Elsie and Alma

A School Project, Part One

I was really making it a goal to post a few times a week, but my cold/allergies/phlegm thing was getting me down and I neglected everything: blogging, running, yoga, gardening, sewing, etc. I do this every year, get a cold when allergies kick in, so it's a lovely snot and cough fest. But once the headache cleared, I was feeling happy again because SPRING is here. All the pollen in the world can't ruin my love of spring. You know, I love fall, too, which is the other time of year I get allergies. Hmm, coincidence?

Look at that yellow dust! A-CHOO!

But lack of posts does not mean I have been completely idle.

I've been working on a project for my son's school auction. I volunteered to make a quilt involving the kids. The trick with class projects, especially for young kids, like kindergarteners, which is the age group I worked with, is coming up with an idea that is simple, engages the children, has their specific "stamp" on it, and looks kid-made. I realize that parents love their kids, and seriously, they will bid on anything their kids make, but as someone who takes a small amount of pride in things I have a hand in, I really wanted to produce something that stood on its own merits but WITHOUT completely taking over the kid's creativity. This is a fine balance.

I brainstormed a lot about what would work, and settled on the idea of having the kids piece their own quilt square, and putting a "nameplate" square in the middle. There was a lot of math involved as I figured out how big to the make the quilt (I needed to make it small enough to machine quilt on my own sewing machine), how big to make each square, how many pieces to make up each square, the ideal number to produce a pleasing effect, etc. By "pleasing effect", if you think of each square of fabric as a pixel, the smaller you make them, the more blended the overall result. This will probably make more sense later.
The colors the kids were working with were purple, green, and blue. I cut up a bunch of 2.5" by 2.5" squares in light, medium, and dark shades of these colors, and included fabrics with solids, stripes, dots, patterns, and pictures, of small and large scale. I spent a lot of time mixing them up, counting each color value and making sure the numbers of light, medium, and dark were relatively even for each color.

I know those don't look like big stacks of fabric, but really, it's a lot of little squares. And someone has to sew them all. ("Day in the Life" is going through my head now.)

My next post will describe what happened on quilt assembly day. Don't worry, it was pretty fun, actually!

A Jane Austen Dress

Reading-wise, I am not stuck in the 18th century, and with the exception of novels in the pure romance genre, I like to read all kinds of books. For the most part, I stick with fiction, and within fiction, mostly literary fiction. I have also been known to read Harry Potter, the crazy conspiracy-secret society laden Dan Brown novels, and some uncategorizable spec-fic from Neal Stephenson.

I do like me some Jane Austen, too.

But I almost didn't.

When I was in college, I took a class called "The Rise of the English Novel", which a friend of a friend of mine dubbed "The Rise of the English Nap." No kidding. We started with Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson, the abridged version of which was still about 500+ pages. It was an epistolary novel about, among other things, the downfall of Clarissa, and served as both a cautionary tale on womanly virtues lost, and a commentary on family relations (the bad kind, in case you were wondering). And, there is at one point An Enormously Important Event that was completely lost on me (and more than a few classmates) until we discussed it in class.

"So, did you all get to the scene where Clarissa is taken advantage of by the libertine?" Head scratching. "You know, where they go off into a room together?" More head scratching. Our patient professor explained that this implied, you know, that something had happened. You know, wink-wink, nudge-nudge. Man-woman relations.

"Really?" was the collective response. Except for the class suck-ups.

"Well," she said, "It wasn't as if they could just spell it out."

Oh good Lord, I thought. This is going to be a loooonnng quarter.

I can say that each book we read did improve on the previous, but considering where we started, this isn't saying much, just that the authors were slightly less boring and obtuse as weeks went by. Somewhere in there we had to read The Sorrows of Young Werther, the book that divided the class into Team Werther and Team Please Take Werther Out Behind the Barn and Put Him Down. Guess which team I was on.

Our final book was Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen. Having slogged through Richardson and Goethe and a few other novels on the rise, I have to say, the cards were stacked against Austen. I had not read any of her books at that point in my life (in hindsight, a crime), and I was ready dislike this one as much as the others.

But here is the thing: where Samuel was a finger-wagger, and Johann was a wallower, Jane was funny. I read the first few pages, and I thought, this isn't really as good as I think it is....is it? Her characters seemed real, and the people and places more alive than any of the other books we read that quarter. The story was more interesting, the writing more clear, and overall, I found myself having to say, "I think I like this. In fact, I think I love this." And this was just Northanger Abbey. I hadn't even scratched the surface.

