Silly, yet Fun

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I fell in love with the Mosey Legwarmer pattern from Knitty the first time I saw it, but I thought it was kind of a silly thing for me to think of wearing. I finally broke down and knitted a pair, telling myself I could always sell them to a deserving teenager at the next Mu Phi Fundraiser. Of course, I find myself liking them a lot, not least because they're so very warm and cozy. You can see them above, with the front at the top and the back below.

And now the moment of truth. Here they are on me. Are they awful, fine, daring, ridiculous, ...? The fact that I'm asking myself this (and you of course) leads me to believe these should stay under wraps. Let me know what you all think, truly. I have a friend here whose daughter would probably take these in a heartbeat, so no worries.



I should say that I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease for these, and it was perfect. It's also the first time I've made pompons, although I'm very familiar with the process. When my mother used to pick us up from school when I was in First Grade, she was making tons of pompons to be used as grapes on an afghan her mother was making her. She would wait in the car, wrapping yarn or brushing it until it was very fuzzy. It was a beautiful afghan. Each bunch had 3 colors of grapes from deep purple to lavender I think, although it seems like some might have been a pale green. I'll have to look at it again. It had panels with long twisting vines and bunches of grapes here and there.

Four Years Blogging

Carolyn got a bunch of us thinking about when we started blogging, and I was surprised to find that my first post was just over 4 years ago. I really didn't think it had been that long, and I'm kind of surprised I lasted. It's fun to think about all the friends I've made and the wonderful blogs I get to read from all over the world. I have to say that my perspective has definitely broadened, thanks to all of you.

So, what was happening then?

Well, Sewing World was still going, and I was participating in the Sharing, Inspirations & Photographs threads there. It would be a couple years before Kathryn and I talked DragonLady into creating Stitcher's Guild at Artisan's Square so we could stay in touch with all of our sewing friends if (when) SW went west. That's been the biggest change for me as far as cyber-sewing.

I have since gotten a new sewing machine, steam generator iron, Embellisher, steam press, and a LOT of fabric and yarn and all the notions that go with that.

What was in that first post?

My First Post was on January 8, 2005. It's a list of the SWAP coordinates I was planning for an expanded SWAP. I finished Stage I on time, and have since completed almost all of the other listed items, although not necessarily with the same patterns I originally planned. It was fun to go back and see how it all turned out. I still wear quite a few of those things, but some have been retired.

Not all of the garments were a complete success, generally the knits. I still do a little bit of guessing about whether a particular knit will be suitable for a particular pattern although I think I'm getting better at it. Knit sewing is just not what appeals to me the most, although I generally like knits for their comfort factor. I guess I should work a little harder at getting experience in choosing and sewing knits.

Back Pattern Piece

Thank you all for the great comments on the knit top, and on the photos. My sister is the genius behind the camera when I'm lucky enough to have her here, and this just worked out really well.

LisaB asked that I post a picture of the Back pattern piece I used for my Circle Dot Knit Top to show the shaping, so here it is.

I'm almost embarrassed by the alteration 'method' I used on this. I just marked the waistline, took a 1/2" tuck (total of 1" removed) and stuck a pin in it. I lay it out with the upper part of the CB line on the straight grain, and I just smoosh the piece flat where it wants to have a little bit of a third dimension to it. For a knit top, it's not critical, and this works very well.

NancyW asked about the armscye and whether I raised it. I didn't, and it seems to be fine. I did do an FBA on the front, which changes the height of the armscye on the front pattern piece when you pivot, but when it all goes together, it ends up pretty much in the same place I think since the back isn't changed.

Kreativ Blogger

How Exciting! I got the Kreativ Blogger Award from Pam Erny at Off The Cuff ~Style~, Birgitte of Bubblegum 4 Breakfast and Michelle of Eyelets in the Seams. Thank you ladies! I am so very honored.

Rules:
1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.
4. Link to those on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

Now I have to nominate 7 bloggers, and a lot of them have already been nominated, so I'll attempt to nominate some who haven't already been chosen.

