all buttoned up.

Minefield

Truly is at the pull out phase. If you were to come over right now you would have to step over a trail of mismatched shoes, overturned books, and bagged beans and tins. She moves from glove and hat bin to the kitchen drawers with speed and precision. We have always done bare bones child proofing and this sort of mess only lasts for a moment. It is her work and it makes her so happy. Besides, I tell myself, Sam had to contend with exposed wiring and crumbling plaster. See how spoiled you are, little girl? Baseboards!

I have been going deep into public school schematics and politics as it relates to our district and our small part of it. It is distressing. They need to adult proof some of this crap. And because I have been spending a lot of time reading and going to meetings I have needed projects that I do not get too attached to (otherwise, I sit staring at the piles helplessly and accomplishing nothing). I thought maybe a I should tackle some school auction quilts. You are allowed to say that this is a terrible idea. So, I am amassing ideas and piles and thinking how to accomplish more than one without becoming lost in the details. Christina's Tanagram Quilt looms large in my mind, but I also have some other ideas I'm trying to flesh out that would be good to do with the above 8 set. Any advice in this arena is appreciated. I'll let you know how things are coming together as I start to get students involved. I think my biggest concern is the quilting end of things and if I can manage that on my own. Also the children. I'm no dummy.

I leave you with this:

Happy Weekend.

Three Small Things

I have managed to sew three small things for Truly during the last week. If everything goes all right and the house is not too much of a disaster, Manny and I will sneak into the basement during T's morning nap and he will draw and glue and I will do something related to sewing or laundry (blech). We have been marginally successful. It helps that the seams are only ever as long as my arm. I traced patterns from a Japanese Craft Book (the NYC kids book everybody seems to have), Anna Maria's Quick Change Trousers, and Shelly's Ayashe blouse.

The little dress fits her now and I made it from a fine wale corduroy remnant and some beautiful cotton Sally let me pick out before she left (there's going to be a lot of clothes coming from Shim remnants). I thought it was the easiest thing I could think of to sew considering that I am quite out of practice. Of course, I picked something that involved some tricky inside-out turning and sewing, but it was fine. She's not much for wearing dresses. They get all twisted up when she's rolling around and refusing to sit or crawl. I don't know if it's because I've dressed three boys, but she wears far fewer traditionally pretty things than I thought she would. She looks right in soft, comfortable things... so what if they are mostly stripes?!

The trousers are too big, but won't be for much longer. The grey came from my Roobios dress and is the sort of fabric I could do with a bolt of. The gingham is from Sally and the reversible side is just an inverse of the two fabrics. I will be making more of these.

I love this blouse pattern and I'm planning several more in different sleeve lengths and sizes. And maybe lengthening it into a dress? That front yoke/neck opening and sleeve draping are exactly my thing in little girls clothes. In fact, when I'm browsing for small tunics or tops I always do a quick calculation in my head: is this more than a 1/2 yard of Liberty? Then I should make it. And also go buy some Liberty (see how that works?). This is double gauze that I've had for a long time-- maybe a remnant from Mariko? Actually-- I think she has a matching shirt? That would be fantastic. This is the 18 month size, which is too large to look right on her, but she wore it today anyway.

I bought some new fabric last month, but really, I should be able to sew for a good long time from my shelves. It's a shame that I'm so terribly wanty over several of the new prints from Liberty's new quilt weight line. That just means I should start cutting out quilts, yes? Manny doesn't have one yet, and Sam is in a new, bigger bed, which probably means a new, bigger quilt. See how easy it is to create unrealistic expectations for myself? DEAD EASY.

Given the Odds

We are muddling along in the basement, but I'm not holding my breath that I'll be able to move my machine and my hoardy stash down there before February. I'm pulling piles out to work on around the kitchen table if I need to: gifts for the boys, a few quilts/throws to work on, a short list for Miss Gestation.

This is a Girl Baby that I'm growing.

We were not anticipating that news, and it has taken a while to settle in. I don't know if it's just 2nd pregnancy, or that I'm 7 years older, or that this is a girl, but everything seems much different than the first time around. It is probably a combination of all of those things! At this point it's been all very by-the-book and I'm reminded how, unlike so many people I know, being pregnant is really Not My Thing. It's not really the boy's thing either, and August is forever trying to push in my belly and Manny has yelled "SO CHUBBY!!" more than once while jumping on top of me.

