Horse beating of the dead variety

Can you stand another round of photos of the burgundy twill skirt?  sorrynotsorry.

I've worn and washed this skirt a few times now, and every time I wear it, something new annoys me about it, so about a week ago, I decided I just needed to take it apart and see if I could fix it from the inside out, so to speak.  I unpicked every stitch except the pockets and kept the waistband and petersham to the side.  The petersham ribbon had shrunk quite a bit in the wash, but the waistband was still in good shape, and had the hand-worked buttonhole that I didn't want to lose.

I decided that the main problems were the darts and the skirt fullness, particularly in the back.  For whatever reason, this skirt came out significantly bigger in the back, and it just hung strangely.  The zipper insertion was causing some weird rippling at the side that emphasized the oversize back, and the darts (even after I moved and deepened them) were in the wrong place and looked weird.  I also felt the skirt was a bit too long.

I pulled out my vintage Anne Adams 9481 pattern (the one I used for my beloved flannel skirt last winter) and decided to use it as a guide to remove some of the back fullness and also to straighten the lines of the skirt slightly.  I also used the darts as a guide.  It was a bit of a slap dash, as a skirt cut to a-line doesn't just magically straighten to a pencil-style silhouette, but in the end, I trimmed off a big triangle of fabric on both sides, including a lot of the pocket facing.  I trimmed 1.5 inches off the bottom as well.  

I resewed everything, reinserted the zipper, checked the fit, and put the waistband back on.  I added about 6" of petersham to the end to make up the difference in shrinkage and put the button back on the band.  I decided to leave off the decorative buttons on the pocket edges because the pockets are now much narrower and further back from the center, and I felt the skirt would work better plain.  

I think I need to move the button over, as there is a little too much room between the buttonhole and the edge, so the waistband is belling a bit at the side, and the pocket on the zipper side doesn't really want to lay totally flat, but I do like the straighter silhouette better, and have decided that I really just need to use that Anne Adams pattern more--it fits quite nicely, and I like the look of it, particularly for fall/winter skirts.  

One thing about feeling older, I like less full skirts, and straight skirts just feel "right" to me at the moment.  I do need to keep the length right (25-26") to keep it from being frumpy, but it helps me to plan appropriate projects for myself going forward.

I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, but I like it better than before.  Sorry about the rumpled state of myself; I took these photos late in the day, after a long day of running about after children, and a bunch of sewing, including this vintage beauty, coming soon to a blog near you:

I'm also retaining enough water to qualify as part of Thailand, so I'm feeling a bit puffy and swollen too.  Blerg.

Just the facts:

Burgundy twill skirt (version 1.3): McCall's 4275/Anne Adams 9481, Hollyburn pocket, Robert Kaufman Hampton Twill, all-purpose zip, bias binding (in berry, a close match), vintage resin button

Water to Wine rayon blouse: vintage rayon remnant, Gertie's Portrait blouse pattern (from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing)

Brown t shirt: Ann Taylor via ThredUp

Boots: Modcloth (still hanging on...the ebay boots were a bust and are going back.  Still looking for a replacement)

Acorn necklace: Weeping Grove (etsy)

Earrings: Target (old)

Wood hair barrett: St Augustine Vintage (etsy)

STATurday: Setbacks

These last two weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster.  The worst of the steroid withdrawal symptoms began to abate early this week; now I am more or less over it.  The ravenous hunger, the crazy hypoglycemic episodes all day, the muscle aches and extreme lethargy finally faded away.  It wasn't like I woke up one day and it was all gone, but every day got a little better until I noticed that I wasn't ravenous all day, and I hadn't had a hypoglycemic episode the day previous, etc. 

The other lingering side effect of the oral steroids I took at the end of September has been to totally kill my hormones.  My last cycle started August 31st, and since mid-September, nothing was happening.  Nothing at.all.  It was like my body had died below the waist.  It sort of concerned me, because I do have underlying hormone imbalances, and I just didn't know what was going on.  My hair has gotten even more patchy and thin this month, and my skin is brittle and extremely dry.  I figured it was related to the steroids, since everything changed around then, but I also figured that having anesthesia twice in a month's time wasn't doing my hormones any favors either.   I finally hit the mid-point of this cycle yesterday, to my great relief.   With the resumption of normalcy, however, is also the resumption of water retention and hormone craziness.  My fingers and legs are sausage-like today, my internal body temperature is all over the place, and I feel slightly nuts.  

