Plaids and Tablecloths and Skirts..oh YES!

My first adventure back into sewingland after my recent hiatus = my version of sham's popular (with GOOD reason) Tablecloth Skirt.   How appropriate, since I've actually had the pleasure of getting together with her THREE times in the past week - too much fun! (but watch it...she's an Enabler Extraordinaire...you have been warned......)  Since she has detailed the drafting so well here, and has a fabulous gallery of numerous versions of the skirt made by sewists everywhere, I won't go into those details, other than to say this is SO simple to make, and SO much fun to wear....just make one of your own already, ok?

In honor of shams, I'll start with a twirling shot ;-)

I'm not normally that much of a plaid person, but I knew this yummy silk/cotton blend would be perfection for this skirt, so I went for it!   Here's my entire pattern (biggify for the details):

I ended up (after some "how did I manage to do that???" mistakes, which I blame on my brain not being completely back in my body yet) with a 39" square, and 14"x39" rectangles (this doesn't include S.A's).  I meant to start with a larger square, but with my 5'4" height and way short legs, that would not have worked at all!   The smaller the inner square, the more dramatic the points are - next time (oh yes, there will be a next time!) I'll make the square smaller.

I did make a couple of additions.  The length of my skirt is great for heels, but I thought it would be nice to be able to shorten it.  A quick addition of 4 buttons - one at each "point" at the hemline (note:  these are not really "points" - when you've sewn up the seams joining the short ends of each rectangle, you have a straight hem - they just fall into rounded points when you're wearing it - it's magic!).  Then I sewed buttonhole loops with round elastic at the real points - where the rectangle seams and the corners of the square meet.
(if you haven't made the skirt yet, this will make sense when you sew it together, trust me!)

Button at the hemline; elastic loop at the point.

Buttoned up!

When the skirt is buttoned up, the hemline is not only shorter, but falls more evenly - I think it gives a more casual look.

The other addition I made was a little patch pocket (I get nervous when I leave the house with no pockets in my garment - I've accepted this as a fact of my life; apparently I'm not only a bit of a button addict, but I'm a bit of a pocket addict as well.   I'm covered with this skirt.  ;-D   I first made a pocket so that the plaids were angled crosswise to the body of the skirt so that they stood out; I thought I would like the look, but I didn't.   So I matched the plaids so that pocket blends in.  I cut an oval-ish shape, folded it right sides together and stitched the edges, then turned it right side out.  In order to make the pocket lay a bit flatter & make it more secure, I also added a casing & a strip of elastic at the top:

Here's the completed pocket:

A couple of looks:

Full length, just a little bit dressy, just a little bit vintage-y
The blouse, btw, is Decades of Style Collar Confection.  
I made this blouse pre-blogging life, but it's reviewed here on Pattern Review

Striking a pose...

I think I could go square dancing with this look! 
Or maybe to a country BBQ? ;D
Hem is buttoned up here

Amazingly enough, I think I can pull off a variety of looks with this skirt using tops I already have - who knew that plaid could be so versatile!  (I still need more shoes though......)

Things I learned, and what I would do differently next time:

• Make a wider waistband.  1" doesn't quite do it for a skirt with this much fabric.   Even though this is a lightweight fabric, it tends to pull the waistband off kilter.  I probably used elastic that was too wimpy, and cut it too long, but I'll live with it.   (I sewed the elastic onto the fabric, so changing it out would be a BEAR!)
• Cut the square a bit smaller, for more dramatic points.
• For a more flattering look, I would consider cutting the waist hole smaller & adding a zipper.   Or maybe darts.
• This particular fabric is a bit crinkley in one direction.  In one of those 20/20 hindsight moments, I discovered that ripping a crinkley fabric does not equate evenness with the stripes on a plaid.  I had to choose between keeping the grain straight, or the stripes straight.  I chose to cut with the stripes, since the hemline is naturally uneven anyway.  Crinkle plaid fabric could be an issue in a different pattern (note to self:  remember this when working with crinkles!!!)

A Great BIG Thank You to shams for her excellent work and generous sharing with this pattern - I'm loving it!

