Realizations

It’s been a bit nuttier than normal around here. Why? Because I had a golden opportunity to share my stash with a lovely stranger — the mother of the chap who located my sewing machine last year — at the bottom of the last stack of boxes in the far back corner of my storage unit.

So I decided to go through everything, and it feels good to know these fabrics have gone to such a special lady, hopefully to nurture her love of sewing.

Now that my stash is considerably lighter, I’m realizing why it’s taken so long to shift mental climates and evaluate my wardrobe needs realistically.

(I often muttered to myself, “Geesh, you moved almost 2 years ago – what’s the holdup??)

That first year was spent in an unheated basement with very consistent temps: Cooler in summer and never above 60℉ in winter. (Not that I’m complaining – I prefer cooler temps in winter so I can wear winter clothes.)

Leaving that and having now spent a late summer, fall & winter in a much warmer building*, I’ve got a better idea of current wardrobe needs.

Now, the challenge is to start sewing!

Couldn’t resist these, from Hawthorne Supply Company, normally a quilting cotton shop. The left is cotton knit, whilst the right is Brussels washer yarn dyed. It’s a looser weave than anticipated, but should work nicely for summer. Some of their cottons are also available in other fabric types so I’m always checking! CLICK PIC TO GO TO SITE.

*My windows were open all winter unless wind blew directly in. I only turned heat on about 3 times.)

Wardrobe woes

Last winter was my first winter back in North country. Grateful for housing even in a 60° basement, my wardrobe was 2 LB Pullover fleece sweatshirts, 2 pairs of L.L. Bean flannel-lined trousers and 2 Bean long-sleeved turtlenecks, to which I added a thrifted red puffer jacket & vest. Plus a new pair of low-heeled boots.

The rest of my things were in storage, stacked haphazardly & in haste by some truckers. Now let’s skip to this past August’s move into this old & well-insulated (read hot) building.

The above photo is a much cherished piece of a soft, synthetic knit sent by a lovely friend in Edinburgh and immediately made into a midi skirt with slit. I just love it!

However, static cling is a big problem here in winter. And the skirt doesn’t have pockets. If I made a half slip out of a cotton or rayon I’m hoping that would help.

There’s only 1 seam in the skirt, so in-seam pockets aren’t a possibility. But! Somewhere around here I’ve got a long piece of the fabric left over, and I’m thinking maybe patch pockets would work.

But I’m concerned about this stretchy knit. Pockets I can line, but a phone in a pocket might make for a sagging skirt. Oh! How about if, instead of a slip, I did a lining? Might that alleviate the problem?

Any thoughts on the subject, Lovelies? All suggestions are welcome!

New-to-moi podcasts

Photo from Amanda’s Bundles – click the pic to go to fabric.

One of my favorite sewists (Julian Collins) has partnered with a new-to-me sewist (Aaronica B. Cole) to create a new sewing podcast, AudaSEWtea.

This past week I finally made time to have a listen, plus catch up with Lisa Woolfork‘s excellent Stitch Please podcasts, and Black Women Stitch. All of which I enjoy and learn from.

Now, about this fabric ~

I’ve long admired many of Julian’s fabric choices and learned some of his favorite online sources. Mood Fabrics is a given, but it’s so huge I’m often overwhelmed. Besides, I’m always on the lookout for something quirky, and who doesn’t ❤️ a bargain – he-hee!

One of the sites Julian mentioned was Amanda’s Bundles. The above photo is some french terry from their site, so deeply discounted that my 3-yard order almost equaled their basic $14.95 shipping. But I was in the mood, and it makes me smile.

Many thanks to Aaronica, Julian, Lisa, and everyone involved in these podcasts!!

🥰

A little ta-da moment…

Dropping in to share a quick ScrapHappy project for my neighbour, a link over to Kate’s ScrapHappy post, and share another project just restarted for the umpteenth time.

Several weeks ago I was about to start downstairs in my building, when I saw my neighbour trying to manage 2 crutches, a booted foot, and some small packages before coming up the stairs.

.

We decided I’m come down first. On the way down I realised she needed a shoulder bag to put small bags in, and I had the very bag with me. A solution! I showed her what I had in mind and watched her easily and very adroitly balance herself upstairs.

Being a non-sewist, she had no idea how easy it was for me to make her a bag of her own… but a bit of thinking and we reasoned that a cross-body bag would be even better.

So that’s what she’s got, and it works a real treat. Mission accomplished! (Now I want one, too…. hehee! 🤣)

Over the weekend I had the urge to crochet, but I didn’t want to continue the project that’d been sitting untouched for weeks. What to do . . .

I ripped that forlorn-looking project down to zero and started over. And am happy to report it’s going great guns. At last I think I’ve found a good way to use this lovely yarn. Another little yippee!

🧶 🧶 💛 🧶 🧶

red straps

My current slow-sewing-’cause-I’m-slammed project is a cross-body bag for my upstairs neighbor. She’s on crutches & currently has another cloth bag of mine, but it’s a shoulder version and can slip, messing with balance.