Bunny at La Sewista

Karen at kbenco's projects

Lisa at Sew On and Sew On

Mary Pat at Merry Patter

Isabelle at Kitty Couture

MaryBeth at The Stitchery

Karen at A Corgi House


To finish, I want to post a photo of a really unusual knitted coat. It's part of Alexander McQueen's Pre-Fall collection. I think it's really interesting, and I like the leather cuffs, collar and belt, although I wonder just how wearable they might be. Talk about large-scale knitting; here it is.

I think the diagonal asymmetry of the piece is what appeals to me, besides the colors of course.

Circle Dot Knit Top

I got some nice ITY knit fabric at JoAnn's the other day, but there was only a little bit over a yard of it. I was sure I could make a knit top with shortened sleeves, and this is what came of it.


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The original pattern is the top from Fashion Sewing Group #1960. I've made it before and add a CB seam to allow for a swayback alteration. This time I wanted a different neckline, and I turned to a book called 19 Shirts From 1 Pattern. It was a prize I won at the fair several years ago, and it's not a new book, but it has lots of ideas for changing a plain Tee pattern with different necklines, sleeves, etc.

I lowered the front neckline about 4" and did a binding. I then added a collar. I think it turned out pretty cute, and I really like the fabric. It's completely different than anything else I have, and I think it will be fun to wear when it warms up a little.

You can see another front view, and a 3/4 back view showing the nice back fit below.


Thanks to my sister for taking the photos for me!

Edited to add a link to the book mentioned. It's a 1982 copyright, and somewhat dated, but there are still a few copies around apparently.

Mohair Lace Turtleneck Warmer

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I used some Louet Mohair I had left from a sweater and made this little neckwarmer. It's lace knitting up until you begin the turtleneck. You can see the pattern a little more clearly in the photo below.



I'm doing another one in alpaca, and I may save it for the Mu Phi Fundraiser next October. I decided to get a start on some things for it instead of waiting until the fall, when I want to do other things.

Thank you all for the very kind comments on my "cold" photo. Pretty nice to be compared to Celine Dion too!

It's Fun, It Says So on the Label

Here's my latest completed knitting project. What is it? It's a little collar with Lion Brand Fun Fur yarn. Sunday I wore a little lace turtleneck mohair collar/dickey that I'd made for my grandmother some years ago, and since gotten back. It was so nice and warm, and I remembered this little pattern which is much more suited to my cold-addled brain at this point than mohair lace knitting.

It was fun to knit, and very fast, and it's nice and comfy around your neck. It also takes only 1 ball of yarn.
Here's the non-glamor shot. (I do have a cold, and it shows.)


I made one quite a few years ago, but gave it away. The instructions are quite simple, and you could probably do it without them. The only twist is the twist!

Size 10 needles.
CO 28
Garter stitch until you have enough left to bind off and sew your seam.
Before sewing your seam, make a twist in the strip. Stitch the seam.

If you could figure out how many stitches around, you could do it like a moebius and you wouldn't have to seam it. This way is instant gratification knitting though, no swatches, no gauge. Sometimes that's just what's wanted.

I also finished my knitted skirt and have it drying on the blocking screen. We shall see how it is after it's stitched up. I am a little unsure that it's going to fit the way I want it to, but it's hard to tell until it's all done.


The new Vogue Knitting came today and I haven't even cracked the cover before posting here. See how good I am? I can delay gratification. Not too long, though. I'm off to browse through it.

It's The Economy...

Things must actually be getting really bad economically. I just saw a news story about the January Couture shows that are coming up. Nieman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman are not attending, and Saks say they have not made up their mind yet. This really shocked me. As self-proclaimed fashion leaders in the retail world, it would seem that their attendance would be automatic. True, they're not going to actually sell these clothes, and I suppose they feel they can get just as much out of a trend report, but they rely on the public's perception of their unmatched fashion contacts and expertise. This may call that reputation into question.

Chanel laid off 200 workers very recently too, and in mid-December Bill Blass Couture laid off all 60 employees without warning (or severance) and is in bankruptcy. Granted, Blass has had no real leader since Bill Blass died, and that's likely the problem, but it's a sad ending for them.

I am hoping that couture in general does not get hit so hard by the global financial downturn that they'll have to curtail the collections. I've seen reports recently that households with a net worth over $30 million are planning to spend as much or more this year as last. Surely this is the only group that is wearing couture anyway, so maybe they'll do their civic duty and keep it up. I hope so anyway. It would be really sad to lose all that beauty and creativity, and almost impossible to start up the mechanics of creating it all again once it's been shut down.

