Colette Pastille: Bodice Muslin #3

Crappy bathroom mirror photo at 12am
Not my best look

My 2nd Pastille bodice muslin was baggy at the waist and just a little too tight in the bust.  For this muslin, I went a size smaller for the waist and did a very small FBA.  This was very successful and I now feel the front of the bodice looks and feels like a sheath dress.  I probably could have added another 1/8" to the FBA to give me a tiny bit more ease in the bust.  Because it's so hard to find ready to wear fitted tops that actually do fit me right, I mostly wear knit fabrics.  So, I am not used to the feel of a fitted garment with no "give" to the fabric and as a result, the bust feels a little bit tight.  There is no pulling of the fabric across the bust, so the fit looks very good and I don't think I'm going to change it.

Another crappy bathroom photo.  I can see some wrinkling
here, but I think that might go away with the weight of the skirt.

After sewing the muslin and trying it on, I saw the back bodice dipped way down past my waist in the middle but not the sides.  So, I unpicked the zipper and did a swayback adjustment, removing about an inch from the middle tapering to nothing at the sides.  Yes, I do baste my zipper into my muslin.  Since I'm fitting the garment on myself, it is the only way to close the back properly so that I can check the fit.  I read a tip once that said to put the opening in the front of your garment for your muslin because that makes it easier to fit things on yourself without sewing in zippers.  I can see how that would help with the back, but what if you need to make adjustments to the front?  Won't having an opening there screw with how the front fits?  Anyway, I'm finding that basting an invisible zipper into the bodice takes almost no time at all, now that I've done it several times in a row.  Funny how that works.

I took some photos in the mirror so that I could try to see how it all looks, especially the back which is difficult to see otherwise.  I do see some wrinkling, but that goes away if I pull down on the bodice,  leading me to think that the weight of the skirt may take care of that once the skirt is attached. So, I'm moving on to skirt muslin #2 before trying to make any more changes to the bodice.  I'm also worried I may end up overfitting the bodice and since it feels pretty good when I have it on, I'm not sure I want to make any more changes!

Surprised

 

In certain knitting circles, it has become a sort of rite of passage to knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket.  If you are unfamiliar with the project, you knit the sweater/jacket in one piece and all you need to do at the end is sew up the shoulders and add buttons.  The pattern sets of miters to create shaping and while you are knitting it, the sweater looks like a strange, rippled thing until you finish, fold it up et voila--a baby sweater!

EZ's hand-drawn illustration of how to fold up the
your finished knitted blob.

On the one hand, the sweater is fairly easy:  it's all garter stitch and double decreases and increases, all shaping is done on odd rows while even rows are always knit even.

But.

The directions are not like modern knitting patterns.  Elizabeth Zimmerman took it as an article of faith that knitters are clever people* and do not need their hands held during a project.  Therefore, she gives you rather minimal directions for knitting this strangely constructed baby sweater.  The Baby Surprise Jacket is one of the patterns in the book The Opinionated Knitter, which consists of a series of newsletters Zimmerman sent several times a year to subscribers and anyone who bought yarn from her.  Each newsletter appears to have been two pages (or maybe one sheet front and back) and includes the instructions for one knitting pattern plus any knitting-related news she had (new books coming out or TV shows and similar).    They look to have been typed up on an old typewriter and sometimes included her hand-drawn diagrams when necessary.  In this space she would give you a complete pattern for a fair isle sweater (including steaks), or how to make wool leggings for both babies and adults, or how to make an Aran sweater, etc.  So, you can imagine how brief the instructions must be.

Baby Surprise Jacket after knitting but before folding

For instance, for the surprise jacket, the first thing you do is start a series of double decreases at two points, creating 3 different sections of knitting.  Then, she tells you that, at 5 ridges (1 ridge = 2 rows in garter stitch) you should evenly increase by 5 stitches across each of the two end sections.  She doesn't explicitly tell you how to make the increases and she doesn't mention the middle section at all.  Do you keep doing the decreases you had been doing?  Well, yes, because she didn't say to stop the decreases and the next instruction tells you that after 22 decreases, you knit three rows even. So, obviously you must keep decreasing at the previously specified two points or you never would have that many decreases.  Oh, and she's not talking about stitches decreased, she means 22 decrease rows.  You can figure this out because you start with 160 stitches and at 22 decreases she says you have 90 stitches.

So, given the unusual style of directions, a few pointers can be helpful when you knit your first BSJ.  Here are my tips:

1. When she gives you an instruction keep doing that thing until a different instruction that is contradictory to the first.  For instance, when she tells you to do decreases at two different points, keep decreasing in addition to any new instructions until she tells you to knit even.
2. When she tells you to increase 10 stitches across the middle section, you can do this by repeating K5, m1 across that section until 6 stitches remain in that section, then knit those six stitches.
3. Don't try to understand the directions for a future section because they likely won't make sense until you are actually knitting that part.  
4. For the buttonholes, she tells you to work 5 buttonholes evenly spaces across the end sections.  To accomplish that:  k3, (yo, k2tog, k8) four times, yo, k2together, k2, then continue in pattern.
5. In order to have the buttons correctly placed for the gender of the baby (the convention is for buttons to be on the left for boys and the right for girls), EZ suggests you make buttonholes on both sides, then, when you find out if the baby is a boy or a girl, sew the buttons on the appropriate side, right over the buttonholes that you don't need.  This is a great idea if, 1. you actually care about that sort of thing and 2. the parents of the baby care about that sort of thing and are waiting to find out the gender of the baby at the birth**. I don't know many people who actually know what the convention is, so I decided it wasn't important enough to me to worry about it and just did buttonholes on one side.

