I love when the doorbell rings . . .

because it usually means that the UPS man has left a package on the doorstep! Yesterday I received these:

These are my new Uggs clogs! You might think I'm nuts to be ordering these in the middle of the summer, but there is some history here. I started wearing Uggs about 30 years ago, before anyone knew what they were. I used to order them from Eddie Bauer way back then and DH and I had matching slippers that were ankle high with a roll down cuff. Once we had kids, they had the same slippers. We always liked them because you could go outside to lock the cars or take out the trash in them--plus they were virtually indestructible! I switched to the clogs about 15 years ago and I wear them as slippers year round. A few years ago I discovered by accident that they could be washed in the washing machine! One of my slippers was under a laundry pile in the closet and it inadvertently got put in the washer with the clothes. Imagine my surprise when I found that my ratty old slipper looked almost new! Since then though the shearling lining is practically gone and they are really ready to retire. Check out the contrast between the old and the new:

I feel like I should have some sort of ceremony for them before I respectfully place them in the trash! They've provided me with at least 15 years of faithful service. They were a prominent part of this Self Portrait Challenge post.

I tried on Labyrinth last night:


Fits like a glove! I will add 3 inches to the length. I'll knit 12 rows in the teal yarn then do my dye painting to correct the color issues. After that I can add the ribbing on the bottom and neckline then do the sleeves. I love Wendy Bernard's fitted top down sweaters. They are so easy to alter to your measurements. This one only required a few extra hip increases. The pattern called for 6 increases done every 7 rows. I did 8 increases every 5 rows which is what I had done for Sahara. I can't wait to finish! I'd like to have it done before I leave for Boston on the 21st. I'm thinking that I will either do the Dayflower Camisole or Violetta next. I have the yarn for Dayflower so that will probably be it. I'm going to wait on Sea Urchin and do it when school starts. It will be a good fall piece to wear over a tank top when the weather is still warm.

I've been going through some stuff in the sewing room. I thought you might enjoy this:

100 Buttons! This is in a frame and it hangs over my sewing machine. I made this for Ems to take to school in Kindergarten. It was the 100th day of school and the students were to bring in 100 of something. What better to come from our house than 100 buttons! I have always had a love affair with buttons.

My mother had 5 of these button jars in her dresser drawer. It was deja vu when I found them while cleaning out her house. These were like buried treasure to me as a child. I remember begging to play with the buttons. I would sit at the kitchen table and do who knows what with them. I know that I would sort them by color or size. I would pick out the fancy ones--particularly those with rhinestones --and I would arrange them to make pictures. No Fisher Price shape sorters for me! I got to play with buttons! I suspect this accounts for much of my love of them. I will have to come up with some creative things to do with my vintage buttons. I may have to make jewelry with some of them. I can't bear to part with them.

A bit of nostalgia
To continue my discussion of buttons and trinkets I've decided to share photos of a lovely little Chatelaine that I made some years ago. For those unfamiliar with chatelaines, they are items that are worn by the user to hold hand sewing/embroidery tools--needles, thread, thimble, embroidery scissors, awls etc. Chatelaines were typically worn around the neck or affixed to the waist with a tie. This one is about 6 inches wide and 5 inches high and worn around the neck.

Let's look at the details. This item is constructed from scraps of velvet, silk, moire taffeta, grosgrain ribbon and small crocheted doilies. The fabric is pieced in a crazy quilt style and each seam is embellished with silk and seed bead hand embroidery. There are antique cut glass and mother of pearl buttons. A pocket holds the embroidery scissors. Two hand crocheted pouches with ribbon drawstrings hold a thimble and a wooden needle case, whose top is also embellished with a pearl button and seed beads. There are also some antique fabric trims as well as a new little brass charm. A velvet ribbon snaps onto the scissors to keep them from getting lost.



I love this little item. I keep it in my room but I should probably display it on my antique sewing machine in the living room alongside my other antique sewing trinkets. I still use this when I do embroidery!

Bushism of the day
"You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war President. No President wants to be a war President, but I am one." --George W. Bush, Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

Kitty Cam: Greg chills on the couch while watching another episode of Law & Order.

Getting there!