Where am I getting all this news? I decided that for a little Christmas gift for me, I wanted a subscription to the online Womens Wear Daily, and I am loving it.


The fashion news is great, and I like their reviews very much. The business news is interesting as well.

Old Year/New Year

I like the year-end round up lists some people are doing, so I decided to look at my sewing journal and see what I've actually finished in 2008, and what I haven't, and then think about what I want to work at and toward in 2009.

I actually finished all the sewn things I began. The knitting is another story.

22 Garments sewn this year:

Marfy Corduroy Coat
3 Marfy Tank Tops. 2 Cotton 1 Silk
Simplicity Plaid Knit Top
Brown Shell with Fringe
Large Scale Floral Top
Large Scale Floral Skirt
Plaid Knit Gloves
Marfy Green Tweed/Taupe Jacket
3 Burda WOF Blouses. Gray, Wisteria, Stripe.
2 Burda WOF Knit Tops. Abstract, Clay Rib.
Green Dyed Lace Skirt
3 Gray Slips.
Burda Brown/Pink Pinstripe Pants
Burda Green Cotton Pants
Marfy Cashmere Coat

22 Knitted items finished this year. 3 Unfinished.

Almost all of my finished knitting this year were very small projects.

10 Dishcloths
2 Tribbles
BSJ Cabled Hat
5 Potato Chip Scarves
3 String Bags
Gedifra Vest

Unfinished:
Jaeger Tilly Pullover which has been waiting for seaming since early summer.
Berroco Simona Brown Skirt. This is getting close to done, and I'm actively working on it.

I'm obviously not as serious a knitter as a sewer, or at least that's how it is right now. Mood and circumstance plays into it a lot I think.

Now I need to come up with a coherent plan for this year. Right now I need everyday clothes, so that's what I will try to concentrate on.

I was at JoAnn's this morning for their sale, and I ended up leaving my cut fabric, etc. in the cart because I just didn't have the time to wait to check out. I'd already been in line for 20 minutes after waiting for the cutting table, etc. I went back this afternoon when the place was practically empty and it was very quick. I got a couple of very nice knits, one for a dress and one for a top. Also a dark green wool/poly blend for pants, and some peach crushed poly charmeuse for a nightgown. I also got a lot of thread at 50% off, a couple of patterns, and some yarn. So I have no excuse not to whip up a few things, except my sister's coming on Tuesday for a nice long visit and that cuts into my sewing time, but in a very nice way.

Adding a Pocket to a Purchased Shirt

Pearle found 3 shirts he liked that match some pants he bought, and so we got them, even though (horror of horrors!) they had NO pockets. I was really pretty amazed that they even make men's shirts without pockets, and apparently he hadn't noticed it until he was going to wear one, and there was no place to put stuff. Now that I've finished the coat, and again, thank you all for your very nice comments, I thought adding pockets would be a quick project to get me on track again. I think I was right.

Since I didn't make these shirts, I didn't have any extra fabric. He was willing to have me cut off some from the tail to make patch pockets, but I kind of hated to do that, and kept putting it off. Finally, he suggested that there might be a way to do an inside pocket, and I immediately got started. I was lucky enough to have scrap fabric that was a match to the background of the shirts. For two I used a light tan linen, and the other a white broadcloth. The shirts are one stripe, one seersucker stripe, and one floral.

What I did was very fast. It's basically a welt pocket with no welts. With pinking shear, cut a strip of interfacing longer and wider than the box, and stitch one pocket bag piece to each long edge, with the fusible side away from them. I used a triple zigzag so it would be very flat, and stitched twice on each piece, once at the top of the bag, and once at the bottom of the interfacing.


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Place the piece in position on the right side of your shirt, fusible side up. Stitch the box, as per a welt pocket. Clip open and turn to wrong side. Fuse.


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Edgestitch around the box, then topstitch a little further away for stability.


