Silliness

Something struck me really funny the other day, and I can't get it out of my mind, so as a friend says, Good Morning, Victims.

We were watching the business channel the other day, as we often do, and I happened to notice the name of a company going across in the trade listings that I'd never seen before.

It was called .................. Intrepid Potash.

I immediately wondered how potash could be intrepid?  Also, if there was intrepid potash, there must be timid potash as well.  

I can just see the Intrepid Little Potash in it's brave pile, wearing a Robin Hood hat, with a jaunty feather of course. "Go forth, Intrepid Potash! Spread yourself far and wide upon the land." It all reminds me of The Brave Little Toaster, a darling cartoon. It was pretty silly too, but darling. Surely. the Brave Little Toaster would have been friends with The Intrepid Potash.

Finally, here's a sweet pea that's blooming now, and I thought it looked so much like an orchid.

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It's a very carefree flower, but it does tend to take over if given the chance.

Lace Skirt Progress

Link to All Lace Skirt Photos

Here's a close-up of my zipper installation. I plan to add a lapped-zipper-like lace overlay to it, but for now, it's just a centered zipper, handstitched through the lace only, so the only stitching you see is basting. This was fun, but a little nerve-wracking, as the lace is very thick, and I was afraid of getting it too close to the zipper teeth.

I got the waistband basted on last night, and am very happy with it. I am using the contrast fabric from my Marfy jacket for the waistband. It blends in nicely with the lace, as a neutral, and is nice and smooth. I knew I did not want lace for the waistband, and I did not want the organza, as it would be uncomfortably rough. I also wanted a real waistband rather than a faced band, as the faced bands never really hold things in position on me, and this is a very heavy skirt that needs to stay put. I put it on last night and it has grown quite a lot in length because of the weight I'm sure, so I'll be turning it up at least 4" more than I'd planned. This changes the length of the organza layer too, and I may just rip off my bias edging and re-apply it to the new spot rather than trying to think of something else. Here's the organza bias hem edging as it is now.



Here's the back of the skirt before the zipper was in, with no waistband, and the original hem length pinned up.


I'm getting excited about finishing this skirt now, and I think it's going to be done in the next couple of days. I really like the shape of it so far, and I think it's going to be a success.

More Mail

Yes, nice things came in the mail again. Harper's Bazaar is always nice to see, but the Lana Grossa Filati is my first issue, and was great fun to get. There are a couple patterns that look interesting, and one that I'm seriously thinking about. It's for their Baby Kid mohair yarn, but I may try a swatch with some mohair I have already. It's a cone of seafoam mohair, and it's very pretty.

The coral-red yarn is Rowan R2 Fuzzi Felt, and is for a vest/sleeveless jacket. The pattern is on order, but hasn't come yet. The brown elann Esprit is for a skirt. The 2 skeins of alpaca in purple tones are for mitts.

So, lots of plans anyway.

I'm bonding with my new Pfaff, and enjoying trying lots of things with it. I'm also coming right along with the lace skirt. I'm really pleased with how it looks so far. I've been very timid about it, and I suddenly decided that it's just a skirt for heaven's sake, and began to get on with it. I've decided on one layer of organza under the lace, and have attached it at the waist and CB seam, and turned up the hem with the organza inside the lace. I will make a slip to wear under it. I tried various suitable knits that I have, and the dark gray-silver that I originally suspected might work is definitely the best. I think this skirt is going to be great fun to wear. I hope so anyway.

New Machine

I was resting yesterday afternoon, trying to appease the cold that won't die, and I heard the doorbell ring. Immediately I ran for the front door in case it was my new Pfaff. I didn't want the UPS guy to drive off with it if I didn't answer. He was already driving off when I got there, but you can see what was waiting for me.



It sure seemed like a really big box, but when I saw all the gear that was in it, I understood.



