Pentecost

It's only six days into the rotation and I already have a back log of photos to share!  (How does that happen??)  I spent all morning yesterday tied up with another endoscopy, and I spent the afternoon on the couch recovering, so I got absolutely zero things done yesterday.  I did read a lot at the endoscopy suite, while I was waiting my turn but that was about it.  Thank goodness for leftovers!  (The endoscopy went fine, it should be my last one for a while, thank the Lord!)  I'm still a little wiped out today, but I think I should be doing a bit better by tomorrow.

Another complication is that I started this high fat/low carb diet last week (I hate to use the word diet, as I'm thinking of it as a different approach to food, rather than some temporary fix, but there it is).  Over the weekend I kind of had an induction flu, which is apparently common when starting these sorts of things.  So again, zero things done.  My brain is really foggy--so much so that I got in the shower on Sunday and intended to wash my (very dirty) hair and while I went through the trouble of getting it wet, I forgot to actually put shampoo in it!  And I didn't even realize it until way later after my hair had dried some and I couldn't figure out why it was so weird-looking.  Because it was still crazy greasy.  Duh.  So apologies for gnarly hair in these photos.

But on to the dress.  This is a green linen dress that I made specifically to wear for Pentecost.  I have a green knit dress with 3/4 length sleeves that I wore for Palm Sunday, but I remembered from last year that I was a bit warm in it on Pentecost, so I thought better to have something a bit more summery.  The green is a bit brighter than it looks on the photos--it is called veridian, but I'd put it a shade or two darker than a true kelly green.  It's a really nice color, actually.  I'll probably replace my evergreen linen dress with this one, as I've never been happy with the fit on that one; the back is too big and it hangs oddly.

Linen generally comes in 54-58" wide bolts, so I wanted to be super efficient about cutting this dress so I could have good leftovers for something else.  (I didn't know what else, but I feel bad about having huge leftover selvages that I can't use for anything).  So I folded one edge just as wide as I needed it for the dress and left myself an extra wide selvage that was 3 yards long.  

I set it aside, intending to just put it in my fabric bin for another time, but on Wednesday or Thursday I suddenly decided that it would be fun to make the girls matching Pentecost dresses to mine.  Their Palm Sunday dresses haven't really worked out, and I was pretty sure I could squeak two dresses out of what was left.  I made them in a mad rush on Thursday morning to be sure they were done in time.

Patch pockets again--I don't really remember why I decided to do them on this dress.  I think I was just on a patch streak when I made it.

Anyway.  The girls' dresses were indeed a squeak!  I was able to cut Birdie's on the long grain as usual, but I had to cut Ponchik's on the cross-grain and piece a tiny bit at the back shoulder on one side.  I made some decorative stitching on both sides so it doesn't show much.  I figured it would work on the cross grain since her chambray border print dress had worked well, and it did!  My only complaint is that Birdie's dress is a little big in the shoulders, but the other dresses I made from this pattern in her old size earlier this spring didn't really fit over her head easily.  That is one downside to this pattern--you have to balance the neck opening against shoulder width.  I suppose if it is really an annoyance, I could make some kind of closure in the back neckline and snug up the top a bit with a few darts.  I dunno.  I really have no scraps left; all three dresses used up almost every bit!  I love it when that happens.

My other complaint about the dresses is the fabric itself--it had a few flaws that I didn't notice while cutting, and thus required some darning to wear.  I guess you get what you pay for, since the linen I get is very affordable (from fabrics-store.com).  I've mostly had a good experience with their fabric and the company, however.

Just the facts:

Pentecost dresses: viridian green linen from fabrics-store.com, vintage bias tape, vintage buttons, elastic, Simplicity 1080 (redrafted); Simplicity 8101 (with length added) 

Scarf (on me): via ThredUp

Shoes (on me): Old Navy via ThredUp

Earrings: etsy

Headscarves on girls: Garlands of Grace

Chinook

Without Ginny's Yarn Along each week to keep me accountable, I keep forgetting to post about knitting-related stuff.  I figured I better post these photos before they look completely out of season! 

