I’m in the Featured section : )

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The Facts

Fabric: Sweaters from stash, bought 3 new for this project at $2 each
Pattern: My own but inspired by Katwise
Notions: 2 mondo brass hooks
Year: Contemporary
Time to complete: About 5 hours First worn: September 2012
Wear again? Yes, when the weather calms down.

Total Cost: $6

Do you ever have some weeks where you really have to think, think, think about the challenge? Where it takes SO MUCH THOUGHT to just come up with one idea? That was not this week : ) I had SO MUCH STUFF to pick from that I almost cursed the over-abundance of ideas. I was drawn back to Katwise for several reasons:

1) I still haven’t cleaned up my mess from the last project.

2) I am making a couple of these coats as presents for Ariel and Elora, my little twin friends. Ari is the one with cancer, Elora is the one that my daughter took photos of shaving her head at St. Baldrick’s this year that won her the photo prize at the Marin County Fair.  I am in full-on sweater mode and that makes me happy and there isn’t quite enough “happy” right now.

3) The last couple weeks the weather has been cool, especially in the mornings. I thought we were into fall. Ha!

So I started with the pile in my living room. I loved the greys I didn’t use in the last coat and was really wanting to do something with the grey cashmere that Stuart kitty fell in love with. I had a purple wool sweater that someone gave me because they had smeared something on it they couldn’t remove.

My gain : ) I also had a grey wool sweater that I got at the last swap that was beautiful except for these:

So far we’re up to free. I called to take Elora shopping last Monday, when all clothing at Salvation Army is $2. She had been grounded (!?!) for texting a boy too much so I had to go it alone. It’s tough being 14…

I found the lovely dark purple sweater along with another medium grey wool/silk blend and a cotton light grey. Just as I was throwing everything into the washing machine I spied a grey floral-printed  wool sweater that I had set aside from another swap, I was wanting to replace the buttons and cut it down to a cardigan but what the heck, it joined the party!

Then I cut strips. The toughest part for me is cutting into these guys, I don’t know why. I once did a project for a friend of mine who did very high end wall coverings for very wealthy clients in the City. He brought me a bolt of Fortuny fabric to cut into panels and stitch together and that stuff was $1,000.00 per meter. No, I didn’t put the comma or period in the wrong spots. One thousand dollars. A meter. And the bolt had 100 meters on it. It was worth more than my house.

I cut into IT just fine so I’m not sure what my problem was this week.

The inspiration piece (above) was a garment Kat made to auction off, a fellow artisan by the name of Chopstix died suddenly of a brain aneurysm and Kat was trying to help the family raise money to settle the estate. Had I felt wealthier I would have been tempted to bid on it, it sold for the price of a meter of Fortuny fabric.

Then I found this pic –

  In the end it really took about an hour to cut and sew the dress together, another couple to futz with the hood/cowel. I fussed over what band goes where more than I’d like to admit. I wanted the center purple band to define the waist and I’ll probably cut it off the dress, shorten the grey top and put it back on, I think its a little long.

I made a pretty cha-cha belt loosely based on an obi design. Of course I had this idea around 9pm Saturday night and I had set things up with my daughter to take pics first thing Sunday morning. For some reason I just didn’t want to pull out my sewing machine. Nothing is set up any more since puppies have the sewing room so hauling the thing out, finding the cords…ugh… I made the belt from a sleeve of each of the purple sweaters and just overlocked everything together. I didn’t mind hand stitching on the huge hooks I had in my drawer and was done around 9:45. I put everything on the mannequin, stood back and frowned. I didn’t care for the hood/capelet. I don’t know why. I played around briefly with another idea until the rational part of my brain said “This isn’t important, it looks fine. Go to bed.” I went.

Sunday morning we were all up early. As I was walking mama Chloe at 7 am my next door neighbor, who has not spoken to us in at least 9 years, opened her door and was passive/aggressive mean. Generally this kind of thing doesn’t throw me but I didn’t have my emotional Wonder Woman bracelets on. It was unexpected. Walking my other dog I just sat in front of the library downtown and cried. I came home and tried to put my make-up on. After my eyeliner washed down my face for the THIRD time I finally got it together and my daughter called “Are you going to be here soon? The fog is burning off”.

