Work in Progress Wednesday

My sore throat seems to come and go. The past couple of days have seen me mostly languishing, moaning and complaining (although in a whisper, since it hurt to talk).

Since I've been sitting around, I've spent some time knitting on the Aleita shell:





It would be done if the SciFi network had followed their schedule of showing reruns of Star Trek Enterprise on Tuesday night. I was all ready to hunker down for an evening of Star Trek, knitting and self pity (have I mentioned I had a sore throat?), but they were showing something else. Bah. I made jerky instead. Hey, that's something else that's in progress here today -- it's till dehydrating.

I began the week with good intentions to make a top for myself. This is how far I've gotten:





Kwik Sew 3199. I'll make the short sleeve version. Some day.

While I was finding the pattern to take this picture I discovered that I'd also purchased a dress pattern that I'd totally forgotten about. Which is sort of disturbing considering that I just purchased these patterns about 2 weeks ago. I really need to clean up all of this sewing mess and get a grip on what's in these piles. The situation is becoming critical. Also, I'm using the dining room as a sewing room, and we have company coming over -- the kind of company that involves using the dining room for pastimes like "eating" and "socializing" and exotic stuff like that.

Okay. I just ate some chopped up raw garlic stuck in a blob of Really Raw Honey. My throat is feeling better already! Perhaps because my body is in fear that I'm going to repeat that -- it was touch-and-go on whether I was going to keep it down, and my breath is startlingly strong now. I think I'm ready to tackle the day, finish up these projects, and move on with life.

Stuff

Here's what I'm looking forward to this week: that it won't be last week. Not that last week was bad, but I'd rather cover some fresh ground, know what I mean?

Last week featured Vacation Bible School for Annabeth. I didn't help out with it, except that I did get her there early every day and then turned around almost immediately and picked her back up.

It also featured a trip for MrV which involved dropping him off and picking him up at various local airports since his travel plans are quirky that way. Not Scott AFB, though, in reference to Julie's comment.

The black linen blend capris are done. They are successful, other than the fact that I decided I hated all of the buttons I own and just sort of slapped a couple of dark ones on that don't particularly match the fabric. I think I've figured out how to stabilize the waistband on linen-blend enough that it doesn't stretch out hideously by the end of the day. Not that it matters, since the rest of the pants stretch out to Queen Baggy Bottom proportions by the end of the day (linen relaxes and streeeeeeetches as you wear it, if you have't worked with or worn it before, so even if the item fits like a glove at 7am it will be a totally different size, notably in the butt region, by 9pm).

Well, actually I don't know if they are truly successful. They fit nicely by the end of last week. I had spent several days not really eating last week, so I think I probably lost some weight. At the beginning of the week I had some stomach thing going -- I thought it was mild food poisoning (calling it "mild" since I didn't die from it, although I emptied out everything I'd consumed, if you know what I mean) but maybe it was a virus. And followed that with a gawdawful sore throat that made it painful to swallow (by Wednesday night after dance class when Thalia complained her feet hurt I replied, "I can't even FEEL my feet -- my head, throat and ears hurt so much I don't know if my feet even still exist." Then I went and put several blankets on the bed since I was FREEZING, crawled in, and just wallowed in pain until the fever broke and the headache went away. Although the sore throat still comes and goes.).

When not driving family members thither and yon, nor moaning in self-pity about my various ailments, I got back to work on Aleita shell:



I was zipping through this thing earlier in the month, then reached the point where I was supposed to divide for the armholes and Just. Didn't. Want. To. So I didn't -- I just let it sit for a week or so. This week I picked it up again and started working on the fronts. I think I've got about 3-5 rows to go, then I'll do the back, block, and be done. It's an easy knit, and fairly fun (except for binding off the armhole stitches, apparently). But mostly I want it done so I can enter the Ravelympics with a clear conscious and no UFO languishing in the corner.

And I didn't even try to knit during the An Samhra Feis this weekend. I've learned that I don't get much good knitting done at feiseanna. MrV, though, took his laptop and got tons of work done. We were there at 7am to start getting the girls ready. Thalia danced in an 8 hand, 4 hand, and 3 hand; Annabeth was in an 8 hand and a 3 hand. Figure dances started at 8am, and Thalia dearly wanted to review the 4 hand with her team, hence the early start.

Both Thalia and Annabeth danced 7 solo dances. Thalia had already placed in everything except Single Jig; she once again placed in everything except Single Jig. Sigh. Her Single Jig competition was a merged competition -- in other words, they put 2 age groups together. This was done because there weren't enough entrants; you need 5 dancers to compete in order to have results worth considering. Annabeth placed in Reel. She didn't melt down about not placing in anything else, thankfully. She has now placed in Reel, Treble Jig and Slip Jig in various feiseanna. Also, her 3 hand got a second place, beating other 3 hands with more experienced dancers, so that was an ego boost.