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Press the top bag piece down where it's free from the fusible. Pin it to the lower edge of the lower bag piece. Stitch. This seam will fall a little way up into the pocket bag. Stitch your side seams up as far as the fusible. If you want your seam at the bottom, you must either figure and measure carefully when you cut, or make the top bag longer and trim to match the bottom bag before you stitch. There used to be some method that had you do this anyway, but I don't remember the logic behind it. I just did it this way because it worked out this way.




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From the right side, stitch again over the line of topstitching above and at the sides of the box. This will close your side seams enough for normal use. Finish with a little handstitching if needed.


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The Coat On Me

Thank you all for the very, very kind comments on my coat! Since I always want to see everyone's garments on them, I feel like a cheater just showing things on my dressform. I was anxious to get some photos of me wearing it and I was lucky enough to get my father to take some photos of me in the coat this afternoon when I was over there. They turned out pretty well I think.

Of course we all see every flaw in our own work, and I can see them here, but I've decided to quit obsessing once something's done, and just enjoy the finished product. I love this coat, and as many of you guessed, it's really luxurious feeling. I'm sure it's probably the most glamorous coat I'm likely to have or make, and I'm going to take advantage!

You can see all the coat photos here.

As a special bonus, my parents noted that there were some photos on the card in their camera from the last few times they'd taken pictures. There were about 12; some from last winter and some from the summer before that. As you can tell, they're not exactly shutterbugs. So, they sent the whole camera home with me until I get a replacement for mine. How nice!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve and a great New Year. We always watch the Rose Parade on television. A tradition, and lots of fun. It always seems to get the new year off to a pleasant beginning.

Cashmere Coat is Finished

Link to All Photos in this Post

I got the buttonholes finished today, and now I'm completely done. I'm very pleased with this project. I don't have any photos of me wearing it because I dropped the camera on a cement floor while I was taking these photos, and that was the end of that!

I don't think you can see the shaping very well on the form, but it has a very nice, subtly slimming line, and has a lovely shaping to the side seam area, even though it doesn't have side seams as such. Marfy drafting shows its excellence once again, at least in my opinion.

The lining is silk charmeuse, and I used the same corded-look whipstitch with DMC floss to attach the lining to the body of the coat as I used on the pocket linings. I also attached the monogram circle to the right front lining in the same way.


Here's a close-up of one of the buttonholes. I used the same DMC floss to make them as I used on the lining, etc.

The stitches are fairly large, and even at this scale they tend to disappear into the pile of the cashmere. I love the way the bead on the edge of the lips makes a perfect line, and I think the variegated floss adds just a little spark to it.

Here are the buttons buttoned through the buttonholes.


I want to thank Marji of the Great Coat Sew-Along for spurring so many of us to start and finish a coat project. I know I would not have attempted such a complicated project with so many new techniques without her encouragement and knowledge. I think she's planning to open the GCSA blog up to viewing after the first of the year, and I would recommend it to anyone who's interested in making a coat or jacket.

Coat Buttons

I finished my coat on Saturday night, except for the buttons and buttonholes. I had determined that I wanted to do hand buttonholes, and I'd tried to choose buttons some time ago with a swatch of fabric, but I just couldn't decide, and so I waited until I could take the coat with me to the button shops. I knew I wanted something rather unique, but which didn't take attention away from the entire garment, but complimented it. It was also hard to be sure of the right size until I could see them on the coat


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I am very pleased and rather surprised with my choice. I actually had two of these buttons already, and had thought I liked them a lot with this. Of course I had no idea where I had found them, or even when I had bought them. Amazingly, there they were at Sew Creative, so I bought two more. I will have to get an extra next time I'm there, but I thought I had three at home, so only bought two more.

I think these look a little like Jules Verne flywheels or something. Very engineered, anyway. I also bought another set of buttons just in case, but these were definitely it.

I have 2 of the buttonholes done at this point, and will finish the final two tomorrow I hope. So far, I'm really pleased with the coat, and I can't wait to show it off in its completed state.

Coat Progress 3

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This is the collar edge, showing the hand topstitching I've been doing. I wanted it to look somewhat like saddle stitching, although it's kind of a hybrid between prickstitch and backstitch. I've done this around the pockets, flaps, collar and on both front edges. I used 2 strands of Mettler's Silk-finish Cotton thread.

