Discipline

It’s been hard work getting back into the sewing room.  Between my varying energy levels/my need to exercise during naptimes so I don’t fall over and sleep and end up feeling awful and not sleeping at night, falling back into the pattern of working in my room daily has been difficult to get started again.

Add a water heater that died a couple of nights ago (but not before it leaked on the carpet–thankfully not irreparably), and my best laid plans for this week have not materialized.  I can still prewash some jersey on cold, but man my brain is muddled with feeling unsettled about this dumb water heater.

But a shower at my parents’ helped me clear my head and I mustered up enough get up to get a muslin made of my White House/Black Market cowl neck tee with the sleeve ties.

The Ottobre pattern I’m using is perfect–I added an exterior casing to take care of the ties on the shoulder, and it not only worked out elegantly, it might be the easiest RTW copy ever.  I’ve never made a cowl before so I was unsure of the style on me, but I like it.  I am glad I made a muslin though, because I needed to raise the bottom of the armscye a bit which is pretty typical for sleeveless styles…actually I’ve never really successfully made a sleeveless garment.  This dress came the closest, and I remember really monkeying around with that armscye a fair bit.

So little by little things are getting done.  Here’s for hoping that there’s hot water again tomorrow!

News and a search for an impossible to locate pattern

So the reason for my absence/why I didn’t make it all the way through Me Made May/why I haven’t sewn in 2 weeks has to do with those awesome/horrid hormones responsible for that first trimester.  I’m due Christmas Eve!  We’re excited, but I am very very tired.  I’m starting to get a little more energy, but it’s slow going, and right now, I’m content to be able to cook dinner–something I couldn’t do with either Sam nor Noah because I was so morning sick with both of them.  No morning sickness this time, just the tired…Like when Olympia, the wind up doll from Les Contes d’Hoffman falls over in the middle of her aria and has to be wound up again tired.

I can tell I’m starting to get a little more energy though because I’m starting to plan a little.  I snagged an old Ottobre on Ebay that has a great camisole pattern and a cowl neck.  I think the cowl would be great for a fast and easy copy of this White House/Black Market tee.

What a great summery basic, right?

Also really really high on my list are these maternity pants from Burda.

I love the princess seams in front and back and how go with everything these pants seem like they would be.  This came out a few years ago, but it’s sadly OOP and I’ve seriously been checking Ebay and Etsy nearly every day for about 4 months and it has not appeared even once.  Does anyone have this, and can I buy it from you?  You can name the baby Rumplestiltskin style–just kidding, but I almost want this pattern that badly.

I’m looking forward to getting sewing again.

Once upon a time

there was a girl who bought a sewing machine.  She never thought that she would be sewing clothes.  Ever.  Then she tried, failed, tried again, and kept on going.  Then she started sewing knits and wondered if she needed a serger. She didn’t like the way that her beloved sewing machine made her knits look kind of homemadeish and heard that a serger could do a better job.  So she test drove a serger and took it home.  It took some time to get used to, but her serger became a valuable friend.  Then her serger had to go into the shop and get cleaned, and that’s where we find our fearless heroine now.

And since the serger has been in the shop, I’ve managed to make a half wadder/half success pair of pants (more on that tomorrow), batch trace and cut a whole table’s worth of patterns, [what's up with the wrench?] muslin a vest (I need to alter it, but I rarely alter muslins the same day I make them), do a lot of Burda daydreaming, and begin the long task of organizing the stash .  Oh, and I’m working on dyeing/bleaching what was before this afternoon an unnaturally bright length of coral twill.

But really all I want to do is sew, and I’m going positively bonkers without my serger.  I had no idea how much I used it until it was gone.  I go between both my machines so much that starting a project without it being there is like missing my right arm.  I get to pick it up tomorrow though, and I reckon the two of us will be burning rubber to make up for a week and a half of missed time.

