Vogue 8837 - Two pair of Katherine Tilton pants

Uch. Where did these weeds come from?

More skinny pants! I am feeling skinny pants right now. This Katherine Tilton pattern came out in the fall Vogue collection. It has some nice seam details. I'm a sucker for cool seaming.

The pattern calls for ponte, or a similar knit, but I used stretch woven and it worked great. I made a pair, tweaked the pattern, and made a second pair. Both pairs are black, but use very different fabrications and the second pair has contrast topstitching. The pattern features a cuff and some gathering in the back hem, but I omitted both.

Pair #1

For the first pair I used a stash fabric – a black poly/rayon/spandex pebbled crepe fabric called Crepe Couture suiting. This fabric has wonderful drape and might have been a better choice for a more trouser-like pant, but I think it worked quite well. Based on the finished hip measurement, I cut out a medium and sewed it up. However, I felt that there was too much fullness in the back of the pant, and then I remembered that in Vogue I usually cut a size smaller in back. Oops. The pants are still very wearable, mostly thanks to the drape of the fabric.

Pant #2

I re-cut the back pattern to a size small, traced off the back crotch curve from my Style Arc Cassie pants, and cut out a second pair, this time using s beefy black stretch denim. For this pair I topstitched the seams using white Guterman topstitching thread.

I really like these pants! Both pair are so comfy!

I hope those of you who celebrate had a great Thanksgiving! I had a nice quiet day this year. I am looking forward to spending tomorrow with DD1, who flew home from university. We'll be in downtown SF, shopping and eating and then I take her back to the airport at 2am. I am loving the long weekend.

Denim Pair Denim Pair

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Crepe Pair

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Style Arc Cassie Pants

When I saw the Cassie Pant on Style Arc's website, I knew it was time for another order, and pronto. I love the unusual styling of this slim pant. The interesting knee pieces reminded me of my favorite Au Bonheur pants pattern that I've made three times.

I added a bit to the side seam at the waistline, swapped out my own waistband, and otherwise sewed these up out of the envelope in my usual size 10. I used a fabric I found locally – a heathered charcoal grey stretch woven. I think it's a wool/poly/lycra blend; it's machine washable and looks and behaves like wool. A really nice fabric. Once the pants were finished, I shortened them 1-1/2", which is also pretty typical for me. I love the consistency of Style Arc's fit.

A Margy-inspired-Shams-inspired Pose.

I love these pants! The fit is soooo comfy. However, I found it hard to get a good picture of them. They don't look brown in person, but I do think there is brown in there and the camera picked it up in the hangar shots. I took a series of pictures, uploaded them, changed the rest of the outfit and tried again.

Hey, I just noticed an error in the illustration. The seam above the knee piece angles up towards the inner leg. It's drawn correctly in the diagram on the right, but incorrectly in both illustrations on the left. We had some torrential rain yesterday. (I love fall weather!) This easement, just around the corner from my house and where I went to take the hangar photos, suffered storm damage from the fallen branch of a huge pine tree. I was still able to use the fence for my photos but the alley will be closed to through traffic until this is removed.

Mini Sew-along - Cosy Cardi

It just so happened, once again, that Margy and I bought the same fabric from Marcy Tilton – an interesting doubleknit. One side features a black/cream tie dye print and the other side is solid black. So we decided to do another little sew along using the fabric.

After washing, this fabric became incredibly soft. It has 2-way stretch and is very stable – it was a delight to sew. Each of us bought 2 yards and each of us was sorry we didn't get more. This fabric screams "cut me on the bias" but it's pretty hard to do much on the bias with only 2 yards.

I decided to make a cardi, similar to the one Ruth made at the beginning of the year. I liked the peplum detail she used. In Ruthie's case, she used New Look 6735, but I decided to use Style Arc's Cosy Cardi, which I believe I received free with an order some months ago.

I did my usual fit alterations for Style Arc:

• FBA, a large-ish dart.
• Narrowed shoulder by 3/4".
• Nipped in the waist a couple inches.
• Shortened the sleeves by 1/2". (I should have shortened by 1", which is typical for me.)