As for me, I helped out some with the Preliminary Champion stage. This was a whole new world for me, as I've never been in PC-land before. For the record, Preliminary Champions (PC) are competing to enter Open Champion (OC), which is the top of the heap. The stage is large, the musicians really good, they have 3 judges analyzing all of their moves. They dance 2 at a time. Each girl is dancing different choreography -- they are not synchronized in any way, each is simply dancing her school's dance. Each girl has her arms held down straight to her sides, her shoulders squared, her head and eyes always pointing straight ahead, her expression not wavering. They're zipping around the stage, zig zagging, kicking HARD (these kids have incredibly powerful legs since they can't use their arms for balance or propulsion), often nearly knocking into each other, but never acknowledging those near-misses with so much as a blink of an eye. It looked like a giant game of chicken! Except in sparkly outfits.

Overall it was an okay feis. There were a couple of places where we had to changes stages rather than just stay on the same stage for the entire day. The stage managers were nice about re-shuffling the order of the dances so competitors could make it from stage to stage. At one point an entire stage was moved in an attempt to speed things up; the stage managers were very diligent about trying to find a little girl who seemed to have gotten lost in the shuffle.

And this week? NO DANCE CLASSES! Can you believe it? It's almost like having a normal life.

Home Alone

The kids have been gone all day every day this week, and I'm just now getting into the swing of being home alone. At the beginning of the week I was running errands and doing housework while they were gone. Today I just came home and started sewing, slapping together a sandwich when I was hungry, and eating it while reading the computer. The dishes are piled high, and I just got around to making the bed.

I have descended into sloth.

I wonder what would happen if they were gone all day every day all school year long. Sort of a frightening thought.

But I have accomplished something, you know. I have turned fabric into a wearable garment, which is always a nice feeling.

I was going to make another pair of pants, but was seized by the sudden desire to make a skirt. No problem -- I had purchased a floral print, lining, zipper and petersham last summer in order to make a multi-gored skirt from Ottobre. But, alas, no matter how I fussed at the pattern pieces, I couldn't get them all to fit on the fabric. Hmmm....

But, aha, plan B. I had purchased some fabric for a blouse several months ago. Before I started cutting into it, though, I paused. Mostly I paused because I realized that I couldn't find my tape measure, but it also gave me time to think, "If I make this particular blouse, what am I going to wear it with?" And realized that I wanted to wear it with black linen, either a skirt or pants.

So, how about another go round with that capri pattern I'm trying to perfect? Off I went to JoAnn's to see if there was any black linen-blend in their 60% off section. There was. I also picked up a new tape measure, although I suspect the old one is somewhere in Thalia's room.

And there, back over near the tape measures, I discovered that juvenile prints are currently 50% off. And some of these are really, really cute. So I piled a bunch in my cart, figuring I'd use them someday for ... something. Except this one:



I wanted for a skirt for me.

When I got home, Thalia wanted it, too. Too bad she wasn't here, and it's already sewn up in my size. Well, actually, we're about the same size. But that's beside the point. It's mine.

Pattern is Ottobre 5/2007, #4 (also #3, #9, and #18, depending on whether you cut it bias, add pockets, add a sash, etc.).

Alterations:
I made it in size 38, since hope springs eternal that the size charts will be absolutely correct. I ended up taking in .5 inch at each side seam after I'd finished.

Goofy thing that went wrong:
Once again, the zipper. It's an invisible zipper, and somehow after sewing in one side I flipped the skirt totally around before sewing the other side. Sort of like when you're doing circular knitting and the directions say be careful not to twist work when casting on. That's pretty much exactly what I did with the skirt. Not precisely a moebius (since there were still 2 sides and 2 edges), but something a bit along those lines.

Music I associate with this:
I had Bungle in the Jungle running through my head the entire time. MrV had asked if I remembered who performed it, and I couldn't get it out of my head after that. Also, the fabric has a sort of animal skin background. By the way, there's a nice Youtube video of Bungle in the Jungle with pictures of tigers -- just google it.

I tried to drown it out by listening to The Teaching Company lecture on The History of the United States by Prof. Allen C Guelzo, and made it all the way through the slave trade by the time I finished the hem. But, still, it's Bungle in the Jungle that I associate with this, even though certain specific areas of the skirt remind me of The Massachusetts Bay Company.

Preferred snack of this project::
I have this thing about eating or drinking while sewing. I just gotta. I think it's something along the line of chewing a pencil during a math test or chewing your lip while thinking. Anyway, I polished off quite a lot of blueberries.

The Eternal Search for Pants That Fit

Now that the kids are done with the dance workshop you'd think they would eagerly jump into the opportunity to take pictures of me modeling sewing projects, but no. They're sleeping in and watching Leave It to Beaver. They didn't even bother going to the end-of-workshop pool party last night, citing extreme fatigue.

Which is all to say that I took pictures in the mirror again. The results were fuzzy. But they give a general idea of what I've been working on, which is pants.

