Wildwood Sorrel

Long time readers will know that I used to wear a lot of prints.  Like, a lot.  Enough to think of myself as a "printy-utilitarian" in my style preference.  These days I gravitate more toward texture than prints, and am very careful to be sure a print it is something I want to wear and not just look at.  So I've gone tactile-utilitarian, I suppose?

In August, I was looking for fabric for something else and saw the new Wildwood collection from Rifle and Co., and got completely obsessed with the pink/burgundy Garden Party fabric.  Incidentally, if you are looking for the same, the keywords Wildwood and Garden Party will not get you there, as I discovered to my consternation when I went back to find it later.  The fabric also comes in a petite version that has a smaller scale, but I preferred the larger scale.  

My mom sent me this pic around this time, and I had to laugh.  Add yarn and knitting, well yep, pretty much!

The fabric in question was quilting cotton, however, which gave me pause, as I also rarely wear it any longer.  My first thought was an Obi-belt to go with the beet linen I had yet to make up.  But I still wasn't convinced I wanted to make another Terrace dress (although I may still do it with the remnant left).  I thought about making a duvet cover for my bed, but the amount of fabric needed and resultant cost gave me pause.  I decided it was worth the plunge to get the dress length that would hopefully get me another church dress.  

The Sorrel dress pattern has been languishing in my stash since 2018 since I supported the kickstarter campaign for paper patterns.  Button-down front skirts and me don't always get along well, and the sheer number of buttonholes put me off, as I was still doing them by hand at that point.  But one of the tester samples stayed with me (Ellie in the needlecord), so I hung on to the pattern for future experimentation.  Fast forward to 2021, and I sew buttonholes and buttons by machine now, and felt that the fabric and pattern would be a good match.  I did a bit of futzing around* with My Body Model to check first, and pleased to report that the sketch is pretty close to the finished dress!  

Based on the size chart, I cut a B-cup/14 and added 1" of length to the skirt with a 1/2" hem to get it to a length I was comfortable with.  The bodice fit is spot on, but I'd maybe add a total of 1.5" to get it to the bottom of my knee.

The make was not without issues.  I picked some 1/2" pine green buttons from an old make that were an okay match, marked everything using the buttonhole placement guide included in the pattern, sewed the button holes, cut them open, applied the buttons, and ....whomp, whomp, whomp.  I thought the overlap seemed kind of big, but it has been a while since I sewed anything with a button closure for myself, and well.  I don't know what the deal is with the pattern piece, but the markings are for 1.5" from the edge, which is...ridiculous.  It made all the buttons sit slightly off center, which was just off enough to look unintentional.  

I puzzled a bit over how to fix it.  I already had the buttons placed as close to the inside edge as I dared.  I thought about trying to get bigger buttons that would require bigger button holes that I could then cut closer to the edge, but I wasn't sure that would look good either, given that there are 12 buttons on the dress.  I tried switching the overlap, thinking that I could recut the buttonholes on the opposite side and figure out how to close up the holes on the underside neatly.  

It turned out that the deciding factor was that the look of the dress greatly improved with the overlap switched--something about the edging of the fabric on that side, so I decided to unpick all the buttonholes, and use fusible applique to cover them.  I spent quite a long time one afternoon pattern matching so that the edges would be as invisible as possible, and then applying the pieces.  I ordered new buttons and remarked the buttonholes on the other side.  

By this point, I was feeling paranoid about the whole thing and cut into the holes with fear and trembling, because there were no more options if this didn't work.  Thankfully, it was fine!  My only complaint is that the space between two of the buttons is off by 1/4" or so, but it isn't noticeable to anyone but me, I think.

  

I used proper fusible interfacing for the button band and neckline facings, which I'm pretty pleased about.  I've always used a different type of fusible interfacing that Did Not Behave, so I often skipped it or subbed Petersham or Ban-rol when a pattern called for it.  The stuff I tried this time is Pellon brand and seems to work as it should.  The guts of the dress are completely clean, as I was able to use French seams throughout.  I also lined the skirt with a bit of white rayon bemberg from the stash.  I wanted it to be something I could wear without a slip in hot weather.  I'm noticing that my hot flashy self cannot tolerate a nylon slip in heat, so I'm working toward having hot weather garments that are lined with bemberg or can be worn without a slip like linen.  

