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!!

Yarn Along: Magic Tulips & All The Green Things

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!  This is a longish post so grab a cuppa and settle in.  

The knitting is just below the sewing if you are just here for fiber craft!

~sewing~

I have had an epic number of sewing fails lately.  My Carson dress turned out so badly I didn't even want to show it to you.  (And so you get bathroom mirror pics).  The things I do for sewing science.  

 I didn't even bother hemming it, it was just that bad.   I could carry a child to term in this dress.  The skirt just has so.much.volume!  And the pockets are absurdly tiny.  (And yes, I know the pockets were recently redrafted, but I was working off the original dress pattern and didn't realize how very tiny the originals were until I'd finished).  

The bodice is a bit snug, and the arms are pretty fitted for a woven garment, but I was between sizes and went down a size, based on what others had written about the pattern.  I still think it was the right call, as the next size (a medium) is 3" larger in the bodice and a huge amount bigger in the skirt.  I also didn't like that there were no finished length measurements, so I had to do a bit of sewing math as I was cutting out to figure out how long to make the skirt.  (It is too long).  

I can cut it down for a dress for one of the girls, so at least it isn't a total waste.  But still.  I hate waste.  Especially when it costs money.  

I had another not-quite success of an Everyday skirt from a gifted fabric remnant.  The fabric was so pretty--it looks like gzhel pottery on a linen substrate--but I didn't really have enough for an Everyday skirt and tried to make it work anyway.  The result isn't quite...right.  I'm frustrated with the project so I don't want to fiddle with it right now, and it is a warm weather garment, so I put it in the bin to deal with another time.  

I also remade the stripey shirt into a dress for Birdie, and while it technically turned out wearable, it isn't the best looking thing I ever made.  It is just okay.  Not a stunning success.  

I'm unhappy with my Menagerie rayon dress and my painted roses dress hack just didn't work.  The painted roses dress fits really oddly now and is pretty uncomfortable.  I think taking up the hem on the Menagerie was a mistake (I can let it out easily enough) and I'm not sure I love the shape of the overall dress on me even though I love the print.  The pockets are seriously wonky and I wish I had done inseam pockets (I could fix this, but I'm not sure I have enough fabric). 

I also wrote that rayon makes me cold-sweat in cooler weather.  Since it has been quite cold until the last two days (when it suddenly jumped to 80 degrees!) I've not wanted to wear any rayon.  I had a revelation this week, however, (a real "duh" moment), which was: stop wearing rayon in cold weather, you dummy!  Rayon is quite lovely in hot weather, as it skims the body and stays cool to the touch.  Wrinkles fall out of it, and it feels really nice against the skin in heat.  I think I was just stuck on how I wore my rayons last spring, and for whatever reason, I am feeling the cold much more this year.  My husband keeps calling me a human popsicle.  It is ridiculous.  It is like my core is cold or something.

In the meantime, I have been stalking Instagram for the Carson Dress (to figure out if it was going to work for me as a pattern or if I should try the Fen or Fringe dress instead as they are all similar) and noticed the Art Gallery Kermes rayon challis.  I instantly fell in love with this fabric (and several of the garments that were made from it), but at the price point, I wanted to make sure I had a pattern I loved to pair it with.  My rayon adventures this spring have been...not great.

But I suddenly had a thought--and here's the part where I love a pattern to pieces and start to make it in all kinds of unsuitable fabric in an attempt to make it work for everything. *snort* 

I wondered if my McCall's 7353 would work in rayon.  I knew Colette had made a Myrtle out of rayon, and I also knew that if the pattern had positive ease, it was a good candidate for making in woven.  Rayon has a fair bit of mechanical stretch, which helps too.  Based on my experience with the spruce knit dress (a regular closet favorite at the moment), I knew the pattern did work in a fabric with less than ideal stretch.

I had some unloved rayon in my stash from last summer.  It is from Cotton+Steel's Magic Forest collection, and I had bought it thinking I would love it, and then kind of fell out of love with it.  I had four yards and was flummoxed how best to use it.  I wanted to give it away, but had no takers.  So there it sat.  I thought it would be perfect for a test garment, as I had enough to recut things if I needed to.