I hope I've helped encourage a few of my readers to try this pattern out, if you haven't already - how about you?

"....the conventionally pretty need not apply." - Gaultier

How lucky can a blogging sewist get?  In one of those serendipitous good fortune days, I not only met with shams and margy, but....well...more about the rest of the day later....let's back up to the beginning of the day....

I met margy & shams at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco.  Just in case we didn't recognize each other (uh huh....) we all showed up wearing...you guessed it...Trippens!

The Trippen Triplets...all in similar, but different, boots.
And yes, they did indeed garner comments and compliments from complete strangers :)
Want to meet some new people?   Get yourself a pair of Trippens!

The plan for the morning was to see the extravaganza known as the Jean-Paul Gaultier Exhibit.   After hugs & giggles over our shoes, we headed in to the exhibit.  The first outfit you're greeted with is possibly my very favorite ever use of recycled blue jeans:

This is a jacket & pants, with painted on imagery.
The denim is part of the jacket.  Love!

On the wall next to this mannequin is this quote:

This leads you into a show with THE most innovative mannequins ever!  The talking faces are so mesmerizing that it takes awhile before you can even focus on the clothing designs.   Which are unique eye candy indeed - this is a man who got his first job in fashion design at age 18 - with Calvin Klein, no less.   And I believe his creative mind has been working non-stop, inspired by muses who come from a different stratosphere than the rest of us, ever since.  My eyeballs were ready to bleed by the time I'd reached the end.   In a good way!

I won't even attempt to describe the exhibit in detail - if you get a chance, just go see it!   Here are a few images (non-flash photography is allowed)

Every Mermaid should have walking sticks for land travel, right?

Never-ending ribbon cascade - quite gorgeous!

I believe this was pret-a-porter -
wouldn't you wear it?

Millions of Feathers overlaying a punky, spikey metal base
The mannequin was a singing diva.

And sometimes there are no words......

We sat to rest our eyes & discuss what we had seen (& invited a friendly stranger to take a few pics....)

When who should we spy, but two more fabulously creative sewists, Ann at Stitch Me Up and the (as yet) blogless (but we need to change that) Barbara V, who posts her beautiful creations at Pattern Review:

This was the serendipitous luck I mentioned earlier - Margy and Shams were headed off to points south, while Ann and Barbara were going to go to the Cult of Beauty exhibit at the Legion of Honor, so I continued my blogger-meetup day with them, especially nice since you get a discounted ticket if you see both exhibits on the same day :)

The Cult of Beauty exhibit was MUCH calmer than Gaultier, but very interesting from an art and fashion history view.  I loved seeing the examples of how William Morris, Christopher Dresser, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, and the "Aesthetes" of the day influenced such dramatic changes in the art world...and the way we lived.

I think that Barbara & Ann still looked pretty fresh here;
I was ready to head home by then!

Such a delightful day!   It's back to the work world for me tomorrow, but I may sneak in another bit of blogger meetup time if I can....stay tuned.....

Still Obsessed With Neckties...

I'm happy to report that I am continuing to find uses for my extensive necktie collection, while also expanding my meager belt collection.   

This tie, in all of its gaudy glory, was the unlikely perfect combo of colors and swirls to tie together an outift (to be revealed in the near future)

I'll start with the finish, so you don't need to wonder what the heck I'm doing with all of my silly little folds & buttons & stuff:

Yes, it's a belt!

I started by making a few folds,
and tacking them in place with a button, using heavy-duty thread

Close-up of button and folds

I tacked down the folds on the back side....

added some velcro
(for the variable waistline & layers of clothing, you know....)
The velcro under the button area is hand sewn;
the strip of velcro on the flat end is sewn by machine

And that's all there is to it!

Next up:  one of sham's famous tablecloth skirts and a report on another blogger meetup scheduled for tomorrow (two in less than a week, how lucky am I?)

