Craft Lounge/Guest Room

hi·a·tus
Pronunciation: \hī-ˈā-təs\

Function: noun

Etymology: Latin, from hiare to yawn — more at yawn

Date: 1563

1 a : interruption in time or continuity : break; especially : a period when something (as a program or activity) is suspended or interrupted

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For the next two weeks, the Craft Lounge will be serving it's original function - guest room - while Phineas' brother and SIL visit with the youngest member of the family, their 6-month old daughter. I packed up my Sewing Machine to make room for them and the baby.

Needless to say, I am feeling a bit on edge at not being able to get any sewing done. Don't get me wrong, I will be doing a lot of pattern prep, cutting and other sewing-related tasks. My intent is to hit the ground running, with lots of projects ready to go, once I can get back into the Lounge. But it will be a very very quiet two weeks without the hum of my sewing machine.

On the up side, I will be able to focus on my other interests. I haven't been spending much time on new projects in the kitchen lately. But with company in the house, there will be ample opportunity to flex my cooking skills. Plus, there will be extra people to help eat up all the things that I want to make.

And Here's the Haul

I bought three gorgeous pieces of silk during my hookie day on Wednesday. I really love natural fibers and silk is probably my favorite fabric (period). It's warm in the winter, breathes in the summer and feels lovely on. What could be better than silk?

Left: turquoise silk chiffon from Mood; Center: silver/grey silk from Mood (the color photographed poorly); Right: blue and white silk chiffon from Elliott Berman

At least one of these is destined to become New Look 6915, which I bought about a week ago. I think this will make a great top for work.


Depending on how the New Look pattern sews up, I will either make multiple copies OR the remaining silk will eventually become lingerie, once I get that project underway.

Muses take Manhattan (Brooklyn, too)

Erato and I had a great day on Wednesday! Here is the round up of our adventure...

Muse on the loose!

9am - Coffee in Prospect Heights - We started the day in Prospect Heights Brooklyn, sitting on a patio drinking iced coffee and watching people rush by on their way to work. Is there really a better way to start off a hookie day than that? I think not.

10am - American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection
If you love beautiful clothing or want some vintage inspiration for your own sewing endeavors, this exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum is excellent. Here are a few highlights:

Do you ever get the impression that your body was designed for the silhouette of another era? This gorgeous dress, with its exaggerated hips, called to me.

Apparently, Paris Hilton was not the first affluent woman to spoil her pooch.

Erato loved the back of this Charles James number.

Given my recent interest in lingerie, I was immensely drawn to the lace treatment on Charles James iconic clover dress. Stunning.

Erato is the original Carrie Bradshaw when it comes to shoes. She just confessed to me that she has run out of places to store her ever-growing collection. She loved the heel of these.

The most stunning works in the exhibit, IMHO, were the architectural masterpieces by Charles James. One thing I noticed, however, is that there is very little new in fashion - or maybe it is more like "everything old is new again". Particularly, I was struck by the exposed zippers on some of the circa 1935 Elsa Schiaparelli dresses (popular in the last 12-18 months), animal prints from the 1950's, and overall, how sexually provocative some of the dresses were (here and here) during eras that I think of as more staid and buttoned-up (1930's and 1950's). I know that every generation thinks that they are the first to discover sex, but I am still having a hard time picturing my grandma wearing something like these.

1pm - Lunch at Perry Street
After our museum trip, we headed to Manhattan for lunch at Perry Street. If you love to eat great food, but hate the prices at NY's top restaurants, I cannot recommend Jean Georges' empire highly enough. JG is a premiere NYC chef, with some of the best restaurants in the city. So what does he do? He offers a $26 pre-fixe lunch menu at most of his places (Perry Street, Spice Market, Nougatine at Jean George,...). Is that a lot for lunch? Yes. Is it a lot for one of NY's best? Not by a long shot. We were served a strawberry gazpacho as an amuse bouche. I followed it with sweet chili crab dumplings (delicate and divine) and then the best fried chicken (with spicy pea puree and pickled onion) that I have ever eaten, finishing with a molten chocolate cake. Erato had crispy poached eggs with vodka creme and caviar, followed by a tuna burger and ending with strawberry rhubarb cheese cake. Not bad for $26 each, ehh?


3pm - A stroll along The High Line
We left the restaurant feeling fat and happy, and so decided to walk uptown to the Garment District. If you have not yet gone for a stroll on the High Line Park, I also highly recommend it.

And, here is a fashion-y fact for you: Diane von Furstenberg was one of the driving forces and funders of the project. The park passes right by her office, which you can see with it's "DVF" printed on the side of the building.

End of the High Line. It sure was hot yesterday!

4pm - Fabric shopping
We spent so much time doing other things, and so only left ourselves 2 hours for fabric! But we hit paydirt at Mood and Elliott Berman. I will post about our haul on Monday.

6-9pm - Winding Down and Wrapping Up
We were feeling pretty wiped out by our day at this point, so we ducked into Stitch bar for a pick-me-up. After that we walked downtown to Schaffer City Oyster Bar, a NY institution, for some oysters (Erato) , clam chower (me), a bit of wine and to chat about our day. The one thing we absolutely agreed on was that we will definitely be doing this again in the fall!

