Wordless Wednesday

Aprons!

I know, it’s been awhile since I mentioned my apron display and promised to share a picture. . .but in this case late is better than never. My desk is in my kitchen at this house; this is the wall opposite my kitchen sink.

Looking at my picture, I see I need to trim the tails of the clothesline a bit. . .

The apron on the far left belonged to Nonna, Dad’s grandmother. The embroidery at the hem includes her initials and a picture of her dog. The pink and red apron comes from Grandma, Dad’s mother. The yellow and white pieced apron belonged to Nanna, Dad’s aunt. Aunt Janet assumes it was a gift since Nanna never wore aprons. Finally, the blue gingham on the far right belonged to Gaummy, Mom’s grandmother. (And just around the corner, in the hallway, you can see the hook with the apron my friends and I made as well as the one I’m currently wearing.)

With the exception of Nonna, who died before I was born, all three ladies were a very real  and important part of my childhood (and adulthood, in Nanna’s case). Perhaps not surprisingly, many of my memories center around food and the kitchen: Grandma bringing the ingredients to make ice cream when she visited our house, sitting around Nanna’s table for breakfast and smelling the pies she had baked before the sun was up. Gaummy was no longer cooking in my earliest memories, but I still have and use quite a few of her recipes. It removes some of the ennui from preparing meals day in and day out to remember that I am but one out of scores of generations of women who have fed and nourished their families day in and day out. . .

And. . .oh look! There on the left is the cross stitched quote that I mentioned last summer. It turns out Aunt Janet was the one who had made it for Nanna, and after reading my post she found it and gave it to me when we were in Indiana in October. Thanks again; now I don’t have to try to remember it as I can read it whenever I want.

December sewing

• Apron for a wedding shower gift. Not a very good picture of the colors or style, sorry! In person, the aqua rickrack is a perfect match to the flowers.

• Sewed on a handful of Scout patches and caught up on my mending pile. Including sewing a leg back on a monkey.
• Linen slip for me–that would be the bright yellow towards the top of the apron photo. A friend on the Sensibility forum mentioned during the last Week in Feminine Dress that linen makes warm, non-clingy slips. It does, and  is a much better layer between my long cotton skirts and microfiber tights than nylon tricot. I drafted my pattern–a straight/slight a-line skirt, basically–by hand so am tweaking the fit with remnants from stash before buying more discreetly colored linen.
• Yet another six gored skirt from my hand drafted pattern–this time in a plum/eggplant colored denim from stash. I hadn’t really planned on a new skirt for myself, but my brown twill skirt got a few tiny bleach spots on it and I wanted to have a replacement made before they turned into holes.
• A pair of pajama pants for Bouncy Boy, using Kwik Sew’s Sewing for Children. My only alteration was to eliminate the side seams–and, of course, cut the elastic to fit his skinny waist.

• A ginormous drawstring bag/playmat for the boys’ Legos. I cut an old queen sized sheet into the biggest circle I could and added a casing around the outer edge for a drawstring. It was hard to pull up so much drawstring, and it is kept in a plastic tote anyhow, so in time we may abandon the string and just gather it up by hand before plopping in the bin. The main goals here are to limit the scattering of bitty pieces and simplify cleaning up after playing.
• Another linen slip, this time pink. I decided to try changing my pattern to four gores to better fit my shape, and also remembered to lower the waistband just a bit. I do like it better, and the only change I might make is add to the hem circumference a bit, but this marks the end of my large-enough linen remnants.

Sewing plans for January include finishing the dress I’ve already started for myself and helping Twirly Girl sew her new nightgown. After that, I have a handful of projects on my list. . .the next one I tackle should be finishing the quilt for our bed. We’ll see!!

Virtual coffee

I’ve been enjoying my friend Pam’s recent virtual coffee posts, and thought it might be a fun change of pace. This week I’ve been feeling the irony of more things to blog about = less time for blogging, but at the moment I’m tied to the oven stirring granola every 15 minutes so here I am.

So, if you came to my house for coffee today, I’d tell you that I’ve been making my own peppermint mochas lately, adding hot chocolate and a drop of peppermint extract to my coffee. Yummy! If you wanted one, too, I would pull out the can of whipped cream just for fun. And then I’d pull out my hidden bag of Lindt truffles to share, because believe it or not I still haven’t baked any cookies this December.

On our way into the kitchen, you might notice that I finally put up my apron display over my desk, and we might talk about the women in my family who originally owned the aprons. Once the coffee was ready, we would probably stand at the kitchen window watching Twirly Girl and George play in the snow.

When Drama Boy heard adult voices, he’d wander upstairs to stick his nose in. And when I mentioned that yesterday was his 14th birthday, he’d want to show you the root beer that he’s brewing for his family party on Friday night. So we’d go downstairs to the storage room and on the way I’d show you the “mitten rope” I made yesterday while I was tidying up the laundry room.

