Did The Groundhog See His Shadow?

Happy Imbolc, Candlemas, Groundhog Day or whatever you celebrate on this cross-quarter day of the Wheel of the Year! We don’t actually have groundhogs around here but I did smell skunk last night. Wonder if that counts? It’s nice today but not as brightly sunny as it was yesterday. Yesterday was so gorgeously brilliant and relatively warm. We put on our sunglasses and walked up to my LYS where I picked up the free replacement 5mm tips for my broken Addi Lace Cliks. I love a company that stands by their (expensive) product and a big shout out to Francesca at Three Bags Full for facilitating! Now we’re back in business again. And I got to keep the unbroken tip so I have a spare.

Next we have a Finished Object. Yay!

Sweat Skirt

For: me

Completed: January 2012

Fabric: Remnant of cotton sweatshirt fabric left from last year’s Green Tunic, 60” wide by 24” long, olive green.

Notions: 1” waistband elastic; sewing and serger thread, green.

Pattern: Self-drafted straight skirt with partial elastic waist. Patch pockets pattern from Lekala 5089 which was my inspiration for this skirt. I left off the back seam and used elastic instead of a waist tie.

Comments: I’m very happy that I was able to get this skirt out of such a small piece of fabric. Now it’s all used up! The pockets gap a little even though I used stay-tape on the opening edge. Likely this is due to the gathers from the elastic that ends at the inner pocket edges but I don’t think it’s really a problem. I always wear my tops outside which covers a lot of sins. The skirt fits well and is very comfortable and casual. I hope it gets lots of rotation in my wardrobe. You can’t tell on Debbie Double but it hits a little above my knee.

Then backing up a little, on Tuesday I went to Dressew. Danger, Will Robinson! I wanted to see what they had for bra-making supplies. Well, good and not-so-good. They have pretty much everything you need – except that nothing matches:

Channelling in only one colour (magenta!), the right elastics in many colours but not a single set of matching ones, bra hooks (black or white), rings and sliders (black, white, clear plastic), and even underwires (which I hope to avoid using). I even lucked into a quite large remnant of white powernet, enough to make many bras. I was really happy to find out that yes, it will take acid dyes as will the white hooks because they are nylon and lycra:

Works too well actually! I meant to get a much lighter violet but I think I went a bit overboard on the amount of dye and got brilliant blue. Also, notice that I take the dye well too:

Hole-in-the-glove syndrome. Ooops. Even after doing the dishes, a shower, hand washing etc. the nail is still blue. Next I need to test dyeing the elastics. If they also dye well then I can get ugly colours and make them coordinate better in the dyebath. Now I just have to make my first Franken-bra! I’m not cutting into the good stuff yet.

Of course I couldn’t just waltz in and out of Dressew without tripping over more fabrics. Besides the powernet, I found these:

At the bottom-left is 2 metres of Italian viscose/nylon in black with a shiny silver-sprinkled face and above it a length of nice woven crepe in a dark brown unknown fibre (probably poly). These were also remnants and very cheap. On the top-left is some fabulous copper/black crinkle that was totally an impulse purchase. It goes with the crepe nicely. I see this lot as a slip in the black, a brown bubble skirt lined in the remaining black and a buttoned crinkle shirt. The other pile on the right is .5 metre of red quilting fabric to make bias binding for an apron, red cotton double-knit destined for a t-shirt and charcoal terry-lined sweatshirt fabric for a new dressing gown.

The latter one was the only fabric I actually had planned to buy. You see, I saved this pattern from 1988:

Yes, that is a size Small. Originally I made this version of the long cuddly cowl-neck sweatshirt (like the one in yellow on the pattern envelope):

Yup. I made it wayyyy back when the pattern was new. Amazingly it still fits. Not So Small! Hmmm…why do you think I might want to finally replace it? I mean, it’s totally pilled and threadbare and sports many claw pulls from dear cats who are no longer with us. It’s been a mere 24 years as my only dressing gown. Yikes! About time for a new one, yes?

Anyway, I decided that the fuzzy side of the new fabric should go on the outside. I think it’s much cosier when my hands can feel it and the smooth side is actually softer in contact with my body. I also unearthed some black cotton/lycra ribbing from the stash for the collar and cuffs. It’s all cut out already and I’ve started sewing it together. The old garment is heading for the trash, poor thing. It’s had its day.

I’m so enjoying all this wardrobe replacing and refashioning. Makes me super-happy to have nice things to wear. Even if I can’t stop buying more fabric. Please remind me that I have enough to last me for at least the coming year of sewing? I’m going to try not to buy any more and to work from the stash. The only legal sewing purchases will be notions (zippers, thread, bra hooks, elastic) for the rest of 2012. And that’s only if I don’t have what I need already lurking about. I promise. I hope. Urp!