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Restingmotion

  • Where do the days go?

  • Another day, another opportunity to make a mistake

    Well, let's see, there was sewing yesterday. In the end, there was not as much as I would have liked, but there was enough.  And I probably frittered away time as well, time going over stuff I'd been over before, time learning and relearning things I used to know, time making stupid mistakes and then fixing them.

    All in all, I'd say it was quite fun.

    Even though I had already cut out all the pieces to the skirt, my lack of confidence was running the show and I went back and laid out the fabric and fiddled with potential layouts again, trying to match the pattern as much as possible.  I'm still worried about what matches, what doesn't, how much it doesn't, and if I've made some major miscalculation and will have a giant flower right where I don't want it.   

    I the front is easy as it is one piece.   The back was relatively easy for matching the pieces at the center seam.  But at the side seams all hell broke loose.  I couldn't get anything to match, or if I got one side seam to be somewhat matched, the other one was terrible.  

    IMG_3214  I thought perhaps I went about it wrong, that I should have the center back be along the same line as the center front, but that did not work as I would have double flowers at the side seams, and not in a nice way, right at the hip, where I didn't want it, and no matching anywhere else.

    The skirt is pegged.  No two pieces are the same size.  The seams are not cut on quite the same angles.  Perhaps a simple solid would have been easier.  But it would not have been as much fun.

    IMG_3217  So I opted for not so great matches at the sides.  Hopefully they are not so bad either.  I won't really know until I put it together.  I actually have lots of fabric left over so I can always cut the back again, or the whole skirt again for that matter.  I bought this fabric in the 90's and I was thinking of something grander than a skirt.  What can I say?

    So today, after all that fiddling with potential new pattern layouts, I set all this hypothetical stuff aside and started assembling the skirt.  I got that the back piece sewed up.  That's it.

    First I hand-basted the seam, because I wanted to be sure I got the pattern lined up correctly.  Then I sewed it up.  It worked really well and everything looked perfect.  Or so I thought.

    IMG_3338 That was before I put in the invisible zipper.  Somehow, the first time I got the zipper in, I got the pattern misaligned by about 1/4 of an inch.  It was quite obvious.  So I had to rip the zipper and do it again.  The second time was better; not perfect, but better. If you look at this picture, you can see that it is off still.  You'll have to trust me that it was worse before.  This I may be able to live with.  I'll do the side seams next and see how the whole thing looks before I make my final decision.

    IMG_3340
     I can't redo the seam again.  I discovered that the fabric is permanently scarred where the previous seam was located.  If you look at this photo you can see the little holes and tears in the fabric on the right hand side of the zipper tape where I pulled the stitching out.  I am in the process of convincing myself it is not so bad, that most people won't notice, and it is on the backside and will probably be hidden by a jacket or sweater. At any rate, I certainly won't notice it, and so I think I might bee able to live with it as long as I like the side seams.

    I must be more careful.

    I learned one other lesson today.  It is not wise to fuse interfacing over your basting stitches, not if you want to take them out that is.  In retrospect it is so obvious it is funny…. 

  • Sugar Snap Pea and Radish Salad

    IMG_3336
     Both the peas and the radishes from the salad came from a tiny, 5 x 5 foot plot in the vegetable garden.  This the only plot that is currently producing anything other than weeds as  I have spent most of the rest of my garden time in the front yard and the flower beds.

    Today I have decided to take a break from gardening.  There will be sewing.  There will also be a little bit of moving around of furniture as the solution to something that had been plaguing me suddenly popped into my head late last night.

  • Survival

    This morning I was working in the garden early, and I got another flower bed cleaned out and a few annuals planted.  It is late to still be doing this, but I never planned to put myself on a strict schedule.

    IMG_3325  One small thing that brought a smile to my face was this single poppy.  We had a good hard frost two weeks ago and the poppies shriveled up, except for this one bud.  It stood tall while the leaves all around it wilted and turned black as did all its neighbors.  I am sure there is a lesson in that.

  • Gifts

    IMG_3319  My stepson was here for a few days and we had a lovely visit.  He came bearing good humor and gifts and we enjoyed the time spent with him immensely.

    I got this little device to hang one's purse off a table, shown here on the sewing table with the strap from a knitting bag.  This looks really convenient and I hope it lives up to its promise, although i've already used it for said knitting bag, while knitting in the evening.  It is a great improvement as I can keep the ball of yarn in the bag, rather than in my lap where little kitty claws keep sneaking up trying to snag the yarn and make off with it, little kitty claws that far to often snag me as well as the yarn.

