A Variation on a Theme

So...I don't think I've really actually sewn anything since my last post.  Yikes!  I have just not been able to get to the sewing room.  I'm starting to go through a bit of withdrawal I think!  But, as mentioned in my last post, I have a ton of things in reserve to show you.  I'll start with the brown and metallic copper wool suit. See - more brown!

I used Butterick 5469, view D (the dark blue model) for the jacket.

It is a lined jacket, very straight forward.  There are no pockets or ruffles or extra details, so I decided to add a few extra buttons and buttonholes, as seen in a Basset-Mode catalogue from a few years ago (sorry - I don't have the picture with me at the moment).  I only plan on using three or four of the buttons, but I think they add a simple extra touch.  If I make it again, I'll make the view with the collar, but I think I'd also use a two-piece sleeve design, as I am finding these sleeves a little restricting at the upper bicep area.  The two-piece design just gives me more areas for adjustments.  The only alterations to the pattern this time were to add a 2" inches to the sleeve length.  Next time though, I'll have to add more as I hardly had enough for a 1" hem.

The skirt is McCalls 5523, view B with the pleated kick pleat inset (redundant much? lol)  I elected to line this as well.  I think that lining the garments makes them "float" more nicely over the body, and lining also makes the clothes wear better (last longer).  Other than adding a bit to the waistline area, I made the skirt as is out of the envelope.

With that hot off the presses, I finally got around to the drapey cardigan that everyone has made.  Everyone but me that is.  I had cut it out with the intent of taking it with me on one of my trips on October, but...you know how it goes.  This is Simplicity 2603, view A in a rayon/spandex knit.  I ran into some trouble with the shoulder seams.  Following the instructions, I put the stay tape in the seam, but this caused puckering and issues with the seams lining up.  To solve this, I unpicked the seams, and simply continued on without the stay tape.  The most time consuming part of this patter was the hemming around the fronts, bottom and neck area.  That's a lot of hemming.  Maybe some day I'll be brave enough to try it on my coverstitch machine!  The only other alteration I made was not to make the tuck in the sleeves, and the resulting length was perfect for my long arms.

This just shows a few ways to wear it, and I'm sure there are a ton more!  It is definitely a versatile piece.  I wore it yesterday to work, tied as shown in the first picture, over a RTW charcoal fine knit turtleneck and coordinating RTW grey RPL trousers.  I felt elegant and well-dressed, and extremely comfortable.  I think I'd like a few more in other colours!  I can think of fabrics I have in orange and brown off the top of my head...

That's it for sewing today - though I do have a few other pieces still in reserve for upcoming posts.  It was a productive weekend!

And, on the knitting front, I actually worked on my Francis Revisited sweater last night, even if only a few rounds.  I was absolutely too tired to do anything else!  I don't think I've talked about my Francis Revisited sweater.  Briefly - it is out of a lovely heathered purple (more aubergine than royal purple) Berocco Ultra Alpaca.  I'm making it on the small-ish side for me, given my friend's experience with the growth of her Ultra Alpaca sweater after blocking.  It was coming along swimmingly, but took a break over the Christmas holidays.

January Goal Progress Report:

SEWING:
1.  Cream Cardigan - Simplicity 2603 (already cut)  Finished!
2.  Fix orange/brown herringbone skirt Finished!
3.  Cut and sew one dress (so many to chose from I'm having a hard time narrowing it down!) Finished!
4.  Cut and sew a cream silky shirt or blouse  Up Next - the biggest delay with this one is that I'm having a hard time picking a pattern - there are SO many to choose from for this item too!

KNITTING: (um...yeah...)
1.  Finish Circle Socks
2.  Start Gap-Tastic Cowl #2

Anything but Brown!

I have finished a ton of new projects (I'm amazed with how productive I've been at the sewing machine), but am currently working off another laptop, the one without my pictures.  So...unfortunately, you will just have to wait and see.  There will be a picture heavy post in the near future.  I promise.  I'm very excited about how my projects have turned out :)

Do you get to a point in your SWAP where you just can't sew any more of a certain colour?  I love, love, love sewing in SWAP format, so my outfits coordinate, with minimum work for maximum value but I've been sewing an exorbitant amount of brown lately.  I need to open a new box, this one seems to have more than enough brown fabric!   Next time I pack the boxes I will do a better job of coordinating instead of matching!  In the meantime because I was getting a tad bored with brown, I searched through my stash and found some lovely rusty orange coloured fabric.  This means I have finished a few lovely rusty orange coloured items and one cream coloured one.  But, you'll have to wait and see!  Sorry - I really really want to share with you!