Very quickly I got down to what you see here. It has the embroidery unit and more hoops than I'd realized were coming. There's a Grand Hoop, All-Fabric Hoop, Endless Hoop, Petite Hoop, and the hoops that come with the unit. Guess I'd better learn to embroider after all! Probably not just this minute, though. Also in the box was an extra bobbin-case for bobbin-work, extra bobbins, and a straight-stitch plate. I've probably missed something, but I'm a little overwhelmed by all the goodies.

And here's my new baby at home.



I fooled around a little bit last night and again today and am getting comfortable with some basic things. I needed to alter a few pairs of pants for Pearle, which is a quick, easy job, but it was perfect for learning precision with this machine. They all have their little quirks, and I'm sure there are lots of things that I'll learn to do in a better or easier way, but I'm pretty thrilled so far.

Marfy #1234 Jacket with Photos

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Finally, photos of the Marfy jacket I finished Thursday evening. I plan to make pants and a skirt from the contrast twill fabric, but for these photos I tried 3 different pairs of pants, none of which is quite right, so if you follow the link and look at all the photos, just ignore the non-coordinating pants.

SEE ALL PHOTOS HERE

I'm generally very pleased with this jacket. I made it a little more fitted than the pattern drawing shows, and I didn't use the pockets, although I made them and tried them in every position imaginable, but they just were not flattering in the slightest. I think the length is pretty good, although I'm thinking of making the next one just a little longer. This is already somewhat longer than what I've been making recently, but I think I'll go longer yet. Here's the pattern drawing. You'll notice that my buttons are on the opposite side, but since these photos are taken in a mirror, the image is backward. In real life, my jacket fastens the same direction as Marfy's illustration.


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I love the fabric, which is from the Fashion Sewing Group. The lining is a silk tie jacquard from Fabric Mart. They had a bunch of them a few months back, and I bought this and one other. This is probably just a bit heavy/stiff for a jacket lining. The other one is a lighter weight, but the wrong color entirely.

I like the jacket open too. It fits really nicely in the back and it stays put when unbuttoned. I would have shown this, but I haven't decided what I'll wear under this. I assume I will most often wear it closed, but it's nice to have a more casual look available.

You can see the inside finish here, including the backs of the handstitched buttonholes.

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The twill fabric is one reason I wanted to do them this way. It's such a touchy fabric. Every little thing leaves its mark and it's hard to get surface stitching to look good or even. It also wants to fray. Not enough to be a problem with ravelling seams or anything, but enough that the buttonhole lips on the test buttonholes wanted to look frowzy. I used FrayBlock on these, and it did help. Meanwhile the tweed was extremely forgiving, and almost completely hid any stitching at all.


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I love these buttons. I found them at JoAnn's, but they're real shell and quite beautiful.

I have to say I'm happy with this jacket, and I am anxious to start on the next one I have planned from the Blass boucle fabric I got from Elliott Berman Textiles.

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I'm going to begin seriously working on my cashmere coat first though.

String Bag Instructions

I thought I'd probably have to be more specific about how I made the String Bag in the previous post, and Marji has given me the push I needed.

I found the original pattern I started with. It's Everlasting Bagstopper from the Summer 2007 Knitty. It calls for 2 skeins of Allhemp 6, which sells for about $17/skein. So we're talking $34 for yarn, exclusive of S&H. I find this ridiculous for a string bag, which in my view is the sort of thing that you ought to be able to make from stuff on hand at basically no cost. Oh well, that's just me, and there's nothing wrong with the pattern itself, except that I don't like the handle or how it attaches. It's just a piece of twill tape or ribbon, and so you basically have a bucket shaped bag with a handle. Not what I really had in mind, so I changed it.

I followed the instructions up to where she starts the garter stitch rows for the top edge of the bag, then I went on my own.

Here's my (very sketchy)pattern, using 2 skeins Aunt Lydia's Size 3 Fashion Crochet Thread, for a cost of around $4. (I tried SugarNCream with my bag following the original pattern, and I thought it was too heavy looking, so I looked for a yarn/thread that looked like the right size and came up with Aunt Lydia's.)

