Santa Fe Fabric Shopping

It wasn't all fabric shopping, but the fabric shopping was very successful. Patti and Ann would not arrive until afternoon, so Nancy led Jan, Margy, Sharon and me to Santa Fe Fabric, stopping at the fabulous bakery next door for breakfast first. Blueberry scones and Almond Croissants, that's all I'm saying. Very nice fabric shop and they have some things I hadn't seen before. I found a wonderful bird print in a stretch cotton for a summer Marfy skirt. This is an unusual poly that has almost a brushed nonwoven look, with couched yarns on a floral print. I think it's very southwestern in feel. I want to use it with some navy knit for a top. Nancy found a bolt of stretch overall sequined fabric in a deep navy that I agreed I should have. I'm thinking the DK cowl front dress in a floor length. Awful photo, but the sequins are hard to photograph. Then I found a cute knit stripe that has palm trees under the stripes for a cute summer top. Finally I was all done, but at the last minute found a wool spandex tweed knit with a lovely weight for a pair of knit pants in my favorite Marfy pant pattern. After the fabric shop, Nancy, Jan and I went to the Puma outlet and bought shoes. They are very cute, and look to be comfortable as well, which is always hard to find together.

Teaching at ASG Convention

Mark Your Calendars for ASG Conference

Hyatt Regency St. Louis, at the Arch

July 24 - 28, 2014

I am so excited!  I hope you will be excited for me, too. 

I will be teaching at the American Sewing Guild National Convention in St. Louis in July!!

My friend Ruth C insisted I send in a teaching proposal, so I did, and they accepted me.  I will be teaching 3 different classes over the 4 day convention, with one repeat.  They are:

Shoes As Stylish As You:  We will cover a shoe with fashion fabric and your choice of embellishments, thus learning the techniques you will use to have a wardrobe of shoes to match your wardrobe of garments.  The class project will finish as a pincushion.  You may remember my Threads article on this topic.

Marfy Magic For You:  This is a trunk show of Marfy garments with a discussion of how to choose, use and acquire the patterns.  If you read my blog, you know I love Marfy, and it is so much fun to spread the love.  This is the class I'll repeat.

Clever With Your Needle: Specialty Hand Details:  Again, if you read my blog, you know I love to use hand details on my garments, and this will introduce them to you and discuss just why and when we would want to use them.  In a hands-on setting, we will learn to put a hand-stitched lining into a coat or jacket,  make a personalized medallion to use in a coat/jacket lining,  try some hand topstitching and saddle stitching, buttonholes, and some other fun details.  Here's a photo of the type of thing we will be talking about and trying.

So, if you are even thinking about going to Convention, think hard!  I want to see you all there, and get to meet you IRL!  When you decide, I want to know about it, so we can plan to meet. 

Shoes and Flowers

It seems that spring is early everywhere this year, and everything is blooming early as well. The wisteria is just gorgeous this year, and I got a photo of the smaller display on the top deck (3rd story). This was when it was just beginning to really show. It's almost done now.

From Drop Box

I could not resist showing you these great shoes. Just what I need. Not really, but they do intrigue me. They remind me of the pair of shoes Kenneth King almost couldn't get through airport security. He had glued his spikes on. These are done for you.

From Drop Box

An Outfit for 'The' Shoes

Photo Link

This is the vest/sleeveless jacket I made to wear with the wonderful Fergie shoes. It's the FSG #1960 Cardigan pattern, without the sleeves, and with the shawl collar modification in Nancy Erickson's newsletter. I think it is much more a sleeveless jacket look than a vest, and that's what I'm calling it. The color is probably truest in the first photo.
Photo Link

It's a nice, beefy knit with surface interest from the black raised threads. Since it was so beefy and almost thick, and because I used no interfacing in it, it has a very soft look and feel.
Photo Link
You can see that I stitched down the edges of the uppermost seam allowance after grading the allowances that lie beneath. The collar/band unit was sewn on as one, with the allowances all laying the same way, so this made a nice finish which allowed everything to fall as it should.

As noted above, I used the shawl collar pattern piece provided in the Nancy Erickson newsletter, and I think it's fine. I think I might make a less pronounced curve out to the collar from the band if I make another like this. I can't decide if it would make it too bulky where it closes, or if it would be better, but I can always try it and then change back if I don't like it.
Photo Link
I had thought I'd do patch pockets on this, but I was afraid it would make the front so much heavier than the back that it would hang funny, especially if I actually put anything in the pockets. So, I left them off, and for the look of it, I'm glad I did. I like pockets though, and I wonder if in-seam pockets might work next time. I really don't need the bulk though, so we'll see. I know I could have used weight in the back hem to make it hang straight, but this isn't a structured enough or 'important' enough piece to do that, in my opinion.

The top with this is from a set I made from this same pattern (there's a charcoal cardigan jacket as well) and the skirt is part of it as well, although not from the FSG pattern. I shortened the skirt from calf-length. I think it looks good, and I love a simple 4-seam straight skirt in a knit fabric. It's so much more slimming than without the CF and CB seams. It's an elastic waist, and honestly, you don't need a pattern to make one like it.

It's really, really cold here lately, and we have a bunch of snow on the ground, but at least more isn't coming down right now. I hope the bad storms and big problems are missing all of you, too.