11pm - Coma Sets In
After trekking home and showing Phineas my fabulous purchases, I collapsed into bed a very very happy and exhausted sewist. What a great day!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hump Day Hookie!

There is something really decadent about taking a day off in the middle of the week. Today, Erato and I are fabric shopping, museum-ing, and pretending that we are "ladies who lunch", like we did one day in the fall. So, if you happen to be rambling around NY's garment district, we will be the loud chatty ones with large shopping bags (we hope) looking like we are playing hookie.

Thanks to a work event on Friday, plans with friends on Saturday and Father's day family commitments on Sunday, I had little time to sew. All that I accomplished was finishing alterations on 2 additional pairs of pants (4 down, 2 to go - woo hoo!) and one cami.

Refurbished and ready to be back in rotation

This weekend, I will be less busy and am planning to transfer the last bit of changes from my pants muslin back to the pattern and then get to work on pants. Here's the fabric I've picked for my first pair.


It's black with a black pinstripe (purchased at MetroTextiles), which may be counter-intuitive for summer. BUT it is cotton and feels lovely. I prefer natural fabrics in the summer. And since my pants comfort zone happens to be black, that is what I am going with for this pair. Next up will be non-black pants, I swear.

More on my sewing outing tomorrow or Friday! Happy Hump Day!

Hiccoughs and Glytches

My second book on sewing lingerie arrived from Half.com, essentially Ebay's bookstore where you can buy new and used books, CD's and DVD's at lower prices. I've always had good luck with Half, but not this time. When the book arrived, it was in the used condition I was expecting. However, the master patterns were nowhere to be found!


I contacted the seller, who was happy to accept the return. But this leaves me feeling rather conflicted. First, is it worth the hassle to schlep to the post office and then pay to ship back a book that only cost me $10? But more important, I'm wondering if the bookseller will re-sell this book without the patterns to some other sewist? The description did not state that the patterns were missing when I purchased it, and all but the first 25 pages are specific to the master patterns.

While trying to decide what to do, I browsed through the book and have decided that I prefer the Singer book, anyway. Both have similar construction tips, but the Singer book has more info and better pictures/line drawings of the techniques, at least to my eye. So, I will not repurchase the Kwik Sew book. This leaves me with an additional issue, although I view it as a bonus: buying lingerie patterns. What sewist doesn't love shopping for patterns! Here are some of the front runners:

McCalls DIY style # 5651: This pattern is for knits. I like that there are darts on the cami and chemise cups, since I'm on the busty side.


Kwik Sew 3554: Also for knits. Like the above, I think
the gathers will help me with fitting the bust.

Kwik Sew 3726: This is for wovens, which is what I was initially thinking about. Again, I like the separate cup pieces.


Kwik Sew 2589: Also woven. I think this is likely to be cut on the bias and really is what I think of as a basic cami or slip pattern.

Finally, Jalie 2568: This pattern for panties gets rave reviews on PatternReview.com, and I have to admit that the lace cheeky pants are very cute.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I will find a way to justify ordering all of these patterns in the end. I haven't looked at bra patterns just yet. I am going to see how it goes with camis and slips first and will go from there, I think.

Pants Muslin: DONE!

Last weekend was all about pants. In addition to taking in 4 pairs of pants which had become too large at the waist, I finally got back to my muslin for Simplicity #2700 Amazing Fit Pants. As I suspected, they were a little bit big. However, within an hour I had them fitting the way I wanted. I am ready to call them DONE!


It's rather hard to judge from photos of a muslin how well these fit. I used a very lightweight and cheap cotton, and I think a lot of the small flaws are because of this and will not be a problem once I am working with more suitable fabric. (We shall see!)

What I am really pleased with is the fit of the crotch. I spent about 10 minutes walking around the house in my muslin, going up and down stairs, sitting, standing, walking and squatting. The pants were very comfy through it all, even when I took the stairs two at a time.

And now, on to actually sewing some pants! I will have to transfer my most recent changes back to the pattern but then it is all systems go!

Home Improvements: My Inner Wrecking Ball

I noticed that there were new design options for Blogger last week and I decided to do a little home improvement. I really have no talent in the computer-web-photo department, so it is really a testament to how idiot-proof Blogger is that I can actually maintain a blog at all. Anyway, let me know how you like the new color scheme.

This past weekend, I learned something rather surprising about myself: apparently, I have a certain aptitude for destruction. My sister and her husband - Terpischore and Mr Fixit - closed on a house last week. They have numerous renovations planned and, in the interest of saving some money, decided to do the demolition work themselves. So Phin and I joined them and others on Saturday for a day-long Home Wrecking Party. This is where I discovered the joy of swinging a sledge hammer through (ugly) built in book shelves, a faux fireplace, and circa 1970 cabinetry. I also took a liking to the crow bar.


There was something undeniably empowering about the destruction. This surprized me because I am not really the kind of person who is pent up and needs to blow off steam. I am much more the yoga/meditation to relax sort. And I like creating things, not destroying them. But this was the kind of therapy that you just can't pay for.

Anyway, um, if you are planning any home demolition in the near future... um... you know where to find me.

PS- Terp just emailed me to see if I want to help them take out the back stoop and driveway - a job that will require a jackhammer...