Lori had a poll up a while back on what you do when you can’t sew.  The majority of people voted that they read their favorite sewing blogs.  Me, I’m mostly a dreamer/planner.  How about you?  What do you do when for whatever reason you can’t sew as much as your usual?

My iron is evil: a reader’s poll

At some point it will happen to you.  You end up melting a piece of fabric when you don’t have enough extra to replace it and you’re about 70% through your garment.  Today it happened to me:

That would be the faux leather on the collar of my mostly finished motorcycle jacket.  I had my press cloth over the interior of the collar as I was getting ready to press it and the iron grabbed the unprotected outside.  Forget that it happened, the question now is what to do about it.  I didn’t have enough faux leather left over after my welt pockets to cut another collar, so my options are thus:

1.  Sew the collar in the jacket body fabric.  Not to sway any opinions, but it’s a motorcycle jacket, right?  There’s brass zippers and faux leather welt pockets–it kind of needs the leather on the collar to keep that edge going.

2.  Piece the collar:

This is a fast and easy solution for sure, but be honest, how bad does it look?  I kind of think it’s okay, but that could be the desperate part of me that just wants to finish this jacket, and we all know how clear our thinking is in those moments.

3. Get replacement fabric:  This will involve packing up the kids and trekking to Denver Fabrics or giving up weekend time with my family to go down there just with Sam.  They probably still have this, and if not, I’m sure they have something that will coordinate with it.

4.  Put in the faux fur collar:  This is not so much of an option for me.  The plan for this jacket was to make it with the faux leather collar and make a faux fur detachable collar with this pretty winter fox I have in keeping with the Wardrobe Sew Along.  It’s 70 degrees right now though, so if I put in a fur collar, I probably will only get to wear this jacket once or twice before fall.  Keeping the collar detachable gives me some options on the remaining cold days left this winter.

One thing I know for sure is that I am not touching this jacket with a ten foot pole today.  I’m going to trace off this dress (Burdastyle 6-2010-109)and be thankful that knit dresses don’t cause you so much grief.

So what option would you choose in my shoes, dear reader:

ETA: As neat and statistical polls are, I’d really like to hear people’s opinions on the collar too.  Have you had your own fabric meltdowns at inopportune moments?

I am not a robot

Dear Blogger,**

While I appreciate that you’re trying to protect bloggers from unnecessary spam comments (and believe me, I appreciate that–those things are vile–and thank you WordPress for just chucking those automatically out of sight), this 2 word verification is really really annoying.  Last week I was locked out of commenting on Mikhaela’s insightful post about cheap fabric no less than 10 times.  I do not have time to do this.  I have 2 kids.  I’d much rather be playing with said kids, cooking, sewing, or reading about both.  I assure you I’m not some robot that you’re convinced I am.  Your blurry “words” are just impossible to read and waste everyone’s time.

Disgruntled,

~E

**I kid you not, WordPress thinks I’m a robot too because it’s auto-saved this post 15 times in my post archive.

Julie apparently understands that I am not made of tin, because tin people can’t be versatile bloggers can they?

My rather fleshly self graciously accepts this award (thank you Julie!), and I’ll list 7 random things quite humanoid per the conditions of this award and pass on the bloggy love.

1. Joanne Weir is my cooking hero.  Love her.
2. A day without a proper pot of tea is sad indeed.
3. Ruth Reichl‘s prose is like a warm blanket.  I want to eat at her house.
4. If left to my own devices, I would probably have a completely aqua house.
5. I make my own birthday cake every year because it’s fun.
6. I’m a 5th generation strudel maker in this country and there were others before that.  I’m plum proud of my apple strudel (apple proud?).  Why have pie when you can have strudel?
7. Saturday is pancake day in our house.  My husband’s family makes waffles on Saturdays.  My Mom bought me a waffle iron when we got married, but it died, and teflon creeps me out.  Read Pancakes for Breakfast.  It’s funny and makes the pancakes taste better.

- Add the award to your blog.

- Thank the blogger who gave it to you.