With Size 5(US)needles:
CO 44 and knit every row for about 28 rows (14 ridges).
PU 14 st on end of rectangle, 44 on long side and 14 on end. Place marker. Continue in garter stitch around your rectangle/circle for about 4 or 5 rows.
Change to Size 10.5(US) needles and begin pattern stitch.

Row 1: YO, K2tog. Repeat around.
Row 2: K.

Repeat these 2 rows until you get the height you want before the handle area (about 8-12 inches unstretched).

Place a marker at the halfway point of your round. You will be working on half the stitches at a time. Work so that you are doing Row 1 on the right side and Row 2 on the wrong side. Of course you will now be purling Row 2. After you finish the first side (half the original stitches0 go back and do the other side to match.

BO 3 st. at the beginning of the next 2 rows, then continue in pattern, decreasing 1 st. on each side of every WS row. I like to decrease next to a selvedge stitch which is K on each row, rather than on the outside stitch. Keep doing this until you have about 40 stitches.

Next 2 rows: K2tog. across the row.

10 st. remaining.

Here's where my possible changes will come in. I changed back to the Size 5 needles and did a garter stitch strap at this point across the 10 rows on both sides and did a combined cast off at the middle of the strap. This is kind of pointless and fiddly, so I would either cast off at the 10 st. point on the first side and do the whole strap on the other side and then sew them together,

OR

cast off at the 10 st. point on both sides and use a crochet hook to do a couple rows of reverse SC around the entire bag opening and then make the strap. That would probably be the sturdiest option, but possibly unnecessary.


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String Bag & Lots of News

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I decided to knit for the Mu Phi Fundraiser again this year. I skipped last year, and was surprised, but rather pleased too, that my things were missed. I'm making scarves again, which you can see at the bottom, but I also thought it would be fun to try knitting a string carrier bag. This is my second attempt, and I'm kind of pleased with it. It's a slight modification of a pattern I found somewhere on the web. I'm going to do the next one a little differently and I think it will be improved, although I'm happy with this one for myself.

Here it is flat.


And as worn over the shoulder.


One of the problems I have with the idea of making this type of bag as a replacement for throw-away bags is that so many of the patterns I see have you using very expensive yarn. That seems ridiculous, especially if I'm going to try to sell these at a bazaar. Wetspun linen would be ideal for these and they might last a hundred years, but who's going to pay over $20 for one, and that would only cover the cost of the yarn, with no profit for the group. So, I decided to use something cheap and available (I got it at the dime store). This is Aunt Lydia's Size 3 Fashion Crochet Thread in mercerized cotton. It should be quite durable, and has the right look for what I wanted. I'll see how it holds up, but I think it will be just fine. This bag took almost 2 balls, which was less than $4 worth of yarn, about right for something like this, I'd say.

Here are the scarves I'm making.

These are a fun pattern called the Potato Chip Scarf. The pattern is from KnitPicks, although I cast on 180 stitches, as per their original pattern, and it gives you a nice length. These are great for wrapping around the throat, and they stay in position wherever you put them.

I finished the Marfy #1234 jacket last night and I'm very pleased with it. I may wait a day or two to take photos. I've got a rotten cold right now, and I'm not looking too fashionable, to say the least. I will just tease you with a (semi-fuzzy) photo of one of the hand-embroidered buttonholes halfway done. You can see the double strand of thread I used to cord these. After they were done except for the bartack on the inner end, I pulled up the cording threads to shape them, tied the threads off and finished the bartack.

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I worried about them and tested and tested and thought I'd made a big mistake in not doing bound buttonholes to start with, but as it turns out, I love them. I love the look, and I really loved doing them. They're really fairly fast too, which shocked me.

