Saturday, July 23, 2011

July Miscellany

I hope everyone is staying cool! Reading various blogs gives me a lot of sympathy for the sufferings of many of you in the extreme heat.

I have been working on finishing a jacket I started last weekend. It's a Style Arc jacket. It's the first upper body garment I've made from their pattern line and I think I may have bought the wrong size, based on the alterations. (I still haven't decided yet.) I was hoping to finish it today, but I spent the entire day working on the elastic casing (it required much tweaking to get it in the right location for my figure) and the hem. Lots of fiddly work.

The torso is completed now and I only need to cut out and sew the sleeves. But then I realized just a few minutes ago that I hadn't cut the hood out either - I wasn't sure at first I wanted a hood. So, given that all I have to do tomorrow is the hood and sleeves, I should have no problem finishing, right? Believe me, this has required a lot of discipline as I have been suffering from sewing ADD and many other projects beckon that are more fun than finishing up a jacket with lots of handwork. But I am determined.

I may not blog it until Monday, though, depending on whether I can get photos taken.

My kids are in Europe, so I really have no excuse. Yeah, poor babies, they started in Lake Como where my grandfather was born, and are now in Paris. They leave in the next few days for London. I received an excited email a few days ago because they met Queen Latifah at the hotel where she (and they) are staying. (Queen Latifah is one of DD1's favorite actresses.) She was very gracious about speaking with them, posing for photos, etc.

Anyway, I am definitely in "bachelorette" mode at the moment. ;)

I don't have too much to report, though I was enabled by one of my blog readers, Andrea, who had just ordered a handmade tailors ham and seam roll from Etsy. I haven't had a seam roll since I lost the one my mother made and used for years (I vaguely recall it falling apart), and my ham is rather dull and boring, so I bought a set also. They arrived in just a couple days and were beautifully wrapped. Here's the picture from her Etsy shop.

They are so cute, and so well made, but they are rather small. Perfect for daintily-sized sewists or folks who sew for kids, but I have never found myself thinking, "gee, I wish my ham were smaller," especially not when pressing my ginormous bust darts. So if you do order from StitchNerd, I would suggest you order her custom ham which comes in a larger size. They are cute and well made. Plus, she threw in a free piece of tailor's chalk. :)

Oh, one little request. If you are in the Bay Area and use Facebook, please look up the "Artistry in Fashion" group on Facebook and "like" it. If they get 100 "likes" by August first, they will do a random drawing for a free entrance. The event is on Sept 24th this year and it's something I look forward to all year!