FO: Sewing edition

A few weeks ago, while I was in-between projects, I got the urge to sew. I downloaded a very cute pattern for a girl's peasant dress -- Sis Boom's Molly Peasant Dress.


I had some fabric that I'd gotten on sale (from Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush collection).



The pattern was easy to follow, and there were only a few pieces to cut out and work with.


The only modification I made was to add a ruffle to the bottom in the same fabric I used for the sleeves. For some reason, the dress seemed to need the ruffle to balance out the proportions. (I just cut a rectangle that was twice as long as the circumference of the skirt, basted it on to get the ruffles right, and sewed it.)



Best of all, the dress fits (although next time I will go up a size) and looks adorable.


P.S. Still plenty of time to use the coupon code TOOHOT for 15% off orders of $25 or more (not including shipping) at Black Bunny Fibers....

Seeing patterns

I've been playing around with sewing and quilting in the last few months. It sounds funny, but since so much of my knitting is centered around deadlines, I find that having a creative outlet entirely separate from the knitting/spinning world is refreshing for me. What's been especially fun: seeing how things have changed in the world of fabric -- or maybe it's more a function of my having had outdated ideas about what fabric and quilting and sewing are all about. I've been knocked out by the wide variety of fabric choices out there -- traditional ones, like checks and dots, but in all sorts of colors; fun ones, with aliens or mermaids or dancing vegetables; lush, vibrant florals like the ones created by Kaffe Fassett; Japanese imports; organics; and even a whole new world of print-on-demand fabrics via places like Spoonflower, where you can upload designs and get them printed in small quantities (or order fabrics from indie designers who sell via the Spoonflower site). I'm really fortunate to have access to a bricks-and-mortar shop like Spool, and I've discovered some terrific on-line sites and blogs -- True Up is one of my current faves.

It's also been fascinating to see what's happening in the world of quilting design. Everybody has their druthers when it comes to style and I've found that I"m no different. Not surprisingly, I find myself infatuated with color and how expert designers combine colors and patterns. Of course there are the incredible designs by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Lucy --the colors and combinations of colors they use make my heart sing. It was also fascinating for me to see the work of Jane Brocket; her quilting book uses lots of lush fabrics but in larger swathes of fabric rather than many small shapes pieced together.

But I've also been looking at a lot of quilts that go by the name "modern" -- and without stirring up a whole debate about what's modern and what's traditional, I'm talking about quilters who play with the use of solid or nearly solid fabrics, make sashing a design element, and incorporate pared-down geometric shapes-- often larger rather than postage-stamp sized, pieced quilt backs and free-motion quilting. (I've found this Flickr feed to be especially full of interesting stuff.) I hadn't realized that there were quilters out there doing this sort of thing, so it was a revelation to discover a whole thriving community of them with nary a Sunbonnet Sue in sight.

As someone who's been immersed in a subculture of the craft world for so long, I've been finding some of the parallels between the knitting blog0sphere and the quilting blogosphere to be interesting. The role of the internet plays in shaping the craft? The need to support local bricks-and-mortar shops as well as on-line businesses? Indie designers versus large companies? Whether designers should give patterns out for free? Process versus production? All of these issues are explored in both the knitting and quilting worlds. Recently there was a blogging brouhaha arising out of the suggestion that quilting was being "dumbed down", and I couldn't help but think about similar debates in the knitting world that erupted during the time when novelty yarn scarves were everywhere or when people were obsessed with quick-knitting super-chunky yarns and nothing else. (Pretty please don't debate these issues in the comments.....they've been done to death elsewhere. Me, I think people should do what makes them happy. For some, that will involve pushing the envelope and constantly trying new things; for others, that will entail a less intense approach to a craft. For me, it will involve both, depending on what kind of mood I'm in. To use a phrase that I am sick of hearing, "it's all good.")

Anyway, if you happen to notice that I'm showing you photos of fabric-related projects, don't be alarmed. Much of what I'm knitting is on deadline for future publications, which means I can't talk about it yet here. So in the meantime, allow me to distract you with these photos of some pillow covers I made recently.

Fabric by Scarletfig (Etsy shop here)

I was, of course, infatuated with the bunny

French Window Pillow pattern by Patty Young (free here)

They are already a teeny bit wrinkled, but that's just a sign that they've been used and loved. Which is really what it's all about, eh?

All is well

Before I left for the beach, I finished this:



a bag from Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner.



