Cypress Pullover

I AM WEARING A SWEATER ON MAY 29!  Yippie!!!  The temps finally dropped again and it has been in the upper 40s this morning; I am in bliss.  Naturally, I pulled my newly dry Cypress sweater off the blocks and put it on.  So lovely!  Tights and Blunnies and sweaters; I should live in the tundra or something.

I used Andrea Mowry's Stripes! sweater pattern again, just with a solid color.  I made the sleeves slightly shorter as I thought I was playing yarn chicken (which I won, having 24" of the fifth skein left), but it turns out I had another skein hiding in the bottom of a bag.  No matter, it will go to good use!

I finally got the hang of using a 9" circular needle so I could do the sleeves in the round--so nice!  I don't mind seaming that much, but it is an extra step and uses extra yarn, so I'll probably be doing all my sleeves this way in the future.  It also gives me a less painful option to reknit the sleeves longer in the future if I want to.  Or maybe *gasp* knit socks?? (Okay, probably not)

I kind of like the slightly shorter length sleeve, to be honest; a 3/4 length sleeve in wool never seemed practical to me, but this is light DK weight yarn (Chickadee from Quince and Co.), so I think it works.  I have a long sleeve tshirt about the same color as the sweater that I can layer under this sweater when it is colder.  The body is just slightly shorter than my first Stripes! sweater, but it still covers my waistband, so it's fine.  I might reblock the body slightly to see if I can get another 1/2".  Or I might not.

This color is one of "my" colors--a good clear dark green.  I admit, my denim skirt could use a wash to get out some of the wrinkles and bagging in the front, but this is real life, right?

Look, ma, no seams!

 

 

I've been wearing this jewelry set almost constantly since I made it.  It seems to go with so many things in my closet!  

 

Can you tell I'm happy with the reprieve from the heat?!?  Happy Saturday!

Spring Evendoon

This is possibly an odd post for the end of May, but I wanted to show my completed Spring Evendoon before the weather makes it completely ridiculous to write about a wool sweater.  I finished it on May 13 and blocked it and photographed it the next day, when it was still chilly enough in the morning to get away with it.  The temps are supposed to drop to the 50s over the weekend (hooray!) so I might even get to wear it.  (Although my Cypress sweater is on the block now, so I might wear that instead!)

So, the Evendoon.  I cast this on immediately after finishing the Lilias Day in part because I was so disappointed that the Lilias wasn't going to work for me and I loved the palette so much.  (The friend I sent the sweater to is delighted with it).  This is a basic raglan knit, but the striping pattern keeps you on your toes, particularly during the raglan increases, as you have to keep track of two things at once.  It was also a LOT of ends to weave in as I knitted the sleeves flat and seamed (which I'm never doing again as I finally figured out a way of knitting small in the round that doesn't make me want to claw my eyes out).

 

I decided to stick to the same (stashed) palette and go for a striped version using Kate Davies Evendoon pattern.  (Her palette on the multi-stripe version is very similiar to mine)  This was another case of a sweater pattern I didn't notice when it came out but found very pleasing in a different colorway.  I originally combined the same two Jamieson and Smith yarns for the aqua stripe as I did on the Lilias Day, but it was coming out closer to worsted gauge, so I decided better too light than too heavy and tinked back to use a single strand of the J&S which does bloom nicely with wet blocking.  I like the bright palette very much!

 

 

I again went with the 3rd size, even though I usually make a 2 in Kate's sizing, because I wanted slightly more ease and was concerned about the fit.  The fit is spot on!  I did have to change the bottom slightly from the sample, as the extra two stripes made the body too long for my short torso, and I didn't like how the Jamieson and Smith knitted up in the ribbing on the bottom or neckline (I was also playing yarn chicken with the J&S, and wanted to be able to get the sleeves out).  I like how the cuffs, hem, and neckband all match and keep the stripe pattern. 

