Artistry In Fashion, 2013

A report on this year's Artistry in Fashion is a little belated, but I have to say a little something anyway, because the event is SO worth knowing about!

As usual, I took my camera with, but spent all of my time schmoozing with all of the fashionistas,  sewists and creators-of-fabulosity that I kept forgetting to take any pictures.   One sign of a successful event, I say!

At least I have some after-the-fact shots of the goodies I bought.  I spent in restraint, but if $ were no object, oh my gosh is this the place to spend it!  The curated artist booths were SO rife with drool-worthy goodies, from hand-painted silks to recycled clothing,  eco-dyed fabrics, exquisite shaped hats, unusual buttons and notions, innovative jewelry, and positively gorgeous people on both sides of the vendor booths!

The featured speaker and fashion show presenter was Sandra Ericson, director of the Center for Pattern Design, and creator of a truly unique and inspirational line of patterns.   Many of her patterns were inspired by Madeleine Vionnet and Cristobal Balenciaga.  She uses a lot of bias cuts, and a minimum of pattern pieces that require as few stitching seams as possible.   Her designs are "simple" (i.e., not "fussy"), but the way many of them are put together is quite unusual (and sometimes mind-boggling!)  Despite the relative simplicity, the patterns are also designed to be "educational" - Translation:  minimal instructions, meant for the intermediate or advanced sewer. Do check out her site for a much more detailed story of her journey and philosophy.

I bought these 3 patterns (all of which just happen to be Balenciaga inspired):

I've made up the CB Bolero (post coming soon!) and it's a comfy and wearable winner.

I've also made a test version of the spiral blouse - this one is destined to be made up several times!

The Paletot is a half-scale pattern.   I've enlarged it, and can barely wait to get going on it!  (I've lusted after this coat ever since seeing it at the Balenciaga exhibit at the DeYoung a couple of years ago)

My other purchases were earrings.   I was delighted to find that one of my very favorite jewelry designers was selected as a vendor at AIF this year: Kayoko Designs.   I buy a pair of earrings from her nearly every year at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show,  so I was thrilled to find another excuse to add to my collection of her pieces :)

Elegant Asian Simplicity - LOVE her work!

A very popular booth was A.J's EarDrops - I know at least half a dozen people who bought earrings here - too much fun!

Lightweight, unusual, affordable, and highly wearable - what's not to love???
And check out that cup holder - an innovative (and re-usable) way to display their earrings!

This year the weather was perfect, the food trucks were the best ever, the vendors (of course) were the BEST, and of course, the camaraderie of everyone there made it a memorable and fabulous event.

Mark your calendars now for next year's AIF - September 27, 2014.   Pati Palmer (yes, THE Pati Palmer of Palmer/Pletsch) will be the featured speaker!  I hope to see you there!  :)

Next up:  The results of the CB Bolero...

Still Alive, Schmoozing with Sewists, and Even Doing some Sewing!

How wonderful it is to be living in an area that is so rife with talented and social-minded sewists!  In spite of the fact that I've spent very little time in my sewing room the past couple of months, I've been SO lucky to have such an abundance of creative groups of like-minded sewists around, and attending gatherings with them has helped to keep me inspired, and even motivated me to get some projects finished!   (Blog posts on those projects are coming up soon, I promise!)

Yesterday was a wonderful little gathering of blogging sewists (even though a few don't ...yet... have blogs - if they READ blogs, it counts!) at Erin's lovely San Francisco flat 

(Click on the names for a link to their respective blogs)
Back Row:  Veronique,   shams,  me,  Erin,  Jean, and Amanda
Front Row:  Rebecca and  Beth

The abundance of talent in this group is amazing!  As is the diversity - several people echoed the comment "I would never have the patience for that!" when seeing what someone else was doing; yet every single person here, imho, exhibits an overflow of patience in their details and particular interests.

Veronique pattern-tested a plethora of stuffed animals for a book by Abby Glassenberg - she blogged about it here.  Is this the most adorable stuffed kangaroo EVER?   and check out the tardis on that bag she made!

Shams took a break from her insanely busy life of late - if you don't know about her success in the Fabric Mart Challenge, do check out her last few posts - she's on FIRE with her creativity these days!  (yes, even more than ususal!)  Fabric Mart Challenge
Here Shams is wearing an outfit that was for one of the earlier challenges, and she's holding her studly version of the Little Black Dress challenge - I think she's been rocking every entry!