I know, ’cause I sometimes have the same problem when I’m carting heavy trash downstairs in my shoulder version!

I mean, can you imagine?! Up & down two looong flights of stairs on 2 crutches. AGHHHH!!!!!!!!

Better get these attached to something… catch ya later!

Have yourselves a fantastic weekend!

rainy Mondays

Don’t know what your Monday or week look like, but mine started with loud leaf blowers. However . . .

. . . as it’s Thanksgiving on Thursday, and I decided to start a stay-cation last Friday, it wasn’t a bother.

Especially after opening the kitchen window curtain & blind to see this peeking around the corner of the building.

I managed to get a teensy bit of mending done on the weekend, which I loved getting off the corner of my sewing table, mostly because it was a whole 1″ side seam of a nicely ironed heavy linen shirt, on its’ hanger, and kept being pushed off the table. However, am in a quandary as to what to do next…

Today the weather’s rainy but warm. Tomorrow and Wednesday it’s going to be clear and very cold. Thursday’s back to warm.

Last week we had similar changes, and I pulled out my dark green fleece LB Pullover from last January (here). It was quite suitable.

3 of 4, washed (brown’s drying). The top navy (& brown) are for pants, gold & green (below gold) are for tops.

Maybe I should cut out another. I’ve got gold fleece from last winter in stash. I do keep wondering about the darker brown fleece I seem to remember thinking would be good for lounging pants of some sort.

But those won’t be very flattering, as the fleece is thick. Perhaps a long skirt would be more practical (aka, flattering). I know I probably/possibly wouldn’t wear unflattering pants. And they might be uncomfortable because there’s not much stretch in the fleece.

Maybe I’d best dig out the fleece and see if my memories are accurate. Any thoughts, Wonderful Readers & Dear Sewists?!

Meanwhile, chicken on the stove is about ready, and I think the LB pattern is somewhere in the mess that’s my cutting table. . . see top photo. 🙄

PS/ I downloaded a (Libby app) copy of The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington last night and was up until 2 reading it. The library app says I’m 9% into the book . . . It’s fact, not fiction and very interesting.

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL week, Lovelies!

(not so) Wordless Wednesday

Finished off 3 small balls of leftover yarn a few days ago, and now have a narrowish looong scarf for somebody to wind around their neck on a cold winter’s day. Below are beginning, in-the-midst-of and completed views . . .

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• 

• 

The ends are ever so slightly differing shades of a creamy washable wool bought from a friend in California who was selling out her washable wool yarns.

The middle photo shows the leftover-from-a-shawl yarn of I can’t remember what fibres 60% silk & 40% wool (from discontinued HPKY Hand Painted Knitting Yarns, Daphne colourway), that I got from Loopy Yarns, the great (now closed) yarn shop I lived dangerously close to in Chicago.

The shawl’s probably on Ravelry, draped over a creamy foot rest if I’m remembering properly (yes!)… but I also remember blogging about it, and here’s that photo!

• 

  2009-crocheted lines, patterns, textures, shape (shawl)

It seems I decided to take off the fringe and do an edging around the shawl, which I duly crocheted. (See photo below.) After all that, there was still enough yarn left to crochet the centre section of that looong scarf. Remember the looong scarf??

Shawl with edging, completed 2015

Waste not, want not . . . . . 😉

2021, continued — or, Can I stop career dressing?

Diaries by paperblanks – my latest now in use.

I knew during the 2019-2020 winter that I needed to sew up some winter clothes a basic winter wardrobe, but I had an intuition to put it on hold. (It was a short, warm winter 😉.)

After decades of dressing professionally — whatever that means — my fabric and pattern collections mirrored that style. Meanwhile, I was working from home, trying to ramp up on-line diction & coaching sessions, and living a more relaxed life style.

Last March the rest of the world reluctantly joined me.  My resistance to more casual styles started to crumble. So did everyone else’s.

By November the wonderful world of indie pattern designers were churning out more appropriate patterns, and smart U.S. fabric stores were bypassing the post office for UPS or FedEx. BUT: Would I go the PDF route?

For me, everything started to coalesce when Love to Sew aired an October podcast, Sewing Loungewear. Then Vogue Fabrics had a quick fleece sale, PDFPlotting announced a big PDF pattern printing sale, and several indie pattern companies also announced sales.

Resistance fled.

3 of 4, washed (brown’s drying). The top navy (& brown) are for pants, gold & green (below gold) are for tops.

Thus, I find myself with 4 pieces of nice, soft and cuddly fleece for pyjama-style tops & bottoms, and a couple other pieces for spring makes. Heaven knows I’ve already got enough rayon for hot weather wear.

Now I’ve gotta run . . . there’s an LB Pullover pattern needing glue stick attention, and a Talvikki, and I need to consult my jacket pdf pattern pile . . . oh, and get those muffins done for Friday’s Virtual Tea Party. You’re all invited!

