Music from Another Room

Did you ever have something on the edge of your consciousness that you knew was there, but you couldn't quite catch the thread of it?  Something you knew was important or possibly the answer to a question you've been pondering, but you can't....quite....reach....it.  I've had that sensation about Project 333 for some time now (and also about the novel, but that is another post entirely).  It's a bit like hearing music from a far-off room.  You can hear there is music, but not necessarily the tune or the words.  It can be crazy-making time.

I think it will come as no surprise to any long time readers that summer clothing is my bane.  I dislike hot weather in the extreme (I'm a huge fan of the Great British Summer) and I always feel like I can't get a summer "uniform" that I like and feel good in.  I frequently want to burn my summer wardrobe by August.  This year is the first year I've felt that way going into the rotation, so I've been having a bit of a think about it.

A few weeks ago, I discovered a YouTube channel by an independent French fashion designer living in Berlin called Justine Leconte.  She has a ton of wonderful (and short!) videos about figuring out your body type, dressing for your body type, figuring out skin tones and what colors are most flattering, thinking about shapes and hair styles and make up in terms of what is most flattering to your particular face, shape and color tones, rather than what is necessarily the visual ideal of the moment.  She is a fashion designer, so obviously she is interested in current fashions, but I found her videos to be so body positive and helpful.  I also appreciate the fact that despite being rail thin herself, she addresses all different body types, from thin to curvy and plus size. 

The one that got me thinking recently was her video about dressing yourself after body changes (lost or gained weight, pregnancy, getting older, etc).  She talks about when your body goes through a change, that often affects your sense of style and what feels good on your body, and that it is okay to let go of what isn't working.  It sounds simplistic, but it was quite helpful to me.

I've had a lot of body changes in the past eleven years.  Five pregnancies, nursing four babies, caretaking a rather sick child plus two others with special needs, tons of weight lost and gained, swallowing problems, multiplying allergy lists, GI issues, simply getting older.  I'm also still working on losing that last 15 or so pounds to get to my personal moonshot goal.  I've been pretty stable for about nine months, fluctuating a few pounds here and there, but mostly sitting around the same weight and shape.  It's not where I ultimately want to be, but it is a much better weight than where I started in 2015.

With those changes, I'm at loose ends with myself on a lot of levels.  (And I do hope that by nearing the end of my 30s perhaps I'm getting to the end of this constant cycle of existential crisis.  Because I'm sort of over it at this point.  I want to settle into something and be done with it.  I hear one's 40s are pretty awesome on this score). 

So here's where I am at the end of my spring rotation, staring into a summer rotation I'm not that excited about. 

Spring 2018

Clockwise from top left: brown cotton sweater, Calligraphy cardigan, coral cotton/wool cardigan, navy cotton cardigan; spruce knit dress, Mille Fleur dress, Dottie Pearl flannel dress, Motherdress cotton/linen chambray dress; blue long sleeve shirt, navy henley, blue/white striped breton, navy battenburg shirt, gray wool pullover sweater, green henley; First Light dress, Pascha dress, Magic Tulips dress, Painted Roses dress; Octopus dress, Navy Birch dress, black knit dress, Kermes dress; marigold linen everyday skirt, Hobby horse skirt; coral cardigan, navy cardigan, gray cardigan; Liberty #2 dress, Dandelion Zadie dress, Menagerie dress, Triangle knit dress

I wore almost everything in my rotation this time, and felt pretty good about what was in there.  I didn't wear my Birch dress more than once, and never wore the coral cardigan that goes with it because the weather didn't cooperate this year.  The Octopus dress got one outing, and it is going into the bin to cut down for Ponchik for next summer.  I didn't wear the green henley either, and I think the color doesn't suit me, but I like the shirt, so I'm keeping it for sleep wear for next year.  The striped breton isn't a good fit or color on me, so that one has to go (I also only wore it once for non-sleep purposes). 

I had a few things I did not wear or only wore once or twice, and I think it is to do with a shift in style.  Since I discovered the M7353, a lot of my other dresses have been a bit neglected.  And despite rescuing (and wearing) the Painted Roses dress, I think that one just needs to be cut down for the girls.  I don't like the way it fits after it has been washed, and I generally did not feel good in it when I wore it.  The Dandelion Zadie is also well and truly finished.  I retired the Cross Hatch denim dress as well; it never fit me properly, and the fabric hasn't worn well at all.

