3 Loved Ones, 2 Cats and a Birdbrain

The Ultimate UFO

Happy Mother's Day!

A few months ago, when I was doing the big studio cleanout, I came across a pattern that had some fabric tucked into it.  It was an old pattern - dare I say vintage? Is a publication date of 1978 vintage?  I think it might be.  I pulled everything out to have a look:

It was the pieces for a little duffel bag cut out of this floral fabric:

This is the fabric that my mom used to decorate my room when I was little.  Apparently it was bedsheets.  She made pleated floor to ceiling curtains, as well as a bedspread out of it.  That pink stripe along the bottom was the colour she painted the room, then she used bright yellow enamel to paint my bed frame and dresser.  It was 1973 and I was the only girl.  She went to town.  It was great. 

So when I came across these bag pieces, I thought they would make the perfect little Mother's Day present - a little bit of nostalgia and a bit of a hoot. 

Project 11 - Mother's Day

Pattern: Vintage (gulp)

As near as I can tell, I must have cut this out when I was 12 or 13.  So that would make it 30 years old, give or take.  Amazing that it stayed together all this time. 

The bag was supposed to be unlined, with the zipper inserted underneath a faced opening.  With 30 additional years of experience, I knew it needed  a lining, so I constucted it following the directions, but substituting a full lining instead of a facing:

I found a yellow vintage zipper in my zipper department - perfect!

That's the lining with the zipper inserted behind it. 

The lining and the outer bag assembled, ready to be turned.  I love the double barrels. 

The gaping maw.  It looks really big, but it isn't.  It's just big enough to hold the two skeins of yarn I tucked into it before I sent it off to my mom.  As you can see, I didn't think about centering the fabric when I cut this out 30 years ago.  Oh well. 

Such a hoot.  My mom received it on Thursday and opened it up already.  She called me laughing, which is all I really wanted for Mother's Day.

Have a great day. 

Archer in Progress

Do you ever have those moments where you see a pattern, and you love it right away, and you're pretty sure that you should get it right away, but you hold off because it's just a pattern and you have hundreds (probably) so why do you need a new and different one?  Then you whimper slightly every time a new version of said pattern pops up on the internet, since they are all, without fail, fabulous.  But you still hold off because you have a reasonably similar pattern, and it's just a shirt and seriously, do you really need another shirt?  Then you come across the perfect fabric for the perfect shirt, and you buy it, then buy the pattern and the whole thing comes together magically?  No?  Maybe it's just me then. 

Enter the half-finished Grainline Archer:

I'm making view B - and this is the back.  I love it.  The fabric/ruffle combo is perfect.  I also love the cat looking on while I take the picture. 

This is the front, which is not so exciting, but still good.  It could use a good press (it was just rolled up burrito-style in the yoke), and Bertha is set for one of my teenaged clients who is the size of a minute.

At this point, my appreciation for this pattern is growing by the minute.  The drafting is impeccable.  Everything goes together so quickly, it's amazing.  I finished my allotted tasks by 2pm, and had to leave to pick up my daughter at 4.  That includes fusing the interfacing.  A-freaking-mazing.  I hope the love continues...

Today In The Studio

1.  I cut out a jacket.  To wear next Wednesday.  I think I may be losing my mind more than usual.

2.  I altered another grad dress.

3.  I constructed the muslin for another grad dress - fitted top with bias cut skirt and various and sundry chiffon details.

4.  I worked on the Archer.

I may have felt some of my brains oozing out my ear a little bit by the end of the day.  Not a lot, just a little.  Our cats have suddenly decided that breakfast should be at 4 am, and it's killing me.  Well, not actually.  Just making me a little goofy. 

Tomorrow involves 3 client meetings, and altering a whack of shirts for a male client with narrow shoulders.  I can feel more oozing as we speak. 

See ya. 

Today in my studio....

I can see that this idea may become the default when you can't think of a pithy framework for a post.  Here we go...

1.  I altered a grad dress for a client - took in the side seams and hemmed it.  This particular one is a style that I altered for someone else last year.  Weird.

2.  I had a fitting with another client for a silk dress she wants to wear to a wedding in June.  We are making a sheath dress with extra panels that wrap and tie in the front.  We will make a few changes to this muslin, then she will come for another quick fitting on Friday, then on to the final product.

3.  I cut out my Archer:

I'm making a size 12, with no alterations for this first go around just to see how everything lies. 

The fabric is really interesting.  It's a cotton/rayon blend that is super soft.  What you are seeing above is going to be the wrong side, I think.

That's the wrong side on the left, and the right side on the right (hee, hee).  It is wonderfully soft and I think I will wear it a lot. 

