The bag from H _ _ _ !

I had high hopes for this bag. I love the lines and size of it. This bag was perfect for me, just big enough, but not too big--loads of possibilities. I began sewing this last Saturday afternoon starting with the lining first, since I had forgotten to buy cording which was needed for the handles and piping around the bottom. The lining went together quite quickly, even with an inside zipper and outside zipper attached to the facings and lining. Then Sunday I ventured back to my machine and all the trouble started. I really did not want to drive to the nearest Joann's which might not even have the cording sizes I needed and would take at least an hour round trip. I improvised and raided the Boy Scout's rope bag and found nylon cords in the sizes I needed. Just snipped off a few inches and I was back in business. I made my piping for the bottom of the purse but had a terrible time trying to get the sides of the bag to attach close enough to the piping. I guess my biggest mistake was in my choice of interfacing. The pattern instructions recommend sew-in hair canvas interfacing, but I thought that fusible stiff Pellon would work just as well. After several tries even though I had marked the stitching lines, I decided that in order to get close enough to the piping, I would have to hand sew the bag. I had a couple rows of stitching on the bottom already, the stitching just needed to be closer to the piping. I must have spent an hour sewing that bottom together, innumerable pin pricks (I don't remember ever bleeding that much on a project) and numb fingers from forcing the needle through all the layers. Thankfully, all my pain and suffering ended in succe ss. Then came the hardest part attaching the facing and lining to the body of the bag. Since I so brilliantly chose a stripe that would show if I venture d out of line when trying to sew parallel to the stripe, lining everything up with all the bulk created by the interfacing was quite a venture. More pin pricks and bleeding on the project. This pattern made it hard to actually sew up to the sides of the bag since not enough room was given between the ends of the zipper and the sides of the bag. the facings could be a little wider too. I decided to treat the intersection of the two pieces like a notched collar and sewed just a stitch away from the intersection. This actually worked and allowed me to turn the bag to the right side with just a moderate amount of bulk. Then the pattern called for edge stitching around the top of the bag. This was not to be since the edge was too thick to fit under my machine's presser foot. I ended up hand tacking along the edge hiding my stitches in the stripes. If I kept up with this hand stitching through all that bulk, I would have developed callouses since the tips of a few fingers are becoming sensitive and hard.

Would I sew this again? Maybe. I still like the lines of this bag, but next time I will make modifications to the pattern. I need to rethink where the facing meets the sides of the bag and reshape the pattern piece. Also, I think if I use a less stiff interfacing on the facings and omit the piping on the bottom of the bag it will be much easier.

Oh la la, I have a Storyboard

There is no joy in Beantown

Congratulations to the Giants for fighting and winning. They turned out to be very worthy opponents to the Pats. Cheer up Patriots fans, like the Red Sox fans always say "Wait till next year."

Up and Running!

I have spent the past two weeks choosing fabric and patterns and editing like crazy for the Pattern Review Wardrobe contest. I now have a plan, I just need time to execute it. My travel wardrobe is based on neutrals with charcoal as my starting point, adding black, more grey, beige and ivory. Sounds boring, but by using fabrics with pattern, it breaks it up and adds interest. Besides, these colors should travel well.


Starting at the top left going clockwise: charcoal wool for pants and jacket, beige tropical wool for pants, black tropical wool for pants, grey microfiber for pants, black & beige stripe for handbag, ivory & black rayon stripe knit for long sleeve T-shirt, top, ivory rayon knit for short sleeve T-shirt top, crinkle silk georgette for evening top, grey rayon knit for top and variegated grey knit for sweater.

The patterns I chose for my wardrobe:

Textile Studio Marseilles Top #1205
McCalls #4596 jacket, short collarless zip front
The Classics, Material Things Fearless T #109
Loes Hinse Bianca Top #1508
Vogue #7036 handbag view A
Hot Patterns Plain & Simple Everyday Pants (same pattern for all 4 pairs)
Jalie top #2682


If there is time, I want to add more tops using the T-shirt (gold & black rayon knits) & Jalie top pattern (green rayon knit) plus adding the Loes Hinse Tunic Blouse #5202 (while rayon jacquard fabric) and Textile Studio Tank Top Shell #1203 (beige/taupe rayon jacquard). One more item I could add would be another sweater in the Loes Hinse Sweater Set #5201 cardigan using some wool double knit I also have in my stash.

Tonight I plan to trace off and work on a muslin for the McCalls jacket. I figure that will be the most challenging part of my plan. I already have enough interfacing and lining for this, but will need to get a separating zipper for the jacket. I have been looking for one, but have yet to find one that isn't too sporty. I want to be able to wear this jacket to work, not just on my trip. I will keep looking since I don't want to cut the jacket fabric until I have the actual zipper.