After one full day of wearing, I can say it is a nice and comfortable dress, particularly for church, although I think I should catch the stitching on the waist bar slides all the way through to the front of the fabric so that it doesn't pull at the edge there.  An easy fix.

I'm very pleased with the dress, and particularly with the sweep and fit of it--slim skirt and comfortable!  With pockets!  Wahoo!  I'll probably use the skirt pattern again as a stand alone.  Maybe the bodice too.  Yay for a new pattern--Jennifer Lauren Handmade's patterns are going high on my list after this (and the general success of my Trixie unders).  

*By futzing, I mean using Canva and Lunapic to digitally "draw" all the pieces.  I usually do this by hand, but with specific fabrics like this, I wanted to see it with the actual fabric at scale, and couldn't draw that well enough in a short time.  I've done it with several other things since and enjoy the process a lot, despite some basic limitations in the tech available to me.  I still enjoy drawing/coloring by hand but use each process for different things.

Refashions for Ponchik

I mentioned in my Emerald top round-up post yesterday that I had toiled the pattern last summer.  In general, I don't keep excess fabric around for such endeavors (although I have an old sheet that got holes in that I use for the purpose), but I did have a short yard of Rifle and Co. Birch rayon that I had bought at some point for refashioning my earlier Dottie Angel frock of the same, but ended up not doing before the dress left my closet for greener pastures.  I used the yard for the toile, but because the selvedges on Rifle and Co. are extremely wide and white (why??), I couldn't quite make the Emerald work as a wearable piece.  I had a similar problem with my Menagerie remnant and had to piece a bit of the side seam.

My main complaint about toiles is that you end up with fabric that is basically unusable for anything else, and it feels very wasteful to me.  The Emerald toile was just such a piece--I couldn't use it for anything else for me, and it seemed like a waste of decent fabric, albeit fabric I wasn't particularly keen to have in my closet again.

I decided to see if I could cut it down for Ponchik and add a skirt in a contrast fabric.  In my quest to find the perfect orange for my Poppy Rose skirt, I ended up with a skirt length of orange rayon-linen blend mystery fabric that wasn't quite the right orange for me.  

Fortunately, it went very well with the Rifle and Co. Birch fabric, so I cut a 12" length, seamed the sides, gathered it up, and popped it on the bottom of the (cut-down) top and Bob's your uncle.  (Well, not quite, but close enough).  I added a little self-cased belt too.  The nice thing about the contrast skirt is that I can cut it off and add a new one, or add another tier of fabric if it gets too short.  The top part is roomy enough she may get another season out of it if I do that.  She is in love with the dress and wears it constantly.

The other cut-down I did was to my Octopus dress.  I had made my octopus-loving girl a birthday dress a few years ago, and myself a matching one at the same time, but only wore mine a couple of times that year.  

It was really a bit too kitchy for me, so I've had it in the bin to cut down for her ever since.  She wore the original dress at least two summers (maybe even three) before we couldn't squeeze her into it any longer.  She's been longing for another octopus dress since.

I decided to cut it down from the top rather than cutting out a new pattern from the bottom, so I unpicked all the bias and kangaroo pocket, and pinched out the excess at the shoulders first, and then the side seams, which I think gave me more usable fabric to work with at the end then the usual way I cut down things for the girls.  I'll likely do this method again.

I think I ended up bringing the shoulder seam down 2", and in 2" all along the side seams, plus a bunch at the hem (14", maybe?)  I made a casing and waist-tie to mimic my own dresses this summer, and made the whole thing roomy and a bit overlong so she can get extra wear out of it.  I also made a matching mask at her request, out of the pocket piece.  She found it a bit hot compared to her normal jersey mask, however, so she might save it to the fall. 

