In Progress: Tiramisu Top Muslin, Or the Over-Enthusiastic Bust Assessment

My basted-together Tiramisu muslin: So I think I chose the wrong cup size, huh?

So I'm making the Cake Patterns Tiramisu dress (reprinting now and temporarily on presale for $12) in red and white stripes as part of my Spring Sewing Plan, but before I cut into my super-nice fabric, I figured I'd test it with some other leftover stripes from the stash.

For variety, I decided to make it as a top, since I wasn't worried about fitting the skirt. I just extended the midriff down (too far down, I think). and shaped it out for the hips.

In sewing, it is always a perilous thing to ignore your actual measurements in favor of half-remembered or wishful thinking or denial measurements. Numbers and letters are just that. Now, back when I was pregnant, and then nursing, I got REALLY good at making extreme bust adjustments (for F, G, H and even at one point, I). But I recently weaned my daughter and I think I need to wake up to the new reality of more subtle E-cup bust roomage needs.

Anyway, my high bust is 35" and my full bust is 38.5. So I chose the size 35 by high bust, which I'm pretty sure was correct since it fits well in the back (and how cool is that chevron effect?!):

But for the cup size I chose the D, which I now think was a mistake, since according to the cup size chart it creates a finished measurement of 39.5"... a whole inch of positive ease when I prefer at least an inch or two of negative ease.

Plans & Observations:

• I think I'll recut the two front bodice pieces as the 35B, which should be a finished full bust measurement of 37" (1.5" negative ease) and should remove some of the front length, too.
• I was so careful with pattern matching when I cut the midriff pieces and the back bodice pieces but totally forgot about the shoulders. Oh well! I'll be more careful with the dress version.
• The length is bad—way too long. I'll chop at least a few inches off the bottom before I hem it.
• It is SO weird to be sewing from instructions that I designed (along with my husband). WEIRD. I remember drawing some of those diagrams and now I am following them!

How would you fix this?

P.S. Update! Somehow despite being part of the Cake team, I missed Day 5 of the Tiramisu Sewalong series, which is completely dedicated to the issue of fitting the bodice of the Tiramisu and tuning up the underbust seam, with videos and step-by-step photos. So here it is!

P.S. Speaking of over-enthusiastic bust roomage, I tried to put on my silk Flutter-Sleeve Cardigan for Me Made May today and boy does it need a refashion... when I was knitting it I became convinced it needed bust shaping and did all these improvised short rows... and then it stretched out after wear... and NOW:

Quoted: On the Bangladesh Factory Collapse and Ethical Fashion

"The sad part is that the price of individual garments would not have to go up much — 1 percent to 3 percent, various estimates say — to provide a living wage and safer conditions for all those cutting and stitching what we wear. The cycle could slow or even stop. But that 1 percent to 3 percent would have to wend all the way down that river of production — past the eddies and breakwaters of corporate boards and middlemen, subcontracting agents and compradors, to reach those who really need it.

It’s well past time for all of us to reflect on this cycle and how cheap it would be to break out of it if only there were enough public pressure on the apparel industry. The cost for us is minimal; the cost for others is great. Bargain-hunters at Wal-Mart and haute couture customers on Fifth Avenue alike should shame those companies that pass the savings on to us as they pass the suffering on to others we never see. This is not a remote or distant problem.

Take a look at the tag on your shirt. The problem is as close as your skin."

—M.T. Anderson, from "Clothed in Misery", a recent Opinion piece in the New York Times

Aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 (NYPL collection)

"These fashion companies and the entire American economy have formed a corrosive and now deadly reliance on cheap consumer goods. Corporations have persuaded consumers that cheap prices are fair. And this paradigm has hollowed out the middle class and led to the exploitation of both people and planet.

I am an impassioned advocate for small-scale, locally produced fashion. But where are the large fashion companies willing to take a risk and reinvent their brands around ethical fashion production? It’s time to trust that the consumer, all things being equal, will buy an ethically made product. We’re ready. It’s up to the brands to figure out how to do this and communicate it in a compelling way."

—Elizabeth Cline (author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, reviewed by me here) on "The Case for Ethical Fashion" in The Nation

Children working in a North Carolina textile mill, part of a series on child labor by Lewis Hines taken between 1908-1912 (more here with original captions)

Recently, my mother called to tell me she had made a genealogy research breakthrough. She had finally managed to trace my great-great-great grandfather Thomas Marsh back to his childhood in England in a little town near Manchester...

...where the 1841 census shows him as a five-year old living in a textile factory workhouse with his 13-year-old sister. I imagine him something like the little children in the above photo—clambering up onto dangerous machinery, breathing in cotton fibers that scarred his growing lungs. (As a child growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts a "living monument to the dynamic story of the Industrial Revolution", such terrifying stories featured heavily in school field trips).

And then of course, there's the story of cotton in the American South. Tarantino's revenge fairytale spaghetti Western Django Unchained is full of vivid imagery, including close-ups of fluffy cotton bolls splattered in blood—it's a pretty apt visual metaphor, don't you think?