While they are concerned with all this outward changing, I lay awake at night thinking about gender politics, mothers and daughters, and, uh, fabric. Obviously. I pulled these piles of knits to keep in the to-do pile. I will probably not sew much for this little person to begin with, but there's no harm in making plans. Right? The top left is a striped double knit Epplant gave me for my birthday last year. Underneath is a jersey with tiny stripes in cream and mauve-pink (one of the pinks that I really do like and keep coming back to) that I had been saving for myself. The other three are Nani Iro double knits: red dots are scraps (also from Mariko) and the two others are actually pointelle (!) I bought from Miss Matatabi. The Nani Iro knits will be swaddling blankets, I think. They are pretty narrow at 33", but I have more than a metre of each and when we are done swaddling I'll turn them into clothes or scarves. It is not cheap to buy, but it is the softest kind of knit after it is washed and I love it.

I'm going to get together a pile of lawn and voile to sew for a growing girl. A GIRL. THERE WILL BE A SMALL GIRL IN THIS HOUSE.

I'm totally not freaking out.

 

 

Where Was I?

Blenders. Right. Thank you for all your help. A sale and a coupon later, we have a Kitchenaid (the glass jar one). The reviews are *not as* mixed as most, and since I bought it locally, I will just skedaddle my butt back there if anything leaks or goes wrong. Paul is already a big fan and it has done pretty well with ice, so we'll see how it holds up. I would have also loved a Vitamix or a Blendtec.

I have been sewing, though with very little to show for it, really. There are lots of works in progress. I wrote about these mini bloomers at Bolt and I think you should all make yourself a pair for summer. I'm very happy with my leg elastic modification.

(P&B booth at Market-- Toomuchery by Helen Dardick)

The post Quilt Market True Up coverage is ongoing and we're getting closed to being finished. There is so much that I missed that Kristen is writing about, it's like going all over again (minus the bread pudding). I have been buying quilt weight cottons only when I need them for a certain project, but after I got a good look at Moda's Farmyard line at Bolt yesterday, I had to bring home some trees. And some Japanese Folklore to match.

Did you sign up for Sally and Joke's Packaging 101 workshop? The first one sold out quickly so they are offering a second round at Modern Domestic on July 9th. Sally is a good friend and a master wrapper, plus I can assure you the take home supplies are going to be REALLY good. You will have a great time.

School gets out on Tuesday and I am bracing myself for the transition between doing-something-every-day to you-must-entertain-yourself that will inevitably be difficult for Mr. 7. Mostly, I am readying myself to have a good attitude. I am so lucky to get to spend time with these boys and they deserve the best version of a mother that I can muster. Happily, we are getting in reinforcements at the end of the month for a much anticipated visit. It's going to be like summer camp, minus the outhouses. Plus, they promised they would bring the sun.

Foreign Correspondent

I made it back from Quilt Market to a clean house and children that barely missed me. That's me and my fellow True Up correspondent, Kristen Lejnieks, looking all kinds of crazy. This was at the end of our third day. Here's a better photo of Kristen holding her new book next to Shelly, Daniella, and Karen.

I had a great time.

Besides obsessing over this molten bread pudding thing that we ordered (twice) from the hotel restaurant, it was so great meeting with folks that are crazy about what they do. I was there under the banner of Bolt, which (to Gina's credit) lots of people know about, and to write for Kim and True Up-- who, of course, lots of people also recognize. Happily, Gina is just as stoked on Japanese fabric as I am, so I got to look over her shoulder as we were shown stacks and stacks of beautiful prints, some of which are going to be making their way to the store shortly.

With some fumbling, I also got to talk to some folks under the guise of this space, which was Totally Rad and precipitated a meeting and photo op with one of my heroes, Nancy Zieman. At which point, I apologized for the way I might be smelling. There were 100 things I might have said ("you have taught me everything I know about garment sewing from where 9th grade Home Ec left off" or, "I have happily spent many Saturday afternoons feeding a small baby/ignoring my children trying to remember every word of what you say"), but true to form, I kept it just this side of awkward. You're welcome.

Oh, there were so many good people. As expected, it was a little overwhelming and I feel like I've had my bottom kicked in the "Do Better Work" category. Obviously the "Empty the Dishwasher in a Timely Manner" may take a hit going forward.

Velveteen and a List for the Week

I had no idea I was going to be so into velveteen this year-- but it is incredibly soft and lovely to sew with.  If you like it online you will LOVE it in person.  Much like the voile, I really hope that this substrate lives beyond the current line.  I made a pair of slippers which I've written about here, and I justified the rest of the yardage for another new pillow cover.  The pillow form is partially feathers, so the overall smooshiness of the cushion has made it the new favourite. 

*The quilting on THE QUILT is done and I'm getting down to work on the binding.  I almost got a little teary over it today... I am so happy with the way Grammie and Tillie finished it up.