My other big news is that I'm getting a new sewing machine!!! It's a Pfaff 2144 which has been very gently used. In fact, my sister traded it in on the newest Pfaff CV, and she literally almost didn't use it at all, so I'm getting a wonderful, and basically brand new machine. Her dealer is checking and updating it, and shipping it to me, and I'm hoping it will get here by the end of next week. Much anticipation here, and a little anxiety that the learning curve I've heard about with these will be a problem. Naturally, I want it to do everything I want, right now, rather than after I figure it out. Patience is NOT my middle name. It's going to be fun though, and I'm ready for a new machine I think. I haven't worn out my Elna, but it's been going strong for 20 years now, and it's showing its age a bit here and there. I take care with it, but it will be fun to have all the new bells and whistles.

I will be interested to see if the embroidery bug bites. Somehow I doubt it, although I want to try buttonholes using the embroidery capability of the machine. I saw this on a Babylock TOL machine a couple years ago, and it was the first thing that really made me sit up and take notice of an embroidery-capable machine.

Green Lace - Dyeing is Done

Here you can see the Before and After pictures of the lace I dyed.


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I am very pleased with the results. I used Procion dye from Dharma Trading, and did it in the washing machine. It took me several hours last night, and I ended up washing it numerous times after it was dyed, to remove all the excess dye. I think I'm finally done with that, and I love the color. The color I used was Sage Green.

I'm ready to begin 'auditioning' things to use as an underlayer, and as Els suggested, silk organza is first on my list of possibles, and I have some loden organza that may be the perfect color.

I have a lot of colored organza, as at one time I was sort of planning to try to copy a technique I'd seen that had a dress with a doubled organza skirt (fold at the bottom.) It had organza shapes within the skirt in various colors. It was very pretty, and looked a little like an underwater scene. I collected colored organza in a desultory fashion for a while, and the mood seemed to pass before I tried it. I still think it would be fun to use it for something, probably something much smaller in scale.

Even though I love the results of the dyeing process, I am not eager to do it again. It was a lot of anxiety about the result, along with worry about using somewhat toxic stuff in my home. If I'd been able to do it in a bucket, it might have been less worrisome, but I knew the lace wouldn't have room enough to move freely, and the washer was my only choice, and actually was probably a lot less mess than anything else would have been. I have to say if I have to dye something again, I will probably chicken out and use Rit. Before this, the only thing I'd dyed for quite a while were lingerie findings, and I saved my old crock-pot to use for this in future. It has a Teflon interior that was beginning to flake off, but I don't think that would matter with dye, since Teflon is non-reactive.

I did have a birthday recently, and I wouldn't normally say anything about it, but I got the most darling little Birthday Sewing Bird from my mother, and I had to share him with you. He stands by my computer and I smile whenever I see him, he's just so cute and silly.

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Lace & Dye Arrived

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The lace came yesterday as well as the dye, and I'm very pleased with it. It's very nice and drapey with a beautiful sheen to it. It's heavy enough to hang nicely I think. Holding it up, I am afraid that although the galloon edge is beautiful, it may be a little too delicate looking for the skirt I'm thinking of.

I probably will not get to dye it until next week, but I did handwash and machine dry a swatch. It shows no change whatsoever, so that's very encouraging.

More Musings, Lace and Otherwise

I went ahead and ordered the lace I talked about in the previous post. Linda asked where I found it; it's from Lace Mart, and is their E040. I haven't received it yet, but I have to say the responses from Martha there to my dying question and to my subsequent order were exemplary in their speed and completeness. She told me she's absolutely sure it can be dyed, and that it's 80% rayon and 20% cotton. It sure sounds like it ought to dye, and if there is some variation in color between the two fibers, I would hope that it would only add to the depth of color interest. I also ordered dye from Dharma Trading, which should get here about the same time as the lace I hope.

Carolyn is also planning a Prada-esque lace skirt, as is RuthieK, both on Stitcher's Guild, where we've been discussing this a little bit. I'm planning to use the pattern from my large scale floral skirt I made this spring rather than a straight skirt, but I'm holding off on a final decision until I see what the hand of the lace is like after it's dyed. I am assuming after all it will have been through that it will be fairly drapey, and that will be great. I don't want stiffness at all. I know Carolyn's planning to underline her skirt with charmeuse, but I don't want any shine, so I'm thinking possibly tinted organza if the lace needs a little body, and something more like crepe if it doesn't. Or, I could go without any lining at all, as Prada has done, but I would wear a slip! I was really surprised to see that they just do a plain turned-up hem on this, but perhaps that's part of what makes it work as daywear. It's a shame to waste the pretty edge, but if it looks too "bridal" with the fancy lace edge as the hem, I may have to do a turned hem too.