The story of the garment and fashion industries we often see and hear is a story about design, fun, creativity, innovation, genius designers, flashy runway shows and inspiring magazine spreads. But it is not often a story about ethics, respect for the rights, safety and livelihoods of garment workers, or environmental sustainability.

That story needs to be re-written. NOW. How do you think we can help?

Me-Made-May the 1st: Jalie and Georgina with Jeans (plus socks)

I was somewhat tempted to throw on a me-made knit hat, cowl, and fingerless gloves to bring the total me-mades in this outfit from four to eight... but that's cheating, right?

I have precious few me-mades that currently fit, so expect to see all these pieces again. Again. And possibly again. Though I'll probably mostly do weekly roundups as seems to be usual Me-Made-May etiquette.

This outfit was easy, because I love all these pieces and wear them constantly. The scarf collar works well with the neckline of this cardigan, too.

I'm lucky to work in a casual-dress office where it's OK to wear whatever—jeans, T-shirts, nice dresses, blazers, etc. (Though a suit might look odd). But jeans are really the default daily uniform.

• Jalie 2921 scarf-collar floral poly knit top, me-made
• Georgina cardigan by Alexis Winslow in chartreuse hand-dyed Swans Island merino wool, me-made
• Not Your Daughter's Marilyn Straight Leg natural-waisted stretch jeans in Dark Enzyme (RTW), bought for 55% off on 6pm.com. I first heard of these jeans after they were suggested by a commenter on my post In Defense of: "Mom" Jeans, "Granny" Panties + "High" Waists". They are supposed to hit at the natural waist (though all of mine hit a bit below) and they are AWESOME. Bonus: they are made in USA. Though I still dream of actually sewing up my own jeans someday... I'll get there.
• Waving Lace ombré knit socks, me-made and me-hand-dyed
• Arcopedico Flower leather Mary Jane cut-out flats in black Yes, they are rather chunky and Frankensteinish, but SO comfortable and my only flats that actually fit hand-knit socks. I probably wear these four out of seven days per week, maybe more, and after a year they are getting slightly scuffed but no less comfortable.

... oh, and I'm wearing me-made striped undies copied from RTW, but not going to show you on me (though they are shown flat in this blog post).

Observations so far on Me Made May:

• Scrambling to photograph myself in the morning while getting Z ready for school is... challenging! I tried to get her to participate in the photo shoot, but she was not in the mood (and her cute Olive Juice dress isn't me-made, sadly, but a lovely second-hand gift from Lee of the Slow Steady):
  
• I need a pair of colorful flats—all I have are black or brown. I think colorful flats would have popped more, but I really struggle to find any that are actually supportive for lots of walking and not just flat and ouchy inside. Also, new shoes are not in the budget at the moment...

Hope your Me-Made-May is off to a fantastic start!

**Disclosure: Actions you take from the ready-to-wear hyperlinks within this blog post may yield commissions for polkadotoverload.com (and quite likely spent on yarn or fabric).

I've Been Using My Sewing Machine ALL WRONG

A few weeks ago in preparation for Me-Made-May, I brought both my sewing machine and serger into my sewing machine dealer's (Sew Right in Queens) for a tune-up/repair. They'd both been making me cry and swear, and they hadn't been tuned up in over three years (mostly because the shop is an hour and a half trip each way by bus/subway combo for a carless woman such as myself.)

When I picked them up Sunday, I was overjoyed to see that they were both stitching perfectly and without complaint. The shop told me that there indeed had been multiple issues and adjustments needed on my old, low-end Kenmore 385.16644 serger (left to me by my wonderful grandmother)... but that my Platimum 730 (bought used from Sew Right nearly 10 years ago) had barely had any needed adjustments.

I just could NOT believe this, despite the neat little stitching sample they'd made with a variety of stitch patterns. I told them that one thing I had NEVER been able to get my machine to do was shir with elastic thread in the bobbin (long-time readers may remember my series of agonized blog posts over this before I decided to just do it the really hard and slow way).

I had recently watched the Great British Sewing Bee Episode 3 where one of the challenges was an adorable shirred-top little girl's dress, and I once again had the earning to SHIR. (Though I was surprised to hear the judges on GBSB refer to it as a "couture" technique, since it mainly seems to be a feature of casual, children's or "easy-to-sew" items.)

So the good folks at Sew Right suggested I sit down and show them what I had been doing... and immediately noticed that I'd been:

• Hand-winding the elastic thread on the bobbin BACKWARD.
• Threading the bobbin thread through the tension area WRONG.

Once I fixed these two things, I sat down with a light scrap of cotton and some elastic thread and SHIRRED THE EASY WAY. In a STRAIGHT LINE. With NO WOBBLING. I nearly cried in joy (and embarassment).

Seriously, it's a wonder that all the garments I've made in the past few years on my machine haven't just fallen apart while I walk around wearing them. (Good thing most of them were serged, actually).

I think this is a hazard of taking really long breaks from sewing and then trying to just get back at the machine and pick things up all over again. I've been sewing clothes for myself for over 10 years, but only in sporadic spurts of inspiration — I'll get really intensely into it, pick up some serious skills and practice my finishing and fitting techniques... and then life gets in the way and the sewing machine goes back in the closet for a while. And then I have to relearn anything that hasn't truly stuck all over again.