*Posting at the Bolt Neighborhood is getting hot and heavy this month with lots of gifts to make and project inspiration.  We've gotten things going in the last couple of weeks, so if you're looking for ideas, keep an eye out (you may want to try the "Gift Giving" and "Weekend Project" categories on the side bar). 

There are two great events on Friday-- one on each coast:

• Modern Domestic is hosting my friend (and maybe yours?) Alicia Paulson this Friday from 5-6:30 in honor of her second book, Embroidery Companion.  Both Bolt and MD have gorgeous samples from the book up on display this week. 
• One day I'm going to meet Jennifer Judd-Mcgee and I'm going to get to tell her in person how much I love her and her work.  For now, I hope you can go visit her show, rally, at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH for her opening on Friday night.  

Our tree is up and the boys really outdid themselves picking it out this year.  It is BIG, which makes the ornaments that they have not broken in the last 24 hours seem even fewer than usual.  Looks like it's time to get out the glitter!  It's about to get very sparkly up in here. 

Paddington

I went off the novelty fabric deep end at the Depot the other night and bought these three Paddington Bear prints.  The boys are going to FREAK.  I'm thinking about placemats.  I know, a tiny bear from Darkest Peru is not exactly this week's super hero, but we are all big fans regardless. 

We have a few Paddington bits around the house and I try to pick up the novels used when I'm up visiting my parents.  I love the original illustrations by Peggy Fortnum and I'm always on the look out for books with pictures taken from the stills of the animated show from the 70s.  While I don't think we ever owned them (maybe my cousins did?), I did a little dance at the thrift store the first time I ran across one.  At any rate, they are hard to find. 

The reason that the boys (and Sam in particular) have a certain affinity for Micheal Bond's bear, is that we have listened to A Bear Called Paddington read by Stephen Fry IN ITS ENTIRETY dozens of time.  A fact which I'm always amazed by, considering it's whimsy far outweighs its high-flying adventure. 

Mr. Fry, evidently your voice soothes the beasts within and has me rifling through the "licensed character" section at the fabric store.  Thank you for using your power for good.

The Buying and the Storing

This is the place that most of my apparel fabric lives.  In theory, it should all fit into that basket.  Unfortunately, I'm always tearing through there and so it ends up looking like this a lot of the time.  There's more to the right (out of the frame) but it's heavier stuff.  I keep knits and linen rolled and stuffed in a bin. 

I have gotten much better at buying fabric over time.  While I sometimes feel like I have more than I'll ever use, I'm usually all right with the stuff I chose to keep and buy.  Usually.  I try to keep in mind to only buy things that I will absolutely 100% love-- even if I'm making something for someone else.  This shouldn't be so hard to get my head around, but you'd be surprised at how often I'm grabbing stuff with one of my sisters or friends in mind.  The problem is, I don't always get around to using it for them.  (OR worse-- "It's so cheap!  How could I not?"  I'll tell you why you shouldn't, Crazy.) 

But, like I said, I'm getting better.  I go for long stretches without getting anything new, and at the moment I'm doing a good amount of sewing.  Here's my thinking about buying beyond that (especially if I don't have a specific pattern in my hand):

• If it's quilt weight, then only 1/3 a yard.  Max.  I get a half if I'm thinking about accenting kids clothes (or whatever), but I try to keep those quilt weight cottons for things other than apparel.  Remembering this has cut WAY DOWN on yardage consumption.
• Buying fabric for clothes gets easier the longer that I sew as you start thinking like a envelope back.  Gwen has created some pretty comprehensive tables for figuring this stuff out and she also has handy yardage cards to buy!  I usually go something like this-- 1 1/2 yards for a skirt; 1-1 1/2 for a shirt (depending on width and sleeves or not); 2-3 for a dress.  Beyond that, I should probably put it away because I'm not going to use it.  
• Here is a lovely, illustrated (and printable!) guide for upholstery yardage.  I love it mainly because it reinforces the fact that I have NO DESIRE to recover furniture.  At all.  I will leave that to my girl, Blair.

I keep way too many scraps.  I still make ill-advised purchases.  My shelves get messy pretty quickly (I store most quilt weight or smaller pieces folded by colour).  I drive myself and the person I share this room with crazy (it's our bedroom after all).  Here are a few more pictures of things on shelves for those of you interested in that sort of thing.  It's, you know, very lived in at the moment. I hope you weren't expecting any different.