Here is the way I did the stitching if you're interested. Pull out a very long length of thread, double it and thread your needle with both ends. Tie a knot in those two ends. This ensures that when you want to go back a stitch or two to correct things, as you will, you can just unthread your needle, pull out the stitching and re-thread.

I stitched right to left. Come up with your thread a stitch-length to the left of where you want to begin. Insert your needle to the right, at your desired starting point. Come up again a stitch length to the left of your first stitch. Continue this way until you're done. This allows for fairly long stitch lengths, which is what I wanted, while still doing the work of an edge stitch even though the stitch is long and fairly loose so that the stitching won't disappear in the pile of the fabric.

It's easy to keep your line straight by using your thread and needle as a guide. Make sure you've inserted your needle so that you're going straight before you push it all the way through and up again. Use a needle that's at least an inch and a half long for this so you can line it up with the stitching you've already done. Too short a needle is not the thing for this, at least with fabric this thick. You can also hold the length of the thread out ahead of your work to judge where you're going, especially on angles or curves.

Here's my coat as it is right now, hemmed, unlined, sleeve hems pinned, and the coat pinned closed at the neck only. I still need to find buttons I like. That will be my after Christmas project.


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I have the lining just about ready to go in now, and I'm having such fun working with the silk charmeuse. My new Pfaff sews it just like a dream. I tried a 1.5mm stitch length, as promoted by Linda Lee, and it looks gorgeous. I can hardly wait to sew something else with charmeuse. It's been a long time since I did anything with it but line jackets.

Merry Christmas to All

I don't usually do holiday posts, but I found this poem at The Real Muck, and thought you all might enjoy it too.

Reflection on Imperfection

‘Tis the season for unreason

when green spills from wallets

of those believing in traditional pleasing.

‘Tis the season when people pine for a fine Christmas tree—

white pine, balsam fir, white spruce, Fraser fir, Douglas fir, scotch pine,

whatever...

but it must be a wintergreen, evergreen, ever-perfect, perfectly-shaped

Barbie bush.

In the nippy air, hundreds of Barbies form green lines

with straight spines, very vertical trunks, ample branches

each with a single perfectly-pointed top

waiting for its traditional spot up the

angel’s ...tush.

Partly hidden ornaments adorn lush limbs,

shiny balls peer from green mazes

and candy canes lavish properly perky

branch tips.

But Barbie’s lavish bushy branches

leave little room for ornaments

lest adornments detract from her own

flawless beauty.

***

I wander far and wide, bucking the tide

wondering why I must settle for popular perception.

I search for Barbie’s ugly cousin,

a form, a shape that doesn’t fit the mold,

flat-chested for small house

spaces.

It’s the wind-blown hair, the hole in the sock, the scrape on the knee, the spaghetti stain on the shirt, the pimple on the nose that tell a story

of living.

I like a crooked smile, spaces between teeth, scraggly hair, spindly legs

and skinny arms that reach out

open to discovery.

I want a tree that doesn’t hide,

that opens wide to embrace pride

held in accessories’ histories, their stories and the

love they imply.

I seek a spindly tree, the ugly factor with character,

one willing to show open spaces,

places for treasured ornaments grown dear over the years...

those that have lost their shine, are ragged from playful cats, have missing parts, the hippo of bedtime stories, an apple from a student, a violin recalling cacophonous practice, clothes-pin soldiers formed by tiny hands, hummingbirds like ones covering a morning field years ago in the Grand Canyon, a plastic dog a reminder of a lost pet, baby’s first Christmas 25-years ago, grandmother’s crocheted hobbyhorse and mouse, eloquent velvet-covered and pearl-studded balls made by a nearly blind friend long gone.

And then I see it—the orphan cousin in a heap

apart from the collection,

far from customers’ inspection.

I reflect on its simple beauty.

Missing branches leave

room for us.

I like my new bare and slightly crooked tree,

I like the way you hang your hand-painted sand dollar next to my beaded bird.

It is in the spaces where

we hang our love.

Perfection isn’t about shape and complexion.

Perfection lies in connections...

how we create them,

how we fill in and connect those spaces

that life gives us.

________________________________________________
________________________________________________


I don't know who wrote it if not the blog author, so I can't give a citation, but it struck a chord with me.

