Saturday, October 25, 2014

Backlog and hop blog

Hmmm, it has been a while. I can't show my latest project because my progress on it is going in a negative direction. Literally. The waistband has come off, pockets have been taken apart, and I'm considering redoing the bottom of the invisible zipper to get rid of that nasty bump. Sooo . . . it's not the finished object I briefly thought it was.






But wait: Let's look a little deeper in the closet, where some unblogged pieces still lurk, for a weather-appropriate outfit that I can show. The top is Vogue 8248, a Very Easy pattern. I did post a review on Pattern Review quite a while ago. Doesn't it look like the exact same shirt as the one I'm wearing today? It's not. The fabric I used for that first version was too stiff, so I remade the top in a nice soft wool that happened to be the very same shade of deep red.



The skirt is Simplicity 9825, a set of slim and A-line skirts with yoke and front center seam. Below you can almost see, behind the unexpectedly well defined tree shadows and in front of the disaster that is our yard at this time of year, the pocket flaps that I lifted from Version B for my A-line skirt. They are fake. No actual pockets here. Not only did I choose this version of the skirt my own personal self, but I also substituted some pieces of black twill tape I had lying around for the suggested (and somewhat classier) leather strips. Fortunately, all the tops I would wear with this skirt are long enough to cover up my cheap trick.





Sue of Fadanista has kindly invited me to join the blog hop. I very much enjoy seeing Sue's elegant and oh-so-wearable makes, reading her posts that are full of insight and touches of humor, and getting to make virtual visits to other parts of the world through her photo-filled travelogues. I'm flattered that she has passed the baton to me.

Why do you write?

Honestly, I started to feel strange about how often I was lurking on other people's sewing blogs without actually interacting with them. I'm sure I could have commented bloglessly, but I somehow felt that having a blog would give me a more legitimate base from which to engage with other sewists. As in "I, too, spend some time trying to make clothing. May I be part of this community?" Looking back, this seems an awfully humble motivation, but I am an introvert who verges on downright social awkwardness, and my humble blog has been working well for me.

Of course, my posts also give me a way to keep track of what I'm sewing, reflect on which of my makes work for me and which don't, and figure out where to go next.

How is your blog different from others of the same genre?

I don't think my blog has any unusual features (except maybe that my posts are so few and far between). My usual format is quite basic: make a piece of clothing, take photos of it, and think of something to say about it. I do try to add one or two notes at the end of each post about something not related to sewing that interests me. This might be a museum exhibit I've seen, something I've cooked recently, or just an animal that has turned up in our yard here in the woods of New Hampshire.

What are you working on now?

The project mentioned above that's not going so smoothly is a midi version of Vogue 1247. I've made this skirt up before, as have many others, and aside from being excruciatingly short, my first version fit and looked pretty great, I thought. I did wonder whether adding an extra ten inches to bring the skirt well below my knees would look wrong, but I think that part works. My fabric, though--an otherwise lovely stretch wool tweed in a soft brick color from Gorgeous Fabrics--does pose a couple of problems. The extra length of the skirt combined with the stretch and the springy thickness of the fabric results in a saggy-baggy look that is not at all what I had envisioned. I'm taking it in all over the place, replacing the pocket facings with a thinner fabric, and adding a lining.



What is your writing process?

The photo taking is the hardest part of blogging for me, so once that's done I don't agonize too much over the writing. This is not to say that sparkling text comes flowing out with no effort(!) but rather that I'm content with cataloguing what I've made, describing any particular problems or insight I had, and throwing in anything else that seems appropriate.


I'd like to see how Maggie of Stitch-n-Thyme would answer these questions, so I invite her to join the blog hop. Maggie happens to live right down the road from me (in U.S. terms, anyway), and I appreciate her vintage/classic aesthetic.

The other person I'd like to invite to continue the blog hop is Cecili of Sewing and so on. Far from just down the road, she lives pretty much on the opposite side of the planet from me. I enjoy following Cecili's quirky, youthful, tropics-friendly makes.



Yet another note on food:

Are these not adorable? I should have put something in the picture for scale. The man I buy eggs from also sells these little quail eggs, and I finally caved and bought some. A big part of their charm for me is the spotted shells, so I just boiled them for us to peel at the table and eat with flavored salt.


10 comments:

  1. Thank you for picking up the baton Patricia, and I really enjoyed your post. I am surprised how often people say the things that I think. I also was a lurker and felt a bit creepy, frankly, so now I am blogging, I feel part of the community and don't feel quite so stalkerish. I am impressed that you have unblogged outfits, and I feel your pain with the ripping apart, I do a massive amount of that - my seam ripper is my BFF! Sue

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    1. My grandmother's Dritz ripper is one of my strongest memories from when I took a sewing class in the seventh grade. I was going to say "one of my fondest memories," but that's not quite accurate! Thanks again, Sue.

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  2. Hi Patricia! It's funny how many bloggers are writing about projects that are giving them fits right now. After I finished my latest tricky make, I felt like I'd been let out of school!
    I'm glad there are so many people giving blogging a try. It's fun getting to "know" people around the world who are pinning and cutting just like we are.

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    1. I think that latest make of yours earned you some serious time off for slacking if you want it, Julie! I really do appreciate how welcoming the blogging community is to sewists of all abilities and levels of participation.

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  3. It's fun to know more about you. I like your blog and you made so many nice garments which is suit your style and personality.
    The outfit above is so lovely and you look great in deep red :)

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    1. Thank you, Hana! I'm so glad to get your thoughtful and friendly comments. All the best to you.

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  4. Thanks so much for nominating me! Good luck on the skirt, hopefully your surgery on the pockets/lining have done the trick. And, I love quail eggs. Honestly, I love anything small and cute, but tasty too is even better ;)

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    1. I still need to hem the skirt, but otherwise it's in decent shape. I thought of you today when I went by D2 for some coffee; thanks for introducing me to it. Any further progress on your wardrobe planning? It has been interesting to follow so far.

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  5. I enjoyed reading more about you, thanks for taking the time to take part! That fabric is yummy and will make such a fab pencil skirt. I hope it works out :)

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    1. Thank you, Carolyn! The skirt is much improved, and I'm working on a black wool/tencel blouse to go with. You know, I am really taken with the slit-and-buttoned cuff you recently showed how to do . . . looking forward to trying it out once I find the right top.

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