Two Shirts with Yellow

Hi kids!

I'm a little under the weather today - I think I've got a cold coming on.  But had a very productive sewing weekend, so I decided to get over myself and take some pictures while the sun is out.

I've been on a mini-mission to go back and adjust some of my favorite patterns, now that I have a slightly better handle on fitting.  One of these I mentioned last week in my plans for this month:  the Archer shirt.  I promised I'd only make a couple adjustments, but in the end, I did just one:  the forward shoulder adjustment.  After wearing one of my Archers last week, I felt that this was the one adjustment I needed above all others.  (Of course, I'd already adjusted the button spacing and graded out two sizes at the hip in my previous version, and I kept those adjustments.)  And I'm so glad I stopped there - I'm declaring this adjusted pattern perfect now.  I'm so happy with how the fit turned out:  it's comfortable and slightly slouchy, and the forward shoulder adjustment took care of the twisting of the sleeves I was getting, as well as the tendency of the shirt to drift toward the back.  Now that I've got this pattern the way I want it, I'm going to be making LOTS more of these.

Normally I wear shirts like this with the sleeves rolled up, but I'd done such a nice job ironing it, I didn't want to get it all wrinkly! 

You can see here that I've still got a tiny bit of pooling in the lower back, but it was interesting to me that the forward shoulder adjustment seemed to take some of it away with no swayback adjustment.  I think for the future I won't bother with the swayback - as I said, I like it now how it is, sort of slouchy.

One of the reasons I'd put off adjusting this pattern for a while is that the instructions in Fit for Real People didn't make a lot of sense to me.  The book recommends just moving the notch for the shoulder forward on your yoke piece.  On me, the yoke didn't even extend up and over the top of my shoulder, so I wasn't sure how well that would work.  I also wasn't looking forward to removing the seam allowance from the front of the sleeve and adding it to the back.  I stewed on it for a while, and googled around for some other methods.  I landed on this forward shoulder adjustment from Heather B, which also didn't make much sense to me - it seemed like it would angle the yoke forward too much, western-shirt style.  But I decided to give it a go, and it really worked well.  Also from Heather B, I learned this sleeve cap slide, so I was able to avoid the dreaded seam-allowance removal+addition.  So thanks, Heather B!

Here's a better look at the shirt itself - how lovely is this fabric?  I got it probably a year and a half ago from Fishman's, one of my local fabric stores.  It's a super-soft cotton lawn.  It just feels amazing against the skin.  And although it's grey, it's a very soft blue-grey, broken up by the light mustard yellow.  I just love it.

Encouraged by my Saturday success, yesterday I decided to do the same forward shoulder and sleeve cap adjustments on another old favorite, the Lisette Continental blouse (Simplicity 2059).  I've made this top three times before, and I wear all three of them often.  Again, a loose, slouchy, smock-like design - the type of top I reach for when I want to be cute but comfy.  My three older tops fit pretty well, but had the same problem of drifting toward the back, inching up my neck.  I'm happy to report that this adjustment has taken care of that, so this is another pattern I'll likely be making up again.

I found it very interesting  to see how the shoulder seam looks on the hanger:

It looks like it angles severely toward the front, but on my body, it exactly follows the line of my shoulder.  BTW:  on both these shirts I did a 1/2" forward adjustment.

This top was also made with a piece of fabric from Fishman's - a lovely remnant, bought at the same time as the fabric above.  It's a subtle plaid of the palest grey and almost acid yellow, another very soft cotton but slightly heavier than the Archer fabric.  Such a pleasure to wear. 

I didn't have enough of this piece to worry about matching the plaid, but it came out alright, and it's so subtle anyway that it doesn't really matter that it's not perfect.

Remember when I was talking about how I hang my mending on my dresser to get myself to do it?  Well, here's a little secret:  I also hang my most recent makes there, so I can admire them for a few days before they go into the closet :-)  I added a pretty vintage scarf in similar colors to the Continental blouse.