Yes indeed, I do believe I'm back :D

I'm Back! With a few topics du jour..... :)

#1 -

Mumsy - January 2, 1915 - April 23, 2012
Yup, that's 97 full & fabulous years :)

The inevitable arrived, and my darling, precious Mother passed peacefully, in her sleep, early Monday morning on April 23.  I could write volumes; I've already spoken volumes to my incredibly supportive and amazing and healing friends, colleagues, hospice helpers ... even strangers I meet in every day life.

All I will say at the moment is that I am blessed - blessed to have been born of this gentle, honest, loving, and forgiving woman, and blessed to have been her caregiver for the past 5 years.   The challenges, the lessons, the laughter, the joy .... all of it was, and continues to be, one of the most amazing journeys of my life.

Yes, I am blessed :)

#2 - The month following Mom's death has been packed to my eyeballs with activity, grieving, healing, support, and, in short, transition on steroids!  I had been doing a TON of clutter-clearing, organizing, and gardening in the past months, and decided to go ahead with my planned yard sale a mere 2 weeks after her passing.

This was a smashing success!   Cleared out LOTS of crap-I-mean-treasures (even sold 2 of my sewing machines!) & made a bit of spending money to boot :)

#3 - I dove back into the gardening & house cleaning...

Built these steps from 4X6's & granite fines -
a great way to keep the old body in shape!

View of the backyard from my office window

...in preparation for...

#4 - a Gathering of Gratitude/Celebration of Mom & Life & Friends, which was another delightful, and healing, success :)

Pear Tree, gifted by a special friend in memory of Mom
The tree became a very special focus during the Ceremony honoring Mom :)

#5 - After all of that intense activity, (and a few hit-the-wall-and-sleep-all-day times of much needed focused healing and rest) I feel like I have a world filled with paths of opportunities in front of me.  I'm definitely in transition, still recovering, and thoroughly enjoying the freedom of being able to go out & about & play...and stay out as long as I want...and absotively RELISH time with friends!

This weekend has been one of those times that's been filled with the freedom of flitting about hanging with people I like, doing things I love ~ like eating gourmet food, feeling up fabric, enjoying art, having heart-opening experiences and conversations, and lots of laughter!

It all began with a yummy lunch & Fabrix shopping time with the always fun-to-be-with Shams and  ReAnn, who I was delighted to finally meet during her visit here :)   Besides our love of creative sewing & fabric petting, we share a love with a certain footwear manufacturer, and by pure coincidence (yeah right...) we all showed up wearing said shoes:

Whose feet belong to which sewist?
(and for those who are not yet obsessed with these outrageously fabulous shoes, they are Trippens)

And I have to add that our footwear was admired by total strangers who stopped us in the street to comment :D

You will notice that Shams & I have similar-sized bags -
it wasn't until the following day that we discovered we each went home with the wrong bag!  
Good thing we plan on meeting again soon :)

#6 - The Big Question - What's Next on the Sewing Front????????

Here's my poor, neglected sewing room as it looks right now:

Add caption

LOADS of opportunities awaiting here:

• Finish the Soho Raincoat?
• Finally make a tablecloth skirt?  (I'm feeling a lack of transitional season long skirts, so this is a strong possibility, especially since I already have 3 fabrics chosen for one!)
• Pick up on my promise-to-self to perfect pants fitting this year?
• Make some always needed new knit tops?
• Clean up the sewing room & just start on the first thing that sparks my fancy?  (that's kind of my style......)

Stay tuned.....I'm back!!!!

And by the way, my motto of the moment is that I'm ready to do anything & everything (within a modicum of reason) Because I Can!!!!!  (that includes a bit of blog-reading catch-up....)

Here's another little gardening shot to leave you with....

Matillija Poppies in the wind......

Gardening.....Not Sewing....

It's true, I've not sewn a stitch for....I think it's been nearly two months, AGES!.....and  the half-cut Soho Coat STILL sits on my kitchen table.  Which means no one has had a sit-down meal in the kitchen all that time either.  (no formal dining room in this house)

But hey, it's SPRINGTIME!  What I HAVE been doing is gardening.  And clutter-clearing and sorting through crap-I-mean-treasures.   And the other stuff of life.  

But not sewing.

Just as a way of staying connected with my (cherished!) sewing community, I'd like to share a few pics showing some of the fruits of my labors in the dirt (and to prove that I'm still alive, still here!)

