Multi-tasking in the Craft Lounge

After pie baking, turkey trotting, eating lots of stuffing and battling a cold, I did find some time for sewing over the weekend. I have several projects going at the same time, and the Craft Lounge is a total disaster area. See...


After pinning and basting my 3 Graces shirt in a number of ways to try to make it fit right, I have decided to temporarily shelve it until I am not so peeved that I want to crumple it up and throw it in the trash. Really, I have spent way too much time on this project. I may give up on the sleeves and just finish it as a sleeveless top. I also retraced the pattern, scaling it back by 2 sizes and will probably attempt it again on some cheapo jersey as a test.

After my disappointment with the purple top, I decided to truly flirt with disaster by working on another Hot Patterns um.... pattern. I cut the lining for my pencil skirt. I know, I know, I should do a muslin first. But I just don't have enough hours in the day to make a muslin for every garment. So, I held my breath and cut the lining, which was not terribly expensive. We will call it a muslin. Lucky for me, it looks like it will fit with just minor adjustments (taken in at waist and let out slightly at hips). So, my gamble is paying off. I plan to transfer my alterations to the pattern so that when I cut the fabric, it will be perfect.

Finally, I am powering thru diaper bag #3 for Mar Mar. And it is a good thing, since Baby Abigail arrived a week early on Friday. Congrats to MarMar, Jay and the Big Brother. Um, my gift will arrive as soon as it has a lining and strap. Right now it is just an outside of a bag. And pockets. By this time, you know that diaper bags seem to be an exercise in pocket making.

Oh! And one more thing. I have finished disassembling Phineas' beloved pajamas. Let me tell you what a pain it is to undo flat-felled seams. For the non-sewists, that is the typical blue jeans seam - with 2 visible lines of stitching on the outside, which I am now going to have to learn how to do.



I plan on using the disassembled pj pieces as the pattern for cutting the new pj's since Phin wants his pajamas to be exactly the same as the old ones. These pj's were bought at the GAP about 10 years ago. I have to admit: I'm really rather impressed with their quality. They really held up over time. And once I got a look at the inside, they really were rather well made. I don't think GAP makes such nice clothing anymore.

Anyway, I've got lots going on as you can see, and tomorrow I will talk a bit about my next adventure in the test kitchen.

All Hail the Snail!

39 or so minutes (unofficial time)
Running the whole way
Happy Thanksgiving!

Hmmm, maybe I won't be wearing this on Thanksgiving...

I basted my purple cowl neck 3 Graces top together last night. I had optimistically been thinking that I would wear it on Thanksgiving.

Yes, you will have to make do with a picture of the top on a hanger
rather than looking horrible on me.

That may have been premature. Once I finished basting, I tried the top on: too big. Shapeless. Baggy. Well, it did fit at the hip, but not anywhere else. I had cut a size 12 based on both my bust and underbust measurements.

I usually end up having to taper my tops at the waist. It's my normal adjustment to both the things I sew and to RTW. However, this top is too big at the shoulders, and I'm not yet sure how to fix it.

I think I will have to do some investigating at PatternReview.com and elsewhere to see if others had this problem and what they did about it. Hopefully, in between pie baking tomorrow, I will find some time to work on it.

Thank goodness it is only basted together!

Sequined Craft Lounge

On Saturday, Dr Kiang and I invaded Magenta's Sequined Studio for our day of crafting. Magenta and Dr K both have a lot of creative energy.

My pursuits - drafting a pattern for Magenta's summer pants and ripping out the seams of Phineas' favorite (but falling apart) pajamas - were very rote by comparison.

A forest of wooden beads being spray painted.

With the addition of some silver and gold spray paint, Magenta turned some colored wooden beads into a fabulous metallic necklace.


You can still see the original color inside the hole in each bead - tres cool! Magenta also once again proved that she can no longer claim to have no kitchen skills. The monkey bread she made for Dr K's birthday dinner was delicious!

Proof that Magenta can bake.
(Note the empty incriminating champagne bottle on the counter.)

Here's the birthday girl:

(Note the new necklace she made for herself.)