In book news, I've been reading Matthieu Pageau's book called The Language of Creation and having my mind generally blown about all the symbolism and fractal connections in the stories of the Bible.  More than that, it is a framework for interpreting and understanding the world.  (Jonathan Pageau said that when he was editing the book for his brother, every time he read the manuscript, he would get to about page 100 and start having seizures about the amazing insights and connections.  Page 100 nothing; I was having seizures on about page five.  Needless to say, it is not a book to rush through, but rather should be taken in small bites.) 

It all goes back to the garden, or as Paul Kingsnorth memorably put it: "we are all still trying to eat the apple."  (He's been killing it on his substack this month--it is well worth the subscription!  "Blanched Sun, Blinded Man" is a great introductory essay about the enchantment of the Machine we all find ourselves in.  I'm eager to read the rest of this series as it comes out).  Around the same time that I started Matthieu's book, I watched the largely panned film Noah, and found it to be much better than the critics said.  It fits well with the symbolic structure that the Pageau brothers talk about, and pulls from lots of traditional sources including the Apocrypha for additional details not included in the Pentateuch.

This week, I started reading a book I got for my birthday last summer called 1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink.  It is a book about how close we came to nuclear annihilation in 1983 because of a number of factors that collided that year.  I'm completely fascinated.  What I like about the author's approach is that he is clear-eyed about both sides of the story, painting neither a flattering nor unflattering picture of either Reagan or Andropov, and giving equal time to the concerns of both sides.  

I think it is easy for people of my generation or a bit older to lionize Reagan because of the perception of stability that he fostered--or at least a kind of clean polarity--but with time and distance comes some wisdom about the ways in which Reagan actually contributed rather heavily to the sort of political discourse in which we now find ourselves, and the instability of international relations more generally.  One wonders if a president with a longer attention span and better impulse control would have been a better choice at that time in history. 

A quirky documentary called The Man Who Saved the World came my way this week as well, and I highly recommend it.  It is about a little-known incident in the USSR where a Soviet colonel averted a major nuclear war in the late summer of 1983.  

(Incidentally, the film glosses over the disaster of the Korean airliner at the beginning of the film, with lots of heart-breaking footage of the aftermath, but the 1983 book gives a great deal more context and information about what happened, and while it was a terrible tragedy, there are a great many questionable things on the part of the captain and crew that led to that point.  Moral of the story: stay in the captain's seat and man your radio).

In between seizures over great stuff from Jonathan Pageau and his brother Matthieu, I am also rewatching The Americans, which is set in the early 1980s, and am drawn in anew, with different eyes to see this time.  

My brain is cookin'.  Hold on to your hats!

Sphinx Remy

I've gotten ahead of myself with posting projects this month.  I posted the Biking Red linen Remy ahead of this Sphinx one, even though I made them in the opposite order and have worn the Sphinx one several times already.  So it goes.

  

The first day I wore it with my Poppy Rose skirt from last summer, which weathered the season fairly well, and is now one of the more comfortable skirts I've made, owing to the waistband fiddling I did last summer.  It was an unusual silhouette for me, being volume on top+volume on the bottom, but it was hot and nasty that day, and I felt okay.  Not sure how I feel about the French tuck thing, though.

The weather is all over the place right now (it was over 90 degrees yesterday with a heat index of 93 or so and will be in the 50s tomorrow), so it is hard to know what to wear each day.  Last Friday, the city lifted the outdoor mask mandate (hooray!) but there is still considerable social pressure to wear a mask outdoors, and you still have to wear one indoors in most places.  It's hard to know what to do. 

I'm vaccinated and have had the virus, but I've been a diligent mask wearer as a public good for the optics of the thing.  But last summer was really hard to wear a mask outdoors and in all the time.  It was very hot and super humid all summer and I'm hot flashy.  And we have no central AC in our house.  Church was...challenging.  I've started wearing mine on a lanyard so I still have it handy if I pop into a store when I'm downtown or want to get on the bus. 

