

And so what have I been doing when I could have been sewing? (not that I have had that much time). I have been playing paper dolls and dreaming of future projects.

I am sure you remember this beautiful fabric I bought at Kashi’s:

Well, I purchased more than I needed for a straight skirt, which is the first thing I envisioned, but not really enough to guarantee that I can make anything else. I got 2 yards. I might get a dress out of 2 yards, but it will be very close, and that is not counting on the border print. (but cutting on the cross grain uses less fabric we hope, right?)

And just as I had relegated this to the back of my mind, thinking I would whip up a skirt soon, but not too soon, Mary Beth over at The Sewing Divas takes this very same fabric and turns out a really spectacular dress.

So I look at Mary Beth’s dress and think? Why must I make a skirt? My fate is sealed. My mind begins to wander.

Then, over at Stitcher’s Guild someone starts discussing THE dress and ideas start flowing.

Progress on practical matters is abandoned and I start playing with ideas.

As stated above, I originally planned on making a simple straight skirt with the embroidery along the hem. This idea is still a strong contender and it would be a very wearable and versatile contribution to my wardrobe.

But then, after Mary Beth’s got all creative I started thinking about other options.

Since the fall collections, I have been thinking about a simple fitted v-neck jumper using an old Vogue pattern, # 8416. This would also look pretty with the embroidery on the bottom, along the hem.

Or perhaps with the embroidery along the hem and at the shoulders:

Both of these options are nice, but I really think I like the first one better, the simpler one with the embroidery on the bottom. Besides, bright shiny golds and yellows are not my best colors and bringing them too close to my face is perhaps not the brightest idea.

In a fit of madness, I had another idea as well, cutting up the embroidery and putting a zipper down the front with the bottom piece of the embroidery running down the center front, mirrored from side to side. Although my cutting and pasting and manipulation of computer images is not all that good, I think you can get the idea. It is definitely overdone and far too much, for me at least. But still, I am glad I played with the idea. Better to spend time cutting and pasting, making paper dolls on the computer, and then deciding something is a mistake than cutting and sewing and wasting a lovely piece of fabric.

The upshot of all this computer dawdling is that I like the skirt and the simplest dress best. If I make the skirt I will do it this spring as I still have time to wear it (if I am not distracted by other projects that is). If I go for the jumper, well that is definitely a fall project. And I am still not sure I have quite enough fabric. The last time I made this pattern, I noted that I need 1 3/4 yards. I have 2 and I am a good bit fluffier now than I was then. In the end the skirt might win.

March 22, 2007
Sunday Update

After finishing the first version of my Burda tee yesterday (I attached the sleeves Saturday morning) I did very little toward working on the second draft.

I don’t have enough of the white fabric to make another identical top so I will use it to make something else. Instead I will move on to the top originally planned for this pattern, using this rayon/lycra knit from Lucy’s fabrics:

I had some qualms as to whether I would ruin it, but you know in the end I am not sure it matters. If I make the changes as marked, it should all be alright and if it doesn’t work, there will always be more fabric.

As I have thought about changes though I have also contemplated tweaking the pattern a little more than I originally intended and I am wondering how far I can go before I have overdone it and made too many changes.

All that has been done so far is to copy the front piece from the first pattern draft and create a full front piece from it. Then I transfered the changes I wanted to make to the white top to the new pattern piece with pencil. I still have to raise up the top edge of the piece, which will require a new tracing. Once I have finished the front piece, I will move on to correcting the sleeve pieces to match the changes that are being made to the underarm seams.

Meanwhile my back is a little sore today and I have been lying on the floor with my legs up over a hassock contemplating the ceiling. We have a post-and beam ceiling and I love looking at the patterns formed by the grain of the wood, the saw cuts, and occasionally the knots. Today I was looking at a knot that reminded me very strongly of a stylized chrysanthemum, something similar but not quite like either of these fabric photos:

In the case of the wooden beam, the parts I see as the petals of the chrysanthemum are raised up from the surface of the wood, almost puffy looking. Sorry there are no pictures, the light and my camera are not up to getting a photo without flattening the effect.

I actually imagine creating a monochromatic version of this (like the wood of the beam is monochromatic), perhaps using silk dupioni, and creating a puffy chrysanthemum using something like a trapunto technique.

Well, enough of dreams for now, and back to pattern alterations.

March 18, 2007
WHITE

Yesterday’s color was white. It snowed all day and the world outside my windows was white. We closed the office early and I rolled the phones over to the house so I needed to be nearby in case someone called. No one called. I think the entire Northeastern United States was closed or wished it was closed.

