The Creature

I honestly don't know what to call this dress, so we'll just go with The Creature, mkay?

This was an experiment in stash busting, and I think I like it!

Last summer, I bought a yard of navy blue linen to make a Portrait blouse and then decided I wasn't into them so I left the fabric in my bin.  Later in the year, I was gifted several substantial fabric remnants and this graphic piece was included.  I really loved the print and was sorry there wasn't more of it.  It was a little over a yard, so I figured I could squeak a girls' dress out of it.

As it happened, the two pieces ended up next to each other in my fabric bin and I thought they looked so well together that I considered making coordinating separates.  I didn't have enough linen for a proper skirt, however, and this particular colorway is discontinued.  I let the fabric sit a bit longer while I had a think about it.  Sometime last week, I suddenly thought of combining them into a dress!

Et voila!  My original idea was to put the print on the bottom and the linen on top, but I didn't have enough of the print to do that, so I switched them.  I had fumes of fabric left after cutting; it was close on the skirt especially.  The pockets are a bit shallower than usual as a result, but still plenty usable.  

I was mostly concerned that the graphic print wouldn't look well next to my face, but I think it is fine.  In the fall, a navy cardigan will pull it all together nicely, I think.

The linen is very light and breezy, so the dress does work for warmer weather.  The top is a mid-weight cotton, so not quite as cool, but not suffocating either.  I did have to piece the sleeves, as is usual when I make this pattern on a 44" wide fabric, and usually the join doesn't show much, but on this one it looked a bit odd, so I added a strip of bias tape on the join as a design element to hide it.  I think it actually gives the top some visual interest and breaks up the print nicely.  So win-win!

Nothing else to say really.  Just my M7353 with my now-standard woven adjustments.  It's quite comfortable and the arms fit well.  There's a bit of mechanical stretch in the garment, so that helps as well.

I watched Leap Year while I was cutting and sewing this dress.  The film was entirely predictable and I admit I fast-forwarded through some parts, but it was okay to have on in the background.  I mostly watched it for Matthew B. Goode, who was excellent in the film.  What can I say?  It was a rom-com.  Mental fluff.  We all need some from time to time, I think.

In random domestic news,

Sometimes my boys give me hope:

No, they aren't twins, but Boo is very tall for his age.  The girls are close in size to each other as well.  I'm constantly asked if I have two sets of twins.  (I think I'd be ready for the funny farm if so!)

The Blue Period

Oh look!  It's another Everyday Skirt.  In blue.  How novel.  *snort*  This was a complete stash project.  I bought the fabric last summer to make a dress, and then got shorted a yard, so didn't have enough for a full dress.  I set it aside thinking I'd use it for one of the girls, but then didn't need it this year.  I found myself short on skirts this season and decided it was a prime candidate for skirt-making.

Thankfully it was all prewashed and everything, so I could just dive right in on Tuesday morning.  I decided to make a big box pleat in the front instead of my usual pleat pattern, because it mimics the look of a skirt pattern I tested this spring that I liked.  I can't blog that skirt yet but will as soon as the pattern releases next month!

The fabric is pretty thin, so perfect for warmer weather, and it has some texture to it, which I think keeps it interesting.  It is a different colorway but same fabric line as my Summer Jazz dress, in case you were wondering.  I think it was a Robert Kaufman fabric.  I liked this color better, but could only get two yards.

Not a lot of construction details.  I added 1.5" of length, and interfaced the waistband with petersham, as is my usual preference.  The waistband did come out quite firm on this version, but that is fine by me, as the fabric has a bit of a loose weave to it.  I used 12" elastics in the back and didn't trim them at all.  I think that is about right.  I still think there is a bit of extra volume on the side panels that could be trimmed, but I'm nervous to do so.

I've been wearing this thrifted blouse a lot this month already.  It is a linen rayon mix and is just the thing.  I love this style of shirt in a woven, but it is hard to find them without collars (I can't stand collars; my neck is short and they look weird on me and feel constricting).  