    IMG_3321  I also got a knitting book,  Reversible Knitting, which I had been quite curious about for some time, and I've enjoyed looking through it.  I like the pages about different knitting stitches and am quite intrigued by some of the patterns.  I can definitely see myself making some of them up.  If you are on Ravelry, you can see some of the patterns here, although several of the patterns I love, like the double-knit vest and Teva Durham's Geometric Dress are not on Ravelry.   Of the other patterns it seems some of the things I find the most intriguing are the least popular — go figure.

    But really the best gift of all, aside from the company, was time to myself.  A and his Dad went out for an afternoon and left me home alone.  I was thrilled.  

    There are so many things I feel behind on that I was tempted to play catch up with various projects.  But I didn't, or at least not entirely.  I spent a couple of hours in the sewing room, getting the lining cut out for my skirt, finishing up the marking, and applying the interfacing so that now I can just sit and sew as I get the opportunity.  I also sat and knitted a little bit, working out the details on the shaping of a sweater, something that takes more attention than I have had available in my knitting time of late.

    IMG_3323  But I did work on other projects as well just because there is so much that is in process and unfinished.  I realize that I have more things going on than I can finish at once, but I am still dealing with my own frustrations at living in this constant transitional state.  I feel like all my ragged edges are showing, so I worked in the garden, cutting down and ripping out many overgrown shrubs and vines and maple seedlings that were all trying to make their homes in inappropriate locations. 

    Then I came inside.  Rather than plunging right into projects, I sat and just enjoyed the silence for a while.  You know there are different kinds of silence and the silence of  house containing only yourself is different than a silent house with two occupants.  I needed those few minutes to just catch my breath and feel the silence.  

    Only after those few peaceful moments where my mind relaxed could I address some of the little details of the rearranged living room: rehanging paintings, positioning vases and lamps — although I am not completely happy with the lamps and might replace them — and slipping foam pipe insulation around the edges of the glass coffee table.  G keeps running into the coffee table because he can't see it and forgets that it is there.  His legs are all battered and bruised but he likes this table and refuses to replace it with something he can see.  I thought this might be a solution for now, and it looks better than I had anticipated.  

  • Black and White with Spots All Over

    I really had no intention of shopping last week.  Well I had no intention of shopping except for the aforementioned pearls.

    It didn't quite work out that way.  I just happened on a few perfect things.  One of those things was a leopard-spotted coat.  Actually there were two leopard-spotted coats but that is a story which will have to be continued another time.  The coats are not interchangeable.

    IMG_3296
     My fate was sealed, if not the moment I saw this coat on the sale rack, then the moment I tried it on.

    Truthfully, it is not a coat that I would immediately say is "my style" and yet it is.  G loved it at first until he saw the other coat.  And I loved both, and came back for this one the next day, determined that I would not turn down something so perfect just because it did not quite fit someone else's vision of me.  If I have learned anything it is to stop giving in to other people's expectations just because it is easier than standing up for myself.  It isn't easier, not in the long run.

    IMG_3286  I wore the coat out for dinner Friday night to celebrate G's birthday.  By then he had forgotten that there were two coats.  Since the "coat" is silk with a silk lining, it can work as either a dress or a coat, and I opted for the dress option Friday night.

    Unfortunately the late afternoon light is brutal at our house and the choices tend to be either glare or deep shadow.  I had to manipulate the light in this photo in an attempt to see some of the detail.  I think you can see the bubble hem and the bit of ruching on the sleeves.  The front edge of the collar is also wired so it can be scrunched and manipulated.  

    Note how nicely the coat/dress goes with my new necklace as well.

    I think this will be fabulous over a sleeveless dress with a bit of a pencil skirt, but unfortunately my skirts are all too big at the moment so I can't demonstrate.  It should also shine over narrow pants or with boots come fall.

  • Thoroughly Modern Pearls

    A  package arrived on Thursday, a serendipitous collaboration brought about by the wonders of the internet.

    On May 11, Duchesse, who writes the fabulous blog Passage des Perles,  had written about a fabulous strand of Keishi pearls she had seen at Kojima Pearl, and had ordered, having them strung with some silver Balinese box beads.  Unfortunately the necklace was too short for her and she had to return it.

    As it happened, I too had seen those same pearls on the Kojima site and had fretted over them.  I really wasn't sure what to do with flat stacked pearls of this type, but I was fascinated by them.  While I pondered, Duchesse bit and collaborated with Sarah Canizzaro at Kojima to create a necklace.  A necklace which just happens to be the length I have discovered is perfect for me — 17".  

    IMG_3299 I contacted Duchesse, and Kojima Pearl, and I waited.  Thursday I practically ripped the package open as soon as I returned home from the post office.  The pearls, and the necklace, are as stunning as I had hoped.  

    IMG_3274  I wore them Friday with a simple tee shirt and skirt, and again out to dinner Friday night.   To my delight, they coordinated perfectly with a pair of brushed platinum earrings with tiny diamonds that I had worn frequently when working but which did not seem to fit into my more casual current lifestyle:  too formal for every day and not formal enough for evening.  Yet with this pearl necklace they are perfect.