So I have five more rows of the hip increase section on Labyrinth. The pattern says to knit until the body is 25 inches long, but that will be way too long for me. It currently measures 21 inches. I will do the five rows then try it on. If the length is okay, then I will put it on waste yarn and do some dye painting on the lighter section before adding the cream colored ribbing. I don't want the dye to bleed onto the cream colored yarn. I'm not sure that I have enough yarn in the current ball to do both sleeves, so I will go ahead and wind the third skein and use that so that both sleeves match. Because the design has the cream colored yarn in zig zap design on the sleeves, I can't dye paint them. I don't think the mismatch yarn will be that noticeable on the sleeves but I want them to match each other! Stay tuned to see the progress!

Yesterday was a day for errands. I had to go to the mall for one thing. I hadn't been there since Christmas! I was shocked at the new stores! I got a nice pair of longer dark denim shorts at Eddie Bauer then I went to Sephora which was my main reason for going. I was very disciplined and only got mascara which was what I needed. After that, I went to the MAC store. I used to get my MAC stuff at Nordstrom but I really like the MAC store much better. I got a new summer lipstick which is a vivid electric orange along with a lacquer after the makeup artist informed me that the lacquers were being discontinued. It never fails! Whenever there is something I really like, it gets discontinued!

I didn't get any knitting done yesterday. Ems called on Sunday to ask if we could have a cookout for KC's birthday. She then decided to make it a surprise party and invited about 7 or 8 friends from work. She and her friend Sarah came over during the day and made an ice cream cake. It turned out to be quite delicious! They used ice cream sandwiches and placed six of them side to side on some foil to form a rectangle. They then mixed Cool Whip with strawberry topping and spread a layer of that. Then another layer of sandwiches and a layer of Cool Whip with crushed Oreos. Then there was one more layer of sandwiches after which the entire cake was frosted with the remaining Cool Whip/ Strawberry mixture. They put chocolate Magic Shell on top. It was wrapped and placed in the freezer to firm up. I found other variations of this online. One used crushed Reese's Pieces with Chocolate ice cream sandwiches! What a nice, easy way to make an ice cream cake!

I made turkey burgers and got beef dogs. I also made baked beans, cucumber salad and ramen noodle salad. Em's friend Sarah came over early and rounded up any visitors to the deck then Ems and KC arrived around 7:15. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. They completely cleaned up after themselves. It's nice when your kids become responsible adults! It's not at all labor intensive when they bring their friends over!

That's about it for today. I have to make my kitchen curtain and do some cleaning!

A bit of nostalgia

Today's dress has always been a favorite of mine. I can no longer wear it as I no longer have a 25 inch waist! It is made from a pattern by an independent company called Patience and Purity. This company designed a lot of old fashioned garments with tremendous attention to detail! This dress is made from Irish handkerchief linen in a muted teal blue with a peach colored tie and topstitching in peach silk thread. I'm sorry that I didn't dry clean this dress. I washed it instead. Dry cleaning seems to preserve the nice sheen that Irish linen has when new whereas washing does not. Here is the dress:


Now let's look at the details. First, the pattern had this dress trimmed with contrasting soutache braid. I chose to make pin tucks instead--three rows of parallel pin tucks trim the collar, bodice insert and hem. I also used French seams in this dress.



The sleeves have decorative tucks into the shaped cuff which was also topstitched with pin tucks.


The dress is constructed with an inset waistband. The bodice is gathered to the waistband and the skirt is pleated into the waistband. Last of all, the closure is a hidden button placket on the side.




But wait! There's more! My favorite part is what you don't see! There is a gorgeous petticoat hiding under there!! I was the lucky recipient of a hefty trash bag full of antique Swiss embroidered laces and French laces much of which was still on the original bolts--courtesy of my brother, the antiques dealer. I restored all the lace and have it nicely packed away. I used a piece of the Swiss embroidery for the ruffle on this slip. The Embroidered lace is stitched to a French insertion lace with entredeux on each side of it. For those who are not familiar with Heirloom sewing, entredeux is about 1/8 inch wide and it looks like mini faggotting. It is stitched between all pieces of lace and garment sections. I have a close up photo showing this. The slip is also trimmed with rows of pin tucks stitched in a buttery color rayon thread and rows of hem stitching which makes little holes. This is done with a wing needle. There are also two rows of machine feather stitching which form large scallops. My machine has little holes on the surface that enable you to anchor the fabric with a pin and sew circles. I've shown that in a photo as well.








I hope you can see the details on the slip. It is truly stunning! I still wear it quite frequently under some of my vintage dresses and under peasant type skirts. Of course I need to include a photo. This is my family on Easter Sunday 1989 as taken by my mother-in-law. I will profile Ems' dress in another post. It is one of my favorites!