We got 18 inches of snow and I got to go out in the dusk and night-time plow runs because my eyes are better. Unfortunately I don’t turn well to the right, the direction the spotter in the passenger seat should be able to turn, so I kept having to climb out of the truck to spot where we were going when G had to back up. I would have been fine looking over my left shoulder from the driver’s seat, but I can’t (or won’t) drive the truck. It is an old old Suburban, manual transmission, and I have to practically stand on the clutch to get it all the way in and then I have trouble doing that and getting the D*^* shift to work. I am told it shifts like a dream, but having watched G attempting to shift the recalcitrant old thing several times last night and heard him cursing and grunting as he stalled out the truck over and over again, I am more inclined to believe that man and truck have grown older and more stubborn together and are just used to each other’s quirks.

Anyway, plowing looks like fun, and I would love to plow. But not using this truck. It made my sciatica worse 20 years ago, and I don’t think I could even do it today.

But back on track. While I was tied to the telephone, or at least waiting for the telephone, I had time to work on the Burda top I traced back at the beginning of the month, almost two weeks ago now. The first muslin shows a good bit of promise and I think this top is going to turn out well, after another draft, and will become a favorite.

The initial changes I made to the pattern were a good start. I lengthened the top about 2 inches below the bust and above the waist. That worked out well.

Then I made a guesstimate at how much extra to add at the bust. This FBA stuff is new to me, as is working with knits so I was not particularly confident, but I also knew I had to add something. I noticed that Burda did not mark the bust point so after lengthening the pattern I held the tissue up to my torso, positioning the waist in the proper place and put a dot where I thought the bust was supposed to be. It seems to have worked and I seem to have the basic sizing correct. Now I just need to fix those old asymmetricality issues, which, as you can see from the photo, are quite evident. The top is perfectly balanced. The model is not.

The left side fits pretty well, and no undergarments show. I tried it on with a couple of bras to be sure of the fit and they are all OK on the left. It is a little close, and I can probably move that underarm seam up just a little bit higher to give me a little extra coverage there.

On the right however, more work is obviously needed. The center piece is too low, and the armscye is too high up on the arm. You can see that the seam is too high up on my arm, and you can also see that I have excess fabric in the center piece as well as the fact that I need a longer underarm seam on that side in order for the top to fit the same way on my body as it does on the other side.

I knew that it was unlikely that a completely symmetrical piece would fit, but since I did not understand how to alter the pattern until I made it up, this seemed like the best path.

Next up: redrawing the pattern and making another top.

I am not sure if I have enough of this fabric for another muslin, but I will check. Or I might just go on to the fabric I planned on using for this top and hope for the best. I will find something. I have purchased a good collection of knits because I want to get these details worked out so I know I have something to play with.

March 17, 2007
Green

Not Saint Patrick’s day green, but spring green.

Is March a winter month or a harbinger of spring? We would like to think it is the latter. Many a March has been warm and sunny and I have worked away in the garden only to be faced with a bitterly cold April. This has not been the case the last couple of years however. I suspect the reason Saint Patrick’s Day is so popular in this country, outside of the heavily Irish centers of population is that it also comes at the beginning of spring. Green is the color of spring.

Figgy thinks that spring is definitely coming. He broke dormancy last week and I hauled up from the garage to the sun porch on Thursday, just before Friday’s snowstorm, the biggest one of the season so far. That fuzzy white background is brought to you by blowing snow as seen through a wall of windows. March always seems so full of surprises. Wednesday it hit 70 degrees. Friday topped out in the 20’s. That seems more like a Texas-sized shift in the weather rather than New York weather. Still I think I am ahead. Last year, Figgy thought spring was coming in February.

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day. My typical March 17 celebration centers on pea-planting. But not this year. Truth be told, the vegetable garden still sat under a layer of ice before the snow came, so I hadn’t planned on putting the peas in this weekend anyway. March seems a little cold for peas, but the frosts are usually minor and short lived at this time, and the peas can handle a bit of cold. I can plant later, aiming for any time from mid March to early April, but with peas there is always the guessing game we play with Mother Nature, and I tend to opt for an early start. The peas can take the cold but not the heat. Will May be hot or cold? Here in the Hudson Valley of New York State it can swing either way. I suspect many are more cautious in their pea planting as the farmer’s markets are filled with peas in early June, if the weather cooperates. Although there are many plants for which there is no advantage in an early start, this has not been my luck with peas. I usually have peas before they are available at the farm stands, and this is, to my mind, a plus. I get a double pea season. There is nothing quite as sweet as a pea picked right off the vine. And a pea picked in early to mid May is definitely a harbinger of spring. So it seems spring may be a little later this year.

March 17, 2007
Breakfast Rajas

It may not be what either of us grew up thinking of as “breakfast” but it works for both of us now:

Of course, there is no universally accepted definition of breakfast food, so I don’t feel we are too far off base here. This is becoming a favorite.

12 ounces red onion

12 ounces poblano pepper

8 ounces chicken breast, cut in strips.

Heat a little oil in pan (I tend to use olive oil) and add onions. Saute until they are soft and beginning to become golden. Add peppers and chicken along with salt and herbs or spices to taste. Continue to cook until vegetables are tender and chicken begins to get brown and crispy on the edges. Serve.

