Tales of Beer and Chocolate

Saturday morning we were awoken by clanging and banging under our hotel window. When I looked out, a market had been set up in the plaza outside, underneath the naked man. Well, I don't mind someone waking me up for that!

After breakfast, we explored the market. It was a nice mix of food (serious outdoor stall trucks, nothing like what I see at outdoor markets at home, much more like mobile stores), clothing, household goods and . . . sewing goodies. I was so happy to see the craft truck, even though I couldn't decide which buttons I needed. Probably because I don't need any.

Bruges is a town built on canals - not like Venice, there are streets and you don't have to cross water to get everywhere - but it was a big center for trade up until the late 1500s when the harbor started to silt up and ships couldn't get in anymore. The former harbor is now a lake at the foot of town near the train station, full of ducks and swans, and surrounded by tiny step-gabled houses, a church and a convent.

I read somewhere that there are 50-odd chocolate shops in Bruges alone. I believe it. Sometimes there were 3 or 4 in a row on the same street, which means that the smell was almost overwhelming. There were chocolates in every color, shape and size (and cup size, if you'll note the photo; I almost brought a set of those home for my boss, but a photo will mean the same thing and not cost 20 euros). Sorry.

Beer is everywhere in Belgium. I don't like beer; I think it tastes (and smells) like fermented gym socks. But there are so many different beers in Belgium that I was willing to try them out, generally by taking a wrinkle-nosed sip of whatever Mario was having. Kriek, a cherry beer, was actually kind of tasty, but still nothing I'd drink by choice.

There's a working brewery in Bruges, and for the 5.50 euro admission, you get a full tour of the facility and then a glass of Brugse Zot (translates to the Fool of Bruges) in the brewery's cafe afterward. Before you pay for the tour, you're confronted with a sign in many languages that warns "not recommended for those with vertigo or fear of heights." They should have also mentioned not for those with hips exceeding 34", because I got into some exceedingly tight spots climbing up and down narrow metal stairs in between brewing vats and up onto the roof. They also weren't kidding about the vertigo thing. I don't have a fear of heights, but let's say I have a discomfort when I don't feel that the surface under my feet is secure. Stairs and platforms made of metal mesh would count.

The view from the brewery roof was great, out over all the red tile roofs of the town and across to the basilica, where the Michelangelo Madonna statue lives. It was the only piece of his to leave Italy during his lifetime, and though it't not large, it's impressive. It sits glowing in the huge, cold, barnlike church.

Lunch and dinner involved yet more seafood - another bucket of mussels (I think at that point we acknowledged we were trying out every preparation on the various menus) and yet more fish for dinner. Yum.

I'm not so sure that vacations are about vacationing as they are about eating food I can't get at home.

And so, the vacation

First off, I'll say that Belgium wasn't our originally planned destination for vacation this year; it was Paris, again. Paris, however, did not go on sale and Belgium did.

I've been to Belgium before, about 7 years ago, a really brief trip, but I liked what I saw. We flew into Brussels but decided to spend most of our time in Bruges, which is about 60 miles away. Bruges is almost painfully picturesque. Two world wars rolled by the town on either side with only minor damage, and all in all, it looks like a trip back in time to my favorite childhood fairy tale books.

We stayed at a hotel which for some reason had a large naked man floating in the air almost directly outside (portrait of the artist, apparently). It made it very easy to find our way back to the hotel.

After we settled in, and had a very well-earned lunch (starting my seafood extravaganza with fish soup, while Mario had his first batch of mussels), we walked. Bruges is a great walking town; there are a lot of parts that are pedestrian-only, though the unpredictability of the driving in the regular parts of town make up it.

We walked over to the Markt Square, which has an enormous tower (anyone who saw the movie In Bruges will remember it). Mario wanted to climb the tower, which was fine by me. I gave him the camera and decided to stay on the ground. It's 366 steps to the top, which wouldn't kill me, but they're very tight and circular, and that might. My knees do not like circular stairs. Go figure.