I spent last night and this afternoon working on the Marfy jacket I started a while ago. It's just been hanging there waiting for a few things. I hemmed the jacket and the lining, gave it a good pressing, and started doing buttonhole tests. At this point, I'm thinking I probably should have done bound buttonholes, but I'm going to go ahead and do the hand-worked silk thread ones I originally decided on. Whatever I do isn't going to show much on the tweed side anyway, but it will definitely show on the twill side, so that's my focus now. After the buttonholes, all I have left to do is the edge-stitching, which is going to be by hand also. It's looking pretty good I think.

Marfy Fish Tank & Lace Musings

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I'm still trying to get back in the groove, and so rather than just wandering around my sewing room wishing I was sewing something, I whipped up a little Marfy tank last night. It's #9829, a TNT pattern for me, and I ordered this cute knit print from FabricMart early this spring to make up this summer, so I thought I'd better get at it, or summer will be over.

I used the twisted binding again on just the neckline this time, with plain binding on the armscyes, and I think it's cute. I thought about using a contrast binding, but not until I was just about done with this, and the pink I had wasn't quite the right color anyway.

Here's a side view. I really like the side coverage I get with this pattern.

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You may have noticed that I never wear plain white, and this is about as much white as I am comfortable with in a print. It's just not a color that I feel secure wearing, but I was crazy about these fish.

Lately I've been thinking more and more about the wonderful lace pieces that Prada had in their Fall collection. There have been multi-page spreads in all the magazines, and while I am not a lace person, these were just my cup of tea for some reason. I've been looking around on-line for a lace fabric that would approximate the look, and I think I may have found some. Now to decide if it can be dyed, since I don't want white lace. Here's what I'm looking at.


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I also played around last night with some organza I have, both gold and rust, and some gold lace with fabric leaves in it. I think it would make a really nice overlay, but I think it needs more of a contrast color under it, as both the gold and the rust make the lace disappear a little bit. I'm thinking of a sleeveless tabard or tunic-type thing over a plain dress, or even pants with a matching top, almost a jumpsuit effect.

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Lots of ideas here, but how many will come to fruition is another thing.

Burda WOF Top

Link to ALL PHOTOS pertaining to this post.

I subscribe to Burda WOF (World of Fashion) magazine, and I almost always find several patterns that I would really like to try in each issue, but I don't often get to them, or at least not in a timely manner. The August issue was different. I found a cute top pattern that I thought would be great for a shell to wear under jackets and cardigans this fall or winter, and possibly even by itself this summer. It has a high neck, but very short cap sleeves, so it's versatile.

Burda #108 08-2008.

I made a quick muslin from a very thin mesh knit that turned out pretty good, Photo Link so I made a few changes and forged ahead with a very silky, fine rib knit fabric that I've used before and have quite a bit of. That's the top you see at the beginning of this post. It's a little bit of a problem fabric, although if one had a coverstitch machine, it might be fine. Sewing across the ribs, it's difficult to make it look straight, even if it is. I solved this by using a 3-step zigzag for the hems, and I think it turned out cute. It also shows every tiny bump underneath it, and that's why there's no photo of me wearing it. I need to get a different bra, with no cup seams before I wear it. You can read my review at PR here, and see all the gory details.

The difference in fabric weights led to some interesting discoveries on the second (non-muslin) version. The weight of the fabric dragged down the darts from their original position, and necessitated my removing and redoing them. Since I had sewn the side seams with my serger and included the dart take-ups in the seam, I really didn't want to remove that stitching. I took out the darts and using the original starting position and depth, I curved them to end up where I wanted them. I then stitched them by hand from the outside while the top was on my dressform. That form really comes in handy for tricky things like this, that would be almost impossible to do successfully while flat.

