Delavan!

I made Delavan, from Seamwork, as my final exam project for my Intermediate Sewing class.  I bought a year subscription, which gives me one pattern a month, more or less, or downloadable patterns.

Not yet hemmed, but already photobombed.
The green collar really calms it down...

This was the first one I tried to assemble, by taping all the pieces together. It was an unhappy experience... I ended up taping the pieces I wanted to trace to the breakfast bar with blue tape, tracing them, then moving to the next piece; this mostly worked, except ALL the sizes are on the same paper, and it's nearly impossible to find the lines on some of the pieces as they're very close together. But I got it done and made a muslin, then started on the inevitable changes:

• I altered the pattern to move the sleeve edge of the shoulder seam back as it was not positioned correctly on my shoulder.
• Per R's suggestion, I added a bit of a horizontal dart to the back to deal with slightly sloping shoulders.  
• I lengthened it two inches on the body and sleeves. 
• The sleeves were set a little low, so we moved those up a little into the bodice... 

Ut-oh! When I made it up in muslin it looked awful. I think there were issues with the sleeve placement.  In retrospect, when I moved the shoulder back, I didn't adjust the shoulder seam clip on the sleeve. Also, I took so much off the armhole, that the sleeve head was about the same size as the armhole, and it should be slightly larger.

And, when I lengthened the cute short slouchy jacket, it just looked big and slouchy, and I hated it.  I think adding one inch in length would have been plenty...  Anyways, R came up with the idea of making it into a vest instead, as I was starting to run out of time to finish it and was getting paniced. So I changed my fabric plan and used one of the beautiful batiks S had brought me from Indonesia; I swapped out the interfacing to a coordinating green, which reduces the yellow next to my face, and I like it.

Who sez I can't rock yellow!

Specific features of the vest that were learning opportunities for me were:

• Most of the seams are finished with Hong Kong bias binding; Super Fancy!!!  But think through what happens when seams come together before you sew.
• I learned about shawl collars: take them slow and draw the seam allowance on the set in corner seam bit.
• And curved pieces: press seam open before you turn, so you don't get little points on your curves.
• Fitting remains a struggle for me.

And another photo,  because it makes me happy...

In other news:

• My good friends M and B were in town on Sunday, and came to have lunch with us... I made Carne Adovada, some garlickly rice, and a wonderful coleslaw with a lime dressing. Yummy! I made the Adovada the night before, then heated it in the slow cooker while the rice cooker handled the rice; the coleslaw came together quickly in the morning, so I was free to take a short hike with the guys before lunch. So nice to spend time with old friends!
• I am sewing the buttons on a new pajama top, and that'll be done... 
• I continue to knit on the forever skirt, but it's getting longer!  
• I've also picked a travel project for my upcoming trip... I promise to share once it's in progress. 
• And I signed up for a 3 day Anna Zilboorg class next October, so will need to select some yarn from my stash, or dye some...

What I want to do this summer...

Maybe I need a bigger coffee...

Let's start with a cup of coffee as I think I'll need a lot of caffeine to get all of the things that I want to get done over the summer. This is in addition to hosting my niece for a visit (can't wait!!!), working out, and tending the garden.  Suspecting I'll have to trim the list a bit but here it is in it's initial state! Other than the two timelines, these are grouped by craft. I've emboldened the ones I think are priority.  I'll strike through anything I finish!

Between now and the end of May when I leave on vacation, I'd like to:

• Weave the other bootlace for DH, put aglets on them and deploy to his boots.
• Sew together Delavan for class
• Sew up the the other PJ top that's cut and waiting.
• Sew together the blocks for my pinwoven shawl.
• Clear the loom of the black and white scarf I don't like.

Over the summer (June 15-August 15), I'd like to:

Mosaic:

Isn't this pretty? I must weave it.

• Mosaic the two table tops for the aquarium stand, one flowers, the other geometric.

Quilting:

• Make a baby sized donation quilt.
• Get the Pub quilt quiltable.
• Kit up the Christmas quilt.
• Finish one or both of my Judy Niemeyer quilt tops.

Sewing:

• Sew up a cute little zipper bag thingy with fabric from my stash, or solar printed. 

Weaving:

• I promised K a back scrubber!
• Make some bootlaces for my brother; would be fun to dye one of the warp threads.
• Bootlaces for Frank
• Reverse engineer and weave that fabric I saw in class for my fall tailoring class.
• Weave a rep rug.
• Start a Navajo Tapestry.
• Create a bag out from a fabric on my RHL, an inkle band, and a braided closure as an example for 4H.
• Weave up that kitchen towel kit that's been in my stash for 2 years.

Dyeing:

• Dye the rest of my warps
• Dye some fabric for a shirt, then make the shirt; maybe a camp shirt with buttons and all.