In sad news, my favourite sewing machine - my Brother ULT 2001 is needing to go to the sewing machine hospital.  I was almost finished my latest projects when it just slowed down and stopped.  It was a heartbreaking sound.  I can't turn the flywheel, so...it will need to go for a car ride.  Fortunately, I have another machine (and I really, really like it, but it has to live outside the spotlight of it's shinier big sister), so I will be back in action soon.

Up next, finishing my current cream coloured project, followed by  a cream silky shirt-blouse and maybe a tweed pair of pants.  Yes...in brown.

And still no knitting.  Absolutely none.

Still Sewing!

Yes, you've read that right - I've been sewing.  And not just on the weekends, I've been so bitten by the sewing bug, that I've been fighting off the usual end-of-day fatigue I feel after a full work day, and instead of collapsing on the couch, I head down to my studio after dinner.  I'm remembering that it's been a great way to decompress!  And, the best part is that I'm accomplishing things, like ripping apart the orange and brown herringbone skirt to fit a little better at the waist, and this:

 McCalls 6163, Knit Dresses.  I made View A.  Pattern Description:  Close fitting, above mid-knee length dress with mock front, gathered at left side with collar and raglan sleeves. View A has 3/4 length sleeves with elastic shurring, which I think adds a pretty feminine touch.  I used a graphic print ITT knit fabric I found in my stash.  I have absolutely no idea where I purchased it, but it was probably online a few years ago.

I found the instructions easy to follow.  I mistook one clip for the circle where I had to line up the mock wrap front and the gathering, but that was solely operator error (and trying to watch TV at the same time as sewing).  No harm, no foul though - I found it very quickly when I tried to sew the side seams together.  I sewed this directly as is from the pattern envelope, with the exception that I left out the side zipper.

The result is lovely, if I do say so myself.  Another sexy and feminine work piece.

I really do need to find a better way of lighting my pictures.  My studio is in my basement, which is a walkout with a glass patio door which lets in a lot of light.  Despite the large door, I'm often finished a project when it is dark outside, so the lighting is pretty poor.  I'm so eager to wear the finished items that I want to take pictures immediately when I'm finished because I know I won't take the pictures later!

When I'm sewing, I have a task light over my serger and another at my sewing machine to make it a little easier to see what I'm doing.  I try pointing these in the direction of the dressform, but as you can see, I don't think it is quite enough.  I've been toying with the idea of putting in more overhead lighting in the basement, but the previous owners had the foresight to install drywall as a ceiling medium which makes doing things like that a little more difficult.

Anyway...enough about lighting.

Up next in the sewing projects is a suit made from McCalls 5523, view B (the yellow model).  I'm really liking this pattern, and want to make each version.


The jacket is Butterick 5469, view D (the dark blue model).


I'm realizing that the lines of this jacket are remarkably similar to the last one I made despite it being from a different pattern!  For this version, I'm using a brown tweed with black threads and copper metallic shot through it.  The skirt is already finished (no photos yet), and the jacket just needs hems on the sleeves and buttons.  I purchased the buttons at lunch today from Fabricland.  Believe it or not, the only fabric I purchased was some hot pink silky fabric that was on sale for $3/meter for lining a charcoal grey jacket for my daughter (no, I haven't started that one yet, it's in the pre-design phase). Yay me for resisting all the lovely suitings on sale.  I kept reminding myself of my storage area :) (Oh yes, I am SO blessed!)

I only had four sewing goals I wanted to accomplish this month, and I've already accomplished two of them!   After the suit is finished, I'm going to sew the cream cardigan, and figure out what shirt pattern I want to use!

There is one downside though.  With all this sewing, I've done absolutely NO knitting.

Out with the Old, In with the New!!

Happy New Year! In with the new - My Sewing Mojo has Returned!!!  I am super excited about this, and have spent as much time sewing recently as possible.  When I'm not sewing, I'm thinking about sewing, or planning my wardrobe-to-be.

 I quietly rang in the New Year on my own this year (by my choice) and I loved it.  I spent the day sewing until about 10:30 pm before switching on the TV and picking up my knitting.  After a busy week with family, I couldn't think of a better way to enjoy myself.

On New Year's Day, I finished this:

 The skirt is McCalls 5523, view D.  I made the skirt as is from the envelope and added lining.  I'm discovering I like my jackets and skirts to have lining in them - they just feel better and skim the body better.  The fabric is a gorgeous quality brown wool heavyweight crepe that just flows beautifully and was so amazing to work with.  It feels luscious and expensive.  I *think* I bought this at King Fabrics on Richmond Street in the fabric district in Toronto a few years ago.  I also *think* I have exactly the same fabric in an aubergine/eggplant colour.

