Eleven Stitches

The Auction Dress

I decided I needed to make a dress for my school's auction this year.  I've kind of become known for making a lot of my clothes, and this was a great time to show off something I made.  I started a few months ago, knowing that I had my surgery coming up and that I had to finish the quilt in time also!

When I saw Vogue 1175, I got pretty obsessed with it!  Those lines are so different, and it looked challenging in an interesting way.  I got a nice linen print to make a test dress, and it ended up being something I couldn't salvage.  But!  It allowed me to make the necessary changes to have this dress turn out great.

I got this fabric at Joanne's, and it was in the red-tag clearance section.  It was $4 a yard.  I had been hoping for a brown/copper dress, and I love the way this color changes in the light. 

I had to make a lot of changes to have this pattern work.  I shortened the straps so the v-neck wouldn't be so plungy.  This made the back pieces gap strangely, so I took some tucks in the pattern tissue before I cut out the pieces for this second dress.  Shortening the straps also made the dress shorter, so I added two inches to the bottom. I sewed the pleats down partway down the dress, to help define more of a waist.

This dress is so comfortable, and it also has pockets!  It was not easy to put together precisely, especially with all of those pleats that go around a corner.  But it was fun, and it was fun to make.

I was nervous about wearing the dress to the auction, but I got so many compliments on it, even several days after the auction.  It was so fun to wear.  Two of my friend have asked me if I would be willing to make one for them, and I'm considering it!

The After School Quilt

My school's annual auction was Saturday night.  And this is my fourth time to enter a quilt in the auction, created by the children in my After School classroom.  Here are the other ones: year 1, year 2, and year 3.

This is similar to years past, with a few changes.  As in years previously, I ironed fusible webbing on to the back of solid Kona cotton in rainbow colors and cut it into different shapes.  Each child was given a white square of fabric, and was allowed to decorate that square with the shapes.  I ironed the square to permanently adhere the pieces, pieced the squares together with 1 inch sashing, added a border, and quilted it up.

One different thing we did this year was invite the children to help piece the quilt.  I borrowed a sewing machine from the school, and invited the children one at a time to push down the pedal to make the sewing machine run.  I fed the fabric through the machine, but the children definitely were participating.  It was a challenge to make sure I was feeding it through correctly when someone else was running the machine!  The children LOVED it, and were eager day after day to help with the work.  It was great for me, because the majority of the sewing was done at school instead of at my house!

I did the quilting at home, and I added in some extra quilting this year.  In addition to the regular stabilizing quilting in a grid around the blocks, I also did free motion quilting in each square.  Even though the fusible webbing is supposed to be permanent, I still worry about the pieces coming loose.  So I made sure the free motion quilting caught each colorful shape, and tried to catch each one in a few places.  It added about 3 hours to my work time, but I'm happy to have that peace of mind that all is secure.

Each quilt block is signed by its creator, and it's fun to see how the child's personailty shines through.  Some are so busy and colorful!  And others are quite minimalist.  Alex's mother looked at his block (sporting a single shape), and said, "Oh, you're just like your father!" 

The school administration was very excited about the quilt, and even had me pose with it to e-mail to all of the parents on Friday.  I was happy that I was also wearing a handmade dress that day.

In the end, the quilt didn't sell for as much this year as it has in the past two years.  But it sold for $600, which is very good, and I'm so happy with the whole process. 

I wore a new handmade dress to the auction, and got loads of compliments on it.  I will have to get some photos of it so I can show it to you!

Fabric From Indonesia

A few years ago, I was really into batik fabrics for quilting.  My local quilting store had a big section for batiks, and they all looked a little like this.

I still like those fabrics, but not necessarily for apparel.  So I was very excited about going fabric shopping in Indonesia, the home of batik fabric, but I wasn't sure how much I would get.  When I arrived, however, I saw that batik covers a whole range of fabrics, some of which are very different from the ones above.  (And it's pronounced BAH-teek, with the emphasis on the first sylable.)

My SIL made plans to take me to a fabric store in Jakarta.  She has friends who also sew, and one came with us to show us the best shops.  I was expecting a market, but these were stores that were about 4 stories high.  When we walked in, I saw a lot of fabric similar to what I could buy in New York (although a lot cheaper, I am certain).  And then we were taken up a few floors to the batiks.  The first store had mostly silks.

I ended up buying two fabrics here.  Both 100% silk, and I paid about $4.50 a meter.

The man who helped me told me that Friday is the traditional day to wear batik.  I told him in my country we didn't know that so I could wear them any day of the week :)  The men in Indonesia wear silk batik shirts as formal wear.  When we were at a fancy hotel we saw a group of businessmen, all wearing colorful shirts.  It was pretty cool.

After going to that store, we went to another that had more cotton batiks.

I got some of this fabric to make a shirt for David.

And then this fabric in a matching pattern to make a coordinating dress for me.

I caught sight of this rainbow fabric and had to get it.

I didn't realize until I was taking photos at home that this fabric had an edge detail.  Most of the batik fabrics have a decorative element along the selvedge edge.

Since all of these cottons were about $3 a yard, I got 5 meters of each one.  The man in the store showed me this fabric and I also got it.

And then I saw this silk.  I think it's my favorite one.  It has a fabulously rich edge detail.

And the main part of the fabric is a little simpler.

After all of this we went up one more floor to the imported silks from India.  My SIL, step-MIL, and I each picked out some awesome brushed silk.  This one is in between a red and pink. 

I also got a polyester sheer fabric that is soft and drapey.  The man at the store tried to get me to buy silk instead, but I really liked the poly and I'm a little nervous about using it as it is.

And THEN we went to a notions store.  After all of the shopping, it was a little overwhelming.

That entire wall was of buttons, and it went up about 8 feet high.  There were two walls like that.  At that point, with no particular project in mind, it was a little too much.  I looked for buttons in a small space, and I paid about 30 cents a button.

There were ribbons, zippers, and beads.  I didn't have the energy to look at them!  I wish there was a place like that close by that I could just pop into, but at least I can have the memory of having been there once.

I went on our trip with a mostly empty bag, and I filled it up with fabric for the way home!  I have some practising to do before I start sewing with these fabrics.  I need to learn how to sew with silk properly, and I want to do test sews of any patterns I choose.  These are very special fabrics, and I want to make sure they're a success when I use them! 

 

Recovery

I've been knitting a lot lately.  I mean, a LOT.  I had surgery on my sinuses (for the second time) 4 days ago, and right now I've recovered enough to sit up in my semi-reclined chair for most of the day.  Which means a lot of knitting and TV time.

I first had sinus surgery about 1.5 years ago.  But I still got a lot of sinus infections afterwards, and my ENT got frustrated.  So I went to a new ENT (at UPenn, which I cannot recommend highly enough), got a new surgery, and I'm much more optimistic about success this time around.  Four days after surgery my breathing is pretty great, and I'm recovering much faster than I did last time.  But I know enough now to not go back too soon.  (Being on your feet teaching all day is hard work!)  So I'll have about a week more of knitting time.  Hopefully soon that will be spilt with some sewing time, when I'm stronger.

All of these photos were taken from my favorite chair, so please forgive the blurrieness :)

So far, I finished a pair of socks that I started this summer. I bought the yarn in England, but sadly I lost the information about it.

I finished a glove made out of handspun that I bought at NJ Sheep & Fiber Festival last year. It was knit almost entirely on the plane to and from Indonesia. 

And I finished the body for Paulie.  Which I had to knit in the same colors as the pattern because I love it so much.

 

I'm about to start the first sleeve and change the DVD.  It's a tough life.