Peach Blossoms and Raindrops

Zachaboo, Old Log Bench, and Cymbidium

A mini field of ixia 

The sort of rusty antiques I love in my garden :)

The first Tulip of the Season!

Love my Cymbidiums!

The first Bearded Iris of the Season!

The Cherub in the Bushes

Maybe, now that I've done a blog post, I'll finally find my way back into the sewing room?   It's just so EASY to get lost in the garden, and I'm loving getting back into the habit of taking my morning tea out for a garden stroll.

And now I'm off to see if I can catch up on a bit of blog reading (which I'm also way....way....behind on.....)

Happy Sewing, and Happy Gardening to the other dirt lovers out there :-)

The new, improved, Word Verification - Just say No!

Everyone who hates the new blogger two-word verification process please move over to that side of the room 

And all who LIKE the new set-up, please move to the left

Yeah, that's what I thought....

A couple of things have come to my attention - some blogspot bloggers don't even realize that they have word verification turned on, because it doesn't appear when you are commenting on your own blog.   And some bloggers who are using the new updated interface on Dashboard think that you can't turn the Word Verification (let's just call it WtF) off.   Here's the good news:  You CAN turn it off!   You just need to switch (temporarily) over to the old interface in order to access the command.   Here are the steps:

1. In Dashboard, click on the "Settings" icon (that's the gear in the upper right corner).
2.  Click on "Old Blogger Interface" in the drop-down menu.
3.  Click on "Settings"
4.  Click on "Comments"
5.  Scroll down until you see the option to "Show word verification for comments?"  Check "no".
6.  SAVE the new settings.  (Important!)

You will see an option to change to the updated interface at the top of your screen - just click there to return to the new interface.

Reasons to keep the WtF:
1.  Some people apparently get lots of spam w/o the WtF.  I guess I've been lucky; the email associated with my blog gets very little spam (knock on wood!)
2.  You really don't care for lots of comments, and like to watch people jump through hoops before they give up.  (j/k......I'm SURE none of you lovely bloggers really do that!)
3.  Ummm......I can't think of any other reasons, but feel free to enlighten me!

Reasons to NOT have WtF:

1.

no explanation needed here, methinks.....

2.  You really DO like comments, and don't want to miss any just because someone has given up after 3 tries :(
3.  There are alternatives:  you can opt to not receive comments from Anonymous posters, which can cut back on some of the spam, even though some perfectly lovely people won't be able to post unless they choose another option (like "Open ID", for instance), or you can choose Comment Moderation.

Personally, I prefer to leave everything as open and easy as possible, and hope that I won't feel the need to change that any time soon!

I hope this info helps someone out there - happy blogging, everyone :)

Why I've not been blogging....

The bad news:  I've not been blogging because I've not been sewing :(
The good news:  I HAVE been clutter-clearing!

Before
What...you think I exaggerate?
Maybe a little...but it FELT like that!

After
OK - truth is, nothing changed much here
except for the surface of the desk.
I face that bookshelf and wall a LOT, so it has to give me pleasure to look at it.
And it does :)

I've also been cleaning, and organizing, and working, and re-arranging the house, and weeding and pruning and gardening and.....best of all....I've had the energy to do it!

Many of you know that I've been my darling, 97-yr-old Mom's caregiver for a number of years, with this past 2 years being, at times, rather intense in time and energy expenditure.   In-home Hospice care (aka, Angels in human form) has been one of my life, time, & sanity-savers during this past year.   Two years ago, sewing re-entered my life.   To my absolute delight, the sewing bug has been another life and sanity-saver during this time.   I'm building up a fun and fabulous new wardrobe, my creative juices have a yummy and productive outlet, and I can do it all at home, while being available for the Mumsy.   Win-win-win!

What sewing has NOT been is a time-saver.  Nope, let's just call a spade a spade here, and admit that it's been taking a LOT of my time!   And yes, some of it, I daresay, has possibly been "wasted" time (although I'm not convinced there really is such a thing as "wasted" time...)   And let's not even mention the blogging, ok?