Not a bad use of time and fabric!  I had made a small mountain of fabric leftovers to try and make stuff like this (and work through my fabric stash), but I realized a) the girls have enough clothes for now, and b) I mostly have enough stuff for now.  The only thing I may try to do is eke out another Emerald from the leftover Purple Violet Squish dress fabric.

A Tetrad of Emeralds

Oh summer clothes.  So hard to be comfortable and not wilted-feeling.  I'm mostly into separates, and I have a few thrifted t-shirts that are fine, but almost all need to be tucked in to look good (wahh!)  Sometimes it is just too hot and humid for that mess.

So, I got a bit brave this spring and decided to experiment with a new-to-me silhouette: the boxy cropped top.  (No, not like that. More like this).  Last year, Rae made a few Emerald tops and I loved them so much that I saved my pattern just for that purpose, as the dress had been an epic fail for my figure.  I made a hasty toile to get the fit right, since the sizing chart was really off for me, and then didn't actually make a wearable top last year. 

Until now!  I revisited my toile and made the changes on my flat pattern and made sure it all worked, and also chopped off a bunch of length to get it to Ashton crop top length.  (For the record, I cut all these tops on the straight grain, eliminated the center seam, and took several inches out of the center front and back for a closer fit.  The hem is straight across, about 10" below the undearm, and I cut a 2"-ish facing for all the blouses.  The sleeve facings are brilliant, in my opinion, and the best part of the pattern). 

I wasn't sure I would like it, but I actually do!  It is breezy and cool, comfortable, and while perhaps not the most singularly flattering thing I wear, it does work for summer.  I made four and have worn three of them several times already. 

The first was a minty one, in Mosaic linen from fabrics-store.com.  It is probably my favorite, to be honest.  It's just so fresh.  I roller-skated in it while visiting my parents last week and it was delightful. 

The second was a butterfly lawn one, out of leftover fabric from a dress I've yet to show.  I received the bolt end from fabric.com, so I had a lot of extra to play with (I made a matching mask too--somebody stop me!)  

 

It is perhaps a little bit too much into scrubs territory, but I like it okay.  It goes with several of my skirts.

The third and fourth were eked out of the selvedges of my teal skirt, as I had cut it carefully to preserve yardage for future use.  I ended up getting a skirt and these two blouses plus a mask out of two yards!

I had the idea of using up the remnant of Rifle and Co. rayon from my Menagerie dress, and had enough for a contrast panel only, so I sketched out a few iterations and Boo helped me pick this one.  There are literally fumes of that fabric left.  (Ditto the linen, for that matter).

The rayon facings were a bit fussy to do in rayon (especially when combined with linen), but it is okay.  I decided to let the sleeve facings peek out a bit for some additional contrast on the sleeve edges.

The other blouse is just plain, and I like it quite a bit.  It goes with several skirts as well.  It was ridiculously hot that day, and while I wouldn't say I was cool, I was a lot more comfortable than I usually am in that kind of heat.

Clothes are Hard (and so is life)

I think the post title says it all.  Also: Lent is hard.  I feel like my life is hurtling by at breakneck speed lately.  It's been one thing after another, really.  I can't seem to get my feet under me.

I suppose that is why my clothes seem all wrong.  I was excited about my spring rotation for the first few days and then the novelty wore off.  I seem to process my inner discomfort in whatever covers my body.  Take this dress:

You might remember it from last spring.  It was a little different then.  Earlier this month, I experimented with adding in-set sleeves to my Eggplant Birch dress (as it was scheduled for the block anyway.  I figured if I messed it up, it wasn't a big loss).  The Eggplant Birch sleeve hack was mostly a success (but an undocumented one), and I decided to try altering my Painted Roses rayon next.  I've never been happy with it as a short sleeve dress, and really wanted more long sleeved dresses in my closet for spring.

So.  The sleeve hack on this dress went better than on the Eggplant one because I figured out a few things on the first try that I righted on the second.  But I'm not sure I like the result.  I think my main problem with the dress is that I don't like my black cardigan very much because it ends at a weird spot on my hips, but it is the only warm layer I have that goes with this dress.  I've been unsuccessful in finding a long line replacement and don't really want to knit one just now.