The other changes to achieve the look were:

• Shortened to waist length.
• Added a rectangular "peplum".
• Added a selvedge strip to the bottom of the bodice. (Using the solid black side of the knit.)
• Added a rectangular front band, cut so the stretch goes along the band. Also used the solid black side.
• Cut the sleeves on the bias.
• I finished all of the seams with narrow twill tape.

The result? It's ok. The cardi fits, but it doesn't excite me. The front band is a bit wonky which is, I believe, the result of careless pressing. I will see how much I wear it. I feel like I let the fabric down a bit.

Be sure to check out Margy's beautiful jacket!

Midweek Musings and a Post Dental Visit to Britex

First, I want to say that I have been thinking so much of the folks affected by Sandy. One of my blog readers (hi, Nancy!) has sent me pictures from her street in Long Island, denuded of many gigantic trees that now lay across roofs, streets, and yards. I hope your lives return to normal soon and that your spirits stay strong in this difficult time.

I'm sorry that I am not posting as much these days, but my recent projects have been more time intensive. Plus, I have this hobby, called "work", which is a jealous mistress.

Right now I have three projects in the hopper, which is unusual for me. One of them is a sew-along I am doing with Margy. (By the way, she pronounces her name with a hard "g". It's good if you get it right in your head, otherwise, if you ever meet her in person, you'll have to retrain yourself, like I did.) I thought I'd whip through this project, then it became an almost wadder, on life support. That slowed me down, and humbled me, but I think I can resuscitate the garment, even if it's not one of my favorites. Time will tell.

Today, I had a lengthy dentist appointment. My dentist is several doors from Britex.

Woe is me.

After my appointment, while still a bit hopped up on nitrous, with a numb face, I went to Britex to do a little fabric shopping for Margy.

Never before have I had so much fun in Britex. Normally, I sashay right past the first floor (designer fabrics/wools/silks) and go to the 2nd (cottons/rayons/home dec), 3rd (notions/buttons/patterns), or 4th (remnants) floor. But today I parked myself in the "interesting fabrics" section on the first floor, right near the front door. It was so much fun to pull out bolts and grope the Armani, Chanel (and similar) designer fabrics.

So.much.fun.

I did help spend Margy's money (and am now slightly hyperventilating, fearing that she won't love the fabric), but I will let her show it to you when she's ready. Unfortunately, I found that iPhone pics just didn't do it justice anyway.

While I was pulling fabrics with Charmain, the owner of, and buyer for, Britex, a well dressed, well coiffed woman approached and said, "You're Shams, right? I follow your blog!" It was Beth from South Carolina, who was visiting San Francisco on business. Such a nice, respectable person no doubt bemused by my highly "lagenlook", dentist-comfy attire and novocaine-induced half smile. Of course, I had to inspect her purchases - a beautiful cotton shirting in blue, and a whimsical Japanese cotton print with Egyptian designs. She was very restrained in her purchasing. I'm sorry I didn't ask anyone to take pics of us, but I didn't think about it until later.

And since this post is woefully light on sewing-related meat, let me share some links with you:

• KatiKoos. I've mentioned this wonderful San Francisco shop before, but they have moved. At the same address, they are now several doors down, on the 6th floor. I dropped by today, very briefly, and had a quick chat with the delightful owner. If you like lagenlook style, sign up for their newsletter - you can see all of their previous newsletters on their website. They also have an active presence on Facebook.
• Do you want to download high quality Metropolitan Museum exhibit catalogs in pdf for free? Of course you do! You can see the list of available publications on their website. This is good stuff and I've downloaded several.
• Sandylew is a store in Seattle, Washington. I've never been there, but I enjoy their blog. Start with the current posts and just keep going back for lots of eye candy.

I hope these goodies make up for lack of sewing content. :)

And now, I'm off to vote!

Halloween 2012

My friend Sue sent me this picture about a week ago and I couldn't get over the awesomeness. Her granddaughter, Gracie, wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween. Look how happy she is with her grandma-made felted hat. Do you remember Strawberry Shortcake? From the 80s?

If that wasn't enough, Sue then made the SS dress. (I thought, at first, that it was a Strawberry-Shortcake-Joins-the-Brownies costume. :) )

Sue sent me these pics this morning. I am in love with the whole look!