Erin is another busy bee; trying to finish up her  PhD while taking steps toward starting her own pattern line!   Here she is wearing two of her creations (I want to be a pattern tester for that skirt!  It has fabulous details that can't be seen in the pic)

Rebecca is another  pattern maker - she's making some wonderful coats - she's wearing one of her creations here:

Beth, as always, was wearing pieces that showcase her perfect technique and fit - here she's wearing a lovely dress that is the essence of Beth, and you can see the inside of her perfectly tailored denim jacket, draped over the chair.

I didn't get pics of everyone's show 'n tells, but Jean is also doing some amazing pattern-making in a class she's taking.   Her opera neck dress (a work in progress) is GAWjuss!   Amanda didn't bring anything, but a look at her blog shows some seriously wonderful quilting work!

No shots of my outfits (the bane of being the photographer), but here's some sneak peeks at what I've finished, (yes, I have been doing SOME sewing) - I promise to be blogging details asap!

Oh, one more minor detail - IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, AND I'LL SEW (and blog) IF I WANT TO!  :D

Look Ma, No Muslin!

First, heartfelt thanks and smiles to everyone who responded so graciously to my post about the burglary.   Although I had hesitated to even write the post, I'm happy that I did - it was a cathartic release for me, and every single one of your comments reached my heart - deep thanks for your understanding, caring, and thoughtful comments.   I love my readers!!!!

And now, for the post that I meant to write last Tuesday.....

The Good News (and really, it's ALL good news):

1.  I made it into the sewing room and sewed for me, me me!
2.  At the pattern-tracing level of this tshirt, I discovered that taking the Sisters Tilton Craftsy Class had an even bigger impact than I initially thought.   I realized that I had the confidence to make all the necessary fitting changes at the pattern level, even with a T-Shirt that was slightly more complex than a basic front, back and sleeves.
3.  And it worked!

This is probably a long overdue realization, but I was able to cut several steps out of the fitting process, and cut straight into my fashion fabric with enough confidence to be pretty sure of the fit - I'm thrilled with this!

After seeing several makes of Katherine Tilton's V8817 in blogland and in person, I knew this was a winner!  I made View C, which has a 3-piece front, 3-piece sleeves, and a 2-piece back.

Now really, WHY didn't I try this pose???

It just screams out to be duplicated, don't you think???

The shoulders are quite broad (especially by my narrow-shoulder standards), and any changes to the shoulder width would involve re-drafts of every single pattern piece.  I  made my fitting changes on the front by first marking the seam lines on each front piece, and layering them by matching the stitching lines, as if they were sewn.   This pic shows the upper front and middle front pieces:

I drafted a basic front, a back  and a sleeve piece (using the Craftsy Class pattern) as a TNT template.   Here's the TNT front piece laid on top of the pattern pieces from this pattern:

Next I drew new pattern pieces, using a combination of my basic TNT, and the V8817 pieces:

I cut them out pretty much as drawn (I did leave a bit extra at the side seams, since this pattern does have a pretty loose fit, but I didn't really need it.   I used the same method for the back and the sleeves.....and it worked!!!!

I did find it interesting that the pattern as drafted came very close to matching my shoulder slope, since I usually re-draw the shoulders for a more dramatic slope - someone with square shoulders might need to do more of an adjustment with this pattern.   With my new TNT concept, it's hard to say what size I actually used, but it was probably a narrowed 8 at the shoulders,  expanding through a size 10 at the rib cage,  to a  size 12 around the hips.

The only other changes I made were a slight shuffling of the suggested contrast fabric placement, but then, the Tilton patterns really are designed with that sort of shuffling to be expected.

Here's my result:

I admit that I'm not crazy about my fabric choices (although I have received a lot of compliments on it, so maybe it will grow on me), but I do think that the weight, length, and general color combos will give me opportunities to get a lot of wear out of this top.   And as far as the pattern itself, it's definitely a winner!

Here's to more easy TNT adaptations...really, I'm THIS thrilled about what feels like a giant step forward in my let's-make-fitting-easier attitude!  :)

The Case of the Gold Flannel Pillowcase

It was not a dark and stormy night; it was a lovely, balmy, California evening, spent with a particularly delightful group of local sewing mavens....   I arrived home at about 11:00, & realized that one of my cats was not only not there to greet me, but wasn't responding to any calling.   After 15 minutes of calling & searching, he finally showed up ... OUTSIDE the front door (this is an indoors only cat most of the time - how on earth did he sneak out - was it when I left earlier that evening?).... a few moments after that I found myself staring at the empty space on the desk where my laptop usually resides, and the pieces started slowing falling into place.