I think I need to take the elastic out of the sleeve casing as well, as I just don't like how it feels.  I did the same on my Menagerie dress and was much happier with it by day's end.  It's an easy fix, thankfully.  I ended up taking this off and wearing something else yesterday.  I'm doing that a lot lately--putting on three outfits before settling on something for the day that doesn't make me feel nuts.  I don't like it.

I'm slightly frustrated with myself and my body lately, which probably contributes to the problem.  The five or six pounds that I put on just before the start of Lent has stubbornly refused to budge and I can't really figure out why.  I'm ground down by ten months of constant foot pain (that has gotten worse since starting physical therapy for it), and am starting to think that it will always be this way.  The kids have been a near-constant challenge since December.  So there's that.

I'm not sure if I will wear this dress, to be honest.  I'm not going to alter any more of my rayon dresses for now (mostly because I wanted to keep one short sleeved one for the end of the rotation when it tends to warm up a bit).   

I find myself craving some different clothes, but I don't know what, exactly, since I am uncomfortable in anything shorter than my knees and I don't like pants.  My proportions are just mumsy enough to look weird in the straight-up-and-down silhouettes that are trendy.  

Maybe I'm just craving a different me.  

The bright spot in my closet is my Mille Fleur dress, which seems just right to me at the moment.  I bought some spruce green jersey to make another one, and want to experiment with some dark gray ponte for a skirt.  I'm thinking about sewing for the girls' summer wardrobes too--I was given some fabric by a dear friend who was destashing that will make some nice dresses for them.

Ponchik requested a cupcake dress for her birthday in May, so I have some fabric on order for that (it was suprisingly difficult to find cupcake fabric for her dress--so much of it was either a weird color for a dress, looked too photorealistic for clothing, or was just plain ugly).  Hopefully she likes what I ended up buying.  I'm considering cutting down my Octopus dress for her since her beloved birthday dress from last year is too small now.

I got an e-mail from Hawthorne Threads a couple of days ago about Cloud 9's new double gauze line.  It is gorgeous, and the floral print is especially pretty, but I hesitated a long time over ordering and in the end decided to wait.  

I made two dresses last summer out of double gauze, and I wore them a lot, but I find every year that summer stymies me.  (And looking at the photos, I find I like them again, go figure).  I always end up hating everything in my summer rotation.  This has a lot to do with the weather, as I wilt in the heat, and never am happy with my clothes as a result, but a bit of it is some undefinable thing about hot weather clothing specifically.  I don't like to have bare arms and shoulders or knees, and the cultural visual norm for summer is all of those things.  So I never quite feel like I fit.

I suppose it is time to just experiment with some things and see what sticks.  

Menagerie Dottie Pearl Dress and Calligraphy Cardigan

Fresh off the blocking mat is my Calligraphy Cardigan!  I worked on this sweater in the fall and had mostly finished it before Nativity, but I set it aside for a few months to finish the Dusk sweater and a few other things.  I knew I wanted this sweater for my spring, and it just needed button bands and seaming on the sleeves.

So I put my shoulder to the grindstone and cranked out the button bands over the last few weeks.  I was slightly annoyed to discover that the recommended yardage was off by a ball, as I ran out of yarn halfway through the second button band (and I made the button bands an inch narrower than called for!)  I used the Chickadee yarn the pattern was written for, so I really don't understand what happened (and this almost never happens to me since I'm a tight knitter and usually have to size up on needles).  Since I bought the yarn almost a year ago, the dye lots were slightly different, so the one button band is slightly darker on the one half, but it is only noticeable if the sweater is lying flat.  

But it doesn't annoy me enough not to wear it!  I used 192 stitches for the button bands instead of the recommended 190 for this size, as that seemed skimpy to me.  (I cast on 3 stitches for every 4, which was about right).  The blocking really smoothed everything out.  I put it in the washer on a handwash cycle with another sweater and then laid it flat on my drying rack to block.  Since I didn't need to block it aggressively, this worked very well and I will probably do it again.  The bathtub method tends to make my sweaters grow in ways I don't always like.