Threading the machine is just easy muscle memory, but somehow along the way I must have forgotten the proper way to load the bobbin (it's a little plastic bobbin, not like the metal ones on most machines that I grew up sewing on).

Yeah. So... what's your most embarrassing sewing foul-up?

Novel stash busting tip: Just let the bugs eat it!

Seamsters, is your fabric and yarn getting you down? 

Are you sick and tired of those perky polka dot prints, wool doubleknits, hand-dyed merino hanks and sassy silk crepes hiding in the backs of your stash drawers, muttering and mocking you, whispering evilly "Why haven't you just sewn or knit me into something fantastically amazing and perfectly fitting already?" 

Are you worried that Me Made May '13 is going to be JUST TOO EASY?

What would you say if you knew there was a fast, efficient—and, best of all, 100% FREE—solution?

Try our new and improved.... 

Vicious Little Moth Larvae™!

They creep, they crawl, they chomp, they squiggle, they squirm! You'll have empty drawers in no time—your wools reduced to cheesecloth, your yarn reduced to bits, your handmades more ventilated than EVER before!

"But Mikhaela, how do I get some Vicious Little Moth Larvae™, you ask?" 

That's easy! Just take home a mysteriously holey thrift store cashmere sweater and assume that a gentle hand washing and a good darn will have it right as rain ... Let some woolen items fall to the ground in the deep dark recesses of your closet... ignore your stash for months ... and VOILA!

... er.

But seriously, folks. It's true. My husband and I have spent the past week battling the Moth Infestation of Doom, and I just cannot believe how far the little monsters have managed to spread. Our bedroom closet was the worst—all our suits and my wool skirts eaten, including my Sew Grateful Challenge Colorblock skirt.

But after we cleaned out the closet—washing, cleaning, throwing out or eco-friendly-dry-cleaning EVERYTHING that had survived... I began to inspect all the other drawers in the house. I'm still not done, as I'm going through them all very carefully, opening and shaking out each piece of fabric or item of clothing onto a sheet ...

I got all the way down to the bottom of my first fabric drawer and was loudly proclaiming in excitement to my husband "They didn't eat my fabric!!!!" ... when I unfolded a beautiful piece of cotton shirting and there they were, squirming away (though not eating—they don't eat cotton, they just live on it).

Yeah. So I've had to be incredibly ruthless. Handwashing doesn't kill the pests and I don't have the budget to eco-dryclean every piece of dry-clean-only fabric I had. ALL scraps are gone now—those leftover wool or silk fabric scraps that I'd been keeping for I don't know what—quilts? Stuffed animals?

And I've really made some hard decisions about my clothes as well. On the plus side, this leaves plenty of room for new me-mades. On the minus side, well... THEY ATE MY STUFF AND THEY ARE SO GROSS. (Though mysteriously, they were in my sock drawer but did not TOUCH any of my large collection of wool socks... phew! Probably because I am always opening that drawer and shuffling the socks around, the monsters hate light and disturbance.)

I still am not sure how the nasties got in, but I do suspect it was a beautiful thrifted wool sweater with a few little holes that I'd been meaning to darn... I put it in a hot dry dryer for 60 minutes the minute I got home (to kill potential bedbugs) but maybe that wasn't enough to knock out the moths. Or maybe it was a vintage handbag I bought on Etsy, or a piece of wool fabric from a bargain bin in a dusty old fabric store... Who knows!

Act now... GET YOURS TODAY!

P.S. Knitters, take heart. I'd always been in the habit of keeping all my wool yarn in plastic sweater bags for protection... and I didn't find a single little wool-chomper in those drawers. Too bad I hadn't treated my wool fabrics the same!

Spring Sewing Sketch (With Lots of Cake!)

I've had so much fun doing the cover illustrations for StephC's Cake Patterns, and now that I'm feeling better, I can't wait to actually sew them for myself! Shown are Pavlova wrap top & circle skirt, Hummingbird peplum knit top and pencil skirt with back flounce, Tiramisu surplice knit dress with chevron stripes.

(Edited to add note: As I may have mentioned, my husband and I are from Massachusetts—he's from Boston proper. So people of Boston—friends, family and otherwise—you are in our thoughts and our non-religious equivalent of prayers.)

This past weekend I woke up and realized that for the first time since my daughter and I got sick (her with severe asthma/eczema/severe allergies, me with a never-ending serious sinus infection) back in August, I no longer felt overwhelmingly tired and ill and miserable. Wow! I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, stepping out of her black & white farmhouse into the Technicolor land of Oz.

Instead of every little thing being an effort, I was buzzing with thoughts and ideas and excitement and imagination and just, well, JOY. I had a lovely time at the Colette Patterns party at Brooklyn General (pictures later, I need to get to bed!) on Saturday, and on Sunday I dug through my pattern and fabric stash for inspiration.

So now I am really itching to SEW full steam ahead ... but:

I've been busy dealing with a closet moth infestation of epic proportions AND I have had to send both my sewing machine and serger to the shop for a tune-up. BOTH of them! Ugh!