Pattern:  Baby Surprise Jacket, from The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Yarn:  Cotton-ease by Lion Brand

Needles:  US size 4

Buttons:  from Joanns

Size:  6-9 months maybe?

Notes:  I crocheted together the top seam rather than sewing it.  The fabric was a little dense, next time I would use larger needles for that yarn (gauge was around 5 st/in).  

*And we are clever!

**I've known a couple of parents like this, they said they wanted to be surprised.  As if the act of giving birth wasn't exciting enough in its own right.  Personally, I was of the opinion that the birth was the last place I wanted to be surprised since "surprise" usually translates into "complication."

Sidetracked: A top for Cate

After modifying the paper pattern following my second muslin of the Pastille I decided I needed a break from all of this fitting business.  So, I decided to make something for my 3 year old, Cate, who is basically a straight cylinder.  Fitting her is mostly a matter of cutting out the correct size.  To make it even easier, I decided to make an A-line top, which meant that, as long as it fit around her chest, it was going to be fine.

Before Easter, I bought the book Sew Classic Clothes for Girls by Lindsay Wilkes of The Cottage Mama.  I had planned to make Cate's Easter dress from one of the patterns but was saved from the madness that grips me every Easter to make a fancy dress in 24 hours by the appearance of another special dress (stay tuned for a future post on this topic).  So, this top was my first project from the book.


The A-line top/dress pattern has an appliqued bib on the top and a round collar on the dress, although of course, those are interchangeable.  It's fully lined which I wasn't sure was necessary but decided to do it anyway.  *cue portentious music*  It's a pretty simple pattern so I thought I could make it in a couple of hours.  Boy was I wrong.  It was entirely my fault, however, because I kept going off on my own when attaching the lining rather than following the directions, thus leading to much wailing and gnashing of teeth when I found I couldn't turn the garment right side out through the opening I had left no matter how hard I tried.  So, when I got around to reading the directions, it was late, I was tired and frustrated, and I couldn't understand what the heck I was supposed to do.  I made the further mistake of attempting to picking it back up again while Cate was awake and asking me approximately 5,968 questions about what I was doing while trying to read the instructions.

I eventually figured it all out, but I do believe next time I will be doing a bias tape facing on the neckline and armholes!  For what it's worth, I do think there were a few steps that could have used more photos to illustrate the instructions in order to make it all easier to understand if you've never tried to line a dress before.  It made me wonder if all of her pattern testers were quite experienced sewists.  I would call myself an advanced beginner, but I'm no dummy and can usually follow a set of directions!

All of the materials for this top came from my stash.  I forget the provenance of yellow lining/bib fabric, a quilting cotton that was a remnant from making Cate's first Easter/Baptism dress.  The fashion fabric is a Kauffman print on quilting cotton that I purchased 4 or 5 years ago.  I haven't been able to find it online.  The ric-rac and pre-ruffled eyelet came from Joanns as well as the flower button and appliques on the bib.  The button for the back closure is from my button tin collection.  The ruffled eyelet was a last-minute addition when I had her try it on before I hemmed it and decided I wanted it a bit longer.  It's a little big in the neck and armholes but that means she will be able to wear it over a t-shirt through the fall and winter and under a sweater in the spring and hopefully by itself next summer, especially since I added the ruffle for length.  If I'm going to go through the trouble of sewing clothes for a child, I want the clothes to be wearable for as long as possible!

I could see using this pattern for a corduroy dress/jumper for the fall/winter, too.  I'd like to make more summery tops with this pattern as well, but first I'm going to make one or more pairs of the ruffled capris (sans ruffle) since that is what she needs most at the moment.

ETA:  I was originally going to include a review of the book Sew Classic Clothes for Girls in this post, so I included "+ Book Review" in the title, but then decided it made the post too long, so I removed the review bits but forgot to change the title until after I published the post.  Oops.  Book review to come after I finish making the capris.

Colete Pastille Muslin #2: So Much Better

I'm really glad I decided to cut a second muslin than attempt to fix my first sad muslin.  I did my measurements, made my changes to the paper pattern, cut and sewed the bodice and lo and behold and possibly verily, the fit was so much better it was hard to believe it was the same pattern!

Emboldened, I embarked on the skirt portion where I immediately ran into trouble.  Even armed with measurements, it was difficult to decide which size to cut.  I think this was partially a function of inexperience and not knowing how much ease I actually want in a garment.  But, I do think the pattern drafting is not totally blameless.  The ease in the pattern is 1.5 inches for the bust, 1 inch for the waist, and a bewildering 5 inches for the hip.  However, this is supposed to be a fitted sheath dress and in the book, Sarai says that "for a very close fitting garment, this might be 2" in the bust, 1/2" in the waist and 2" at the hips" (1).  And, looking at the picture of the model, I would guess that's about how much ease there is in the version of the dress she is wearing.