I used some vintage buttons from my stash that almost exactly matched and I had 10, which was perfect.  I sewed the extra one into the side seam in case of a loss.  I really like this long line style of cardigan right now (with the sailor type collar) and cast on another almost immediately.

And the dress.  This is Cotton+Steel rayon challis, from one of the collaborations with Rifle and Co.  (It is part of the Menagerie line).  I made it as a Dottie Pearl dress, and I think forgot to taper the sleeves at the bottom when I added the 2" of extra length, so they were really flapping in the wind because of the drapey rayon.  So I decided to cinch them with a bit of elastic at the wrist and create a small bishop sleeve silhouette.  I don't think I would do this on every sleeve treatment, but I do like it on this dress!  (After wearing for a morning, I think I might try making the sleeve elastic slightly bigger.  It is slightly tight when worn under a sweater).

But overall, I like the fit of the dress, and the drape is really nice.  It is a shame that the small scale pattern doesn't show up at a distance, because it is quite interesting.  The dress is kind of a spruce green in the background, but it has blue flowers that sort of coordinate with the sweater, so I'm going to call it good.

Small patch pockets, as with the flannel version.  

Elastic sleeve detail.  I didn't do anything fancy--I just hemmed it as usual, and left an opening for the elastic.  I used 1/4" elastic that I use for the back cinch, and just measured my wrist loosely for fit.

You can see the print a bit better here.  If I was really on trend, I would have made this sweater in a mustard color to match the ferns in the dress (Cotton+Steel seems to use this particular shade in a lot of their prints), but I'm not cool that way.  That color doesn't look particularly good near my face.

And besides, blue has a bigger place in my closet.  Overall, I'm happy with this outfit--it is nice for the spring transitional weather, I think.

As for reading, I'm still re-reading Constantina Palmer's Scent of Holiness for Lent, Rodney Stark's Rise of Christianity (excellent sociological study about how Christianity came to be the main religion of the Western world; it has a lot of great information about how conversion works en masse), and I just started Esther Emery's What Falls From the Sky.  

We've had so many sick days, snow days, days off for holidays, church feasts, professional development days, etc. that I'm starting to feel like I'm in an endless summer break with the kids at home.  I haven't had a full week of kids at school since early December.  It is March 8. <sigh>

I did decide to work on the book from a different angle for a little while, to see if that helps me with some areas that I'm stuck on.  (I understand my male protagonist very well, and his flaws/problems/goals/ambitions, but I'm struggling with my female protagonist, and it is through her eyes that a lot of the story is told.  I have a good idea of what I want her character arc to be, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get from point a to point b.  Right now I have a lot of scenes that don't do very much to advance her story arc.  So: outlining and character story boarding.  And editing.  Lots of editing.  And staring at the wall a lot).

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

The More Things Change...Re-Considering Project 333

...the more they stay the same.  I've been thinking for several months about Project 333 and what my goals are for both my wardrobe and for the Project.  (For those who aren't familiar with Project 333, you can read more about it here.)  Basically, the goal is to live with less.  Not just less clothing, but less overall.  I'm a minimalist by nature, so this project feels very natural and good to me, but I've wondered lately if I'm making it too complicated.  Some people who do the Project have whittled themselves down to 2 or 3 rotations.  I've never been able to do less than four, and I have very little cross-over between them.  (Maybe a cardigan or two, or shoes, but rarely main garments).  

Winter 2017: Flannel #1.2, Flannel #2, Flannel #3, Eshakti knit black dress

Winter 2017: Flannel Plaid Dottie Pearl, Folk Birds canvas linen, Daisy Chain canvas linen, Eshakti olive knit dress

I had come to accept that this was okay, and that a lot of it has to do with the way I dress.  That is to say, I primarily wear patterned dresses of differing weights and sleeves depending on the weather, and I don't really want to wear half of them for the warm months and the other half for the cold months.  I get sick of them.  (My summer rotation in particular gets very sad by the end of the season).  And for the first time ever, I'm sick of my winter rotation.  I think this has to do with the fact that I've leaned down each rotation quite a bit, so there isn't as much to choose from (not a bad thing) but it also means items wear out quicker.  

