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  • First Caftan Done

    The first caftan is done.  It was a pretty easy project, it just took me a long time because I only worked on it a little bit each day, and I dawdled.  I would say that I spent about 4 hours on this, and would have finished it in 3 except for a bunch of stupid mistakes and frustrations in the home stretch this evening.  Even then, if I  had used faster techniques and just sewn more efficiently, it would have taken less time.

    As I said before though, it is not a contest.

    Caftans2

    I think it turned out really well.  It is very loose on top, which I realized from the pattern dimensions,  and with some fabrics I might want to take some of the bulk out of that area and cut a smaller size, probably an 8.  With this drapey knit it is fine.  Also the sleeves were long enough, even with a couple of inches chopped off — I have short arms what can I say .  The shoulders are so wide that the sleeve seam is about 4 1/2 inches below my shoulder on the arm, again, nice on this thin drapey knit but not necessarily  in everey fabric. 

    Actually the sleeves would have been long enough but I had trouble getting them hemmed without either stretching out , or not being stretch enough to push up, or just not looking right.  I redid them so many times, I wore a hole in the fabric and had to cut a bit more off.  Then I just put elastic in a casing so they would stay up at my elbows and pushed them up.  The fabric does not have enough body to be a push up sleeve unless I made it very tight, which is not the case with these sleeves. 

    In fact, the sleeves are too wide and I have made a note to narrow them considerably at the wrist.  In a knit they would be nice, even a little long, if they were narrow because then you could get a rippling effect at the wrist.  In a woven, I might have to put in a button so I could have them more closefitting or I might make them shorter, bracelet length maybe and a little more fitted.  I would have narrowed the sleeves down on this caftan, but then I though I would like them longer and I just didn’t feel like adding the extra fabric.  The caftan is really nice as it is and I love wearing it.

  • One Bed Down

    Irisbed7

    The Iris bed is DONE!  Well except for planting but some of that will have to wait for the bulb order.  Planting is the EASY part.  I picked up most of the perennials at local nurserys today and will get them planted tomorrow morning.  After that I have to wait for fall bulb orders and for the irises to die back a little, the yellow ones are reblooming now, and I don’t want to transplant them until after the blooms are spent. 

    This past weekend I added 40 cubic feet of topsoil and other amendments, by the bagful, mixing them all in by hand.  I watered thoroughly yesterday afternoon, added some more soil this morning, and compacted the soil somewhat before a final raking, leveling and watering.

    I admit there were times when I never thought it would look this nice.

    And look what bloomed under one of the pine trees: 

    Septflower

    The leaves have been coming up for about 5 years; this is the first time we have seen blossoms.

  • Honoring the stitch

    The super-stretch stitch is such a wonderful little thing, truly a modern marvel, yet we take it for granted.   My old Elna does not have this kind of stitch and even with the various possibilities for knits, there is nothing remotely like it, something that lays flat yet stretches with the garment.  Oh, I remember all the years I have battled popped stitches.  Oh super-stretch stitch I embrace thee.

    It seems to take forever to sew.  The machine hums along, the needle going up and down at almost blinding speed and yet, the fabric moves forward ever so slowly, creeping onward at an almost invisible pace.  You wonder if the fabric is moving at all.  But eventually you are done and the seams stretches with the fabric and then returns to its resting state, flat and perfect. It seems amazing that you have spent so long on such a simple seam, one you wouldn’t even normally think about.  You think " I could have sewn the entire garment on the sergeer by now"; but then you do think about it and look at the tiny stitches and marvel.

    I don’t think we spend enough time marveling at the simple little things that make life so wonderful.

    I have decided that I don’t like completely serged together knits.  I like to combine the stitches from my sewing machine with serging.  The seams appear to look nicer, at least to me, even if all I do is add a simple straight stitch just inside the serging line.  I don’t always use the super-stretch stitch, don’t need to really, but the knit for this caftan is very stretchy with four-way stretch.

  • What a waste

    I will fritter away hours trying to avoid a mending job that will take 10 minutes.  What a waste.  I could have been sewing something fun.