It's a uniform of a sort: collarless white linen blouse with skirt combo.  (I have another white linen shirt that is a similar style that I've worn the past few summers as well).  I have a couple of 3/4 sleeve knit shirts I've been wearing with my skirts too, and that feels right to me this year.

I did make a kind of wild experiment dress yesterday from stashed fabric that I'm not sure about yet, but will blog it soon.  I'm thinking of this season as the Kitchen Sink Season: throw everything in and see what sticks.

That blue linen dress

I was on the fence about this one.  I bought the linen kind of on a whim, and debated mightily about keeping it once it arrived.  In the end, I decided to give it a go and see if I liked it.

Every summer I seem to make one really light colored dress and then tell myself the rest of the summer that it was a bad idea since light colors tend not to look great on me.  Usually I don't care, but this year, I'm exquisitely sensitive to such things, so I did make this with some misgivings.

In the end, I think it is okay.  I felt pretty good in it Sunday (despite it not really being the right weather for such a dress!) and I think the color looks better in person than in the photos. (And yes, I know I say that every year about the light blue dress du jour).

I think the light texture and pattern gives it additional interest that helps.  Probably some bright accessories would help it too.  I was in an extremely neutral mood on Sunday.

I should also note that I made the usual M7353 changes for a woven, but added 1/4" to the bottom back sleeve, as with the York dress and in this fabric, that is just right.  I don't know why the double gauze feels tighter, but maybe it will loosen with a day's wearing.  *fingers crossed*

And on to another alteration.  Birdie was disappointed that my Blue Forest dress wasn't in my closet this summer (she likes to match me sometimes), so I had a bit of think about how to make it wearable for me.  I'm not into my Simplicity 1080 for summer this year (it is fine with layers for cooler temps), and I want my arms more covered.  I found I had 1/2 yard left and decided to try a Carson Dress pattern hack and used the sleeve extension to add longer sleeves to this dress.  I graded the pattern out about one size (I guessed a little) and that seemed to be about right.  I probably didn't need the extra length on the sleeve cap, however.  3/8" seam allowance and the thing fitted pretty perfectly into my existing S1801 modified sleeve cap.

It mostly works, I think.  I took out the bust tucks because the fabric has never been happy with them and added a long elastic line across the middle instead, mimicking the back elastic.  I could snug it a bit for a leaner fit, but unpicking stitches in double gauze is seriously a pain.  I debated adding a casing and interior elastic instead, but decided that was too much trouble, and I didn't want to unpick the back elastic at that point.  

It isn't a fabulous dress, but it will do.  It is comfortable, though.  (A lot more so with the changes).  I'm considering doing the same thing to my Liberty #5 dress as I discovered I have about 1/2 yard of that fabric left too.  Decisions, decisions.

The older three kids had their last day of school yesterday, and Ponchik has her end of year program today, so we are headed into the summer routine this week.  We didn't hire a summer sitter this year for a variety of reasons, so I imagine I will have to be creative these next few months to get my own things done.  I'm reminding myself that I wrote the bulk of the novel last summer in fits and bursts while the kids were doing other things, so it can be done!  And anyway, summer doesn't last forever.

Talking Tuesday: Show Me Your Hindquarters, Let Me Hear You Roar (part 1)

image via

I've written several times about reading Madeleine L'Engle's Irrational Season.  It is a very very good book, but not one to be rushed through.  I find I can manage a chapter at a time, at best, and then I have to set it aside to think about it.  I finished another chapter Sunday night and it was so good that I wanted to share some parts of it for today.  In this chapter, titled 'Show Me Your Hindquarters, Let Me Hear You Roar', L'Engle writes about doubt, and faith, and about writing process in the midst of messy motherhood.  The book follows a liturgical year, and this chapter happens to fall in the Pentecost season so it felt especially timely to me.

I especially liked her thoughts on writing, being in the throes of it myself.   I do so much reading in service of the book, or even for its own sake, and I sometimes think I could be focusing on other things, but now I know: reading keeps the instrument in tune, ready to play.  Having rich language at my disposal, acquired through the meticulous reading of good and deep books, gives my instrument complexity and tonality it would otherwise lack.