We are now settled in and about to head off to the beach. It's time to stop and smell the flowers.

A sewing FO

Did you ever finish a project that was meant to be a gift, and end up so pleased with it that you can hardly wait 'til the recipient sees it? I just did, and with the recipient's permission, am able to show you the finished project before it goes into the mail.

This is fabric with goats on it.


When I saw it, I knew it would make the perfect bag for my pal Mindy -- nobody in the world loves goats as much as she does. I needed a contrast fabric and lining, and I found the contrast fabric (the tippy top of this photo)




with little sheep and hedgehogs. Laura from Spool helped me pick out the dotty lining (great call, Laura!).

Ta-da!



A handcrafted goat bag.

Happy birthday, Crazy Goat Lady!

Whirlwind weekend

After arriving home from Franklin's booksigning at Loop Friday night, I could barely sleep, I was so vibrating with excitement. The day had been a whirlwind of activity: the airport run (I saw a hilarious sticker on the escalator that said "God has a plan -- to kill me."), a quick stop at the house to drop off his things (Franklin's, not God's), we hit the elementary school for a sneek peak of Elvis' debut in the school musical:




we grabbed a late lunch and then it was off to Loop.

Not surprisingly, people turned out in droves to meet Franklin (or see him again, as the case may be), including the fearless Anne Marie and the lovely button creator Regina,



and then Regina (hmm, can it be that Regina is a ham? well, if my hair were that pretty, I would be too) posed with His Nibs himself:


A Franklin fangrrl came wearing this beautiful Bohus sweater (from a kit direct from Sweden):




I was thrilled to meet meet blogreaders Kim and Mary Ellen (thanks for introducing yourself! comment once in a while, willya?) and I was also very excited to meet Heather Ross, author of Weekend Knitting, who was appearing next door at Spool. While there, I got to meet the famous (and infamous) Jay McCarroll of Project Runway fame, who grew up just a few miles from where I did, and I had the great fortune of going out to dinner after the signing with Heather, and her publicist, and Craig, and pals Laura G. and Jim, and Craig's delightful partner Mark, and Spool co-owner Laura, and the charming Tom (not my Tom, though, another charming Tom).

Now, Heather is one of those people who would fill me with an inferiority complex (she's gorgeous! she's blonde! she's talented! she's funny! she is an excellent raconteur! she's taped a Martha Stewart episode!) except she's so nice and warm that she makes you feel right at home. I also became very fond of her sidekick Leslie (how'd that booty call go, Leslie?) who was also funny and smart and fun. So thanks to Craig for inviting me along and for bringing Franklin to Philadelphia.



I had barely dropped Franklin off at Loop so he could teach his lace class, when I had to rush back home to prepare to attend the last two performances of Cinderella (the Rodgers & Hammerstein production), with Elvis as the Herald. It was astonishing that a bunch of nine-, ten- and eleven-year olds could put on such a wonderful show.



(I'm very proud of those three red costumes on the right, above -- I made them!)



Elvis' brother



and sister



were very proud, too. (Would Miss Thang give up the chance to assume what she views as her rightful place, i.e., a throne?)

It was a busy and extremely fun weekend, and it was a nice break from my frantic knitting-on-a-deadline. Come back soon, Franklin! Your Philly fans miss you already!

You can see where this is going, can't you?

The other day, I received a copy of Weekend Sewing: More Than 40 Projects and Ideas for Inspired Stitching by Heather Ross (Stewart Tabori & Chang 2009). Now I suppose if I had thought about it, I would have realized that just as there has been a renaissance in the knitting world since I was knitting with harvest-gold Wintuk yarn in the 1970s, so there has been a renaissance in the fabric world since my mother made me godawful harvest gold polyester clothes in the 1970s. However, I had no idea of all the gorgeous and fun fabrics that were out there. (Spool, here I come!) Weekend Sewing was a beautiful, packed-with-color reminder of all the lovely things that are going on in the fabric world, a veritable invitation to sew things other than Halloween costumes.




I hesitate to call this a "No-Bull Book Review," since my knowledge of the fabric world is far inferior to my knowledge of the knitting world, but let me tell you a little bit about the book. I trust that my faithful readers who know more about quilting and sewing than I do will chime in in the comments section to set me straight on anything I screw up.

