Festive Finished Object!

I finished off DD's dress yesterday evening and she wore it all day today! Go me!


I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Good Yule, Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus!

When I was young I thought we were poor because, while my friends' Christmas tree had a variety of toy-like ornaments, ours was decorated (tastefully, hindsight tells me) with red and silver glass balls. Now I have the tree of my childhood dreams and I love it.



I've been quite busy sewing and crafting, with some success, but it is a little too soon to reveal much of it.

After an 8-month lapse I got back to work on my two-at-a-time toe-up magic-loop socks for DH and actually rounded the (short-row) heel on one of them. But after muscling through a bunch of mistakes I decided it was smarter to unravel back to a pre-heel row and try a second draft. Unraveling socks is harder than it looks--OK, unraveling is easy, but bringing the unraveling to an end short of the cast-on row is hard.



I'm also working on a dress for my absurdly tiny but beautiful DD, of an italian double knit (so says the FabricMart label) from McCall's 6031, which seems no longer to be available. She's humoring me but that's OK. I need more practice just following patterns. This pattern is somewhat annoying, however. It includes cheery cartoons of the designers offering very basic sewing hints but fails to illustrate or explain somewhat confusing construction details. Here is a not-very-illuminating shot of it waiting for DD to try it on.



Enjoy your holidays!

Worth Its Featherweight in Gold and Other Delusions

There's an ad running on Craigslist locally offering to sell a 1937 Featherweight for $1000! According to the ad:

Singer 221 has the distinct honor or perhaps there has never been a better sewing machine ever made than the singer 221. As Singer's finest models of sewing machines, 221 was built to last a lifetime…. It was Singer's top of the line in this class for years and one of their most expensive sewing machine.

A pretty good deal, provided the "CARRING CASE" is stuffed with hundred dollar bills.

I passed on the solid gold featherweight but bought myself a used 5'x3' cutting mat. Nice to be able to lay out more than one pattern piece before cutting and shifting the fabric! I gave it a test run cutting the Vogue 8499 Marcy Tilton pants out of purple moleskin.

I have vowed to go slow and be careful with these pants, enjoy the sewing, and avoid frustrating stupid mistakes. Hah! First, even with all my new cutting territory I somehow managed to turn pieces around so I think I've got the (very visible) nap going every which way. Design element. And piece 12 of the pattern has disappeared into thin air. I can find neither the traced version nor the original--it has simply vanished. Fortunately it is just the front facing and I can sort of figure it out, but where did it go? I used to be very good at finding things, but now it's a wonder I can even walk around without tripping over all the bits and bobs I've lost over the years. My house isn't large enough to hold all the things I can't find!

Oh well. I made a trial version of McCall's 6031 but forgot to take a picture before I mailed it to DD in Washington DC to try on for fit.
She got it! She likes it! She wants me to finish this one and make another! I'm excited to sew for someone who looks cute in clothing.

I have also been sewing.

By January 3 I had already resurrected one garment and sewn another from scratch! If only I could continue at that pace I could give Carolyn a run for the money! Well, perhaps not.

First, I made this dress last year but never wore it because the delicious slinkiness of the silk jersey clings to every bump, bulge and baloney sandwich underneath it. So shortened it to a top and cut sleeves (from Vogue 8575, my go-to pattern because I never get round to putting it away) from the excess, turning it into this.



Then, when it came time to pack for a weekend in DC to visit DD and attend a law professors' conference I discovered I had nothing warm (or clean) to wear so I made another, better iteration of Vogue 8525. This one looks exactly like the photo on the pattern envelope, since I made it out of a nice charcoal grey double knit. I wore it every day in Washington because I like it and I could wear as many layers underneath as the temperature required. I pressed DD (who was surprised to learn I had made the top! Oh, joy supreme!) into service to take a picture, but I see she doesn't really grasp the outfit photo concept, which is probably just as well.



Meanwhile the overly ambitious two-at-a-time-toe-up-magic-loop socks are proceeding apace. I'm somewhere around the instep preparing to learn how to do a heel. I didn't bother with a gauge because, well, I just didn't, and I figure the socks, if they ever materialize, will fit someone. Even if they have to be worn over shoes--they are looking pretty large.

And, finally (for now), I sat down for some serious "what happens if I do this?" time with my Brother 1034D serger, generating sample stitches, on muslin and stretch knit, carefully labeled with Differential Feed Setting, Stitch Length, Stitch Width and Needle and Looper Tension Settings, which I then tossed in a heap.



A good day.

Merry Christmas or the Holiday of Your Choice!

DD, ensnooded but faceless and unshod, by the Christmas tree.