"A writer grimly controls his work to his peril, manipulates only in great danger (to be in control of your technique is very different from being in control of the work).  Slowly, slowly, I am learning to listen to the book, in the same way I try to listen in prayer.  If the book tells me to do something completely unexpected, I heed it; the book is usually right.  If a book like this present one, a strange kind of book for a storyteller, pushes me to write it, I have not choice except to pay attention.  All I can do, as far as activism is concerned, is to write daily, read as much as possible, and keep my vocabulary alive and changing so that I will have an instrument on which to play the book if it does me the honor of coming to me and asking to be written.  I have never yet fully served a book.  But it is my greatest joy to try" (160).

I have also written that my book has been a difficult emotional and spiritual journey for me at times.  Sometimes it felt like the book was writing me rather than the other way round.  Did I create the book in order to process the struggle, or was I struggling because I was writing the book?  Hard to say. 

"I concentrated on my work because it was what saved me....When I was working on that first novel I was genuinely and painfully unhappy.  But during the actual writing I was at play; I was completely thrown out of my subjective misery into the joy of creation, so that what might have been a totally destructive experience became instead a creative one, and a freeing one.  I was freed during the writing as my book wrote me, not as I wrote it.  And surely this was an experience of that special kind of unity which makes me understand the Trinity.  The pages which built on my writing table were not me, nor was I typewriter and paper; but we were, nevertheless, one.  The same kind of collaboration can come when I read a book; the books which matter to me, to which I turn and return are those which read me.  The music I play, or listen to, is that which actively participates with me in harmony or counterpoint.  The same thing is true in graphic art.  There had to be an amorous interaction between the work of art and the person who is opening himself to it, and surely the relationship within the persons of the Trinity is one of Love, Love so real we can glimpse it only on rare occasions" (162).

To this last bit, I say: yes, exactly.  I have a visceral reaction to the things I love: books, music, art, movies; they are the things that make me, move me, change me, tell me of the truth of the world and beyond.  These things are in me.  It cannot be otherwise. 

I have more to write on this book, even from this chapter, but will save it for next time. 

All quotes from Madeleine L'Engle, Irrational Season, NY: Seabury Press, 1977.

York Dress

This is the York dress.  The end.  Just kidding.

This is a double gauze from Cloud 9 by Sarah York that was released earlier this spring.  I hesitated a LONG time over this fabric and then decided I didn't want to make anything from it and closed out my browser tabs.

But then I found out I was going to a June wedding in the Midwest, and realized sometime in April that I had nothing to wear to the wedding.  I remembered that fabric, and knew I could make a woven M7353 out of it.  I made my usual changes, but added an additional1/4" to the bottom back edge of the sleeve seam.  I like the extra room and incorporated this change into a linen version I made shortly after this one but haven't worn yet.

The fabric is beautiful, and double gauze is so soft, and I'm glad I made this dress, but I'm still not 100% happy with the fit on the sleeves.  It is just a wee bit snug on the bicep, although gauze does stretch with wear.  I haven't actually worn this all day yet, just for the photos, so I can't say for sure how it will feel at the end of the day.

But for the wedding, with some nicer shoes and better jewelry, I think it will do fine.

The print is so pretty, and it is nice to have something a little bit pretty for the summer, even if it isn't something I'm going to wear every week.  

I think what I'm finding for this summer rotation is that I really want to spend my week days in separates, and wear dresses to church.  At least, mostly.  So it is probably good that I only have a few dresses this rotation.  I'm still working on the skirt situation, as the three I started with are proving inadequate to my wants.  I made another one out of some long-stashed fabric last week but haven't worn it yet, so we'll see if it fits.  I have some dark olive-y green linen coming for another.  (Watch this space!)  I'm also keeping my eyes open on ThredUp for good finds, as I'm finding skirts to be rather wretched to fit at the moment (I love my Everyday skirt pattern, but sometimes I want a different silhouette and don't want to fiddle endlessly with a pattern to try it out).