Yup - we had been burglarized.

 It wasn't until the police (possibly the NICEST cop in my local police force!) showed up that I finally saw the naked pillow on my bed - the pillow that just a few hours earlier had been nicely dressed in gold flannel....and then realized that the jewelry chest on the counter nearby had indeed been rifled through.   I think in my initial shock and denial I was SURE no jewelry was missing, but then I realized that every.  single.   valuable.  piece of jewelry that had belonged to my darling Mother was gone.   All the diamond rings (from 2 marriages and her own inheritance) - gone.  Anything silver, gold, or a valuable gemstone.   Gone.     Plus a few silver and gold necklaces of mine, which I could honestly care less about.  For the next few days I kept thinking surely there's ONE ring somewhere else, just ONE piece that belonged to her.....   nope - Gone.

I'm still reeling a bit, and noticing that I'm going through various stages of loss & grief  - yesterday I finally felt the anger that made me wish I could kick the friggin' dweeb in the balls....HARD!

I know that people do this, but I'm still mystified about the fact that it actually happened to me!

Bear with me - the silly cartoons actually make me grin,
and I can use all the grins I get right now!  :D

So.....The grand plans I had of sewing, reading, and blogging during the evenings this week have been mostly taken up by sleepless nights  re-doing all of my passwords, researching a replacement computer, dealing with software & old peripheries that don't work with the new system, denial, anger, browsing craigslist and eBay in the ridiculously unlikely hope that I'll see one of her rings, or my computer....uh huh.

Sorry for dumping on blogland, but I realized that I just need to unload publicly as part of the process of release.   I usually move through trauma pretty quickly; actually, this has only been 3 days, so I guess I can cut myself a break, but it still hurts, and the  hours that are being eaten up by realizing that I need to replace my printer (a perfectly nice printer that worked just fine with my older computer - which, btw, was also working just fine!) because it's not compatible with the slightly newer computer (rolleyes), set up a whole new email system, figure out how to transfer data from the 10-year old dinosaur backup computer, hours with online support "experts" some of who, as it turns out, know less than I do....etc, etc.....well... I'm just allowing myself to bitch and dump for a bit here.   Getting ripped off sucks.

I will move through this.

Oh, one bit of good news is that I will likely get an insurance settlement that covers only a pittance of the jewelry loss, but it's enough $ to replace the computer!  Insurance companies do come through sometimes (assuming they actually will, of course).

And of course, it's only "stuff", and it really could have been much, much worse.   :)   I did lose a lot of pictures that hadn't been backed up - I'm thankful for my blog in that sense, because of the shots that are saved in Picasa - yay to web picture programs!   And hey, all that clutter-clearing of excessive files stored on the computer?   Taken care of by the universe, thank you ;-)

I feel better already.   Thanks for being there, dear readers... :)

Alabama Chanin!

Life is still biting me in the butt with busy-ness (it's a good thing, really... but oh to be independently wealthy and unemployed - what's that like?   Anyone?)  Which means very little sewing is actually happening, but the ideas and plans are still swirling around in my head!

I was at a gathering of sewists last weekend, and one of the women there had attended a Natalie Chanin workshop, and she was wearing a gorgeous top she had made from an Alabama Chanin kit.   I've been wanting to feel up the organic cotton jerseys Chanin eco-dyes and sells, to see if it's really as soft as the claims are.   It is!  Even better news is that I found out that A Verb for Keeping Warm, a wonderful little yarn & fabric shop in Oakland (6328 San Pablo Avenue, just a few blocks off Ashby, for the local folk) has a trunk sale of Alabama Chanin items - it's only through August 26, so zip on over there if you want to check it out!

For those who might not be familiar with  Alabama Chanin designs, Natalie Chanin, the founder, uses elaborate designs including stencils, dying, cut-outs, beading, and hand-stitching, incorporating embroidery and quilting techniques from eras past, and modernizing the looks in one-of-a-kind garments.  She is the very essence of slow sewing!

There are a couple of racks of her made clothes at A Verb - not for sale though (something about a conflict with someone else who carries her goodies).  At something like $1000 - $3000 apiece, nothing in this collection is ever going to make it into my closet,  but how wonderful to be able to touch and see up close so many of the makes from her studio!  A Verb also has some huge books with samples of the stitching and layering and beading...oh MY!   PLUS a selection of her cottons!    I managed to take a few pictures, mostly close-ups of the stitching samples from the books (these books are TREASURES - do try to check them out if you can make it!)

Lettering on a top!!!   LOVE this!