Then my kitchen timer would beep and I’d need to head back upstairs to stir the granola. If Drama Boy didn’t follow us, I’d sigh and tell you that although he can be quite mature and clever at times, when he was mixing up the granola for me he used white flour instead of whole wheat per the recipe. It looks really pale and I hope it tastes alright.

We could go sit in the living room for a bit, although we’d probably be interrupted sooner or later by one little boy tattling on another. And if they’d been playing outside, they’d look at our coffee and ask for hot chocolate. I might make them some now, or I might tell them they can have it with their supper. I might even let them watch a movie, just for the temporary peace and quiet. . .but only if they have their schoolwork done.

What are you enjoying this afternoon?

August sewing

Once again, I find that having a quilt in progress makes me run away from the sewing room. I would say “there’s always next month!” but now that it’s time for a new school year, I know I won’t have as much sewing time. Such is life.

• Two knit tops for me, Ottobre 2/2007 #2 (with short sleeves) in print cotton jersey and #4 in peach cotton-lycra. Both are size 38 with the alterations I made to the pattern in 2007, except this time I left off the nursing access. Bit of deja vu though as I had nursing tops from both of these fabrics! I didn’t take deliberate pictures, but just realized that I am wearing the peach top under my apron in the picture below.
• Retro Apron for me; if the fabric looks somewhat familiar, it’s because the wrap skirt I made in May never fit quite right so I chopped it up, added rick rack, and made an apron. I have more of the fabric left so I may make a second attempt at a wrap skirt. . .or it may end up being an apron for a friend.

• The quilt top is assembled–blocks constructed, sewn together, borders added! Now it sits and waits until I have money for batting and backing. Pbbbbt! I should price those, but I’m a little afraid to find out how much because I know I’ll need extra wide batting and fabric. I am eager to get it on my bed, although after Baby Boy doused my quilt with Brasso earlier this week I’m kind of content to leave the old one there a little longer.

Not particularly impressive except that I again met my (puny) goals for the month: two new knit shirts for me, and a quilt top–with a bonus apron, because you know I really needed another apron. I don’t really have any sewing goals in mind for September; I have plenty of sewing ideas racing through my head, but no realistic goals. I’ll probably end up making a couple autumn items for myself or Twirly Girl as needs arise, and I should start on any Christmas gifts I plan to sew.

May sewing

• Two simple denim totebags, decorated by the kids, for our mothers.

• Lined denim totebag for a friend. I forgot to take a picture, but this one was a very overdue thank you gift to Wendi for all her help when Larry was in the hospital in 2008.
• One bra for me, size needs tweaking but it’s wearable.
• Chocolate apron for Melanie, Mammapalooza hostess extraordinaire. Thanks again for the use of your pattern, Mom; I’ll return it. . .soon.

• Hagrid’s knitting bag, thus nicknamed due to its ridiculous size. This is a free Hot Patterns hobo bag pattern, available for download at fabric.com. It has a great shape (and POCKETS) although I can’t fathom using it as a purse–but it makes a great knitting bag. The outer is navy cotton linen canvas left from a skirt made a year or two ago, but the inner is a cotton print I’ve loved for years. I first made it up as a nursing dress in 1998, but the pretty print could not disguise the frumpy design. So in 2005 I cut up the dress to make a wrap skirt for myself. . .but it never fit quite right, and now has been cut up to line my knitting bag (and yes. . .I saved the scraps ). It easily holds a larger project or a couple-three smaller projects. Or a small dog.

• Coffee wrap skirt, pictured at the end of this post.

Plans for June: deja vu, as none of the above projects were on my May sewing list. After I finish our Romantic dresses, I still need a full slip. And a swimsuit. Pbbbt.

February sewing

It was a slow sewing month; I seem to alternate between more and less productive months. It didn’t help that the blouse took me a couple weeks to sew.

• Ivory silk-cotton poplin Romantic blouse.
• Hooded towel for Baby Boy.
• Flirty Skirty apron from strawberry tea towels. I have no idea if they were “vintage” or not; Larry found them on eBay a couple years ago. Dish towels have a short life expectancy in my kitchen, so I made them into something that would last longer: an apron. I pulled red rick rack and strawberry quilting cotton from my stash, and cut carefully to make the most of the pretty border along the sides of the towels. Due to a slight cutting error on the first side panel, the skirt ended up more narrow than the original design and is pieced in one place. It shows in this picture. . .can you find it?

