Stacyverb

The blahs

There's a lot going on here, but I can't really talk about it or show you pictures of it.  Doesn't make for a very active blog, I'm afraid!

My job has been causing me a lot of stress, which eventually I'll be able to write about, but not right now.  In my off-time, I've been working on making some Christmas presents, which obviously need to remain top-secret, so you won't be seeing any photos of those works in progress. 

In sewing news, I do have a skirt in progress for me, and that should be done soon. Also, I've been reading The Colette Sewing Handbook over coffee in the mornings, and learning a lot from it.  I have plans for a Truffle dress in the near future, and I'm excited about that.  Of course I'm modifying it a bit, but I'll be using the Truffle pattern.

I'm trying not to overload myself with projects, because I just don't feel up to it, honestly.  Stress is getting me down, and I'm also feeling melancholy because it was this week last year when we lost our beloved Nacho kitty. The memories of that terrible day keep popping up and taking me by surprise.

Geez, this post is a downer.  Sorry!  I'm just struggling a bit and can't express myself right.  Hopefully, I'll be able to write a better post soon.

Finished: Poppy Pendrell

Here's the last of the projects I finished in October.  After seeing a million Pendrell blouses around the sewing blogosphere for the past two years, I finally got around to making one of my own.  I bought the pattern back when it first came out, but it's been sitting uncut in my stash this whole.

The listed length on this blouse seemed crazy, so the first thing I did was shorten all the body pieces by four inches each.

I took the four inches out by measuring a two-inch section below the waist notches, folding that section back on itself, and securing it with pins. (Did that make sense?  If anyone wants more details, let me know.)  Shortening the waist seemed like a better idea than chopping length off the bottom, because doing the latter would have meant also losing inches from the hem circumference, and that's not what I was trying to do.

Pendrell offers a sleeveless option, but for me, the sleeves are the real stars of this pattern.  I made View A, the pleated-but-not-ruffled version.

I grumbled a lot while marking and pinning all those pleats, but the results were worth the effort.

 

The sleeves give the blouse a great overall shape.  They're sort of drapey, but sort of sculptural at the same time.  Pleats are such a fun way to manipulate fabric.

 

Even with the four inches removed, this blouse is still plenty long enough for me to tuck into a skirt or pants if I want to. (My face looks rather...concerned in this photo.  But this was the shot that showed the outfit the best.  I assure you I feel quite happy about this ensemble!)

[Fabric: Abstract poppy print by Karen Tusinki.]

Finished: Verdigris mitts

October was all about projects, projects, projects.  I finished so many things!  Oh, the endorphin rush of completion!

 

These fingerless mitts were a birthday gift for my friend Kerri.  Well, truth be told, I had a few setbacks with this project and only finished one of them in time for her birthday.  (But she really, really liked that one.)  Then I made the second one a week later.

 

The yarn was leftover from some socks I made a few years ago.  It's called Kona Sock from Crafty in a Good Way, and I bought it in Kansas City while on a road trip in 2007.  I think it might have been a local dyer, as I've never seen or heard of it anywhere else.  The colorway is called Forest Floor.

The pattern is Verdigris by Rosemary Hill.  I liked this pattern, but it runs quite large, as I discovered several inches into the first one (argh!).  My friend has small hands, so I started over by casting on 54 sts instead of 72 and did three pattern repeats instead of four, centering the thumb gussett in the middle of the second repeat. 

And because I know someone will ask, the nail polish I'm wearing in the top photo is OPI's Magnifico Mexico (one of my favorites and, sadly, discontinued.)

Glider fix-up, phase four: DONE!

This post has been a long time coming.  I started this project back in May, and worked on it sporadically throughout the summer as time, money, and weather allowed.  For those of you who missed it, this is how the glider looked when I began this undertaking:

 

And here's how it looks now (drum roll...):

 

 

There were many times during this process when I felt I was in way over my head, and many more times when I just longed for it to be finished already, dammit.  But I kept going.

 

Some things I've learned from this project:

1. It'll be a loooong time before I ever want to spray paint anything again.
2. By deciding to use two colors, I made this project twice as hard.
3. People who do this professionally and charge $1000 and up for their work? Yeah, those folks earn every. single. penny.

 

 

So, it's done.  It's not perfect, but that's okay.  Progress was so slow, so gradual, that I got used to seeing the glider at each phase along the way, and I forgot how it had looked before.  So when I compare before and after...

 

...it's kind of shocking, the difference.  And then I'm actually kind of impressed with myself.  Hee.  So no, I won't be dwelling on the things I could've done better.  I'll just be gliding and enjoying a job (pretty) well done.  (And feeling really, really relieved that it's finished.)