So things to discover.  I'm also experimenting with make up a bit, as I need to wear sunscreen every day now, and it isn't too much to add concealer, eye shadow and mascara to the mix.  I'm trying to keep it fast and easy, otherwise I won't keep up with it.  I'm in such a weird place with my body and my physical appearance and getting older and...well everything, I don't know.  I just keep trying things to see what sticks.  I'm working on another body image-type post, but I need more time to percolate.

I also made two dresses for Birdie in the past couple of weeks.  Simplicity 8101 (aka Dottie Angel frock for girls).  I graded a size four out to the next size and added length and Bob's your uncle.  The leaves dress was made from left over fabric from my Blue Forest dress of last summer.  

I had bought enough to make the girls a dress in addition to mine, but ended up not making it last year since they had enough clothing.  It was nice to pull that fabric out and just cut her dress out quick-like.

I'm considering whether to add 3/4 sleeves to my dress to make it more wearable for me this year; it was one of the dresses to go into my fabric bin this year, even though I really like the print and fabric.

And the Carson dress fail is redeemed!  I cut off the bodice and used the (LARGE VOLUMINOUS) skirt to cut Birdie's dress.  Worked a treat, and was the right amount with a bit leftover.  

She loves it, and I love how it looks on her!  (I *almost* want to try again for myself, but am reminding myself that I am not what I enjoy looking at).

Finally, this is the difference between girls and boys:

Nice, cooperative, imaginative play.  For most of the afternoon on Saturday.  Bliss.

(The boys?  Not so much).

Yarn Along: Major John Andre Sweater

~knitting~

I'm making good progress on what I'm calling my Major John Andre sweater (aka Rivel).  I'm calling it thus because I've knit almost the entirety of it while watching (and rewatching) the first three seasons of TURN: Washington's Spies.  I discovered the lovely JJ Feild through the show, and his performance as Major John Andre is a treat.  I rewatched a lot of the first three seasons just to see the man work.

The back and fronts are both done and blocked, as is one of the sleeves.  I'm about 2/3 done with the second sleeve.

I'm debating seaming the sweater on my sewing machine vs. mattress stitching for the first few episodes of season 4.  I also have to pick up stitches for the collar and bands which are knit as one piece.  The cable pattern on this was easy and satisfying.  I want to make another one with a similar cable style.

~watching~

TURN, obviously.  (I should say for the record that I have some issues with the costumers on that show--the lack of female shifts make my eye twitch--but overall, I can overlook the faults for the good storytelling).  I'm curious to see where season four goes (it is the final one, so it will have to wrap up a bunch of things).  I watched a little clip on Youtube with Samuel Roukin, who plays the dastardly John Graves Simcoe, and was startled to discover that his normal speaking voice is quite different from the voice he uses for Simcoe.  In the clip, he talked about developing the voice for Simcoe and it was so interesting to hear his process.  His whole bearing and demeanor are so different from his character; I find the contrast fascinating.

I also finally started season 4 of Sherlock (I know, I know!) while I was sewing a skirt, and was gutted by the first episode.  The second episode kind of redeemed itself, and now I'm ready for the final one.

As long as I'm talking about JJ Feild and Benedict Cumberbatch, I must tell you about a fantastic movie with the both of them: Third Star.  It is from 2010, so before Cumberbatch was well known, and is an ensemble piece. The acting is MAGNIFICENT.  Seriously.  Watch it. 

I will say, Cumberbatch plays a young man dying of cancer (no spoiler; he literally tells you in the first three minutes), so not a pick-me-up kind of film.  The story is about a final trip he takes with his friends to see a beach in Cornwall or somewhere, but the whole thing is so well done.  (I will admit that the first 20 minutes are slow, but after that, I couldn't stop watching).  JJ Feild should have won awards for his performance--it is subtle and nuanced and the end of the movie is just...wow.  

But if you want fun JJ Feild, watch the new BBC Northanger Abbey (he plays Henry Tilney) or Austenland.  He is so good and fun in those two movies.  Austenland in particular is so funny and frothy.