 

 

Anyway, my shirt.  This was my first attempt at view B of the Remy raglan, which includes a center seam and split neck with a button detail that I really like the look of.  It was much simpler to execute than I would have thought!  The seam finishes are neat and clean and the button loop was easy to make and apply.  I love buttons and have a small collection of vintage ones but don't have much cause to use them these days, as my style has moved away from vintage. 

 

It was also my first try pairing this pattern with linen, which is the recommended substrate (although rayon is also listed).  I do like it a lot, but it falls differently than rayon, as you would expect.  I also think that there is still some factory sizing in my linen, even though I prewashed and dried, so it will probably hang better with time. 

 

I did redraft the pattern before cutting this version, as I had cut my pattern down to a six, but decided that wasn't the magic size, so I graded up to an 8, and that seems to be about right.  (Although, I was a bit sloppy when I cut down to a six and the grade between the smaller sizes is pretty small, so it was actually closer to a four.  I do wonder if a six would be okay after all...but I'm happy with the eight).  I also cut bias fabric for the hem in addition to the neckline and I like that very much.  It is slightly cleaner than the turn up the pattern suggests and helps maintain the slight dip the hemline.

 

 

The second day I wore this top, I paired it with a RTW dress I bought last summer from Old Navy.  It was a rare new purchase for me, and I wore it a ton last summer and fall even though I generally dislike rayon knits.  I was never able to find a top layer for the early fall that looked right because there is a v-neckline and waist ties on the sides, but this seems to work!  And we all know this color combo is my jam.

I do like the top better with the more streamlined bottom, but I'll probably wear it with my Rose skirts too.  It is handkerchief weight linen, so it is very light and airy.  I've gotten a ton of wear out of the skirt and Emerald tops out of the same linen, so I think this will be an excellent wardrobe workhorse.

I had a button that matched the linen exactly, and had some cool detail on the face of it, but it was a shank button and only 1/2" across, so I worried that it would flop around and come unbuttoned constantly, plus  not really show up against the shirt.  This slightly lighter teal button is perfect!  I sewed the button on with my machine again and wowzers is that nice.

Light in the Tunnel

Lately, Birdie has been asking to help me in the kitchen; making meals, mostly, but she is getting pretty proficient at making the daily lunches for school as well.  It's good to channel all her excess energy in ways that contribute to the household, but it is a great help to me that she is finally old enough to be actually helpful in the kitchen.  (As I write this, she is cutting up cooked chicken breasts for me and is eager to help me put the rest of dinner together--is this even my life?!?)  There is still plenty of hard, but it is nice to have some bright spots here and there.

In sewing news, I continue on my Remy-Elemental train.  I think I cracked the sizing on the Elemental in the Kaufman French terry, which has enough spandex to bounce.  Again, I had a bit of a struggle with my vanity, as the 14 should fit without messing with seam allowances, and it does, in a fabric that has the pattern-required amount of stretch and recovery.  

In fact, a 12 is a better fit in that sort of fabric.  But the Kaufman French terry has way less stretch, so I'm essentially cutting a 16.  And again, my vanity struggle is totally ridiculous and ungrounded in reality, but there it is.  

But adding 1/2" and using 3/8" seam allowances results in a really nicely fitting and comfortable skirt in this substrate (and yes, I realize that means I'm essentially only adding 1/4", but in sewing, sometimes small changes make a big difference to fit; I am always surprised by this).  

The little bit of ease also relieves some of the stuffiness of the fabric in the heat, so I was able to wear this skirt on Friday when the high was 93 and the humidity was north of 70%.  I was so happy with the improved fit that I unpicked my entire spruce one yesterday so that I can add some fabric on the side seams to get closer to that fit, as the green one is just this side of too tight for my fit preference.  I have just enough fabric left to put in a kind of racing stripe to add some ease.  Hopefully it will look purposeful.  