Teri has assured me that if I ever get Ottobre pants to fit I will always be able to fit them, since Ottobre doesn't vary the fit, bless their souls. Last winter I worked on a pair of black dress pants which seemed to require acres of alterations and eventually got pitched. This summer I decided to try again, this time with a pattern for capris from issue 2/2007.

I started off by re-measuring myself, since I'm a growing girl (unfortunately in the wrong decades of life for that to be a compliment). The first thing I noticed is that I had cut out the winter pants in the wrong size, which would explain some of the problems I had with alterations. Doh. I'd made them a size too big.

So I thought, hey, why not simply try cutting the correct size and see how far off it is:



These are out of a linen blend on sale at JoAnn's. Not bad, but still very baggy at first. I ended up taking a half inch off of each side, pulling it in from the back so I wouldn't totally mess up the front pockets.

So I thought I'd try again, using more cheap linen blend. This time I figured I'd go down yet another size, since the next size down is a bit more than an inch smaller than the one I'd made, and that would match my alterations so far:





Whoops, too tight. But part of that was from totally blowing the fly front zipper. I'd decided that since I'd just done this exact pattern a couple of weeks ago I didn't need to look at the directions. Also, my method was sort of a mix of the Ottobre directions and Sandra Betzina's, neither of which I was terribly fond of. Which is to say, I had sort of winged it and it came out just fine the first time; the second time I wasn't so lucky. So after the pants were done I redid the zipper, reflecting on the fact that if nothing else I was getting pretty comfortable with deconstructing and reconstructing finished garments.

They're usable now. Particularly since my life seems to consist of 1) taking kids to dance classes, 2) going to the grocery, and 3) picking up books at the library.



I also left off the belt loops on the green pair, having decided that I'd never wear a belt with these anyway.

Thalia had been quite charmed with that green linen when I bought it. On the way to dance yesterday she got in the car and said, "My. Those are really green, aren't they." So I've apparently also facilitated a lesson in color choices. Thalia happens to have good color sense already, so I like to think something will come of this.

Next up, I have some stretch poplin that was on sale at Hancock's. And, yes, I have enough of it for the "outdoor pants" from issue 2/2007, which is pretty much the same pattern as this but with more length, some elastic business at the bottom of the legs, and some extra pockets. This time I'll leave more room in the hips, lengthen the crotch a tad (it wants to dip at the back waist), and find better directions for the fly front. I need to do something different with the back darts. The waist is still a bit big, and every version is saggy in the seat, as are many readymade pants I own -- snug in the hips, yet saggy bottomed. I"m pretty sure I can find an article or book that explains a "fix" for that, at least somewhat. Eventually I'll get it. Hope springs eternal, yes?

Shorts

Here at The Home of Catchy Blog Post Titles, I've been sewing. Well, mostly I've been amassing fabric, thinking about sewing, and all that fun part of sewing. But I have been able to produce 2 pairs of shorts for Thalia:



from New Look 6354. Although she wanted them longer than the shorts they show on the pattern. The picture on the front of the pattern envelope is deceiving, by the way -- the inseam of the shorts really isn't very long. Pattern companies tend to make their illustrations very long and lean, have you noticed? Anyway, I drew a new length -- "drew" because I was tracing the pattern onto Pattern Ease. Pattern Ease is handy for messing around with patterns. It's sold at JoAnn's, and goes on sale when the interfacing is on sale, at which time I buy several yards.

Anyway, I made them about knee length. Also, she wanted a drawstring in the waist. After much discussion and pondering-of-options we ended up using double fold bias tape. I sewed it up so it wouldn't unfold (during which the needle fell out of the sewing machine and I put the new one in backwards, which, of course, means it won't sew right, which was about the time I started reconsidering my new plan to make the kids' Irish Dance solo dresses myself since I think you maybe need enough basic skill to put the flipping needle in correctly if you're going to attempt one of those).

The fabric is the linen blend that is on sale at JoAnn's for weeks at a time every spring. I also got enough to make a couple of pairs of capris for myself, but these will be a different pattern which will feature things like a zipper and pockets, which translates into "will take more than an hour to slap together".

Not exciting, groundbreaking sewing, but sometimes we just plod along making practical items for our families, building our skills. And sometimes the skills being built are as mundane as "able to trace patterns quickly" or "always remember to tighten needle screw better so needle doesn't fall out while sewing". Go forth and do likewise.

Ruffles, and Red, White and Blue

AnnaBeth's choir director asked that they wear red, white and blue to their next performance. Well, okay. Except that the only red clothing she has is Christmas related, and it's (finally) too warm for that sort of thing. And the only blue she has is denim, which really isn't so much "blue" as it is "denim".

So we decided to make a new skirt. And I figured that AnnaBeth wanted something a little flouncier than an A-line or simple gathered skirt. After much consultation she decided she liked Ottobre 3/2006 #35, which is an extravaganza of ruffles. She thought perhaps we should make some ruffles blue and some red, but I thought it might be nice to find some printed fabric.