And...success!  I did have to recut the entire bodice once, but that was it (and used up almost the entire four yards on this dress because of it), but I'm pretty happy with the result both in looks and fit.  I've been wanting more 3/4 sleeve options in my warm weather closet, since I burn so badly (even through clothing sometimes!) and I'm at high risk for skin cancer.  But it is hard to find the right fabric for such a venture since we don't have central AC.  Rayon is just right because it is light, airy, and doesn't cling. 

I made the following alterations to make the pattern work for a woven:

1. I added 1/2" to all seam allowances on the front bodice pattern (the arms are much narrower on the front than the back).  This includes the bottom bodice, as I wanted to lower the bust line a tad.

2. I added 1/2" to the bottom of the back bodice to match the front.  When I put these together, I ended up with a triangle on each corner that was an inch longer than the front, and my brain can't figure out why.  I trimmed the excess and it worked out, but I'm still puzzling that one.

3.  I added 2.5" to the skirt length (my usual addition)

4. I turned the waist casing down toward the skirt because of a sewing error.  It worked largely because this is rayon.  In a bulkier fabric, I would have had to unpick a bunch of stitches and turn it up.  I used seam binding to finish the edge neatly since rayon frays.  I also used the 5/8" fold over elastic in the casing since I like the way it feels around my middle.

5. This rayon is only 45" wide (unlike most, which are 54-57" wide) so I had to piece the sleeves.  I cut to the elbow sleeve length, and then cut out the pattern piece from the elbow line to the cuff.  I sewed them with 1/4" seam allowance and zig-zagged the edges (I zig-zagged all the seam allowances).

6. I sewed the dress seams at 3/8" (the pattern calls for 5/8") and graded out to 5/8" at the waist on the bodice to make the skirt match up with the bodice.

I'm going to try this with the Kermes.  I may even remake the painted roses or menagerie dresses next year.  Watch this space!

~knitting~

I realized I'm knitting all green things!

I started the Rivel cardigan in Lost Lake Heather Swish (that gorgeous complex olive color I wrote about in my Sherwood Cowl).  I am finding it to be a pretty satisfying knit.  I've been wanting to move away from raglan sleeves, since I'm not super happy with how they fit me, so I specifically looked for a pattern with set in sleeves.  

At least one knitter made this by knitting the sleeves down from the cap in short rows, and I have a book on how to do it, so I'll probably try it.  I was worried about keeping up with the cables, but it is a four row cable pattern and pretty easy to read as I go along.

I'm also working on another simple cowl to go with the Triangle dress.  It is a single skein of Rowan wool I had in my bin from a clearance sale somewhere.  The color is actually quite variegated, but it is hard to see unless you look closely.

This is my Jade Calligraphy cardigan, but I'm seriously considering frogging it for a Rivel if that cardigan turns out well.  So I'm not working on this much right now while I consider options.  

~reading~

I just started Marilynne Robinson's Lila at the good advice of a friend familiar with my novel.  My friend suggested it might prove useful.  So far it is a great read, and almost makes me despair at ever attaining Robinson's craft mastery.  Almost.

I'm also still reading Rodney Stark's Rise of Christianity and highly recommend it.  

~watching~

I have a draft post going on what I've watched in the past five months or so, but for now, I'll just say I'm watching McMafia with the always wonderful James Norton.  There are some issues with the production, but overall, I'm engaged and interested in the story.  I do think it is trying just a leetle bit too hard to be The Night Manager, though.

~listening~

I've been listening to Home Free's Timeless album all week--so good!  Can't stop, won't stop.  I also listened to the Vocapeople's Life is Music when I wanted some variety.  Their album is a hilarious musical odyssey through a bunch of different eras.  Oh, and a bit of Cowboy Junkies and Wailin' Jennys.  But you already knew that.  Fretless is good too.

That's all for me!  Whew!  You made it all the way through.  Go have a chocolate and a nap. 😂

Holy Week & Pascha 2018

Christ is Risen!  Truly He is Risen!