4.  I wore yesterday's shirt:

and I like it.  The fit is pretty good since I didn't make any alterations to the pattern at all (did you hear that?  At  All).  There is a slight gape at the front neck that you can see in the above photo, but I'm not sure if that is a fabric handling issue or a pattern drafting issue, since the lower edge of the facing is quite close fitting.  With this skirt (which is knee length)  I feel quite slim (always a good thing).  I think there will be more of these in my future. 

In other news, we have been invited to attend a dinner and performance of Cirque de Soleil next week, as well as a reception afterwards.  As with most things in my life these days, it all comes back to what to wear....I shall cogitate tonight, but at the moment I'm thinking that Archer might come into play, along with white jeans and a navy blazer.  Any thoughts? 

Shirt? What shirt?

Last week while I was ironing, something wonderful happened (how often can you say that?).  I picked up one of my husband's shirts and the cuffs were worn out.  This particular shirt is one that I have had my eye on for awhile.  The fabric is super soft and the colours are all ones that I love - charcoal grey background with graph checks in green, orange, red and light blue. 

So I cut it up. 

Project 10:  Lindsay's Shirt - Do-over

Fabric:  Lindsay's shirt and some herringbone linen

Pattern:Simplicity 1879 - The Souvenir Blouse from the Lisette Collection

This is the first time I have used this pattern and this seemed like a good thing to use as a trial run.  Or wearable muslin.  I was able to get the yokes and the front and back out of the shirt - I used the placket for the center front. 

Here's the back:

I didn't fuss too much over the matching of plaids (as you can see) but it actually worked out pretty well.  The dominant lines match for the most part, and that's all I really care about for something like this. 

I did a little machine embroidery to blend the two fabrics together:

I just extended the graph print lines out onto the linen, using the colours that were there. 

The fit is pretty good straight out of the envelope (raglan sleeves have a tendency to that).  I will try and get a picture of me wearing it tomorrow. 

I also thought that I would start a little list of what I do in the studio in the course of the day.  This time of year, when I am awash in formal wear, I don't really feel like I have much to talk about at the end of the day, but maybe someone would find it interesting to know what I do.  It's also a good thing to have a record of what I've done during the day somewhere other than in my head.  So:

Today in the studio:

1.  I made a little present for someone close.

2.  I finished up a muslin for a silk dress for a client.  She comes tomorrow to try it on.

3.  I tried to go to some sari shops in the Northeast part of the city to find some pale blue chiffon for a client, but they were all closed.  All of them.  On a Tuesday.  Does that seem random to anyone else?  Is there something I don't know?

4.  I went to Fabric Depot and found some chiffon, along with some astoundingly soft shirting that is destined to be an Archer, hopefully before the end of the week. 

5.  I had a fitting with another client, and marked the hem of her grad dress. 

So that's what I did today. 

See you tomorrow. 

Spring!!!

Well, so much for my master plan of catching up with the blogging.  Ah well.  Sometimes life gets in the way of my fun.  Onward and upward...

A really exciting thing is happening here in Alberta.  Spring might actually be here.  It has been a very long winter, and we are all a little tired of it.  The first snow arrived in October, and there is more scheduled for Sunday.  Today, however, it's going to be 17 degrees Celsius out, and I'm breaking out the capris.  There are other signs of spring around.  The boots are staying in the closet.  My husband broke out his spring coat today (we are all a little gunshy around here - you feel a bit like you are tempting fate when you start doing this kind of thing).  And on Tuesday, I made a summer purse.

Project 9: Spring Bag

Fabric:  Linen from Echino for the outside and crazy turquoise print for the inside.

Pattern: Sidekick Tote  from Noodlehead

I have had this fabric kicking around for a year at least.  And there's a lot of it, which leads me to thing that I had some other master plan for it....that has now been foiled since I've used it in a few projects.  It seemed like the perfect thing when I took some time on Tuesday afternoon to whip this bag up.  The pattern was good.  She recommends using a slightly stiffer interfacing, but adds that you can use fusible fleece as well.  Given that I had the fusible fleece in my hands, I decided to use that, but I think it was a mistake.  The fabric needed more support to keep it's snazzy round shape at the bottom.  You can see below that it's collapsing in on the side:

It irked me a little, since I didn't notice it until it was done.  Then this morning I had a brain wave.  I'm working on a dress that involves boning, and my eyes fell on this:

A coil of 1/4" sew through boning sitting on my work table.  A few minutes later I had taken apart the turning seam in the bottom of the lining and used a three-step zig-zag to attach some of the boning to the side seam of the bag. 

Ta daaaa!

Just enough support to keep it from collapsing in on itself.  Yahoo. 

It helps keep the inside from being too much of a dog's breakfast as well.  I told you the lining fabric was a little crazy. 