I started the Chinook scarf in March at the start of the spring rotation, hoping to have this done in time to wear it with some of my makes--the Raindrop dress in particular, but I had several other dresses that would have worked as well.  I finished it the last week in May, so technically in time, but I only was able to wear it once!  (I guess I should be grateful I got to wear it once, since I finished it in late May!)

The pattern is fantastic, and I love how you can adapt it to use up whatever amount of yarn you have.  I wanted to use exactly two skeins (I really hate having a lot of little balls of yarn left over that I can't use for anything) and I did!  I had about 8" left over, maybe slightly more, but not much.  Enough to use for holding stitches on a sweater sleeve or something like that.

I used CotLin yarn from KnitPicks, which is a 50/50 cotton/linen mix.  I've used it before with uneven results--it has a lot of drape due to the fabric content, so you have to be careful about the pattern, but I'd seen a couple of ravelers make this in CotLin, so I figured it would work out, and it did!  It does want to unwrap itself during the day, but I think perhaps a small pin in the front might help that.  It is a really nice weight for mid to late spring.  I normally don't wear yellow near my face, but I think I can get away with this because it is so saturated and bright.  Plus the navy blue kind of balances it, I think.

I would definitely make this again in wool, and possibly shawl-sized.  The lace is done all in one with the body and it is so easy to keep track of the pattern.  There is an applied I-cord on the flat edge which looks really nice as well.  A fantastic pattern!

A quick note: technical issues

I wanted to make a quick note to blog readers who read using Feedly: I've noticed in the last week or two that my blog photos are showing up extremely badly in the reader.  They are blurry, huge, and look strange.  It seems to be a problem on feedly's end, as the photos look fine on the blog itself and I've changed nothing about how I take or edit my photos.  So if you are noticing this as well and it bugs you, please read the post on the blog itself!

My apologies--I have no idea how to fix this, but I'll look into it.

Skye Dress

The weather has finally caught up with us--I wore this dress yesterday and ditched the sweater by the time I got back from school drop off in the a.m.  (Didn't help that the bus on the way home had the heat going full blast!  But the outbound bus had the AC going full blast, so it was quite cold on one end of the trip...I can't win).

I'm trying to get more creative with the names I give my makes.  I often choose a name based on what the fabric is called (like the Green Cookie Book dress), or some obvious element in the print (like the Octopus dress), but I found that didn't work well for a number of makes this rotation.  So I had to start inventing things.  You'll notice that several dresses (including this one) take their names from Scottish Isles.  Nothing at all to do with the print or the dress; I just happen to like the name and it gives me some way to track the make beyond "floral rayon Simplicity 1080 dress."  

I'm also a huge fan of the Skye Boat song used as the theme song for Outlander (I also like the original version and have several recordings by various folk groups). 

So, the Skye Dress.  This was a rayon floral print I found on fabric.com sometime last year that I saved for spring.  I actually made this dress in February when I was getting my spring makes ready (I made it at the same time as the Birch dress, which explains why the sleeve fit is similar), but when it came down to it, I realized not only did it not really go with any of my spring clothing, it just didn't really seem like a spring dress to me.  It said summer.  So off to the summer pile it went.

I did originally have a kanga pocket on the dress, but I swapped it out for patch pockets a few weeks ago, as I realized that rayon+kanga pocket=sad saggage.  It seems like the kanga pocket needs fabric with some body to it to hold its shape.  I've been putting a lot of patch pockets on lately either for stylistic or fabric reasons.  Variety is good, I suppose.

I also learned, by virtue of making the Birch dress first, that the back elastic needs to be pretty snug to account for the extra drape in the fabric.  Linen seems to need this too, although I think that is more due to the weave of the fabric rather than the drape.  My best tip for sewing with rayon challis is to use a stretch needle--it really helps to make the process a lot smoother.

I realize that this is one of those prints that doesn't photograph well at a distance, but it is quite pretty up close:

The blue sweater isn't an exact match, but it is close enough, I guess.  It was hard to thread-match this fabric as well.  Nothing really "disappeared" into the fabric, but the turquoise thread looked the least bad.  It turned out pretty well in the end.