A trip to JoAnn's yielded patriotic Hello Kitty (who knew?), as well as some white fabric with stars sprinkled across it.

This is what happens when you cross a need for red, white, and blue with a need for lots of frills:




I had purchased some red ribbon to sew on some of the outer, blue ruffles, but AnnaBeth decided against that. I think she was right, since that would've added too much weight to those ruffles.

This really weighs a ton -- it's got 2 layers. The under skirt is supposed to be white batiste with 2 frills on the bottom. I used white for the upper part, but the starry fabric for the frills. I hemmed the frills with my serger set for a narrow rolled hem, one using red thread and the other using blue. It came out looking sort of like ribbons:





That white fabric was stuffed in a drawer with a price tag of 47 cents per yard. I think it originally belonged to my mother-in-law's mother, who had purchased it way back when. You know, back before we called it "stash" and instead called it "sort of odd hoarding behavior, possibly brought on by surviving the Great Depression".

I'd thought I was being clever by ignoring Ottobre's directions about the size of the elastic in the waist -- I thought they wanted it way too small. But, no, they were right -- the skirt is so heavy that it drags right down onto her hips. But it seems to work in spite of my larger elastic.

I finished it this morning. She's worn in non-stop today. I hope it lasts until her performance, and doesn't end up mud caked or ripped by then.

Our Story So Far...

Advent is such a special time of year.

It's a time to, well, to eat a breakfast of crinkle cut potato chips dipped in Ranch dip while updating your blog because really you don't have time to sit and be reflective, or even fix something decent to eat.

We started Advent-craziness in earnest last Friday, when I made a skirt for Kid1 to wear to the various Christmas functions:



Ottobre Woman 5/2007 #18. The original in the magazine was made in gold dupioni silk. Kid1 wanted a black skirt; we looked over the black dupioni at JoAnn's, but she felt it "looked like it has dust on it" (there was a sort of white sheen to the black silk). So we ended up with a polyester from the bridal section. She wears it with a pair of my high heels, and looks impossibly grown up.

I was a tad nervous as I got to the invisible zipper insertion, since zippers are often my downfall. The zipper was going in fairly smoothly (I have apparently made every mistake possible with zippers, and am starting to get the hang of it), but I kept noting how amazingly brown the black zipper looked compared to the black fabric. I finally got up to check the zipper package, and discovered that I had purchased a brown zipper. Doh. So, a quick trip back to the fabric store, and I was set. No further problems, although I'll admit that I hand sewed the lining to the zipper since I didn't trust my skills at machine sewing that little bit together.

Saturday morning we went downtown to Shades of Green, a scouting event involving thousands of Girl Scouts wearing identical green t-shirts tromping around a cavernous convention center looking at scouty-type stuff. I felt I should've earned a special badge for driving us to a downtown location I'd never been to before, finding a parking spot, and remaining calm on the way home when the highway entrance ramp I expected to use was closed for construction.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house and putting up some Christmas decorations. Then Kid1 and I went to church for an evening Advent service in which she sang (looking all impossibly grownup there in her black skirt and my high heels, sob). Kid2 was sick, and stayed home with MrV.

Sunday morning we all went to church. It was wonderfully balmy when we left home around 9:30 am. By the time we left the church at noon rain was coming down in sheets. The temperature dropped steadily all afternoon. But we were snug inside having a Suzuki piano recital -- Kid1 played and Kid2 read the little story that tied all the piano music together. Various relatives and neighbors were in attendance, as well as Mrs. Piano Teacher. We served snacks on our Christmas dishes. Yay us for getting out some of the Christmas dishes!

The kids decided they both were too sick to go back to church for the evening, so we watched Elf and put up more Christmas decorations.

Two days of December craziness down, 29 to go.

Costumes

We have 2 huge boxes of costumes downstairs. Actually, they're those boxes the moving companies use to move your clothing from your closet -- the tall ones with a hanger rack. I cut them down some, and we hang up a lot of our costumes in them. Other costuming accoutrements (hats, gloves, tiaras) are stored elsewhere (okay, generally they're strewn all over the basement floor).

Our latest addition, finished just in time for The Big Day, the day we take our show door-to-door through the neighborhood:



Simplicity 0523/3626, in a size that doesn't appear anywhere on the pattern (not that I'm bitter that I had to resize 18 billion frickin' pattern pieces since they couldn't include a size 6 on their stupid pattern). It was hard to photograph due to the glare of all the shimmery fabric. Also hard to photograph without anyone in it, and the intended wearer is upstairs asleep. What you're looking at is a pair of I Dream of Jeanie pants with a matching top laying on them -- there, now does it make sense?

Yes, this is the reason I haven't been blogging or even cleaning the house or cooking decent meals the past few days -- I've been putting together fabric, overlay, contrast fabric, miles of trim, and boatloads of velcro.