Winter 2017: Grey flannel dress, Geo Flannel Skirt #2, Orange wool skirt

Winter 2017: Dusk cardigan, Banana Republic wool cardigan, LLBean navy cardigan, Fair Isle wool cardigan

I swapped my winter rotation for the spring yesterday (because today was supposed to be a writing and liturgical prep day, but I have a sick kid home today so I'm blogging instead of working on the novel).  The weather has also changed to a decidedly spring tone in the past week--40s in the morning, high 50s or even low 60s in the afternoon. Definitely not heavy flannels and woolens weather.  I've put my winter coat away and swapped my fur boots for leather. 

Winter 2017: Blue cashmere cowl neck pullover, gray wool pullover, navy cotton pullover, black wool cardigan

Winter 2017: red undershirt, gray henley, orange undershirt, olive pullover sweater, blue undershirt, black undershirt, olive undershirt, olive cardigan/pullover

I've had a suspicion for a few months that I'm keeping certain items in each rotation not because I especially like them, but because they tick a box in my mind or because the blog photos look nice or they were a lot of work, or I wore them a lot in previous seasons or whatever. Chambray dress, tick.  Novelty print spring/summer dress, tick. Linen dresses, tick. Goes with that cardigan, tick.  I got everything out yesterday and piled it up on my bed.  Even the knitted accessories, silk long underwear, and wool socks.  I realized that there were a few pieces in each rotation that were there not because I liked them,  or even particularly wanted to wear them, but just because they were, you know, there. 

Spring 2018: Eshakti navy knit dress, First Light dress, Eshakti green knit dress, Navy Birch rayon dress*

 I looked at each piece very critically and asked myself if I was wearing it because I wanted to or because I was forcing myself to because it was in the rotation or because it went with something else.  If the former, I kept it.  If the latter, into the pile it went.  If it was in the rotation because it went with something else (a cardigan or two were in this category), I also was pretty critical about the item it went with.  Was I still going to wear the dress without that particular cardigan?  In some cases, the answer was no.  In others, yes.  So it was a good weeding out process, and I feel pretty good about the state of my off-season bins at the moment.  

Spring 2018: Painted Roses rayon dress*, Eshakti black knit dress, Menagerie rayon Dottie Pearl dress (unblogged), Cross Hatch denim dress (reworked slightly)

The notable weeds were the Daisy Chain canvas dress (I like it in theory, and wore it a lot this year, but honestly, it isn't the most flattering color on me, and it requires a lot of particular layers to look right and be warm enough), the Dusk sweater that goes with it (reblocking it made the fit worse, but I might keep it for bumming around it, as it is warm), the Menagerie dress (I did wear it quite a bit this fall and winter, but I think I'm just over it.  I don't like the way I feel when I wear it and I don't like the particular layers that go with it to make it warm enough for cold weather), a green wool cardigan I bought second hand that doesn't go with anything and is too boxy on me, the Target pants (I tried, I really did.  I just don't like pants that much), the Fair Isle wool sweater (I was forcing myself to wear it, but it is too big on me, the boxy style isn't flattering and feels matronly to me), plus a few other items that I'm forgetting right now.

Spring 2018: Flannel plaid Dottie Pearl dress, Marigold linen skirt, denim pencil skirt, Hobby Horse linen-canvas skirt (still fits!)