And you can't even tell from the outside.  It's that zig-zag between the two other rows of stitching. 

A rescue from a possible fail.  A spring-y thought if ever there was one. 

Turn your face to the sun today. 

Out Scouting out the Scout!

I love words.  Just sayin'.

I am a little late to this party, but I am in love with the Scout Woven Tee from Grainline Patterns.  I have made two versions, and they are both good and bad.  Let's dig in.

Project 7: Scout Woven Tee, version 1

Fabric:  some crinkly cotton from the stash.  I grabbed this to make a wearable muslin, and it was a bad idea.  I tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and ended up with something that fit - and then I washed it.  With all the tweaking I had ironed all the texture out of the fabric, and it didn't fit properly when all the crinkling came back.  I had started out with the wrong size, so it did serve it's purpose. 

I gave it long sleeves, since I'm always cold, and they ended up not quite being the right length.  But I like it.  Particularly after looking at these pictures.  Funny how sometimes something looks better, and sometimes it looks worse. 

Nice catalogue pose, hmm?  Too bad I don't often stand like this for long in real life.

So then I started again, with the right size, or so I thought. 

Project 8:  Scout Woven Tee, version two

Fabric:  So this one is a size 10, and it's a bit too small, given the fabric choice.  In something drapier, I think it would have been perfect.  But this is a quilting cotton, and while it will be great by the summer, it's still a bit stiff. 

Obviously, the sleeves are as written here.  And the side seams need to be let out a titch for it to fit better.  I let them out through the bust area, but I think I should have gone all the way through.  And I'm debating about doing a FBA. It's supposed to be loose, and I think I just went too far down sizewise.  Looking at the pictures, I'm thinking a 10 would work in the shoulders, grading out to a 12 through the armhole and the rest of the way down. 

So those are my first two Scouts.  Even though neither one of them is my perfect fit, I like them both, and have been layering them under cardis this winter.  I'm going to give it a couple more tries and then see where I end up.  I love the idea of this simple woven tee, and if I can get the fit right, I think it will be a wardrobe workhorse.

Tomorrow belongs to the knitting again.

See you then. 

The Most Expensive Blanket Ever!

It's Monday of Catch-Up Week.  And as such, it's Blanket Day. 

When last we heard of the blanket (here)  I was engaging in extreme diversionary tactics - starting a new project to entice me to finish the old project.  Apparently, giving myself an out was all that was needed:

Project 6:  The Crazy Blanket

Pattern - None.  I just wanted to play with mitred squares.

Yarn - The inner squares are Noro Silk Garden.  The yellow yarn is ancient yellow handspun from a neighbour of my Grandmother's.  It was very uneven and very crunchy before a soak in the bath, but is now somewhat softer.  The blue square and border are from Manos del Uruguay Maxima in the Royal colourway.  Initially I thought I wasn't going to have enough of the yellow, so I did a test of one square with the blue.  Then it became apparent that I had loads of yellow, but I liked the touch of blue, so I left it in. 

This entire project is one where I didn't really know what I was going to end up with when I started.  I purchased a bag of Silk Garden from my LYS a couple of years ago, and I found that I didn't really want to use it for a garment.  I find Noro yarns always have a rather unexpected colour in them, and sometimes it works but sometimes it really doesn't.  I didn't want the yarn to go to waste, or just sit in the stash forever, so I decided to take it with me on vacation a year and a half ago and start playing around with mitred squares.  I made a few squares, and left it when we came home.  This winter, for some reason, I picked it up again.  Perhaps it was just what my brain needed - a respite from anything complicated.  Along the way though, I found that I only had enough yarn for a blanket that was 12 squares.  That would make it 36"x 48", which is a little mingy for a grown-up to curl up under.  So then it became 20 squares, which meant I had to buy more Silk Garden.  And I ran out a second time as well, so I had to buy yet another ball (that's 14 balls total - at around $12/ ball).  And none of the colourways are the same.  Luckily, it doesn't really matter. 

There is so much going on here.  I love it for that.  And I do love the lone blue square.  After I had made all the squares I crocheted them together, and crocheted a border around the outside to tie the blue in a little more and reinforce the edges a bit. 

Now I have a really expensive, but cozy blanket.  And a gargantuan finished project.

Yeah. 

The Plague...

Shortly after the last post, I came down with the cold of the century - otherwise known as The Plague.  It rendered me absolutely incapable of doing anything but sitting and watching the third season of Downtown Abbey.  I have never been so completely exhausted by a cold before.  I actually fell asleep sitting up at one point.  That hasn't happened since I had babes in arms, and that was a long, long time ago.  What I did do though, was finish a few things up.  And since I couldn't stay conscious long enough to blog about them, I now have a backlog.  So mark your browser, because this week is going to be chokablock with posts. 