I did think I could have used an additional everyday skirt in a navy linen or something, but that was the only thing I consciously missed.  I do have some navy fabric in my bin that would work for a skirt, so perhaps I'll make that up for next year.  As per usual, I wore about half the clothes at the beginning (especially my flannel and knit dresses) and half at the end (especially the rayons) and that is okay.

Summer 2018

Left to right, top to bottom: denim pencil skirt, red rayon/linen skirt (unblogged), chambray everyday skirt; coral striped shirt, coral 3/4 sleeve shirt, white linen shirt, blue striped shirt, white linen bib shirt; blue striped rayon knit dress; feedsack Portrait blouses x 3; yellow, aqua, teal, and red cardigans; York double gauze dress (unblogged), motherdress cotton/linen chambray, kermes dress, blue check linen dress (unblogged)

A very lean rotation, I know.  I put the Periwinkle Birch into the mix originally and then took it out again.  I also put my Liberty #5 dress on a hanger in a separate but accessible place, because I'm not sure about that one.  I took out almost all the dresses I wore last year, because I'm just over them.  I put them in my fabric bin to cut down for the girls.  I'm pretty excited to wear that rayon striped dress.  It was a random Amazon tryout, and I think it might be a good one.  (It seems to run about a size small, as per these China-direct garments).  I might get another one or two in other colors if I really like it.

I'm focusing a bit more on separates this summer, and I'm trying to shift to very lightweight clothing that covers more of my arms.  I don't especially like my arms, particularly my biceps, and prefer to have them covered, but more practically, I am skin cancer waiting to happen, and having less skin exposed during the summer is not a bad thing, I think.  I still have some short sleeved garments, obviously, but I included more 3/4 sleeve options that I'm looking forward to playing around with.  I might make another skirt (maybe a white linen one), or I might not.  I sort of want to see how things go for a while.  I also have the option to pull any of my summer dresses from last year out of the fabric bin if I really miss one of them.  Right now, I'm not interested in anything from last year, but sometimes I hit August and want something fresh.  (On the upside, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make a few things for Birdie this summer, so it is nice to have a ready supply of fabric she can choose from).  

I have two dresses planned for my fall (both knits) and a possible skirt and that is about it.  I've leaned down my fall quite a bit too and retired all but one of my eshakti knit dresses (they were all slightly too big, and no longer suited my style).

The Motherdress

I'm a bit behind this month--we celebrated Ponchik's birthday a week ago and I've been AWOL from the blog since early May.  What can I say?  Two birthdays, an anniversary, Ascension, general May madness.  It got away from me. 

First up is Ponchik's birthday dress.  I may have created a monster, as she asked me for a birthday dress months ago and was super specific about it.  A cupcake dress.  

I honestly thought it would be easy to find cupcake fabric.  Not so much.  I spent way too much time looking at a handful of terrible fabrics in a lot of different online stores and not liking any of them.  They were either weird colors to wear, too photorealistic for clothing, or just strange looking patterns.  I finally found this older Kaufman print on etsy and snapped up two yards quick-like.  The dress itself was a snap to sew, since I've made it many times before.  I had to grade it out a bit from last year, but that was it.  Ponchik was super happy with it!

She also requests strange desserts, with things like strawberry and pumpkin in them.  Together.  I don't know either.  I gently suggested that perhaps a chocolate cake would be better?  She said yes, please, so I made her cake almost exactly like Boo's, except the layers came out a bit more even.  

For Mother's Day, I requested a dress length of cotton-linen chambray from Robert Kaufman and received it.  I sewed it up quickly on Saturday and wore it on Sunday last.  It is a delightful dress, I must say.  (I hasten to add that these terrible photos were taken at 3:30 in the afternoon after 2 hours driving, several hours of liturgy and coffee hour to boot.  Hence the wrinkles and rumples.  The sleeves are not too tight, despite the look).  I always seem to be looking for a good chambray dress at this time of year.  (Hence the Chambray Dress of Shame and the failed rescue of the same last spring).

I used my M7353 again, with my adjustments for woven fabric, but I also added 1/4" to the bottom edge of the back sleeve this time, which was just perfect in this fabric.  The rayon I used last time had a lot more mechanical stretch than this fabric, so I needed a bit more room for my guns, er, biceps.

I finished all the edges with zig-zag stitch, and used bias binding to encase the waist seam nicely.  So the insides are pretty good for this dress.  Bias binding on the neckline and hemline.  One package did the neck, waist, and hem nicely.

