Debut of the Velvet Jacket and The Misfit Children Gallery Opening!

So very much has happened so quickly in the world over the past couple of weeks that I am now just catching my breath and adjusting to all the changes. Of course, just when I think I have it figured out and I am OK with it, something else crazy happens. We all have our own stories to tell and our own feelings to feel so no need for me to expand. You all know exactly what I am talking about! And by all, I mean every single person on the planet! (which is, by the way, hard to wrap my mind around!!)

I wanted to share with everyone the debut of the navy silk velvet jacket that I made for my sister! I am giving myself a big pat on the back and an even bigger sigh of relief- it FIT and my sister looked amazing and comfortable and confident in it.  You can read the post on construction HERE.

My sister, Jen Torres, and myself at the Gallery talk of her show.
Same picture below excepted lightened up so you can see the details of her beautiful outfit better.

Just as a reminder I only ever did a fitting for in muslin and not in the actual fashion fabric. SO once it was completed and wrapped so very carefully in tissue and mailed off to her I did not get to see her in it until the day of the Gallery talk for her show Misfit Children - landscapes & creatures from the mind of Jen Torres.

The opening Gallery Talk was only done with a much smaller group of people than originally planned. This was the very start of the Covid19 pandemic hitting the United States. So the talk was just the family, minus my brother from the Netherlands due to flight restrictions from Europe, and a couple great friends. The Museum - The Tennessee Valley Museum of Arts did a great job of an on the fly live streaming of the gallery talk on Facebook!  I may be a little biased but I think it was an excellent artist gallery talk. I suspect that it is partly because my sister is AWESOME and partly because she is a college professor. You can find the talk HERE! (Don't worry only the first few minutes are sideways!)

I have always loved my sisters art. This collection is one of my favorites!  I love the colors and the details, the changes in scale and all the varied aspects of the pieces. It is sooooo hard to pic my favorites. If you check the links above there are many more pics on the museums website and in the Gallery talk on Facebook.

Here are some more candid photos of Jen in in her beautiful Jacket during her gallery talk. She is vey passionate about her work and as you can see from the photo's she likes to talk with her hands.

 Congratulations to my sister on her show and her grace in dealing with the every quickly changing environment in dealing with Covid19. Grace under pressure!

Family and friends gathered together to celebrate Jen!
(minus the princess... she was off running around somewhere!)

My immediate family is spread out all across the United States and the world. Illinois, Mississippi, Delaware, New Jersey and the Netherlands. We don't always get the time to all be together and it was so nice for most of us to get to spend a lovely weekend together. Celebrating my sister, eating, drinking, singing and just having some good old family fun together! It was nice to give big hugs and hold each other as we said our goodbyes and headed back to our respective homes and into the uncertainty that we are facing with this COvid19 pandemic.

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Well!! And a big THANK YOU to all of the essential workers out there keeping our society safe and working!!

Happy Sewing!

One last parting shot of the Princess enjoying her Great Aunt Jen's artwork!



How many projects can you have going on at once???

Apparently in my sewing room ALOT!

Before I go any further.... I just want to let you all know that I have FIXED the commenting on the blog. Apparently it was sending all the comments to deep black hole in cyberspace. EEK!

I'm not quite sure how I got into this state of so many things happening at once (well, I have a little idea) but it is a bit crazy up in here.

ONE
The Sew Chicago ASG Neighborhood group is doing an almost year long challenge for our annual fashion show in October. This year we are doing coats or jackets and my co-leader, Wendy, put together an awesome worksheet which has monthly goals. Every month we have check in goals to share with the group. We have a blog page about the challenge located HERE.  This means that this is a slow sewing project and will overlap with everything else I am doing.

The cover of the challenge worksheet

Samples of my fabric, a double sided cashmere, a silk print for lining and the underlining. Still need to decide on interfacing.

The vintage pattern that I choose. Love it!!

I have chosen to make V1227, an Issey Miyake Coat. So far I have the muslin made and the pattern pieces all cut out. Now I need to cut out the fashion fabrics and interfacing and underling and lining and so on and so forth!


I copied and enlarged the drawing to play with the color blocking options. I'm going with Pink on top and yellow on bottom.

TWO and THREE and more...
I am also getting ready to attend Camp Wardrobe Week given by Camp Workroom Social at Frost Valley YMCA this April. It has been so much fun working with Jennifer and the Camp Workroom Social Staff to get ready. They have been sending weekly updates, inspiration,  printables and so much more! I feel a bit like a little kid dreaming of summer camp and excited to try something new and meet lots of new sewing people!

So far I have 2 projects ready to go. One is all cutout and ready to be sewn, the Sorrento Skirt by Style Arc. The second is a tunic top also by Style Arc, the Daisy Tunic. This one I made a muslin of and made all the necessary adjustments and I also have the fashion fabric cutout and ready to be sewn up.


Left side- muslin sewn from the envelope.
Right side- adjustments made and ready to go.

Left side- muslin sewn from the envelope.
Right side- adjustments made and ready to go.

Tunic pieces cut out of this cool linen I have had in my collection for many years!

I am still deciding on the rest of the projects that I want to work on! I have a pile of fabrics. I'm 90% sure that I will make a muslin of a pair of jeans for fitting. Thinking Cashmerette Ames Jeans or the Ginger Jeans. For these I will take advantage of the fitting help at Camp to tweak. And I also think I will bring some activewear. I really need a new workout bra and top and this could be a fun place to work on that. SO many ideas!!

SO many decisions to make!!

AND
FOUR
I am working on a new dress to wear to my fabulous sister's art show where she will be giving a gallery talk. No pictures of this yet since the dress is inspired by her art and I want it to be a surprise!
The Show will be held at the Tennessee Valley Art Museum- you can see the page HERE.
All of the family is coming in for the Gallery talk, even my little brother from the Netherlands. :) always a happy time when my siblings and I are all together!