I also made a linen Remy out of Biking Red linen from fabrics-store.com.  I made a color-blocked Emerald out of it last year, and really like the shade.  I had a bit left over from my Emerald, and bought another yard, which was a good thing, as I made a cutting error and had to piece one of the sleeves a bit.

 

I can get a 3/4 sleeve Remy out of a yard of 58-60" wide fabric, but it has to be cut quite particularly to work, and I was tired that day.  The piecing isn't noticeable, however, and I was grateful I had enough left from last year to make it all work out!  

I might move the button up just slightly, as the edges aren't quite even, but I like the slight contrast of this Art Deco-era button from my stash.  

The color contrast between the Biking Red linen and the Woodrose French terry isn't quite as much as between the English Rose linen and Biking Red, but I still like it--call it #dresslikeacrayon.  Ha!

I have one more Remy planned that I think I'll save for September when it is still hot but I'm over my summer clothes.  

Yellow Brick Road Elemental Skirt

Today is one of those days that I kind of feel defeated by life.  So it goes, eh?  But let's talk about happy fiber-y things instead.

I made another Elemental Pencil skirt, and this skirt is like wearing air.  It is a lightweight cotton knit, with just a whisper of spandex.  I bought it from an etsy seller and there was no brand name attached, but it is similar to Laguna from Kaufman.

I graded up an inch on the side seams on each side because I worried it would be tight and show everything because it was so light colored, but I actually didn't need to, and probably could have stood to size down slightly, as I ended up taking off all the seam allowance I added and then some.  

 

I also shortened this one to 26" instead of the pattern length of 29", as I wanted to see how that was for hotter weather.  I think I like the look of the longer one, but the feel of the shorter one, so might try to strike a balance in the middle somehow.  

In any case, a successful skirt, and a nice warm weather addition.  And you won't lose me in a snowstorm--ha!

Remy+Elemental=Hot weather Happiness

Sometimes things work out serendipitously.  I've been seriously lacking in sew-jo most of this past fall and winter, and only made one thing that I loved (the marigold cord skirt).  But the Elemental Pencil skirt (newly released) and the Remy Raglan (relatively new) have given me a shot of creativity.  I actually have a bit of a backlog of finished projects to post.

 

It does seem like May is my month for making.  Some of that is inspiration from Me-Made-May, and some of it is dread of hot weather (although in truth, we are already there; highs in the upper 80s and 90s).  Every year, I hope to stumble on some magical combination of clothes that will keep me cool and covered in the heat and AC-less environment without making me nuts.  (I took these photos last week when it was still advisable to wear tights in the morning.  No longer).

 

Last year was a good showing: the cropped Emerald tops were an unqualified success, and my Rose hack skirt was good too.  But I still want an option that keeps my arms more covered without making me want to claw my eyes out with heat. I realized yesterday that what really bothers me about being hot is having wet fabric against my skin for any length of time.  Cotton t-shirts, while nice to wear in the heat, don't dry particularly fast, and tend to hold smells/stains more and need more frequent washing.  I also find it difficult to find t-shirts that fit well, look nice, and don't have synthetic fibers.

Linen, on the other hand, dries quickly, doesn't hold smell or stain in the same way, and seems to wear better overall in high heat and humidity (there is a reason why linen is the oldest textile fiber on record!) Rayon is a bit trickier--it can be cool and liquid, flowing away from the body in a nice way, or it can be clingy and hot.  Rayon challis is hit or miss for cool or hot--a lot depends on the weave, I think.

In any case, this is my second version of the Remy raglan, this time in a rayon challis from Art Gallery.  I've figured out how to get these shirts out of a yard of extra wide fabric by cutting the sleeves on the cross-grain, so it makes the Art Gallery stuff more affordable.  Ditto the skirt--I can get a skirt out of a yard of extra wide knit fabric, so it is very economical as well.