  • Fear, Loathing, and the Moral Nation

    I have been avoiding thinking about the disaster in the south.  I have been avoiding thinking about all the people who are suffering, about the cost of rebuilding, of what will happen.  Actual the economic end of it seems unreal, when I think about Katrina I wonder what will happen to all those people, and I can’t fathom it.  Then I become angry.  Terribly angry.  Angry that we have allowed this to happen.  Angry.Because.Each.One.Of.Us.Is.Partly.To.Blame. Myself Included.  Better to not think about guilt.

    We blame the conservatives.  We blame the Government.  We blame President Bush.  And well we should.  They have handled this very badly.  If the President handled 9/11 well, he certainly has handled this very badly.  A blight upon his presidency. He seems out of contact, as if he doesn’t care, and the incomptence spreads and spreads and no one seems to know what could be done, what could have been done, what should have been done. That we can hold ourselves up as a model of what is right in the world and tolerate this total lack of regard for human life from our President and Government is appalling.

    Does anyone care anymore?

    Of course, I know that by not following everything I am trying to escape and not face the facts, as I suspect are many Americans — it’s not my life — even though we feel bad for those who have suffered.  Send Money.  Send toiletries and food.  Many of us have done that, myself included.  Still it is another thing to sit here in my comfortable home and wonder what will happen to the poor.  Avoiding the issues does nothing to help, and hence I must accept part of the blame because I have done nothing to help.  Writing about it does nothing to help either, nor does complaining.  It maks the writer feel better, more virtuous.  hmmmm..  we are on a roll here.

    As I said it is easy to blame the conservatives.  But truly are the liberals better?  I don’t see strong politicians mobilizing forces.  The democrats have been fronting weak, nobody candidates and then screaming when they lose.  Does either side really think about the poor as people, as someone who could just as easily be you or me?  No.  We read the reports.  We complain about the unfairness of it, but we don’t really upset the status quo.  We think of the government as apart from ourselves, our lives.  We let it go on its merry way and then we are angry when it disappoints us.   We blame the crooked politicians for paying poor blacks in New Orleans for their vote.  We don’t blame the poor, usually black, who vote twice.  The $50 payment is more tangible to them than the benefits or harm to come from voting for whoever.  They don’t see that anything will change anyway, might as well collect the money.  Are we any better.  We elect our government.  We elect people who don’t upset our comfortable lives, or we read the news and let it slide because we don’t really believe anything will change anyway.

    Again people blame President Bush.  He has wasted an opportunity.  He has shown gross disregard for human lives.  So have many others.  Would someone else do better.  I would hope so.  Would the situtation have turned out better.  I don’t know.  There are too many reports about the failures being widespread.  This was ANTICIPATED.  Even the Wall Street Journal   has reported about the failures.  No one had plans, or more realistically no wanted to pay for those plans. Or the plans were incomplete even though the data was available in many places.   In a market driven economy there is no money in disaster preparedness.  It is a net money loser.  Even though the rebuilding of New Orleans and the relocating of thousands will cost billions, billions more will be made.   The economy doesn’t care.  Billions in, billions out; good for business. 

    We have lost the human scale.

    There was no plan for evacuating those residents who had no private transportation.  This in a city where almost a quarter of the population was poor.  City and state officials must have been aware of this.  Yet they never thought in human terms what this meant for all those poor people who had no cars or way to escape.  Invisible.

    When they were finally faced with doing something, they transferred some to the Superdome.  Yet they had no provisions for food or water or medicines, toilet facilities or anything.  They thought they would just dump them there like bags of used clothing.  Invisible.

    People were rescued and dumped on th side of the road while military and emergency operations went around them.  Invisible.

    No wonder the poor looted and stole.  They know we don’t really see them.  It is so sad that they think that getting a high definition TV is what makes them worthwhile, but we have bred that mentaility as well.  Are we concerned?  As a nation no.  Invisible.

    Back to the Wall Street Journal.  This time to Thursday’s issue: Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood  which describes residents high and dry, although granted inconvenienced, with generators, ice and security guards, using Audobon Park as a private heliport to come and go, while people are drowning and dying of dehydration such a short distance away.  Invisible.