The other big change I made was to use 2 hanging snaps to close the collar at CB, leaving the top 3" of the seam open, as a keyhole. They wanted you to use an invisible zipper, and I just don't care for zippers in knits if I can avoid them, and this works great, and is easy to get into, too. If you don't know about Hanging Snaps, I did a Technique Tip at PR on them. They're easy and so handy for closing edges that are abutted rather than overlapped. I wanted something quick, and including altering the pattern, I made them both in two days, and not long days, either. I think this would make a really cute dress just by lengthening it.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing lately, along with thinking hard about my coat, but not doing anything yet. I'm waiting for one more sample of underlining to test before I actually cut and start.

The Fall Vogue Knitting is Here

I got the new VK the other day, and it has more tempting patterns than I've seen for quite a few issues. There are more than a few that I would never actually knit for one reason or another, but there are several that I could be fairly serious about.

The really interesting shell above is not one of the editorial patterns, but is from the Tahki S. Charles Collezione ad. It has a look of old stucco or brick, with a vine running up it, and I would make it about as shown, except I would begin the patterned section a little higher I think.

The very oversized vest above is done in Koigu yarn, and it calls to me, although I'm not sure it's really my style. It looks like it would be wonderfully cozy to pull on over whatever else one had on in the winter.

I have never knitted a pair of mittens, and I doubt I'd wear these even if I knitted them, but I like the way the pattern ends with bobbles at the side instead of being completed on the back of the hand.

This is just a cute, cabled sweater with I-cord ties, but it's very nicely done, and would be a classic and wearable for years, unlike the wild vest above. I like cables, but I'm not sure the neckline is really me.

There were several other cardigans and some wonderful opera-length gloves, and I recommend this issue to anyone. They just did a really good job getting great designs this time.

I haven't cut out my cashmere yet, although I got it back from the cleaners all steamed and ready to go. I ordered silk charmeuse for the lining from Thai Silks and that came on Friday and is a fantastic color match, as I'd hoped. So, I need to just start. I feel like I'm teetering on the brink, but I'm sure I'll soon start in. It's been a very busy week here, and I need to just settle down and work.

A Surprise from Sewsy & My Swatchbook

 

I received these items in the mail just before we went to the ER last week and ended up at the hospital for almost a week, so I naturally put everything on hold. Things are much better now. Although, I was rubbing Pearle's feet this morning, and he swears I broke one! I really think (hope!) he's exaggerating, but with our luck lately....

Kim (Sewsy on Stitcher's Guild) has a sewing organization system she's selling, and she was kind enough to send me some samples of what she has. I like the smaller pages, which would fit my old Day Planner binder. I haven't checked to see if they'd also fit in the card file box I'm using now, but if they would, that would be handy. Not that I really need another notebook or organizing system, but there's always that little hope that maybe this time will be the one that "takes". Also, it's back-to-school shopping time, and I love paper and notebooks. The larger pages are not quite the same quality as the smaller ones, but they would give you a lot more space to write. Thanks Sewsy! It's great fun to get unexpected fun things in the mail! Sewsy had quite the interesting story about how she tracked down my address. I didn't know I was quite so incognito.

Fall Knitting Ideas

I got the new Knit'n'Style magazine yesterday, and have been slowly leafing through it. The Fall Trends report included a photo of this knitted dress by Iodice.

Photo from New York Cool.

It's cute, but certainly not for me, except I just love the horizontal braid at the hem. Wouldn't this be just great as the hem of a straight, knitted skirt? I've wanted to do a knitted skirt for some time, but never quite got to it. This braided hem is moving it up to the top of the list. I've sort of decided on the yarn. I think elann.com's cotton/elastic yarn, Esprit may be just what I want, and Berroco has a nice straight skirt pattern in their free patterns. I have made socks with this yarn, and it's nice to knit with and shows pattern stitches beautifully. I think the elastic content would take care of any skirt bagging as well. Now to figure out just how much I'd need, and what color. I'm thinking maybe Coffee Bean, which would go with a lot of things, and wouldn't be so very shocking as bright yellow. There's no really perfect green in this yarn, so that's out. Gray would be nice, but I think the braid might be lost, but perhaps not more than in dark brown. I'm not sure.