Catch Up Week

Monday - Blanket of Crazy

Tuesday - Grainline Scout

Wednesday - Aidez

Thursday - Grey Trousers

Friday - Brother Shirts

So that's the plan.  A post a day and things will be all caught up.  If I don't do that I will be hopelessly behind, and then will lose steam, and a record of what's happening here right now. 

I hope you're having a splendid weekend, and I'll see you here tomorrow with the tale of the huge blanket....

Little Bits...

Recently, a former neighbour called and asked for a little help covering a foam cushion with quilted plastic to make a mattress for  a cradle that her husband had made for their imminent grandchild.  I hadn't seen her in a long time, so it was lovely to reconnect with her for such a positive reason.  The cradle is an odd size, so I thought I would make a little quilt that would fit inside, either for laying baby on, or covering baby up. 

I have been coveting Anna Maria Horner's Feather Bed Quilt (quilt is on the right hand side of the first row).  In fact, I bought some fabric to make it for us, but was vetoed on the actual bed size, since it is mostly white, and we have animals that are mostly black.  However, it struck me as the perfect thing to make for this new arrival:

Project 5 - Feather Bed Baby Quilt

Pattern : Anna Maria Horner's Feather Bed Quilt

Fabrics:  All from the stash - bits and bobs from the massive leftover cotton stash.  White fabric was there, as was the flannel for the back.

Isn't it lovely?  The four feather units ended up being just the right size to line up widthwise - the cradle is only 18"x36", and this ended up being slightly larger than that. 

The flannel on the back is almost as good as the front:

Hard to get a good picture of though - with the winter light hanging around here

It's from the great depths of the stash - purchased from the Walmart 1.99 bin.  I love it deeply, and was glad to use it for such a lovely little project. 

Having made this little number, I have to agree with my husband that it would spend all it's time in the wash if it was on our bed.  So I will make a smaller one to hang at the head of the bed in the spare room. 

Yummy. 

I also wanted to do a little month end round up.  So far, this year has been grand.  I have kept focused on finishing things and posting - there is even a bit of a backlog.  January is usually a slow month for me workwise, so it has felt great to spend it getting sorted out so that when the spring wave hits, I'm ready for it.  I have finished a couple of the things on my winter list, as well as a few bonus projects, and now it's time for the Superbowl and some yummy chili!

I hope you have a good day.

 

My name is Mary, and I love my underwear....

Now that ought to bring some interesting people to visit! 

I made a bra that fits!!!!

And it's comfortable!!!

And it makes me laugh!!!

Project 4:  The Best Bra Ever!!

Fabric:  Remnant from the stash (fits into the Stashbusting Sewalong too). 

Notions:  Large findings Kit from Bra Makers Supply.  This was rather wizardly.  I had ordered it a while ago when I was making another attempt at this bra (this is the third try).  It comes with all the elastics and sliders and other bits that you need to finish one bra.  I will probably buy another one when I have used up all the bits and pieces that I have.  For this bra, it was really nice to have everything at hand. 

Pattern:  Classic Full Band Bra from Pin Up Girls

Thoughts:  As you can already tell, I'm really happy with this bra.  One of my goals this winter was to get a bra pattern that fits together, and happily, this one does.  The Bra making Sewalong (button at the right) was invaluable.  I don't know about you, but I wasn't really sure how a bra was supposed to fit.  One of the things about this whole bra-making venture is that you can't really fit as you go.  Or at least I thought you couldn't.  Turns out you can make a tester bra that will help you iron out some of the issues before you are too far in.    After making the tester bra, I decided to shave some of the "pointy-ness" off of the cup seam, since I had some issues with wrinkly cups in my tester.  That did the trick. 

One of the things that I love the most about this bra is the inside:

All the red, and the black and grey just make me laugh.  As my daughter said while I was making it:

"You probably couldn't buy that in a store".

The Nitty Gritty:  The fabric is a cotton interlock that wasn't very sturdy.  I fused some interfacing to it, then cut the cups and front band from that fabric.  I lined the back band with some powernet that I had from another bra kit to give it some more support. I lined the cups and front band with the same fabric.  Next time, I think I will interface in both directions for the cups to make the fabric a little more substantial and to give me a little more lift (ahem).  Also, next time I will cinch the elastic a little more on the top band.  I was a little gunshy, having made two other bras that are too tight. 

As I have mentioned, I am so proud of this bra.  I am planning to make some matching underwear to complete the prison ensemble!!  I also have another bra cut out in some psychedelic super soft knit from the stash.  That's for tomorrow. 

Here's what I'm working on today:

More on that later...

Thanks for reading.