The fabric has a slight sheen to it, which gives the dress a little something-something, I think.  The sleeves are always a bit rumpled looking, but I can live with that.  I wore it again today with a long drop necklace and delicate earrings and liked it very well that way too.  I also discovered I don't need a slip with it, which is another win.  I think this one might make it into my summer rotation.

The linen gives it a nice swish and cool feeling.

The shoes were a random good ebay find after the second hand dansko clogs fell apart on me.  I'm always looking for closed toed sandals for warm weather.  These are perfect.

I kind of think this is the dress I meant to make last fall when my Summer Jazz dress failed.

I must highly recommend the movie Austenland, which I watched with great delight last Friday night.  I've become a big JJ Feild fan lately (mostly after his wonderful work on the Revolutionary War show TURN as Major John Andre) and he is so good in Austenland.  The movie is so funny (painfully so at times).  And I loved the ending.  Just right.  (The director is part of the creative team that put Napoleon Dynamite together, so you know it has to be good).

I watched the new version of Howard's End recently and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Great British cast, a wonderful adaptation, high production values and good costuming.  Matthew McFayden is a treat and Hayley Atwell is so good in it.  (I find it interesting that this is their third collaboration together).

I also went to an actual movie theater to see Avengers: Infinity War this morning, and it was good.  (I didn't want to put off seeing it too much longer since it was getting hard to avoid hearing spoilers about the film!)  I am disappointed about where a few plot lines ended up, but not surprised.  I also left with more questions than I had going in, so I'm super eager to see where the next movie will go.  I have some ideas, but I won't spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. 

Yarn Along: Cowls and Rivels

It feels funny to post a photo about a wool cowl in May, and indeed, these photos were taken two weeks ago when it was still chilly out.  The weather has spring-ed up quite a bit, so I'm definitely not wearing my heavy wools right now.

Nonetheless, a cowl for the knitting.  It was just a simple cowl, knit twice because I made it too small the firs time.  50 stitches on size 10 needles, knit to the end of the ball and then seamed up the middle.  I should block it to stretch it a bit, but otherwise, I like it for this dress.  (I am actually wearing this dress today, but without a sweater or cowl, and with bare legs and red keds!)

I also finished the two dresses I had on my docket for the girls' warm weather clothes.  (The other was Ponchik's birthday dress, which I can photograph on her birthday later this month).

I love this fabric so much I actually bought some for myself, but ended up returning it as I wasn't sure it went with my complexion or suited my style.  I keep thinking about it, though.

In other news, I finished the back of my Rivel cardigan.  I worried that it was going to be very small, but blocking seems to have helped.  The trouble with the pattern is that it calls for 1-2" of positive ease, but there are 4" between pattern sizes, so in order to get any ease, I would have to go up 4" in size which always looks sloppy on me.  I decided to go with a zero ease size and hope for the best.  I cast on one of the fronts over the weekend.  I'm pretty happy with the shaping at the top of this one--I think I finally get short rows.  I've done them before, but I didn't really understand what I was doing.  I found a couple of youtube videos that were super clear and now I think I get it.  Bring on the short rows!

The kids and I drove to the central part of the state on Saturday to spend the day with some dear friends of mine from Russia days.  The kids all had a blast together running around outside, running races, making plays, looking at the chickens, and picking flowers for crowns.  I had a great day catching up with my friends and knitting.  I admit I'm a bit worse for wear after all the driving (we also drive an hour and back to church every Sunday, so that was on top of the trip on Saturday) and am glad to have a quiet day today.

This month kind of feels like All The Things and I've been running on fumes since late March.  I've also hit a particularly tough section on the novel so there's that.  I keep trying to write around the hard bits, but I'm going to have to tackle them for realz before too long.  And since you didn't ask, I will say: I have a craptastic mostly-complete first draft that is all in pieces that need to be stitched together.  So this is the hard part, the stitching and editing and the second guessing.

But do you want to hear something strange?  I love these characters. I find myself wanting to go for a walk with one of them, to have a chat about life.  Is that strange?  Probably.  I never said I was normal. 

I'm pretty much through my sewing queue for now, and while I'm trying to do Me-Made-May, I'm not doing a good job of documenting it.  It's just one more thing this year.  Also: I look at the pictures I have taken and I'm like ACK! Who stole my face?

