A fabric-driven project

Remember I said I only bought one yard of fabric last weekend in New York? Well, this was it.

I saw it, it called (yelled) to me across Spandex House, and I took a close look and decided that I liked it but I'd never wear it.

I went upstairs, looked around, thought about it, went back downstairs and bought a yard. I knew I couldn't make a dress out of it, but you can make a t-shirt out of almost any fabric.

This is my TNT KwikSew 3338 t-shirt pattern. I've probably made it 15 times by now, in long sleeve or short, scoop neck or higher, solids and patterns. By this point, I can sew it in my sleep. I even have a second version of the pattern folded into the envelope in a size larger, for when I'm recycling old tshirts - they don't have as much stretch as new fabric, so I always cut a size larger and work the seam allowances.

I still haven't finished the sewing room, but I pulled the coverstitch into the living room and did the hems out there, and I still have my regular Singer set up on a corner of the table.

I couldn't not sew any more. A quick and dirty project like this one did me a world of good.

This fabric was purchased on Saturday, washed on Sunday, cut on Monday night and sewn on Tuesday.

Now let's see what happens when I wear it to work tomorrow. How many people will have to wear sunglasses around me to cut the glare?

What I've been wearing

I finally wore the black-and-white Fatina dress this weekend. It's been done for ages, but I wanted to save it for something special, so I wore it (with the jacket) to the family birthday dinner yesterday.

We're starting to lose summer, so I'm really glad I made a jacket to go with it because I really liked the dress - it's comfortable, it's a good length and I love - LOVE - the floral trim.

Unlike the Fatina dress, I couldn't wait to wear my new Ottobre jacket. This was taken by my office receptionist/staff photographer who went out on maternity leave at 3:00 p.m. today, after sitting at the front desk having contractions since 11:00 a .m. She didn't want to waste any of her 8 weeks sitting at home waiting to give birth, and I'd say she got her way.

I will miss her for many reasons, not the least of which is her willingness to take photos of latest projects, even today, when she couldn't actually balance and stand up. She scooted her chair around the polished lobby floor because she couldn't let a new piece go unphotographed.

So do I save everything until she comes back, or do I find a new office photographer?

Carolyn made me do it

I didn't have any plans to buy fabric anytime soon. Heck, I made it out of New York with only one yard of fabric in my bag, so I'm doing good, I tell you.

Then last night, I stopped by Carolyn's blog. And she was so persuasive about the sweater knits from Emma One Sock that she couldn't buy, I bought one on her behalf.

I had a terrible time choosing between the two colorways, but I decided on the green because it still had some of the rust in it; the rust colorway was pretty much rust/brown. This has more potential to get worn frequently.

I'm pretty sure I know what it wants to be already.

And in the realm of not-staying-on-the-wagon, I bought some patterns today on Patternreview. A few New Looks and KwikSew 3258 because Dawn is making a Chanel jacket from that one and I'm not 100% sold on the pattern I've chosen.

With such enabling friends, who could ask for anything more?

Ottobre 5/09 #113 Jacket - Finished

We got back from dinner a little while ago and I ducked right into the workroom.

The buttons are on, the jacket is done, and the pattern review is here.

Woohoo, two projects in a month. If I sew any faster, I'll scare myself.

So I cheated

I've been frustrated with not being able to sew recently, but I've made such a disaster out of the workroom that it's been almost impossible.

Worst of all, I unplugged the vintage Singer with the buttonholer and moved it out of harm's way, so I haven't been able to finish the Ottobre 5/09 #113 jacket, which was finished all but the buttonholes I was looking forward to making.

And it's been bugging the hell out of me, an otherwise-finished garment hanging there on Evelyn, taunting me from under the dust sheet.

So what did I do? I cheated.

Yesterday Kisha and I drove up to New York for the day. I wanted to see the Isabel Toledo exhibit again before it closed, and she hadn't seen it yet, so that was first on the list of things to do.

Also on the list: Paron's, Pacific Trims, Spandex House and hopefully meeting up with Elizabeth.

Also on my list: taking a quick trip into Jonathan's Embroidery so I could pay them $3 to put buttonholes in my jacket. Which I admit seems kind of silly since I just spent money on a brand new old machine with buttonholer, but I just got sick of waiting to be able to use it.

Does that make any sense at all?

I ran across the street to Jonathan's while Kisha was pawing through the rayon jerseys at Spandex House, and I was back before she checked out. They are so fast in there. I think 3 buttonholes took about 2 minutes, and that included the time to pick out the thread color.

