The Only Sin

In case you were wondering, it's hanging onto the past when change is afoot.  And change is heartily within our midst.  The flyskim dad is on the verge of being released from the hospital, but our usual residences are 653 miles apart.  To say the least, this makes keeping an eye on him while he continues to recover from his bilateral pneumonia a little difficult, not to mention coordinating and being involved in his upcoming cancer treatments.  So, the population of chez flyskim will be expanding by one come the end of November.

It was a difficult decision for my usually independent and active dad to make, but in the end, it makes the most sense for all of us.  He'll have people he can rely on if he needs help in the future, and we'll be able to spend as much time with him as possible.  We understand that there are a lot of stresses involved in becoming a multigenerational home, particularly when our home really isn't built for three adults and two cats, but we're going to make it work.  This is something that Mr. flyskim and I have been planning for a couple of years now, so we're not coming into this without a plan.  And that plan?  Involves a lot of changes to our house.

Because of his health, we don't want the dad climbing the stairs to the upstairs bedroom (currently serving as my sewing room), so he'll take the master bedroom downstairs, as well as our current office space, which is attached to the master.  We hope that this additional personal space will help make the transition easier for him. 

I don't think that there is anything that will make the transition easier for the rest of us.  Mr. flyskim and I will be moving into the former guest room/sewing space.  The room is small and doesn't really have any closet space.  We plan to put up a hanging rack and use as much underbed storage as possible.  We're also going to be paring down our wardrobes.  This move is only temporary, and the boy cat will be overjoyed because there are few places in our house that he loves more than the upstairs bedroom.  It's his room, as far as he's concerned, and now he'll get to sleep there every night with his people.

The rest of the upstairs is a very basic half bath that is large enough to be a full bath and a large but unfinished attic space.  Our plan is to turn this into a third bedroom that will be much larger than our current guest room and to finally turn the half bath into a full bath.  The only problem is that we will have to wait to start this until next spring when the Portland weather improves, so we're in close quarters until then.  Of course, given that Mr. flyskim and I will be camping in the living room once the construction starts, close quarters doesn't seem quite so bad.  We may also have to evacuate the cats to my sister-in-law's basement during the construction.  They already have two cats, three dogs and a teenager, so I'm not sure they'll even notice.

Not our attic, but you get the idea.

So, close quarters, no space to sew, camping in our own home which will be a disaster area, a possible lack of pets and a dad who will be undergoing regular chemotherapy.  They really got it right when they said that living in interesting times is a curse. 
But you know what would be worse?  (Other than my dad not being here to move in at all?)  Fighting that this is what needs to happen (there are a number of factors that I have not explained that led to our conclusion that this is the only workable solution which include, among other things, a 92-year-old grandmother and a twin brother who cause my dad far too much stress, my being an only child, financial planning based on "what if" and not on what is, and additional contributing medical issues).  Just accepting that this is the right decision for all involved makes things a lot less stressful, and it gives me something to plan and do.

The good news?  Since I've been in California, Mr. flyskim completed the window seat staining and did the last few items left on the kitchen remodel checklist, so those projects are officially completed (except for the kitchen curtains which I will begin in December).  Many pictures to come once I get back home to photograph.  And even though my family has really not caught a break in the stress arena since 2010, and 2012 will come with its own set of challenges, it's comforting to go into the year with an idea of what could go wrong instead of being completely blind.

So what's going to happen around here?  Well, sewing on the dining room table, for one thing.  Given all of the changes, I really need a pretty new dress for Thanksgiving.  Either Vogue 1191:

I have a great raisin-colored wool jersey for this one.  My fitting skills may not be up to this pattern

or Vogue 8685.

I have an Anna Sui stable knit that has a birdcage print earmarked for this one, but it may be too similar to last year's dress.

There will also be a detailed view of what happens to a family when they rip the top of their house off in a desperate bid for more space (this is assuming that we can afford it).  Once everyone gets settled and the holidays are over, we'll be hiring an architect and drawing up plans.  Then the work will start and all hell will break loose.  I was just whining about feeling like we always lived in the middle of a half-finished project, and now, because we're positive that remodeling the upstairs will require a lot of sweat equity on our part, my house is going to turn into one giant half-finished project just as two things on our already long list got completed.  Oh, and we're landscaping the backyard.  I could seriously have a breakdown.  I may have to film that because inquiring minds may want to know.  Stay tuned.