In the Mood for Snood

With the zeal of the converted I have joined the snood worshipping society of sewing and knitting bloggers. My extended family is already adjusted to getting their Christmas gifts from me somewhere between New Years Day and never, so I'm sure they won't mind waiting for these newly knitted treasures.

First, a snood for my SIL-to-be of Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick. I used the original Guardian pattern gone viral thanks to Karen. Here I am wearing it upside-down to demonstrate its versatility.



Next, another scarfette, this one for my brother. Brother and Sister-in-Law-to-be live in a colder climate than I so no doubt they are dying for something to tie around their necks.



This one is made of some 100% cotton South American Space Dyed yarn from the sale bin at the local Stitch Cafe with nifty buttons that cost more than the yarn.



Then theres another snood just like the other snood for DD. I've redirected the green scarfette from her to my mother but I forget why--oh yes, because it was already done and I could mail it on time for Christmas, except I didn't. Also we bought DD a coat that clashes with the color of the scarfette.

Next up: I've decided to make gift bags and envelopes of all the Christmas fabric we started using last year instead of wrapping paper. And I'd like to whip up something for DS and DH for Christmas, which is still 3 days (ok, 2 days and an hour) away. Plenty of time. Too bad they don't need snoods.

Picking Up The Pace!

Yesterday I finished two! projects! TWO! Well, except for one needs buttons. Here is the finished (but for the buttons) and amateurishly blocked scarfette for DD who is facing her first winter outside California:



Now, she's only facing what passes for winter in Washington, DC, so this little scarfy thing should cover it.

Also finished is another rendition of Vogue Options 8575, this one with long set-in sleeves in some mystery jersey from Michael Levine's $1.99 table. I still haven't decided if the print is pretty or really ugly--it is certainly synthetic.



Its mission in life is to be another cycling dress. I'm getting better at this pattern--the princess seams almost meet properly at the shoulders now.



And I have the neckline almost where I want it now. However, as a result, the bodice is almost too short.

To restore balance in the universe, atilt due to my excess of FOs, I started unraveling my first knitted FO of this milennium to utilize my somewhat improved knitting skillz on this nice silk yarn.



On my monitor, the color of the ball on the seat is closer to the actual yarn than the disappearing scarf on the back of the chair.

So, go me! Of course, all this productivity is the result of procrastinating on what I'm supposed to be doing, but whatever.

Happy Thanksgiving and Oops!

I've always wondered why sometimes a new post will turn up on my blogroll and then when I go to look at it it's not there. Well, now I understand because I did it! I clicked "share" on a youtube video to post it to my other, (even) less active and far more political blog, and it turned up here. Oops. I don't think my politics are any secret--my objection to both Hilary and Barack in the last election was that they are way too conservative--but I don't mean to bother sewists and crafters with them.

So to avoid another content-free post here, I offer a current WIP pic:


I managed to get this shot without my familiar, but you can see that the cat has been busy in the background distributing a ball of yarn around the rug. The WIP is a Sulka Scarfette pattern designed by Maya that I found through Ravelry when I was looking for something to do with the 2 skeins of merino, alpaca and silk Sulka by Mirasol that fell into my basket at the yarn shop. It's a Christmas present for DD, but it's safe to post it here because no matter how many blogs I have she doesn't read them.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving in the US and happy day everywhere else!

The Long Story of a Short Skirt

Several weeks ago Elaray decided to prune her collection of Burda magazines and give away the issues from 2004 to 2005 to Burda virgins, among whom I number myself. I supplied my address and Elaray generously sent me the patterns and instructions from August 2004. Thank you very much, Elaray!



The material Elaray sent me is in English; the pic above comes from a Russian archive of back issues.

What with this and that I hadn't gotten round to trying the rather intimidating Burda experience, when DD came home from graduate school for spring break and asked me to make her something. I told her to pick something from Burda 8/04, and she chose a little double skirt. She picked out some gauzy chiffony stuff for it at JoAnne--black underskirt and sort of a marbled (or scrappled) grey, black and off-white overskirt.



The skirt turned out OK, I think, despite the two layers of gauze being less than delightful to work with. DD seemed pleased and she is very persnickety! She wanted to grab the skirt off the sewing machine and run back to school, but she agreed to pose for the historical record first:



This project included my first invisible zipper of the milennium, successfully inserted despite my efforts to follow three different sets of directions for it! What I did not succeed in doing, however, was tracing a Burda pattern, which was the point of the exercise. This instructions for this particular garment called for measuring and plotting a circle on pattern paper, but no tracing. So I guess I'm still a Burda virgin!

Oh, and on the me-made-March front, I used the fabric remaining from the overskirt (plus a mile and a half of narrow rolled serging) to make a nice scarf which I will drape around my neck when the fray-check is dry.