For myself, I compared my measurements with the finished garment measurements and then made sure I had the amount of ease the pattern called for.  As a result, I have an enormous skirt which I have taken in on the sides a lot.  A lot, a lot.  The middle back of the skirt was a hot mess until I did a swayback adjustment which made things somewhat better.  I'm tempted to keep messing with the skirt part of the muslin, but knowing how much better everything became for the bodice just from cutting a smaller size, I think I will recut the skirt in a smaller size and see how that looks before trying to make more changes.

The bodice still isn't perfect.  While the smaller size is definitely better, it's a little too tight in the bust (but not elsewhere), so I think I will need to do a very small full bust adjustment to get the fit right there.  I also still need to shave a little off of the side seams at the waist.  Finally, attaching the skirt made the back middle of the bodice droop (but not the sides) leading me to think I may need to do a swayback adjustment, but I might wait on that until I try a smaller size skirt to see if that makes a difference in the amount of length I want to remove in the swayback adjustment.

(1) Colette Sewing Handbook, p. 64

Rainbow Baby Blanket

Last January, a new little nephew showed up and it is my intention that all new members of the family receive a handmade item from me.*  Since he was arriving in January in Iowa and would be living in an old farmhouse about a half-mile outside of town, I decided whatever I made would need to be very warm.  Enter the Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket (ravelry link), made in Cascade 128 superwash.  It's been awhile since I crocheted a blanket, but the pattern was easy and uses double crochet which is what my fingers naturally want to make whenever I crochet for some reason.  

My ripple blanket, often
co-opted by Cate or the cat.

The Ripple blanket is an old crocheted blanket standby, and always reminds me of the 1970s.  My mom loves making them and I think we all have one.  She's never made a circular one, though, so I wasn't too worried the new baby would end up with two of the same blanket (quelle horreur!)  The original pattern called for Borocco Comfort in pastel colors which I substituted for Cascade 128 superwash in bright rainbow colors because wool is warmer than cotton/acrylic and I prefer bright colors for babies.**  I ran into a problem when I couldn't find an orange that I liked and so went with variegated red/orange/yellow instead.  I then added the variegated green because I thought it might look odd with just one variegated yarn.  The Cascade 128 was lovely to work with--a nice squishy yarn that made for a very snuggle-worthy blanket.  Cascade calls it a bulky-weight yarn but I think it's more of a heavy worsted or aran-weight (I also think their worsted is more of a dk weight).  The middle three colors on the blanket are all 1 skein each and the rest are 1.5-2 skeins.  I basically stopped when the blanket seemed "big enough" and got sick of double crochet.  It's a little less than the width of a queen size bed in diameter (which is 60 inches wide).

 Specs:

Pattern:  Rainbow Ripple Blanket; instructions were quite easy and I memorized the pattern quickly
Yarn:  Cascade 128; squishy and cuddly-soft
Hook size:  H
Made for:  nephew
Find it on Ravelry: here

The new parents were most appreciative of the blanket and have decided to give it a place of honor on the back of the living room recliner during he warmer months.  

*Unfortunately, sometimes intentions are all the little one gets because life gets in the way of knitting/crocheting/sewing and by the time I finish, the baby is starting kindergarten.

** And, it's called the Rainbow ripple blanket and who ever heard of a powder blue, pink, mint green, and pale yellow rainbow?

Colette Pastille First Muslin

Mmmm....pastilles.
[source]

Now that we are in spring, I have been feeling more inclined to sew.  Fall and winter are for knitting, spring and summer are for sewing.  I made a denim Miette (from Tilly and the Buttons; more on that later) and now I am working on the Pastille dress from the Colette Sewing Handbook*.  I just finished my first muslin and it is the epitome of why you should start with a muslin:  it looks terrible.  Baggy, the waistline is wrong, I may have cut out the wrong size bodice and the hips look funky.  It is so fugly, I was tempted to abandon the idea of making the Pastille altogether.  Half an hour later, though, I remembered why I started sewing this dress in the first place, even though I really have little need for a sheath dress:  I need to practice sewing.

I'm a firm believer in developing new skills and common sense says that the only way to get any better at them is to practice.  With every other skill I've cultivated, I have understood that I will need to practice before I will be any good at it, but with sewing, however, common sense seems to fly out the window.  I want to be good at it right now and if I'm not, I don't want to do it.  I've been trying to figure out why I'm so resistant to the idea that I will need to make an unspecified and probably rather large number of terrible garments before I will be able to make lovely ones and I think I've come up with a couple of reasons.

1.  Fabric isn't cheap and making a garment that goes straight into the trash feels like throwing away money.  I know some people obtain cheap fabric by buying old sheets or fabric at flea markets, yard sales, and second hand stores and all I can think is:  those people must have more time than I do.  I have yet to find old sheets at the goodwill near me, much less fabric yardage and so would need to visit several of these stores many times in order to get the cheap fabric and frankly, it's hard enough for me to find time to do laundry frequently enough to keep my family of three people in clean clothes.