For the record, the other child has very sensibly decided (currently**) to dress as something easy for Halloween: salmonella. This will involve wearing white, and carrying around her "little sister Sally" in a basket with some fake eggs. She bravely attempted to convince her sibling to wear a hospital gown so she could play a victim of salmonella, but the lure of all the glittery fabric has proven too strong for that sibling (plus there was Mommy growling under her breath "I spent hours making this damn costume, I expect to see you in it" in a threatening manner).

**This could change in an instant, of course.

What the Well-Dressed Scout Will Be Wearing to Sleep In at Camp

And the Camp Leaders spake unto the Junior Scouts, saying, "Thou shalt bring jammies with pants to camp. Also, thou shalt bring a stocking cap to sleep in, just in case the weather turns bitterly cold. For lo, we control much, but not the weather."

And the Junior Scout moaned and cried out, "Mommy, I have no jammies with pants."

And the Mommy replied, "Fear not, for we have that pattern you used in sewing classes last summer to make capris -- we'll just make the full length version. Also, I think a soft wool hat would keep your head warmer and more comfortable, so let's look at yarn."



Jammie pants from Butterick 3314, except this time we walloped off part of the torso, since when she made it over the summer it looked like those old-man pants that come up to a person's armpits.

"Gee, Gail, I don't recognize that fabric from that huge pile you just got ."

Ahem. Yes. Well, good for you memorizing my fabric stash. But I can now leave my house (via the new steps, even!) and go to the fabric store. And purchase more fabric. So. Moving along....

The hat is out of Cascade Pastaza Paints in color Forrest, and it is wonderfully soft. I knit it up on size 10.5 needles -- I think 10s would've been better, but I found the 10.5s, and am not sure whether or not I own 10s. Kid1 picked the color -- she wanted variegated green, and wanted a pink stripe (out of some WoolEase we had around) to jazz it up. I sort of like how the greens pooled in swirly stripes.

So I'm at dance class finishing up this hat, right? And this other mom asks, "What happened to the sock you were knitting? Did you finish it?"

"No. I still have to kitchener the toe [aside: all knitters know that kitchenering the toe is a tiny little thing, yet something you don't want to do while standing around waiting for your kids to come out of dance class]. Plus I was sort of sick of it. So I'm knitting this for [daughter for whom I should come up with clever blog-name]'s camping trip this coming weekend."

"Oh." Then, in That Voice, "So, you have just have one partly done sock." And walked away.

I laughed and called after her, "Hey, all it needs is to be kitchenered."

First of all, you don't use That Voice to diss a sock that only needs to be kitchenered -- it reveals that you have no idea what needs to be done to the sock to complete it.

Second of all, you don't use That Voice on the reigning Queen of That Voice. Give me a break. Your paltry efforts at That Voice are likely to earn you That Look from me.

And I let you know that That Voice didn't do its job by laughing and shrugging off your statement, which I now publish so more easily intimidated knitters will learn to roll their eyes and shrug off people like you. Also, I'm publishing it because everyone else says they sometimes get weird comments from folks about their knitting, and I always say, "Gee, no one ever says anything like that to me." So, this is either a first, or else I usually ignore comments like this as unworthy of my attention. Either way it works for me.

Forging Ahead Through October

The Concrete Guys have come and gone, taking their noise and mess (well, except for all the muddy bits where we need to put grass or mulch or something). They really were an exemplary work crew, arriving around 6am every day, beginning work before 7am and working steadily for the entire day. Once I glanced out the door and saw a guy with a sandwich in one hand sweeping off the step with the other hand, apparently not willing to stop for lunch.

Yes, this was a private company. They were fixing the mistakes of the crew who originally built the place many years ago. That original crew has moved to Ami's city, and now work for the public works department putting in streets and curbs in Ami's neighborhood. (Oh, I am so witty this morning. Did I mention that I've been up since 4:30? On purpose, even, with the alarm clock going off then and all. And guess what -- most of this week is going to be like that.) (By the way, I meant to link to one of Ami's posts about the concrete guys on her street, but Blogger disagrees with that concept. If you normally read Ami's blog you know what a fun bunch she had working over there this summer.)

The first day was extremely noisy and mind boggling. I spent it ordering fabric:



Sewzanne's was having a sale. That's 9 different cuts of fabric, most at least 2 yards. It arrived a few days later; I opened the box and had no memory of why I ordered most of it. It was sort of like getting a present from someone else, with the someone else being my alternate personality.

I also sewed. The Easy Pants/design #37 from Ottobre 4/2006, in size 170:


I didn't have any fabric for the pocket facing, and no good way to go get some what with the concrete equipment all over the place (not to mention the lack of steps out the door), so I used some funky Hello Kitty fabric purchased years ago. Kid1, the intended recipient liked that detail, since it doesn't show at all in normal wear. Other than that, she doesn't like the pants. But, aha, I do, and they fit me. Except that the drawstring is all wonky -- I centered it over the fake fly instead of over the front seam. So I need to take off the waistband and twitch it around a bit.