    It is amazing that these are the people who want to rebuild New Orleans, and will probably be able to do it, without the poor black population, even though the grittiness and mix of cultures is a great deal of what has made New Orleans such an enduring culture.  Invisible.

    A Government’s first reponsibility is to its people.  All its people in equal measure.  A community’s first responsibility is to its people.  All its people in equal measure.  I don’t think the United States as a whole is much of a community anymore and this makes me very ashamed.

    I was directed to several blogs discussing these issues by various knitting links, most directly by Kerstin from whom I found myself directed to Tom Watson  who said this: 
    An unwillingness to lead at the head of government: that is the hallmark of the modern American conservative movement, one that is firmly established (for now) in power over the dwindling Federal might of our country. This administration is unwilling to lead (outside of war and related saber-ratling) – it does not believe strongly in the mission of goverment, in government that can do good, in government that can lead people and improve society. It believes only in the marketplace and in thin, sloganish vitriol.

    From Watson, I was lead to Jason Chervokas  and even more interesting thought provoking reading, which pretty much shaped my day.  While doing other things, I was contemplating so much that was running through my mind.  I will end with another quote:

    If Howard Dean is correct, if it is time for a new America, the moral purpose he talks about restoring is a very old, very simple one that Conservatism has abandoned: Take Care of Each Other. That’s why people join together in groups to live–whether they join in families or tribes or democratic governments: to take care of each other better than they can take care of themselves. A government that has anything else as it’s primary goal is a government without moral legitimacy.

    Where we DO we go from here?  Will we change our path or is just another little speed-bump on the road?

  • Fabrics, Patterns, and lack of sewing

    There has.precious little sewing the past two days; in fact the only action the sewing machine has seen has been mending and alterations, two of my least favorite tasks.  Generally speaking I would rather make something new than mend anything.  Unfortunately that is rarely practical.

    Michael Bearman of Michael’s Fabrics  called on Tuesday and said he had some wonderful Agnona double faced cashmere in coating weights and asked if I was interested in seeing swatches.  Of course I said yes.  I immediately thought of some of the lovely coats and jackets done by Ralph Rucci in double faced cashmere and wondered if would be able to do something inspired by those creations.  The swatches arrived today, I promised to send them back, so they will go back tomorrow.  Unfortunately the fabrics are heavier than I imagined.  I knew they were coatings but I was thinking of a more plush drapey coating and these are thicker and a little stiffer than I wanted.  They are wonderful quality though and come in some absolutely delicious colors.  I admit I am tempted.  But I have far too many coats as it is.

    There is one swatch in a kind of chestnut and black which reminds me of a jacket I made a few years ago, the fall Susie Denison got married.  It was chestnut and charcoal gray, merino wool instead of cashmere, but about the same weight and hand of these cashmere swatches. I took it with me to Washington State for the wedding and I wore it a lot that winter, a simple straight jacket, reversible, with a turn-back collar that showed the contrast and cuffs that turned up.  For some odd reason I did not wear it much last winter though, I don’t remember why.  I was looking at it the other day while I was sorting through the closet and made a note to myself to wear it more this year as it goes with so many things in my wardrobe and is so simple and elegant.

    I also received the new Marfy catalog this week, on Tuesday, and I need to refine my choices and place an order for the patterns I like.  I will probably order several.  I love seeing new shapes and seaming and looking at how they are done.  I am not convinced that I will ever become someone who will draft most of my own patterns.  I love playing with other people’s ideas too much.  Anyway the Marfy patterns are so well drafted that I love using them and have no qualms about ordering  these patterns.  I will not regret a one.  I want to place the order this week as I know that orders slack off after the catalogs are mailed and this was the second batch sent out.  I missed the first batch by ordering too late.  I had the mistaken idea in my head that I had a standing order and it would just come.  Well, I know better now.

  • Let’s Get Ready to Lounge About

    Last night (Monday) I finished working in the iris bed around 5:30 and, being hot, tired, and lightly coated with a fine layer of dusty soil, I thought the first order of business was a refreshing dip in the pool.   When I emerged I wished I had some kind of lounging caftan to pull on, to curl up in while I read a book or just lounged around for the evening.  No serious tasks loomed; dinner was to be cooked on the grill, and I had little inclination to put on real clothes, yet it was too early for pajamas.