Spring 2018: grey cardigan, black wool cardigan, peach cardigan, navy cardigan

When I got to the spring bin, I noticed right away that a few items I had put away last year were in worse shape than I remembered.  The Dandelion Zadie was very sad indeed.  (Which is just as well, as I wasn't particularly enthused about wearing it this year, but felt I had to to justify the cost of the fabric last year.  Nevermind that I wore it constantly last spring).  Word to the wise: Do not, under any circumstances, place Art Gallery printed jersey in the dryer, even to prewash/dry it. Just don't do it.  In fact, don't do it with any printed jersey.  This PSA brought to you by a sad sack who learnt the hard way last year.  The charcoal gray linen was in pretty poor shape on the bust tucks and the linen was starting to look worn.  I've never understood why the linen wears so badly on those seams but not in other fabrics.  I had to retire my navy linen dress late last fall as well because the linen itself was looking shabby.  In truth, I was never happy with the back neckline or the resulting shoulder fit of the navy linen, so I wasn't too sorry to see it go (although I did wear it a ton, despite the fit).  Both were great dresses for the three seasons I wore them, but I didn't really want to wear them this year.  

Spring 2018: Navy battenberg shirt, green henley, navy striped shirt, grey henley, gray striped shirt, blue striped shirt, blue shirt.

Spring 2018: Gray wool pullover, purple cotton/wool longline sweater, navy cotton longline cardigan

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my Hobby Horse skirt still fits pretty well--I worried that it would be too big and I'd have to remake it as an Everyday skirt (I have the fabric to do so).  I really love it as a pencil skirt and put a lot of work into that skirt, so I'm thrilled it is still wearable this year.

The main changes to my Project 333 approach are to have more cross-over garments between my fall, winter, and spring rotations rather than three distinct sets of garments.  I've been missing my marigold linen skirt for a few weeks, so I decided to add it to this rotation.  The color works more or less a neutral anyway.  I'm wearing it today with complete happiness.  I also carried over my plaid flannel dress from my winter (because I've been wearing it a lot lately, and it seemed like a good piece for in-between weather because it doesn't need a lot of layers).  I also carried over my black knit dress for the same reason.

I'd like to replace my wool black cardigan with a longline version, as I've never really been happy with this one as a cardigan (it is okay as a pullover tucked into a skirt, however).  I'm nearly finished with a long cardigan that goes nicely with the unblogged Menagerie dress, and am going to start another long cardigan using my frogged Yellow Brick Road Jade wool.  I figured out a few key things about swatching recently that have helped me to understand why I often don't like my finished sweaters (more about that in another post).

My sewing queue for this season is quite short.  I am going to try a knit dress pattern using the Mille Fleur jersey I blogged about last year.  I plan to make a rayon Everyday skirt out of some rayon challis I bought last year.

My knitting queue has taken front stage as it is something I can do when my mind shuts down on the novel.  I'm trying to knit more accessories and fewer full garments, since I'm fairly happy with my sweaters (I have plans for two sweaters right now, including the above-mentioned Jade) and would like more cowls and shawls and the like.  I need to address my linen Gemini, as the pattern torture device lace panel is the main reason I haven't finished it.  I'm thinking of frogging it and starting again, either with no lace panel in the back, or something simpler over the same stitch count. (I know, I know.  It is fingering weight.  But half-finished is still half-finished.  And it's been two years already.  Enough is enough).

*I have in mind to experiment with adding in-set sleeves to my rayon dresses, since I love the fit and feel of the new (unblogged) Menagerie Dottie Pearl Dress.  I had to purchase additional fabric to adapt the Navy Birch and Painted Roses dresses. I plan to experiment on the Eggplant Birch dress first since I have less attachment to that one if the experiment fails.  One of the ways I'd like to simplify my wardrobe is to have fewer necessary layers in for the colder months.  Long sleeved dresses are a way to accomplish that.  I'll still need cardigans, and undershirts are handy for really cold weather (especially under a flannel dress), but I'm tired of wearing undershirts for almost everything in my closet and needing so many to make sure I make it through a laundry cycle.  If it works, I might retrofit my flannel dresses next fall.

So that's where I am with Project 333 and my making.  I'm going to have a rest before services tonight; this post took way longer than I anticipated and I didn't sleep super well last night.  Plus: sick kid at home.  

Pray for me, a sinner.