We did manage to get quite a bit of schooling done once the noisiest pounding was over. When you have a crew arriving before dawn every day you're inspired to get up and out of those jammies and right to work. Heck, Kid2 was finished with most of her work by 9am Wednesday, and asking if it was time for lunch yet.

But we plan to return to the abyss of homeschool slothdom this week. We'll also be running around 3 times as much as usual to make up for being stuck inside last week. Unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating. Sigh.

The Perfect Outfit for Kit

If you're unfamiliar with the American Girl pantheon, Kit is the doll that represents the Depression Era. You know, when people made do with what they had, and didn't spend a bazillion bucks on doll accessories.

So, it seemed fitting to make an outfit for Kit by cutting up old clothes:



Actually, I had been a bit too efficient on getting rid of MrV's old plaid shirts, so I had to buy a bit of blue plaid from the fabric store for 50 cents (he still had a blue plaid shirt that would've been perfect, but he wouldn't let me near it with the scissors). The turtleneck is from a pique golf shirt. The pattern is once again from Joan Hind's Sew the Essential Wardrobe for 18-Inch Dolls. Once again I modified the pattern, particularly giving the turtleneck a back velcro closure since I think pulling a turtleneck over a doll's head is the pits.

By the way, this post should no be taken as meaning that anyone here actually owns a Kit doll. The outfit was made as a birthday present. The birthday girl will be travelling to American Girl Place with a dear aunt sometime soon to make The Big Purchase -- she already has a Welcome Home sign hanging in her room for the day Kit arrives.

To Every Thing There Is a Season

It's time to admit to myself that I'm not going to get around to sewing up all of the summer clothing I had planned. I've put away the fabric piles, and started thinking about fall sewing.

The kids and I all need new capris and pants, having outgrown last year's wardrobe (I seem to be having a horizontal growth spurt).

But the first item on the seasonal checklist is Birthday Sewing. And this year that means making items for American Girls dolls.

So far Kirsten has a new dress:



I wasn't so sure about elasticized sleeves for Kirsten, but I looked over the birthday dress from American Girl and realized that they implied drawstrings for the short sleeves.

After I finished this dress I found some tiny pink checked gingham and some tiny white ric rac. I've been considering making the birthday dress, but, really, does Kirsten want a knock off?

To make the above dress I used Joan Hind's Sew the Essential Wardrobe for 18-Inch Dolls. I sort of used the cover dress. Except the skirt of the cover dress was too full, and the collar was all wrong, and I wanted to line the bodice, and I thought the skirt opening could be done better than shown in the book, and skirt side seams looked more attractive. And probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. But, the book was inspirational, and gave me a jumping-off point. And it took less than a day to zip together, from tracing out the pattern to sewing on the daisy trim around the hem and neck (which really stinks to sew on, by the way, either by hand or machine).

This dress was for one child who likes to celebrate her Swedish heritagevia Kirsten. Her sister found some fake daisies and made someting like Kirsten's birthday headdress.

As a matter of fact, her sister's birthday is coming up soon, too. Expectations are running high: "Mommy, I think you could make Kit's birthday dress or school jumper -- they look pretty easy." Umm, no, they look pretty freakin' impossible to me. But I think I can manage some sort of jumper.

September is birthday season here. No doubt about it.

That night I dreamt of seam rippers

I was in a fabric store and saw a really FUN fabric -- polka dots! in pink and green and black! Fun! And could coordinate with, well, with pink or green or black!

Oh boy! What FUN pattern could I use to sew this up? How about something with a flounce, because nothing is quite so FUN as a flounce! Better yet, an asymmetrical flounce, because asymmetrical is not only FUN, but also whimsical. Ooooh, a FUN, whisical skirt ... I can hardly wait.

I traced out a skirt from Ottobre Woman 2/2007 -- design #13. And that flounce was hard to trace, by the way. I ended up using yellow highlighter on the original so I could follow the pattern lines on the Pattern Ease.

And I whipped up that FUN skirt.



(Still working on how to shoot a non-flash non-blurry picture in a somewhat dirty mirror, as you can see)

Oh. Oops. Just because the fabric and pattern are both FUN doesn't mean they should be used together. Even the cat looks as though she is rolling her eyes.

MrV commented that the higher swoop of the flounce looked like I had fabric bunched up in my undies. Which struck me as pretty funny. But, really, how can you wear a skirt in public after a comment like that? Also, this length makes my legs look fat. Also, I was sewing with the windows open whilst someone in this town was playing Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy at such a volume that not only did it flatten all the trees in a 5 mile radius, but it also lodged itself in the very fiber of this skirt so every time I look at it I hear the song in my head.

Well, what did I learn from this experience?

Invisible zippers are a heck of a lot easier to put in with an invisible zipper foot. Last time I tried one I used a regular zipper foot. It was not a good experience. This one pratically put itself in. I felt like I was cheating.