Back to sewing, I'm still working on my coat, and it's coming along. The sleeves finally went in nicely, and it's hemmed, so I'm about ready to finish cutting the lining and put that in, and then I believe that will be it! Sounds fast, but I don't seem to be moving very fast lately. I am enjoying doing it, though.

Hope you all are having a lovely holiday, and that you got all your Christmas sewing done on time.

Pocket Lining

NancyK asked for a little more info on my pocket lining method, saying it was different than she'd done before. I have to say that it's different than what I've done before, too.

You can see photos of the pocket lining in the previous post.

I'm planning to use Marji's patch pocket attachment method for these. It consists of constructing your pockets completely and then hand stitching them to the coat from the inside of the front pieces. So, I cut my coat fabric, attached sew-in interfacing cut to the exact pocket dimensions, pressed up the hems and edges and basted. I then topstitched by hand, using doubled thread (Mettler Silk-Finish Cotton) to look (I hope) like saddle stitching. I could have done a regular faced-pocket method of stitching the lining to the fabric RST and turning, but I remembered reading an article by Claire Schaeffer about telling a fake Chanel from a real Chanel and one of the things she mentioned was that the topstitching did not go through the lining. Silly me, but it stuck in my head and I thought "I can do that", so I did.

I pressed the hem edge of the lining first, then laid it on top of the WS of the completed pocket. I then turned the other edges under to fit, and pinned it. I did the whipstitching first, then just stitched invisibly (ladder stitch?) for the other edges. The lining doesn't go clear to the edges, which is hard to see from the photos in the last post. The main thing was making sure I wasn't pulling the lining too tightly. It needed just a little room to make the pockets lie perfectly flat.

I'm sure there are better and certainly faster methods, but this is what came to me.

Monogram and Pockets

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I wanted to add some special touches to my coat, and a nice interior monogram is one of them. This will be appliquéd to the lining. I tried various threads and embroidery flosses and was a little surprised that I liked this variegated floss the best. It's a DMC linen floss. I'm also using it for a nice edge finish on the lining.


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Here are the pockets and flaps after topstitching, but before lining.


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Here's the inside of one set of lined pocket and flap. You can see the lining edge treatment, with a close-up below. It's just a whipstitch, but I think it gives it a pretty, corded effect.


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Thanks to all of you that commented on my steam generator. I like it very much, and I did end up doing a pretty widespread re-do of my sewing area because of it. That was a good thing too. I have a better working arrangement now I think.

Ironing Is Exciting Now

Yes, I got my new iron, which is a Rowenta Steam Generator. So far, I'm very pleased with it, and the amount of steam it puts out is pretty amazing. It's making me re-think my sewing area arrangement though. I think I need to put a table next to the window for the iron, and for the cat to sit on and look out the window. Right now, he sits on the ironing board, and I have a special elasticized cover on the board for him. I remove it when I want to iron. I've kept my iron on the floor for some time since I don't want him to knock it off, and the feeling is stronger now, but it would be nice not to have to pick it up and put it down when I want to use it. I think he'd prefer a table too, if I can find something the right height. No rush on this, but I think it would be nice to move things around a little.

I decided to make a quick pair of pants to test things out. I desperately need some very casual pants, not least because my only pair of jeans is biting the dust pretty quickly. They're actually a pair of my regular Burda pants, but in denim. The zipper pull broke off the other day when they were almost zipped up, and I managed to get them zipped the rest of the way, but when I needed to unzip them the next time, it wouldn't budge. I ended up working on them with a pliers while I was wearing them. Not good, but I did manage to get them off. So, I first replaced the zipper in them, since even if they're not too whippy anymore they're perfect for times when I know I'm going to get dirty.

When I had replaced the zipper, I moved on to the casual pants. I used a green poly/cotton bottomweight fabric in a small windowpane check, and my usual pattern. I suppose I'd better plan on replacing the jeans pretty quickly, too. It's hard to get along without them, especially in the winter.

Smocking, Pockets, Patrones, and Weights

May very kindly offered me an extra copy of the September Patrones and of course I jumped at it. It's a great issue, with a special section of coats and also of high-waisted skirts and pants as well as the usual mix of garments. It's so interesting to see the designer garments they feature. I will have a hard time deciding on one garment to try first. You can see the issue in the photo below, along with several other interesting things.

