green_martha

I haven't forgotten about sewing, I just spent a lot of time sewing this mostly by hand. I think there are two machine seams in the whole garment. There are a few things I wish I'd have done better but I'm generally pretty pleased. Oh, and it hangs all wonky on the dummy because the client is a totally different shape.
Now I'm thinking about really diving into the 1890s madness, but of course, I can't find my twill. I'm sure I still have some white twill, it just... disappeared. But in the progress of turning up my entire stash I found various linens that I thought I had used up - and subsequently bought some new fabric to replace. I'm sure the old twill will show up the minute I buy some new one !
It's not like I have a lot of time to sew anyway - starting tomorrow, we start tearing down the old upstairs bathroom. The pink wallpaper's days are counted ! YAY !

LJ is acting up here as well now. I'm making a back-up and crossposting for now, we'll see how things evolve. To all of you who are on DW, drop me a line so that I can add you ! (well, unless I already did so months and months ago)


I've put up both myfolding screens, one upstairs and oen downstairs, and I love how they fit into our home. One is hiding an ugly heater, the other my "current projects" fabric pile.

Now, I mentionned how Heileen has a bad influence on me. Look what she caused ! I started on a new project ! And I totally underestimated how much effort it would be. Not the sewing or patterning, mind you (the good old "let's put a t-shirt that fits over the muslin and draw around it"-technique still works fine), but the wringling a toddler into and out of a mock-up. Because it's so funny when Mommy is chasing you around the house !

The trousers are fairly roomy for now, I don't want them to be too narrow - I'd love these to last more than a few months - but I might still make them a little narrower. I haven't checked the fit of the sleeves yet.
I first thought about making a fairly straightforward opening in the back and sides for the trousers, but now I'm tempted to reproduce the closure system on this suit because... it's cute !
And while I'm link-dumping, here's a reproduction skeleton suit on a toddler, and it just makes me go awwwwwwwwww ! More references include the two Tidens Toj extant ones, which Ihonestly find a lot less cute. There are other adorable reproductions by Arts et Métiers. I'm still assembling more pictures, and pondering things like buttons. I'll probably skip the period shoes and underwear. He'll wear this in the summer and he really doesn't like heat (like his Daddy - most days he's wearing one layer less than myself, and if the weather keeps getting warmer he'll soon be out of closed shoes and into sandals. Whatever I'll do, I'll never have a totally period-correct boy anyway - all glasses for his age are plastic...

On a final, not so happy note, I went to the fabric store today, as I'm almost out of thread for the quilted ensemble. I foudn some cotton organdi, which I usually buy every time I come accross some. The first time I bought some (on the clearance table), it was 1 euro/meter. Last year (also on the clearance table), it was 2 euros/meter. Today ? Still in the clearance section, FIVE euros pro meter. 5. Five. Ouch. I did not buy it, even though I'm constantly using it, I can't justify shelling out that much right now. I'll look into alternatives and will buy some if I have a specific need for it, but I'm not stashing it anymore. Okay, maaaaybe I'll buy some if my 20% off coupon works for it next week. But given it's on clearance, I doubt that.

With Lady Darkstone's help, I got a mock-up that fit my torso for the polonaise. I even went as far as draping a sleeve tonight, and I love how it looks.
In the meantime, I also started emptying our closet/attic, which is going to get painted and reorganised over thenext couples of days. I put aside two trashbags and one big cardboard box of old clothes to be giben away, put everything into neat piles for which I found a place in the rest of the house, discovered I fit back into my green bustle dress and my leather skirt, and did a bunch of other things like going to a birthday party, buying groceries, playing with the kid and going to the fabric dealer -who didn't have any more of my bustle fabric. I think I can still make it if I piece the hell out of it. Worse comes worse, I can scrap the box pleat at the back of the polonaise and just leave a flat, not bunched-up point there. It's period as well.
I feel pretty awesome tonight !

Two words : binding tabs.
I keep sticking pins into my fingertips... awww !
Pictures to prove that I am working on the jumps. The first one shows how I managed to squeeze the lining pieces out of a tiny scrap of linen. Not that bad, heh ?


The other reason my hands hate me is the power tools. We're slowly renovating the future baby's room, and started with the ceiling. The previous owners had recovered the lovely wood paneling with some ugly sticky mess of an acrylic varnish-something that never really dried, or something like that. So sticky that we couldn't sand it off and have to scrape it off with plaster knives. Lovely. And *then* we can sand off the varnish that was under that sticky dark brown coat. We won't get a perfectly clean, brand new ceiling but a much, much lighter one with a sort of rustic feel. This room will finally stop lookign gloomy starting at 5PM !
The before pics :

The more specific ceiling before pic :


And the ceiling in progress :

All pictures taken around 10AM on sunny days.