So in the meantime I am comforting myself with my second-favorite sewing-related pasttime, sketching! I whipped up a little sketch using my croquis of how I might look in the three Cake Patterns out so far, and I'm hoping to get Tiramisu cut out while my machines are at the sewing doctor.

The Hummingbird and Tiramisu sketches are based on stash fabric... I'm going to try and sew Pavlova from the stash as well but I have to make sure I have the right fabric for the job.

I do have a huge sewing queue of so many different patterns, but I really want to start with Cake as I really want to bring my drawings to life... plus, have you seen the delicious Tiramisus and Pavlovas other people have been sewing? Seriously.

Which would you sew first? The dress or the peplum top? Or one of the skirts? I really need some summery skirts right now... but I LIVE in dresses...

Finished: Polka Dot Scarf Top (Jalie 2921 Knit Top, Take 2)

 My second Jalie 2921 Scarf-Collar Knit Top. Pros: It fits great! Also: Polka dots. Cons: The fabric is flimsy, see-through and not really all that stretchy. Also: My serger and my sewing machine hate me. Also: I forgot to match the dot pattern at the center seam.       

A few months ago between bouts of illness, my parents took little Z out on a Saturday and I vowed that I would actually sew—something fun, something simple, a quick tried and true pattern requiring no adjustments.

Yeah, so, that didn't work out. I don't know about you, but every time I get my serger and sewing machine out of storage after a long hiatus, they grump and crank and sulk and refuse to do a single thing I ask of them, toddler-style. So I spent five minutes adjusting the pattern (I wanted to make the three-quarter version this time), three hours swearing and crying over my serger as I rethreaded it twenty times and it kept eating needles... and maybe an hour or two actually constructing the top.

When I finally made my way over to the sewing machine, the revolt had spread—the cheapo flimsy fabric (a discount Fabric.com rayon-spandex blend) refused to take a twin-needle hem, and I just gave up. I wore the top unhemmed to the Brooklyn BurdaStyle Sewing Club the next day, but I didn't feel good about it and I certainly wasn't going to show YOU all.

Last night I was finally feeling perky enough to wrestle with the machine again, and I finally managed to get the thing hemmed—it's just a narrow zig-zag stitch, but it's barely visible and it works fine.

Sadly it is rather see-through, so while I'm showing it here untucked, I'll probably need to tuck it in and wear it with a cardigan at work so you can't see my skirt or pants or bra straps through it. 

Here are the details again—a bit abbreviated, since I've already made it (blogged here).

The pattern: Jalie 2921, the ever-popular scarf collar top.

Pattern Description: Close-fitting (negative ease, baby!) v-neck knit top with various sleeve length and scarf collar options. Front is 2-piece.

Pattern Sizing: Includes wide range of sizes, from toddler girls to plus-size adult woman. I made the S (34" bust) overall, but as per Katie's tips traced the size V (37") for the bust and front sleeve armhole. (I have a 38.5" bust, so I maybe should have gone up a bit more here given the not-so-stretchy fabric.)

I took it in at the waist a bit as well to remove the positive ease that bugs me on my other version, but I may have overdone it... From the back I feel like it looks a bit too snug (also, my waist looks way smaller in the back than the front? Weird):

Fabric: A cream and red polka dot rayon/poly/spandex blend from Fabric.com that I probably should have just returned when I received it but didn't bother. Flimsy, thin, see-through, not much stretch and wrinkly and rumply. The original description read "This stretch jersey knit fabric has an ultra soft hand, a beautiful drape and about 40% stretch across the grain for added comfort and ease." Um, no. It does NOT have 40% stretch... and it's not all that soft compared to other rayons I have know and loved. Whatever.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: Did a cheater width FBA (see above link in sizing), took in the waist by an inch and added half an inch to the length, too.

Construction notes: All seams done on serger, and the hem and sleeve hems narrow zig-zagged on my conventional sewing machine with a ballpoint needle. Shoulder seams stabilized with 1-inch strips of self fabric.

Successes:

• I actually sewed something I can wear for the first time in MONTHS.

Lessons learned:

• Don't forget about pattern matching.
• Cheap fabric just isn't worth the trouble. I have so little precious sewing time, and I have many nicer fabrics in my stash—I just need to get over my fear of destroying them. I learned this with knits a while back—if I'm going to spend a year knitting a sweater, I'm not going to use cheap plasticky acrylic yarn.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yeah, done and done!

Wear to: Work (with a cardigan), home, weekend, mommy stuff, whatever. 

Full outfit details:

• Top: me-made, tie-neck knit red and cream polka-dot top (Jalie 2921), rayon/poly/spandex from Fabric.com.
• Corduroy skirt with flounce: Anthropologie
• Red Mary Jane heels: Camper, from forever ago
• Green Cat Eye Glasses: Bevel. 

Side photo note... I originally tried taking all the photos near the window in front of my polka dot couch, but the background was so distracting I gave up. It's the same couch I've always had, but my mom covered it for me (in less than a day!) with some other Fabric.com fabric since I was getting sick of the floral print.