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening sorting and tossing and rearranging in my sewing room. I hope to share pictures once the rest of my wall shelves are up (it’s not Larry’s procrastination this time–the hardware store keeps messing up our order). I also hope that the new arrangement makes me more productive! I did decide to move the school books downstairs, to the other end of my sewing room, so if nothing else I will be in that room more often. 8)

The Romantic blouse

As mentioned in my January sewing report, I’ve been working with Sense and Sensibility’s Romantic Blouse pattern (second on page if you follow link). I have needed a new dressy blouse for some time, and had purchased ivory cotton-silk poplin from fabric.com in December. It took me awhile to choose a pattern though; I studied my collection of Ottobre but nothing appealed. Finally, the Romantic Blouse caught my eye when I was ordering the Regency Dress patterns for our Easter dresses.

I am usually a bit lazy about sewing muslins, but I’m glad I decided to make a wearable muslin this time. I looked at the sizing chart but instead chose the size extra small based on comparing the pattern measurements with a blouse in my closet. That fits well, although after a couple wearings I’ve made a note to lengthen the body an inch or two next time so that it will stay tucked into my skirt better.

I had a bit of an adventure with my test blouse (which is a cotton-lycra poplin, also from fabric.com). It started with significant printing flaws on one side of the fabric, going as far in as 10-12″ from the selvage. I finally got all my pieces to fit but it was a good thing that  I wanted 3/4 sleeves.  I arbitrarily decided to shorten the long sleeve rather than lengthen the short sleeve. However, the long sleeve has a very high gathered cap which looked all wrong in my casual fabric. Out came the sleeve, and I recut it using the short sleeve pattern. Between the initial fabric shortage and recutting the sleeves, they really ended up too short for 3/4, and I will probably make them short sleeves the next time I have white thread in my sewing machine. Other than that, I am pleased with my blouse.

I was nervous about starting my good blouse, as even with coupons the fabric had cost more than I usually spend. I also had had some issues with puckers when sewing the collar on my test blouse, and spent some time working that over in my mind. Finally, after taking some measurements, I added additional seam allowance at the center back on the collar extension pieces. That helped, but it still lays a bit odd where the shoulder and collar seams meet. I also added a lightweight cotton underlining to the front facings and cuffs.

Please excuse my tired face; this picture was taken after Twirly Girl’s tea party guests had gone home! The puffed sleeves work much better in the softer, dressier fabric. I also really like the waist darts on this pattern: they are inverted pleats, topstitched in place.

Did someone say “tea party”? Aunt Janet sent me several family aprons last year, and I decided to wear this sheer blue apron that belonged to Grandma for the occasion.

January sewing

Last year’s monthly reports inspired to make sure I had something to report. . .so I decided to continue them this year.

• 2 pairs flannel pajama pants for Silly Boy–one pair to replace the ones that met an untimely. . .demise, and a second pair so I wouldn’t have to put the rest of the fabric back in stash. Kwik Sew Sewing for Children, size small, no side seams. They’re big but he’s been stretching up lately! The other pair has orange ribbing cuffs like the original pair (to match the shirt).

• Ottobre 5/2009 #4, “The Perfect White” shirt blouse.
• Hangers for two kitchen towels, pictures and details here.
• Shopping bag that stores in its own pocket. Once I have time to improve my initial design, I plan to post directions.
• White Kwik Sew nightgown for me.
• Floral stretch poplin Romantic blouse. This was a wearable muslin for another blouse, and I will post details once the second one is sewn.
• Yellow Regency dress for Twirly Girl; white pinafore & pantaloons for Twirly Girl, pictures and details here.
• Six white half aprons for Twirly Girl’s tea party guests. Simple self-drafted design, although I did add lace, tucks, or rick rack to each one.

Phew! No wonder my house is in a state of slight disarray. First project for February will be my blouse; after that I have any number of projects swirling about in my mind, as usual. And speaking of projects reminds me that I haven’t shared any knitting accomplishments for some time now; I’ll try to fix that later this week.

Early bird

In this case, the early bird gets the dress–or no last minute stress, or something like that. At any rate, Twirly Girl’s Easter dress is already done, because I promised she could wear it for next month’s tea party in honor of her tenth birthday. I used the Girls’ Regency Dress pattern (near bottom of page if you click on link) from Sense and Sensibility and a light yellow embroidered swiss dot cotton over a white cotton lining (both from fabric.com). I made use of the embroidered border both at the hem of the skirt as well as in the sleeves and cuffs.

Then, because she asked so sweetly and it was for her birthday party, I used some more of the cotton lining fabric with lace from my stash to make the Girls’ Pinafore and Pantaloons (last pattern on page).

The lining fabric was a bit sturdier than I expected, and neither time nor money allowed me to buy something else, so I suspect the pinafore will be worn more during the week than on Sunday mornings.

Who says old-fashioned is boring? Although Twirly Girl is familiar with the concept of a pinafore from reading All-of-a-Kind Family as well as studying the illustrations in Betsy-Tacy, she asked some interesting questions. “Why does my pinafore cover almost the whole dress?” “Did people really wear all this at once?” I don’t know as much about historic costume as I wish I did, but it is fun to share with her what I do know.