I pulled my outfit on, threw the rest of the makeup on, didn’t care about my hair and jammed. I wanted fog – big swirly cold blasts of it. Let me let you in on a little secret if you plan on visiting the Bay Area. Don’t come in the summer. Late September through mid-November is when weather in the City rocks. By 9am there not only wasn’t any fog but standing in the sun was H O T. Which means that by the time I’m typing this it is over 100 at home.

I’m a little warm, I’m a little unhappy. At least I stopped crying and my daughter did manage to tell a series of silly jokes that made me feel better.

But I’m afraid this is about as good as it got in the smile department. I really like the dress and in a few weeks it may be one of the best things in my wardrobe : )

These “benches” area actually HUGE trees that were cut down and left along Grizzly Peak. Someone cut out some seating for this view:

No fog : ) Well, there’s a little left at the coast but this, ladies, is Berkeley, the Bay Bridge and San Francisco, all at your feet. The ground drops off about 6 feet away from this bench/log, almost straight down into poison oak. My camera lens is nothing special so we couldn’t get a wide shot with the Golden Gate bridge but if it’s this clear it means it is WARM.

On our way home we decided to hit Bittersweet, a shop that practically guarantees you’ll feel better. Chocolate, they specialize in chocolate. Hot, cold, sticky, gooey, wonderful chocolate. Brittany discovered their Thai Iced Tea with chocolate, I indulged in a Coconut Chill. A little bit of heaven in a glass.

Happy girl : )

Can you believe we only have 12 challenges left?

 This was an odd week, a mixture of good and WTH. A little while back my friend Barbara Galla died. She was a local costumer who became a great friend and a second grandma to my daughter. She had a sizable collection that her daughter needs help with so I’m assisting in the “liquidation” of her estate. It will probably take us a year to go through everything and I was shocked and delighted to find some very special pieces I had built for a former employer in her stash! They’ll be coming home with me : )

I also spent some time with Ariel and took her twin sister, Elora, shopping for sweaters since I’m going to be making them Katwise coats! Ari is stage 4 and terminal in her cancer battle, I’m not sure how much time I have but it keeps me going when it’s over 100 degrees out and I’m tired.

All of that is good. Here’s the WTH part-

We live in a pretty nice little town. Our house was built in 1925, added onto a few years later and sits on half of the original land grant. The property was split in half in the 50’s and another house was built for the son of the family and his new wife. They had two kids, the grandparents died in 1971 and 72, the wife divorced the son and he tried to manage both properties. He died a few years later and the houses were sold, my landlords buying this one. They originally bought the property with the intention of tearing the little house down and building a 4-unit apartment complex. They never did anything, not even fix up the obvious flaws that made this one a steal to begin with. At some point the wiring was updated from peg-and-post to Romex but it can still be a little iffy : ) If I had the money I’d buy it in a heartbeat but I don’t.

The house next door was bought by a lesbian couple in the late 90’s. Both seemed nice, Carol had some “issues” and stayed at home while Sharon had the power job. A few years pass, when there was “something amiss” in the neighborhood you can bet Carol was at the forefront of NIMBY. Some of the causes were justified – the kids that lived across the street and sold drugs at weekly parties…not so good. The other neighbors twenty-something cousins that would house sit, bar-b-que and hot tub until the wee hours…just not the biggest deal.

Years ago my daughter adopted a little Cairin terrier, a toto dog. He was a yipper and rather unpleasant. He was old when she adopted him so we did our best until he died. If he was outside barking and Carol was in a “mood” I’d get an email. Not a phone call, an email. I tried to stay “neighborly” and encouraged her, via email, to use the PHONE if the issue was pressing, as everything in Carol’s life seems pressing. Never a phone call. The last email I exchanged with her was almost 10 years ago, when my husband moved in, to let her know the “new guy” in the neighborhood was “ok”. Since then I’ve seen Sharon around town a couple of times but that’s it.