Knitting

• Fingerless mitts to match my Ram Tam.
• Finish the skirt I'm knitting.
• Knit Oasis (vacation knitting).
• Knit Pebble beach shawl (vacation knitting).

Oh yeah, and join the Tour de Fleece. Maybe on Team Overcommitted. It's all doable, right?

Racing to finish!

Lots of progress, I'm on a finishing streak. I've got a bunch of things finished or close to finished:

• The Tam is done; see my cute little sheeps?  I'd started it at a Stitches class by Candance Eisner Strick. When we got to the center, she gave us two design options, and some graph paper in case we wanted to design it ourselves; then mentioned none of her students had ever done their own design! So.... yeah. I call it Rama Tama Ding Dong. I'm delighted with it. 
• The Ruana is done. It's so comfy and warm that I could live it in; I want 10 of these, in every color. I took all the pieces down to my knitting retreat and my buddy K helped me figure out what to do next; basically, I hemmed the back on my machine (who wants to sit on fringe?) then picked up and knitted along the inside edges; I did a 3 needle bindoff to about the 1/2 way point. Same process for the outside edges, except without the join... a quick wash and press, and it lays relatively straight.
• The blue top for my class is done; photos for that and the other sleeveless top will make it into my Q2 finished items post! I'm now working on my Delavan jacket. I've done one muslin and made mods, now for muslin 2 and on to the jacket.
• 59 out of 60 squares are done for my pin woven shawl. 
• I'm making DH a back scrubby that matches the new bathroom. It's off the loom but still needs hems and finishing. He knows it's coming but I still pretend it's a surprise.

I also took my last workshop for awhile... It was a 2 day Kathrin Weber dye workshop sponsored by the local guild. The first day was fabulous... but sadly I had such a bad headache all night before the second day that I couldn't make the second class.  I ended up with one dyed skein and one dyed warp, both of which I adore, and a lot of info that I will use to dye the other warps I wound in preparation for the class.

Other than that, I'd like to concentrate on my two college classes; putting together a knitting kit for my trip to Italy; and finishing whatever else I can before I head to Europe. Oh yeah, that and compiling a list of what I want to get done over the summer. Looking forward to that.

Q2 2018 Completed Things (7)

April:

Not a summer top...

I call it ramatamadingdong.

I'm procrastinating everything, so decided to clean up the studio by finishing a T Shirt I started a year ago and never finished because I did not like the neck. Sleeves are a little short and I'm still not sure I like the neck, but it's moved from the bin of unfinished projects to the laundry pile by way of my sewing machine and iron. You can't tell in the photo, but it's a lovely dark green interlock. Perfect for wearing around the house or out and about! And finished, on the second day of Q2...

The Tam is complete, with seven rams circling my head... I have enough fiber left for fingerless mitts!

This is the summer top!

I wanted to make the summer top out of one of my batiks, but after I washed it, I realized it's a little stiff. It'd make a lovely camp shirt, but not a tank. So back to Joann's, and found this lovely blue denim type fabric with embroidered flowers. Shirt features flat felled seams and Hong Kong finishes on the armholes and neckline in a cotton knit T-shirt fabric.

The Ruana is complete. I am loving it,  and wearing it multiple times a week, even though the fall colors are slightly unseasonal... I'll need to take a photo!

And I made a couple of back scrubbing clothes for my DH out of some plain old kitchen cotton. I ended up with 2 scrubbers, woven with some texture and handles sewn into the hem at both ends, and one face cloth. He likes them! And a bonus, they coordinate better with the bathroom colors. His old one will retire to the shower by the workout room, where it's green color is a better match.

May:

Can I count painting the garage as a May accomplishment? Probably not. But it took 3 long days.  I'd like to say it looks great but the two cans of paint I used were not close enough in color (yes, I bought them at the same place); after the nice men finish with the new cabinet installation,  I'll see if it needs some touch up. I think there's two spots that will bug me, easy to fix...

Delavan almost complete, with Owl
photobombing.

I made a second pajama top out of flannel sheep fabric, since I enjoyed the first one so much. Flat feel seams, hand hemmed sleeves and bottom, contrasting color and pockets. Otherwise nothing interesting here.

I finished my version of the Delavan jacket, the Delavan vest. See my blog post for all the details.  I added self lined patch pockets on the front (after blogging).

Aglets

Here are the laces looking for an aglet solution!

A brief search of my blog shows that there are no indications of my growing obsession with aglets!!!  What are aglets, you might ask? According to Wikipedia, an aglet is a small sheath, often made of plastic or metal, used on each end of a shoelace, a cord, or a drawstring.  