And if you think my apartment looks remarkably clean and organized considering how rough things have been around here, that is because I use the handy crop tool on all my photos. This is probably a much more accurate picture of my life—crap piled everywhere!—complete with a toddler photo bomb:

OK, I'm off to the Colette Patterns cocktail party at Brooklyn General that starts in ... half an hour! See some of you there?

When Moths Attack! (What's a Wool Lover to Do?)

They've eaten EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING!

A few months ago while my daughter and I were both in the deepest depths of constant illness, my husband attended a funeral, one of the very rare occasions on which he has need to dig his gray suit out of our bedroom closet. Except when he put on said suit, it was a little more... ventilated than we remembered. He had to wear it anyway, but when we dug deeper...

They'd eaten EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. Every one of my husband's suits and all three of my suits, my lovely, well-fitting soft wool skirt suits. All of my wool skirts—my favorite long plaid skirt, my high-waisted wool pencil skirt, my houndstooth A-line wool skirt, my pink wool skirt... EVERYTHING.

Well, everything in that closet. (Luckily my me-made wool skirts, my wool sweaters, my wool socks, wool fabric and wool yarn are stored in drawers elsewhere.)

Readers, you know how I feel about wool. It is my main fiber from September to March, and sometimes in-between. Also: I don't have a budget to replace any of that stuff now, so will have to very slowly rebuild my wool wardrobe through thrifting and sewing. (Though we will just have to suck it up and get my husband a suit, as we have been invited to a few events this summer that require it).

Now, the intelligent thing to do once this moth tragedy struck would have been to immediately clean out the closet, throw out all the holey stuff, wash the non-woolens in hot water, vacuum and wipe down the walls and floor... and protect all the other woolens in the house.

But I was really ill (still am, but getting SO much better!) and my daughter was ill and my husband was already doing all of the housework and much of the childcare... so I just SHUT THE DOOR and tried not to think about it until I had time to really attack it. It became the closet DMZ. Since then, I have just tried to make do with clothes from my dresser drawers, but I am much more rumpled than usual as a result.

Anyway... last night we heard some fluttering and other scary noises coming from the closet, like some moths had just hatched and were TRYING TO GET OUT. So I jumped up in terror and ran to protect my newly hand-knit sweater, bagging it up in a giant Ziploc and putting it in a drawer with some cedar balls.

So... yeah. Er. Once I'm feeling better physically, I think I had better tackle that closet before I actually try and sew anything. Especially anything wool.

Any tips and advice or experiences on de-moth-ifying are very welcome. Have you ever had to deal with these hungry little terrors?

Me Made Maybe YES 2013!

Tell me: is this skirt I made for my daughter's mermaid-themed birthday party last year office appropriate?

So last year I toyed with the idea of participating in Zoe's awesome annual me-made challenge, but quickly gave up once I did an inventory of the pitiful few options available. I've sewn and knit many items over the years... but most were maternity clothes or Halloween costumes, or are now too small or too big or too warm (I wear wool socks and sweaters all through the winter, but they aren't such a great fit for May weather in NYC).

Since then, due to long-term chronic illness issues for myself and my little girl, I haven't added a huge number of new me-mades... but I'd still like to give it a shot. I have a few UFOs that just need a little help to be wearable, and a long queue of simple things I'd like to sew once I'm all recovered from surgery and feel capable of actually sitting down at the sewing machine. Plus I have several pairs of me-made underthings that I will count for the challenge (but not actually photograph).

'I, Mikhaela Reid of Polka Dot Overload, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear at something handmade at least four times a week for the duration of May 2013.'

In all seriousness, I'll probably end up wearing my polka-dot ombré dress at least once a week:

And the Jalie scarf-collar top too (I have another that's almost finished, but the fabric is so sheer I'm afraid to wear it):

So prepare to be bored (or alternatively, AMAZED if I manage to add a number of new items).

Anyone else participating for the first time? Please tell me your list of actual wearables is as pathetic as mine...

Sweater Girl Success: Finished Chartreuse Georgina Cardigan!

My spring green Georgina cabled & lace cardigan is finally done, just in time for spring!

My original "Sweater Girl Showdown Sketch":

My original sketch, from... um... a year ago. See my "sweater girl showdown" post for more on each of these patterns. My goal was to make a very fitted, curve-hugging little lacy cardigan with a bit of negative ease—nothing baggy or shapeless like my last cardigan disaster!

The details:

• The pattern: Georgina Cardigan by Alexis Winslow aka Knit Darling. This pattern is beautifully designed and was a dream to knit: lots of easy-to-memorize but fun and different types of lace and cables and shaping to keep my interest, all knit together or picked up (no after-the-fact seaming). However it was NOT an easy knit (I consider myself relatively advanced and I still made a few mistakes and had to pay very close attention), and I wouldn't recommend it as a first-ever sweater pattern, unless you REALLY like a challenge. I made the smallest size, which was 2-3 inches smaller than my actual full bust measurement—just right to create a fitted look!
• The yarn: Swans Island Hand-Dyed Merino Organic Worsted in Spring Green (3.5 skeins). Soft as a cloud, with just enough hand-dyed variegation for interest, but not enough to compete with the beautiful lace or eyelet cables. Swans Island is a super-cool little eco-friendly yarn and blanket company based in Maine, and they have excellent customer service: when I realized I was short a skein for my last sleeve, they immediately offered to call around to all their retail shops to help me locate one in the right dye lot (Purl Soho had one left—phew!).
• The full Ravelry project details. Yes, it took me a year to finish, but whatever. The designer notes it only took her a week and a half—but I knit like a knitting snail (I have to to preserve my wrists from carpal tunnel redux).