Putting in petersham at the waistband is a cinch, and does work well.

Ottobre skirt patterns have bigger fronts than backs. Its been ages since I sewed an American skirt pattern, but I vaguely remember that the backs are bigger than the fronts. I suppose this causes it to hang differently. Or perhaps European women are built differently. Next time, though, I will make the front smaller.

Also, having chosen the size based on my hip measure (per the Ottobre suggestion) this was huge in the waist. I deepened the darts, and added an extra set of darts in the back. Next time I will alter the waist before cutting out.

I have discovered an inner compulsion to finish items even though they don't look that great. I hemmed it and tacked the lining to the zipper after I realized I will probably never wear it.

And, most of all, I really really need to get a grip on visualizing what finished items are actually going to look like when put together and placed on my body.

(I really did dream of seam rippers after I made this. They were dancing around like the dishes in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Amazingly enough, they were NOT dancing to Led Zeppelin.)

Learning All the Time

I decided to give Ottobre 2/2007 #4 another try, this time in the Sweet Geese rib knit from Sewzanne's.



(Pic got fuzzy when I cropped it to remove the bathroom towels and the smudges on the mirror, but you get the general idea. Plus now you can't see how poorly it's hemmed.)

This is a 100% cotton from Baby Nay, and you would not believe how soft it is. It would be perfect for baby jammies (so, like, if you're expecting a new babe -- AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE I'M TALKING TO -- you might want to consider getting some of this and sewing up some jammies after you get that pocketbook done for your toddler and I'd highly recommend checking out Ottobre patterns since they have some adorable baby things that even I can sew; just saying). It's quite stretchy. Actually, it tends to stretch out and stay stretched, unlike the cotton/bamboo/spandex blend I worked with last time; that spandex stuff sproings right back into its original shape. This knit really needed the stay tape I put in at the shoulder seams. Sometimes you can skip the stay tape; I'm glad I didn't with this t-shirt.

The stretchiness made it harder for me to work with, because I tended to stretch out the neck while sewing, and then the neck stayed stretched out (this will not be a problem with baby clothes, as you'll want to stretch around a diaper anyway). As I noted before, I think the neck of this pattern is a bit low for me. We finally figured out why: I'm a petite, so regular size patterns are proportionately too large vertically; plus I am extremely short-waisted, and so I have proportionately less room between shoulders and waist for necklines to droop in.

This time I used the sleeves from design #3 in this same Ottobre issue, as Teri recommended. Yes, I do like these much better. Plus I think putting elastic in this fabric would've been a nightmare. Heck, I had a tough enough time doing the hems -- I kept sewing off the fabric with my blindstitching. I finally got out my disappearing ink pen (that is, the ink disappears, not the pen itself) and put a purple line along the edge of the fabric so I could SEE the needle poling into the correct layer. Yeesh.

So, still not an expert at sewing knits, but now I know a bit more than I did before.

And in spite of the faults -- too-low neckline, wonky hems -- I get compliments on the t-shirt because the fabric is so darned cute.

(Speaking of learning about knits, I also learned last night that I had dropped a stitch way back at the cuff of this second sock. I was poised to start the heel when I made this discovery. You know what? I'm not going back and re-knitting it. It doesn't hurt the design, and I doubt it will make a huge difference in the fit.)

The Nice Thing About Sewing Is You Can Make Mistakes More Quickly

You know how it is when you're picking out a pattern to make. You look over the possibilities, you see what looks cute, you see what you think you have the ability to make (for the record, I ALWAYS assume I can make any knitting pattern; I figure I can sew well enough for about 50% of sewing patterns, and there's another 25% that I don't sew well enough to make but give it a whirl anyway because who knows, maybe I'll get lucky), you see what others have to say about using the pattern, and, most importantly, you ponder whether or not that would actually look good on you.

Except sometimes in all of the excitement I forget that last one about whether something would look good on me.

This t-shirt is from Ottobre Woman 2/2007, design #4 (yes, the one on the cover). It's out of the minty yellow bamboo cotton spandex from Sewzanne's.




I cut it out right after Easter, thinking it could be a Project Spectrum sewing project, since green was one of the colors for April and May. Except then we had out-of-town company, so it got put away. And wasn't brought out again until last week.

Once I got going on it, though, it went together quickly. Really, it just flew together. And you should see that 2-thread overlock blind hem on the bottom -- it's so perfect it takes my breath away. I SEWED THAT HEM! Myself! And it looks so good!

Well, really, everything hummed along just hunky dory until I got to the sleeves. Putting that elastic in the bottom of the sleeves was a disaster. Ottobre wants you to finish off the edge, appy the elastic directly to the sleeve, flip it up and sew it. I've done this before on other items, but for some reason it wasn't working with this fabric and pattern. There are people who could tell me exactly why this happened (they are known as Better Seamstresses Than I Am), but they weren't hanging around the house to give me advice. So I eventually just sewed a casement and threaded the elastic through.