    Unfortunately my caftan supply is sadly non-existent at the moment.  I have two pieces of fabric, purchased for that exact purpose earlier in the summer, which I washed but never made up.  I was determined to get started.  This is something I will use and enjoy immediately.  Tops and skirts can wait.  Yes I will wear those, but the caftan is something just for me, something to look forward to coming home and changing into, something to help instill the luxurious feeling of leisure.

    George poured me an extra large glass of wine with dinner saying it would be good for my sore muscles but I was still pretty alert (it must have been the steak  – does red meat slow down the absorption of wine?). and I still felt like getting started with a sewing project.  I knew I had a caftan pattern which I had never used so I pulled it out and started the prep work.

    Caftans1

    I managed to get the pattern cut out and pressed and the fabric pressed before it was time for my Monday Night TV break, when I curled up in the knitting chair with my current project and watched The Closer, my television addiction of choice this summer.

    After my television break I returned to pattern prep.  This is a pretty basic pattern, straight and oversized.  I am making it in a forgiving cotton/lycra knit.  I never planned on making a muslin for this garment as I think I can just wing it from my block.  It is, after all, a lounging garment and I can cut myself a little slack here.

    I did lay the pattern out and check critical fitting points against my basic bodice block, matching bust points, shoulder line and waist line.  As expected, I had to lengthen the pattern by about 1 ½ inches above the waist.  In one sense, since it is not a fitted garment it might not have mattered where I lengthened it, but although oversized there is a gradual flare from the bust down through the hips and I certainly don’t need extra width in the pattern above the hip line.  Lengthening above the waist, where it is actually needed, will preserve the slim lines. 

    Even though this pattern is pretty roomy, and the size 12 pattern still had a good 5 inches of ease at the hipline, I added a total of two more inches, tapering from just below the ribcage as there is more than enough ease at the waist and bust.  In a heavier fabric this would not be necessary but this particular cotton is very thin, light and drapey and is likely to cling.  A little extra fabric will probably be appreciated.   

    Caftans

    Perhaps it was just anticipation of actually working on a sewing project but I was wide awake and ready to leap out of bed by 6 AM and I managed to cut everything out before George was up and it was time to face the rest of the day.

    I got the two body lengths cut out with no problem but the fabric was a little short for the sleeves, about 4 inches short, just slightly more than I took up by lengthening the pattern.  This surprised me because I almost always buy extra fabric and I was pretty sure I had in this case as well.  I decided long ago, what with asymmetrical body parts and lengthening everything that I should just figure extra in all my yardages.  I also decided that if I was considering an expensive fabric and I could not afford to buy an extra half hard or so, then I probably couldn’t afford the fabric and should just skip it.  This plan has worked well for me over the years.

    Anyway, I checked my records.  I bought 4 yards.  The pattern called for 3 ½.  I obviously thought this would be enough.  This should have been enough, but I obviously did not allow enough for shrinkage.  I have found that fabrics with lycra tend to shrink a great deal in the wash and I often tend to run them through multiple pre-washes to avoid further shrinkage after the garment is made.  I did not measure the fabric after washing and before cutting, but looking at my cut pieces and the leftovers, I would guess I had slightly less than 3 ½ yards. 

    Hmm.  I think I need to remember to buy more with washable lycra fabrics.  I know it will shrink, but I don’t always add in extra for lengthening AND extra for shrinkage.

    It will work out ok.  I just cut the sleeves short.  I think I am going to want a 3/4 or below elbow sleeve on this top anyway, and if not, I have enough fabric that I can piece in the lower part of the sleeve, perhaps adding a decorate seam to make it into a design detail.

    No further sewing was accomplished today.   I had planned a trip down to White Plains to the Container Store for their shelving sale, there were several things we needed, and to Whole Foods  for a periodic restocking of things I just can’t find locally.  I also made a brief stop at Yarn Central as well to get an extra skein of yarn for the front band on a sweater I am supposed to be finishing up.  They were thrilled to see me in a hand-made sweater and Marta recognized that I must have made my red skirt because, she said, that she didn’t believe I could find something in the store so beautifully done.  That comment gave a real boost to my day. 