It looks cute buttoned:

Or un-buttoned:

And from the lacy little back, too:

And don't you love vintage buttons? I got these "West German Radiant Buttons" at La Casita yarn shop in Brooklyn (one of three yarn shops in walking distance of my apartment... which makes me either spoiled, or just at constant risk of unnecessary yarn adoption):

I finished the sweater while lying in bed recovering from my surgery—all it needed were some ends woven in and the buttons, and... DONE! (No, I haven't blocked it. It fits so well I'm afraid to mess with that. I will at some point). It was the only bright spot in a really rough painful post-surgery week — I'm getting a lot better, but still have some really bad days — and I got lots of compliments on it at work Monday.

And sorry about the goofy "holding the curtain as a backdrop" photos, but I was too weak/ill to go outside last weekend and had to make do in some very low cloudy lighting. BUT WHATEVER. SWEATER LOVE. I think I need to go snuggle with my sweater now...

What's your latest happy make?

TARDIS sock progress + Blue Alpaca Cabled Earflap Hat Redux

Dear Doctor and Clara: I love you. Sincerely, Mikhaela. (P.S. But I still miss Amy and Rory).

I know I said my next knitting project would be colorwork gloves, but then I remembered Doctor Who was coming back tonight and I went for colorwork TARDIS socks instead... More details later when I am farther along. (Two other women in the Brooklyn Burdastyle Sewing Club are knitting them too—they'll probably both finish before I do at my snail's pace.)

The whole stranded aka fair isle colorwork knitting thing isn't quite as hard as I anticipated. The only tricky part for me was just teaching myself to knit English-style with one hand and continental with the other — like jumping up and down and patting your head and stomach and singing at the same time, but doable. The lettering looks a little fuzzy so far so I will touch it up with duplicate stitch as suggested.

And here's the hat I finished while lying in bed after my surgery:

The pattern is 18 Seconds to Sunrise by Tiffany Gallagher and the yarn is Misti Alpaca Chunky Baby Alpaca in Marine.(Full Ravelry details here.) I had already knit this hat before but had to unravel it and add an extra pattern repeat because it was just too tight no matter how I blocked it. This time I added the earflaps and i-cord (aka "idiot cord") tassels and am much happier all round. I feel like without earflaps I either have to knit a hat so big it covers my eyes, or I just constantly tug at the sides to keep my ears warm. I-cord was also new to me and was much simpler than colorwork!

I realize the photos are a bit odd because I am wearing it with a lace camisole tank top thing instead of a coat, but it's nearly 60 degrees in Brooklyn today and I'm still too sick/weak to go out much.

Oh, and little Z wanted her turn to wear both the hat and matching cowl too:

Are you a Doctor Who fan? If so, what do you think of Clara so far? Would you ever do a geeky craft project or are you a bit too sophisticated for that?

P.S. Thank you all so much for your good wishes before and after my surgery! It means a lot to me! I'm still not at 100% (more like 60%) but I am getting better every day and finally was able to return to work.

Name that flirty Hummingbird! (presale + a post-surgery update)

Hi all! I'm still recovering from my surgery, which has been SOOOO much harder than I expected! (General anesthesia and I are NOT friends, and for days afterwards I could do nothing but sleep, cry, eat gelatin and take pain-killers.)

... but I wanted to make sure you were all aware of the Hummingbird Presale for Cake Patterns, which runs through April 7!

Also, StephC and I had so much fun working on the girls for the cover (she modeled, I drew), but while you may have met Maya on the cover of Pavlova, our background girl still needs a name. Ideas, please? (Of the suggestions so far, I love Ingrid, Clea and Izzy...). As before, my cartoonist husband Masheka was the designer.

Here's the back image... Oh I just love peplums and flounces! Also, I love green and pink together. And bright colors... you know me!

More details on Hummingbird and the presale over at 3 Hours Past.

As for the surgery... I was on strict bed-rest for a week, and have to take it easy for another week, but I'm now breathing through my nose and free of a sinus infection for the first time in MONTHS. I was actually able to smell my delicious spicy lunch food today. AMAZING. I cannot WAIT to be well enough to SEW, I tell you what! Thank you all for your super sweet well wishes.

Here's a drawing my 2-year-old daughter Z did of her taking care of me during my surgery recovery... she drew a bandage on her face as well (she's the tiny one) to make me feel better. "Mommy is happy because the doctor fixed her hurt nose":

P.S. Not much knitting while lying in bed, but I did weave in the ends on my cardigan and reknit a too-tight hat (scroll down) I had to frog because it was giving me headaches ... pictures when I can! And I wound the balls of yarn for a pair of TARDIS socks (the dear Doctor is back in just a few days after all).