2.  The only way to know if I have been successful in my sewing is to try the garment on.  This involves a whole lot of time looking at myself wearing something awful.  It's like going jeans shopping with the added downer that it is my fault the garment doesn't fit.  A dress form would likely help, but I can't afford one at the moment and I live in a very small apartment.  I think I might have to throw out the vacuum cleaner in order to have space in the closet for a dress form and since we have wall-to-wall carpeting and a toddler, that would not be a good idea.  Leaving a dress form out all the time is not an option, even if I could find a spot where we weren't tripping over it (see also:  destructive habits of a three year old).

The awkward moment when a friend's mom says make yourself at home so you pee on their couch
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) March 23, 2015

If only I had a set of disembodied
hands to help me with fitting.

So, the only way to get better at sewing is to spend money and put on clothes that make me look like I'm wearing a sack.  Oh, and become a contortionist in order to do things like "pinch out fullness" on my muslin while I'm wearing it (I'm looking at you, swayback adjustment).  Recently, I've decided that I'm just going to have to suck it up, swallow my pride, and just make a bunch of ugly, ill-fitting garments so that I can one day make beautiful, well-fitting clothes that I love.  To that end, I decided to start working my way through the patterns I already own using the fabric I already own.  I'm fairly good at making an A-line skirt and a Renfrew-style t-shirt, so now it's time to work on woven dresses and tops.  Once I feel pretty confident about those, I might even start working on making that most dreaded of all garments, the Waterloo of home sewists everywhere:  pants.**

Before tracing the pattern for the Pastille dress, I took my measurements, added a little ease, and compared the end result to the finished measurements of the dress and chose what size(s) to trace.  Based on measurements, it seemed like I needed one size for the upper body and then grade out to a larger size for the waist.  Trying on the muslin, my waist looks rather baggy and sad, so clearly I added too much to the waist.  Also, the front waistline of the bodice was about an inch above my actual natural waist and the back waistline appeared to be nearly two inches below my natural waist.  After doing some Google searches on the Pastille dress, I found that many people have also had too much length in the back of their muslin and one or two have also had the front of the bodice be too short at the same time.

So, my current plan is to throw out my first muslin and start the second one by first tracing a smaller size bodice.  Then, I'm going to actually measure my torso from my shoulder to my waistline going through my bust apex and measure paper pattern at the same point (something I should have done in the beginning) and add length to the bodice front pattern piece.  For the back, I'm going to attempt to get my husband to measure my back length.*** Then, I'll again measure the paper pattern piece and shorten it accordingly.  For now, I'm not going to mess with the skirt, just fit the bodice. Once I have a nice fitting bodice, I'll work on the skirt which I anticipate will need a swayback adjustment.

Onward!

*Funny story:  my copy is signed twice!  I bought it from the Colette website so it came to me signed and then I got a chance to meet Sarai at a book signing/meetup in Oakland and she signed it for me in person

**And by pants I mean trousers, not underwear, although I've got a bunch of old t-shirts sitting in a pile, waiting for me to make underwear out of them

**As a scientist, you would think something as simple as taking a tape measure and determining the length of an object would be relatively easy for him, but as soon as you make that object a living thing, he gets confused (to be fair, he's a physicist, not a biologist, so living things confuse him--think of him as a cross between Sheldon and Leonard from Big Bang Theory).

Unfortunately, it never occurs to me to write a blog post these days.  That is, I think, "Wow, I haven't written a post in a long time," often enough but that thought is never followed with, "I think I'll write an update right now."  It's far easier to spend my time wandering around pinterest or looking at other blogs!

So, what have I been up to?

I made knitting needle cases for a swap on swap-bot.  My partner was a mortician and interested in death culture, so I found some fabric with skulls and skeletons to use.

There was Christmas, which I mentioned in my last post.

There was Easter for which I made a dress for Cate (finishing around 3AM Easter morning).

We went to Boston to see J's parents and to leave C with them while we went to...

France! 

A child-free vacation, our first since Cate was born 2.5 years ago.

Then, we went to Iowa to help my family get my grandmother's house ready to sell (Grandma moved to assisted living).

So, not a lot of time for sewing recently and I rarely feel like knitting during the summer.  

Instead of playing with yarn and cloth, I've become more interested in writing letters, mail art, and sending unusual objects in the mail.  Did you know that you can put anything that weighs 13 oz or less in the mail as is and as long as it has proper postage, the USPS will deliver it?  Recently, I sent this pineapple cup as is--straw, leaves, and all--through the mail.  Inside I put a plastic flower lei.  Both cup and lei were from the dollar store.  All arrived safe and sound at their destination.  :)  I haven't decided what my next shipping experiment will be.

So far, my attempts at mail art include making envelopes from old calendars and children's workbooks from the dollar store and decorating envelopes with washi tape, stamps, markers, stickers, and whatever other embellishments I can find.  It's been fun to play with scissors, paper, and glue again.

Finally, I made my first two Artist Trading Cards for a swap on swap-bot.com to be mailed tomorrow.  I'm a little nervous because I do not especially consider myself an artist, per se, but I hope my partner will like my efforts.

Merry Christmas!

