Osaka Garden at Jackson Park

I wanted to share some pictures of the beautiful park we visited on Saturday.  Jackson Park is on the south side of Chicago, in the neighborhood called Hyde Park.  It lies just to the south of the Museum of Science and Industry (one of only two remaining structures from the 1893 World's Fair) and just to the east of the University of Chicago.  Within the park is a beautiful little Japanese garden called Osaka Garden.

 In another section of the park is Chicago's "Golden Lady."

Saturday was one of those perfect autumn days:  warm and breezy, sunny with brilliant blue skies, and spectacular fall color.

I'm so glad we spent it in the park!

Renfrew du Jour

Yet again!

But I changed it up this time!  I made View C, with the cowl neck and the three quarter sleeves.  In my bird print fabric.  I just need to make one more, and then I'll have one for every day of the week.

When I made my first Renfrew, way back in June, I was so anxious to get started that I only traced the pieces for the scoop neck and short sleeves.  Yesterday afternoon, knowing that Hubby would be out this morning playing basketball and thus enabling me to have a sewing morning, I traced out all the other pieces.  So now I can make any Renfrew I want, any time I want.   Ha!

I was almost finished by the time he got home.  I got a little distracted and didn't check the placement of the birds on the waistband piece, so I've got some mirror-image bird business going on down there.  Oh well. 

I was a little surprised by how short the three quarter sleeves ended up being (and I've got slightly short arms) - I guess I was expecting bracelet length.  And I feel like it's a teensy bit wide across the shoulders - probably because when I did those seams, I didn't realize that the tension dials on my serger had shifted, so they got stretched out a little.  Oh well.

As soon as I finished it, we headed out the door to the local banh mi shop for lunch, closely followed by frozen yogurt in Chinatown, eaten on the way to the park.  It's a beautiful day - really too hot for this top.

Guess I'll have to change into one of my other Renfrews.

Yesterday . . .

I spent another lovely day with Andrea and Mr. Stitch.  We started out at "The Bean," where Mr. Stitch took a few pictures of us.  Here we are, two ladies in their hand-made tops:

Andrea is wearing a Sorbetto she made with Nani Iro double gauze.  It's so soft and pretty!  I'm wearing my second Butterick blouse - the wacky paisley one.  Since I never got around to taking modeled pictures of it after I made it, I got Mr. Stitch to take a few yesterday.  He was cracking me up:

I liked how it looked with the white skirt, and if I hadn't been doing a lot of walking, I would have worn the outfit with my orange and pink espadrilles.  Next time!  And here's the silly outtake shot:

 

I was trying to blow a kiss, but I really just look like a turtle making some kind of obscene Italian gesture!

After hanging around at the Bean, we headed over to the Art Institute, where we took a look at the new Roy Lichtenstein exhibit.  If you find yourself in Chicago in the next few months, I really recommend it!  We all liked it a lot.

After the museum, we grabbed some banh mi for lunch and then headed out to Oak Park to take a look at the Frank Lloyd Wright homes.  I got so caught up I didn't take any pictures, but here are some from a couple years ago:

We wrapped up the afternoon with coffee and cookies at a cute little dessert cafe in downtown Oak Park.  Perfect!

I had such a great time hanging out with Andrea and Mr. Stitch over the last few days.  They are truly warm, wonderful people.  Now they're on their way back to Toronto, and I'm sad to see them go, but confident that we'll see each other again.  I'm just blown away by their generosity, coming all the way to Chicago so we could finally meet.  Andrea also very generously gave me a fabulous gift.  Take a look:

A beautiful card which she made herself, a lovely pair of tiny snipping scissors, and 2 meters of Liberty Tana Lawn in Landis B!  She knows how much I drool over Liberty fabrics, and I had mentioned I'm fascinated by architecture - can you see the little buildings in the print?  So perfect!  I'm having a lot of fun daydreaming about what this gorgeous yardage should become.

For those of you who followed Andrea's blog and miss it as much as I do while she's on break, she did mention that she's planning to put up a few posts over the summer, so watch out for those!

Busy, Busier, Busiest!

We had a jam-packed weekend with two events on Saturday and three on Sunday. But yesterday was the best day of all!

Yesterday I finally got to meet my friend, Andrea, in person!  Here we are at the tip of Navy Pier:

Andrea and I have been "pen pals" for about a year.  We have a lot in common besides our love of sewing and knitting.  So I was pleased as punch when she and her husband decided to take a mini-vacation in Chicago before their big move out west.

We had a great time yesterday walking down the Pier, going up to the top of the Hancock building (OK, that was scary) and even getting in a little fabric shopping. Her husband was quite a trooper, waiting for us while we pawed through the silks at Vogue.

Today I'm catching up on some laundry while they take in a couple museums, then this evening the four of us will be getting together for dinner.