She seemed to say, "Yeah, yeah, ok Richardson, pioneer of the form and all that.....but come over here and read ME. Clarissa might be important, Werther more...poetic, but I am FUN."

Soon after this, I devoured Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. You could drink beer with Jane and laugh at inside jokes, like how ridiculous Mr. Collins is, or the nonsense coming out of Mrs. Elton's mouth. I don't see myself drinking beer with Mr. Richardson. 

A few years later, and I went to see Emma with my mom and sister. I came out of the theater wanting a dress from the movie, but certain obstacles prevented this. One, I could not sew. Two, I had nowhere to wear a floor-length Regency style dress.

Obstacle number one is (kind of sort of nearly there) conquered. Obstacle two, however, remained.

Fast forward a bit in time.

My sister informed me a month ago that she bought the latest Emma miniseries on DVD (the new one with Romola Garai in the title role, see pic above), and she was going to have a viewing party, "with costumes, of course."

That's what I'm talkin' about. Now, at long last, I have an excuse to make one of these dresses.

Be forewarned, future throwers of Halloween parties. When I get this 18 piece pattern of a dress fitted to my measurements, I will be in period costume for your parties the next 20+ years. Let's hope my body holds its shape as long as the dress. I might be stuffing myself into something that doesn't fit so well, and you will just have to suck it up and endure.

And here is the fabric. Not too bad, actually, about $40 at Fabric.com (actually, less. I bought something else in that package. So, about $25 for 4 yards). Cotton lawn.  I should have enough for me and to make a little something for my daughter, if I mix in some other fabric. I'll need something for lining, but will buy locally when I have a better idea of how I am putting this together. I already have a few ideas for modifications.

Sigh. I can't wait to start this project. It's been a long time coming.

Recycle, Upscyle, Sidecycle?

What do you call something that's new but needed a fix up?

 

I bought this sweater at a local boutique's sidewalk sale for $10, down from some ridiculous price like $100. Seriously. There was a small hole in one of the sleeves, so I patched it up and was happy with it for a time.

The neckband, however, was unforgivably floppy.  So it hung in the closet, an unworn bargain, until I finally got over the idea that one day it would suddenly improve and decided to try fixing it. 

First, the style of the sweater was inside-out. Meaning, all of the pieces were sewn wrong side out, so the purl side was showing instead of the knit, and all the seams were exposed. If the sweater were less floppy, I suppose this might have worked, but in this case, it just looked like an inside-out sweater. (What possessed me to buy it in the first place? I am sure I had a good reason, but it's gone now.) The buttons were very cute, but too heavy for the weight of the yarn, which made the button band heavy and floppy as well.

I took the buttons off and turned the sweater right side out, removing the tags. The yoke on the back neck had a cute polka-dotted chiffon-ish patch of fabric that now showed on the outside. I think that might be my favorite part of the sweater, and that, plus the buttons, is probably why I bought it. Even though I took the buttons off, they are a nice addition to my stash.

After doing this, the floppy neckband still bothered me. I folded it over and pinned it, and it improved the stability immediately, but just sewing it straight with brown thread didn't look that great (I tried). So, I grabbed the pink flower trim and machine-stitched it on, and called it good.

Yay. New sweater. I am going to take a look at my closet and see what else I can find in there that needs a dash of improvement...

Sandbox Outfit

Remember the pattern tracing post? This was the result of all that tracing:

 

And more pics:

 

Not the best pictures. Ugh. (Honestly, I've been struggling with pictures. I have a pretty nice DSLR, so I SHOULD have much nicer pictures, but getting indoor shots of my crafts.....I don't know. I need to take a class or get a book. When I take pictures outside in the yard, I seem to do OK, but these shots are kind of crappy)  I did NOT make the shirts, but I did the freezer paper stencil.

Entire outfit design and pattern courtesy of Oliver + S. Such lovely patterns. Here's a funny: I bought the pattern at my local fabric store, so I did not see this particular pattern online, or the pictures of the resulting pants. Yet BOTH mine and the one in the picture are made with brown corduroy. So either I did see this picture previously and it sat in my subconscious until I bought fabric or, great minds think alike. Hmm. Curious.

I didn't find any shirt that really went with the colors I chose for buttons and waistband (note to self, maybe pick a shirt first?), so I bought two that kind of go. And stenciled them both. 