Cool Shoes

And now for something to wear with them.


They're from Fergie, and they're called Jigsawed I found them on sale at VonMaur's, and absolutely could not resist. I think they really need a skirt to show them off best, and I think my brown straight knit skirt will be just fine, but I want a jackety-type piece with it (third piece). I am working on a sleeveless version of the FSG#1960 cardigan, belted. I love the look of the long vests I'm seeing, and I think this will be good. I want to use a teal knit for it. I have a lot of the same thing I made narrow Marfy pants from, or I have some that's a little thicker with a slight texture and a black/brown design on it. I can't think of what you call it, but it sits on top of the fabric, and is kind of shiny. Embossed, I think. Anyway, I'm leaning toward it. I think with the skirt and a long-sleeved sweater/top and the vest it will be nice.

The other thing I'm thinking of is a very, very short jacket. I posted a while ago that I was thinking about something like that, and I went to a presentation of a graduate thesis in design, and she had done a collection of suits. One was based on the Korean national dress, and it was THE must-have piece of the group, IMO. A very short jacket with an asymmetric half-bow with a long tail. Gorgeous, especially with the skirt she showed, but the skirt would not be wonderful on me. The jacket? Maybe not either, but I'm dying for it. Here's an example of traditional Korean dress.


The skirt was nothing like this. It was very form-fitting from the very high waist through mid-hip with horizontal channel quilting, then a straight wrap skirt for the rest of it. It gave the effect of an obi under the jacket because of the wide quilted part. The whole thing was in a deep charcoal suiting fabric. Very chic.

California Round-up

Typical gorgeous California photo, but I took this one myself in Laguna Beach where Pearle and I used to spend the winters. We hadn't traveled for a long time now, and it was very interesting to return. It certainly brought back memories of many good times.

Of course there has been some shopping. Besides the fabric which was shipped to me, I bought some yarn in Laguna Beach for a scarf to wear this winter with my cashmere coat,



and I bought some shoes. I happened to really luck out on the shoe front, and you can see what I'm trying to cram into my suitcase.

Marfy #1128 Roses & Caramel Finished

Photo Link (The link will take you to the first photo in the group, then you can click through on Next to see all of them, larger if you'd like.)

I finished the Roses & Caramel dress last night, and I have to say, I'm very pleased with it, and especially with the fit. I've never had any luck with this style of dress, until this pattern, and it's fun to have one actually fit me, and my shape. I do begin to think that perhaps this style is not my most flattering though, as it clearly reveals my very short-waisted figure, rather than disguising it a little bit, as I usually try to do. I do have one excuse though. I still am not able to stand up completely straight, and so I'm bent over at the waist enough that it shortens that area even more than usual. That's my story anyway. I can't wait until I can really stretch again.


Thank you Mardel, for the fantastic fabric! I really love it.


I used Roberta Carr's instructions for Bias Facings on this dress, and since the matelassé is fairly thick, I used a silk crepe de chine for the bias strips. I thought the colors went together fairly well, and it was scrap I had left from the contrast for my first Marfy suit, so that was fun too. Carr says that this kind of facing is very soft, and gives very little support. I would agree, but in this case, the fabric has plenty of body, it seemed like a good choice, and I have to say I like the finished effect. It's a lot of hand sewing, but I like handwork, and it didn't really take too long. Here's a shot of the facing inside the front neckline, and a close-up.




You turn your edge over, hand baste near the fold, then measure the edge, and attach a same size bias strip near the fold, RSU, with the edge turned under. Then press and shape carefully so the other edge fits, and stitch it, turning the edge under. Remove your basting, and you're done. Very soft and flexible, and very comfortable against the body.

I had to include a photo of my invisible zipper. You can see the front dart on the left.


And of course, most important of all, The Shoes.

It's going to be a very hot day tomorrow (93, with high humidity) and I don't know if the wedding is in an air conditioned church, so a cotton dress will be perfect. Now to go wrap the gift.

I'm really pleased with how this dress turned out, and this is the kind of dress I could imagine wearing all day with perfect comfort, which is always a plus. I can hardly wait to do another one, and summer is moving right along, so I'd better hurry,or it will be back to sleeves, which I guess would be okay anyway.

I want to thank everyone for the very kind hair comments. I'm really thrilled with the new 'do', and it's nice to know you like it too.

I'm in Threads Magazine!

Yes, I'm tooting my own horn a little (a lot!) but I'm so excited to say that I have an article in Threads Magazine this month.

My article is called Custom Covered Shoes, and it's about covering shoes to match your clothing, or whatever you want to match.


It all began in January when I got an email from a Threads assistant editor asking me to contact them. I was very excited to learn that they had seen some of my shoes in photos I had posted, and they were interested in having me do an article about how to do them. So, it's been a long time coming, but there was a lot to do, what with writing, rewriting, editing, photos, sending them my shoes and some matching garments, like the blouse in the photo, etc. It was always exciting when I got a letter or email from them. Everyone I worked with was so very professional, and so nice. It was a joy from beginning to end, and now to see it in print and get to share it with all of you is almost the best part of all.

The very end of the article shows my favorite shoe of all. It's a silk matka with fiber embellishments that were great fun to do, and I have a Marfy jacket that matches it, and here's the cover of this issue.