AND
FIVE
I am playing with some fabric that is part of the ASG Chicago Chapter fabric challenge. I received a yard of this blue satiny fabric. Definitely polyester or polyester blend. I decided to break out my embroidery machine, clear out the dust from it and give it a whirl! I created 4 different designs and randomly used them to create an all over look. It probably took a little over 9 hours of time to embroider the piece. I looked at it as an experiment and I think it came out pretty good so far. I still have to trim all the interfacing away and give it a good press. Or as good a press as you can get on a poly satin! I plan to pair this with a black fabric most likely the deepest black which is a fine corduroy and make a jacket. Still pondering.

9 hours of embroidery time. Luckily for me this is an embroidery only machine so it does not interfere with my regular sewing!

All over embroidered fabric ready to become something cool! I hope....

Plus, believe it or not, there are 2 other projects that are in the sort of formulating idea phase. Those will have to wait for another time!

Happy Sewing!!

In other News....
We welcomed a new member of the family. Meet Arya, a long haired mini-dachshund. The Princess is delighted and so full of love for her new puppy!

Playing with the Cashmerette Tobin Sweater pattern

With the cold winter days I really decided that I needed some additional updated winter wear. The couple of sweaters, sweater dresses and long sleeve tops that I have were really starting to show their age and look a little ratty. With the success of the first Tobin sweater that I made in November, I decided to make a couple more.

I decided to make 3 additional Tobins.

1. A cowl neck high low hem in a light weight scuba knit in a yellow leaf print from Haberman fabrics.

2. A long midi-length dress, color blocked split funnel neck with added color blocking at hem, in seam pockets and hand applique's. This done in a combination of floral printed ponte knit and a plaid double knit. The print is from an Amsterdam market (Blogged about here) and the plaid is from somewhere... where that is, I cant remember. 

3. A shorter color blocked split funnel neck version using a double sided Japanese cotton ‘Sloth’ knit from Miss Matatabi’s fabrics.

 The cowl neck top is done with a lovely light weight crepe texture scuba knit that I purchased at Haberman fabrics in Michigan. It was so lovely to work with! Cut, sewed and even pressed well for a scuba. I have worn this for travel on my work trip this week and the top is very comfortable and not hot or sweaty at all. Plus it has the added benefit of not wrinkling. The cowl on this top has a very nice shape and is a double piece cut and sewed and turned, which I feel gives it a nice weight and drape. The cut of the cowl with an added slightly U shape gives a little more drape to the front without extra bulk. Nicely designed. Also no wardrobe malfunctions when you bend over or reach up with your arms! Yay for good coverage!

I finished all of the Tobins's hems with a narrow coverstitch. I finally feel like I can place the coversticth really close to my intended target! This example is spot on. I still sometimes get a little wobble at start and stop especially when that coincides with a seam. However, all in all I think it looks darn good!!

The dress version was fun to pattern hack! I placed see through pattern paper on my large gridded cutting surface and placed the main back body piece under. I traced this and then extended the center back to the length I wanted. I got this measurement by measuring my CB from nap of neck to floor. Placing the tap measure under my heal and when I got to the nap of my neck I stepped down and fixed the tap measure. I then carefully picked it up at that point and subtracted about 4 inches. This measurement I then transferred from the neck at CB on the pattern paper to the hem. Because I had made this top already I knew that I had plenty of hip room. So to draft the side seam, I used a yard stick to draw a line from the widest portion of the hip to the same length of the CB wile angling out by 1 inch to have a slight a-line. I then decided that I wanted the back hem to match the curve of the high low top and matched that curve using my fashion ruler. Then I did the same procedure on the front. After I had the length and shape correct I then decided where I wanted the color blocking at the hem to be and cut the pattern and added seam allowance on both pieces.  I also drafted in seam pockets. Somehow, I royally screwed up the placement of these!! Oops! I had drafted them too low by several inches. I would have needed monkey arms to use this. This was a little bit of a pain having to unpick the serging and moving them up 2 inches. They are still slightly low but I didn’t have enough to re-cut them and this was as far up as I could move them while still feeling the shape of the side seam matched closed enough.

I really like the color blocking on the dress. However when I had it hanging waiting to be hemmed I kept thinking that it needed something.... SO I kept it hanging while I worked on construction a dress for the Princess and my last Tobin sweater. At some point it dawned on me that it needed something to break up the stark color blocking lines. Both the plaid and the print are softer looking to my eye and the hard line of the color blocking seemed a little jarring to the soft feel of the fabrics. So I payed around with cutting out several of the flower motifs front the small leftover pieces that I had and I placed and pinned them in a couple places. Carefully putting the dress back on I used my mirror to refine the placement of the motifs. I then sewed them on by hand. There are 3 appliqués - one on left front shoulder, one on right upper back  and the last on the lower right side near the hem. I think these add just the right touch to soften the lines and add some lovely interest and fun.

The last top was the ‘Sloth’ top. Oh my this fabric is so soft and comfy and when I wear it I don’t want to take it off! This top is done specifically according to the pattern with just a change in the length. I shortened it 2 inches. To figure out the correct length to shorten, I put it on and lifted my arms and marked the spot where it touched the waist of my jeans. From this point I added a hem allowance and cut off the rest.

To me this top is most like a traditional sweatshirt and I really love it!

I had enough fabric left over to make something else. Since I really don’t need 2 sloth garments I decided to try out a new dress pattern for the Princess. Again, it was quite fun to play with the double sided fabric! She clearly likes her new dress as evidenced by the big smiles!!

Happy Sewing!!