Our tree

Lorenzo's new favorite spot

Handmade ornament for Cate

Christmas in California!

Happy Holidays to all!

Reflections on being a beginning sewist, indie pattern companies, and product support

Life got in the way a little and prevented me from moving forward on the Red Velvet Sewalong for awhile, but I'm happy to say I've completed through Day 5--Hooray!  This means I've:

Hey, I figured out how to do a three stitch zig-zag!

• done the Deep Bust Adjustment and added longer sleeves to the bodice
• cut out my fabric
• stabilized and sewed my shoulder seams
• attached the facing and topstitched it to the bodice

I wasn't totally happy with my topstitching, at first, and was considering ripping it out, but then I looked at it again the next day and decided it was fine.  The fabric crept a little on the top as I was stitching, which made it look a little skewed.  But, then I decided it didn't look bad (and certainly not bad enough to keep me from wearing it), so I decided to move on.  In the videos accompanying the sewalong, Steph shows how she uses steam a seam on that part which I'm sure keeps the fabric from creeping.  I didn't have any, so I didn't do that step.  Next time, I will (I haven't even finished this dress and I'm already planning another one!).

My mom was visiting last week and I showed her the pattern and we talked about the price difference between indie patterns and buying a Big 4 pattern from Joann's.  It's true that indie patterns are much more expensive than what you would pay for, say, a Simplicity dress pattern.  I like supporting small businesses (especially those owned by women), and I recognize that a higher price is something that goes along with buying from a small business.  Not everyone has an interest in going out of their way to support small businesses, though, and some prefer to save money on buying their patterns and spend it on more expensive fabric instead and I can appreciate that point of view.

BUT.

You are never, ever going to get the sort of product support on a Big 4 pattern that you can get on an indie pattern in general and on the Cake patterns in particular.  Never.  Maybe, if you are an experienced sewist, that doesn't make much of a difference to you, but if you are a beginner, well, the videos accompanying the sewalong are worth the price of the pattern all by themselves.  And, on top of that, you can upload images of your project to the flickr Sewalong group and if you are having a problem, the designer herself will help you sort it out.  Frankly, this is pure gold, and this is what my mother and I ended up talking about.

I am quite lucky in that:  1) my mother is quite good at sewing, and 2) when I decided to learn to sew and bought a machine, my mother helped me make a dress from start to finish.  This meant that I learned a whole bunch of very basic things right at the very beginning and had enough confidence (and knowledge) to make a few skirts and kid's clothes on my own.  I'm also unlucky in that my mother lives half a continent away and so, after that initial lesson, I was mostly on my own.  That's where the product support, sewalongs, etc. come in.  

I know I'm not alone in this.  There's a large number of beginning sewists who have nobody nearby to help them learn to sew and improve their sewing.  Maybe they don't live near family or if they do, nobody in their family sews.  The online sewing community has been instrumental in helping people in those circumstances, and sewalongs (led by the pattern designer or another experienced sewist) are invaluable.  I'm very grateful that they exist and I hope to join more sewalongs in the future!

RV Sewalong--Getting ready

Hot Date

 

In preparation for the sewalong, I took my measurements and then roughly cut out the pattern pieces I'm going to be using from the pattern paper and ironed them.  It appears as though I will need to do a Deep Bust Alteration since there is 3 5/8 inches of difference between my bodice length and the pattern piece length!

Tomorrow, I plan on tracing the pattern pieces in addition to whatever we need to do for the sewalong.

Sewing Along

I've signed up for the Red Velvet Sewalong!

 

Cake patterns is hosting a sewalong for the new Red Velvet pattern.  They've divided everyone into three houses (I'm in Esme) based on the names of the models on the pattern envelope.  There's a points system and a prize and a Flikr group and all sorts of stuff.

This is the first pattern sewalong I've done and I'm super excited about it.  I'm hoping that the 30 minutes a day of sewing during the sewalong turns into 30 minutes a day of sewing after the sewalong, too.  The sewalong will give me some accountability in that you get points by showing progress pix and for finishing an object (a Red Velvet dress or clutch or Espresso leggings).  This is going to be a good time to start the sewalong, too.  My husband, John, will be home on the 11th for Veteran's day so I'll be able to work on some of the Espresso leggings before the actual sewing starts for the Red Velvet dress (Day 1 is getting all of your materials together and choosing size and fabric).  On Sat., the 16th, John will be leaving town and my mom will be flying in.  Mom sewed many of my clothes when I was little so it will be great having another sewist around during the sewalong--she can help me figure things out if I get stuck.  :)

Ginger #2

 I finished my second Ginger skirt.

Pattern:  Ginger from Colette
Fabric:  Cotton stretch sateen from Joann's
Notions:  1 invisible zipper and a grossgrain ribbon for trim at the bottom
Modifications:  Used a contour waistband pattern piece I made for my first Ginger, raised the hem a few inches, and added some ribbon as trim.

Actually, I finished it quite some time ago.  I was going to add some ribbon to the waistband and it's been hanging in my closet with the ribbon pinned to it.  Sunday morning, I was desperate for some clean clothes so I pulled all of the pins out and put it on.  Perhaps I'll add the ribbon sometime in the future.