Weekend Sewing was written by Heather Ross, a New York textile designer who teaches sewing at Purl Soho and who designs fabric and sleepwear. She blogs here. In the introduction to her book, Ross tells of a charming childhood spent in a one-room schoolhouse in the Vermont mountains where she and her twin sister learned to sew and knit at a young age, spending hours outdoors when the weather was good and hours inside executing craft projects to while away the long winters. Her aim in writing Weekend Sewing was to celebrate the times, mainly on weekends and holidays, when she is able to put aside deadlines and sew for pure pleasure, those times when she is "able to immerse [my]self fully in the joy of sewing [and] lose track of time and even myself, just like I did as a child."

Ross begins with a brief discussion of how to create a sewing space in your home. She includes storage ideas (must be the New Yorker in her, trying to make the most out of limited square footage), showing a clever sewing desk with storage for the machine inside an ottoman and a sewing cabinet that folds up all the supplies neatly inside. There's also a chapter at the end covering sewing basics, including how to choose a machine (with tips for buying new and used/vintage), explaining the parts of the sewing machine, how to choose fabric (good discussion of drape vs. body, fabric weight and stretch), how to "true" the fabric, layout and cutting of patterns, overview of tools, basic stitches, and how to do buttons and buttonholes. It's a pretty comprehensive section considering it's less than twenty pages long. It served as a good reminder for me of some sewing principles I'd forgotten -- and I learned a few new things, too.

Of course, the meat of the book are the patterns and the gorgeous photographs of them. Chapter 1 focuses on projects for the home and there are twelve, ranging from smaller items like a checkbook cover and napkins made of fat quarters, to a cute hostess apron (it cracks me up the way today's domestic divas are taking back the apron),

photographs by John Gruen

pillowcases and slippers for the guest room, and various totes and bags.

Chapter 2 features women's clothing, and I was surprised by how charming they were: a sundress, a button-front shirtwaist dress,



a wraparound skirt, pajama pants for everyone in the family, a halter and skirt combo,




and a few accessories like a headscarf and a tote.

The last project chapter has children's items, some for babies, like bloomers and an adorable kimono,


others for toddlers, including some cute sundresses


and even a boy's shirt (yay for boy patterns).



I've only dabbled in sewing, though I did take a quilting course years ago, and was forced to take a heinous sewing class as part of junior high "home economics" (the ninety-year-old instructor did little else but mutter dourly about how "you girls need to learn to pick up pins") but the directions seem clear and easy-to-follow. In the back of the book is a folded-up insert containing pattern pieces. I like that there are lots of little drawings to help illustrate the written directions, and I also appreciate that each pattern contains a paragraph which gives specific information about the type(s) of fabric that are appropriate for that pattern (i.e. whether the fabric should be woven or knit, light or heavyweight, and so on) -- very helpful for fabric newbies like me. Interspersed with the patterns and sewing instructions are insets containing recipes, tips for sewing with children or sewing on the go, suggested music to sew by, and so on.

So this knitter gives Weekend Sewing two thumbs-up for its attractive yet easy-enough-for-a-newbie projects, the gorgeous photography, the eye candy aspect of the fabrics, and the overall charm of its presentation.

Indeed, I was so charmed by the book that I found myself thinking of Miss Thang, who is seven and still young enough to wear stuff her mom makes. . . and before you know it, I found myself on the Glorious Color website (proprietor Liza is a pal) and then a day or two later, the postman delivered these, which I had liberated from Liza's on-line shop:



The trippy psychedelic deer/mushrooms and the bumblebees at the top are from the Jay McCarroll line (the Project Runway guy who grew up just a few miles from where I did in northeastern PA).

I need another hobby like I need a hole in the head. Yet circumstances are colluding to drag me, kicking and screaming (ha!), into playing with fabric.



Damn that Melanie Falick. Damn her and her gorgeous books, with their beautiful color photographs, luscious presentation, appealing projects, and clear directions. Melanie, the next time I hear my husband muttering about the "yarn museum" in the upstairs closet or the sewing machine on the dining room table, I'm sending him straight to you. It's all your fault, you know.


Two important notes:

• You'll find an FAQ/errata page for the book here. Best to check here before you purchase fabric or other supplies for a project.
• Heather Ross will be appearing at Spool in Philadelphia this very weekend. She's doing a booksigning this Friday evening, from 5 to 8 p.m. Details here. You can pop next door to see her while you're visiting Franklin Habit at Loop. If I can drag myself away from Dolores for a few minutes, I'm hoping to get her to sign my book.