As for the weight loss, well.  By Monday of this week, I'd lost several more pounds for a total loss of 18 pounds since the middle of July.  I was feeling pretty good, because I'd finally broken a threshold where I tend to plateau: the post-pregnancy weight I had for Piglet and Boo.  I had briefly gotten below that threshold in the late summer and fall of 2012, but then Ponchik was on her way, so I've never maintained anything below that weight in recent years.  But then I hit cycle midpoint, and began retaining water like it was going out of style, so I'm actually up 3 pounds since Wednesday.  Right back to that threshold number.  I am hoping that it is just water weight and will come off in a few days, because I've been working pretty hard to maintain a big calorie deficit in addition to being diligently active.

As for activity, last week, I started getting up very early to go to the gym.  I woke up around 4:15 a.m. one morning, and couldn't go back to sleep, so I figured I might as well hit the treadmill.  The gym opens at 5:00, so I got in a good workout, was home by 6:15, and decided that I would try to get up and be to the gym by the time it opened if I could manage it.  I also decided I would not set an alarm, so if I woke up on my own, I went.  I have trouble sleeping, so I've been getting up on my own around 4:45 most days.  We've had a challenging run of sleep with the girls these last two weeks.  Birdie has been waking multiple times per night, screaming with night terrors and coughing, and Ponchik has often been waking for the day between 3:00 and 4:00, so that has been difficult.  I've been trying to go to bed earlier to make up the difference, but I'm still running out of steam in the late afternoon.

As for my gym routine, I've been doing 3.5 miles on the treadmill, running every half mile or so, plus an extra lap at the 3.0 mile mark to make it a mile running, and fast walking hills on the in between laps.  I get a 650-675 calorie burn, and I'm not destroyed for the rest of the day.  I've also been walking the boys to school in the mornings with Ponchik on my back in the ERGO--a 2 mile round trip that burns around 350 calories. I've not been lifting at all, and I may hold off on weight lifting until things settle back into a better routine.  The girls have both been sick for weeks (I'm taking Birdie back to the doctor this morning because she sounds and looks terrible) and my sleep has been very interrupted.  

I logged about 22 miles last week and 26 miles this week.  On weekdays, I'm logging a 1000 calorie exercise deficit, in addition to the 500 calorie food deficit I'm trying to maintain, so I've had to eat back a few of my exercise calories just to stay functional, but I'm trying to keep my daily totals between 1800-1900 on those days.  Since I'm suddenly way less hungry again, I need to make some tweaks to my food and cut back a bit on the daily chocolate consumption.  I'm only two weeks into this new routine, so I'm sure it will take another week or so to work out the kinks.

My other issue is that of clothing--this particular round of Project 333 has been a challenge.  I've lost enough weight that several key pieces I selected for this rotation don't fit well, but I've not lost quite enough to go into the smaller stuff in the bin.  The weather has also been challenging, swinging from freezing to 80 degrees in the space of a day or two.  Some of the pieces I chose for my 33 are not really suitable for this sort of weather and I ended up swapping out several things for others that fit better, or suit the weather.  I know, I know.  #firstworldproblems

I'm not totally happy with this rotation yet.  I have two favorite skirts that are too big (and one of them is wearing badly after being in heavy rotation last winter), but I'm reluctant to take them in as my shape is changing quickly enough that I might have to do it again in a month or two.  I'd rather wait and do it once.  The burgundy skirt continues to fit oddly, and I'm contemplating what to do about it--I may take it apart and recut it as a straight skirt.  My dresses are forgiving enough that they mostly work, but at least three of them will need to be taken in or adjusted soon.  So I'm actually down to about 25 wearable pieces, including cardigans, which feels kind of lean.  I recently acquired enough vintage feedsack to make a dress; I was saving it for the spring, but I may make it up just to have another piece of clothing in the rotation right now.