Part of the reason this skirt has been hanging in my closet without being either finished or worn is that it didn't fit right.  I gained weight in between making my first Ginger and the second and so the waistband was too tight to wear a little below my natural waist like I wanted, instead it sat at my waist.  And, because I raised the hem, it was too short when it was sitting at my natural waist.  So, it sat in my closet, waiting for me to either take out the hem and lengthen it or give it away.

My experience with this skirt is one of the things that prompted me to start exercising and start eating better. It wasn't a long time between the time I finished my first Ginger and my second and yet I had still gained enough weight in that time for the skirt to not fit right (the 1st Ginger was longer so even though it sat higher on my waist that I would have liked, it didn't seem too short).  I've been steadily gaining around 5 lbs a year for the past 10 years.  This is not something I wanted to continue!  So, I've been eating twice as many fruits and veggies as I had been, drinking three times as much water (seriously, I was terribly dehydrated before!), and watching my portion sizes.  Now this skirt fits like I want it to!

Obligatory self-portrait in the mirror

Question:  does modeling your finished projects ever get any easier, or does it always feel awkward?  I always feel like a bit of a dork having my husband take random photos of me.  I'm not a center of attention kind of person.  I've heard having a tripod and a remote helps but I only have a point and shoot camera.  I can get a tripod for it, but not a remote, and the timer gets old real fast.  Any suggestions?

Tuxedo kitty!

 

I wrote a nice long post about finishing up Cate's costume, but blogger ate it.  I don't have the heart to write it all out again right now, but I wanted to show you the pix from Halloween.

 

More details soon!

Getting down to the wire

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Well, I got the t-shirt cut out last night, so I'm sewing it tonight.  I confess to doing a few things that I would normally consider rather shoddy practice in order to have it done in time.  First, I didn't pre-wash the fabric.  I realize that I run the risk that it will shrink in the wash but, really, at this point I don't much care if she is able to wear it past Halloween.  Second, there are a few things I would probably rip out and do over if I wasn't on a deadline.  There are a couple of little unintentional tucks in the tops of the sleeves which I would normally try to eliminate by ripping out that small area and redoing the stitching there.  I did some top-stitching around the collar to help hold down the seam allowance on the neck band and it is quite visibly uneven in one particular spot (because I used black thread all the way around the neck, even on the white fabric of the front).  I haven't finished the side seams or done the hem yet, but I will also likely not be too fussed if they turn out less than A quality work.

So, here's an update on the costume:

• Collar:  Not started
• Tail: needs to be sewn to an elastic band
• Shirt:  needs side seams and hem sewn
• Ears:  complete
• Leggings:  purchased
• Make up:  need to buy black eyeliner to draw a few whiskers and give her a little black nose

I guess I had better get back to work!

Best laid plans and all that

Old Plan

Saturday evening, armed with my shopping list and a coupon, I ventured over to Joann's to purchase the things I needed for Cate's costume.

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I should have stayed home.

Apparently, on top of not being the only person who suddenly realized Halloween was less than a week away, there was a one day sale going on.  The place looked like some sort of bomb went off.  Fabric bolts were strewn everywhere--on top of other bolts, in random aisles, and even on the floor.  The pile of bolts behind the cutting countered looked as if no one had been reshelving fabric the entire day.  The line to the cutting counter was long, there was a good 15 to 20 minutes between when you took a number and when they called your number.  Check-out was also a lengthy process.  Pro-managerial tip:  if you have a sale the weekend before one of the busiest sewing holidays of the year, try to have more than three employees working.  The same person who cut my fabric also rang up my purchases at the front.  I think she was moving back and forth between the two as each line started to get out of control.

Artist's rendition of my face after
shopping at Joann's on Saturday.
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Several items I went there to buy were not available.  First, the McCall's pattern I wanted to use to make the black and white t-shirt was not there.  Possibly not surprising since McCall's patterns were on sale for 99¢.  Second, I couldn't find any simple black interlock or jersey fabric.  There was black performance knits and dancewear knits and special occasion knits with glitter, but no plain old block cotton for making a simple t-shirt and leggings.  Fortunately, the one mission-critical item I needed--fuzzy black trim for making the kitty tail--was in stock.  I was also able to get white interlock fabric and silver ribbon to make her collar.

I ventured back on Monday, armed with a second coupon, and fortunately found a bolt of black cotton interlock.  I spent a good deal of time locating two different patterns that I would be okay buying (since the McCall's pattern was still out) which was fortunate since only one of them was available (a Burda pattern, the number was in the 9800s and the store didn't have any Burda patterns past 9550).  When I and another frustrated shopper asked about the missing patterns (she was also in a situation where the pattern numbers didn't reach as high as the pattern she wanted to get), an employee pointed us to a cart piled high with boxes of patterns and said we were welcomed to look through them.

New Plan

Halloween is now in two days and I have the following done:  the tail.  I worked on ears last night but was having difficulty with the crazy fuzzy trim and, in any case, my prototype ear is far too large for Cate (she would look more like a rabbit).