Last Sunday, my sewing friend, Ann B, came over and we both made duck tape dummies. I am pleased with the way mine came out and it is on my old dressform now (no pictures of this babe without clothes will ever get published). This will be a great help in fitting the jacket and tops. Ann helped me name her--Madame! My old dummy was named Goddess, but her day came and went. Madame fits a woman of a certain age.

My Second Attempt

Pattern Review is having a Wardrobe (aka SWAP) Contest running from February 1 through April 30. I need/want new clothes for our trip to France at the end of April and I want to sew down some of my stash (Fabric Fast). So it makes sense to me to try to complete a SWAP thus accomplishing two goals at once. I will need to finish by April 20 since we are leaving only a few days after that.

This time I won't try for as many complicated (time consuming) garments, just a few knit tops, one pant pattern used three times and a TNT skirt. I think I know which tops I want to sew, but what I'm having problems with is deciding on a jacket. I plan to bring my black Dana Buchman raincoat, so I want something that I can wear under that. Layering is key. Once I can decide on a jacket, then the rest is easy to plan. Researching the April weather in France I found that during that time of year it is not as romantic as the movie or song . It is cold and raining--maybe that's why the tickets didn't cost as much as I thought they would.

This is torture!

Well I've committed myself to a fabric, pattern & sewing book fast for 2008. I really need to do this since my inventory is starting to take over the house. I figure a SWAP uses about 25 yards of fabric. My current stash would provide 26 SWAPs. I can't dream up that many SWAPs. Two or three with layered stages added to each SWAP would be fun to plan. Work will be quite busy the rest of the month staying late dealing with year end stuff, so any SWAP planning will not happen for a few weeks.

Now I'm getting emails and snail mailings telling me about all the fabric sales. What prompted this entry was that I just received an email from Michael's Fabrics informing me that most of their Zegna's are 75% off and the rest of the inventory is 50% off. If I were not fasting, I would be ordering. Sawyer Brook is also having a great sale. I assume they are all getting ready to make room for their Spring inventory. Ha! I already have a Spring inventory--and Summer, Fall & Winter, too!

Also I got a lovely email from Marfy telling me that the Spring 2008 catalog is ready. Then I read Pattern Review and discover some great patterns I would love to sew. Arrggh!!

I just have to tell myself there will always be lovely fabrics and patterns out there in the future. And I also own loads of lovely fabrics which are begging to be sewn. Maybe I'll go shoe shopping.

Fabric Fast

I have approximately 650 yards in my fabric stash. I realize there are others with stashes containing thousands of yards, but my stash is beginning to take up too much room. My youngest son is presently in Iraq as a Marine assigned to Central Command. While he is gone, I have moved my stash to his room. I need to sew some of this down and move it out before he returns, so that there is room for him.

I have cataloged all my fabrics so at least I know what I have. I have swatches in a binder filed by fiber (silk, cotton, linen, wool, synthetics, rayon and miscellaneous). Listed next to each fabric is the yardage (this is why I know how much I have) and width, any notes about the fabric and the year purchased. I then have my fabric stored in large banker's boxes according to color. Presently there are 15 boxes. Some are duplicates such as black, ivory and green - I tend to be attracted to certain colors. Much of this coordinates. When I planned my original swap last spring, I did not buy any new fabric since I had plenty to plan with. This stash needs to be set free--on my body, that is.

After realizing for the past several months that I own a large amount of fabric, and since I don't want to part with the majority of it, I need to sew this up before I purchase any more, at least during 2008. Therefore, when the PR Message Board popped up with the 2008 Fabric Fast--I knew that I needed to join this. I'm not sure I can stop buying--but I want to give this a good try--and I do believe I really can stick with it. I did lose 25 lbs last year, so why not at least that much in stash this year.

I also will refrain from buying any new patterns. Patterns really aren't a problem, but I find that many of my patterns look alike, even though they are from different designers/pattern companies. The same goes with books--no more sewing books. Besides many of them repeat each other in content--they just have different pictures and words.

The only thing I will not give up is my Burda WOF--it gives me inspiration and doesn't take up too much room either.

Buttons are another obsession, but they are neatly stored by color. But unless I don't already have the perfect button for a jacket, I will not purchase any new buttons. I have plenty great buttons for all the blouses I want to make.

I don't need interfacing since I have a decent size stash of fusibles, sew-in and silk organza. The same goes for linings, I have a fair amount of basic colors in rayon and silk. If I use up my interfacings and linings, I certainly have made a large dent in my fabric stash.