My shoes are also a problem--I bought the boots in the pics above second-hand on ebay, thinking they would be a great addition to my fall wardrobe, but after three weeks of daily walking, the soles are starting to chunk away at the back.  The leather uppers are great (they are Clarks) but the soles are rubber and glued on, so no help for it.  Plus the boots are a little bit big, and I think the style doesn't do my short calves any favors.  I also noticed that my favorite brown lace up boots are starting to come apart near the soles and the heels are cracked again in a less-fixable place.  I've had them resoled once (at the cost of the boots!), but I don't think they can be saved a second time.  I'm bummed, as they are my favorite boots by far.  I've tried on and returned many pairs of boots this fall, in an effort to find a second pair of boots.  City walking is really hard on footwear, and it is helpful to have a couple of pairs of shoes or boots to rotate between to save the soles a bit.  I've had shoes literally disintegrate on my feet as I walked in the city, so I'm pretty attentive to the condition of my shoes.  I just wish there was a better guarantee of quality, and a better way to gauge it, because price really doesn't tell you much about the construction.  I find there isn't much difference between a $50 pair and a $100 pair in terms of quality, construction, and repairability.  I'm reluctant to spend more than that, as I don't think the quality or repairability increases as the price goes up.

In the end, I decided that less is more.  I found a pair of Naturalizer boots on ebay for a decent price yesterday, and while I don't love the look of them, I think they will be functional enough, and when the lace ups fall apart, I'll wear the Naturalizers until they fall apart.  I guess I don't need two pairs right now.  I'm trying to take that tack with my closet as well--I think that is the lesson of Project 333 anyway.  I'll write more on the subject another day.

In any case, I'm going to keep on keeping on--I'm still excited about this weight loss journey, eager to see where it takes me.  Even though I've had some set-backs and plateaus lately, I know they are temporary, and as long as I'm doing what I need to be doing every day, the weight will come off eventually.  15 pounds is nothing to sneeze at (and really, it might be closer to 18 anyway...water weight is so tricky)

Onward!

Talking Tuesday: Salvation is Not a Comfortable Chair

Image via

Rod Dreher has been burning up his little corner of the interwebs lately--so many good posts this past week or so, as he thinks through various aspects of the Benedict Option (for those who aren't familiar with the concept, I refer you to his FAQ on the topic).  Last week, he posted a little reflection that included an excerpt of an interview with an Orthodox bishop in Tajikistan.  Bishop Pitirim reflected that our modern times have made us Christians soft, that we no longer know what it is to thirst for Christ, to know our own brokenness and need for salvation.

He says:

"Many today want the Church to be a “Church of good people.” But the Church is a hospital. Here all the masks, all the curtains fall away, and a person is seen for what he is. And of course what he is rather unsightly.

People who don’t come to Church for Christ are looking for some kind of comfort, a peaceful state of being. There will be a peaceful state, and comfort—but a different kind. However, we have to grow into that state."

~Bishop Pitirim, The Folly of Comfortable Christianity, (article by Anastasia Rakhlina), pravoslavie.ru, 2/10/15, excerpted by Rod Dreher on The American Conservative blog, October 7, 2015.

Image via

I admit, I've struggled a lot with the whys of the more difficult aspects of my life these past years. Why three of my children have to bear such a heavy health burden, why several of them have special needs beyond the health issues, why I have to feel the weight of caring for them so heavily upon my back.  Why my own health problems seem so chronic and intractable as I'm trying to be the primary health care giver and just all around caregiver for my kids. 

I'm not saying that I've suddenly gotten over that struggle, but the weight feels less burdensome lately.  I suppose I realized that everyone (even those who appear to coast through life) has a cross to bear, some podvig that follows them around for the entirety of their lives, a weight on their back, a thorn in the flesh, so to speak.  

Without that weight on my shoulders, without that thorn poking me in the side, perhaps I would be too comfortable, too self-satisfied, not aware enough of my need for Christ.  My fists would remain closed tightly around the things of this world, instead of being loosed for the peace and grace that is not of this world.  