I sized down to a 10 on this Remy, but still feels a bit roomy.  I had a yard of really cheap challis that I toiled a size 6, but the fabric wasn't great, so it was already pilling by the time I finished it, and was the sort of challis that feels hot and stuffy to wear.  I also found the 6 to be not snug exactly, but not as breezy as I would care for.  

I did struggle with my vanity a little bit; I wanted the six to be my magic size--isn't that terrible??  I don't wear a six in rtw like, ever, so I don't know why this seemed important to me.  It's just a number.  Anyway, I did some redrafting to grade up to an 8 and fix an issue that arises when you shorten the pattern as directed so my linen versions are a size 8.  I'll blog those soon.

I like this blouse very much, nonetheless, and am happy to wear it.  The only thing I wish I'd remembered to do was to face the cuffs so the turn back wouldn't be as obvious.  I have a tiny bit of fabric left that I could still do this, I think, but that's a project for another day.  

 

The skirt is from the new Robert Kaufman Trainer's French Terry in the spruce colorway, with the wrong side out again.  This terry is a cotton/spandex blend and the spandex percentage is just a tad more than ideal--I should have graded up slightly to account for the extra bounce.  I've already made another from the same substrate, but gave myself a bit of extra room.

I won't say I'm eager for more hot weather, but at least I feel a little less depressed about the prospect of four more months of this mess.  I'll take what I can get!

Rayon Twill Remy Raglan

Say that ten times fast!  Alliteration cha-cha-cha!  💃

A quick sewing post today. I made another Elemental Pencil skirt over the weekend that I will write about soon, but I wanted to talk about the Sew House 7 Remy Raglan, which is a woven t-shirt with two sleeve options.  I wanted a warm weather top that was breezy with 3/4 sleeves for better skin coverage.  #burnsinthemoonlight 

Enter the Remy!  This orangey-red rayon twill was my first go at the pattern.  I've never worked with rayon twill before (only challis) so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It has the same liquid drape as rayon challis, but the fabric is slightly beefier without being heavy, if that makes sense.  It was also shifty as all get out.  That said, I really like this pattern, with some caveats. 

The fabric is close to 60" wide, but I only had a yard, so I had to cut the sleeves on the cross grain.  I also shortened the body of the top about an inch and a quarter to make it work yardage-wise, and also because I knew the finished length would be too long on my short torso.  The neck binding wasn't quite cut on the bias, but it worked out okay because the substrate is pretty stretchy anyway.

  

I sewed a 12 based on my hip measurement and it is too big on me; I should have gone with my high bust measurement, but I was nervous about having enough room on the bottom.  Turns out there is plenty of room, as you can see--almost 20 inches of ease!  I'll still wear it (I've worn it twice already) but sized down for the second one (about which more later) and will probably size down another one or two sizes for the others I have planned--I can't decide if a 6 or 8 would be best.  I might make the sleeves a bit shorter in the future as well.  There were a couple of weird construction things that I won't do on future iterations (like understitching the bias binding, which only stretched out the neckline oddly), and I think a narrower hem would look nicer (I may still change that on this one, as the bottom doesn't always want to behave).  I could probably stand a forward shoulder adjustment, but honestly, I just can't be bothered.

I really like the swing of it, and find it extremely comfortable and cool in the humidity, even if it is a bit too big on me.  I also like it with my first Elemental skirt, although it the skirt probably too thick for super hot weather.  I have a thinner version planned for summer, as this silhouette really appeals to me right now.

I've tried 3/4 sleeve tops in summer before, but they were closely fitted t-shirts, and frankly, I was hot and sweaty.  Not good for hot flashes.  I realize now that my mistake was in wearing fitted clothing--you need air movement under and around the clothing to keep things breezy.  Also, ease around the armpits is key, which is why I want to get the fit right on this pattern--not too fitted, but a little less oversize than this iteration.  In any case, I'm feeling slightly less daunted by the hot weather.   

  

Yay for another sewing win!