I also rewatched The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz because it is just that good.  I'll be honest: I didn't get it the first time I saw it (around when it came out in 2012).  It seemed like a strange play-not-play, and I didn't like Hester's character at all.  (This is important because she is literally in every scene.  You kind of have to like her, or at least sympathize with her a little or the film is excruciating).  Having said that, I revisited the film last summer and really fell in love with it.  The complex story, rich orchestral score, and tight film style, all resonated with me.  I'm at a stage in my life where I better understand the characters and the storyline.

~reading~

I finished these three books in the past week.  I raced through Vodolazkin's latest (I received an advance copy from the publisher through a connected friend shortly after Pascha); it is so good.  The Aviator is quite different from Laurus, but deals with similar themes.  So much goodness there.

I've been reading Stark's Rise of Christianity for several months and finally finished the last chapter this week.  (I can't believe I let it sit with 10 pages left for so long!)  As I wrote previously, it is a sociolological study of why Christianity took over in the Roman world and spread so far and so fast.  Stark is an expert in religious conversion in societies, and his perspective was fascinating.  I also appreciated that his prose was so jargon free and accessible.  It was well worth the read; I highly recommend it.  So interesting.

The John Chrysavaggis book was research for the novel, and while there were some good things in it, it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I'm glad I read it (it was a fast read--I finished it in a day or so), but I'm hoping that revisiting John Mack's book (Preserve Them O God) will give me more of what I'm after.  

This is my current stack (plus L'Engle's Irrational Season, which I've set aside temporarily).  Lila continues to astonish, and I've only paged through Prayer and Temperament, but I'm looking forward to getting into it.

In other book related news, here's the summer stack I've been collecting for the boys:

School lets out on Tuesday, so hopefully that will last them for a little while.  Piglet reads so stinking fast, it is hard to keep him in books.

And speaking of kids' books, we have many many kids' books at our house, at all different reading levels (three dedicated bookcases, plus four good-sized shelves).  One of the bookcases was a purchase during the big house painting project of 2016 and has had some problems almost from the moment we put it up.  I'm not sure if the guy I had put it together made a mistake or if we just had too many heavy books on it, but the back had bowed out rather badly on one side and one of the cam lock screws on the fixed shelf in the middle was no longer making contact, which meant all the shelves were constantly falling down.

I decided enough was enough.  This morning, I took all the books off the shelf (all of them!) plus the photo albums that were stored there, and unscrewed the book case from the wall and got 'er done.  It involved putting the shelf on its side and pulling some brackets off the back and some muscle power to get the cam screw to make contact, but in the end, I think it is stable again and reattached to the wall.  I took all the photo albums and moved them to a different book case in another room, and rearranged the books so that only one shelf was double stacked, and the heavy Childcraft books (the orange set) is on the bottom shelf (they were on the second to top one before).  There is also some room to grow now, where before there wasn't.  I did have to move some things from the other book case to make room for the photo albums, but it was mostly vertical file boxes of my husband's stuff that he never looks at anyway.  I put it on a high shelf in the closet in that room and it worked out okay.

I do regularly purge books, and try to keep them at a reasonable level, but I have four children who are all at vastly different reading levels right now, so we have to keep a lot of books at a lot of different levels at the moment.  In a few years, we can get rid of the easier books and just focus on young adult reading.  Expand and contract, expand and contract.  'Tis the way of things.

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along!

1-2-3-4

Firstly, I am pleased to report that after 3 years of trying and failing to eat one of my favorite meals (pot roast), I was successful last night!  I still have to be careful--small bites, lots of chewing, drink between bites--and the meat was very very very very soft, but that is a big boost to me right now!  I am still struggling a lot with my limited food options, and having one more thing in the mix is always so helpful.

Secondly, I must bring to your attention the excellent musician Kaleo.  I discovered the group last summer and bought their A/B album.  I tried listening to it in the car on a trip and I wasn't impressed.  The first track on the album is a super hard hitting rock song, and I didn't like it.  (I had found them on a pandora station and the songs I liked were more indie rock type--think Mumford or Lumineers).  I revisited the album recently and realized that about 2/3 the album is what I was looking for (coffee shop style indie rock) and the other third is that hard rock sound I don't care for.  So I put the songs I liked into iTunes for my ipod shuffle; I have been enjoying them for the past week.