In the intervening years my daughter became quite sick. At one point I was told to accept the fact that I’d probably bury my daughter. There were times we had to call an ambulance for assistance. There were times I was in tears in the backyard. Did we hear anything from them? No. (Is my daughter better now? Yes : ) But there are days that are a struggle)

We have dogs, chickens, cats, bunnies…heard nothing from them. I figure no news is good news. If she has an issue she can walk her behind 100 feet down the street and knock on the door. In 2008 my husband was diagnosed with cancer. He got sick fast and it was dreadful. There were people coming and going, the occasional ambulance or two and a LOT more crying on the phone in the back yard at night when I could have some privacy and talk. Nothing from next door. It was like they didn’t exist.

At one point we had a nurse, a speech therapist and a physical therapist coming to the house. Our neighbors across and up the street knew exactly what was going on because he would see me out walking the dog, or crying, and ask how I was. He told me if I ever needed help with Jim to just ask. Tears of gratitude because that’s how a decent human being acts. Our nurses and therapists got notes on their cars asking not to park in front of Carol’s house. So not cool…

This Sunday I had plans to do the Sew Weekly photos with my daughter first thing in the morning. We were going to drive up into the Berkely hills in search of fog so I got up at 6, started feeding the animals and walking the dogs. I took mama Chloe across the street, as is our custom, and then up. As we came down I hear Carol’s door open and she calls my name. “Do you have a puppy?” she asks. No hello, just the question. “Yes, we’re fostering a mom and her puppies”.

“I can hear whining and crying. Are they leaving soon?”

“Yes they are, I’ll close the window.”

And that’s it. Not terrible, not great but here’s my problem with her. NOTHING in almost 10 years but passive/aggressive notes to people helping us out. This from a couple that asked me to LIE to the Chinese government when they adopted their baby girl because if Chinese officials found out they were giving one of their kids to a lesbian couple they’d be denied and the child taken away.

You’d think you’d be nicer to the people you’d asked to commit a felony to a foreign government.

There are a lot of great people in my life. Many of my friends, when I told them this story, were appalled. I got all sorts of helpful “Say this” suggestions : ) There is also a group of people that were once in my life that I’ve found to be toxic, including a sizable set of relatives, that I have no contact with. Carol is in the latter group but she’s a little different in her tactics. She’ll find some way to escalate things because that’s how her illness manifests itself. My vet has told me not to worry, the animals are all in great shape so if animal services shows up I’ll have no problems. Carol might try to contact my landlords but since I don’t even have a phone number for them I’d be surprised and impressed if she does. I’m curious to see what she comes up with but can’t give her any more time in my head. What I’d really LIKE to see is her break her record of not speaking to us, see if we can go a full decade this time : )

We don’t walk up the street any more. I’m trying to think of the perfect 25-words-or-less thing to say to her should she crack her front door again. Nothing yet. Here, however, is the longer version:

“Carol – the dog you saw the other day? Her name is Chloe. She was stolen from her family three years ago and recently turned up at a high-kill shelter in Merced. She was probably stolen by dog fighters and bred continuously. She was a skeleton when found, she had given everything she had to her eight puppies. She was also going to be killed within a few days if a rescue didn’t step up. A rescue DID step up, but they needed a safe foster haven. I volunteered. We took 9 dogs into our home to love, protect and raise until the puppies were ready to go to their new foster homes in pairs. We’ll work with mom, getting her healthy and trained so that she’ll find a wonderful forever home.

Could you slide the needle into her leg and kill her? How about the eight puppies? Because that was the plan. Just kill them all, they’re taking up too much space. Is your heart that black?

So they’re here for a few weeks. Yes, they yip and tussle, they’re PUPPIES. Most people find their little noises inoffensive, maybe even cute. I’m sorry they make noise as I get on my bike to ride to BART at 6 am to go to work. It’s the best I can do. I don’t have the luxury of a partner with a good enough job so that I can stay home and marinate in my issues. Your moods have been known to control the entire neighborhood but I don’t play that game.