Have you ever finally met a person you've been corresponding with?  I was so happy to finally meet Andrea in the flesh, but because we've been writing regularly for the last year, it feels like I've known her forever!

A busy couple of days.

Things have been pretty busy here Chez Agenda for the last couple days. Yesterday was Hubby's birthday, so I spent a good amount of time making him the birthday cake he gets every year and the dinner he requested.

Then last night he got a call from a high school friend who was in town just for today.  Long story short, we met her and her partner for lunch today, and I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon with them.  We walked around Michigan Avenue, then took the Water Taxi to Willis Tower and spent some time up there looking out at the city.

As we were walking from the water taxi stop to the tower, we came across something I wanted to share with you all:

This installation was right around the corner from Willis Tower, but I wasn't really paying attention to what street we were on.

Some of the balls you could tell were just wrapped in sweaters, like this one:

But others looked hand crocheted:

And then there was this one lone yarn-bombed tree:

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of yarn-bombing, but it did pull me up short to see these in the middle of the city.

And here's just one of the views from up top:

It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day - the first we've had in a while, so it was very nice to be up there looking down at the city.

Nothing new here.

I had meant to get a fair amount of sewing done over the weekend, but it turned out that Hubby had to use my sewing table (a.k.a. the dining room table) for a work project, so I ended up baking a batch of cookies, doing a fair bit of reading, and working on my Still Light dress instead.  Oh, and playing with Picnik some more:  you may have noticed my new header.

We did end up taking a very nice walk in Ping Tom Park yesterday.  It was chilly, but sunny - perfect weather for walking.  Especially when you need to walk off the banh mi you've just eaten!  Here are some snowy pics I took:

looking toward downtown from the south end of the park

I love the yellow branches, white snow and black benches.

I'm not really sure what this structure is!

The Windschief hat and cowl in action!

snowy rocks by the river

the "pagoda" next to the river

snowy underbrush

view of downtown from the north end of the park

I've been reading Fit for Real People, in hopes of figuring out what I need to do with my Peony muslin.  It seems to confirm what I was beginning to suspect:  I've been choosing the wrong (too large) size for myself.  Although my size 0 front bodice piece seemed like it would be too small when I pinned up the darts and then held it up to my body, my size 2 muslin is clearly much too big, and the difference between the two sizes isn't all that much.  So my next move is going to be to shorten and narrow the darts, after I've moved them.  The bust darts need to come down about an inch and the waist darts of course need to be moved an inch or so toward the side seams.

That's something that confuses me about this pattern.  I can't think of anyone who has boobs with their apexes so close to the middle of their chest, which leads me to believe that Sarai moved these darts toward the center as a design feature.  So far, I haven't come across any finished dress that hasn't had the darts moved out to the side, and conventional wisdom is that these darts should extend down toward the waist in line with one's bust apex.  I spent a fair amount of time over the weekend trolling the internet looking for pictures of finished dresses, but wasn't able to come to any conclusions about this.

I was going to move on and print out my Pussy Bow Blouse pattern and start assembling it - and now my printer won't work!  I think the universe is telling me I should go clean the bathroom . . .

Jazzed

This afternoon we took in the matinee show of one of my very favorite bands, The Bad Plus.  It was Teh Awesome!

They even played one of my all-time favorite songs, Flim.  I love that song so much, I have it as the ringtone on my phone <3   Listen for yourself:

My Trip to the Leather Shop

No, not that kind of leather shop.

My search for leather scraps began at Fishman's Fabrics in Chicago.  I discovered this store shortly after moving to the neighborhood, and one of the things I loved about it (besides the buttons!) was all the leather they carry.  I was happy to have a source so nearby, and made a mental note of it.

Over the last several months, Fishman's has done a massive reorganization - honestly, things are so organized now, it's difficult for me to find what I'm looking for!  Nothing is where it used to be, so I asked one of the clerks about the leather.  Alas, they don't sell remnants any more, just full skins.  The ones I took a peak at were between $75 and $150, and twice as big as me!  Obviously a little more than I needed.  But when I told him what I was making, the clerk very kindly suggested I walk across the street and visit I. Sachs.  He even let me leave my car in their lot - almost unheard of in Chicago!

I. Sachs Sons is right next to Vogue Fabrics - I've walked and driven by probably hundreds of times.  But it never occurred to me to enter; I mistakenly thought it was wholesale only shoe-making supplies.  And it is mostly shoe-making supplies, but open to the public.  When I went in, I told the man at the counter what I was looking for, and he pointed out boxes and boxes of remnants and invited me to dig in, telling me that the remnants go for $5 a pound.  He also said I could go to another room upstairs and showed me how to get there.

As I was digging around and pulling pieces I liked, he came back over and said, "I was wrong - the scraps are $4 a pound!"  I spent about a half hour accumulating promising-looking scraps, then honed down my selection to six different pieces.