As a result, what's fallen behind (WAY behind) is house cleaning and organization, paper work, gardening, and, as a self-employed person, work & $$-making.   Now this is not all the fault of the sewing obsession...my health took a bit of a beating due to the stress of 24/7 on call duty (HOW do single parents do it????   Oh wait, I know....they're in their 20's, 30's, even 40's.......they're not, ummmm....my age)

The bad news:  Regarding health stuff - when the Mumsy stopped being able to walk, roughly a year ago, I started living with sleep deprivation, and the ensuing lack of energy crept up on me to the point where I was, at times, completely non-functioning.
The good news:  About 6 months ago my homeopath diagnosed adrenal fatigue, and thanks to the remedies and advice she gave me, I am finally beginning to remember what a day of "normal" energy feels like!
The bad news:  Although I am far, far more patient with myself and others than I used to be, the healing process seems to be taking a long time, and I still need to remember that I DO need to rest, preferably before I hit the proverbial wall.   In my perfect world, sleep would not be necessary.  I'm learning to really, really love a good night's rest-filled sleep.
The good news:  I am prioritizing, making healthier choices, and thoroughly enjoying the regained energy I do have!   The house is getting cleaned.   Paperwork is being dealt with.  The basement is getting de-cluttered.   The garden!  Oh, the garden!   Two truckloads of tree trimmings and weeds have already left the property, and another is in the driveway, ready to go.   My magical garden is beginning to emerge again :)
The bad news:  The Soho Raincoat has been sitting on the kitchen table, half-cut, for a month now.
The good news:   I have done a tiny bit of sewing - door curtains in the basement entry have finally been made!  (I've had the fabric for well over a year now - probably closer to 2 years)

Boring Curtain Pic.
But I love it, because it's DONE, looks good,
and hides a multitude of sins lurking behind.

The bad news:  No sewing = no blogging.   I'm not one of those who thinks that I'm letting my readers down or anything, & don't have any reason to apologize for my lack of blogging presence...heck, I feel blessed to have any readers at all!  :D

There is no more bad news; it's all up from here!   I'm working a bit again, the house is really shaping up with furniture being shuffled around, & the pile of stuff to be removed from the house (one way or another) is growing.

More good news:  I even (finally!) got the treadle set up!   I was waiting to refinish the cabinet, but decided that was silly - USING the sewing machine is more of a priority than having the cabinet look pristine.

This is in my office, since there isn't an inch to spare in my sewing room.
Barring my dream of turning the backyard shed/barn structure thingy
into a sewing room/office, this is where it will live....

Oh wait, there is another bit of bad news.  Well, maybe, depending on ones attitude about fabric-aholism....I've noticed others mention that when you don't sew, you buy fabric.   I can attest to this.  WHY do we do this????   I was being so good in January...no new fabric....and somehow in February I accumulated 7 or 11 new lengths of goodies.   *sigh* **headdesk**  *sigh again*

Oh yeah, the other touch of bad news is that I'm way.  Way.  WAY behind on blog reading.   I just had to "mark as read" hundreds of posts in my Reader, because there was no way......    I know I missed a lot of goodies, but if I haven't been commenting much, that doesn't mean I didn't at least skim, and I hope y'all know that I LOVE reading your blogs, but frankly, I love even more the fact that I can wander my garden with tea in hand, and see the bulbs poking their heads up, know that the cymbidiums are transplanted, fed and healthy and blooming, the fruit trees have sunlight reaching all their branches, and I can walk on actual pathways, not weeds!

Pictures of the visible accomplishments will pop up in coming posts....and the Soho Raincoat WILL get done (even if we don't get any more rain this so-called rainy season....)

May we all figure out ways to find healthy balance  in our lives.....and find a way to recognize what's important, and have the health & energy to have it :)

ETA:  WHOA!   Another little good news update!  I just realized that, somewhere along the line, I magically hit 100 followers!  This calls for a celebration of some sort, I'm sure; meanwhile, how about if everyone who reads this has a drink of their favorite beverage?  On me.  :)   Well....virtually on me, at least until we meet in person....