Glove Inspiration: Making My Knitting Life More Colorful (and Difficult!)

Source: ravelry.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

Inspiration for my next knitting: maralenenok's "Worth Two in the Bush" colorwork gloves on Ravelry

At long last, I have finished knitting my chartreuse Georgina cardigan, and although I still have to sew in the ends, find some buttons and block the lovely soft thing, I'm super happy—it fits perfectly (that is, very snug and not all baggy and droopy like the last cardigan I made for myself) and is just soft as an organic merino wool cloud.

Which means I can look forward to my next project, something I've always wanted to tackle—gloves with real fingers! I know knitters love making mittens, but I am just not a mitten wearer. Fingerless mitts are also more popular and easier than gloves, and I've made two pairs... a Malabrigo "Fetching":

... which I wear all the time when my office is chilly, but which are not so useful outside in the actual freezing winter cold. And a pair of "Dashing" man mitts for my husband...

Source: ravelry.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

... which I'm afraid never actually get worn, since his home office is never actually cold.

But I want gloves. Real gloves. Difficult gloves with tricky little fingers. And COLORWORK, which I've never actually done. So I'm going to follow in the footsteps of all the enterprising Ravelers who have made gloved versions of Eunny Jang's lovely free colorwork pattern, the Endpaper Mitts:

Source: eunnyjang.com via Mikhaela on Pinterest

This is not exactly a new plan, since I bought the yarn for this project back in 2008. It's Koigu Premium Merino in two of my favorite colors—chartreuse (naturally) and teal:

Hurrah for stash-busting?

By the way... It took me a good deal longer to finish the Georgina than the one and a half weeks suggested by the pattern, but who's counting? As I've probably mentioned a gazillion times, things have been quite rough over here for me and my little girl, healthwise. In January, we ended up taking little Z to an amazing two-week intensive hospital program for kids with severe eczema, asthma and food allergies at National Jewish Health in Denver. It was life-changing: little Z is no longer covered in horrible itchy rashes and she SLEEPS every night through the night from about 9:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. (No more crying and itching herself awake until 1 a.m. and needing to be held all night long).

But alas, a few blissful weeks of sleep have not alleviated my own health problems. I've now had EIGHT serious sinus infections in the last six months with fever, chills and aches, four of which required antibiotics and oral steroids. Basically, I get really, really sick, am bedridden for 2-4 days, slowly start to recover over the next three weeks... and then after maybe two or three days of feeling OK, I get sick again (There's nothing wrong with my immune system, either.). A CAT scan revealed a severely deviated septum and other anatomical issues, and I'm scheduled for sinus surgery in a little over a week. I'm really looking forward to it—to having energy, to not being snuffly and exhausted and feverish and in pain all the time... to having more fun with my little girl... and to sewing again, of course!

So, two questions. For the knitters:

• Have you ever knit gloves?
• What's your stand on gloves vs. mittens vs. fingerless mitts?
• Do you do colorwork?

And for all of you: do you ever get that urge to tackle a project that is going to be really tricky and make you swear a lot? And how does that work for you?

Pavlova Presale! + Small Sewing Updates!

Pavlova... The latest delicious pattern from Cake, with illustrations by yours truly and graphic design by my talented hubby. And the $11 presale ends tomorrow, Dec. 20!

Dear fellow seamstresses, seamsters, sewists, sewaholics, knitfanatics, etcetera: I hope you're all having a lovely and craftalicious holiday season. Despite the somewhat despondent tone of my last post, I have several slightly exciting things to report:

I actually near-sewed a top last weekend. It was another Jalie 2921 scarf-collar top, this time in three-quarter sleeves in white rayon knit with red polka dots. I am not showing it to you yet for several reasons:

1. It is rather transparent. Oops!
2. It is rather snug. Really, it fits PERFECTLY, but considering issue (1), perhaps I should have been more generous with the ease. It's very sexy secretary. Er.
3. I haven't actually hemmed it yet. I thought I had plenty of time (my parents borrowed my toddler for a family Chanukah celebration) BUT neglected to calculate in the three hours it always takes me to curse my serger into submission and actually get it stitching every time I pull it out of the closet after months of disuse.

Still... baby steps. Also:

The knitting has been helping me relax a little, and I almost have one sleeve on my chartreuse sweater. Really! (Pictures soon on all of this!)

Pavlova, The second pattern I've illustrated for Cake is now in presale (until tomorrow, Dec. 20, it's $11 instead of $17). I had so much fun with this — we moved the background model from Tiramisu, Esme, to the front and center, and added a new cover woman, Maya. And as you can see, with this pattern and Tiramisu, I'm trying to create girls of various figure types who are all gorgeous — but realistically so.

AND I've been enjoying seeing a number of delicious Tiramisus around the blogosphere. I'm hoping I can actually make one myself over the long Christmas weekend, but that might be overly ambitious for my current circumstances.

But back to Pavlova for a minute. Steph and I had fun designing a little paper doll / rag doll pattern (a "petit four" if you will) for the cover girl, Esme. So this weekend my daughter Z and I gave her a test run in paper — Z decided she would look best with purple hair, brown skin, brown eyes, blue top, green shoes and bracelet and a yellow polka dot skirt. I think her instincts were spot-on:

Warm holiday wishes and happy sewing to you all!

