The Season of Advent

One of my favorite childhood memories was the annual Advent calendar my parents would bring home for me.  This was many decades ago before the commercial calendars starting coming with daily chocolate.  Or maybe there have always been candy advent calendars but I lived in blissful ignorance because I never got one.  (And to be sure, if there had been chocolate involved, I would have gotten one.  Although my father would probably definitely have eaten all of the candy before he gave it to me.  I'm not kidding.  This is a man who eats whole cakes in a single sitting and then claims he didn't eat that much.)

I've been feeling a little nostalgic lately, wishing for holiday traditions that my family never had and that Mr. flyskim has little interest in cultivating now.  I think it has something to do with how dependent on me my father has been since he was sick earlier this year, this longing for childhood comfort.  Absolutely no way getting around being a grown up now.  So I am returning to something I love:  the countdown to Christmas.  I know that Advent started Sunday, so I'm a little late for counting down based on the liturgical year, but oh well. 

Look for my Advent posts each day until Christmas.  I did this outside my cube at work a couple of years ago, and it was a lot of fun.  I hope you enjoy it.

Also?  I have a skirt that should be ready for the end of the week for those who are checking for sewing content.  And this week, I start fitting the Christmas dress!

We Gather Together

There is one day that is ours.  There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to.  Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.  ~O. Henry

Yes, that is a deep fryer.  And yes, the chef is wearing a Ghostbusters costume.

On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.  ~William Jennings Bryan

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.  ~Author Unknown

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.  ~William Arthur Ward

 

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.  ~Edward Sandford Martin

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

It's artistic.  It's supposed to be blurry.  This has nothing whatsoever to do with champagne.

Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.  ~Robert Caspar Lintner

Thanksgiving, man.  Not a good day to be my pants.  ~Kevin James

Happy Thanksgiving!  Here's hoping that you spend this day surrounded by your loved ones.  Even the ones you occasionally want to strangle.

Best Laid Plans

So, here is what was supposed to be my Thanksgiving dress as it currently stands. It just needs a hem, and it's done. The problem is that I don't think that the skirt is particularly flattering.

Hmmm, now that I see a picture, it's not so bad. So confused now. And why did I bother to put on shoes?

I suspect that this is due to the fabric not having much (or any) body, so this goes at the end of my growing list of garments made with bad fabric choices.

I have to remember to stand further away from the camera.

The good news is that the pattern comes with a straight skirt option, and there is enough fabric in the skirt to make it. The bad news is that there is no way that this is going to be worn on Thanksgiving. I just don't have enough time between now and then to remove the zipper and skirt, fit the pattern, recut the skirt and reassemble everything by Thursday. So, we'll hit this hard again after the holiday, and I hope to have a new dress for my work team's holiday happy hour bash.

We Part To Meet Again

I have a new pretty that I wanted to share.  Two weeks ago, Mr. flyskim and I spent the weekend in Hood River with sister-in-law V, her husband G-man and his cousins M and R.  (Don't worry.  I forgot my camera, so you won't be subject to the blog version of vacation slides in this post.)  I was just starting to get sick on Saturday (ask me how pathetic I've been the past 10 days, by the way), so the planned wine tasting was out of the question for me.  I compensated by shopping.  Two new hats, a couple of catnip toys, a Christmas present for my mother's dog, a new liquor decanter.  And this!

It's an old wax seal that has been imprinted into sterling silver.  Around the scissors is inscribed "We Part to Meet Again," and while I know this refers to people parting and reuniting, I love the scissor reference.  I haven't taken it off in days.

On the sewing front, I've all but finished Simplicity 2588.  It just needs a hem, but I'm wondering if I should bother as I don't think it suits me.  I'm going to take pictures and post a full explanation before the holiday.  Unless we can't dig out from the massive snow storm in the morning.  (Please note the sarcasm.  Nothing's sticking out at chez flyskim.)

The Other Line Moves Faster

Downtown felt a bit like a carnival yesterday because the new H&M opened up.  It's been broadly described as the Ikea of clothing stores, and that's pretty apt.  They're both Swedish.  They sell modern products at a low price point.  And there's a lot of bargain material choices like press board and acrylic fiber.  The only real difference is that at H&M, you don't have to assemble the clothing yourself.  Then it would just be a 25,000 square foot fabric store.  Actually, now that I think about it, that's not such a bad idea.

 Much like Forever 21, I don't really have much use for H&M other than the accessories, but there's always something a little thrilling about people sleeping out on the sidewalk just so they can have a shot at winning a $300 gift card and getting a free t-shirt.  The store opened at noon today, and I heard that the first person staked out their place in line at around 3 p.m. the previous afternoon.  When I walked by at 5:30 p.m. yesterday, there was a group of about a half dozen future shoppers in sleeping bags and camp chairs and two tents full of people shivering on the pavement.  By the time the store opened, the line went all the way around one block and over to the next one, and about 800 people charged the doors when they opened.  Okay, maybe not charged so much as entered in a fairly orderly fashion before ransacking the displays. 

 

I took a quick trip round the three floors before I met Mr. flyskim for dinner, and I can report that it's exactly the same store I remember from London, Edinburgh and San Francisco.  The restocking that must be going on is amazing because the racks and displays, while a little tossed about, were still full to the brim with a complete range of sizes as of 6 p.m.  Can't help but admire the planning that went into that.