In the last 18 months I’ve saved 10 dogs, 2 rabbits and 2 chickens. In addition I’ve buried 1 dog, 1 chicken and 5 cats. The cats died after a rescue dumped leukemia-infected kittens on my property because THEY couldn’t do the right thing and they in turn infected MY cats. It took 10 years for us to catch every cat in the local feral cat colony and get them fixed, all paid for out of MY pocket. Several other neighbors offered to help with spay/neuter costs, where were you? Every cat that has died has had food, love and shelter. I held them as they died and told them they were wonderful and that I’d never forget them.

We both walk multiple dogs multiple times a day. Jim’s chemo brain is so significant it’s like a TBI. If he forgets something, like trimming the branches out by the stop sign, was it you who called the city to complain? Again, you could always knock on the door…

I hope you have a happy life. We all have karma. I wish you luck with yours.”

So far so good but Carol is like cancer. She’s in “remission” right now but we just never know what’s going to start her “growing” again. In the meantime, in an effort to find assistance and form a plan for “just in case” I’ve received the most amazing book. In the short term has changed my outlook and it may end up changing my life. I’ll share more in a bit : )

I made the Featured section, whoo hoo!!!

The Facts
Fabric: 2 1/2 yards cotton from Stone Mountain & Daughter
Pattern: Anne Adams 2327
Notions: Modern poly zipper, belting, bakelite buckle from stash, 4 buttons
Year: 1930’s
Time to complete: About 4 hours
First worn: September 2012
Wear again? Probably

Total Cost: ~ 12.00

I’m not even sure where to begin : )

For those of you who may not (yet/still) know I did a tablesetting blog last year. A friend and I have WAY too many vintage dish sets, tablecloths, etc. etc. etc. that we decided the ONLY way to do our collections justice was to bring everything out at least once, make a fabulous setting with it and document it. Last year we were at day eighty-four when we did Gatsby, I planned for WEEKS and cooked and sewed for days. I like what we pulled off and vowed to do better this year, possibly even taking home the small picnic set-up prize.

I don’t know about you but I’m a theme girl. I LOVE themes. So when Angie and I started talking about going to Gatsby, in a moment of sheer brilliance, she said “Why not do an election year since this is an election year?” Perfect! We chose 1936 because of the similarities to the financial and political climate today. It also meant we could dress in cotton or rayon, be comfy and still be fabulous.

Once we had the election theme the rest was as simple as walking around my house and yard, pulling cheerful, vintage red, white and blue items. We hit Stone Mountain a couple of weeks ago and the only reason I mentioned the amount of yardage I bought was I got the end of the bolt. I LOVE this print and thought it perfect for our patriotic theme. Both Angie and I wanted a rayon print but there are very few of them at any fabric store so we settled on nice cottons. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do one of the lovely flowing hem dresses but since we were channeling simple women surviving the depression it would work out.

In between menu planning, props pulling and playing with puppies we sewed. More accurately, I cut my dress out, Angie sewed. We spent the entire day Saturday getting things together, making Mock Apple Pie, Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Motor Loaves. I thought we’d be done with everything, dresses included, by 6 or 7. I think Angie packed up at 10.

I used my Anne Adams pattern for the top, I certainly didn’t have enough to do the lovely inset panels on the skirt with pleats so I used Vogue 8812 from my Vacation dress. Once again, and I knew this ahead of time, I frankensteined the back pieces. Joy of joys, I put the top on for a preliminary fitting about 7:00 Saturday night and Angie says “It doesn’t meet”. What do you mean it doesn’t meet?? “It’s about 4″ too small across the back”. Oh no… I had a handful of scraps left and was able to get enough to fix the upper back, I had somehow cut the lower back pieces just fine but had a brain fart while cutting the upper pieces. Two hours and a lot of sweat later we were putting hems in. Oh, and I threw a long zipper up the center back of this sucker since I loath side zippers and struggling to get in and out of my clothing. From the moans and groans from the other women in the restroom I’m glad I did.