Life isn't necessarily meant to be some comfortable chair that I climb into and then coast through my days.  Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying we should actively seek to make our lives more difficult than they need to be, but rather, when faced with the hills and valleys that make up our lives, accept them as part of the larger journey, and look for the blessings and grace in the quiet moments that come along the way.  

The spiritual life in particular is meant to be one of struggle, of learning the depths of my brokenness, my continual failures on so many different levels, and seeking healing from the Comforter, the living water from the Savior.  

Lord, I thirst.  Give me water to drink. 

Let's party like it's 2005 ~wiws~

Ever have one of those days when you just can't get comfortable in your clothes?  Today was such a day.  I think I tried five different iterations (nope...nope...nope...NOPE) before settling on this outfit for church this morning: 

The weather has majorly cooled down over the last two days, which is some of my difficulty--I always find transitional weather difficult.  If I put on a sweater or tights in the morning, I want to wear it all day, and not worry that I'm going to roast in it by mid-afternoon.  With temps in the 40s in the morning, but in the upper 60s or low 70s by afternoon, it is hard to find appropriate layers to wear.  (Don't get me wrong: the weather is gorgeous, I'm not complaining that fall is finally here.  I'm just saying it can be a challenge to dress for)

Anyway.  A boring outfit that I could easily have worn 10 years ago.  But I still like it.

Just the facts: 

Shirt: Michael Starrs (via ThredUp)

Scarf: Target (very old)

Skirt: me-made

Boots: Modcloth

Earrings: etsy

Necklace: gift from a friend

Linking with FLAP for What I Wore Sunday.

Basic Schmasic

I almost didn't photograph this blouse because it is so simple, so basic, so...boring, that I thought, why bother?  But I shortened my rust corduroy skirt recently (after wearing it at an unflattering 30" length all last winter) and wanted to show that as well.  I'm much happier with the new length. 

 I adjusted the fit of the skirt almost immediately after making it last fall--it came out too big in the waist, as per usual, so I added darts after those first photographs (I've since figured out how to avoid this problem--the last three skirts I've made fit beautifully in the waist!)  I may need to go back and deepen the back darts this year, as the waist is getting slightly too big again.  I could also add Petersham to the waistband, as it isn't interfaced and could use some structure.  

I do love rust and navy together--it is such a rich autumnal palette.

This blouse is my last planned project for my fall season--a navy blue polka dot Portrait blouse.  I think it will work well across all seasons, and I'm eager to try it with some layers underneath too.  I guess I like to show even the boring makes because they represent a solid corner of my closet, and really, the basics are what most of us wear most of the time anyway.  Amiright?

*crickets*

Right.  Details: I used some random quilt-weight cotton from Joann's, and I'm hoping it softens up with repeated washing, because it is slightly stiff right now after one wash and dry.  Not terrible, but a little stiffer than I really prefer.  Probably excess sizing, as the fabric is soft enough and has a decent thread count.  

Navy blue bias thread, top stitching in navy.  Nothing of note about the construction.  The whole blouse came together in under 2 hours, including cutting time.  

And this is how I roll when I pop a dime-size blister on the back of my heel (again!--same place as in August, darn bone spurs):  

I discovered the best way to protect a really big blister pop is to put a blister band-aid over it, then a strip of moleskin, then a big ol' strip of kinesiology tape. 4 miles of hills on the treadmill this morning and had no pain.

Just the facts:

Navy polka dot blouse: Portrait blouse (from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing, sleeves slightly modified), Stonehill Collection Fabric

Rusty Buttons skirt: me-made fall 2014, McCall's 4275 and vintage Simplicity 1797 pockets, Kaufman corduroy, random vintage button, bias tape, zip, hook/eye

Acorn earrings and necklace: etsy

Shoes: Old Navy via ThredUp

Talking Tuesday: Moral Complexity

I've started researching a character for a story I'd like to write at some point  (I'm unsure right now whether the character will be a man or a woman).  In any case, I know this character will be a morally complex one.  One who inhabits a place of moral ambiguity, yet has clear ideas of right and wrong.  Someone who has done terrible things, probably continues to do some terrible things, and yet searches for redemption, to find goodness in the world, to be the good.  I don't have a clear picture yet of the story arc, or even a lot of details, but I've got a stack of books ready for background research.