I also plan to go to France in April--so I cannot give up a chance to fabric shop in Paris. I am not a martyr. And, of course, I will allow myself to shop if I go to PR weekend.

So this year, I will not purchase any new fabric, patterns, buttons or books (except in Paris and PR NYC weekend). I have to stop thinking about what I want to make and just start sewing.

Happy Blog Year

Recently, I was chastised by a sewing friend for not keeping up with my blog. Well, I agree, I need to make some effort towards this endeavor. I did complete two more items to last year's swap--finishing the pussycat blouse and the cosmo dress. I really should post reviews and pictures of these. I promise I'll try.

I have been sewing infrequently and completed two LH cardigan sweaters which I wore at PR Weekend in November. This pattern has become a TNT for me since these were my 4th and 5th times with this pattern and I have more planned in my head.

That's been my problem lately, more planning than execution. And part of the planning stage has been purchasing more fabric. My stash has grown by over 100 yards in the past year. I have become addicted to Emma One Sock, anxiously await my Sawyer Brook swatch mailings, Michael's Fabrics has me on their hit list, and the Fabric Place store closest to me closed--but had a mega sale that lasted two months before they finally did close. Then, of course, there was PR Weekend, but I restrained myself and spent more on buttons than fabric this time (everything fit in my suitcase, so I figure I was somewhat under control).

Ah, the Randolph Fabric Place sale--it started with a flyer giving me an extra 10% the already marked down store contents. I arrived in early October and stalked the aisles planning what to buy then and what to buy in the coming weeks when the markdowns became even greater. I haven't knitted in ten years, but I bought yarn (I may never see it this cheap again) and found some great linen. Next trip I bought silk, black, cream and print for lining, more yarn, bamboo fabric and McCall's patterns at $1 each. Now I was contemplating purchasing the furniture--namely pattern cabinets. I did come to my senses since I have no place to put them and my system of banker's boxes works quite well for pattern storage. The store is only 5 minutes off the route home from work, so I found myself gravitating towards the store at least once a week in November. I bought a couple upholstery sample books at $1 each thinking they would make great purses, then found some great bamboo voile (which I had been seriously thinking about for quite a while), printed cotton which would make great pj's for me, and more silk in brown charmuese and 3 ply. I showed up the next to last day before they closed, 80% of the merchandise was gone and I realized I was looking for things that just weren't there. I left empty-handed but with lots of memories of a fabric store I spent a lot of time in over the past few years. Fabric Place is still around--just not as close as I would like. So now I'll have to drive 30-45 minutes depending upon which store I want to visit. I also now have a yarn stash!

Channeling Audrey

I love to sew. Most of my sewing is related to work clothes since I love tailoring, but that usually requires a muslin, lots of fitting and lots of sewing both machine and hand. Sometimes I just want to sew something fun, which means no muslin & fitting. Since PR changed the rules on their contest and an accessory is now one required item, rather than count one of my jackets as the accessory, I preferred to sew a purse. Handbags are fun. They allow for creativity (even though mine leans towards a more classic, subdued approach), imagination, and use of scraps and stuff already on hand. I don't sew these very often, but really get into it when I do. They also provide much quicker gratification. I'm sure these reasons are some of Deepika's since she is the queen of purse-making.

I had scraps left over from my jackets, lots from the cotton one and a little from the black linen jacket. I also bought several yards of ribbon last winter from an on-line ribbon site--I could not stop picking out different ribbons, but managed to stop when I hit $45. Mind you I rarely use ribbon outside of gift-wrapping. But once again, I was inspired and let loose. Well the black and cream ribbon in my stash was so perfect with the scraps from these two jackets, I just had to make a purse. I still needed a lining, but thought why not a black check lining--then off to my least favorite fabric source, Joann's. Sure enough they had a great match. I also needed a pattern and did not want to spend a lot and there wasn't any sale that day, so Butterick was a good choice. I found B4474 which was just the right size of 10" x 8"--not too big. Then the search for handles--but the only ones they had that worked were bamboo, so my choices were limited. A couple weeks later I was at Fabric Place and they had totally different handles to choose from. I found the perfect little black ones. I'll just have to save the bamboo for another purse.