-  Mention 7 random things about yourself.

-  List the rules.

-  Give the award to 15 bloggers.

-  Inform each of those bloggers by leaving a comment on their blog.

Wee break

I’m sitting here hacking my head off for the 4th day in a row feeling rather icky.  I’ve eaten lots of soup and watched lots of Vicar of Dibley and Arrested Development episodes (laughing is a bit perilous with this cough).  I’ve thankfully been mentally okay enough to keep up my naptime discipline of sewing and have gotten about 75% of the way through a pair of pajamas–a rather relevant garment when you’re feeling gross.

I’m also still backlogged on blogging and have a dress and a top to write about.  Hopefully I’ll be back to better in a couple of days.

In the meantime, go make some soup for someone.  If I had a little more energy, I would have made this one from the fabulous amazing Joanne Weir:

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

The boys love this, and even my veggie indifferent hubby is a fan…of course I float some crostini and bacon and homemade harissa on top.

 

Lounging Sweater

Once upon a time there was a cream sweater.  It was big and bulky with a shawl collar and came down to my knees.  It belonged to my Mom in the 70′s.  On a cold day in college I raided her closet and claimed it as my own.  I loved that sweater.  Every sick day was made better by it, brisk walks were improved when I wore it, and it had a faint stain of tea on one sleeve bottom because it accessorized many a pot of tea too.  Perhaps it was because it was slightly dowdy or because it might have waltzed out the door with me to my classroom on chilly days (for lack of something better), but one day, one sad day that stolen sweater got stolen back by its original owner.  The nerve!

Well Mom, all I can say is muwahahaha because Burda supplied me with a slightly more stylish and certainly prettier alternative in 1-2011-126.

I fell in love with this salmony sweater knit at Denver Fabrics a few weeks ago and knew it’d be perfect for this pattern.  It’s a little sheer, but it has lovely drape.  I had to grade down the shoulders and the neck and the sleeve which was annoying (so many lines!), but doable.  It’s inches too long and I still feel like even at a 34 it’s a little too wide, but as this is probably oversized anyhow and it’s not a garment that is really for making the house a little less chilly, that doesn’t bother me much.

I’ll try not to wear it out of the house too much, Mom.

My full review is here.

Holding pattern

I wish that this post title alluded to me clutching a fistful of new patterns to sew in my hands.  Sadly, no.

I’m in a place where 1) all my maternity collection I’ve made is more than adequate, 2)I have 7 weeks to go and I’m a bit too tired to take on anything else big, 3)we’re fixing to move, so I don’t really want to buy fabric because I don’t want to have to pack MORE of it, and 4)anything I COULD make for baby could potentially be a fruitless effort since we don’t know what we’re having.

So I’ve inched along trying to finish the pants I made for my pants fitting class with Cynthia Guffey.  Gnomey ate a piece of fabric and I haven’t had a chance to fix her in a week, and I’m probably procrastinating on that point anyhow because I have no real projects in the queue until after baby comes.  Well at least I can plan for that.  My postpartum wardrobe plans:

short sleeve version of this dress:

This Burda jacket I muslined eons ago that is still hanging up in my sewing room:

All this plus a denim skirt, some workout gear, a trench (because why not?), and though it’s against my better judgment–shorts (but only after extensive muslining and only because I have a soon to be 2 year old who doesn’t deserve to be cooped up inside). 

 My goal for this set of clothes is to avoid the postpartum look I had after Noah was born.  Being very very green to the world of garment sewing, I didn’t have the skill set I have now, so I ended up wearing a lot of gross really really bad fitting t-shirts from Target and feeling pretty gross as a result of it.  It’s fun to think about this next collection, and I’m mostly thinking about that because I’m still trying to get my head around having 2 kids.  Somehow I think I’ll figure that out, but for now, I’m just waiting…

Use the right tool for the task

(Picture from here)

Yesterday I made a very simple insert for our duvet from 2 thrifted sheets and some cotton batting.  The normal comforter that we have in it year round is just too hot for the summer, but I hate sleeping under just sheets.