Image via decohubs.com

Yesterday, Rod Dreher posted an excellent summary of Tish Harrison Warren's great essay on the legacy of Southern culture, and how Southerners have to cope with the moral complexities of their history all the time.  It is perhaps healthy that they do so, for many of the rest of us to do not have to confront the good and bad of our ancestors (or ourselves, for that matter) so viscerally.  

Dreher writes:

"The sins of another time and place are not necessarily the sins of our own, but we make a grave mistake to imagine that this means we do not sin. Our descendants will look back on things that we believe and do without thinking twice about it and marvel that we could have been so blind and wicked. And they, in turn, will suffer the same fate. To study the past with an open mind and an open heart is to be chastened about one’s own fallibility.

It’s the same all over, don’t you think? It is perhaps clearer for Southerners, because the evil of slavery and all that followed it was so stark, and still exists within living memory. I tell my children how things were here in our own town not that long ago, and they find it hard to believe. How could white people have believed those things? How could they have done those things? Well, I say, they did. And I try to convey to them in a way that they understand that they too might have believed and done those things had they grown up back then. This is the lesson of the Gospel account of Christ’s passion: every single one of us would probably have stood in that crowd yelling, “Crucify him!”

Every single one.

Yet it would be so easy if we could write off all our ancestors as simply evil. It saves us from having to do hard thinking about moral complexity, and about how goodness and evil can exist within the same person." [emphasis mine]

~Rod Dreher, "Human Fallibility a Historical Constant", American Conservative blog, October 5, 2015

Keeping it simple

Oh, look, another Portrait blouse.  

*yawn*

What can I say?  I'm primarily interested in making wardrobe staples/closet basics.  For me, that means a lot of Portrait blouses, plain cardigan sweaters, unfussy skirts, simple dresses.

I made this over the weekend from fabric from another of my favorite fabric designers: Denyse Schmidt.  Her designs are inspired by the feedsack prints of the 1930s and 1940s, and I just adore her work.  The fabric tends to be a bit heavier weight than Cotton+Steel, but it is nice for cooler weather.

This is from the Shelburne Falls collection, and is one of the plaid colorways.  The design is bias printed on the straight grain, so the finished product looks great, but isn't a lot of work on the front end.  I probably should have done more to match the design at the side and shoulder seams, but I thought about it way too late in the process, and it really isn't that noticeable anyway.  No construction details to note, just a straight forward blouse.  I could have given this one a side zip and some darts for shaping, given the crispness of the fabric, but I decided to just keep it basic and simple.  

I have one more blouse to make and my fall sewing will be done!  I'll probably get the other one sewn up this week; it is cut out already.  I'm just waiting on some coordinating bias tape for finishing.

I will say that the prednisone I had to take for my throat last week has caught up with me in a big way the last three days, and I'm feeling rather swollen and crummy today.  I'm hoping it passes very soon.

Just the facts:

DS Plaid blouse: Portrait blouse

Navy twill skirt: me made

Navy cashmere/cotton cardigan: Banana Republic

Andrei Sakharov pin: Sakharov memorial museum, Nizhni Novgorod, Russia

Earrings: vintage, etsy

~wiws~ Boxcar Dress

Linking with FLAP for What I Wore Sunday.

This is the last of the projects I finished over the long Papal visit weekend: the Boxcar dress.  It was actually one of the first things I completed, as I had been working on bodice muslins before the break in anticipation of cutting into this fabric.

The fabric is another fabulous cotton from Cotton+Steel (long may they prosper).  I fell in love with the pattern and colors way back in the spring, but decided to wait to purchase it until the fall, as I thought the overall scheme seemed more fall-like to me.  I'm really glad I did, because the Green Cookie Book dress really informed how I made this dress. 

The changes I made were the same as to the green dress: I took the seam allowance out of the back bodice since the zip is now going into the side seam, and I made the waist seam allowance 3/4" that I then stitched down to make a casing.  I put in a strip of elastic to cinch the waist and fit the fullness of the skirt better. 