Last Saturday was a great time to start this fun project. I cut out the pattern and fabric, fused two layers of interfacing to the body of the purse even though the instructions only required one layer and off I went. I'm also glad I fused two layers, because it really gave the bag more structure. In fact I could have used a stiffer interfacing, but I used what I had on hand, since I did not want to drive 20 minutes to Joann's or Fabric Place just for a piece of interfacing. The pattern was well drafted, but the instructions were so-so. They really did not skip any steps, but I question if the bags on the envelope were made using the same instructions. The two major complaints about the instructions were that, first, the lining bottom should be sewn with a very wide opening to allow for the cardboard to pass through after the lining is attached to the bag. The illustration showed a small opening which would not work if you don't want to bend the cardboard. I used two layers of cardboard for more stability. Then the other problem was that after the lining was attached and turned right-side out with the bag, you are expected to understitch all around the top of the bag. This is a nearly impossible feat. I found top-stitching around the top to be a much easier way to go. Besides, the instructions had already had you top-stitch the loops for the handles and the tab for the snap. It just made sense to top-stitch again. I had recently purchased some sew-on magnetic purse snaps from Sawyer Brook which worked perfectly and found a button in the button stash which was a close match to the handles, just the right touch to finish this bag. Here's my PR review on this pattern.

Now I'm on the lookout for great fabric to go with those bamboo handles.

Burda 8433

This jacket has been cut out since Memorial Day, but I did not have a chance to work on it until late June. The muslin for this was made prior to Memorial Day and fitting this was fairly easy. Anyway, I posted my review on Pattern Review. This jacket did not give me any problems and I was very happy with the drafting, especially the sleeves. I made some changes to this pattern leaving off the cuffs and just finishing the slits at the wrist. Once again I decided to underline this jacket with silk organza. This stuff is really easy to work with and provided just enough body so that the linen of this jacket doesn't go limp. I finished off the seams with rayon seam binding which turned out much easier to do that I had originally thought. Yeah!--I'll definitely use this technique again. Well I have already worn this to work since it fits in quite well with what I already own. Anyway, a black jacket usually works most of the time. No inside pictures since the details just won't show up. Maybe I'll make one up in a lighter fabric and post that.


One thing that held me up was that my sister-in-law, Nadine, came to visit with her boyfriend on their way to Ireland. They live in Phoenix, so Boston is a definite vacation destination for them since it is so different than the desert. They stayed with us for four days during which time we visited the annual crafts fair in Cohasset (where the very well-to-do live by the ocean), ate out most nights and spent Sunday along the Coastal Wine Trail. My husband, Ken, and I first followed this last year and just loved it. The wineries on this trail are very much like the one in the Finger Lakes, New York.

We only had an hour drive from our house to the first stop, Westport River Winery. We arrived a hour before they opened so we went off looking for a place to have a quick lunch. We found a place on Main Street, which was more of a rural road than the name suggested and found a place named someone or other's dry good and kitchen. There were two young women (the cooks) in the rear of this gift shop who served wonderful homemade sandwiches, soups and all types of dessert goodies. Of course, we all had dessert. When we arrived back at the winery, they were open and we decided to take a tour which took an hour. At the end of the tour, we did our tasting outside overlooking the vineyards. This winery specialized in champagne since it grows so well in this part of the country. The tour brought back all hat Ken and I had learned when we visited Moet & Chandon back in 2001. Anyway, it was a perfect day for tasting, around 75 and sunny.

Then off to Sakonnet Vineyard which was about a 20 minute drive down windy back roads. This place is also in a lovely setting, but I guess we were so absorbed in the tasting we forgot to take pictures. Sakonnet has been around for a while. Ken and I remember buying their wine back home before we had kids (and they are now both Marines, so it was quite a while ago). Anyway, it is worth the stop.

Our last stop was Greenvale Vineyards. They have one of the prettiest barns I have ever seen. All tasting takes place in the barn. This was the most low-key, less crowded place of the three we visited. When I retire, I want to work here pouring wine. What a life!!

Needlesstosay, we did also buy. We have a wine rack in our cellar which holds 126 bottles and it was getting a little bare, especially lacking in white wines. So this little adventure helped us stock up until we go off to the Finger Lakes for our annual wine gathering trip.

After Greenvale, we headed for Newport, RI. Nadine and Vic had never been there, even though I have been trying to talk them into visiting this place. Once there, they loved it. We spent our entire time on the waterfront looking at the small shops and taking in the views. We had dinner at a restaurant on the water, and of course, had wine with our meal. Sounds like our day was a big drunk, but trust me, it really wasn't. Everything was spread out over the entire 10 hour period and we really did not drink that much at each winery since they give out only a couple sips of each wine. Anyway, at least Ken and I have learned after a taste to dump our wine into the vessel provided at each winery. Did you see Sideways? Remember towards the end of the movie when Miles (Paul G) was at a winery tasting room and drank out of a pitcher--that was the wine leftovers everyone dumped. Mind you, we only drink from wine glasses.