Aren't they pretty?

I didn't need to do it - the renovation can't take forever, and at some point I'll get frustrated with it, and put the sewing machines back up - but I realized on Saturday morning that it was the 19th, and I hadn't finished my second item for the month.

When I'm not productive, I'm not happy.

So running off to Jonathan's might not have been necessary in the long run, but it was very good for my mental outlook. And now it's done, except for the buttons, which will get sewn after another non-sewing Sunday (Mario's mom and sister's birthday dinner is tonight).

Another note about NY. I came home with one bag. A small bag. It contained one yard of stretch from Spandex House, five yards of black piping for a dress I have in mind, and a length of chain for the hem of my (eventual) Chanel jacket.

That's it. That's all I bought. I tried to explain it to Kisha and Elizabeth - I think because I've been so unproductive, I had trouble buying, or even finding, anything more than "replacement" fabric for what I'd actually used.

Or maybe I'm just uninspired because I haven't been sewing?

Parting shot here is Alice. Alice used to live in my back yard, and she was one of Vladimir Putintat's former flames, and mother of several of his children. She came in on Valentine's day several years ago, appearing at my 2nd floor bedroom window at midnight and scratching to be let in. Considering she had to climb a tree, jump an alleyway and cross the porch roof to get there, who was I to say no? I already had 2 of her children indoors, but she didn't seem to recognize them. She's still skittish, and has lots of rules about how and when she'll allow herself to be touched, but she's a sweet girl all the same.

Still not much sewing going on

Actually, none. Again.

I'm still slowly working on the renovation. I got the painting mostly done, and now I'm puzzling over how to fix the ceiling. The room has a drop ceiling, but I'm not going to remove it because of the amount of work involved - I pushed up a tile and looked at the original plaster and saw how much repair it would take, and said no. I just won't look up very often.

The room has a drop ceiling, but the closet that was in the alcove did not. The alcove goes up to the original ceiling height, but is separated from the rest of the room by a (damaged) header wall over the closet. I could leave it that way, but that would leave the grungy old ceiling over half my work space, and also there's a section of the wall missing at the top and I'd rather not have an open wall there. So I have to rig up some kind of drywall patch, and drywall is not one of my better home improvement skills.

Last night I took off from home repair completely and made chicken stock from scratch. Which I've never done before, but which turned out really well and made me happy that there's one more thing I can make myself and not have to buy at the store. Mine is healthier, cheaper, and gives me a way to use up the bones of all those lovely roasted half-chickens we keep buying from the Amish boys at the Thursday farmer's market. I've had a bag of bones in the freezer for a couple of months now, and this past weekend I decided there were enough of them to experiment with.

It took hours to cook down and it perfumed the house (or stunk up the house, depending on your view; my vegetarian housemate spent much time spraying air freshener in the upstairs hall, which was no match for the chicken), and when I went downstairs at around 11 p.m. to strain it and put it into containers, I was thrilled at the transformation of a pile of bones and some cheap vegetables into a huge pot of golden yellow stock that will go into our dinners for months to come. I froze some and put the rest in jars in the fridge.

At some point I need to think about dealing with the tomatoes that are still ripening at warp speed in the back yard, and at some point I really need to sew. I still haven't made those buttonholes, which is ridiculous. I should at least do that.

Do we need another SATC already?

Not sure if we need another movie already - a few years between the end of the series and the movie felt right, but another movie already? Really? It doesn't seem like enough time has passed in the characters' lives for it to be worth it.

Besides, I really liked how the movie tied everything up so neatly for everyone. Well, except Samantha. Or maybe not. Maybe that was Samantha's happy ending.

On the other hand, another movie full of clothes and shoes and accessories? Well, okay, twist my arm.

I was looking online last week at some photos from the filming, and Sarah Jessica Parker has already got one dress that I'd like to try to knock off.

It looks adorable on Sarah Jessica Parker, but then again, what doesn't? Still, I think this dress has great potential to look good on a real body.

And it was very nice of the photographer to do a front, a closeup and a side shot (showing the closure, thank you very much!). Now if they could have just done a back view, I'd be happy.

And of course it's not going to happen in white. It wouldn't make it out of the sewing room clean (cat hair, anybody?), and it certainly wouldn't survive the commute to work, much less a standard day in my grubby office.

So am I the only one with mixed feelings about SATC II?

Edited to add the tidbit that this dress is from the Halston Heritage Spring 2010 collection - someone on Patternreview was asking about the dress too, so I'm not the only one!