A cape, skirt, and top using various techniques

Yes, I could not resist a few pieces of the fabric.   At $24.50/yard, this is not cheap cotton, but it is oh-so-soft, and all ORGANICALLY sourced.  It's $22/yd through her website, but I'm assuming you need to add shipping, so it's probably about the same in the end.  It's the mid-weight grade, which is very sturdy - but did I mention how soft it feels?   It's also pre-washed, so you're not paying for fabric that you're going to lose through shrinkage.

Then I came home and immediately ordered Alabama Studio Sewing + Design from Amazon, which seems to be the most comprehensive of her 3 books, at least for sewists.   It should arrive tomorrow - can't wait!

Craftsy also has a class on Natalie Chanin Hand Embellishing Techniques - has anyone taken this class yet?   What did you think of it?   Her one-day workshops are in the  $400 range, which makes a $40 Craftsy class sound not so bad, eh?

I do look forward to having something I've actually sewn to share here....fabric and patterns are actually laid out in the sewing room; all I need is time and energy!   (Got some to spare?) ;-)

Until then, I dream :-)

Being Visible

The conversations at dinner the other night with shams & badmomgoodmom covered a variety of topics (3 women, 4 hours = you can imagine!), including becoming "invisible" after a "certain age" (badmom could not yet relate to this concept).

Today, for some inexplicable reason, I decided to join the group of visibly fabulous women who participate in Visible Monday, and dress a bit over the top (for me, anyway).   It's summer in San Francisco, which means the likelihood of c-o-l-d is very high, and I don't do cold well.   So I layered it on a bit thicker than usual, wearing my faux fur vest over my animal print Renfrew, and my latest Marcy pants (not blogged because I've made so many versions!):

I have two things to do today:  #1 -  go shopping at Fabrix (yes I'm going to drive into The City and that's all I'm doing - one store, one stop, one bag of fabrics (or maybe 2), and #2 - finish reading my library book (which is SUCH a great read I'm going to blog a review here - coming soon!  After a crazy busy several weeks lately, a 2-items-on-the-To-Do-List day is a most welcome event.   I guess I need to add one more - write this blog post.....Done!

Hmmm....maybe I should dress up my feet with my Trippens as well.....just because.....

Here's to visibility (in a good way) at all ages!

When Sewists Gather....

....in my experience, it's ALWAYS a good time!   Fun, educational (we are a creative and curious lot), inspirational, and sometimes even unusual.

I've had the good fortune to meet up with other bloggers a couple of times recently - Elizabeth of SEWN and the delightful short one she lives with, and last night badmomgoodmom and Shams and I all got together.  (more about that below)

First I want to spread the word about an event coming up next month that sounds very intriguing, definitely educational, and probably a lot of fun as well!  Britex Fabrics is partnering with Laurence King Publishing/Chronicle Books to present an evening class on draping techniques, celebrating the launch of Karolyn Kiisel's upcoming book, "Draping The Complete Course".  I'm so looking forward to running my hands and eyes over this book - check out the cover, and a couple of pages of the beautiful illustrations inside - it looks quite promising:

The class will include a demonstration of how to drape Audrey Hepburn's classic "Breakfast at Tiffany's" sheath (do you really even need a photo to conjure up this image?), plus info and some materials to help us get started on our own projects.

My mother worked from patterns, but she always draped the clothes on me as she altered and fitted, and I've always loved to do that sort designing; my favorite creations often come from a draping type of inspiration!  Now that  I'm close to getting my dress form to actually match my body, I can't wait to start playing with draping on it; so the timing for this class is perfect!  I hope to see you there!  :)  The date of the class is September 19, from 7-9, at Apparel Arts; cost is $25.  (reasonable, I think!) The book will also be available at that time.

As for blogger meetups, I'm a bit late on this one, but I had a delightful brunch with Elizabeth of SEWN, and her sidekick Jack, a few weeks ago - here we are at Stonemountain (oops, did I say brunch?   Well, yes, brunch and just a bit of fabric shopping.....).   She is much braver than I in terms of exposure to our Bay Area summers - I never leave the house without layers!  Jack was being a real trooper while we shopped, and quietly sat at the pattern table with his iPad.   What a great kid!

And yesterday, I finally got to spend some quality time with badmomgoodmom.  The 5-second meeting we had at PR Weekend really didn't cut it, so after a few dozen emails and phone calls and planning and re-planning over the past few days (she aptly called the process "Space-Time Tetris" in her blog post here), we got together for some snoop shopping in Hayes Valley (Hayes Street in San Francisco - a rather fabulous area to snoop shop in - I needed an out-of-towner to show me how much the area has changed over the past 20+ years - I definitely need to go back for a deeper exploration!)