See you then . . . . . I hope! 😘

 

 

☕️ 18 Sept~Time for A Virtual Tea Party !

How about next Friday, 18 September or virtually anytime?

I know this is a bit past the 15th.  😉It gives me time  to travel down under to say a quick G’day to  Su (of Zimmerbitch, in New Zealand),  and wish her well. It would be grand to meet her, and perhaps a few of her lovely tea party friends.

As these events are virtual, anyone is welcome to join in with us on the 18th, or any other day that suits. So, fancy a cuppa another day? The virtual kettle will always be on the hob, and the scones will always be fresh. 😘

Sewing — belatedly

Hem tape for the teensy hem

Finished!

Blanket binding for a soft waist band

I managed to make up a piece of quilting cotton purchased during long ago California years, which means a seriously long sojourn in stash.

With only 1 yard of 45″ rather heavy cotton, I didn’t have a clue what to do with it. But . . .

Something kept reminding me of it in June (so this is really late). It’s almost the weight of my shweshwe (see shweshwe posts of 2016  here & 2020 here).

Emboldened by all I’d seen, read, and heard during June’s virtual Sewing Weekender, I cut the piece in half and made a simple gathered skirt (sans pockets).

One of my favoured skirt lengths is about 21″ and this really came too close for comfort. So I fudged both the waist band (which I would normally turn under for a casing) and the hem.

I used cotton hem tape to extend things a bit around the bottom hem. Searching through my odds of bindings I discovered some wide santiny blanket binding. Using narrower than usual elastic, I just had room. But no pockets for this skirt.

(Ooooo . . . I just remembered where I put my rayon lining yardage, so there’s hope yet!)

I like the body of the fabric! Barely knee length, it stands away from the body as a shweshwe fabric might. By some miracle the width reacts well to the gathers of the elasticated waist so it’s cool during these humid summers.

Discovering I couldn’t get black or beigy knits for tank tops, I forgave myself and  ordered them from L.L. Bean.  I suspect mask production and slowed importing are responsible for the shortages, so I was grateful to find these!

The tanks were too long for my torso, so I immediately shortened their lengths — an easy fix. Both of them work well with this skirt and have been worn.

To illustrate why I’ve kept this cotton fabric for so long, you might should know I’ve specialised in teaching vocal technique of the classical kind for over 40 years.

Madama Butterfly

Tosca

Turandot

So you can see how close the skirt art is to the iconic Puccini poster art of yore, I’ve chosen the above three as examples. Via Amazon, here are reproductions of the originals for Madama Butterfly, Tosca, and Turandot.

Hope to see you Friday-ish!

PS/ For those of you on IG, find us at #virtualteaparty2020

PPS/Just linking the bottom half of this post with Wild Daffodil’s Textile Tuesday series. Even though I know today’s Friday. 🤣

ScrapHappy Saturday, August

Lo-o-o-ng strip of denim scraps

Another scrappy project not completed…

Added strip (colour is off – scraps are correct.

Wonder of wonders! For once I’m working with scraps and remembering to get something posted. Am joining up with Kate, Cathy, and other scrap-happy folk.

Back in June I made a pair of stretch denim shorts from leftover denim. As I started wearing them around the apartment and sitting down, I realized they were the exactly perfect length for the hem to fold up whenever I sat down.

I tried ironing. Nope. Then I remembered I still had scrappy strips of the denim in my stash drawer. He-he-hee . . .

Last month I dug said scraps out and measured them all to the same height. Then I sewed the pieces together, and added them to the bottom of the shorts.

Now they’re just above the knee, and I still have enough for a patch pocket or two. Maybe even one large enough for a phone…

Success is sweet! 🤣

silly saturday

Isn’t this wacky fabric? From auntyacid.com, have had it stashed for about 4 years. Am making a mask for a friend.

It’s been severe storm warnings this afternoon and yesterday, with morning temps into the extreme range.

Am not complaining about the storms, as they do cool us down considerably. Phew!

But one does avoid phones, and most electric appliances… Reading from a real book is definitely safe!

As promised, here’s that recipe for the chocolate cake.

Converted this to a JPG file for uploading. You should be able to download & print it.

The raisin spice cake recipe can be found here. And there’s a Wiki article here.

The original Wacky Cake recipe is here, and it’s Wiki article is here.

Happy baking, everyone! Be sure to let us know if you try these out!

textile tuesday

Joining along with Wild Daffodil, here are a couple of photos I took to remind me of this fabric.  It tends to hide away in Winter Stash and I forget it.

The nap is very irregular, unlike a velour or velvet. When light hits it, it gleams alluringly –the swirl of colours glowing with added silvery and golden light.

I’ve worn it in winter as an additional very large scarf, but it slipped and slid everywherer. Too fiddly. So I undid the couple of seams and sent it back to Winter Stash. And I forget all about it. . . .

Wish I could figure out what to do with it.

Any ideas?