Do you guys admire your recent makes for a while before putting them into the closet?  I thought about wearing one of these today, but I have some messy work to do, so I'll just have to keep popping in to look at them.

Warning: Vacation Photos!

I told myself I wasn't going to do this, but in the end I just couldn't resist!  And it's a grey, blustery day here in Chicago, so some pictures of beautiful southern California are a nice pick-me-up!

This is the second year we've taken a short vacation in San Diego.  Last year we went because we wanted to use up some frequent flyer miles before they expired. We didn't really have a firm idea of where we wanted to go but we knew that it must be warm and sunny, and that we should be able to get there with a nonstop flight.  That narrowed our choices down to Tucson and San Diego.  Being a Pisces, I chose the ocean!  Needless to say, we loved it, so we returned this year!

Hubby has a talent for discovering great hotels, and once our plane tickets were squared away, he found a great deal at Tower 23 on the north side of San Diego. We were really pleased that we got the same room we had last year:  a "Surf Pad" on the third floor, with a balcony overlooking the ocean.

Looking north from the balcony.  Tuesday was the only cloudy day.

Sunset, viewed from the balcony.

Tower 23 as seen from the beach.

We arrived late on Sunday night, so our first outing was on Monday.  It was so warm and sunny, I actually felt a little hot!  Luckily, I was wearing my new red Continental blouse!  We decided to drive into the mountains, about an hour northeast of San Diego, to Temecula's wine country.  We chose a winery for lunch, and were really pleased with our choice:  Wilson Creek Winery.  We had a fantastic meal and an Almond Champagne that we liked so much we had 6 bottles sent home!

Wilson Creek has beautiful gardens in addition to the vineyards.

First outing for the new blouse!

There was also a little creek, with a picnic area next to it.

On Tuesday we had planned to drive to Irvine to visit some old friends, so we left early enough in the morning that we could spend a few hours at Torrey Pines State Preserve.  I had wanted to visit last year but ran out of time, so I'm really glad we made it this year.  The vegetation is so amazing - quite interesting for a Midwestern girl!  I love the mix of pines, scrub, palm trees and cactus, all set among sandstone cliffs overlooking the ocean.

It reminded me a lot of Cappadocia in Turkey.

Everything is sort of windswept.

I think this was called tree poppy.

I still get surprised by seeing cactus just growing out of the ground!

On Wednesday we did a little exploring on Coronado Island and Point Loma, after a fantastic lunch at Craft and Commerce.  Coronado was a little more tourist-oriented than I like, but it was interesting because the beach was quite different from where we were staying, just ten miles north.  The sand at the edge of the water was glistening with gold - it really looked like someone had dumped a load of gold glitter and mixed it with the sand!  Do any of you Californians know anything about this?  I've never seen anything like it.

I really liked Point Loma, and was surprised that it was so hilly.  We went to the old lighthouse, which is neat because the rooms are set up as they were in the late 1800s.  The original Fresnel lens is also on display - just beautiful.

Whales go by the point, but we didn't see any.

The old lighthouse.

My art shot of the old lighthouse.

The new lighthouse, way down the hill.

The Fresnel lens.

We only had about half a day on Thursday before we had to return our rental car, so we walked along the beach for a few hours, soaking in the last of the salty air and sunshine before returning to the soot and noise of the city.  Then we spent an hour or two wandering around Old Town San Diego, which has been turned into a historical village.  I'd been there before (years ago) but it was still fun to look at it again. Unfortunately, none of my pictures are especially interesting!

As you can see, we kept ourselves busy the whole time, so not a whole lot of knitting got done!  I managed about 20 rows on Winnie.  I'm planning on a knitting update tomorrow.

Yesterday

. . .  I spent the afternoon making up my third Continental Blouse.  This should just about do it for now!

The fabric is Anna Maria Horner's Coreopsis voile in raspberry.  I fell in love with this print as soon as I saw it.  It calls to mind all sorts of things I love:  Neuland type, the artwork of Aubrey Beardsley (it's not all perverted), and the woodcuts of modern artist Nick Wroblewski, of which I'm lucky to own a couple examples.  What it doesn't call to mind is coreopsis - at least not any of the varieties I've ever had in my garden!  Beautiful, nonetheless.