The next morning I was up at 4 am. Not because I set an alarm but I couldn’t sleep. My neighbors, who already suspect I’m the local crazy cat/dog/chicken lady, didn’t seem to be upset that I’m moving furniture and boxes and walking a dog in my robe at 5am : ) We got the car loaded by 9:30, got in line for early admission and then spent a frantic hour and a half unloading and setting up our “picnic site”. I knew from last year the judges came around before the gates open at 1, and it really helps to be set up AND dressed BEFORE they see you. I think we had 5 minutes to spare. I had also managed to work up a sweat so my hair was dripping wet and half my makeup was already in my cleavage BUT just as we’re trying to figure out the instructions for judging the fabulous Mena shows up, followed by one of the judges!

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I was asked about our set-up, the theme, what was vintage (umm….all of it!), what our food choices were and why (I’ll put more details on both my blogs – loransworld and retrodecosettings), why we chose out outfits, what was the book in my hand? (a Judy Bolton that had my cell phone hiding in its pages) and how many times we had done the Gatsby picnic (this was my second time). She kept saying how much she liked everything, that we were very much in the running, they had a photographer taking lots of pictures, it was all quite exciting. Later she brought by the other judge who didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic but we were hopeful.

In the meantime we ate, we people watched and we were treated to a medley of ukelele hits by Joe, Mena’s guy : ) When Angie shouted out “Play Stairway to Heaven…Freebird!” He DID. On a ukelele. Amazing. We tried to convince him to make his own youtube channel playing the ukelele. You never know….

Aren’t they adorable?!

One of the best things about Gatsby are the cars. This is me and Angie. I wore the same hat I had for the July Fourth challenge because it has cherries on it. My one regret of the dress and this pattern is that its NOT a rayon, the sleeves are a little stiff, I look like I have wings. But once my hair dried I was good for the day : ) Last year I wore a silk chiffon dress, garter belt and stockings and satin shoes and I was dripping all day. I also had a broken foot so I limped beautifully. I figured this year was a major win with nothing broken, although I have a bruise on my leg that is going to be very pretty in a few days…

And we didn’t win : (

Ah well…we couldn’t find the winners so we have to wait to see if we recognize photos on the Gatsby website. And wouldn’t you know it? I didn’t get that many pictures of the set-up! Mena actually has the best one of the table before we ate so I thank Joe for his attentiveness to his surroundings : )

Angie in her gorgeous dress complete with bakelite pin and bracelets.

And me : )

If you look at Mena’s first picture you can see my blue bike in the background. Yes, I brought my bike that I rode in the July Fourth challenge to ride around the grounds : ) It was a lot of fun hanging with Mena and Joe. I was so tired when I finally got home and unpacked that I vowed never to do this again. Give me some time to rest, you never know….

The lovely Mena of the Sew Weekly

Our gorgeous table with the Motor loaves showing under the napkin

What you see here is a Mock Apple pie and our Motor loaves. The Mock Apple pie is a “back of the box” recipe made with Ritz crackers. There isn’t a SINGLE apple in it which is ironic since Sue’s apple trees are practically throwing their ripe apples at us a la “The Wizard of Oz”. What we “think” of when it comes to apple pie is a texture and some cinnamon. The crackers mimic the texture of the apples while a simple syrup with lemon juice and lemon peel give it some tang. Sprinkled with cinnamon you can’t tell the difference! I taste tested this not only on a group of teenagers but at one of our Bob White parties one year. It tends to freak people out just a little…

The Motor loaves were something I had at a Tea room last year. They originated in England when cars became the fashionable thing to play in and there were still servants in kitchens. OK, I’m not sure about the servants thing but I CAN say that these little gems are tasty and take a fairly concentrated effort to produce. Essentially you bake a small loaf of bread, cut the center out leaving the outside 1″ as a “frame” and then cut the middle into slices. You make tiny little sandwiches with the slices (I made an egg salad, a lox, and two ham sandwiches with each loaf) and then wrap each individual sandwich in parchment paper! See what I mean about work!! You then put the wrapped sandwiches BACK INTO the “frame”, wrap and trasport. I think the ones I made last year photographed better. It might be because I didn’t take many pictures this year : )

You can see my last years post here.

Last year, while getting dressed, we met an amazing lady. She had just been diagnosed with metastatic cancer in her bones and her boyfriend of many years had left her. She was in good spirits, upbeat and happy and willing to take on whatever life threw her way. She was there this year!! I didn’t get to talk to her, she was always busy chatting and catching up with people, but the same wonderful smile was there and she looked good. I’ve thought about her often in the last year,  I hope she’s doing as well on the inside as she looks on the out.