 I cut the skirt to 27" and cut the pockets on the diagonal to put the button treatment on them.  I had two different button options for this dress, and they were super similar in color and size, but I had eight of these and six of the other.  I dithered quite a bit, looked at them in different lights, at different times of day...in the end, I went with the eight button option, and I like it!  

It is hard to tell in the photos, but the fabric has a very subtle coral color in some of the pattern, which gives the whole dress a purpleish cast.  I think it really supposed to be navy and rust with the coral, but it reads purple to me.  It goes perfectly with my rust-colored cardigan, and I think will coordinate nicely with a heavier weight coral one I have for winter.

The 1933 neck cowl is the perfect accessory for this dress.  It warms it up nicely, as the temps have really dropped in the last three days, and doesn't overwhelm my face.  Scarves are tricky for me since my neck is so short.  I'm considering making another one of these in a different color and stitch pattern, just to have another accessory option in my closet.

I've sung the praises of Japanese cotton before, but I really can't say enough good things about it.  It is so soft (and gets softer with each washing) and has such a nice drape.  It doesn't need a lot of ironing after being sewn up, and wears really well across a variety of temperatures.

I wish I had finished this dress sooner, as it would have been wonderful to wear in the early September heat!

I've decided not to mess with my frankenpattern bodice.  Adding the waist elastic has really fixed the issues I was having with it, and I'm super happy with the comfort, arm ease, and general fit now.  We'll see how I feel if I keep losing weight, but for now, I'm content.

The trick with the waist elastic is to make it cinch a little, but not too much.  I find having about 6-9" of stretch is about right.  The elastic I'm using is pretty soft, so I think that helps too.

The buttons are more coral than orange; I found them in a clearance button bin at a quirky shop on Fabric Row.  I think I paid all of $2 for the eight buttons (they are vintage--apparently someone just dropped off all these sewing notions at the shop and they were selling them for pennies in a big plastic bin by the register.  I still wish I'd taken a bit more time to dig through the buttons!)

Just the facts:

Boxcar dress: Boxer fabric from Cotton+Steel, Emery bodice (heavily modified), McCall's 4275 skirt, Hollyburn pocket (modified), elastic, bias tape, vintage buttons, 9" zip

JCrew Jackie cardigan: ThredUp

1933 Asymmetric Cowl: me made

Earrings: etsy

Tights: Foot Traffic via Sock Dreams

Boots: Modcloth

STATurday: Baby steps

It is a moral failing of mine that I have trouble making myself go back and fix things once I've made them.  I dislike trying to refit garments after they are finished.  I'm terrible at upcycling fabric.  So it was that when I realized sometime yesterday that the burgundy twill skirt was, in fact, several inches too big around the waist, and that the darts in the back were all wrong, I really had to gird my loins to take apart the back waist band this morning.  The photos convinced me of the weird fit around the waist and hips, however, and my own sense that the skirt just didn't feel right all day yesterday.  

So I sighed, pulled out my seam ripper and went to work.  I started out adding a second set of darts alongside the first, as that has worked in the past, but it looked weird and bulky.  So I took that all out, and redid the darts all together.  I used my fitting for the navy skirt and rayon dress as a guide.  I ended up taking nearly an inch and a half out of the waistband, and making the darts closer together than they were.  I'm happier with the fit now--it is closer than before (I may possibly have over-fitted the waist band slightly, but given how quickly my measurements around the middle are changing, and the fact that I just finished a course of oral steroids, I'm going to leave it).  

Speaking of measurements, I got out the tape measure this morning and took some, so I have a report to make.  Somehow, I was expecting more of a change from the middle of the month.  I've had some drama with my throat the last two weeks, and had to have another endoscopy earlier this week, and my calorie intake has been affected rather severely as a result.  I have two ulcers in my throat where a pill got stuck earlier this month, so I have to figure out how best to manage that for the moment.

So the report: I've lost a few pounds, but not so many inches.  I'm down a total of 16 pounds from July 15 as of this morning, and have lost another 1/2" off hips and thighs, plus a smidge off my biceps.  My BMI just dropped a point as well, so I'm happy about that.  I "feel" thinner, so I guess that is something??