Pulled out my fancy clogs just cause.  Boo noticed them when we were getting on the bus and made a comment about my wearing "high heels."  I had to laugh a little.  

A solid make, I think!

Just the facts:

Skye dress: random rayon challis from fabric.com, bias tape, elastic, Simplicity 1080 (heavily modified).

Royal blue cardigan: H&M

Necklace: had since a child

Earrings: gift (via etsy)

Shoes: Old Navy via ThredUp

Project 333: Summer 2017

Welcome to my summer rotation!  Although, as I write this, I'm still in cardigans and stockings, so I can't really believe that it is June 1st already.  Aside from the freakshow heat wave for a week in the middle of May, it has been very pleasant and cool this spring.  By this time last year, it was disgustingly hot and humid and I couldn't wait to get into my summer clothes.  This year, I ended up leaving out a few extra cardigans because I think I'm going to need them for another week or two.

Left: Blueberry dress, Paintbrush dress, coral linen dress (unblogged), Liberty #3 dress

Top right: vintage yellow floral skirt, green knit top, coral knit top

Middle right: red twill skirt, ocean blue twill skirt, navy twill skirt (unblogged)

Bottom right: Bunny blouse, Feedsack blouse, vintage floral blouse, Strawberry Fields blouse

Left: Liberty #5 dress (unblogged), Periwinkle Birch dress (unblogged), Lily Pad linen dress

Top right: light blue cardigan, royal blue cardigan, coral cardigan, red cardigan

Bottom right: linen blouse, teal cardigan

Left: Dejavu dress (unblogged), red linen dress, Picnic dress (unblogged), Bo Peep dress (unblogged)

Right: Hebrides dress (unblogged), Orkney dress (unblogged), green linen dress (unblogged), Skye dress (unblogged)

Obviously, there is a lot of new stuff in my rotation.  I find that every summer, without fail, I get to the end of it and I want to burn everything.  I'm so sick of being hot, and of the clothes I have to wear while being hot, that I just can't stand them any more.  It is also true that summer in the wet heat in a non-temperature controlled environment is very hard on fabric, and so some things tend to look rather shabby by the end of the season.  So while I technically had clothing from last year that was wearable, I didn't really want to carry much of it over this year.  My Nike dress looked terrible by the end of last summer and was at least a size too big to boot, so it got recycled sometime this past year.  The Bandana rayon dress which I actually did like a lot and wore a ton, had a liturgical accident at the very end of the summer.  While it is technically still wearable, it is tricky to wash now, so I think it just needs to have that part cut out and burned, and the rest recycled.  I suspect it might also be too big anyway.  I did make a small alteration to the Blueberry dress, as I was always annoyed by the inseam pockets--I installed them slightly too low for easy use.  I had intended to just move them up and call it good, but I discovered that I had clipped the seam allowance to make the pocket lie flat and it was going to be difficult to work around.  So I just trimmed them off and added a kangaroo pocket with some leftover fabric I had.  Hopefully it will be more functional!

I'm on the fence about a couple of pieces I did carry over, specifically the Paintbrush dress and the Liberty #3 dress.  I want to keep one of them for a Transfiguration dress (I decided that the Buttercup dress just really wasn't doing it for me) but can't make up my mind.  The Liberty dress is slightly worse for wear after last summer, but still plenty wearable.  The Paintbrush dress wears like iron, but it is a heavier fabric, so perhaps not ideal for an August liturgical holiday.  I dunno.  The coral linen dress was something I made last September out of some clearance rack fabric I found online and couldn't return after I'd received it and found the color rather alarming.  I'm still dubious about the color--it is rather creamsicle colored!--but I do need a dress for bumming around at the lake and the pool, and I think it will be a nice replacement for the Nike dress.

The red twill skirt needs some alterations to fit better, and it remains to be seen if I can do that easily.  The Bunny blouse is starting to show its age but I just can't seem to get rid of it.  I do need to put some darts in it to shape it as it is a little bit big on me this year.  So both of those are in my mending pile for now.

