Food Coma

I think I'm over the worst of it. Not much sewing this weekend because of panic-fueled Easter shopping and cooking and the hand still being sore from last week's "incident." This was my first time preparing a holiday dinner for the family, and I got myself way too worked up over the whole thing. Of course, it all turned out fine and if it hadn't, they're too polite to tell me anyway.

The menu: bruschetta to start (that's what happens when you give a man the appetizer course); pork loin rolled and stuffed with spinach, garlic and roasted peppers; potatoes and shallots which were roasted with the pork; honey-glazed carrots; steamed asparagus; and for dessert, crepes filled with apples, drizzled with caramel and topped with whipped cream and cinnamon.

After all that, I'll be lucky if I fit into the wardrobe I'm making. The only work I did get done this weekend was on the top that isn't/wasn't part of the wardrobe plan, but coordinates so well I think it may get added on. I started the top out of some leftover rust jersey. It's pretty much a frankenpattern - the body is the KS 3338 tee with a higher neckline, with sleeves that came from the original discarded project, and a different neckline treatment. I made neck band narrower, and ended it in the front because I knew I wanted some kind of tie treatment. The band was too narrow to use for the ties, though I left it like that for a day just so I could decide how I did want it to look. Eventually I made new ties that tapered out wider at the ends, cut the original narrow ties and attached the new ones at the neckline edge.

It didn't matter that the seam wasn't perfect because my intention was to wrap the join in another piece of fabric anyway, to make it look like the ties were knotted. This is still pinned because my fingers definitely weren't flexible enough for hand sewing at that point. I spent much time tweaking this on Evelyn - most of the time I'm fine working flat, but this top needed to come together on a body.

After I got the neckline to my liking, I sewed the side seams. Still have sleeve and bottom hems to go. I hate hemming knits. No matter whether I use a zigzag or stretch stitch, double or single needle, 9 out of 10 times the seam goes ripply on me. Which makes me want to throw the top across the room. Which is why I decided not to tempt fate on Easter weekend and hem when I was tired.