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• Tonight:  Make the ears the ears, and, if there's time, I will cut out the t-shirt pattern (oddly enough, one isn't able to just stop making supper and taking care of a two year old in order to make said two year old's Halloween costume).  
• Wed.:  Sew up the t-shirt if I was able to cut it out the night before.  Buy:  1 pair of black leggings, and, a black t-shirt if no time to make the t-shirt from scratch. (I'll sew a large oval of the white knit fabric onto the front of the t-shirt so she can still be a black and white cat.  Or, maybe glue it on if I'm really pressed for time!)
• Thurs.:  Halloween!  Take a billion pictures, trick or treat at a couple houses, go to the party the apt. complex is having, and then collapse on the bed.

Halloween is less than a week away!

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I just realized that Halloween is just around the corner and I have yet to start Cate's costume!  Nothing I've planned is difficult to make, but I have so little time for sewing on a day to day basis.  Here's my plan of action:

Today (Sat.):  Go to Joann's, buy materials and craft supplies and get the fabric washed.

Sunday:  Make the tail and ears.  These are the most critical parts and I can't buy the kind of tail I want.  I'm using this tutorial to make the tail and the ears (the tutu is adorable, but it doesn't exactly go with the theme of being our tuxedo kitty).

Monday:  Trace t-shirt and leggings patterns and cut out fabric.  I'll be using the plain t-shirt (no peplum) and leggings from McCalls M6780.

Tuesday:  Sew up the t-shirt, check fit.

Wednesday:  Sew up leggings, check fit.

Thursday:  Halloween!

[Edit:  I originally wrote that Friday was Halloween, but after posting, I was talking to my DH and realized that Thursday is Halloween!  It's even sooner than I thought!]

Next Project!

It's getting to be that time.  A time that strikes fear in the heart of every new parent causing them to lay awake at night wondering how they will get through it.  A time of joy and tears, a time of wonderful success followed by heartbreaking set-backs followed by cautious optimism.  A time of fantastic highs leading to cheering and dancing and rejoicing and terrifying lows leading to sobbing and moments of quiet desperation when you consider that maybe, just maybe, you are the one parent who will fail.

Yes, I'm talking about potty training.

There is an overwhelming amount of advice in the forms of books, articles, blog posts, and the sage advice of the people you meet on the street or in the store as you purchase training pants or well-meaning friends and family.  There are theories, techniques, studies, and opinions.  Helpfully, they all contradict each other.

And the potties, Good Lord, the potties!  They range from a simple piece of molded plastic to having lids, deodorizers, and a spot for putting a box of super special toilet paper/flushable wipes made just for the whole potty training experience.

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One thing that does seem clear is that Cate will need some sort of training pants.  Having used cloth diapers (and some disposable compostable diapers), we are reluctant to go out and buy a box of BigBrand Pull-ups.  Therefore, we are looking at cloth training pants.  I hate those plastic pants that have traditionally been put over training pants, so I'm looking at some alternatives.  One of those alternatives are these modified training pants.  Instead of using a plastic cover, this mom sewed a panel of PUL fabric onto the outside of the store-bought training pants.  PUL is a waterproof fabric often used to make cloth diaper covers.  In theory, I could just use one of the PUL cloth diaper covers I already have to cover the training pants, but the ones I have are designed like a diaper, that is to say it is flat and you bring the front up and the sides around and that's held in place by velcro (I have these in various shades).  However, I would like something that Cate can put on and take off herself.  Wool diaper covers (like the one that I have that is almost finished, and she probably will wear that one) would also work, but she's grown out of the ones I have made and borrowed and I'm not sure I want/have time to make a bunch more in her size.

Fortunately, Joann's sells PUL so I just need to make a trip over there and buy a half yard of it or so and get busy with the sewing machine.  I may make a couple of PUL pants that would entirely cover the training pants, too, to use until she starts to get the hang of things because I'm thinking that the PUL panel is not going to be sufficient in the event of a big accident.

I'm not sure when we're going to start on this little experiment.  We already have both a potty and seat that sits on the toilet that she can use and she likes to sit on both of these and has even peed while sitting on them a couple of times.  So, I suppose you could say we've already started, in a way, with a very gradual approach.  But, I think we need to start ramping up and we'll probably do that sometime soon.  Wish us luck!

What's on my sewing table (or would be, if I had time to sew)

Finding time to sew is challenging these days.  There's the whole toddler in the house thing and on top of that, I seem to have some difficulty keeping my sewing area clear of crap junk important things for which I have yet to find a suitable home.  I have also embarked on a quest to eat healthier and exercise more which is leading to some weight loss, and probably will continue to do so for awhile, thus making garment sewing for myself a little complicated (my measurements seem to be changing from week to week).  So, what's a sewist to do?

Sew Kid's Clothes

Cate's Halloween costume
inspiration. Perhaps the kitty
should dress up as Cate?

Cate has outgrown her Big Butt Baby Pants and will be needing some new pairs for the fall/winter.  Also, I've got some cute corduroy I've been dying to make into a dress for her since before she was born.  Then there's that pesky Halloween holiday coming up.  I think we're going to go simple this year and she will be a cat.  Our cat, to be specific.  He's a tuxedo kitty, so I want to make her a t-shirt that has black sleeves and a black back but a white front.  That, plus some black leggings, white socks and shoes, a tail, some ears and a silver collar (which is what our kitty wears), oh and some whiskers drawn on her face, should be sufficient.  Our cat is an indoor/outdoor kitty and very friendly with our neighbors in the apt. complex, so I think they will get a kick out of it.  I'll have to try to get a picture of the both of them together.