Once Dr K gets on a roll with making necklaces, she really goes at it. She ended up making 4 necklace - 3 gifts and the one for herself.

Top row: the 2 necklaces Magenta made.
Bottom: the 4 necklaces that Dr K made.

I'm always a bit lacking in the photography department, and somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of Magenta knitting up a storm, or any pictures of my projects. Oh well. I'll post about those projects at later stages.

Thanks for an excellent day, ladies!

Friday Muse-ings

So right now, Dr Kiang is en route to Magenta's for the weekend. I will be joining them tomorrow for a "pre-holiday jewelry making party with a box of stuff we have 'hanging around' our drawers and craft rooms". We'll also be celebrating Dr K's birthday.

Magenta has big plans for her jewelry making and Dr K is just going to see what inspiration hits her. I, on the other hand, won't actually be making jewelry, since that is more their thing than mine. Instead, I'll be working on a pattern for M's perfect summer pants, which she has been incredibly patient about.

I hope you have great weekend plans too!

Drapey Top for a Muse

Muse-like, no?

I spent an hour last night working on my 3 Graces top. This is the first knit project that I've done on my wonderful new sewing machine. It took a bit of playing around to decide on the stitch type/length/tension before I was ready to sew.

Also, I had to interface the neckband facing. I recently bought interfacings from Fashion Sewing Supply after they had received praise in the sewing blogosphere. Their pro-knit interfacing is definitely better quality than what I'd been using- I guess you get what you pay for. It went on easy and stabilized without compromising the stretchiness of the bamboo jersey.


Ready to sew, I finally took a look at the directions. Hmmm... Hot Patterns instructions are what I would tactfully call "minimalist". Even the diagrams are rather spare. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure I would have done the neck/shoulders correctly on the first try if I had not watched the series of Youtube videos on the construction of the top.

I'm not saying that the construction was difficult. It wasn't. Really, the directions and accompanying illustrations just aren't very specific. That said, I'm really pleased with how the top is turning out. I've only completed the neck and shoulder seams, but the draping looks really good. This may be overly optimistic, but I am hoping to squeeze in a little sewing tonight, after a run. Wish me luck on both.

Freeeeeeeeezer Funnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!

Phineas here. As you may or may not know, I will freeze anything! Chocolate, taters, pies, dumplings, you name it and I 've frozen, defrosted and eaten it . When you don't want to cook, it's nice to just reach in the freezer and have a yummy meal in minutes. So the latest version of freezer-to-table cooking involved some short ribs that I braised a few weeks ago but, because of our schedules, never managed to eat. Into the freezer it went! Wanting something different than the usual short ribs with mash (we just had our pre-Turkey Day turkey the night before), I decided to make some quick short rib ravioli.

First, I made fresh pasta dough and rolled it out into sheets for the ravioli. (I know this is not exactly fast, but wonton sheets from the supermarket will also do just fine.)


While resting the dough, I shredded and reheated the short ribs, reducing it in its sauce until it became the consistency of sticky Sloppy Joes (hmmm... now there's an idea!). Next up, fill the wonton/ravioli and cut to size. No directions here, but you can make them as big or as small as you like. Let them hang out while you boil some agua and make a quick sauce.


Tonight's sauce was sauteed garlic, shallot and mushrooms tossed with butter and roasted grape tomatoes (1. cut up a container of tomatoes, add some chopped garlic - season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a healthy dose of oil/your choice 2. place in a 300 or so degree oven or toaster oven 3. stir every so often until it becomes a sticky reduced chutney-like substance 4. use in recipe or put on sandwiches instead of yucky out of season tomatoes or mayo, which is super-yucky in Clio's opinion).


Cook the ravioli, toss in pan with sauce and voila dinner is served!


P.S. Easier version (assuming you have cooked short ribs around) : Cook up sauce. Add reduced and shredded short ribs. Got a bag or frozen peas? Toss a handful of those in to heat through. Dress your favorite fresh or dried pasta (papparadelle would work great) or frozen cheese ravioli. Shower with parmesan or pecorino cheese and eat!