Actually, this could be cute in fabric as well, if you did some stuffed, yet flattish tubes, braided them and attached to the hem of a skirt or dress. It would certainly be a lot quicker!

I've been working on my hand-sewn, draped dress again. I began it this winter when I couldn't get to my machine, and this fabric turns out to be almost impossible to stitch successfully by machine anyway, so this is the perfect solution. I'm getting closer to done, and I tried it on yesterday to see how it's coming, and I just love it! I'm not sure just exactly why it's doing what it's doing, but it may be the magic of draping. I need to finish up the second sleeve and then do a lot of trimming, and see where I stand.

BeeBee was asking, and I did find a way to sew this knit fabric successfully with the machine. It's a 2-layer knit, and maybe that's why it wants to cause more skipped than completed stitches. I got out an old, carefully saved Q Needle. I think it's from the days of Qiana knits, which were notoriously difficult to sew without skipped stitches, many tears, and possibly a whole new vocabulary by the time you were done. It seems to work on this fabric too. Along with the Q needle, I slowed the machine down, and loosened the upper tension to the buttonhole setting. It sounds awful when it pierces the fabric, like huge holes are being punctured into it, but it doesn't seem to have any ill effects. I don't know if you can even get Q Needles anymore. This was in a pack of Sears needles that came with my Kenmore machine over 20 years ago, and which I'd never used before. It has a blue shaft where it goes into the needle holder.

I will try to get photos of the dress as soon as it's ready for its close up.

Wild Stripes

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Here's another version of Vogue 2719. The fabric is a cotton stripe, meant for quilting. I fell in love with the colors and the unusual striping. It looks a little like the rainbow of colors you get off a grease puddle. One interesting thing was that no matter how hard I tried, I could not distinguish a right and wrong side. They aren't exactly alike, but one is not paler than the other, and I like both, and honestly, I couldn't really tell the difference, so I was just careful to make sure I ended up with a right and left sleeve and front, etc. While I managed that alright, I made a crazy mistake I've never made before. I laid out the fabric and the pattern and cut it out as if the selvedge were the fold. So, I have a tiny seam at CB. No problem, and this has tiny, tiny selvedges, so I didn't lose much width. I honestly didn't notice until I was ready to mark the darts on the back, and wondered why I had 2 pieces instead of 1. Ah well, I shouldn't cut at night.

This is basically the same as the Wisteria Blouse, except I cut the pattern on the princess lines, and so this is an actual princess seam pattern.

I've been thinking about it all day as I wore this, and I think the reason I'm somewhat uncomfortable with princess lines on myself is that I have kind of a hollow chest above the bust, and so there seems to be sort of a swooping effect to get from one contour to the other, and it's more obvious with a princess line. Also, I think it emphasizes the fact that I'm very short-waisted. So, it's okay, but I still don't think it's my favorite. My actual favorite dart position is a vertical dart with a horizontal dart. You would think that would be close enough to work out the same, but it seems to be easier to get the body-skimming fit I like than the princess line is.

Wisteria Blouse

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This is the blended pattern I ended up with from Burda WOF #105 5/2008 and Vogue 2719
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I first did a muslin of the basic blend, and it looked pretty good, but needed more room in the bust. Some of the bust ease in the Vogue was in the kimono sleeve, and with a fitted raglan, I lost all of that, and it was enough to make it pretty snug. So, I did an FBA and tried again. This time the tucks at the neck stood out in an extremely weird way, so I ditched them and turned them into a dart instead. This worked pretty well, but I thought as long as I was doing 2 vertical darts, I might as well let them meet, and so it has the effect of a princess seam, although the front was cut as one piece. I also ended up doing the part of the vertical dart below the waist as a straight tuck since after the FBA it was way too flared. I also ended up with a wider placket than I really needed, and I decided to just leave the closure slightly off-center. It's just a casual blouse, and I like the way the 'lapels' turn back. I used a ribbon instead of a facing to cover the collar seam, and I think it's kind of cute.