Mmm Good!

Between the above chicken breast and peppers, scrambled eggs with Soyriso and greens, oatmeal, and ham and hominy we have four standard breakfasts now. G still loves a bagel. And I have been eating a lot of grapefruit while they are still in season. I love a grapefruit for breakfast, although I am usually ravenous by lunch. I probably need to add some protein or something more substantial but I can’t figure out what. Peanut butter on toast would be good except I haven’t found any toast that has been appealing enough to eat more than once. Grapefruit season is almost over until next year anyway.

I have learned that we can happily eat oatmeal several days a week. I cook up a big batch of steel-cut oats on the weekend. Two cups of oats yields six generous bowls of oatmeal. I usually add cut up apples, golden raisins, and minced crystallized ginger to the oatmeal as it cooks. The oatmeal reheats well with the addition of a little milk or water. It might be better to make fresh every day but I don’t have the time, for that ability I do sometimes miss relatively quick cooking rolled oats.

But what about rolled oats? Gluten-free oats and rolled oats are available. Originally I thought $10.00 for a bag of oatmeal sounded expensive. Turns out it really isn’t. At my local grocery store McCann’s Irish Steel Cut Oats cost $6.19 for a28 ounces package, or roughly 22 cents an ounce. Since I get about 20 generous servings of oatmeal from the package, that is about 31 cents a serving. I don’t think that is bad at all. The gluten-free oats are $10 for 2 lb 9 ounces or 41 ounces. That breaks out to 4.1 cents an ounce but I don’t know the comparative cost per serving. Of course you have to figure in shipping, and the energy cost for shipping the oats. One can get a discount by buying in quantity but then you also have to account for the space requirements, cost, and hassles of storage. I am not really certain how to weigh the costs of the options here so for me it is a question of whether I need to special order gluten-free oats, or not. At the moment it seems I do not.

I will stick with the locally procured (although not locally produced) oats. If it becomes evident that gluten-free oats are necessary, we will order them, or I will stop eating oatmeal.

March 16, 2007
Dreaming vs Doing

I need a serious motivational kick in the pants.

I traced a pattern weeks ago and it still sits there on my cutting table taunting me. Have I made my routine pattern modifications? Have a cut out a first version? Have I done anything? No, no, and no. Somebody shove me.

Instead I have been dreaming of things that I might be sewing. I have been reading new sewing magazines and newsletters. I have been looking at patterns. I have been cutting and pasting.

These two things came in the mail this week, on the same day no less:

The March Patrones is devoted to sewing for children, not a big thing in my book, although there is one really cute outfit for baby boys that I am seriously considering for little Owen now that he is moving around more and beginning to assert his personhood.

Nancy Erickson’s Fashion Sewing Group newsletter was interesting and I really enjoyed reading it this week. It really motivated me toward spring sewing, but obviously not quite enough, because I still haven’t cranked up that sewing machine. It did make me think about what I want to sew though.

And that leads to my other sewing-related activity. I have been updating my inspiration notebook collage pages with ideas for Spring sewing. For a season that in some ways seems somewhat uninspiring, I have collected a lot of pictures of things that inspire me, either directly as things I would like to knock-off, or things that are pure inspiration, things that I would never make as photographed, but which give me ideas for garments I would like to wear. I have made bunches of pages so far, and I have lots of pictures left. This may be more indicative of my burgeoning interest in making things again than in the fact that the season is particularly interesting.

Here is a sample of some of the things that have caught my eye:(as usual, clicking on all photos will enlarge them)

When I was younger I would pick a look and seek out a pattern and fabric to reproduce it. But I don’t do that as much anymore. I learned that I react more to the fabric than the design. At the same time, making these collages, and looking at them is more than just entertaining, it does color my judgment, and helps me to see new things in fabrics that I might otherwise have missed.

Which of these photos will be the inspiration for actual garments? Only time will tell. But I do have a few ideas.

March 14, 2007
Lunch

Long ago, in what seems to be another world, I married G and shortly after we were wed he asked me why we had to eat so many vegetables. All he wanted was a good, simple, piece of meat.

Times have changed. I eat more meat, not that I ever objected to meat on any kind of moral grounds and G eats considerably more vegetables. Although neither one of us would have ever expected this, bok choy has become one of his favorites.

A couple of prizes from this week’s shopping expeditions yielded bok choy from the oriental market and fresh fava beans from the Mexican market.

Although the combination may be unorthodox, they were successfully combined in today’s lunch of a simple stir-fry consisting of a large onion (12 ounces) a large plastic bag filled with bok choy, the kind of bag routinely found in produce departments, and a generous cup of cooked fava beans. I tossed all this with my impromptu chili lime stir-fry sauce, which is probably also unorthodox: it was a wonderful combination and we were very happy.

Chili Lime Stir-Fry Sauce

Juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon chili sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

I

March 11, 2007