I didn't actually take many photos during Holy Week because I was directing the choir at one of the local parishes here for most of the services.  I had a bit of extra time before the Holy Saturday Vesperal Liturgy to snap a couple of photos of the tomb, which was beautiful.  The liturgy was also beautiful and has really grown on me as I've directed it two years in a row now.  I especially love the Magnificat of that service: Do Not Lament Me O Mother.  (It is also sung on Friday night at the Lamentations).

The Holy Saturday Liturgy just says: "Get ready!  Pascha is coming!" to me in a way that the other services of Holy Week don't (and shouldn't, as the focus of the services in the early part of the week is on the coming Passion on Friday).  

I also watched The Passion on Friday night, as has become my Holy Week tradition since my girls are still too young and squirrelly to make it through the long Thursday and Friday night services.  (We go to the first 20-30 minutes and then head home so they can go to bed.  I also take them to the Vespers on Friday afternoon, which lasts an hour).  The movie always puts me in the right headspace for those days. (And yes, I want to see the new Paul movie!)

Our home parish leaves the shroud (called the plashinitsa in Russian, epitaphios in Greek) in the middle of the church until the start of Midnight Office at 11:15 p.m.  (There are differing cultural practices about when the shroud goes into the altar; some parishes bring it into the altar earlier in the evening).  Since I attended the Holy Week services at local parishes, it was nice to venerate the shroud at our home parish just before the Paschal celebration.

Reading the Gospel outside the church doors at 11:50 p.m. or so.  Father David bangs on the door shortly after that to say: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in!" and then someone inside says: "Who is this King of Glory?"  and Father David says: "He is the King of Glory!" They do this exchange three times (because we never do anything just once in the Orthodox Church!) and then Father says: "The LORD of hosts, He is the King of Glory!" and the doors spring open, and we go inside.  All the lights are on and we sing "Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!"

It is wonderful.  (It was also very cold outside this year--below freezing!  I was wearing a heavy sweater, woolen scarf and a down coat with tall boots and I was still cold)  Ponchik was heavily wrapped as well but was still shivering inside my coat.

The church is so so bright after the darkness of the Midnight Office and the dark colors of Holy Week.

The Gospel reading of the Liturgy:

Red eggs for Pascha! (I bought The Miracle of the Red Egg for our burgeoning Pascha book basket this year).

I set up a little Paschal season tableaux on my living room cabinet.  Some of the eggs are from Russia, others I've just collected here and there.

Someone sent us that card a few years ago so I framed it and put it out each year.  I really love those folk art prints.  I have a bunch of the Christmas ones that I put up for Nativity.

Eggs!

These are wooden, by the way, not proper pysanky.  I'd love to make some real ones some day.

I also put up my Paschal greeting window clings.  The right windows are in English, Russian, Greek, and Arabic.

The left windows are in Latin, Dutch, Georgian, and Romanian.  There is an Orthodox etsy seller who makes them.

And I'm sure you are all dying to see my Pascha dress. *snort*  I did get it done in time, but I had to wait until Holy Monday to actually sew it together because spring break (which fell during the 6th week of Lent) was abso-freakin-lutely nuts.

So another M7353 (are you surprised?) in Robert Kaufman Laguna Jersey.  I really like this jersey, because it is a nice weight, has the right amount of stretch, isn't see-through, and handles quite well.  It comes in a bunch of colors and I'd like to make a navy one later this year to replace a navy knit eshakti dress that doesn't suit my style any more.

I went with the Ladybug colorway, but I do wish I had gone with the regular red, as this was a bit more to the orangey-red than I really wanted.  I love a true blue-red but I didn't have time to swatch it.  But it was still good.  When this dress bites the dust, I'll get the regular red colorway to replace it.

The upside of this particular shade was that it coordinated very well with my Pavlovo-Posad woolen scarf from Russia that I bought years ago.  (It has a few moth munches on one corner now, but I keep wearing it anyway).  Because it was freezing!

I had on peacock-teal tights, which matched the blue in the scarf too.  Because I'm matchy-matchy like that.  😂

As has become my Paschal tradition, I put Home Free in the CD player on my way home from church yesterday, and listened to their new Timeless album (It is GREAT!)  The kids and I got donuts on the way to school this morning, and I had my first hot coffee in a while.  

It is a good Bright Monday.