It's going to be a while before I can actually wear this - the voile is very fine, so this top is quite lightweight.  I'm hoping to be able to wear it when we take our little "get away from winter" mini-vacation in a month or so.

This is the first item I've crossed off from my Spring Sewing list!  My plan is to start work on the Pussy Bow Blouse next.  I had to get a new printer to print out the pattern:  my (ten-year-) old one broke as I was trying to print it out last week!  I even dug out my paper cutter for the occasion!  So I'm hoping to spend some time this weekend assembling the pattern.  I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I really enjoy assembling PDF patterns!

A big week.

Hello, folks!  I hope that everyone who celebrates Christmas or Hanukkah had/is having a wonderful holiday.  We played it low-key and had dinner with some friends.  For the occasion, I wore the new Continental blouse I made on Friday:

We were running a little late, so I only had time to snap these photos in the guest bathroom mirror.  Once the sun goes down, the best light is in there!

I am absolutely in love with this Anna Maria Horner fabric.  It's called "Turn of Events" from her Innocent Crush line, in a very luxurious-feeling voile.  This fabric has such a fine hand, and the print is so beautiful, it was really a pleasure to work with.  On this one, I did hand-basting not only on the sleeves, but also on the bias neck facing.  I'm stunned that it makes such a difference in how easily and how well things come together.  I'm a convert!

I didn't take the time to write for several days, but I wasn't slacking.  In the last week, I finished a total of six projects!  If you take a look at my list tabs, you'll see lots of things crossed out.  This blouse and the failed Jasmine were the two sewing projects I did, and you've seen the hat and cowl I made for Hubby.  But I also finished my 1958 sweater, and another sweater I've never even mentioned!  So my aim is to get those photographed and up in the next few days.  I'm really happy with both of them.

And now on to the next thing.  I've started a new pair of socks for Hubby, but I'm thinking I'll be starting the Still Light  dress in the next few days too.  I can't wait to dig into that alpaca!

As promised.

I'm wearing my new Continental Blouse today, and I feel pretty darned cute!  Wearing it with some pants from Anthropologie that I've had for at least 5 years (likely longer) and BC Footwear wedges that I've probably had for just as long.

front

back

blowing a kiss, just to be silly

better view of the shoes

So here are the particulars.  I cut a straight size 10 with no modifications.  I generally take a size 12 to accommodate my wider hips, but this design has plenty of room in the hips, and I didn't want the bust to be too overwhelming.  I'd say this is a good fit without any modifications.

The fabric is a design by Anna Maria Horner.  I wasn't too familiar with her fabrics until the other day, when I (finally) took a trip over to The Needle Shop.  After long deliberation, this is the fabric I chose to come home with.  I think it's such a cheerful print.  Here's a closer look:

I googled it when I got home, and it seems to be a print called "Shattered" from a line she did called "Innocent Crush."  This is a pretty heavy cotton, which is what I wanted for this top, since I want to be able to wear it all winter.

I did two new (to me) techniques on this top.  I finished all the seams with the "Pinked" finish I learned from Sunni's blog.  I really liked this one; it took a fair amount of time, since you're essentially sewing each seam thrice and then trimming away the excess, but it is very neat and doesn't create extra bulk.

The other technique was to use three rows of stitching for the gathering, a la Colette.  This really does create a much more even gather.  I'll be doing it this way from now on!

So what do you think?  If you sew, have you made this top?  Is it on your list?  I'm sure I'll be making at least one more!

Later the same day.

.75 hours ironing and tracing pattern
.75 hours marking and cutting fabric
.25 hours making and eating peanut butter sandwich
3 hours sewing and ironing

I. Love. This. Top.

Styling tomorrow!

Today

I'm working on the Lisette Continental Blouse.  I've been wanting to make this for a couple months, and finally got some fabric for it yesterday.  Stay tuned!