I believe the jacket is also a McCalls pattern, but I can't find it on their website, and the pattern is at home.  I'll have to update the post with the particulars when I get home.  I absolutely love the ruffle details at the waist, and on the shoulders.  Business suits can and should be sexy and feminine.

The shirt is a previously made one that I altered a bit at the waist so it just happened to be on the dress form.

I also finished these during the Christmas holidays:

Undulating Rib Socks, out of See Jayne Knit fingering weight wool, purchased during a yarn binge last year.  I used a free Wendy Knits toe up pattern for the base design, adding in the Undulating Rib pattern.  These were supposed to be my Halloween socks for Socktoberfest, but Christmas knitting took priority.

After I finished those, I started these:

Circle Socks, but again modified by using a Wendy Knits Toe Up Socks with a Difference pattern as a base. The yarn is Trekking Maxima, in pretty pinks, yellows, teals and reds.  I've already turned the heel and started working on the pattern, having only started the socks last week!  Yay for holidays.

I worked on this last night:

 The skirt is a pegged style skirt from Vogue 1127, out of a brown and orange herringbone tweed wool.  It was lovely to work with. I have made this skirt before, but can't remember which fabric I made it out of.  A couple of days ago I had made another skirt (from a different pattern) that was a little  a lot too tight at the waist (I blame the yummy holiday foods and lack of exercise over the holidays).  This one had been cut out of the same size.  So, I figured I would make the seams at the waist a little smaller, enlarging the waist size.  The only trouble is I thought I knew what I was doing, and didn't need to try it on as I was sewing...yeah, well...you know that little voice in your head - LISTEN TO IT!! I should have!  When I put it on this morning while dressing for work, the darned thing slipped almost past my hips!  Yikes!  (instant diet plan?  Maybe I should market it.  LOL)  Anyway, it will take some work to get it to fit, I have to rip out the facings, the lining, the skirt waist...Ah, those old adages we learned growing up are true - haste makes waste.

As I said above, my sewing mojo has returned en force! I'm extremely happy about this.  I have a huge amount of fabric that I am looking forward to sewing (can you say SABLE - for the non-sewist - Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy), and some noticeable voids in my closet I need to fill.  I've been playing a bit of a game.  Most of the boxes of fabric I have are unlabeled and stuffed into a storage crawl space under my stairs.  Literally - you open the door to the storage space, and you are faced with a wall of boxes.  Fortunately for me, when I packed all these boxes up, I tried to do it so the fabrics were in a similar colour family.  The game is that I open a box, and plan a mini-wardrobe from those fabrics.  It's kind of like Christmas each time!

At one point, I was embarrassed by my stash.  When I was discussing this with my friend, she stopped dead in her tracks and told me that I was an artist, and the fabrics were my tools.  I had no reason to be embarrassed by the overabundance I had been given over time.  Her comment has stayed with me, and really changed my outlook on what I had previously acquired.

Because I am blessed with a huge fabric, pattern and yarn stash, it probably isn't necessary is absolutely  unnecessary for me to purchase anything new, with the exception of notions to finish projects.  I'm not going to say I can't buy fabric or yarn, because that seems to be a trigger for me to buy anything I possibly can get my hands on.  But, one of my goals is to get a better handle on my finances so I can do more travelling, and I truly can't come up with any reason why more fabric or yarn would be necessary.  At all.  None.  So, I am happy to work my way through what I've got.

I'm also hoping that this will lead to more regular posts here.

Goals for January

SEWING:
1.  Cream Cardigan - Simplicity 2603 (already cut)
2.  Fix orange/brown herringbone skirt
3.  Cut and sew one dress (so many to chose from I'm having a hard time narrowing it down!)
4.  Cut and sew a cream silky shirt or blouse

KNITTING:
1.  Finish Circle Socks
2.  Start Gap-Tastic Cowl #2

Daydreaming

Hello!  I'm still alive.  October turned into a month of travelling - I visited London (Ontario) twice, Los Angeles, Kingston, and Kitchener, with the Thanksgiving holiday thrown in for good measure.  And as it usually happens after travelling so much,  I got sick, and it took a while to recover and regain my energy.

November turned into December, and with it came the frenzy of getting my Christmas knitting and sewing done, Christmas parties, and family events, and here we are.  6 days till Christmas!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I love visiting with family and friends!  It just doesn't leave a whole lot of time for blog updates.