I'm also uncertain about two other makes--the Hebrides and Orkney dresses.  They are made from a very sheer voile that I interlined with rayon bemberg (talk about a headache and a half!) and I just don't know how they are going to hold up.  The voile is more fragile that I expected, but the dresses look a little dressier than every day wear, so I'll probably save them for Sundays and the few events we have to go to this season.

Another problem I have historically had with warm weather clothing is that I can't seem to make stuff that suits me well in the heat.  I don't actually like light-colored clothing all that much, and I don't think it does my complexion any favors, but I seem to buy light stuff every year.  I made a real effort this year to get away from that, and to get stuff that was bright instead of light.  I'm actually pretty eager to wear my summer clothes this year.  I have a lot of reds and navy blues and teals.  I'm particularly enthused about the "red" section of my closet.  :)

As I wrote yesterday, I'd like to make an Everyday Skirt out of some chambray I have in my bin, and possibly a navy linen Portrait blouse, but both of those can wait to later in the summer or even the fall.  There is always a month or more of high heat at the beginning of my fall rotation anyway.

So, a good start to the summer season, I think! 

Me Made May: Week Five and Spring Wrap

Last day of May, so last day of my spring rotation!  (And last day to run outside quick a minute and take an outfit photo--I am glad of that!)

I am feeling a bit better today that I have for a while.  The weekend was tough, though.  My husband took the boys to the monastery for the long weekend, so I was on my own with the girls without a lot of help.  And Ponchik spiked a bizarre and short-lived fever on Saturday that scared me a little because she looked so bad and it came on so fast.  

I am trying to eat more fat and protein and fewer carbs to see if that helps me feel better throughout the day.  So a Paleo-ish approach.  (Don't get me started on the oxymoron that is Paleo.  But it seems to be a sound dietary approach for the modern milieu)

But I digress (as usual).  My spring rotation didn't really change too much over time--I added several extra dresses, subtracted one or two things, but I wore everything and mostly felt good about what I wore.

Top left: Hobby Horse skirt, Zwei Leben denim skirt

Top right: Charcoal linen dress, Painted roses rayon dress, navy linen dress, Octopus dress

Middle left: Foxgloves dress, green knit eshakti dress, Liberty #1 dress, navy knit eshakti dress

Middle right: long line heavy cotton navy cardigan, long line purple cotton-wool cardigan, pink heavy cotton cardigan, wool Fair Isle cardigan

Bottom: navy blue undershirt, teal-blue undershirt, black undershirt

Top left: orange knit shirt, kelly green knit shirt, navy blue battenburg knit shirt, delft blue boatneck shirt

Middle left: navy lightweight cardigan, teal lightweight cardigan, black merino cardigan, coral lightweight cardigan, charcoal gray lightweight cardigan

Middle bottom: medium blue striped shirt, coral 3/4 sleeve shirt, light blue striped shirt, gray striped shirt

Right: First Light dress, Market Floral Zadie, Dandelion Zadie, Birch rayon

I mentioned that I wore my Zadies a LOT this spring.  The Market Floral one really looks pretty shabby.  The navy has faded quite a lot and it is starting to pill on the sides, especially under the arms.  I've already had to repair it in several places, and the seam stitching is starting to pull.  So I think it needs to be retired after this season.  The Dandelion one fared a bit better, but still looks slightly faded and just a little pill-y.  The color was kind of faded to start with, so it shows less.  I think I can wear it another season.  I am disappointed since the fabric was quite pricey for me.  I do wonder if these dresses look as nice as I think they do, since they seem to photograph very differently depending on the angle, but I'll keep the Dandelion one for now.  I have another knit dress pattern or two that I want to try for next winter/spring that may work better (and be less frustrating to put together).

I also wore my rayon dresses a lot.  So much that I made sure to include several rayon dresses in my summer rotation.  What I did not wear very much were my separates.  I like the Hobby Horse skirt a lot, but it took me a while to find a top that I really liked with it (and I did, but not until earlier this month).  So I think it will get more wear next spring.  I ended up wearing almost all the knit shirts as undershirts with my linen dresses.