    By the time I got home at 4:00 I was too tired to start sewing then and I just had time to go through the mail and grab a cup of coffee before being picked up for Tuesday knitting group.  Still I am happy with my progress.

  • Labor Day

    I spent Labor Day laboring, not on the normal, everyday, boring things, but working in my new flower bed:

    Irisbed6

    I have sifted about half of the existing soil.  So far I have removed enough gravel and rock to fill the drainage ditch (about 9 cubic feet)  and take a buggy load over to fill in the area around the drain channel off our property where the soil has washed away around the drain pipe.

    I also started working on planting plans for this bed.  I don’t know if they will work, I really don’t have a lot of experience planting perennial beds for sun.  Here is what I have come up with so far:

    Irisbedmasterplan1

    Irisbedmasterplan2

  • Why No Sewing?

    It is 10:10 PM.  I am really impressed by those who sew in the evenings, alone, undisturbed by their families until the wee hours of the morning.  It is 10:10 and I am done with my tasks for the day.  I think I am too tired to start sewing now.  Of course I have to start cutting first, and I don’t think I have it in me to lay out the pattern, check it, correct it, get it ready to cut and then…put it all way before laying out the fabric on another day.  Don’t I manage to talk myself out of sewing projects so easily?

    Of course it would help if I didn’t have to lay everything out on the kitchen island.  It is large, but I can’t leave anything out.  If I had a table in the sewing room/office I could shut the door.  This is a goal, but I don’t see how it will happen soon.  There is no room in the sewing room for a table.  If I moved the cookbook collection out, that would help, but that means I have to get shelving set up somewhere else.  If I could move the office stuff to George’s “den” which he never uses except to store things, that would allow more space as well.  But cleaning out and reorganizing the den is a major project, made even more major because it will probably require reorganizing of the husband before it can even hope to proceed.

    I had hoped to get started on some sewing this Labor Day weekend.  So far I have thought about it.  I have done a lot of work in the yard.  I have done some closet weeding.  Here is a section of my closet.  (You know I must be desperate for photo content.)

    Closet1

    My closet hasn’t been this empty in years; I used to have two sections of skirts.  All the ones that don’t fit are
    gone.  Most of the shorter ones were made this spring and summer, I
    didn’t have any knee length skirts for a long time before that.

    Life is not really so bad.  We went up to Pittsfield for the first concert in our South Mountain concert series.  I felt like cooking so I have been playing in the kitchen, turning out some nice meals.  Too many choices.  Too many interests.  There is never enough time to do it all.

    Sewing will come.  Something else will be ignored.  Should I start the summer skirt I still insist on trying to make?  It requires a lot of cutting table work.  What cutting table??  Should I make the little top instead?  It is simpler to cut – well perhaps, depending on how the pattern looks compared to my block. 

    It is late.  Perhaps I will just knit.  No wonder I get more knitting done than sewing. 

  • Summer Ends…Fall Begins

    September 4, Taconic State Parkway, heading north…the maples are beginning to turn.  The transformation that is Autumn has begun.

    Southmountain1

    Sorry about the copy, I suppose that’s what I get for folding the program up accordian-like in my purse for the ride home.

    South Mountain: The Borromeo String Quartet.  Excellent performance, excellent musicians.    The Stravinsky Concertino was charming.  The Mozart Clarinet Quintet with David Shifrin was perfectly good but I felt it dragged a little.  I am not sure whether this is a valid criticism of the performance or just and admission of my own preferences where Mozart is concerned, not necessarily founded in any knowledge of how the music “should” be played.

    The Dvorak Quartet in G Major was eloquent.  In the beginning the dance that was missing from the Mozart begged us to rise from our seats.  The performance was outstanding, the second movement and emotional masterpiece.  Bravo.

    Dinner:
        Salt Cod Gallettes
        Frisee Salad with Warm Sherry Vinaigrette

    It’s almost 10 PM.  I still have to strain the secondary stock that was cooking while we were gallivanting across the Berkshires.  Then what will I do?  Something creative, something useful, nothing at all?