There has been a ton of holiday knitting, and I'm much less stressed about it this year than previous years.  I was more proactive about getting it done early on.  (Mental note to this again next year!)

I will update this blog.  And I will update this blog on a more regular basis.  I have been sewing - a little, but I wore a fabulous new dress that I loved to my company Christmas party.  It has inspired me to try to get back to the sewing machine on a more regular basis.  I'm even dreaming of a SWAP for early 2012!

There has been knitting - I swear!

I have a serious case of startitis.  Christmas is coming faster than you thing.  We're past the less than 3 months mark!  I have a ton of things to do on my list, and I am starting to think about whittling that list down.  I need some serious knitting time, but I also have a zillion other things on my plate right now, so the knitting time isn't likely to happen, at least as much

And funny enough, I feel not at all like starting the Christmas projects.  Who can knit Christmas projects when it's still 20 degrees C outside?  And when I've got sewing to do for my upcoming trip?  And when I'm being swayed by the siren song of other beautiful textures and colours?  Besides, isn't Socktoberfest starting soon???

What have I been working on, you may ask??  Well, in the past few weeks, I've started these:

Undulating Rib Socks, modified for toe up
See Jayne Knit Superwash Sock in Monach Butterfly

And these, the Chrysanthemums Mittens in MeiMei Sock Yarn in Cream, and Araucania Ranco Multy in Perfect Jeans:

The mittens were actually further than that, but I've had to tink them back due to operator error.

And then there are the projects without photos.

The yo, K2Tog scarf I started last night out of Estelle Drake.  I have a good excuse for starting ANOTHER project.  I was in the house, the socks were in the car and I didn't feel like going back outside.  And I was tired and needed a brainless project to add some colour and texture to my wardrobe.

And the baby sweater out of Sirdar Denim Chunky.  It's from a heavily modified pattern that is turning out in weird proportions.  It may go the way of the lily pad, but I haven't had the heart to do it yet.

See...there has been knitting :)  With hopefully more knitting time this weekend when the weather turns cooler and rainy.

Tough Day

Today is a tough day for me.  Just one of those days where the world feels like it is out to get you.  It's a kick-you-when-you're-down kind of a day.  The kind of day you feel it like a fog just behind your eyes.  I'm not going to let it get the better of me though.  I'll pull out the knitting needles and meditate for a bit, just to focus and re-centre.

In the meantime, and on a happier note, I've finished these:

The Secret Knitting.  Well, hopefully secret for the recipient anyway.  They're toe up socks, plain vanilla construction, with an after-thought heel. Apparently, I need more practice with the Kitchener stitch.  And maybe a better guide.  Funny thing is, I usually research everything to the n-th degree, except this time I grabbed a book and just went to it.  Shoulda grabbed another book, or a cup of coffee and a video or something.  I'm not impressed with the way it turned out, but after blocking they're not too bad.

And, more Secret Knitting:

Who? Mittens, free Rav pattern.  I used Sirdar Eco Wool DK.  Next time I will add a few rows between the cuff and the start of the pattern, to accommodate our "man-hands."  Hopefully these will do for the time being.  I just have to add the buttons for the eyes and they'll be off to the recipient. 

What's next on the needles?  Something for someone who's day is much worse than mine right now, I'm sure.  I've cast on the Lace Trim Chemo Cap, out of Mirasol Chirapa in the Olive colourway

I chose this colourway because I was told the recipient likes earth tones, and I figured the yellow would brighten her day.  The pooling is sort of looking like camouflage, which I'm not sure will be her "thing," but given that she's battling cancer, I'm hoping that she will wear this cap with courage.  It feels lovely, and the lace trim has turned out just the right amount of feminine touch to it.

Up next on the needles:

1. Chrysanthemums
2  Maine Morning Mitts out of Fleece Artist BFL Aran in yellows, greens and a touch of red.  For me :)
3. Snug Baby Jacket out of something bulky weight from my stash.  I need to do a few baby jackets, I'm a bit behind.
4.  Socks out of See Jayne Knits Monarch (perfect colourway for fall)

Counting my blessings:

1.  I am healthy.  My girls are healthy.  My parents are healthy.  My extended family is healthy.  We are blessed.
2.  I have food on the table every day.  At least three times a day.
3. I have a lovely home, with heat and hot and cold running water.  With toilets, fridge, stove, washing machine and dryer.  With comfortable beds, big windows, large rooms filled lovely furniture and lots of closet space.
4.  The sun is shining today, after a grey start.
5. I get to carpool with my oldest daughter to work every morning.  I'm enjoying the few minutes of "car talk" we get.