Smokin’ Hot…

And I’m not talking about the weather.  That’s been rather dreary, freezing cold, windy, and rain for three days.  All my gorgeous flowers are mush. 🙁

So I burrowed into my now chilly studio, which is so much better to work in (it is suppose to reach 90 degrees in the next two days), and I hunkered down and made some super progress on a number of fronts.  I printed handouts and cut interfacings, and shipped everything to Asheville, remembering at the last minute that Monday is a holiday and there is no UPS pick up…  And I looked ahead to the next venue, which will have to be all packaged and ready to ship while I’m still in Asheville, since the ANWG conference in Bellingham Washington comes right on the heels of my seven day class in North Carolina.

But no matter…

I really needed to get another run of scarves onto the loom, partly because Peters Valley wants a sampling of five different colors of my scarves, which I do not actually have, to sell in their gallery this summer, and because I really like to do them.  I’m running low on some of the good colors, the plums and browns, and raspberries, so I’ll just make do with what I have on the shelf.  Fall will be a great time to get the dyepots cranking up and replenishing my color stash.

I wound a warp for the next run of scarves, sleyed and threaded.

I used my Harrisville Tensioning Device to beam the chained warps onto my sectional beam, adding additional drag on the 12 yard warp in the front with the dog’s bed.  Thank goodness the dog decided to lay on the wood floor instead of her bed.

I added the supplemental warps onto the second beam.

Shazam…

And I decided to keep to my “always having a sewing project at the ready” mission.

I washed two fabrics, and found two patterns in a couple of my Burda Style Magazines.  I subscribe to Burda Style, and all the patterns for each issue are actually in the issue, but I will say, these are somewhat a challenge, I don’t recommend them for the faint of heart.  But I love Burda, the fit and the engineering, in spite of the scanty instructions, and I probably use them as much if not more than Vogue.

The first pattern was a simple pants pattern (April 2013 Burda Style) but sized for stretch gabardine.  And I wanted to cut my snakeskin patterned stretch gabardine from Marcorp in the worst way.  These will probably only be in style this year, and if I put it off, they will sit indefinitely.  And I’ve never sewn with stretch gabardine.

I’m really happy with the results.  I tweaked the fit a bit, and they weren’t hemmed in the first two photos.  My only frustration was the way the pattern connected in the front.  I spent the better part of two hours trying to get everything to match up, the pieces had to be cut singly, and though the sides match perfectly, the center fronts do not, and even though I followed grainlines meticulously, I fear the snakeskin pattern wasn’t printed straight.  Which sort of makes sense when you print on something stretchy.  Anyway, I debated for a long time how to lay out the pattern and where the lines needed to be down my legs and around my butt.  I think they work.  And they are super comfortable.  They give really well when I sit.  I probably could make a size down if I want super body hugging, but I have jeans like that with spandex and they look great, but these feel wonderful.

And I found this pattern in the June 2013 issue, sized for fine stretch jersey.  I’m really taking a chance here, because I can’t make a muslin first.  I don’t have anything that remotely relates to the stretch of this fabric, one I got at Elliot Berman on my NYC trip in April.  The fabric is a viscose Jersey and super stretchy.  I love the pattern but have no idea how this goes together, and directions in Burda are scanty.  But I love a challenge.  I’ll let you know if it fits and how it turns out…

Stay tuned…