Look who made the top 5 featured!

This weeks challenge at Sew Weekly was to do something using inspiration from a book or story we read as a child. Below is the post I did, along with construction details and a couple extra pics at the end : )

The Facts

Fabric: A whole pile of sweaters from Salvation Army
Pattern: Katwise coat pattern
Year: Current
Notions: Not a one!
Time to complete:  11 hours?
First worn: August 2012
Wear again? Yes !!!
Total Cost: Pattern $9.00 Sweaters – didn’t keep track. Around 14 sweaters, a couple were free, some were $3 each, some less…best guess would be around $30.00 or so.

Originally I didn’t even consider the Prydain series by Llyod Alexander although that was one of THE most influential sets of books I read as a kid. A close family friend was very into kids books so I had a steady supply of the best of the best. I was a voracious reader, I’d read anything in front of me even at an early age I remember reading Life magazine and the newspaper just because they were there…doesn’t mean I always understood what I read but I read : ) And if it had won a Caldecott or Newberry award we owned it thanks to Jerry. There were LOTS of books that I remember, most of which I still own like “Harriet the Spy”, “Are you there God? It’s me Margaret”, “Caddie Woodlawn”, most everything by Roald Dahl and the Oz books (my dad owns ALL 80 some-odd of them!). Of course there was also my beloved Judy Bolton mystery series but I already channeled her in the button challenge.

So what to choose? Harriet and Margaret wore red hoodies and jeans and t-shirts respectively. Blah. I briefly considered making a Professor Diggins outfit from “Professor Diggins Dragons” but that was striped pants and a blue suit coat and that seemed only slightly more exciting than a red hoodie. I kept coming back to the works by Lloyd Alexander – he not only wrote the Prydain series but also “The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian” and was a regular contributor to the children’s periodical “Cricket”. I immersed myself in his written world of the land of Prydain (most likely Wales) in the Dark Ages. Gwydion, Taran, Fflewddur Fflam, Gurgi and Princess Eilonwy became my second family. Keep in mind that this was 1969, YEARS before Harry Potter, this was my equivalent. I wanted to be like Eilonwy and at one point I convinced my mother to make me a “princess dress” (in pink and white since princesses wear pink…right? What princess, in her right mind, who tromps about the kingdom fighting evil wears PINK??) but she was HORRIFIED at my desire for a pair of “waffle stompers” to complete the outfit (hiking boots!). She MADE me wear patent leather shoes and as far as I know ONE picture exists of me in my outfit, on a slide that is in a box somewhere in a closet and if I have any say in the matter it will never ever see the light of day again…ever…

So what would my 10-year-old self LOVED to have worn back then? I may be a girl but I’m a fairly tough girl so I’d want something pretty but ultra cool and not fussy. At a small get-together at Sue’s a couple months ago Barbara said to me “Have you heard of Katwise?” No….. “Oh, you should check her etsy store out. She does really cool stuff with old sweaters”. So I came home, typed in “Katwise” and as the images scrolled across my screen I fell in love : ) I decided to buy her “pattern” just because she is SO COOL and I wanted to see how she works her particular form of magic. Her “pattern” is a 71 page document that made me smile from one end to the other. When she puts items up for sale on her etsy store, about once a month, the 50 or so items sell out in 12 minutes. THIS is what my younger self would have DROOOLED over because my older self is smiling from ear to ear : )

And that’s what I did. I made an Elf Coat.