Things were going swimmingly–I layed out the sheets together with the batting on top and serged the edges.  I turned everything and started stitching my opening I’d left for turning open and I busted a needle.  It’s my own fault for thinking the 70/10 needle I’d been using for my black gingham shirt would go through 2 layers of sheeting selvages plus a layer of batting.  I figured–hey, what’s 10 inches?  Not my brightest conclusion…

So after some time unscrewing the bottom of my sewing machine, I spotted the wayward needle tip that had broken off.  I tried to get at it with a piece of tape and ended up jamming it in further.  More screws off and several hours later, it came out on its own.  After putting the screws back in their place, something got misaligned and Gnomey started making this awful squeaky whirring.  So Gnomey is in the shop.    Sad sad sad.  Hopefully it will just be a little fiddling with the screws and things will be back to normal.  I imagine that’s what’s will happen given that we weren’t poking around or whacking anything about.

The Aesopian moral?:  The next time you go to do a job, whatever it may be, ask yourself if you’re using the proper tool for the task.  Sometimes you can get away with making do, and sometimes your laziness gets punished dreadfully.

Sewing room update, part 2

As I said, lots of changes have been made to my sewing space.  The one that I’m a little tickled about is the curtain.  Usually for curtains I take a whole lot of Kona cotton and stamp it.  Sometimes I like the results (note my backdrop), and sometimes not.  The problem with Kona cotton as curtains is 3-fold.  1)It doesn’t drape well as it’s meant to be flat on quilts 2)It’s pretty opaque, which is great if you’re looking for privacy, but not so much if you live in a rather dark apartment and 3)The 44″ width means you’ll have to piece the curtain, leaving an awkward seam in your curtain and you’ll have to buy twice the yardage.

A couple weeks ago I was on the hunt for cotton lawn for a Burda dress I’m in the muslin stage of.  I found some really nice lawn at fabric.com and it is $4.19/yd!  I knew this leaf pattern would be too big of a scale for me to wear but perfect for the window.  At 58″ wide, I only had to buy 2 yards, making this a really inexpensive project.  The green makes me smile, plus it’s not too girly to share the room with Noah.  It lets in more light than the previous stamped Kona curtain did too.   

The biggest change was the table situation.  I’ve been sewing on a card table which is pretty unstable and not very space-efficient.  It’s actually so unstable that I damaged my serger when I first bought it.  I’ve since been dutifully serging on the kitchen table which is much more solid, but it’s made serging work rather user unfriendly.  In addition to having to move everything, it’s much harder to play defense with the baby and the cord at the kitchen table.  I’ve been haunting the thrift stores trying to find something that would fit both machines and give me just better space.  I was really blessed to find this amazingly solid conference table a few weeks ago for the whopping price of  $20.  We can stand on it and everything!  We did have to rent a truck for another $20 to get it to our place, but even at $40 this table is a bargain. 

Bonus–there’s room underneath to fit a filing cabinet to make easy, organized access for my patterns.  The box I have had all my patterns in has been repurposed for storing muslin fabric, which is a relief as my muslin fabrics are usually stuffed in weird places all over the apartment. 

At the other end of the table, there is space for another little cubby for fabric storage. 

Josey and Gnomey really are very glad to be together again. 

To cap it off, I covered a little jewelry box with some fabric using a glue stick for my little thread and serger detritus.  Before Noah, I dutifully cut every thread and tossed it in a little trash can at the end of my table.  Mostly he carries around the trash cans or slides them across the floor, so I’ve been trash-canless for a while now.  This is much better.

As I step back from this room, I realize that it’s all a culmination of a little dream that my husband got behind full force 3 years ago.  I’m so amazingly blessed to have him, and it’s been so fun to see how I’ve been able to really begin understanding who I am and whom I’ve been created to be simply because of his belief in me.  I love you Nathan!