Those back pockets were fussy. Dang. I think I need to take a remedial pocket-making class. It was one of those parts where I found myself thinking, "there must be a trick to this but I don't know it yet."

This outfit is for a new baby boy of a dear friend. We await his arrival with GREAT excitement.

Hey, let's go!

Those are the first three words in the English version of the song that plays during the title credits of "My Neighbor Totoro."

Here is the Japanese version (via Youtube, which has to be the best tool on the interwebs for finding this kind of thing.)

I like the English version well enough (the opening "Hey let's go!" fills me with a ridiculous sort of optimism: "Yes! Why not? Let's go!"), but I think there is something a little bit sweeter about the Japanese version. I couldn't find a Japanese version that actually played the credits along with it (UPDATE: FOUND IT!!!), but I only have so much time to scour the web for pop-culture reference material. I am already deep in the rabbit hole, and have watched not one, but two, live Studio Ghibli performances of "Songs of Totoro." It is time to stop.

A friend of mine (who also happens to be a fan of Totoro) is having a baby in March, and I gave her a Totoro gift package. The fabric I used on the waistband is Kokka (shown here at purl), a Japanese fabric with some squirrels, who are woodland creatures, and since Totoro is a forest creature, it seemed to work. The wee Totoro Chris picked up at Uwajimaya in the bookstore for me.

shirt and totoro plushie. had to hide it from the kids or it would never have made it out of the house.

pants (what the heck happened to the buttonhole openings? a bit wonky)

everything together!

I made the shirt doing the freezer paper stencil. It is SO SIMPLE. I'd share the details, but there are oodles of instructions out there on the web. The hardest part is cutting the stencil. I think I need better tools for that. Everything else was really easy. I can't believe how nice it turned out. This was my first one. Kind of stupid to make the first one as a gift, since it was midnight and anything could have gone wrong and then there would be no shirt, but that is what happens when you procrastinate: you take chances.

Hey let's go! Hey let's go! I'm happy as can be!

Pillowcase Top

My mom volunteers at a non-profit thrift store a few days a week. Yeah, you're jealous. She's an excellent thrifter and has a good eye for stuff. I am always putting her on the look out for one thing or another (fake fur coats, wood knitting needles, vintage table cloths, and so forth.) It might take 6 months, but she always delivers. Well, her store does have a 24 hour policy: items have to go out on the floor for 24 hours before you can buy them yourself. But still, you'd be amazed what people miss.

Recently, I was inspired by this project in Craft from Betz White for making pillowcase tops. (Well, I guess it wasn't so recent, more like last summer.) I had my mom search for pillowcases, and she came through. I got a bagful (is that a word? I am going with it). Some were actually from her own stash, some from the thrift store.

I ended up going in a different direction with mine, because the pillow case I used had some lovely embroidery on the bottom. So, while the idea is not my own, the execution was my own interpretation.

Here is mine:

I really wish I had a pattern or better instructions to offer (or a better picture, sheesh, but I have complained enough about pics for now), but I did not document the process as I went. However, I'll do my best to describe it.

1. I figured out how long to make the bottom.  I needed enough length for the coverage I wanted (no bare midriffs for me, thanks), but had to save enough fabric for the yoke, so it was a balance. (I toyed with the idea of using just the bottom embroidered part of the pillowcase and making the yoke out of something else, but I ended up using all of the pillow case. I did NOT undo the side seams of the pillowcase. This would have cut into the embroidery along the edge. Reason number 1 I had to figure out my own pattern.)
2. Using fabric pencil, I sketched what I thought would be a workable yoke onto the rest of the fabric, allowing for seams, and cut it out.
3. I sewed up the yoke (including the ribbon straps) and discovered it was too narrow. (Oops. Weird because I usually make things too big.) This would require some rejiggering later. I came up with the plan and then moved forward with the gathering.
   
   
4. Gathered the top edge of the pillowcase.
5. Sewed top to bottom.
6. Rejigger: I had to bridge the gap at the back where the yoke did not make it around my chest and back. I came up with a solution that actually made it look like I planned this little mishap. I love the look of the small pink buttons, and the brown bias tape.

holy hand grenade! can you see how big the gap is? did i even measure at all?

As I said, I don't think I'm doing anything different than has been done before. I've see a lot of pillowcase creations online, this is just my own experiment...and I might shorten those straps a bit. Eventually, though, I am going to make one like the tutorial above because I now have a great flower print pillow case to use. I put in my order with mom, and she had one for me within a week. Sweet.