10.24.08
10.20.08
Whoops.
Long time no post. Time just flies by when you’re living in one of the most beautiful places on earth, I tell you what. We have been busy, but that’s no excuse. We’ve basically been blogging via flickr, but even that, sporadically.
I have been knitting, but have already put these down in favor of some fingerless gloves with a mitten overlap flap.
I finally finished the Amy Butler Anna Mini Dress. Holy cow, I measured beforehand, but this dress really is mini. I can’t bend over and touch my toes without showing my goodies. So I just don’t bend over and touch my toes while wearing that. Problem solved.
(The boots are the closest I have to go-go boots. I don’t think they really work. ;))
I had recut the waistline, but I didn’t want to lose the fullness of the skirt, or the ease in the chest and ribs, and I think the incut/slope of that shaping could have been more subtle, but I’m not sure how. Even so it looks rather sacklike from the side without the belt. I’d seen people mention the snugness of the armholes, and it is on the borderline for me.
Not too snug, but close–this isn’t a dress to be doing a lot of reaching or bending in, so I’m going to try not to wear it working on any loading docks, yo.
Over all, I’m very happy with it and what I learned from making it. Definitely the trickiest most challenging sewing I’ve done and I kept ripping stitching until I got it (mostly) right.
It’s the yoke that makes this dress distinctive, and was the trickiest part:
(although since buying this, I’ve seen that Vogue or McCall’s has a very similarly style pattern)
But my favorite part are the buttons from my Mom’s stash. The whole dress is very 60’s air hostess-y to me, so I thought they fit.
Anyway, I love this fabric, and I’m very happy with the dress and the project overall, but I know I won’t be making this again. Because I thought I might be, I had cut out the dress and pattern pieces on separate tracing paper and left the pattern uncut–what if I’d totally n00b’d and cut the wrong size? So, if anyone wants this pattern, leave me a comment and I’ll send it to you. The instruction sheet’s a bit rumpled, but it’s fine, really.
That’s all the time I have for blogging now, I still have to pack for my trip tomorrow. I’m visiting my Grammy (and taking Tahoe so Nick and the kids aren’t tempted to move away while I’m gone ;)) for the next week and Halloween and I’m going to bring my sewing machine and a whole bunch of projects that she’s going to help me with and together we’re going to miss my Mom a lot, because she was an amazing seamstress. But she learned from my Grammy and now so will I.
Anyone know what kind of berries these are?
ETA: Grammy knew! This is Toyon, or California Holly, apparently a food staple and medicinal plant. And amazing family fact: Crater Lake, where I took this picture and the fish are incredibly aloof to my favorite kastmaster, was the last place my grandmother & grandfather went as a family before my grandfather was killed. (He was a naval aviator and died during a NATO exercise. There is a cool story of a watch in there.) My uncle was still in diapers, and having navigated that lakeside terrain, I marvel that he is still with us, since the shore is mostly boulders all jumbled together that must be navigated carefully and seem just made for swallowing babies up whole.
Anyway, I was showing pictures to my Grammy and asked her about the plant ID, and pictures of Crater Lake and I found that out, so chalk up another win for technology building bridges in information and experiences.