Bushism of the day:
"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2006

Kitty Cam: Mikey is relieved to be home after visiting his girlfriend, the vet, yesterday!

Here we go again!

You might remember my posts on my most recent knit FO--Fete. I had issues with the first skein of yarn not matching the others. Well, I think the same thing is happening again! I've been working on Labyrinth and I'm well into the second skein of yarn. I am noticing that this skein doesn't have as much color variation as the first skein. It is more solid. The contrast isn't as great as what I experienced when working on Fete. This has me baffled! The first two garments I made using Handmaiden yarn had no issues. The yarn was all perfect. The third one, had a skein which didn't match. I had a skein of Periwinkle Double Sea left over from Giselle so I ordered two more skeins in the same colourway from the same vendor. These did not match the first skein. I found out in the Handmaiden group on Ravelry why this was. First of all, Handmaiden doesn't even mark their skeins with color names, let alone dye lots. When a shop orders the yarn, the batches of yarn are custom dyed for that order. If yarn was received in different batches, then chances are it won't match because it was dyed at a different time by a different person. This person on Ravelry happens to own Knitty Noddy. She said that when she receives orders of Handmaiden yarn, she writes the colourway and the date the yarn was received on the labels. This way she can choose yarn from the same dye batches when filling orders. If there isn't enough yarn from a single batch then she discusses this with the customer. I like that policy and I may have to start ordering from her. She said that she will also special order. Here is my Labyrinth so far. You can see that the bottom section color is more solid:


We'll see how it looks. I cannot bear the thought of frogging as I will never go back and do all that stockinette again. If it doesn't match well, then I will doctor it the way I did Fete. I have some teal Procion MX dye that I'm sure I could dilute and do some painting to get it to match!

I also knitted a little on my Petal Edge Scarf. I had tucked this in my purse when we went to the fireworks.

I had forgotten that this yarn was splitty. It is two strands--one silk and one mohair --so I have to pay attention when I'm knitting. The Handmaiden stuff has a tight twist and never splits! This yarn, Artyarns Silk Rhapsody, feels so soft. I love this pattern. I don't work on it much. I'll have to finish it before winter as I have wool to make a 3/4 length coat that it will go with.

We dressed the house up for the holiday weekend:

I have always wanted to get bunting for the porch. I wish these were a tiny bit larger but it was either this size of huge ones that were way too big. There is a town in Rhode Island--Bristol--where all the houses have this bunting. When you drive down the main road, there is water on one side--a bay that is full of sail boats--and quaint Victorian houses on the other side, all with bunting and flags. The street lights have baskets of flowers hanging from them. It is a beautiful town. I'll have to take photos when I drive through there this summer.

I will have to start planning my trip. I have to list all the sources I need to research so I don't waste time!

A bit of notalgia
The last outfit I shared was one made out of simple fabric with a lot of design details. Today's dresses are the opposite--simple design with fancy fabric. Every so often I find a nice basic pattern that I use for a number of different pieces. I have two cocktail dresses to share today. The pattern was by McCalls and it was a basic fitted dress with different neckline and sleeve options. Typically, I like fitted dresses with princess seams because the more seams you have, the easier it is to tailor the garment to fit your body. More seams means that you can fit the dress easier in specific body areas rather than just increasing or decreasing a specific measurement. This dress did not have princess seams but it had two lengthwise darts on each side of the front and back which provided the means to fit the dress well. The first dress is made out of gold sequined fabric. The only change to the pattern was the addition of a lining and the elimination of the neck facing. I fully lined the dress with China silk. Basically, I made a second dress for the lining and stitched it to the neck along with sew in interfacing as if it were a facing. I understitched it then turned it to the inside where I tacked the armhole and side seam allowances together to keep the lining from slipping. I hand stitched it to the zipper and the hem. This made the dress very comfortable. Sequined fabrics tend to be scratchy and this one feels great next to the skin.



The second dress from this pattern is one of my all time favorites. It is made from an embroidered black silk charmeuse fabric. The fabric has metallic gold satin stitch motifs and squares with gold sequins. It was a border print so I had to be sure of the finished length before cutting out the dress. I made the sleeveless view and lined it like the gold dress. I did use armhole facings made from the silk lining which were stitched in after the dress was lined. The sequined squares posed a few issues. It looked bad when they were caught in seams or darts. I was able to cut some of the sequined squares out of the fabric scraps and applique them to the seams, darts and hems where the pattern was interrupted.







My mother-in-law took this photo of me in the dress before my 20th high school class reunion!