And of course I brought my camera to document the non-carnage.  I guest with more than 2000 stores world-wide, H&M has this down to a science.  Not like when the Macy's opened three years ago, and they had to close down the streets because no one thought of a line and the mob just charged the doors when they opened (as an actual eye witness, I can report that this was pretty amusing and just a little scary).

 

I'm still plugging away at Lady Gray.  Both the fronts are now pad stitched, and I've interfaced the back and side back pieces.  I've also started my Thanksgiving dress, Simplicity 2588.

I actually already own a sleeveless ready-to-wear version of this dress (full-skirted view), but now I'm making it in a more fall-like fabric with sleeves.  I want to have this done before the end of next week because I need to decide whether or not I need to get new shoes.  The bodice is done, so just have the skirt left.  If I'm really on task, I'm going to make a black, lace-trimmed petticoat for underneath like this one from Anthropologie.

Gertie has a great tutorial on how to put together a crinoline without a pattern, and I think I'd get a little charge out of having a lacy layer peeking out from underneath my skirt.

The Fantastic Four

The big, cheesy grin?  Cake.

Mr. flyskim and I got married four years ago today.  I have to say that it's gone by in a blur, and neither of us is sure how that happened.  I guess that means we're happy.  Because we are.  I have the best husband ever, and I hope for many more November 11th celebrations.

Devil With a Blue Dress On

 This was supposed to be a Halloween post, and I was going to wear my devil horns, but now that we are firmly into November, I'm going to pass.  Anyway,  here is Vogue 1193.  I'm a little surprised that I haven't seen much about this dress because I think it's very nice. 

 I made this out of a lightweight doubleknit (one of the recommended fabrics), but I made a couple of big changes.  First, I didn't line the top portion of the dress as instructed.  I just used the front and back pattern pieces to make a facing.  Then, because there was no lining, there was also no need for a zipper, so I just sewed a seam up the back.  It slips on quite easily over my head.  Other than that, I found the pattern instructions to be clear and relatively straightforward, although the back vent took a little deciphering.  I'm sure if you've done one before, you'll be fine, but this was my first, and I had to play around to get it right.

I also made several fitting adjustments to the pattern, and it's obvious that I'm still groping my way through learning to fit, but I think I'm slowly progressing.  I cut a size 12 based on my high bust measurement.  First, I lowered the fullest part of the bust by 1 1/4 inches (hellooooo mid-forties) and then enlarged the bust by 1 1/2 inches.  I have a relatively small ribcage, so I ended up taking in the side seams by an inch and the front princess seams under the bust by 1/2 inch each.  I also did a small forward shoulder adjustment and enlarged the sleeve by 1 inch. 

Here are the before and after shots of the bodice pattern pieces just to give you a taste of how many adjustments I made.

Here are the bodice pattern pieces prior to any alteration.

And here we have the $6 Million pattern.  We can rebuild it.  We have the technology.

 The multi-size pattern breaks with size 12 being the largest size in the smaller pattern grouping, so I was in trouble when it came to my hips and thighs (right in between sizes 16 and 18, thank you).  Because the skirt is pleated, I wasn't sure if I could just add width to the side seams, but then I saw that the size grading had been done that exact same way, so I just went for it, and it worked out perfectly.  I also lengthened the bodice by one inch, but that threw the proportions off, and I ended up shortening it again.

From the back, things look like a wrinkled mess, don't they?  I do not know what happened.  It really doesn't look that bad without a camera flash to emphasize every lump and bump.  It looks like I've got some pooling at the small of my back, but it's not there from the side, and there were no swayback issues on the pattern fitting.  I've also got a small issue with the hem pulling the back slit out of alignment.  Seriously?  The hem is not actually uneven.  It's just that the hem thread pulled up, and that one side is almost gathered.  Just noticed that now.  I'm sure that's due to my undeveloped hemming skills, and I'll be redoing that as soon as I look up how to do a proper hem and not just wing it.

It takes a lot of guts to post a picture of your backside for the world to see.

I love this dress.  With the stretch fabric, it feels like a big t-shirt, and it's work appropriate.  My favorite part is the pleat detail in the skirt.  And I really love the way that the pleats drape across the front.  Just a pretty, pretty detail.  However, this also caused my biggest problem:  One gigantically bulky side seam.  It took at least six tries to get that portion of the side seam just under the pleats to lie flat, taking it in, letting it out.  Over and over and over again.   

Mr. flyskim is a big fan of this dress, and so am I.  The one problem that's really getting to me has more to do with the fabric than the pattern, though.  I was wearing tights today, and although I was also wearing a slip, the skirt kept riding up whenever I walked.  I'm going to have to try a silk slip.  My, what a good excuse to make one.  If that doesn't work, this dress is going to be limited to spring and cooler summer wearing because I won't be able to wear tights.

And the weather has finally turned fall-like, and the flannel sheets when on the bed over the weekend.  Here is our little man, Hyde, helping to straighten out the blanket properly.  He really likes to dive into his work. 

Anyway, now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's back to Lady Grey.  I want to get that coat and another dress done before Thanksgiving, so I'll need to focus.