Some fails: the Raindrops dress just doesn't look that good.  It faded a lot after being washed twice, and looks a bit worse for wear.  I also think the print doesn't "read" well at a distance.  I didn't like wearing the blue shirt that I found to match it because it had a lettuce hem that was annoying under the dress.  I never really did get the fit right on it, and it didn't look right with a lightweight cardigan.  I was kind of making myself wear it earlier this month just to make sure it got worn enough to justify the cost of making, but I ended up putting it to the side a few weeks ago.  

My summer sewing is mostly done, but I'm interested in trying a few new patterns for transitional apparel, so we'll see what I end up working on this summer.  The kids' school year is winding down, and with it, my mental space to try new things, so it might have to wait until later in the summer when they are in camp during the day.  I'm okay with that.  I do want to make the Everyday Skirt (or a similar Big4 pattern that I bought recently) so that is probably on deck for July.  I might make a linen blouse, but I might also save that for the fall.  We have a lot going on in June, and not a lot of extra help lined up, so I'm trying to not to have too much stacked up, creatively speaking.

I'll have my summer rotation tomorrow--stay tuned.

Me Made May: Week Four

What to say about this week except that it was kind of tough?  Not much, I guess.  Yesterday was the feast of the Ascension (and also the close of the Paschal season), so I pulled my Ascension dress out of my summer bin to wear.  It rained heavily all day yesterday and was chilly, so I had to wear long stockings with it.  I'm guessing by the time I wear it for Transfiguration in August, I won't need any accessories!

I did make matching Ascension dresses for the girls (that they can also wear for Transfiguration in August) and was happy with how cute they turned out.  I used a length of fabric I'd bought last summer but never got around to using.  It was more white before I prewashed it, but I made the mistake of prewashing it with some navy blue linen that really bled a lot, so the fabric now has a faint blue cast to it.  I guess it doesn't matter that much since the dresses "read" white at a distance.  

It's been a bit chilly all week; after the extreme heat of last week (Friday hit 97 degrees!), the temps dropped into the low 60s on Saturday and have more or less stayed there all week.  So stockings and cardigans again.  I'm not complaining one little bit!  It is quite damp and humid, though, so I've been avoiding boots.

I pulled out my trusty denim skirt on Tuesday with some misgiving.  Earlier this year, the skirt had become too big on me, and I was ready to remake it sometime in the fall when I decided to try a controlled shrink in the dryer.  I usually machine wash my clothes and line dry almost everything that I wear, but I thought perhaps a go through the dryer might fix the bagginess of the skirt.  It actually worked brilliantly, and I was pleased that I wouldn't have to make it again soon.  It was fine as long as I was wearing tights all the time, which kind of smooth everything out in my belly area, but I've noticed that when I wear it without tights, there are a lot of visible lumps and bumps.  And yes, I know I could just wear a girdle, but my tolerance for girdles is pretty low right now.  So I'm unsure what to do about it all.

I suppose I could just save the skirt for cold-weather wear and make the best of it.  I pretty much only wear it in cold weather anyway, but there are always a few weeks in the spring and fall when I like it without tights.  I did make a navy blue twill skirt for my summer that could work as a warm-weather stand-in, however.  We'll see.  In any case, the ready-to-wear knit shirt I wore with it is clearly too big on me.  I'll probably save it for an undershirt though.

I've been working on my summer rotation, sewing a little bit here and there, and making good progress on my stack.  I have two more dresses to cut out and one more to sew, so I'm in good shape as far as that goes.  My Pentecost dress is done, so at least I'm not on a deadline with anything.  I have a few nice things for a couple of events we have this summer, so I'm also feeling okay about that too.

I need to get myself back together on a lot of levels.  I feel like I've fallen apart this month.  My sleeping has been poor because of sick kids/husband, my husband has been gone a LOT, I've not been feeling well for a while, my eating and other good habits have really taken a beating.  I'm just drifting.  I have things piled up that I can't seem to get to because my energy levels are rotten and my focus is gone.  I'm frustrated about it, because it feels like I had something good in my grasp just a few weeks ago and I lost it.  And I don't know how to find it again.  I guess I just have to keep reaching for it and pray that God gives it back to me.