We also managed to find, while window-shopping and drooling at windows of the chocolate shops, . . . a fabric store. Christiaen, on St. Amindstraat, was one of the stores recommended to me in Bruges, and she's definitely worth a visit. The owner, a redhead wearing lime green and purple, who looked no more than 40, said she's had the shop for 25 years and is pleased that there seems to be a renewed interest in sewing. She said that young girls are taking it up out of nowhere, because most of their mothers don't know how to sew. Her fabrics were beautiful, if expensive, and she had a selection of Burda, Knip Mode and Ottobre magazines, most of which I had and all of which were in Dutch.

Because I can't manage to go anywhere without snoop-shopping store windows and following people with really cool clothes, I had to take a picture of this woman's coat. A LOT of the prints I saw in Belgium were this large and almost photographic, and while it might not be a coat you'll wear for years, putting this on would definitely cheer me up on a dark day.

After covering what seemed like most of the town, we wandered back to the naked man (a/k/a the hotel) for a nap before dinner. Though we'd slept on the flight, the time change was catching up to us, and a 2 hour nap put us right. We ventured back out around 7:30, refreshed and in search of food. We found a restaurant not far off the Markt Square where I had salmon in a mousseline sauce and Mario had rabbit braised in beer.

It was raining lightly, but not so much that we couldn't walk around some more and admire the floodlit buildings, and plan what we were going to do the next day.

Vacation Fabric, Part 1

I'm back. I've had a little trouble getting myself re-acclimated; work's been busy, the cats missed me and I missed them, but I did manage to find some time to get reacquainted with my sewing machine (someone else was re-bonding with MSNBC, so I don't even think I was missed).

Because it turns out fabric prices in Belgium are pretty frightening, I only ended up with 2 pieces, both knits, both prints. One was a remnant (washed but not yet photographed), and the other was a panel intended to be made into a tshirt. I obediently turned it into yet another KS 3338 tshirt. Their idea of a shirt seemed a little short, so I cut the fabric from the bottom and pieced some extra up at the top, right below the shoulder seams. It doesn't show, and neither does any part of me I don't want showing.

My purchases were made in Bruges, despite my intention of meeting up with other sewists in Brussels. No such luck.

Apparently the French are not the only ones who strike. When we got to the train station on Monday morning, the trains weren't there. The employees were, and a few policemen, but they were all clustered around a case of beer and with no intention of driving a train anywhere. Maybe after the beer that was a good idea.

Long story short(ish), there are no direct buses, probably because the trains are so good - when they're running. 3 buses later, we arrived in Brussels over 4 hours late. No meeting, no shopping, just finding our hotel, doing some sightseeing, eating one more seafood-heavy dinner and bed. With fingers crossed that the train would be there to take us to the airport in the morning.

They were running, but not on time, and it was raining, and I was over the whole public transportation thing. I blew my last euros on a taxi to the airport. Sometimes enough is just enough.

All this is not to say we didn't have a fabulous time. Belgium (especially Bruges) is gorgeous, the people are friendly, and the food was better than good. What can you say about a country that specializes in beer, chocolate, french fries and waffles. Plus they're so close to the coast that the seafood is fresh and almost constant. I ate well, and often.

There will be vacation pictures, once I finish uploading them. Hopefully sometime this weekend.

I enjoy going away, but I'm always glad to be home.

Almost ready

So much for sewing book reviews, or anything else. Everything has gotten sucked into the pre-vacation vortex.

The coat is relined, and I'm glad I could justify some sewing in the vacation madness. There would be a photo but the camera's on the charger, just in case I can't find the electrical adapter before we leave.

Once the laundry was done, I took some "me time" and headed off to the workroom with Lily in tow. She knows I'm going away; she's clinging tighter than usual.

What did we work on tonight, while someone else was supposed to be packing and instead was sleeping on the couch, snoring like something escaped from a zoo? (He's got a head cold, oh joy to travel with, oh joy to sleep in the general vicinity of, oh joy).