When I took them to the counter, another man was there, and I asked him to weigh them for me.  He held my pile in his hands and said, "Two and a half pounds."  Then he took them to the scale in the back; when he returned, he said, "It came in at three and a half pounds, but I'll give it to you for three pounds."  He rang me up and the total came to $13.78 with tax, and then he said, "You can just give me thirteen dollars!"  Incredible!  You can imagine my delight at getting enough leather for at least six bags for thirteen dollars!

Here are my spoils:

I was a little disappointed not to find any brightly-colored skins, but as you can see, I did find plenty that I liked.  (I was secretly hoping to find a gorgeous turquoise like Andrea's!  Or green.) I was drawn to the more supple, distressed leathers.  Here are some close-ups:

winter white

caramel

ecru

dark brown

grey

taupe

If you look closely at the first photo, you'll see that the caramel skin has already been transformed into a little clutch, about which more next time!

Everything, all at once.

Whew!  Yesterday was a full day!

First thing in the morning, I stamped on top of Power Clutch.  I had it in my mind that I wanted to use a feather design in gold, so I got out my Konad plate m77 and China Glaze Passion:

Here's the picture I took in the morning, with
well-conditioned cuticles . . .

And here's one I took in the car in the early
evening after sitting in the sun all afternoon.
You can see the design better, but my cuticles are all
dried out, gah!

After that, Hubby and I got in the car and drove WAY out in the country to go to our first ever polo match!  We have a friend who plays and he invited us to come watch. It had been raining in the morning, but we got lucky and had a warm, sunny afternoon:

And I wore my new silk Sencha, which I finished on Thursday:

Here's the picture Hubby took.

And here's one my friend took.  She thought I should
have a picture with the horses in the background.

I am so in love with this top!  It is pretty and silky and comfy. AND it stayed pretty fresh all day long.  My cotton one wrinkled terribly, especially under the arms, but this one only got a few wrinkles on the back, due to sitting in the car for so long. There may be another one in my future, if I can find another print at Vogue that I like.

I originally thought that I wouldn't like this version as much as the first version I made - this one does not have tucks at the neck.  But I do like it, and having four fewer tucks to do made sewing it a little easier.  But boy, that silk was slippery!  I went really slowly, and did all the finishing by hand like I did on my first one.

When I got to the point of sewing the snaps on the back, I felt like it was a little plain, so I sewed the outer snaps all the way through the fabric to give it a little decoration:

I like how it looks, and it made the snaps more stable as well.  So, Sencha win!

After the polo, we drove back to the city to go to one of the concerts of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, held on the beautiful University of Chicago campus.  Our friends drove down too and met us there, and afterwards, we all went to Medici for dinner. This is a recent find for us, and I'm happy to have found it.  This place has some of the best pizza I've found in Chicago.  In a city known for its pizza, I've had a hard time finding pies I like.  But then, I'm a pizza snob.

Whew!  Like I said, a full day!  We're thinking of maybe heading back to the Jazz Fest today . . .

Sunday

I had really intended to do more posts about the things we've been doing with our niece and nephew, but time has just been slipping away from me.  But yesterday we went out to the Morton Arboretum for a really cool event:  a Theatre-Hike!  The idea is that each scene of the play is performed in a different place, and the audience hikes from scene to scene.  So fun!  We saw The Wizard of Oz, which was a low-impact hike - perfect for our niece as she's not too fond of walking.  Or deep nature, as it turns out!  This play was done in two adjacent grassy meadows.

The Scarecrow, Dorothy and Toto

The Wizard, The Cowardly Lion, The Tin Man,
Dorothy and Toto, and the Scarecrow

I'm hoping to go back in October for Night of the Living Dead!

On Saturday we ended up doing some errands after my niece's swimming lesson.  We ended up on Diversey Ave. and Hubby insisted we go into Urban Outfitters!  So weird!  I didn't know he even knew what Urban Outfitters is, but apparently he did! He wanted to look at the kitschy gifts.  But of course, my niece and I ended up at the nail polish display, and came home with these:

So last night we decided to try out the pinkish one, Afterhours.  We started with an 'underwear' coat of Essie Lion Around, and then one coat of Afterhours for her on her toes, and two coats for me on my fingers.

Urban Outfitters Afterhours over Essie Lion Around

So pretty and sparkly, but I know I'm going to rue the day I ever saw this when it comes time to take it off.  I put on 2 coats of topcoat, and it is still bumpy.  The formula was really thick and even after just one coat, you couldn't really see the Essie underneath, so I wouldn't call this a layering polish.  Two coats just made the color a little darker and gave some more depth to the glitter.

After our nails were dry, my niece said, "I'm really glad we bought this!"