Bushism of the day:
"Americans should be prudent in their use of energy during the course of the next few weeks. Don't buy gas if you don't need it." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 1, 2005

Kitty Cam: Samantha takes a snooze with DH.

Wardrobe enhancement

I lucked out on Ebay during this past month where I got good deals on four, count 'em, four Nanette Lepore tops! Two were new with tags! The first one is silk with two prints, grommets and a scarf like tie:

This looks great with black jeans or capris! The second top is a stretch cotton eyelet which is very fitted.


The next top is made of rows of lace stitched to a net background. It is lined with black silk and has a black embroidered silk collar. This top buttons completely up the back.

The last top is a tunic which falls below the hip. It is heavy cotton with pintucks and embroidery.



The other Ebay score was my new in package deluxe Black and Decker rechargeable scissors. I found them in local stores, but they were the basic model. The deluxe model has a hands free clamp, which I probably won't ever use plus, more importantly, a fabric cutting blade. None of the stores seem to have that model.


I also hit up the sale at Joann's where I picked up 2 books:


I have a rather large antique button collection which I may have to use in some of the jewelry projects. The upholstery book has directions for projects very similar to the ones I am about to begin. It's the first book I've seen which clearly explains and illustrates these particular projects.

I also picked up the following Vogue patterns:





I have been knitting on Labyrinth and I'm at the point where I am doing the hip increases. I will finish the body in a day or two and I will photograph it then.

A bit of nostalgia
Back in 1985 I entered my first design type of contest. It was called "Contemporary Interpretations" and it was cosponsored by Folkwear Patterns and G Street Fabrics in Washington DC. For those who aren't familiar with Folkwear Patterns--they are patterns made from authentic historic garments or ethnic garments. The challenge of the contest was to create a contemporary garment or outfit using Folkwear Patterns--an outfit that could be worn in the contemporary world. There were over 100 entries with 30 of them being chosen as semifinalists. The semifinalists' garments were modeled in a fashion show (by models--not the contestants) then the winners were announced. I was fortunate enough to win second place, my prize being a $500 gift certificate to G Street Fabrics. The first prize was a new, top of the line, Bernina machine. It was interesting to see the various entries. Many of them were true works of art with patchwork and embroidery or other artistic elements. The winning garments focused more on a contemporary appearance and less on the wearable art possibilities that Folkwear designs offer. My outfit was made from these three patterns:



We have a traditional Japanese Hapi or Haori jacket, an English Middy top and a 1930's skirt called the Wall Street Skirt.
My outfit was inspired by the fabric which I had seen earlier--Irish handkerchief linen in a cinnamon color and muted sage green and heavy irish linen in off white. I had seen these fabrics together and knew I wanted to use them for something, It was a week later when I was doing a mundane task at work that the proverbial light bulb went on in my brain and I pictured my finished design.
The first piece, the skirt, was made true to the pattern with no changes. One thing I did and still do when making a couture garment is take special care to finish my seams in a traditional manner. Even after getting my serger, I still do not use it to finish seams in a fine garment. For this skirt, all seam allowances were hemmed.

The second piece, the middy top, was changed somewhat. The pattern had a facing with an applied patch on the back, traditionally used to protect the shirt from the greasy braid that the sailor wore! I made reverse facings. By that I mean that the facing was stitched wrong side to wrong side then folded to the outside of the shirt. I then machine stitched a bamboo design with silk thread using satin stitch after which I cut away the excess facing fabric. Each corner of the facing was different--one had 3 leaves, one had 2, one had none.



This piece was sewn entirely with French seams which to this day remains my favorite method of seaming for sheer or lightweight fabrics.

I made an ultrasuede belt with the same bamboo motif as on the top.


The last piece is the jacket. It was made to the pattern specifications with the addition of a full lining and, of course, shoulder pads. After all it was the 80's and we all looked like linebackers back then. The jacket was made of the sage green linen with darker green satin band on the front. The bamboo motif was appliqued on using the satin and the cinnamon and off white linen.


Here is the entire outfit:


Here's me with my sister in law on Easter Sunday 1987, wearing this outfit!

I love this outfit. I will never wear the skirt again. I was thirty pounds thinner in that photo! The top still fits and I was thinking that I may take the shoulder pads out of the jacket and wear it with a sash over slacks. Kimono tops seem to be in again!

Bushism of the day:

"I can only speak to myself." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005

Kitty Cam: Samantha always seems to find the sunny spot!