Construction

The dress. All the trace basting--marking of seam lines and other features--is done. Now I'm hand-basting the dress together for a fitting in DC next weekend.


At that time, I'll make up my mind about any fitting tweaks needed (and I have an idea that one thing in particular may be needed). Then I'll come home and have a nice frenzied few weeks to actually sew the dress together. Eek!

Here's hoping the basted dress fits as well as the muslin did--that was pretty close to perfect. But the charmeuse has such a different hand and texture--there may be some surprises. Let's just hope the surprises are not too big.

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Birdland--that's us. This year, our yard has been taken over by wild turkeys. Four toms spend most days ambling and bobbing their way from one side of the yard to the other. Then, on some turkey-signal, they run in unison to our corn feeder. Quite the comical sight.

Here they've discovered that there are good eats to be had on the ground underneath the seed feeders hanging from our eaves. They've even taken time to tap on the windows. Lucy takes a dim view of all of this and stays on the alert.


Most evenings, the hens and a parade of nearly a dozen chicks join join in the fun, but the mamas keep the babies well away from the house, pretty much out of camera range.

Workday Inspiration

Inspiring library patrons add spice to my work life.

Candy's a dedicated garment and home dec home sewer, with a big interest in the couture. I've been ordering books on that topic for her and of course we got to talking. She has stopped in several times with finished objects to show me. Her sewing machine has high-end embroidery capability and her imagination has been soaring. This is a woman who is making that embroidery capability work for her in all kinds of ways, and is constantly experimenting with ideas and technique. She has certainly opened my eyes. Machine embroidery is far more than monograms and cartoon characters on children's clothes.

One jaw-dropping project after another....

I had my camera ready one day when Candy stopped in with some samples of her work. This is a sleeveless wool dress with bodice and hem insets made from an ombre denim with subtle sparkle, closely matching the wool in color.


Candy embroidered motifs in a matching color on both bodice and around the hem, some areas making use of a wing needle--so subtle, so lovely. It's hard to see, but the tucks on the skirt and and the edging of the insets make use of decorative machine stitches that so many of us have on our machines, but so few of us use. (That's a lesson for me: move away from that straight stitch once in a while.) This is a one-of-a-kind garment, for sure.



I'm considering making some fabric and ribbon flowers to accent my daughter's wedding dress. Candy has quite a bit of experience with ribbon flowers and brought in some examples of her work to show me.

This below is a pink linen dress, with a bodice covered in ribbon roses. Some of the flowers are made from sheer ribbon, some from ombre-toned ribbon, some from solids. Candy worked to flatten the flowers, to give an antique-y look.


These are apron-like panels strewn with a great variety of ribbon flowers.



This is a belt covered with ribbon and beaded flowers. Candy made this after seeing a photo of a similar belt accenting a couture dress. This piece is just breathtaking--the photo doesn't do justice. Lots of inspiration here--crocheted, beaded, and ribbon flowers sing together in this piece.


Below, a beaded floral neckpiece, simply exquisite in its workmanship.



After a visit from Candy, I'm no good for the rest of the day. Most of the sewing I do is quilting--quite far removed from couture, and garment sewing, and fancy embellishment. Totally different. But seeing this creativity stimulates my own. My brain perks with ideas and all I want to do is sew.

And I can't wait to see what goodies Candy will bring in to show me next.

Summer Color

I'm here, I'm here.

There aren't many ways to speak interestingly about a sewing project when I don't want to reveal too many details, and even worse, it's all white and won't make for zippy photos. My free time is revolving around work on the wedding dress. SLOW work.

But it's summer and there IS some color in my life. I'm not one who could love an all-white garden. It's beautiful for sure, but where flowers are concerned, I like a riot of color. With our cool shady summer this year, the impatiens have been really happy. I planted bright orange and hot pink. Every time I look at this barrel planter, I feel happy. Nothing fancy, but just bright and zoomy.


More of same on the porch. But it's a mystery--that small pot also held a nice growth of impatiens until two days ago. I think we've been robbed. Don't think I've had impatiens eaten before. Squirrels? Chipmunks?


We've got a tiny garden going too. I planted four of the earliest variety of tomatoes I could find (first ones are almost ripe), and enough basil to yield pesto to keep me happy all winter.