Welt pockets. After I mentioned my ongoing fear of welts earlier this month, and Carolyn took it up, asking sewists what techniques they feared, turns out I'm so not alone. Many, many of you fear the welt, and with justification. However . . .

I made one. And while it's not perfect, it's the closest I've come yet, and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Best of all, I can see where I went not-quite-right, and it's fixable on the next one. It was mostly a supplies issue, which I have already rectified.

How did I do it, you ask? Well, in response to Carolyn's post, Ann of Gorgeous Fabrics re-posted a welt pocket tutorial of hers that had appeared in Threads - an issue I didn't have, or this whole welt pocket hyperventilation might have been a non-starter.

I can't get into the whole process now - and Ann says it so much better anyway, right here, that there's really no point. I'll post photos of my samples when I get home, but for the time being, get yourselves over to Ann's blog, read the tutorial, and practice, practice, practice!

With the right instructions, all things are possible.

The Party Dress Book

A new addition to my bookshelf is The Party Dress Book: How to Sew the Best Dress in the Room, by Mary Adams.

The Party Dress Book wasn't quite what I had in mind. I expected a book on party dresses as formal wear, with lots of couture details and technique, but what Adams has produced is that and more and, by the way, a hell of a lot more fun than the book I expected to receive.

Adams' dresses are fun, flirty, and definitely non-traditional, as is her attitude. This, from the preface, made me warm right up to her:

"When I'm creating a dress, I like to work spontaneously, picking and choosing color, fabric and style without much planning. There are no rules, and if there are, they're mine: I can change my mind throughout the process. It's important to remember that imagining something is a whole different matter than seeing the actual elements together. . . . I have a 'no-throwaway' policy, and never give up on a project or its parts but merely set them aside until they can be reinvented at another time (and remain available to pick through with each project)."

I don't know about you, but, "There are no rules, and if there are, they're mine," is going to get a lot of use in my life, both in and out of the sewing room.

Adams' background, which she covers in Part 1, is in art, not sewing, though she learned to sew at age 12. She talks about her inspirations: hippie patchwork, fifties glamour, color, and starting out in the fashion business.

Party Colors, the next section, is pure candy store. Nothing is off limits. Adams works with a lot of transparent fabrics - organdy, organza - layering colors and fabrics and turning out fanciful, candy-colored dresses that make you smile.

In Part 3, Party Tricks, the author goes through techniques essential to executing her dresses. Some, such as french seams and pintucks, maybe beyond the skills of the novice, but Adams' tone is both patient and friendly, and the techniques are well illustrated with both drawings and examples of her work.

There's a full-size pattern in the back of the book, sized 4-14, and the last section, It's Your Party, provides 3 distinct options for making the dress. Each fabrication (silk taffeta, cotton, layered organza) can be constructed with a variety of necklines, skirt lengths and trims, allowing the you to completely customize your dress. There are tips on meauring, though only the "big 3" measurements are required for the dresses. Also noted are yardage requirements for each dress, and a list of notions and supplies.

The illustrations for constructing the dresses are very thorough, and again Adams emphasizes that it's never too late to change a design, to be patient while waiting while your ideas come together, and to enjoy the process.

The Party Dress is a fun book with luscious photography which I think will really strike a chord with younger sewists who are ready to venture beyond "safe" projects into something really special. The projects in this book give a lot of bang for your buck: with patience, even a sewist with less experience can turn out a party dress to be proud of. I'm glad to see a book that doesn't talk up or down; if you're not up to a technique yet, try another one, but try something, make a dress!

As someone who's sewn for more years than I care to admit, Adams' attitude is a breath of fresh air and the dresses shown in the book were an inspiration - while a lot of them aren't my style, that didn't matter at all. Her techniques (piecing, pintucks, the completely insane bias strip method) will definitely be seen in my sewing room in the near future, and her attitude toward creativity will stay with me for even longer.

Okay, so I lied

I said there wasn't going to be any more pre-vacation sewing, but it didn't work out that way.

Does it ever?