  • Micro-progress

    IMG_3309  The second sock is underway.  Most of the progress has been made a row or two at a time , while waiting someplace or another.  Still it adds up, and it feels like progress, more so than than the Ruby Bubbles Cardigan, which is also progressing but somehow seems like it is moving more slowly, even though the opposite is most certainly true.

    IMG_3308  It took me one whole evening to cast on for the left front of Ruby Bubbles, not necessarily because the piece is long — it isn't that long, but because I was working on other things.  And it seems more often than not I get partially across a row when I have to put the thing down and do something else.    But mainly I have just been tired and somewhat restless in the evenings.  We have moved things around and I don't, at the moment, have a place to sit and watch TV that is also a comfortable place to knit.  That will have to be addressed in time.

    IMG_3307  In the meantime, G has been asking to learn to knit.  

    I cast on for him, using some worsted weight acrylic yarn and he has knitted 8 inches or 1 1/2 rows of garter stitch.  This took about 4 hours with me talking him through every stitch;  making the last few stitches he was beginning to understand how to finish the stitch once I got him started.  I am happy to see progress.  I wonder however if I should have started him on something even bigger and bulkier until he got the hang of knitting a stitch.  

  • New Shoes and Empty Spaces

    IMG_3257  Not that long ago, the shoe closet was bursting at the seams.  No so anymore.  In fact it is looking rather bare.

    I finally faced the fact that somewhere between the winter after my 50th birthday and now (1 month before my 52nd birthday) my feet have grown and are not likely to return to their former size.  Oh I realized they had grown; how could I not?  I had to buy bigger shoes. Whereas my feet were a solid 8 1/2 in flats for 20 some years (since shortly after my 30th birthday), they are now quite solidly a 9 1/2, which is really not at all unusual for my height.

    But I kept hoping all those old favorites would somehow stretch to fit my growing feet.  

    Finally I gave in and eliminated anything that was not comfortable.  There are still a few pairs that are probably questionable, pairs that seem comfortable in the house and pull too strongly at my heart strings to be abandoned quite yet.  The entire purge was traumatic enough.  Yet the proof will be in the wearing.

    Of course, I can't refill the entire closet right away, and I am not even inclined to do so.  In order to ease the trauma of looking at a sea of empty shelves, it has occurred to me that I could easily convert this closet to accommodate shoes and handbags, freeing up space elsewhere.

    1154702-p-DETAILED  In the meantime, there have been a few shoe purchases, mostly practical and functional and one more frivolous.  I'll start with the frivolous pair because you can also see them up there in the shoe closet photo.  (photo from Zappos.com) I love these shoes and they are comfortable to wear all day, at least in this suburban area where transportation is primarily by automobile.  Besides, I am rather partial to cone-shaped heels.   

    IMG_3111  

    Here there are on me during the great purge.  It was nice to have something new to put on the shelves as so many shoes were taking their leave.

    My other recent purchases have been completely practical; replacements of missing or worn items.

    IMG_3261  My favorite converse slips.  I still get a thrill when I wear these without the laces.  It is juvenile I know, but they make me happy nonetheless.  Something happened to my pair near the end of last summer and it was too late to get the light color in my size.  Just as well, I was probably somewhere between my previous size and my new size and would have had to replace them again anyway.

    IMG_3262  And another pair of converse. Lovely worn with "nicer" pants, they also work well with rolled up jeans.  Yes, it is true.  After saying I didn't like rolled up jeans, or ankle length pants on me, I bought a pair of converse and changed my mind.

    A woman's prerogative, right?

  • A trip to New York

    Yesterday I managed to head down to NYC to meet fabulous
    blogger Belette Rouge at Café Sabarsky for coffee and conversation.  We had such a lovely time that we were
    both reluctant to part when the time came to head our separate ways, and we
    walked down Fifth Avenue delaying the inevitable.

     

    I noticed that I was merely a block or so from the
    Metropolitan Museum and I considered (briefly) going in to see the new exhibit
    at the Costume Institute, which I do want to see.

     

    But I had more important plans.

     

    This was my first trip to the city since my November Sewing
    weekend, and it was the first time I had been in the Upper East Side for several
    years as it seems my last few trips have been to meet friends in the Garment
    district or go directly to Lincoln Center and head home. 

     

    I love the Upper East Side.  And I miss shopping. 
    I miss shopping with intent to buy, although I did a little of that last
    week, I miss shopping as education, also called snoop shopping.  And I miss just plain old
    fashioned-window shopping and walking down the street letting impressions
    filter in and pile up without stopping to deconstruct ideas and details. 