My reading list is painfully brief as I'm not reading much right now.  I started Marilynne Robinson's Lila last month, but haven't made much progress on it since reading the first third or so.  I am nearly done with Rodney Stark's book, but can't quite cross the finish line on it, and I have an advance copy of Eugene Vodolozkin's new novel (out later this month) that I've not even cracked since it arrived in the middle of post-Pascha madness.  I am still in the middle of the second Red Sparrow book as I put it aside for Lent and haven't picked it up again since.

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Kermes

So a funny story about this dress.  I put it on this morning and couldn't figure out why the pockets were flapping around weirdly, like they weren't attached properly at the waist band.  I figured it was due to the light weight nature of the fabric, or the fact that this fabric was hard to work with and perhaps I'd made a sewing error, and moved on with my morning.

While I was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus home after drop off, I realized that my skirt was actually sewn on backwards and the pockets are wonky because they go to the back instead of the front.  Ha!  I will have to fix it at some point, but for now, the dress is still wearable even with the pockets going the wrong direction.  (I'm telling myself that they are rear pockets--for the win!)

Anyway.  This dress is another woven M7353, from Art Gallery rayon challis from their Heritage collection, the Kermes print.  I fell in love with it while I was on my Carson dress rampage, as I saw several things made from this print that were so lovely.  I've said before that Art Gallery fabric is a little dear, so I had to wait a few weeks to order it, but I was so happy to have it show up on my doorstep last week.

I will say that this rayon is quite different from Cotton+Steel rayon--it is much lighter and was quite a bit more difficult to work with.  It has a much more mechanical stretch to it, and wanted to shift and squirm with every chalk line I drew to cut it out.  I probably should have used a stabilizer first, but I wasn't expecting it to be so tricky, given my previous experience with challis.  (It reminds me of challis from the 1980s or 1990s; not a bad thing, in my view)  It has the additional advantage of being 58" wide, so I didn't have to piece the sleeves.  The fabric does have a lovely drape to it, a kind of floaty quality, and it is definitely a summer rayon as it is quite thin.  Good for today, which is supposed to top 90 degrees!

I love the colors in this print so much; it reminds me a lot of a vintage dress I wore a ton a few years ago that is now both too big and too fragile for regular wearing.  

Hand in the backwards pockets.  (I have been very tired lately; it is my only excuse for such a ridiculous sewing mistake!)  I cut this dress very similarly to the Magic Tulip rayon dress, except I added 1/4" to the top seam of the back bodice in addition to the 1/2" on the front.  I did have a bit more trouble getting all the bodice seams to line up on the underside, but I don't know if that was a grading issue or a fabric shifting issue; perhaps both.  Still, the extra 1/4" makes the sleeves just slightly more comfortable, so I'll probably keep that change for future woven versions.

But still.  A good dress, with sleeves, for hot weather.  Win-win!  I think it will carry nicely into the fall as well, maybe layered a bit with a navy sweater.  

Painted Roses Rescue

Good news first.  I think I like this dress again. #rayonrescues

I ironed the heck out of it to put the hem back to rights and to get the creases out from the bust tucks in the front and elastic in the back.  I also took out the side seams to almost nothing to give the dress some additional ease, especially around my ribs, where it had gotten unaccountably tight after I changed the sleeves.  I'm still puzzling over why this happened, as it isn't a problem on my Menagerie dress, and the slopers are very similar.  After that, I put in the waist casing.  

For reference, my method was to measure down 4.5" from the armscye on both sides, and draw a line straight across on both sides of the inside of the dress in chalk.  I used that line as my guide to sew on the 7/8" wide bias tape and then inserted the 1/2" elastic.  I used a knit elastic on this one, as I was out of the soft stuff I usually use, but it feels okay against my ribs.  The braided elastic is what was too tight for this purpose.

I had already taken up the sleeves to 3/4 length a few weeks ago, so it was a relatively quick fix.  It is still not the most comfortable dress I own, but it is definitely wearable, and because rayon stretches over time, it is getting more comfortable as the day wears on.  I think the straight lines of the skirt and low volume of the fabric keeps the dress from feeling maternity-ish.  (At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself).

So I think it is okay.  I also made the happy discovery that rayon doesn't need a slip if I don't have on tights or stockings underneath.  Hooray!  I pretty much wear a slip every day, and while I generally don't mind, it is supposed to get to the mid-80s today, and I'd just as soon have one less layer on.

