Back Again with Gloves

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Well, here I am again, and I'm so sorry not to have kept things up to date. I can only blame myself. I have been having a little pity party here and I think I've finally decided to just move along and do what I can. I'm still unable to get to my sewing room, and I am apparently more a creature of habit and familiar surroundings than I had thought. I find myself feeling that I can't do anything until I get to the "right place" to do it. Very silly and very limiting, but innate it seems.

The wisteria has bloomed beautifully. I was so disgusted with the birds who ate about half the buds before they ever came near to opening, and as you can see below, it was a nice show, but nothing like it should have been. This was actually several days ago, and by now it's rained and the wind has blown, and the flowers are looking rather faded besides which the leaves have definitely come forth. There will be flowers throughout the season, but the first bloom, before the vine leafs out completely is always the biggest and best show.


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Back to sewing. I'm still working, slowly, on my draped knit dress, and I am pretty happy with it so far. I don't have any photos yet, but I will remedy that soon I hope. I'm still sewing it all by hand, and it's slow going, yet I am enjoying it. I'm to the point of sewing the sleeve seams, which are at the top of the arm, continuing from the shoulder seams. I haven't cut off the extra sleeve length yet, and so have my options open. I think it's going to end up being long sleeves, and then I can push them up to 3/4 if I like, which I usually do.

I had a sudden flash the other night. I was considering what handwork I should be doing, besides the knitting that's coming along well, and I suddenly recalled the glove pattern from EvaDress that I got quite recently. It's meant to be hand-sewn, with 1/8" seam allowances. What could be more perfect for my present situation? I began to read the instructions, and noted that there are many, many markings that must be transferred accurately to the fabric, and that some of the cutting is done only after completing part of the stitching. This is to control ravelling. It also said that the original pattern was actually a hot iron transfer. I thought this sounded like just the ticket, and googled around until I found that Sulky makes hot iron transfer pens. I ordered from Joggles very late on Monday and received my order today! 3 day delivery is nothing to sneeze at. Here's my loot.
Photo Link Of course I couldn't stop at just the transfer pens. I got a brown and a white. (I had wanted yellow, but it wasn't available.) I also ordered some Iris pins, some milliner's needles for the Rucci 'worms', and a yard of heavyweight buckram to test for a few things I have in the back of my mind.

I am thinking of trying a knit fabric for my first pair of gloves (said with great confidence!) since jersey is one of the recommended fabrics, along with several woven fabrics. I think dispensing with the ravelling problem while trying the pattern might be helpful. The pattern notes that these are Dressmaker Gloves, and are meant to fit rather loosely. It should be interesting. I have a pair of vintage gloves in a transparent fabric that remind me of these, and they are a little loose fitting, so perhaps that's what they are too.