Imbolc Randomness

Some random thoughts on this Groundhog Day/Candlemas/Imbolc/Brighid’s Day or the day after.

• First of all, congratulations to Amity and Nhi on the launch of their new pattern line Lolita Patterns! Their first pattern, a darling skirt with scalloped hem in sizes 0 to 26 (Yay!) called Fuschia will be available February 6 and it's FREE! So rush on over there and take advantage of these two crazy couturieuses before they come to their senses and start charging for their work!
  
  
• A couple of weeks ago at Goodwill I saw a mother trying to rein in her over-excited 4(?)-year-old. She kept calling his name and he kept bellowing "Attitude! Attitude!" Indeed.
  
  
• Rather than change the thread in my machines I made myself another Vogue 8618 using what was left of the fabric for DD's Christmas dress.
  
  
  
  This comfy item is now in such heavy rotation in my wardrobe that I had to pull it out of the laundry for this picture (hence the wrinkles).
  
  
• Here are two patches I embroidered after figuring out how to spell the recipients' names in Arabic. Allah bless the internet! I did some of the design with a Frixion pen, which vanishes when ironed. However, apparently the marks reappear when the item gets cold and you can see some scribbles on the patch on the left. Just another reason to pay the big bucks to live in Southern California, I guess.
  
  
• Traveling further back in time, I was inspired by an early December post by Shams to make myself a coccoon sweater, so I ran one up that very same day and spent much of the holidays wrapped in it.
  
  
• I have been reading and enjoying--admiring, really--everyone's wrap-up of 2012 and thoughts or resewlutions for 2013. I love being included a little bit in so many different interesting, challenging, amusing and productive lives. As to my own life, well, I think I'm coming to a point where I can't go on tolerating some chronic low-level unhappiness of my own and will have to address it by causing some acute major unhappiness around me. I have never been one to rock the boat, much less mutiny or sink it all together. We shall see. I suppose I'll need new clothes.
  
  

My Thrifty Vest

I am extremely proud of myself! (Do I say that too much?) I made a vest of a tapestry-like bit of upholstery fabric I've had for at least a decade (vest front) plus suede I harvested from a thrifted leather coat. I've already made two gift book covers from the coat, so finding the yardage for the vest back took some doing--I had to use the sleeves and find a good place for the sleeve seams to fall. And I did it! Here's the vest back:



You can just see the old sleeve seams an inch or two from the side seams in this photo.
Unfortunately, the vest looks better on the hanger than it does on me, but I'll save that and my review of the pattern (McCall's 2260) for another post. For now, just admire the suede.

Meet Elizabeth, My New Old 15-91!

I admit to being a Craigslist junkie. I don't buy much, and I sell even less, but I love poring over ads for what folks want to get rid of. I'm also a sewing blog junkie, especially those like Spare Time and Male Pattern Boldness that include a lot of sewing machine porn. So my two addictions collided on Friday when I spotted an ad for "Vintage singer sewing machine 1940's - $25" just a few miles from home. Not much information--nothing about whether it worked, for example, or what model it might be, but it came in a cabinet with a chair. Here's the photo:

Now, I learned to sew on my mother's black metal Singer and remember it fondly. I'm also buying up old suede coats at Goodwill with the idea of cutting them up and making book covers, bags, vests, etc., for which an old Singer straight stitch--especially a 15-91 with its all-geared drive--would be just the thing.
I've learned how to identify old Singer models and could see that the tension dial on the left in the photo meant this was likely a 15 of some sort. For $25, including the furniture, most likely it wouldn't work, but it was a pleasant drive to find out. As it turned out, the machine belonged to the seller's grandmother and had been stored away by her late mother. The mother's house was being cleared out, and pretty much anything the seller didn't want was going for $25. I was still wrestling my new treasure into the car when another buyer pointed out to the seller how much more she could have gotten for this machine, bwah-ha-ha!

The serial number indicates that my 15-91 was built between April and June, 1953, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where my mother was born and grew up. I shall call her Elizabeth.

My Magic Pants

Above are my magic pants. I bought them at Goodwill a day or two before I left the US. They would have been $6 but someone cut the left pocket clean out of them--I don't know why and I don't want to know why--so I got 10% off plus another 10% off for being old. I stitched up the missing pocket (sewing connection there) and off we went. I've been traveling now for about 5 weeks. These pants are magic because they dry overnight. Even when it is raining outside (which pretty much it always has been). They are lightweight. I can be persuaded that every color goes with them. Yesterday I barfed on these pants just a little in Bruges (due to over-enthusiastic coughing due to a two-week-old cold. See comment about rain, above.) I wiped them down and they dried in an hour, then I washed them out last night and they are dryly covering my butt as I sit in them and type in Berlin. Magic pants.