We made it into a total of 3 shops (that girl can talk up a storm with any interesting stranger on the street, I swear!) before meeting up with Shams, who also blogged about our gathering in her post here.  We spent the next 4 hours engrossed in tea and delicious food and conversation at Caffe Delle Stelle (Italian, of course, and recommended for great service and very good food, at reasonable prices).

badmom made a vociferous point about theoretical physicists not being nerdy & geeky (per Big Bang Theory, which shams and I both love and badmom hates).  When good-dad joined us for a second round of food, badmom turned into goodsexyflirtymom and proved her point quite well.   ;-D

It was a delightful evening!   The more sewing bloggers (and sewing non-bloggers) I get to spend time with, the happier I am that I re-joined the sewing world, and keep getting connected with some of the most interesting and creative people around!  Don't you agree?

It's a Hat Attack!

One of the more delightfully stylish bloggers I follow is  Judith of Style Crone (check her out!) - I think she may have started an avalanche of hat-wearing blog posts, thanks to her Hat Attack post!

Although I've been a hat lover for a long time, the dreaded "hat head" syndrome often curtailed my hat fetish.  However, I've noticed that my hair seems to be cooperating a bit more now that it's grey, short, and styled with a somewhat.... shall we say..."unkempt" look  (I can always say "It's on purpose!" no matter how wild it looks!)

A dear friend recently celebrated her birthday with a  High Tea gathering at Lovey's Tea Shoppe in Pacifica, and wearing a hat was a requirement.   I went a rather unconventional route (for high tea, that is), and showed up in my favorite black fedora - a bit beaten up, but dressed with a silver pin that used to belong to me British Mum, who always enjoyed an afternoon out for High Tea :)  By the way, if you're local, I can highly recommend Lovey's (which is the little sister of Lovejoy's in San Francisco).   Although the fare is far from my usual healthy eating habits, the quality of the ingredients was clearly very high (Strauss organic cream!), and even the white bread triangles tasted like "real" food.   And it was abundant!   I arrived with my hunger on, and couldn't possibly eat it all!

(Not what I wore to Tea, other than the hat...
I was a bit more "dressed")  

Three of the women at the party had all been to High Tea with Mom and me in years past, so the pin, along with a necklace of hers that I wore, assured that the Mumsy was there with us. :)

This post is for you Mom, with love :)

90-something and still doing her crossword puzzles :)

Another hat - at her memorial gathering last year in my back yard :)

Hats Off to Moms and the wonder-filled connections in blogger-land!

And We Have a Winner!

I'm still loving my frabjous new pencil sharpener (I just wish I had more pencils to sharpen....), and hope the winner of my Giveaway loves it just as much as I do!

And the winner is...   Cathy H, who was entrant #168 out of 168 entries!    Which just happens to be the most entries I've had for any giveaway - by FAR!    Goes to show just how popular this pencil sharpener is!   Congratulations Cathy - hope to hear back from you soon, so that you can claim your gift!

***UPDATE*** Cathy H did not step forward to claim her sharpener, so rafflecopter drew a new winner.....who is.... Darcy S! Entry # 28! Congratulations Darcy! I hope to hear from you soon :)
UPDATE #2 - I heard from Darcy right away, and she's super excited about her win - yay!!!!!   Here's to sharp pencil points everywhere ;-)!

And for those who didn't win, but might want their own sharpener anyway, the quick and easy way to get one is to order directly from the Classroom Friendly site - they're speedy and friendly!

And Cute.   Did I mention how cute they are?

Meanwhile, on the sewing front, I realized yesterday that all of my sewing for the past couple of months has been for gifts for others, repairs for others, or learning/class-related (including the dreaded moulage), so my next project (or 3, or 4...) is going to be something fun and selfish - for me, me me!  (with the finishing-of-the-moulage mixed in....)

I'm off to the sewing room to play with my stash and figure out what that might be.....

A Bag?

Betzina Pants?

A Tunic or dress out of this fabulously fun knit from Hart's?

Stripes!  T-Shirts!? 

All of the above actually fit into my "need" category - jeans may be higher on the priority list, but they're not high on the "fun and (relatively) easy" category, and that's what's calling me right now. I'm off to pet fabric, peruse patterns, and see what jumps onto the cutting table first.....

May we all have a bit of extra fun with our current and upcoming sewing projects!