Care Package of Enabling Joy

I sent off a care package/birthday/Christmas present to one of my best friends last week!  This was a monumous occasion because I'm pants at mailing things, and have been putting this together forever.

The recipient (let's call her K) has recently started knitting, and since I'm a filthy enabler, I of course sent her yarn (amoungst other goodies).  But not any yarn!  The poor woman is allergic to wool and has been just using acrylic.  I admit, I'm not a fan of acrylic in general, but it does have it's uses and there's some nice acrylic out there now.  However, I think that everyone should be able to play with lovely luxury yarns now and then, so I found her several different types of cotton (this aint your dishcloth cotton), along with some really nice raw silk (in purple, K's favourite colour of course!). 

I'm also running an experiment with her.  I want to see how bad her allergy to wool is.  K has very sensitive skin, but I suspect it's more the texture of the wool that irritates her skin than anything else (but of course, she knows her allergy better than anyone).  I've sent her several swatches of different types of yarn, in individual baggies, including:

• 100% wool (mostly for comparison or to test sensitivity to hands rather than more delicate areas - but I expect her to leave this one in the baggy I've sent it in),
• 50% merino wool and 50% silk (to test if a much finer wool will still bother her)
• 100% baby alpaca (because a lot of people who are allergic to wool, aren't allergic to alpaca.  And also because alpaca is the softest thing EVER, like knitting a kitten).
• 75% kid mohair and 25% silk (just because)

She's game for experimenting (yay for fellow scientist friends!), so we'll see what comes of this!

 

Of course, I couldn't just send her the yarn in a plain ol' box or envelope, I had to make something special!  And being a sewist with a lot of quilting fabric and a can-do attitude, I tossed together a cute little project bag in about an hour.

It's pretty simple, but has a few nice details: Fully lined with a fun print, buttonhole slots for the draw string, and I used the only "fancy" stitch on my machine to sew up the open side of some double fold bias tape for a draw string.  All very easy, but was fun to work out and the only sewing I did in my last time off.

Now let's just hope that Canada Post doesn't lose the package along the way!  They managed to lose my Pavlova pattern, and I suspect some yarn I ordered a while ago.  :(

Happy sewing (and knitting)!

Goodies in the Mail!

Getting this in the mail totally made my day!

Clockwise from left: cute little round zippered bag, silk thread, twin needle, clear elastic, mystery grey binding (same as blue?), and hug and snug binding.

Thanks for the goodies Suzy!  It was fun receiving mail from Australia!  :D  I'm excited to try out the different bindings and clear elastic - I've never used either and don't have access to them here in Yukon (until I finally breakdown and start ordering supplies online - that day looms closer and closer on the horizon).

Happy sewing (or, as I'm obsessed with lately, knitting) everyone!

No Sewing, but Pretty Pictures and a Weepy Tale.

No sewing was done this weekend because my boyfriend suggested escaping the snow and driving down to Skagway, Alaska for hiking, and how can a girl refuse that?

Old train along the White Pass. We're near the Chilkoot Trail, which we're planning to hike this summer.

The Boyfriend in front of the Frozen Reid Falls - gorgeous! (And so are the falls)

I did take knitting along for the 3 (*coughtwocough*) hour drive. Got a lot of my Owls sweater done too.  Except, I tried it on this morning...

IT'S TOO DAMN BIG!!!  WWWWWWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  D:  D:  D:  D:  D:  I even did a few gauge swatches to check that everything was okay, AND IT'S NOOOOOOOOTT.  *woe*

Here's my mourning picture before I rip it all back and go down a needle size.  :(

*weeps in the corner*

Local Fabric Shop Challenge: Laurel Top

Okay, so it's not a secret that I'm not a fan of our only local fabric shop.  It's got a crappy, overpriced fabric selection, especially considering that most of the bolts don't even have fibre content on it.  But now that our local yarn shop has closed (WAAAAAAAAHHHH D:), I'm determined to at least appreciated the fabric shop more, dammit.

I challenged myself to not only buy the fabric I need to make a wearable muslin for Colette's Laurel, but to also use some sort of trim from their admittedly large and pretty selection.  I tend to just oogle them and move on.

My main fabric is a boring broadcloth in a lovely shade of green (it's more yellowish in person - my camera hates green).  I chose broadcloth and I really didn't want to dish out too much cash on this version.  The trim is what makes it fun though, and I love it!  I'm going to use it along the hem of the Laural top.  I think.  Maybe.

Anywho, that's my tentative plan for the weekend.  And don't think I've forgotten about my pants!  I've been thinking of nothing less for the last two weeks.  But this pattern has sort of shanghied my imagination and won't let go, and I want to try out the top first before diving into the dress I plan to make down the road.  :)

Pants: V2.1 - Getting Better!

First of all, thank you so much to those of you who gave me fitting advice on my last post (including Lena who emailed me some advice and Suzy who sent me awkward fitting pictures)!  I was seriously floundering, and you all prooved how talented, skilled, and generous this community is.  THANK YOU!

I haven't quite followed all of their smart advice yet, but I wanted to show my progress before I disappear for 2 weeks for my next work rotation.

All I've done is drastically taken in the outer side seams - up to 2 inches in places.  I still need to take in the inner seam, but that'll have to wait until my next time out.  I will also, at some point, be lowering the front a bit (by hacking a bit off the top this time, but I'll alter my pattern for that later).  The raw seam allowance is sitting about as high as I want the waistband to be.  But they're already starting to look like wearable pants!

I just noticed how low the left side is. I think it's just drooped from running back and forth to the camera because it was fine earlier.

Well, from the front anyways.  The back needs a lot of work still, particularly lowering the back crotch seam.  I've also added two more darts to the back to reduce gaping.  Got some butt nipples going on there, but I'll fix that later.

  

There's still lots of fabric around the knees, but I think taking in the inner seam will help with that.  I also suspect I'll have to take it in a bit more from the outer side seam, but I want to resolve the back crotch issues before I do that, just to see what it messes with when I do.  Pants are complicated and messy.

Everything is just basted together, except one inside seam and the pockets.  Once all of my alterations are made, I'll mark up the right seamlines and trim down the seam allowance, rip it apart, alter my pattern, then sew it all together properly (and hope it goes together properly again).

Sadly, I now have to leave these be while I go back to work tomorrow.  :(  I wish I had a couple more days to work on these, but it's better to leave it alone and not try to rush the alterations. 

I guess.

You guys have a good and productive time sewing!  See you in a couple weeks.  :)