Thirdly, I have a manuscript!  131,000+ words, 292 typed pages, and lots of holes that still need filling, but it is printed out and ready for revision and editing.  It feels momentous.  I blitzed through a few working sessions, focusing on putting all the text I had typed/transcribed in narrative order and integrating the flashback sections. (Until now, I've been toggling between four documents: writing, editing, revising, and trying to put things in narrative order all at the same time; consequently, it felt like I was trying to wrangle a spaghetti monster).  There is a YouTube channel that has alpha wave music for studying and I found it so helpful while I was working.  It certainly helped me stay on task.

Lastly, it is time for my epic watch list of the last six or seven months.  I've been compiling, but I just need to post it already.  I left out the ones I've already written about previously.

1. Spiderman: Homecoming: I enjoyed this film so much.  Lots of fun, great humor, excellent (and believable) villain (played with panache by Michael Keaton)

2. The Last Post: Great amazon series set in Arabia in the 1960s.  Very well done.

3. Complete Unknown: interesting and weird at the same time.  Thought-provoking.

4. Britannia: very uneven.  some weird casting choices and an odd mix of "period" and modern.  I don't recommend it for a number of reasons.

5. Beguiled: Sophia Coppola's Civil War gothic set piece.  Super weird.  I don't recommend it.

6. Tulip Fever: I know the reviews on this one are mixed.  I liked it, but I didn't love it.  The costumes were quite good, and there were some good performances.

7. Secret Scripture: this was a great film, although I found the ending a little unsatisfying.  I really enjoyed the story and the performances.  The main plot twist really did keep me guessing until the end.

13. Breathe: Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy are AMAZING.  I loved this film so much.

14. Closed Season: I rewatched this German WW2 film again this spring.  It is so good.  And I want Brigette's wardrobe.

15. The Battle for Sevastopol: about a famous Soviet female sniper in WW2.  Really well done, I highly recommend it.  It reminded me a little of Enemy at the Gates (which I also loved).

16. Swept from the Sea: this is an old favorite of mine that I rewatch from time to time.

17. The Promise: another favorite, in German about the Berlin Wall and two people who spend the entirety of the wall separated from one another.  It is a fascinating look at the two sides.

18. Bitter Harvest: this one was very uneven.  I like Max Irons, but I didn't buy him (or anyone else for that matter) in this period piece about the Soviet subjugation of Ukraine in the 1920s.  That said, I think it is an important movie to watch for the history, which isn't well known outside the region. 

19. Atomic Blonde: I wanted to like this movie but I just didn't.  It was too over the top with everything. 

20. Man from U.N.C.L.E.: this was a super fun watch and made me an instant Armie Hammer fan.  I had no idea he was such a large man (6'5").  I already liked Henry Cavill and I thought this movie was just a good old fashioned spy story in the best sense.

21. Oscar: another old fave; saw in the theater the first time!  It was a fun entertainment one night when my parents were here.

22. Walking with the Enemy: uneven but good; second half was better than the first. 

23. Murder on the Orient Express remake: I thought it was good.  I enjoyed the first one, but I only vaguely remembered the details, so I was able to enjoy the mystery and suspense in this version as well.

24. Red Sparrow: I was prepared to like this, because I loved the book, but oh man.  This film has so many problems I don't even know where to begin.  If I hadn't read the book, I don't think I would have understood one thing that was going on in the film.  That said, Jennifer Lawrence acted her heart out.  It wasn't her fault that the script was a bad adaptation and half the actors were miscast.

I still haven't seen Black Panther (I know!  I'm getting to it), and I am still in season five of The Americans.  I intend to finish it, but that show is pretty intense, so I need breaks.  I just finished season 3 of TURN: Washington's Spies, but needed a break before starting season four because of how the third one ended. I also want to watch the second season of The A Word (the first season was wonderful) and finish the Russian series The Red Queen.  I also want to see Aardman's Early Man and series 2 of The Hollow Crown which covers the second set of Shakespeare's Henry plays.