P.S. Thank you again for all your kind comments on my last post... I can't even describe how much your support and digital hugs meant to me!

P.P.S. When I am able... I have NOT forgotten about the blog giveaway I ran back in June. Really! Please just consider it a longish delay.

Knitting Therapy

Don't worry, I didn't have to rip my sweater back to the beginning, I just needed a knitting image to go with the post title.

Part 1: The rut. Being in it. Etc.

When you fall out of the habit of making things, sometimes the smallest stumbling blocks seem insurmountable. You take a short pause, get stopped up or stuck... and then somehow it's months later and you can't remember where you keep the extra bobbins or where your elastics are or how the hell to do a wrap and turn.

By you, I mean of course, me.

It's been a long time now — nearly four months — since I mentioned I was struggling on a few fronts that were keeping me from crafting: Struggling with my daughter's life-threatening food allergies and debilitating severe chronic eczema. Struggling with a strict budget. Struggling with lack of sleep (due to afore-mentioned toddler eczema).

At the time I hoped it was all temporary, and in a month or so I'd have it sorted. But bad turned into worse, and temporary into never-ending. I'm afraid I even stopped reading all your wonderful blogs because it hurt too much to feel so behind and so out of the sewing and knitting loop.

On top of the above-mentioned, the minute my sweet girl started preschool, she (predictably) began catching every cold virus known to humankind. She'd get minor sniffles and a cough and be better in a few days... but between my sleep-deprivation and my own seasonal allergies, I began getting repeatedly seriously sick. Not cold sick, but fever and chills and fatigue and aches sick for weeks on end. I'd get well for a few days, begin to get back on my feet, try to catch up on my life and work and chores... and then the whole cycle would start again.

So. How does this relate to "knitting therapy"?

Part 2: The knitter on the subway.

Recently I was trying to keep my eyes open on the subway train after yet another horrible sleepless night of trying to soothe my daughter as she cried and itched and scratched from head to toe from her severe eczema. I was feeling pretty distraught and sorry for myself, and just generally glum and anxious and worried and tired. I was worried that the latest expensive time-intensive eczema treatment regimen would just be another bust. I was tired of all the well-meaning advice and comments from strangers on the street alarmed by the cracked, flaking, inflamed, infected red rash covering her face ("What's wrong with her face?" "Have you tried Vaseline?" etc.) I worried that I had distanced myself from my friends, and that the people around me that I hadn't pushed away were probably sick of hearing about nothing but my little girl's food allergies and eczema. I worried that the slight sore throat I had was a harbinger of yet another miserable few weeks of illness.

Across from me on the subway there was a knitter. I found myself watching her calmly click-clacking her needles, working her way stitch by stitch through a thick wooly gray — scarf? sweater? it was unclear. I have no idea what was going through her mind, but she seemed utterly relaxed and absorbed in her work.

And I remembered my soft chartreuse merino Georgina cardigan, the one I had near-finished in September.

I realized the only thing that had kept me from moving to the next stage was that I just hadn't taken the time to search for the size 6 double-pointed needles I needed to pick up and knit the sleeves.

I didn't get around to searching out the needles just yet — I barely felt capable of putting my clothes on the right way front in the mornings – but I felt a tickling at the back of my brain.

Then I was watching an online webinar about the latest advances in managing pediatric eczema (yes, that's how I occupy myself these days) ... and the doctor presenting mentioned that they had some success in teaching children to keep their hands busy with knitting as a way of distracting them and calming them and stopping them from scratching their rashes and infections. As a kind of meditation.

Part 3: Digging out the DPNs.

It still took me a while. But, a few mornings later, while my husband packed me a lunch and got my daughter dressed, I found a few moments to rummage through my knitting drawers and find my size 6 wooden DPNs.

I began to knit again on my lunch break (I didn't want to mess with DPNs and short rows and lace and picking up stitches all at once on a crowded subway). It came back to me — mostly, though I had to look up tutorials on short rows and even which direction a yarn over is supposed to go (really). And I can't describe the feeling of relief and calm that came over me — even amidst the sleep deprivation and anxiety and worry for my sweet little girl — as the soft wool fed through my fingers and I clicked the needles back and forth.

Anyway. The title of this post is a bit of a joke, but a bit not. When you're really low, there is something to be said for the calm that comes from making things with your own hands, with doing something that is just complicated enough to absorb most of your attention, but not so much your mind can't wander a bit or you can't speak.

Part 4: Relearning the habit.

I really miss you all (am I still in your feed readers?) though I can't make any promises that I'll be back at active sewing or blogging or even blog-reading any time soon. But I no longer feel totally interrupted in my crafting, and maybe I can relearn the habit of never not making things, even in the small moments I have available to me.

On another front... my daughter's eczema has been so frighteningly bad lately that I couldn't possibly show any photos of her sweet little face here. But today, a new regimen we've been trying has been having some tentatively positive results... and we were actually able to take a family holiday photo. This is a huge deal.

Thanks for listening!