I bought this fabric at least last summer if not the summer before, and I just love the wisteria print. I got it at a local quilt shop called The Cosmic Cow. Here's a side view of the blouse.


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I'm nervously awaiting the return of my gorgeous cashmere from the cleaners where it's being steam pressed and shrunk. Tuesday after noon is my mantra.

I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post, Perfect Isn't Perfect Anymore. I'm so glad to know that I'm not just a cranky whiner. I knew most of you might agree with me but may not have seen the photos already, and so I'm really glad I posted. It was especially gratifying to find that several of you had come to the same conclusion I did independently. I agree that it might be a disconnect between the designer and the workroom, but it seems like a really big problem they're going to have to solve before the next show. I guess we'll all be watching, won't we?

Perfect Isn't Perfect Anymore?

I really hesitate to write this, but I'm just so intrigued by the whole thing, and the more I think about it, the more I want to discuss it. Most of you probably know that I have another blog I do called Fashioned. It started as a way to discuss the runway looks I like with some friends, and although I don't keep it up as well as I could, I do try, especially with the Couture collections, which are my favorites. I have only one rule there, which I stick to pretty closely, and that is: If I don't like something, I don't put it up and ridicule it. I generally just ignore it and move on to something I do like. I look for not only entire looks I like, but also sometimes just one small part of a look appeals to me, and I mention it and ignore the rest. Not surprisingly, I tend to look at things from a sewing point of view, and I'll discuss an interesting sleeve or hem or whatever.

So, I was working my way through the Fall 2008 shows last week, and one of my favorites each season is Valentino. Of course Valentino himself retired after the Spring 2008 show, so this was the first show completely designed and overseen by Alessandra Facchinetti. She did a lot of beautiful things, and I've read several serious reviews of the show, and no one has mentioned what caught my attention. When looking at the close-up photos of various ensembles, I noted details that were not perfect.

Even now I read that and think, how petty. But really, what is the couture if not an exercise in dreams and perfection? Of course I'm sure there are many less-than-perfect garments in the various couture collections, but we don't see them as a rule. What 'mistakes' there are, are not visible to the naked eye, or at least not in photographs. They just do not send less-than-perfect items down that runway, and honestly, they shouldn't, if only because their price-point depends on the maintenance of the couture mystique, which demands perfection, or at least so close to perfection that imperfections become unnoticeable. So how did these things escape the quality control that I know they have in the Valentino workroom? Who decided they were "good enough"? Is anyone else disappointed, or am I being silly? I know that things that I make will probably always have one or more things that are not quite right. One strives for perfection of course, but usually one settles for a pleasing overall impression, with no glaringly obvious faults. This is often achievement enough, but with a complete workroom full of highly skilled experts who have been turning out apparent perfection collection after collection for Valentino himself, right up to a few months ago, how did this happen? That's what has me baffled.

I'll go ahead and post some of the things that caught my eye. Let me know what you all think.

All photos in this post are courtesy of Style.com, and you can find the complete Valentino show referenced here.



This jacket is lovely, but look at the collar point on the left side of the photo. You can see more in the close-up below, but it looks to me like it doesn't match the right side in the way it stands.



This suit has lots of detail front and center, and you can see in the photo below that things just aren't quite as straight and even as they should be, from the center angled piece to the welt pocket that's a little wavy.



This is a portion of an embellished satin evening coat. Beautiful, and a very difficult fabric, but isn't that a pretty big pucker at the bottom of the zipper?

There are so many beautiful and seemingly perfect things in this collection, and I don't want you to think this isn't the case, but I've just been almost worried by the problems I've pointed out. So, am I silly or too picky or what?