It was while I was messing and gomming with the elastic (which I put in at least 3 times before I got it out; and, yes, that means I also had to tediously pick it back out that many times) that I had my first inkling that I had maybe made a mistake in the entire concept of this top. Specifically, my 11 year old came into the room while I was trying on my latest rendition, one sleeve elasticized and one sleeve still hanging loose, and commented, "the elastic bottom looks better with the style of the rest of the shirt, but you'd look better with a lettuce-edge on that sleeve." (She's a designer-in-the-making, I think).

Umm, yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence. Too bad she's right.

I perservered, got it done (more or less), and modelled for MrV, who commented, "you know, that neckline really isn't the best for you." Which is true, sigh, since where other women have cleavage revealed by decolletage I have an anatomy lesson on how the sternum connects to the clavicle and ribs. In a too-low neckline.

So, overall, I'm thinking I won't be making this top again, at least not with this neckline. Maybe I'll draft a new neckling. And the puff sleeves are so very much Not Me -- my daughter was right about that.

On the other hand, I'll keep wearing this one, if for no other reason than I enjoy looking at the hem.

The bamboo cotton spandex is a nice fabric, by the way. I took this picture after mowing the lawn then lifting weights. It stayed cool and comfortable, a nice light layer, through all of that.

On the bright side, if I had knit something like this it would've taken hours and hours and hours, and the yarn would've cost more than the fabric did, and it still would've looked so-so. And it wouldn't have had the kickass hem at the bottom. I made that hem, did I mention that? It's a really nice hem.

Finally Warm Enough to Wear the Easter Outfit

Dress is #38 from Ottobre 2/2005 in a linen blend from JoAnn's.

Sweater is from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits using some ancient Paton's South Pacific recovered from an old Unfinished Object. Apologies for the poor photo of the sweater -- it didn't occur to me until today that Kid1 had arranged her hair all over the sweater in every single shot.

This shrug looks So Good with this dress. Kid1 just loves the look. If you have any 11 year old girls hanging around the house, consider making this combo. Or just the shrug.

The choker is crocheted out of the South Pacific, and has one of the flower embellishments I had made for the dress (the flowers on the dress are near her right hand). I ended up making several flowers to get 2 that I liked for the dress, having never before entered the wonderful world of Sulky stabilizer plus multiple layers of fabric plus fusible web plus using a sewing machine to embroider (I don't have an actual embroidery machine, so I faked it with the triple-width stitch).

An Easter Dress

Butterick 3714

Fabric from JoAnn's, as are the fabric flowers at the waistline.



The cowl was sort of wonky to make -- there seemed to be about 3 plus inches of fabric that I was supposed to fit into 2 inches of shoulder. I assume whoever drafted the pattern didn't do the math (surely it wasn't my mistake) so I just folded it up a bit more.

After I had attached the skirt I had her try it on, and realized it was massively too big, even though I was using the smallest size possible. So I opened out all of the lining (yes, it's fully lined), took in an inch on each side seam, and sewed the lining back in place. I tried to taper the skirt seam into its original hemline fullness; I think the bias tapering ended up a bit iffy. There's some weirdness to those side skirt seams now -- they don't hang just precisely right.

Hurray for me, I only had to put the zipper in twice. And I remembered to let it hang several days before hemming -- wow, that front panel stretched out an amazing amount in that time!

Overall I'm pretty pleased with it.

And Kid2? Mostly she twirls around and around and around. Really. It's amazing we got a still shot of her wearing it.

Pink Happens

Day one of the new Project Spectrum color triad found me up to my eyeballs in fabric.

Pink fabric.



Butterick 3714 in size 7. I swear this cowl was drafted incorrectly; in any event, it was the first time I've had a major problem with a Butterick pattern. I think it gives the dress sort of an I Dream of Jeanie vibe. It was Kid2's favorite part of this pattern.

And, yes, it's fully lined:



Check out all that tulle! Woo hoo! MrV peeked in the sewing room (which is actually the dining room) and simply commented, "My, how foofy it is in here. You've got a lot of foof goin' on."

Today I will do the zipper. This will probably involve a lot of potty mouth comments coming from the direction of the sewing machine. After that is the hem, the freakin' I-hate-bias-cut-skirts hem (potty mouth comments are already erupting in anticipation).

Fortunately the kids can be outside, and can miss the vocabulary-expanding action going on in here. They can be outside because it is very GREEN out today. Last spring when Yarn Harlot was in town she simply commented, "St. Louis is very green." She's right -- this is an extremely green time of year here. You'd swear the windows were tinted, it's so green when you glance outside. By summer it will all be brown, burned to death in the sweltering heat. But spring really is beautiful and GREEN here.

(You know, since Project Spectrum is PINK for April and May, this would be a good time to work on PINK projects, like, say, if you had pink yarn and a wrap pattern lurking in the closet, for instance. Just sayin'.)