Christus is opgestaan!

Hij is waarlijk opgestaan!

(Dutch)

Palm Sunday Jumpers

Last year, I made the girls green dresses for Palm Sunday (and another set for Pentecost).  Apparently, Birdie liked that a lot, and two weeks ago, asked me what the Palm Sunday dresses were going to be for this year.  I said I hadn't made anything and she responded definitively: "I want a green dress with ferns on it."  I told her that it was a bit late for ordering new fabric, and besides, I didn't think I would have time.  She was so disappointed that I put my thinking cap on and remembered a short length of bull denim in my stash.  

I bought it a few years ago for a fitted skirt and then didn't end up liking the color.  The fabric has been sitting ever since.  I've taken it out to donate more than once, but it always ended up going back in the bin.  There was *just* enough to squeak out two jumpers.  (I had to cut Ponchik's on the cross-grain, but it didn't seem to matter with this fabric).  I omitted the facings and just bound all the edges with bias.  Worked a charm and the girls were super happy with them.  

The pocket was a last minute addition, as both girls wanted pockets, but I couldn't get the scale right to put two functional pockets in the front and I was in a rush and didn't want to dig out the kanga pocket from their S8101 summer dress pattern, so they had to make do with one.  Turned out pretty well!  I will say, this fabric handled very well, but it frayed like nobody's business.  I'm still finding little green threads all over the place!

We are in Holy Week now, and it is a busy time for us.  I'm hoping to sing the Hymn of Kassiani tonight, Byzantine style, so I need to practice that, as it has been some years since I last sang it. (Pray for me!  It is a difficult piece of music to do well).  

Good strength to everyone running this last leg of the race!  It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!

Alterations and Rescues, part the second

So.  I mentioned earlier that I had some striped knit fabric from Tilly's shop.  With the British exchange rate, this fabric wasn't cheap for me, and I forgot that I only bought a meter and a half because the price was so high.  I guess I thought about it for a shirt when I was buying.  Anyway.  I tried in vain to figure out a way to get a M7353 or even a knee length Coco out of it before deciding I just needed to cut it for a shirt-length Coco.  

I had to reprint my Coco because in a fit of spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago, I accidentally tossed my old taped together pattern.  Argh.  At least it was digital.  So I retaped the whole darn thing and cut out the shirt last Saturday in a fit of pique.  

Never cut or sew anything in a fit of pique.

I ended up sewing it later in the afternoon (also in a bit of a pique, not about the sewing but about other stuff at home) and was eager to wear it.  I was home sick the day I took these photos, and I have to say, the shirt was not a success.  It was too big overall (despite my careful sizing) and the neckline came out miles too wide.  It gaped badly at the front and slid off my shoulders constantly.  The extra fabric around my hips didn't help matters either.

I've made this pattern several times at this size and not had a problem before, so I don't know what happened.  I tried darts in the back neckline to cinch it in, but it didn't really help.  The shirt just annoyed me.  It was also a weirdly long length, and flared a lot around the hips.  I suppose it would look better with pants, but we all know my pants situation.  

I probably didn't need to grade it out a size, but I've had such mixed success with Tilly's slopers that I was paranoid.  Lesson learned.

The shame is that it was such an expensive fabric, I really hated to waste it, but the shirt was just not wearable for me.  I HAVE REGRETS.  I thought about giving it to a friend with wider shoulders, but in the meantime, I started thinking about ways to use the selvage because it was so expensive.  This fabric was only 44" wide, so there wasn't much left to work with, but I thought I might be able to get a little girls' dress out of the scraps.  I started fiddling with the leftovers and quickly realized there wasn't enough there to work with.

So then I started thinking about just cutting up the shirt to make into a dress for one of the girls.  Once I thought of it, I couldn't get it out of my head, so off I went with my shears (Meg March is sitting on my shoulder this month, it seems).  

I did manage to get the dress all cut out (I cut the sleeves from my shirt sleeves, and the skirt section from the body of the shirt.  I got the bodice out of the selvages, and will have to seam them in the middle).  I don't have anything to show for it yet, but will take a photo when the dress is done.  