Sew Knits
Knits are famously forgiving and you can wear a slightly oversized t-shirt and not have it look really wrong.  So, I will be making a couple more Renfrews.  I also recently bought a Tiramisu dress pattern and then realized I probably should have bought a Red Velvet dress pattern since that's the sewalong that's coming up.  Hmmm...maybe I better go back to the Cake website.  The Tiramisu is assembled flat with the side seams sewed up at the very end.  That's great because I think it will make it easier to fine tune the fit and take it in as needed.  I also bought a pattern for the Espresso leggings.  I wear a lot of leggings and tights in the winter here.  It gets chilly here in the winter and the builders in this area don't know how to insulate properly so it also gets cold in the apt. because I refuse to turn the heat on during the day when it's 55 degrees outside (and, consequently, not much warmer inside).  So, leggings and tights are a must with skirts.

Sew a Wrap Skirt
I was thinking that a wrap skirt would be useful as I can tie it more tightly or loosely or whatever depending on my fluctuating waistline (hopefully my waistline will continue decreasing, but I do get bloated every now and again, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about).  I love the look of the Miette skirt by Tilly of Tilly and the Buttons and the Great British Sewing Bee fame.  The largest size is still slightly too small for my current waistline.  I'm trying to decide between just going ahead and making and wearing the largest size now on the basis that my waist size is only off by a couple of inches and there is plenty of coverage in the overlap in the back so it's okay if it overlaps a bit less (the side seams would be slightly off, but hopefully not for long).  Or, maybe I'll wait awhile and make it when I start to fall into the size range of the pattern.

Sew Craft Projects
I'm currently in a swap for handmade knitting needle/crochet hook holder/wrap/thing so I need to get busy making that.  I do have some time because it's not due until sometime in Nov. but if I get involved in the Red Velvet sewalong I don't want something else due at the same time as the sewalong and needing my attention.

UnFinished Objects

Life has been pretty busy around here, but not necessarily in the knitting and sewing departments.  I don't think I've completed anything for several months, now!  I have a bunch of UFOs laying around, however.

UFO 1:  Cate's Easter Sweater

That's this past Easter, not Easter 2014.  It's a pretty little thing made using Rowan Calmer, a lovely cotton/acrylic blend that is sadly discontinued.  I missed my Easter deadline, but continued to work on it thinking it would be a nice summer sweater (light sweaters are a necessity in the SF Bay Area).  Unfortunately, Cate grew faster than I knit and I started to realize that, once complete, the sweater would not fit her.  :(  However, she has a cousin, Elena, who will be turning 1 at the end of Nov.  Elena lives in Atlanta, so a lightweight sweater would be perfect for her.  The knitting is done, I just need to block it, sew the side and arm seams, and add buttons.

UFO 2: My Turquoise Shrug

When I realized Cate's sweater wouldn't fit her, I put it down and started crocheting a shrug out of Rowan Calmer in a very pretty shade of turquoise (back when Calmer was discontinued, a local yarn store put their remaining stock on steep discount and I snatched up a bunch of it).  The shrug pattern I"m using is very simple; you crochet a large rectangle, fold it in half lengthwise, then sew a short seam on each end of the long open side.  This makes a nice, short-sleeved shrug.  I would like one that's around 3/4 sleeve, though, so I'm making a much longer rectangle.  After doing the seaming, I plan on picking up and knitting some ribbing around each opening to give it a bit more shaping.  I've been working on this one here and there, but crocheting hurts my wrist so I've had to take a break.

UFO 3:  Mom's 2012/2013 Christmas Socks

Every year, I make my mom socks for Christmas.  That is, every year except last year.  I started this pair of socks, but, between having a toddler and using my knitting time to make things for that toddler, I barely got them started.  I am using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Byrne (I think, I lost the ball band and the colorway doesn't look exactly the same on the website, but it's close) and the Spring Forward pattern from Knitty Summer 2008.  I now have the foot and part of the leg done on one of them.  Maybe they'll be done by Christmas this year, or maybe they will turn into 2012/2013/2014 Christmas Socks!

UFO 4:  Purple Woolies

I knit a wool diaper cover for Cate using Malabrigo yarn and the Sheepy Pants (Ravely link) pattern.  Before adding elastic to the waistband, I tried them on her and they were enormous and I was thinking I was going to actually have to cut off a large portion of the top so that the crotch wouldn't be hanging down to her knees, so I set them aside.  That was several months ago.  Now, they are still too big, but not as bad as before and I simply turned under about two inches at the top instead of the one inch that I originally intended.  I've almost finished sewing down the waistband after which I will add the elastic, sew the waistband closed, lanolinize them, and they will be good to go!

No sewing UFOs right now, sewing's a lot harder to accomplish since I can't take it with me to the park or doctor's appointments (though I've actually considered starting to sew garments by hand simply because it seems like it would be easier than trying to find time to clear off my desk and sit down at the machine!).