I've not been working out as regularly these last few weeks, in part because I was getting a lot of exercise in during my daily routine (hello, 11 miles on foot for school routes last week!), but also because I've not been feeling all that great this month.  The Papal visit really messed up our routine for more than two weeks, so I'm hoping that things will settle back in this coming week.  I'm also planning to keep on walking the boys to school in the morning when it works out weather-wise, because that is two miles for free and it really doesn't take that long.  It is harder to do the pick up on foot in the afternoon because of having to get Birdie on the other end of town, but mornings should work for a while anyway.  It is good for the boys to get some wiggles out on the way to school too, I think.

As for food, not much has changed.  I'm portioning my meals and calculating the calorie load using the recipe and food calculator in My Fitness Pal.  I'm logging all my food over there as well.  I did have to go off cottage cheese for about a week with all the throat stuff, but that seems better now.  I've learned that I really can't trust my body's signals with regard to hunger and satiety, so I have to go by the numbers instead.

This is a long process, and there are going to be health issues, set backs, oral steroids, and hormone fluctuations.  Kids will get sick, I will get sick, my husband is busy or will be travelling, exercise won't happen.  I can, however, choose to be mindful about my calorie intake, keep track, stay on track.  

Stay the course!

Water to Wine

It is cold and rainy today, so getting photos this morning was a bit of a job.  Apologies in advance for poor quality!  Also: I took these after school drop off, so I'm a bit rumpled from being in the car and having children climbing all over me this morning.

This is the second blouse and skirt I made last weekend (although, I made both before the blouse and skirt from yesterday).  The skirt is on the same model as the navy one, except I used decorative buttons on the pockets (I happened to have purchased a perfectly matching set around the same time as the fabric!) 

This skirt does feel just ever so slightly bigger around the waist and hips, but I think that is okay.  It is a difference of a centimeter or two, not inches.  I fitted this one on my body as I was making it, whereas I felt more confident about the fit by the time I got to the navy one and put in the darts before sewing it up, which probably contributed a little to the small fit differences.  The burgundy is quite a bit darker than it looks in these photos--it is a really saturated wine color.

The buttons are vintage--probably 1930s, if I had to hazard a guess, going by the style and materials.  They are a perfect match and I really like the Art Deco detailing on the top.  

I didn't have enough to put the same type of button on the waist closure, but I had a lone button in my stash that coordinated well enough.  #horseshoesandhandgrenades

Nothing much to note about the blouse.  It was a 1980s rayon challis remnant that I received as a birthday gift two summers ago, and just got up the courage to cut into.  

It is wonderfully soft and drapey, and I'm totally happy with how it came out.  I just made a basic Portrait blouse, with bias binding for the neck and hem.  After taking pictures, I realized that the neckline looks as if it isn't lying flat, but I think that is to do with the photos--it seems to lie flat when I'm not futzing with a camera.

There are some beige and pinkish tones in the flowers, so I think it will look nice with a taupe wool skirt I have in my winter clothes, or even the navy skirt from yesterday.  I really love the soft floral print.

I interfaced the skirt waistband with Petersham, as with the navy skirt, and worked the buttonhole by hand with embroidery floss. I do wish I had made the slash pockets a bit deeper, so that the button details were more obvious from the front, but on the other hand, having them a bit more subtle keeps the skirt from becoming a "specialty" garment.  Overall, the skirt and blouse just feel like nice basic additions to my fall line up, and I'm pretty happy with them.

It was cold enough to put on a wool sweater this morning!  I pulled out a yellow-gold 1940s resin brooch to pair with it.  I love this style of pin (and I got lucky with the purchase--it was a great find on etsy.  It isn't in perfect shape, but I don't care--it still has plenty of wear left!)

Just the facts:

Wine flowers blouse: vintage rayon, Portrait blouse pattern (Gertie), bias binding

Burgundy twill skirt: Hampton twill, McCall's 4275, vintage buttons, vintage Petersham ribbon, zip, bias binding

Brown wool sweater: Ralph Lauren via ThredUp

1940s resin brooch: etsy

Booties: Clarks via ebay

Green knee socks: Sock Dreams