My quest has been to figure out how to finish a card woven band for a bootlace. John Mullarkey, at a class I took from him at Stitches West in 2017, suggested saturating the lace in glue and then rolling it between two fingers until dry; then perhaps coating with nail polish. John's laces look fabulous; really; but I was hoping for a different finish.  Google query yielded Ian's Shoelace site which is phenomenal;  there are a bazillion ways to thread your laces, tie you shoe know, and sure enough, a section on aglets for those who have lost an aglet or wish to shorten their shoelace. 

So I ordered a hot air gun, and a bunch of heat shrink tubing. I initially tried 3/16" (5mm) clear dual wall with adhesive... it looked lovely, though a little clunky, but would not fit through the thingy the lace goes through. What are those called? There's got to be a word for it. So I enlisted DH's help, and he ordered me a set of different sized heat shrink tubes. One of the tubes barely fit and had to be coaxed on to the laces and pulled by a string, but it seems to be the right size; without a metric ruler, I'm guessing it's either 2.5mm or 3mm diameter. And it fits his boot!

5mm on top (pudgy) unknown but suspected 2.5 mm (svelte) on bottom, untrimmed!

A brief history of the laces... I decided that my DH needed cool bootlaces for his hiking boots, which double as his scooter boots.  So right before I went to Esalen, I warped up the loom to make them,  and ASSUMED that three yards of lace was enough. Sadly, I need approximately 10 feet, so despite all my rapid work, I only have one lace, plus a whole bunch left over. At least I have plenty to play with the aglets!  So I'll need to warp up again for shoelace #2. And since DH uses the scooter to bring me coffee on Sunday mornings, maybe I'll use the remained for a tie on a coffee thermos bag?

Mat! and summer top!

Last weekend,  I took another Navajo weaving class from Linda Teller Pete and Barbara Teller Ornalez... What a amazing pair of sisters, and another amazing class. Here's the mat I made; it's about 7 by 10 inches. Note that the bottom square are done a whole lot better than the top squares!!! I got better as I went along :) The only thing I didn't care for about the class was the speed at which we had to work... there's a lot of techniques that change as you work from the bottom to the top of the mat, so you need to finish in a very intense 3 days.  Still, a very amazing class from two amazing women, and I loved my classmates. And! I bought a loom, so more to come!

I've also been trying to make a top for my sewing class. When I made a muslin from the commerical pattern (Simplicity 8061), I realized it needed some adjustments. First I lowered the darts. Then noticed that the armholes gaped a bit... I added a dart at the front armhole, and walked it down to join the french dart... then raised the back shoulder to eliminate the back armhole dart, and redrew the armhole to compensate, which made the armhole gape more. Ronda, our instructor, suggested back darts which make it lay amazingly smooth on my back! But that made the front gape. And adjusting the back shoulder seam made the shoulder not line up where it should, and after I fixed that the bust dart was too low again. so I redrafted it to a lower point. What a lot of changes. I made four muslins, then constructed the top out of cheap material I didn't care about ruining. The husband's comments? It's flattering, and seems well constructed, and it fits really well. I'm thrilled enough to use the same pattern on some batik he brought me from Indonesia :) All in all very satisfying.

Minor progress on my hat, on my skirt, and no progress on weaving. I wound a couple of warps for the upcoming Kathrin Weber dye workshop, but need to wind 3-4 more PLUS label the bejeebers out of them. Slowly but surely I'm working through being over-committed!

Nothing to do with fiber or food!

I just got back from a five day Mosaic intensive taught by Wilma Wyss at Esalen... Fabulous class, beautiful venue...  I learned so much!!!

After making a test piece, we sketched a design. I challenged myself to make it representative of something at Esalen. I thought about poppies; they're just starting to bloom. Then I though about Monarch butterflies, which were everywhere, and resolved to mosaic a butterfly. Then I went back to the art room, where folks had been choosing colors, and making sure they had bountiful glass for their mosaics and there was no orange left... So I resolved to use the colors that I had. This view inspired me.

Which became this sketch. Wilma helped me simplify the design and gave me suggestions on how to run the grout lines to make it interesting.  A quick perusal of the glass that was left made me decide on a grey sky, green ocean and purple hills.

I also dived into Wilma's scrap bins and found some blues for the ocean and some browns for the hills. Richard, my Esalen big brother, donated some blues as well. The big step was freeing myself to quickly and un-fussily place the ocean tiles without pre-planning... 

Finally, I debated the grout. A lighter grout would have served the sky better, a darker grout better for hills and sea. I picked the dark and have no regrets. I am thrilled beyond belief at how it came out.

And Esalen? I feel I should say something. Such a stunningly beautiful place filled with exceptional caring people offering love and respect.  And I heard over and over how people don't feel alive outside of Esalen, that they can't create the same sacred space in their everyday, that their community in the outside world is unexceptional or non-existent. One woman wailed that she could not bear to leave Esalen and go back to her old existence. How sad that is to me! I find myself wondering what the world would be like if these people brought all this wonderful energy and community home with them?