 

I got more weights from my darling brother. I especially like the smaller, amoeba-shaped ones. They fit nicely in the hand, and are a perfect shape for corners of pattern pieces, and for odd curves, etc. They're so nicely polished and smooth and just kind of fun to hold. Like the first long strips, they're stainless steel, as are the narrower, curved-end strips at the top.

I went to a Sewing Guild meeting last night, and our program was so good. Carla Fiedler, one of our members, is a very serious smocker. She did a Trunk Show for us, showing probably 25-30 smocked garments and a few purses, pillows, Easter eggs, and heirloom quilts incorporating smocking that she'd made. Very inspiring, as all of her construction is just as meticulous and beautiful as her smocking. The group's choice for most fabulous piece was a First Communion dress in silk with smocking as well as many heirloom techniques which she made for one of her daughters. It was just breathtaking, and obviously an heirloom in its own right.

She then taught a short introduction to smocking. She provided pleated swatches, or as she called them "doodlepatches" and needles threaded with floss. We learned to do an up-cable and down-cable and traveling stitches. I can see that it would be fun to do a real project, and was especially intrigued by a photo of somewhat abstract smocking from an Australian Smocking & Embroidery magazine she passed around.

I learned two other related techniques that were new to me as well. One is a method of knotting your thread that's very much like a french knot, and the other was a method of separating strands of floss called "Strip and Squeak". It's been a long time since I separated floss, but I always have just done it the way my grandmother taught me when I was a little girl. This is much more fun, and looks like a better method as well.

Finally, a photo of some coat progress. This is the interfacing attached to one pocket and flap. Since the photo was taken, they've both been finished, the edges pressed in place, basted, topstitched and ready for the lining. I need to cut out my lining for everything so I don't do the pocket pieces from the wrong spot.

 

Although The Peep was on his appointed rounds again last night, I'm glad to announce that there were no gifts in the garage this morning. After reading the comments from all of you cat lovers, I'm relieved that he didn't bring the rabbit into the sewing room for safe-keeping. Not that he had the chance, thank goodness.

Last of all, I ordered something today that I've been wanting for a long time. I've been suffering with an iron on its last legs for quite a while now (it got knocked off the ironing board, and since then the steam only works when you push the burst-of-steam button, but then the button won't come back up so you have to reach in with a pair of tweezers and pull the stem of the button back up - see how I suffer!) and its replacement is on the way. I took a recommendation from a Guild friend on what to get, so I hope I like it as much as she does. You will see it when it arrives.

Progress and Weirdness

I'm very pleased with my coat progress yesterday. I cut off the extra fabric at the fronts, cut out the pockets and flaps (they seem to match very well,) and got one pocket/flap pair interfaced and the edges pressed.

Before I got brave enough to cut the pockets, I procrastinated by ironing 20 shirts. Now you know that means I was willing to do anything rather than start in on the cutting. Pearle was happy with his shirts though, and I admit half of them were mine that had been waiting to be ironed, so it was equal opportunity wrinkles for a while there. I don't wear shirts as much in the winter though since I like something warmer, so probably he suffered more than I. He does have a few other shirts though.

So. On to the weirdness. Our cat, The Peep, likes to stay out all night, or at least the late night through to morning, even when it's pretty darn cold, and he's a hunter. He can come into the garage to wait to get into the house in the mornings, and a lot of times he's snoozing out there when we open the door, but this morning, we found a "present" from him. He popped right in and went and drank some milk, leaving his very large rabbit out in the garage. I'd show you a photo, but it's pretty graphic. I moved the car out to clean up, and honestly, they could have filmed an episode of CSI out there! Generally he eats his catches and there's not much left but a smear here and there, although they're usually smaller. I think. Maybe this was his second catch of the night or something, because it was pretty complete still and he had no further interest in it. It was just me, the Windex, Clorox Wipes, Lysol and paper towels. I'd just as soon he left his 'trophies' elsewhere.


The Peep



"Nature Red in Tooth and Claw" around here. Definitely. He is a very nice, smart cat who knows his business, and I have to say there's very little rabbit, shrew or ground squirrel trouble in my garden, and he seems to leave the birds alone for the most part.

Now, back to cashmere, with relief.