I’ve tried to make note of how long each step took in case anyone else wants to try this. It took me about 40 minutes to find the sweaters, I may have lucked out, and then I spent the next 4 hours washing and drying everything! When Kat says she strongly recommends using wool she’s not kidding. She says things like cashmere can be fine, cotton isn’t bad, silk maybe and never, never EVER use Acrylic. LISTEN to the woman for she is wise : )

Most of my sweaters are wool. There are a few cashmere and a couple cotton thrown in because I liked the stripes or the color (red). All are prewashed and thrown into the dryer for two reasons. First, washing and drying felt the wool, which makes it nicely stuck together. Second, unless you’re single and living alone, at some point someone else may grab your clothing to wash trying to be “helpful” so you might as well shrink that crap out of everything now. I washed everything together and it all came out GREAT! The base of the coat, the “top”, is a felted Merino wool sweater with a designer label. I cut up Ralph Lauren sweaters, Banana Republic, Valentino, Dana Buchman, Calvin Klein…

Everything was overlocked together, no machine sewing at all! The skirt panels are made from the sleeves, the bottom bands took 2 sweaters each for the black and grey and one enormous men’s sweater for the red band. There are 31 skirt panels, because I followed her instructions to the letter! Next time I make one of these, and there WILL be a next time, I’ll cut that down to about 25 or so.

And I have a pixie hood : )

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It’s a *little* longer than I originally planned because I decided I liked that long striped panel. I REALLY wanted to make some Kazz pompoms, one for the bottom of the hood and another few to do a headpiece but I had no yarn of the right color : (

It took about 2 hours to cut everything out and another 2 hours to overlock the skirt pieces together. I giggled the whole time. The top took a whopping 10 minutes to cut and add the striped button panel. At the time I thought I was being clever but it’s really one of the few elements I’m not crazy about. It looks like some yuppie sweater trying to escape. Meh. In the future I’ll do a couple things different with the waistband that the skirt attaches to. First, I’ll underline it in canvas. It’s carrying a lot of weight and needs reinforcement. Second, I’ll make it smaller, and not add as many panels to the skirt to cut down on the weight. Third, I’ll add ties to the back so I can cinch it in. It “grew” to be about 6″ too big. And the red cashmere sweater that I so carefully saved to be the base of a red/orange sun coat? I’ll use it for skirt panels. It just wont be strong enough to hold the skirt. I also want pockets. I’m going to add a pixie pocket this week but next time I’ll insert pockets in the skirt as I sew the panels together.

The skirt does swirl well –

I really wanted to put together a gif with showing the swirls but didn’t have time. My daughter did do a short instagram video that, when she’s back from canoeing, I’ll see if I can post on my blog. As long as I don’t look like a dork I’m happy to share.

We took a little trip into the Berkeley hills for the photos this week. I wanted foggy/woodsy/magic and we got it, although my daughter had a brush with poison oak a few weeks ago so anytime we saw it she’d jump back like it was a striking snake : ) The misty quality to this pic is real fog –

Some of the flora around this log is poison oak, the really pretty red leaves : ) My daughter was horrified I went down there but gamely took pics! I just wanted to play in the trees…

I found a better tree to climb. And you’ll notice that I’m once again wearing the red and black patent leather Doc Martins. I finally got my boots : )

Now I can be Princess Eilonwy with my kick-butt cape/jacket. Here is one of my prized possessions:

Jerry got my copy of “The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian” autographed by the King himself : )

IF I took out the “cat factor” I could have cut several hours from this project time!

STUART decided that what I was doing was THE MOST FASCINATING THING EVER.

This is him sitting on the pattern as I’m trying to cut the skirt panels out.

And here he is sleeping in the box of sweater I didn’t use that will be stored.

And this is him curled up with his favorite grey cashmere sweater! I ended up unable to use that sweater in the coat since he WOULDN’T MOVE! I figured he could sleep on it an hour or so, that he’d eventually wake up and wander off but no…he slept on that thing for SIX hours! Why didn’t I move him? Does the phrase “Let sleeping cats lie” ring a bell?

No? Move a sleeping cat, a cranky sleeping cat. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

How’d that work for you?

It was easier to let him sleep : ) I don’t think the coat suffered for it and I ‘ve got a grey cashmere sweater for another project!

When you’re hiking around the hills like we were you are bound to see some native fauna. This slug was about 8″ long and spotted like a leopard. I’m not a big fan of slugs but this one was kinda cool.

The Gatsby picnic is coming up! Plans are being made for one fabulous day : ) Next up is the Back to School Plaid challenge and I’ve got one cute pic for inspiration.