Vogue 8534 view C: done in navy!

Ok, earlier this evening I saw and heard thundersnow. What is going on???

Two weekends ago I finished Vogue 8534 view C. This shirt (pattern, thread, and a very soft ponte roma double knit) was funded by a Joann's Christmas gift card from my friend and coworker Joe. Thanks Joe!



It has dolman style sleeves: (the top part of the front of the shirt and the sleeves are all one piece)


The bow and sleeve are all one pattern piece. The pattern calls to leave the neck and bow edges raw, but to stitch 5/8 from the edge of the fabric. I wasn't having that.

When I cut out the sleeve/neck/bow piece, I also cut out an additional piece to make the "lining" for the neck/bow:


Then I sewed the edges of the neck/bow, turned it inside out, then stitched (I could have basted, but I sewed it down) the lining shoulder to the real shoulder.


The front neck edge and bow are very nice. This also makes a "full" looking bow compared to bows that were not lined, as I saw looking at other people's versions of this shirt on SPR.

The back neck seam I turned under and sewed down.

The loop for the bow is also supposed to be left with raw edges.
Instead, I cut a square, 4.25 x 4.25.


I folded in half and sewed it together down one edge, turned inside out, "moved" the seam to the center of the loop, then sewed along each long edge. Here's what the "back" of the loop looks like, with the seam (sort of) down the center.

and here's the front of the loop:


Then it gets sewn to the front of the shirt.  Here you can see that nice curved edge of the lower part of the shirt front.


The "bow" is made by putting the "ties" through the loop


After the sort of disastrous size 12 incident, I cut a 16 this time. I probably should have done the 14. I wound up taking a tip from MushyWear and sewing the center back seam in a whopping 1.25 seam, as well as sewing the side seams in closer, for a better fit. Also I cut the A length even though this is the C shirt. I was able to get the shirt out of 2 yards of fabric which is less than the pattern calls for with the 16, and that was even with the lining pieces for the bow/neck.

I cut out the sleeves as long as I could then made a minimal hem. The sleeve and shirt hems are stitched with a stretch twin needle.




Here's the fit on the size 12 that I'm not happy about; it feels too small around the chest. It also has shorter sleeves.


Overall, I love the navy version of this shirt and wore it to work on the only day this week when the temp finally eeked into the high 30F range. One of my coworkers immediately said "you made that didn't you" which I never quite know how to interpret...does it look home sewn?  Well, either way, I really liked wearing it.  I think it has a navy sailor vibe to it, and believe me, if I had my sailor hat from Disney World I would have worn it for the photo shoot.

Here's a sneak peek at my next project: turquoise flannel and daisies.  I like the middle daisy trim the best but I don't have enough of it for what I want to do...unless I get creative...

Hope you're traveling safe no matter what part of the world you inhabit; snowy or not!

ETA at 9:15pm: Just heard more thundersnow!!!

My week: repairs, reading, more snow, food, books...

No sewing today, but some repairing!  In December I broke my dining room lamp.  I accidentally hit one of the "arms" of the lamp, and it "popped out."  I thought I could "pop" it back into place but it had actually broken off.    I tried a lot of things, crazy glue included, but nothing worked.  Today I got back in the repair saddle and tried again.  So far, so good.  I've run the washing machine upstairs (which shakes this light fixture) and it held up; the next text will be the dishwasher tmw night (it also shakes the light fixture).



I used hot glue to keep the arm in position, though hot glue is not enough to keep it from falling over.  I used silver wire I had in stash from my flower days, wrapped it around all of the arms, so the other arms + wire + hot glue are keeping the arm from popping out. 


I don't think it looks too bad.  In the picture above you can see the glue and the wire; but in reality if you're at the table looking at the lamp you just see the wire, and it really doesn't seem so noticable.

I have to go to Home Depot tmw to buy a new toilet handle and lever tmw.  I took apart the old one today; it broke this week.  I totally understand what I need to do.  I'm feeling very confident I can fix it all by myself, which feels very empowering!

We are still getting snow!  It is so unusual for NJ to have so much snow, especially after last year's snowy winter.   There was snow into ice  Monday night into Tuesday morning.  I should have taken a picture of my car; it had snow and then was "enrobed" in ice.  Here I took a picture of a chunk on its side; it's half snow and half ice.  The yellow thing in my hand is my ice scraper.


Can you see the outline of the ice coating the trees??

Then Wednesday it was in the 40's and the snow started to melt, but there's so much snow, it didn't disappear.
Then it snowed again on Friday morning, 2 or so more inches on top of what remained.  I like the sunlight glistening on the snow.

I drove to work late both days even though the university was operating at normal hours--it just felt safer that way, though there's always a scary moment somewhere along the way on a drive through the snow.
  
I finished "Are You My Guru:  How Medicine, Meditation, and Madonna Saved My Life" by Wendy Shanker.  If you have a chronic illness, or chronic pain, you MUST read this book.  Highly recommend.



My friend at work saw the "Are you my guru" book on my desk (it was so good, I was carrying it with me, reading it on my lunch hour, at the doctor's office, etc).  She told me about "The Guru In You" by Cameron Alborzian; she saw him on Ellen.  I've only flipped through it so far, but if you want a former male supermodel to show you how to do some basic yoga moves, you're in luck; it's part of the book:


The Pain Free book Beth recommended last week was checked out of the library when I went on Thurs, but I'll put it on hold.

My orchids are in full bloom now!  Great job, orchids!


I used leftover ingredients (and of course all of that leftover rice) to make dinner on Tuesday night.  It looks a lot like Saturday's dinner, right??  But it's different; I put mozzarella cheese chunks in it, and didn't use soy sauce.  See, I even used a different pan (round, not square!)


I never got to do the navy blue sailor shirt photo shoot; maybe tmw.  Cooking, reading, doing my homework is cutting into my sewing time but it's worth it.  My back is feeling a lot better (this week is its two year anniversary), but I pulled an ab muscle so that's on my radar.

By the way, I'm going to PR weekend Chicago (though I still need to request the time off from work)--hope to see you there!

corn chowder redux; Vogue 8534 redux sneak peek

Today was the day of the redux.

First up, corn chowder. Last week's was too much liquid, not enough corn. So I combined the "Skinny B*tch" recipe with the recipe from "400 Calorie Fix". 1 cup more corn, 2 cups less veggie broth, what a difference! MUCH better.


I also finished Vogue 8534 redux, my first garment of 2011! Finally! It's been three weeks since I've sewn. As you may recall, the previous version suffered an accidental cut, and then was too small anyway. The redux version is navy blue and fits me a lot better. I'm not loving the loop for the bow, though. I can easily remake that so it's not as wide.


I'll write about the shirt sometime this week, and I'll do a photoshoot then too and write a pattern review of it then too.  I wish I had my sailor hat from Disney World.  It would really make the photoshoot.


I want to change my SPR name.  Right now it's kdburkhardt.  I'm thinking of changing it just to my first name, or my first and middle names.  I suppose I could change it to something sewing related, but I don't know...

Beth, I will look into the pain book you recommended, thanks!

Last question: What is a dutch oven? A lot of recipes use one--I'll google image search it now!