     

    I opted for the latter, and walked down Madison avenue at a
    leisurely pace, making my way down from 86th street to Grand
    Central, taking in the windows and my fellow pedestrians.  I saw many things that gave me ideas
    for sewing, knitting, or just dressing in general.  I did not take any photos because once I started looking at
    details I would start to focus on them to the exclusion of all else and I would
    lose the haze of creativity I was seeking.

     

    I almost broke down and started actual detail-oriented
    observation.  But I managed to
    extricate myself from the maw of temptation.

     

    It happened like this: 
    By the time I got to Barney’s I was getting rather desperate for a
    bathroom break.  My intention was
    to go the lower level ladies room so as to avoid temptation as much as
    possible.  But I faltered.  I looked at the jewelry display cases
    and took a quick tour of the ground floor.  I was underwhelmed. 
    In fact I noted how some pieces, which look stunning when photographed
    on the website, looked somehow LESS in person.  This was a good reminder, and something I had begun to
    forget as I had been shut away in virtual-shopping-land.

     

    Then, after taking care of business, reapplying my lipstick
    and generally fretting over my hair and how much I looked like a suburban
    matron compared to the chic women sharing the mirror, I decided that it could
    not hurt to go upstairs and take a quick turn around the floor.

     

    It was on the designer floors that I remembered why I love
    shopping, and particularly why I love designer boutiques and stores.  Granted some (many) things are
    overpriced for what you get, but not everything.  I looked at gorgeous clothes made of exquisite fabrics, or
    employing meticulous construction with interesting techniques.  At times fabulous construction met
    fabulous fabric and I was ready to swoon.    I learned a few things, although I will not
    mention specific brands except to say that I studied my first actual Dries Van
    Noten garments and they are gorgeous and far more luxurious than they appear on
    line.  They are also colorful but
    controlled.  I like that.

     

    But on to my observations, such as they are.  I reaffirmed that yes, I am a
    snob.  But I am not a snob about
    labels.  And I am not a snob about
    expensive things just for their own sake. 
    And I am not really a snob about the choices other people make with
    their lives. But I do love beautiful fabric and fabulous design and exquisite
    construction and details.  There
    were plenty of examples of all these things on the Barneys floor (there were
    also plenty of examples of over-priced crap, but that is another story).  As I was looking at garments, and
    studying construction details, turning clothes inside out, that old demon
    started to rear his ugly head – you know the one (although I hope you are not
    prey to his wily ways) – the “I want” demon.  I don’t mean just I want as in I want to buy, although I’d
    love to be able to do that, but as in I want to learn, to make, to create, to
    be able to master something like this….

     

    I started to obsess.

     

    And that is when I knew I had to leave.  I was starting to regret my J Crew tee
    shirt, which is perfect for my everyday life.  I was thinking about how the denim in my Gap jeans is not as
    nice quality wise as the denim in my Current/Elliot or Joe’s Jeans, even though
    they were a fraction of the price. 
    I was thinking that the new coat I bought the day before wasn’t so hot
    after all, even though I love it and knew perfectly well it was not the
    pinnacle of quality.  I bought it
    because for the “look” because I could use it and wear it, it fit my life, and
    it was great quality for the price. I wanted to run down to B&J and buy new
    fabric even though I have more than enough.

     

    I had to leave because I knew that buying (or making) the
    most beautiful garments will not change the life I lead. Yes, my expedition to
    Barneys’ reminded me that there really is a difference between $150.00 a yard
    wool crepe and the $20.00 a yard variety. 
    My trip reminded me that mastery of cut is important, that there is a
    reason that some apparently simple things look gorgeous on, and others look
    like a sack.  If I stayed in
    Barney’s I would be consumed by obsession.   I felt like I was eating myself alive; this side of me
    that can pursue the beautiful to the exclusion of all else, this part of me
    that I do not want to be dominant in my life, was overwhelming.  I have made choices in my life, choices
    to contain this particular aspect of my personality, and I felt it slipping
    out, worming its way through the chinks in my personal armor.

     

    This was not my goal. It was time to leave.

     

    I exited the premises, stopped and caught a few deep breaths
    and continued on my way.  I stopped
    in no other stores, not even Walter Steiger, designer of my favorite shoes
    (next to Manolos), although I did cut over to Park Avenue to peer into his
    windows and also to stop and look in the windows of Cellini as well.  By the time I got to Grand Central my
    brain was aflutter with ideas and inspirations and I was myself again.

     

    You know, at times I am envious of people who are not so
    affected by the lure of the beautiful, who can see without wanting to possess
    and control.  It is a
    weakness.  And yet I also know that
    this struggle within me is an integral part of the creative process.  Whether we create art, or merely try to
    dress ourselves neatly, the act of creation is a process of control, of
    suppressing the parts of life we don’t wish to acknowledge and replacing them
    with the image we desire.