Report From The Trenches

Just a quick post, mostly to amuse myself while I hang out in the flyskim dad's hospital room.  He's being treated for double pneumonia, and given that he's short half of his left lung as a result of his cancer treatments from last yefar, it looked pretty serious for a while.  However, his doctors tell me the prognosis is hopeful.  He'll need at least another five days in the hospital before they think he'll be ready to go home.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll be in California, so the fall sewing is on hold for the foreseeable future.  I should have brought some knitting with me, but I packed in such a hurry Monday afternoon that I forgot to pack any pants.   So here I am with four cardigans, five t-shirts and the jeans I wore on the plane.  Maybe some shopping is called for

Whenever I Feel Blue, I Start Breathing Again

So, it seems like forever since I last posted.  Probably because it has been forever (I'm not exaggerating, either.  Five weeks and forever are totally the same thing.).  Life has really been living up to its reputation lately and requiring constant attention which leaves little time for sewing and less for blogging about it.  So I consider it a major accomplishment to have completed Vogue 8615 (a very modified version).

I actually started another version of this dress a year ago, and it's still a work in progress (story of my life).  That version is for Christmas, and I'd always thought of this as a more formal dress.  But then I tried on this dress at H&M, and it was the most wildly unflattering thing on me ever.

The waist was too high.  In order to get some more length in the skirt, I sized up, so the top was too big.  And it was mustard yellow.  Not my best color.  But I became obsessed with the idea of a 3/4-sleeved, full-skirted dress that was warm and soft as a t-shirt.  And then it hit me.  Vogue 8615.  But in a doubleknit.  This is the exact opposite of the advised fabric for this pattern (think shantung or taffeta).  Doubleknit can't even pretend to have the crispness of these fabrics, but having seen the H&M dress, I knew that the fabric would work with this style dress, although it wouldn't look like the picture on the envelope.

I had already done all of my pattern alterations when I started on my silk shantung version last fall.  These included a full bust adjustment, a shoulder adjustment and enlarging the sleeves for my fuller upper arms.  Since I had fitted the dress as a woven, this allowed me to treat the doubleknit exactly like a woven when sewing it.  Well, except for one place, and I'll get to that in a minute.  I'm really pleased with the fit, although I'm rethinking the ballet neck because I'm looking a little well-endowed in all of my pictures.  Trust me, certain objects that you see in the picture above appear larger than their actual size (and I'm not talking about my legs).

And then we get to the back.  I'm really glad that I've been taking pictures of the backs of garments.  I'm going to have to start doing this during the fitting process as well, because I might have realized how badly I need some sort of alterations.  Partly that's my refusal to do a sway back adjustment most of the time (which I really need to get over), and part of it is just my body shape, but there's also definitely something going on with my fitting.

You can also see that the sleeves are a little baggy.  That doesn't bother me so much, and there are a couple of reasons that this happened.  This is a stretchy fabric, and it looks like the sleeves have stretched out because of my elbows.  Now, the sleeve itself is supposed to be really fitted per the pattern, and I can tell you that when it's made out of a woven fabric and lined, it is fitted.  Really, really fitted, and I suspect that this played a part in the drooping as well.  Or more to the point, how I dealt with the fitted sleeve in order to hem it.  Let me explain.

When the dress is made out of a woven, the sleeves are fully lined, and the sleeve hem is finished by sewing the wrong sides of the fashion fabric and the lining together at the sleeve hem.  You then turn the lining to the inside of the sleeve, understitch and hand sew the sleeve lining to the lining of the bodice at the armscye.  Since lining the dress would have defeated the purpose of wearing what is essentially a long t-shirt, I wanted to finish the sleeve by turning the hem under and stitching.  Well, the sleeve is so fitted that it is too small to fit around the free arm of the sewing machine.  Or at least my sewing machine.  So instead of figuring out something that didn't require the distortion of my fabric, I just stretched it around the free arm and figured that it would spring back when I was done.  Now that I see the pictures from the back, it didn't spring back so much.  Here's what the inside of the sleeve hem looks like.

Another thing that I had to figure out when I decided not to line the dress was how to finish the neckline.  I ended up constructing facing pieces using the bodice pattern as a guide.

You can see in the above picture that it's a pretty narrow facing.  That's because the neckline is so wide.  If I'd made the facing any wider, it would have had to have been tucked into the top of the sleeve, and I would have had a much more difficult time tacking it down.  To draft the facing pattern, I traced along the front and back neckline edges and then extended the pattern piece down 2 1/2 inches.  The bodice has seams at both the center front and back, and I wanted to avoid adding too much bulk, so I trimmed the seam allowance from the center seam and cut both facings on the fold.

Because the facing wanted very badly to roll to the outside, even after it was understitched, I tacked it down to all of the interior seams. 

So, all in all, a very successful project.  Will I make it again?  As I mentioned above, there's a half-finished, emerald green silk shantung version up in my sewing closet.  That's for Christmas.  I'd also like to take a stab at this with the v-neck mirrored in the front.  I love a wide v-neckline.  I'm not sure what's next.  I might put together a denim skirt, or perhaps get started on my Thanksgiving dress.  I'd better figure that out soon, because I'm starting whatever it is tomorrow.