The bad news is that the lovely new-to-me clogs I had on yesterday literally fell apart on the way home from school.  The sole on one split in half and the heel just starting chunking away as I walked.  I've worn them exactly three times since I bought them second hand off ebay last month.  I'm bummed in the extreme, as I was looking forward to wearing them all summer.  I had a pair almost identical to them a few years ago that I wore out, and was happy to find a replacement that was so similar.  I think the pair must have been sitting in a hot closet for a long time to make the soles so brittle like that, because the shoes were in almost pristine condition when I received them.

On the other hand, I did find a replacement pair of my lace up sandals, pictured above (they are exactly the same as the pair I wore out and wore a lot on this blog over the years), so there's that.  They are also second hand, but in really good shape.  I really prefer a closed toe shoe in the summer but it is hard to find something that doesn't hurt my feet or look orthopedic. I'm not quite ready for SAS shoes yet. 😯

In other news, the cake was a big hit. I put raspberry jam between the two layers of cake and we had chocolate ice cream with it.  Boo was happy, I think.  He got several Marvel-themed Lego sets, so I'm going to spend some time putting the last one together for him this morning (he can't do complicated sets himself yet but likes to play with the finished product).  

I started watching the AMC series Turn: Washington's Spies this week while sewing (after a failed attempt to get into it a year ago) and am enjoying it.  I really like Jamie Bell (even more so after his excellent work in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool--go watch it right now.  It is that good).  

My main question about the AMC series is the accents are all over the place.  Half the cast is British and half is American, and there is a complete mosh of accents.  I get that during the 18th century, people would have still had British accents, but there isn't even continuity in families--Abraham has a northern British accent (that is sometimes very pronounced) but his father, an American actor, has a generic American accent.  But I'm nit-picking.  The writing is quite good, and I'm enjoying the multi-threaded storylines.  I have a few quibbles with the costumer--please, for the love of Pete, put a shift under those stays!--but otherwise the look of the show is good.

Me-Made May 2018: Rayon Rescue

Sometimes I am like a dog with a bone.

Can you stand one more round of Menagerie dress photos?  No?  sorrynotsorry.  

Yesterday I finished another rayon version of M7353 (photos to come later this week when it is supposed to get very warm) and it occurred to me that there still might be a way to salvage my sad-sack Menagerie dress.

I really hate to waste good fabric.  My problems with the dress were several-fold.  I had tried to fix the first two a few weeks ago by shortening the sleeves and hem and moving the pockets, but the shorter hem looked really odd, so I let that out again.  I still didn't want to wear the dress, however.  I decided that the silhouette was the problem.

As my M7353 is my most-worn silhouette this season, I thought it might be possible to mimic the lines by removing all the bust tucks and elastic shaping and inserting a bias bound waist casing on the inside of the dress and then putting elastic inside, ala the M7353.  I removed the wonky pockets a few weeks ago because they were seriously saggy, off center, and just not functional.

I think this fix might have saved the dress!  I get that the print doesn't read well at a distance, and the resulting color is maybe not the most flattering thing I own, but I really like the lines of this dress now.  I'm going to see if I have some scraps to make inseam pockets, but if not, I'll live.  (I'm also officially to the part of the year where I do not know what to put on my feet, hence the dodgy foot wear choices).  I'm going to try it on my Painted Roses dress too and see if that doesn't help me like that dress again.  I took out all the shaping last night and am going to see if I have time to insert a waist casing today.

It is also May 1, which means Me-Made-May is officially off to the races.  Most of my clothes are me-made at this point and well documented here, so I don't know how much I'll photograph this year.  That said, I always find things to think about in the process of Me Made May, so we'll see.  In any case, I should probably dub this month "Save All The Rayons" month. Ha!

I also made a jersey dress for Ponchik two weeks ago out of the Cotton+Steel octopus fabric:

That girl and her octopus obsession.  I used the Gloria dress pattern from an etsy seller (it is very basic) and put box pleats on the skirt instead of gathering because I find it less fussy and the finish better.  I attached the front and backs of the skirts to the bodice and then sewed a long side seam instead of attaching the skirt in the round, which I also like better for construction.  I used a neck facing rather than a band because I like the way it looks and is also less frustrating to finish nicely.

My only complaints about this jersey are that the hem wants to flip up constantly, despite careful pressing, and I made the mistake of using cotton thread to sew it (it was the only color in my bin that matched!), so the waist seam isn't very sturdy; I've had to repair it a couple of times already.  I'll probably just reinforce the whole seam with poly thread this time.

Today is Boo's birthday, so I have to frost a layer cake, decorate the table, and wrap some presents! Wheee!!