This is probably the only kid in the U.S. wearing, for Halloween, a custom made felted hat worth $200 retail!

Sue didn't make her grandson's costume, but I thought that Jonah's mad scientist was fabulous. It looks like his goggles are made with painted eggshells, probably looted from the Easter decorations. Paired with a lab coat, and some hair gel, what a brilliant, easy, and effective costume.

Last, but not least, little brother Crosby is wearing a purchased costume and looking completely adorable. (All of these pics are posted with mom's permission.)

Excuse me while I go remind myself that my ovaries are closed for business.

This is how I'm going to the grocery store today. Do you think anyone will notice my monster companion?

I bought these glasses in the Castro and they fit right over my regular glasses.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2005

This is probably my last "blast from the past" Halloween post, unless I somehow unearth more pictures! (You can see all of my Halloween posts using this link.) It's too bad that most of my kids childhood occurred before I had a digital camera.

In 2005, my kids were in 6th and 8th grades. It was the last Halloween in grade school for my eldest, so this is the last year I did the "big" costumes and that we followed our usual traditions. The next year she entered high school and she was pretty much on her own for Halloween.

DD1 selected a design that was suggestive of the Elf Princess Arwen from the LOTR movies, though she had not seen those movies and was not aware of that. I decided not to point it out. She had some changes she wanted me to make from the pattern – she considered herself a "medieval princess".

DD2 was going through a lengthy obsession with Garfield that year. It seemed like I was making lasagna on a weekly basis for months, so of course her costume had to be Garfield. I managed to score an OOP Garfield pattern on ebay, though I really only used the head, feet, and tail pieces from the pattern. I used the body from a "pumpkin" pattern and modified it to get the shape I wanted. I then bought, on ebay, Garfield-yellow sweatpants and sweatshirt which, believe me, was not an easy color to find that year.

The first time she tried the head on. The black detail is painted on and notice the little embroidery floss whiskers up near the ears.

What happened to these costumes? Well, the princess costume was donated to the grade school costume closet (and has been much used). DD2 sold her Garfield costume on Craigslist. I think she got $35 for it. :)

Burda 2483 - A Holey Sweatshirt

This top started with the fabric. I found this novelty fabric on Marcy's website some months ago. It is a fuzzy grey fabric with holes edged in a bluish teal color. The back of the fabric has a teal colored blue tulle fused to the grey fabric. So the holes are "filled" with teal-colored mesh. Very unusual.

I knew right away that I wanted to use a solid teal contrast. I then bought three rayon lycra fabrics, two by mail order, and one in a fabric store, but without a swatch of the novelty fabric at hand. None was right. All three are a greenish teal and not a blue teal. I now understand when a friend of mine talks about the challenge of finding the "right teal". Blue-teal, in particular, seems to be hard to find these days.

I finally decided enough was enough. It isn't a perfect match, but I used the green teal. In the photos, it looks like a close match, but in real life, it is off.

I spent a lot of time dithering on whether I wanted a zip-up sweatshirt with a hood, or a pullover with a tube neckline. The tube neckline won, largely because I wanted to try this double collar. The outside collar, out of the holey fabric, is finished with a channel. At center front are two black grommets and a thin self tie is threaded through. The inside collar, made from the teal lycra jersey, is taller than the outside collar and is finished with a channel through which I inserted plastic tubing from the hardware store.

Other than the collar, this is a very straightforward pullover. The novelty knit has 2-way stretch. The stretch ran along the length of the fabric, so I cut it on the crosswise grain so the stretch would go around the body. I did my usual knit FBA, which meant lengthening the front 1-1/2". But when I went to sew the side seams, I could not ease the fullness in at the side seam because the knit, quite literally, had no give whatsoever in the other direction. So I sewed standard darts and that worked fine. The only other alteration I made was to narrow the shoulder by 2".

Finally, I wanted to add a pocket. I used a hanging pocket, also trimmed and lined in the teal rayon lycra jersey.

And that's it! (Oh, I should mention that I am wearing this over a black tee, or you would see through it.)

Arrow points to the upper right corner of the hanging pocket. I resisted the temptation to put two googly eyes above the mouth-like opening. :)