My hands are all raw from fighting with the dry, hard and compact soil, but I have installed two flowerbeds in front of the house, at the foot of the front hedge. I've planted about half of the bulbs I bought some weeks ago. Dunno where I'll put the rest yet. And I'm calling it a day as far as gardening is concerned. I'll just hop to the butcher's to get something to eat for tonight, and then relax and sew.

Not much sewing, lots of tea-drinking, websurfing, generally being a couch potato, and, in the evening, an amazing surge of energy led us to fixing the once again broken living room shutters, which led me to tidy up the living room a bit. The shelves I sanded two weeks ago haven't been put up yet, but I did make room for the classical CDs and got rid of the old (and sadly broken) NES.

( Cut for the uninterested )
The house is really feeling homely now, and I feel like I'm starting to make it look *pretty*. It'll be even prettier when we'll have removed some ugly wallpapers - guestroom and kitchen, bathroom and staircase, I'm looking at you ! - and repainted the living room. But for now ? I'm very happy to live there, and I feel so blessed to have so much art given by friends and family to hang around me. Which reminds me, BTW, that I should take pictures of the kitchen clock (another of my Grandma's works), fidn a place for her mirrors, and put up her fashion drawings in the bedroom. Vacuuming would be good, too.

Okay, enough house babbling, back to your regular sewing content !

And sadly, nightime does come quickly now. Stupid winter time. Anyway, I have LOADS of stuff to show. Like a whole truck. Well, almost.
My parents came for the weekend, with, if not a truck, a good load of stuff scavenged from my Grandma's place. AWESOME stuff. I need a new bookshelf. Oh wait, I'll get one, when they can fit it into the car. In the meantime, I got the books, and a bazillion other things loaded with family history. A blanket woven by my Grandpa, mirrors and a tiny cabinet made by my Grandma, and the "something beige and black" art I was looking for for our bedroom ? Fashion drawings my Grandma made in the 50s and set aside for me some years ago. Wow ! I'm a little bit overwhelmed every time I discover she'd set aside somethign especially for me. Just wow.
And Maryline also finished the jewelry for my wedding. I need a drooling icon here, folks. Pictures will come when I've mounted the big bead into a necklace. So that was the !!!! part of the weekend. I'm just amazed and admirative that this lady managed to move half a life's stuff out of the old house, pack it, put it into storage, and yet find the time, energy and space to finish the jewelry for a woman she barely knows. I'm incredibly grateful. If some of you ever bumps into art by Maryline Hernandez, here's shameless promotion for her, damned !

Did I mention my parents were here today ? Progress has been achieved on the jacket ! More than I thought, even. this morning, I just had a sleeveless vest without peplum. Now see how it looked by 8pm !

The jacket looks a little bit wonky because my Mom's did not really stay still. I have a back shot of the before. And this one is blurry, but I really love it.

The right side is not perfect, I know. I have to compensate for my Mom's "slight asymetry" here and did not shorten the right front enough. Pictures thanks to my parents digicam because mine turned everything either grey or orange. Stupid digicam, you'll get replaced for Christmas, you know ?

I'm sitting here in my short stays, I have pictures of them, too, and will post some... in another post, after I've had some sleep. Good night folks !

On Sunday we put up one shelf in our bedroom, to serve as the HG's bedside. Then we wanted to put the sister shelf above my side of the bed. And discovered we don't have a tool powerful enough to drill holes in our concrete walls. Which means we couldn't put up the picture frames in the purple room either. Off to buy something bigger to make a hole in those walls.
At least the frames are now complete.
We're also thinking about installing a skylight in the staircase. To see how tall the Ficus Elastica would grow...

Tomorrow I'm sewing. Promised. I hate working full day, I don't have any time or energy left for anything but cooking dinner.

I'm slowly getting out of the pain-induced numbness. The web hiatus was necessary - the summer had already been hectic, those last two weeks were the icing on the cake. Roller-coaster, I say. Thank you for your kind words and comfort, it was a real blessing. I'm now attempting to resume a normal IRL and web life.

So I have ( some sewing content )
And then ( some house progress )

We're moving out tonight, and we won't have internet access at the new house until Goddess knows when. See ya !