Slow Sew

I've been an enthusiastic machine quilter for about 15 years now, and other than quilt bindings, a bit of beading, and the infamous Sue Spargo project, have pretty much avoided hand-sewing for all that time. But here I am working on this special dress and have had to s-l-o-w down to a crawl, sewing-wise. I've had to resurrect some well-buried skills. And I'm finding enjoyment in the snail's pace.

Claire B. Schaffer's Couture Sewing Techniques is at my side. It has detailed tips for handling skittery fabrics and I'm pretty much following it all to the letter.

This dress is almost entirely cut on the bias, and using a slippery fabric like charmeuse on the bias requires some special handling. A one inch seam allowance is advisable, and I dug out tracing paper (white) and tracing wheel to mark the stitching lines before the pattern pieces were even cut. Now that the pattern pieces are cut, I'm hand stitching, marking on the sewing lines for better visibility. If you look closely in the picture above, you can see the faint traced lines ahead of the needle. Each piece of the dress will get this treatment; that's a lot of temporary hand-sewing.

Once stitching lines are all marked, then everything will be hand-basted together for fitting. I'll be carrying it all to Washington, DC in a few weeks for the bride to try on.

Gearing Up

We have a family wedding fast approaching. Except that it actually happened already.

Confused? OK, here's the story: my daughter's wedding will be September 12 in St. Lucia. Her fiance is not a U.S. citizen, and in order to obtain a green card, needed to produce a marriage certificate. So they were quietly married last August by her boss, a judge in Washington, D.C. Still, they want to be able to stand up before those most important to them and say some stuff. That's what will happen on September 12 in St. Lucia.

This will be a very small affair, with only immediate family and a few very close friends. Neither bride nor groom care to have a huge lavish show. It's just important that it take place.

And now's the time for good old mom to switch into couturiere mode. I have a pattern and 10 yards of butter-soft silk charmeuse awaiting my courage to cut into it. Know the old quilting joke about how the project is free if you've had the fabric for more than 6 months?? We bought this fabric nearly two years ago. So that means this dress will be free. That may boost my courage as I prepare to make that first very scary cut.

Crazy Making

Shouldn't summer reading be light and frothy? For whatever reason, I've been going in the opposite direction.

I listened to the audio version of Madness: A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher, a chronicle of the author's struggle with rapid cycling type 1 bipolar disorder--the most severe form of the affliction. It was an intense but very thought-provoking listening experience. Marya, a hugely talented writer, cycles way up and way down, through years of bad advice and faulty diagnoses. Even a correct diagnosis isn't 100% of the answer, as the patient needs to understand and internalize best-practice plans even when her thinking is clearly at odds. It took Ms. Hornbacher years to come to grips with her unpredictable mind processes and to understand how to best care for herself.

Most of us have it so easy by comparison.

Listening added to the impact of this book. It felt like the chaotic thought patterns were hurtling at me and through me--the reader gets a real sense of what it's like to live in the author's head.

I love the Slate Audio Book Club. I've been listening to the podcast and then reading the books AFTER the discussion, which is bass-ackwards for sure. But it's introduced me to some books I never would have found on my own. A case in point: Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen, another book delving into mental instability and convoluted thinking. A man believes his wife has been replaced by a stand-in, and sets off to find his real wife. Along the way, there are discussions on parallel worlds, messages in the weather, emails from dead meteorologists, and plenty of odd thinking and tilted logic. It was dark and challenging but fun.

The Victoria

Happy 4th of July to all the Americans hanging around here. And a belated happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends. Some in my family got to celebrate Canada Day in style, while I could only enjoy it all vicariously.

Blogging has been lagging, but not due to inactivity. At work, the Summer Reading Program has been in full swing. I'm not our kids' librarian and am only needed in a support and crowd control role. It's been busy and fun. But I arrive home in the evening fairly wiped out.

And so I've been knitting. The body of the Victoria Shawl is completed.


This shawl is from the book Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. The yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze in the colorway Dewberry. This is my third shawl from this book; I think I'm getting my money's worth! And it could keep me busy for some time to come--there are about ten more shawls and scarves in Victorian Lace Today that I would love to make.

I have the lace cast-on for the knit-on border done and ready to go.


All that's needed is a bit of unbroken time to sit down and work through that first scary repeat of the yarnover-filled border. After a couple repeats are done, I think the pattern will make sense and I can sail along. Relatively speaking, that is.


I know I'm making progress with lace knitting when the pattern diagram for the border notes that there are no stitches in some areas. And I understand what that means.


Will this be done by my self-imposed deadline of September? We'll see.