T Shirt Practice

Thank you for posting about your collecting habits... my favourite is from Seth, who's a friend and an all 'round good guy.  You can poke around and find it, but I will say that if you're lucky enough to be friends with him you may find yourself the recipient of things like pie birds and apron pants (or more accurately, Apron Chaps).  Edited: Austen has come through with this!

Part of this Stuff Liberation has been about me getting serious about getting the fabric in my life under control.  I don't want to waste it, but I do want to use it.  During the Me-Made-May I pulled all the hand sewn stuff out of my closet and wore it (sometimes begrudgingly) every day until I had made it through the pile.  The things that felt the best were pretty obviously the things I wear all the time anyway.  It was also obvious that I needed to get serious about sewing with knits if I was going to get serious about sewing most of my clothes. 

I have a pile of cheap knits that I am sacrificing as muslins-- I bought most of them at the Fabric Depot outdoor sale where they are often 1-2 dollars/yard.  The Depot is woefully lacking in good knits otherwise, and I buy the really good stuff at Bolt or Rose City Textiles where it's still reasonably priced but much nicer quality.  Buying a bunch of different fabric weights helps me figure out what pattern will work with what weight.  There are big differences and sometimes the results are horrifying.  I didn't look good in 1989, and I don't feel like reliving it now.  The patterns for each muslin came from both Sew U: Home Stretch and Check and Stripe (you can find it on etsy, too). 

Rainbow Brite was made up from a super stretchy and slightly heavier jersey and the short sleeve Check and Stripe pattern.  I have had very good results with turning under the fabric slightly at the neck and top stitching it down.  I make sure I'm not stretching the fabric too much as I go, and so far I haven't had any problems with ruffling. 

The brown top is a slouchy scoop neck (from Sew U) that has no sleeves!  Well, it has a drapey thing that might count as a sleeve, but they are not set in.  The jersey is extremely light weight and slippery as this would look crazy un-good with something heavier.  Well, Sly Stallone via Rocky 2 would not think so, but I do.  I raised the scoop about an inch from the original pattern and finished the neck and the hem with a rolled hem on the serger.  Serger!  I still really recommend Home Stretch if you want to get into sewing with knits.  The patterns are good, but I would buy it for the construction and modification how-tos on their own.  Wendy goes through everything in categories ranging from "getting by" to "pro" and thanks to my new, ginormous purchase, I finally read the serger chapter. 

I've started moving on to the good stuff, although I'm still working on the perfect 3/4 length sleeve, boat neck t shirt pattern.  I'm getting closer, but I said PERFECT.  And look!  There's going to be a Self-Stitched-September.  I still have some time.

Little Girl Sewing

I attempted to get a lot of work done at my sewing machine this last weekend.  After I dragged my lazy bones out of bed and got that magic cup of coffee, I headed upstairs to the big stack of prepped fabric/patterns waiting on the ironing board.  I put down the coffee and picked up the iron to move it away.  Unfortunately I mistimed the use of my hands and the coffee ended up over the stack of pressed fabric.   If you have seen me move through physical space, this will not surprise you at all.  There is a reason I don't wear high heels.  Or dance. 

Apparently the large stack of fabric also proved to be the most absorbent fabric EVER, so everything went straight into the washing machine and the momentum of possibility was lost for Saturday.  Again, those of you who have spent any time around this house, will know that this happens 4 or 5 times a day.  In an effort to avoid cleaning the bathtub, I pulled out the new Ottobre and a yard of Anna Maria's Voile and decided to go off the map.  I had been working on a dress from her new book (which I'll have a lot more to say about on the 18th) and had been thinking a lot about little girl sewing and how I need to do more of it.  There are little girls in our lives.  They just don't live in our house.  No problem.

First of all, I like this issue of Ottobre quite a lot and I think there's some great boy stuff in there-- especially on the pants/shorts front.  Hillary's hat is adorable, and I'm working on some of the more masculine versions for my boys.  But the girls clothes will always win right now, because flirty florals and drapey voiles are not going to do it for my people.  Secondly, some of these patterns are cut pretty generously, and when you trace them you can adjust the ease as much as you'd like.  I kept this straight from the paper (making sure to add seam allowances).  Finally, I'm going to make some short pants out of coordinating dark brown, fine wale, corduroy to go underneath.  Girls get scrapes on their knees, too, and I consistently feel bad for toddler girls who's dresses don't have the same rough and tumble capabilities as most boy clothes.  I (of course) have more to say about this pattern over at the Bolt blog. 

So, yes, I know that I'm running the risk of future embarrassment by having the Augster try on the dress.  But like I said, we have no girl children in this house and Paul (quite desperately) would like to keep it that way.  And it did not look right just hanging on the hanger.