Silly me…

Well silly me!  I figured out a fix for the tunic, and forgot about all of you dear readers…

Some of you emailed me today, asking what I ended up doing, so I’ll share it with everyone, and include the ever important photos.

First, the problem was, the Issey Miyake tunic I made from the Vogue Pattern (V1204) had a large facing and nothing to anchor it.  There were two buttons on either side just under the breast that closed the tunic, but nothing else was holding it together.  And since the button on the right was actually underneath and attached to the facing, it would have looked odd to stitch it through to the front of the garment so it just floated on the facing and caused the facing to pull away even more when I wore it.  I fussed with the tunic so much when it was on me for the photo I couldn’t imagine how I was actually going to wear it without wanting to constantly adjust it.  This kind of engineering flaw doesn’t show up in a fit muslin unless you go all the way through the complete construction process, and even then, when I was trying the garment on, the facing had been pinned down and I didn’t really understand how little would hold it together when it was all done.

So…  First step was to figure out how to stitch down the facing without having it show.  That turned out to be easy, took about 15 minutes to take a small running stitch under each of the pleats, through to the facing, creating an anchor over the entire front facing.  It worked like a charm.  And the hand sewing is always more flexible than machine sewing, so now the front and its facing move as one.  The other step was to anchor the part of the facing where the button was, to the front of the garment without having it show through to the front.  I used the same stitch I do for a hem, lifting the facing behind the button and doing a catch stitch for about an inch.  It is nearly invisible on the front.  Now I’m happy…

Meanwhile, this was a productive weekend.  The kids were largely out working or attending a staff meeting for next summer’s Girl Scout camp, so that left me alone.  🙂

I’m not sleeping well.  Here’s what happens.  When a big new opportunity comes up, like the class at CCM, I spend way more time planning (worrying in disguise) than I need to.  I wake up every couple of hours with almost a panic attack, what did I forget, what do I still need to do, what about if I add this component?  Anyone who has ever taken a class with me knows how organized I am, and it is that planning that makes everything go so smoothly and makes the whole experience enjoyable for me.  I know the class will go fine.  I have done this many times.  I have computer lists.  But I can overplan and add so much during the actual class that I end up running out of time trying to cram it all in, and I’m trying to avoid having such a frantic pace scrambling at 10:00pm when the class is finished, to clean up and try to get everything packed and loaded in the car.  So what I’m trying to do until the class actually happens on Tuesday night, is to distract myself.  When I wake up at night, I read.  I finished my book this morning.  That’s how much I read last night.  And today, I started working with one of my little Structos that I want to clear to eventually use in the class, beginning one of my photo pieces from a scrap or fragment  of silk left from the large Big Sister piece I did last year.  The loom was warped already, I had done that more than a year ago I think.  I just needed to get it started.

Then I took a break and cleaned my bathroom that was quite a mess from all the fleece washing.  That felt good.  And then there were meals.  And then a good chat with my son, my mom, and my husband who is hard at work in Saudi Arabia.  Then I tackled the dress.  I cut out bias strips of a brown nylon tricot (I keep a yard or so of all kinds of colors of this tricot just for this purpose ).  I didn’t have the right color invisible zipper in my huge stash of zippers, at least not in a 22″ length.  So I used a gray one, really invisible zippers are just that, so it doesn’t matter so much what color the zipper is, as long as the little tab that hangs at the back of the neck looks good.

The seam finish went on like a dream, mounting both the wool plaid and the Sibonne underlining together in the process.  I had forgotten how wonderful it is to work on wool, when I made this dress last, I used silk, and a flimsy thin one at that, and what a pain in the butt…  Wool goes wherever you put it.  A steam iron is your best friend…

And so the dress is coming out quite striking, the back is done, the zipper in, and I’d say I did a lot in a day.  It was a productive Sunday, and I didn’t once focus on Tuesday night’s class.  I’ll deal with all that Tuesday.  The prep work is done, and everything is ready to be packed.  I’ve got a beautiful Cerulean Blue in the dyepot, and the Nickel grey is drying. I’m eager to get another scarf run on the loom, and I have to start the commission for the large photo piece on the big table loom.  All in good time…