The first thing to emerge from the workroom this weekend wasn't a complicated project. Matter of fact, I've made the KwikSew tshirt so many times that it basically sews itself. This one is in a light aqua (a little brighter than in the photos) and it was made specifically to go with my charcoal gray and aqua plaid pencil skirt, which was lacking a specific top and let me know it wanted one.

As far as the embellishment on the top, who knows where that came from? It was finished, all but the hems, and I decided suddenly that it needed fluffle. Two layers of fluffle, to be exact, hand-gathered, pinned down and stitched over the neckline seam. The knit keeps the ruffles from being too fluffy and out there, and I can always pick them off if I get tired of them. For the moment, I like it.

The monster project, the one I can't believe I did - and I'm not done yet - is to reline the jacket I decided to take on vacation. It's a navy blue pea jacket, bought last year for about $10 at the thrift store. Beautiful jacket, all the buttons still there, warm as anything . . . but the lining was completely ragged on the bottom of the inside. I meant to reline it last year, but I wore it instead.

When I put clothes away for the summer, I left the jacket out, intending to reline it over the summer. Nah. Summer clothes got in the way. We looked at the weather forecast for vacation and it looks like about 10 degrees cooler than here, which means I'll need a substantial jacket. Like my pea jacket.

Which still needed relining. But what better way to force myself to do something I've been putting off than give myself a deadline like vacation? So tonight after dinner I laid it out on the table, carefully sliced out the remains of the original lining (and why did such a well made jacket have such crappy lining fabric anyway?) and made a pattern from it. The basic shapes were still intact, just most of the bottom portion was shredded in the middle; I still had seams left to add seam allowances to.



The lining fabric has been in stash for a while now, not sure what its original project was. But I think it will jazz up basic navy blue quite nicely. I got the lining constructed and inserted it into the jacket. That is some seriously bulky wool, what with all its added interfacing and the buttons already sewn on to work around. Tomorrow I'll sew the hems, but I think rather than trying to burrito fold this baby I may take the easy way out and do it by hand.

And then there will be no more sewing before vacation.

Really.

1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips

I got a few new sewing books in the mail yesterday, and while trying to wedge them in with my overflowing collection, I realized that while I'm a complete sewing-book-junkie, I rarely write about them.

And since we're getting ready for vacation and I think all sewing (other than the mental variety) is at a standstill until we return, sharing a few favorites, old and new, will give me an excuse to think about sewing and not leave the blog empty while I'm away.

Even though this book is making its way around the blogs these days, I'm going to add my own enthusiastic recommendation.

1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips, by Deepika Prakash and with the tips of many, many Patternreview members and experts like Susan Khalje, Kenneth King, Sarah Veblen, Anna Mazur and the late Shannon Gifford, is a great read. It's been on my bedside table for the last 2 weeks.

The way the book is organized is logical, giving you information in bite-sized portions that leave you wanting more. The chapters are Sewing Gear, Set up your Sewing Room, Design & Pattern Prep, Layout, Cutting & Marking, Fitting, Sewing, Finishing and Embellishments, but each chapter has a number of subsections, making it easy for you to find the solution to your specific dilemma.

Since the tips in the book are compiled from many sewists with many years of different experience, sometimes there are several ways to do the same thing, and a more or less "try this, and decide for yourself" attitude which I appreciate, since I tend to balk when shown the "one true way" to do anything. The section on invisible zippers is particularly telling - there are the proponents of sewing the seam, then inserting the zip, and the others, who sew the seam after the zip is inserted, and are pretty sure that's the only way.

There are tips for getting around common problems like gunk on your iron, working with knits and specialty fabrics, tips for sergers and coverstitch machines, making and using piping, turning tubes, and a lot more.

Considering the amount of time I spend on Patternreview, it's probably a very good thing that the best tips were put between covers so that I can spend some of my sewing time actually sewing, or at least reading about sewing away from the compouter, instead of reading about sewing online.

Particularly timely during October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the author's royalties and much of the money paid for the tips submitted, has been donated to breast cancer research.