While I was puzzling that out, I decided to see if I could get a dress out of the selvages from my Triangle dress, as there was a lot of fabric left.  

I fiddled a bit with it and cut out a dress from that.  It ended up tunic length, because of what I had to work with, but Birdie is thrilled!  She wore it two days already this week.  (And yes, I wore my dress to match her one of the days.  It was awesome).  I used the Gloria dress pattern from an etsy seller.  I've made it before for Ponchik.  I also now have a long brown sweater to wear with my dress and I'm super happy with my sweater situation right now.

On to the Menagerie dress.  I wrote that I made a bunch of alterations to this dress after wearing it a few times in the hopes of making it work better for me.  I shortened the sleeves and hem, cinched in the back elastic and moved the pockets up several inches.  It does look better, I think, but I'm not feeling it style-wise this year.  I guess this just isn't my year for rayon.  I'll probably stick it in my bin and wait for it to feel better to me.

I said to a friend recently that my spring sewing sets the tone for the rest of my year, sartorially speaking.  That was an interesting discovery for me.  I realized that I do the bulk of my sewing at this time of year, since I sew a lot of the girls warm weather clothing, and there are holiday outfits to make (I have my Pascha dress cut out, but not sewn yet--eep!)  I don't have a lot of sewing to do for myself (although I keep giving myself projects, because I have patterns I want to try--Carson Dress, I'm lookin' at you, kid).  I had the girls do a big try-on of their summer stuff from last year and discovered that I don't have as much to do for the girls this year (which is not a bad thing, on the whole).  

My main takeaway is that my life has a lot of sharp edges right now, and my clothes need to be soft and warm and forgiving as a result.  So I want lots of knits, loose silhouettes, and cozy things.  I'm rewatching a lot of Nicholas Sparks films lately because they are soothing to me (even though they aren't the best films on a number of levels.  I just find them enjoyable, even as I notice the flaws).  I discovered the wonderful Cowboy Junkies as a result of one film (they are a Canadian folk/country/blues group) and have been listening to them the last day or so.

I've done only a portion of the reading I meant to for Lent, and didn't get to as many services as I planned (I was stymied by the weather on several occasions, but also by sickness.  I've been fighting a viral infection in my face for almost a week now and I just have to pace myself).  So it goes.  Each Lent is different.

Lenten Cakes

I made a couple of Lenten cakes lately for guests and for St. Pharnourios (because: lost things) and thought I'd share them. 

The first was a spice cake with maple glaze frosting made for dinner with some friends.  I wanted to make something with applesauce instead of eggs, so I cast around for a recipe that used it.  There are a lot of recipes to choose from, but I used this one because it had no exotic ingredients, and I could adjust the spices to my liking.  I don't care much for nutmeg, so I always reduce it or omit in these sorts of things.  I ended up putting in 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.  I also used 1/2 cup brown sugar, as I don't like a ton of sweetness.  The maple glaze was about 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 2 T. maple syrup and 1T.  coconut milk with a tiny bit of margarine (maybe a tsp), melted on the stove and drizzled over the top.

It was very tasty and lovely when warm!  (It didn't improve with age, however, so I recommend making a half recipe if you can't eat it up within a day or two).

image via

The second was the Phanouropita that is traditionally made after asking the saint to help with finding something.  In this case, it was several lost reading logs over several days, as we've just come away from our school's annual Read-A-Thon fundraiser.  It is an intense two weeks in our household, as Piglet in particular is very competitive about it.  Both Boo and Birdie's daily logs went missing over several days and after finding them both in succession after asking the saint's help, I knew I needed to make the bread!

I have made this recipe many times (I always make a half recipe because it doesn't keep well, and a half is exactly two desserts for the family).  My usual changes are to omit the nuts and put in frozen berries along with chocolate chips and occasionally raisins.  This time, I made a half recipe, used brown sugar instead of white and used frozen cherries along with chocolate chips.  I usually don't glaze it, but I did make a quick powdered sugar+lemon juice+water glaze in a bowl and drizzled over.  I thought it improved the cake a lot.  It usually doesn't taste that great the second time, but it was still okay the second day with these changes (I also rewarmed the cake the second day, which helped significantly).