The opportunities in crisis

Simplicty 4076. I know, you were thinking it must be Burda with a neckline that plunging. I'm thinking this will always be a layering piece.



Thank you to every one of you who have left messages of support or sent me recipes. I appreciate the effort you have gone to and am touched by your kindness.

The most important lesson, and the one I have found to be most comforting, is the need to let go, and allow things to unfold as they do. Every parent at some point has to stand back to accept their children as they are and respect the journey their life is taking. My time has come earlier than most.

My disappointments with my last 2 projects have also provided plenty of fodder for reflection. I made them on a whim, and they ended up whimsical. Actually, I really don't like things to be that obvious.

This time I listened to the fabric. It told me quite clearly that it really liked all the twist tops that were going round blogworld and this is how it would like to be made up.

So I agreed. The fabric also told me that I should buy myself a spare twin needle because I was going to break the current one before this project was out.

Now twin needles are about $20 each so I wasn't in a big hurry to oblige. I thought to myself, OK, I'll just be extra super careful with the one I've got, I'm just being paranoid, it'll be OK.

What happened ? Before I had even taken ONE stitch I broke the needle. I couldn't believe it.

But I choose to look on the bright side, this isn't so much the loss of the ability to sew a hem with a twin needle so much as an opportunity to buy a cover-stitch. Which I shall do, next week. I'm thinking a Baby lock, because I'm a sucker for jet-of-air threading.

And lo! More opportunities in crisis - the timer on my machine is out so I can only sew half a buttonhole before it thinks it's finished. What a great time to visit two velco numbers in a back issue of Burda that I borrowed from the ASG.




Here is what the FBA looks like. You have to make sure to match the extra you added on the top piece to the bottom piece so that both sides of the underbust piece match and can be sewn together.

The trashy jacket

I have been doing a lot of cooking. Seriously, a lot of cooking - baking once in the morning and then making a full dinner. I never realised before how much I relied on purchased food: yoghurt, bread, plain biscuits, crackers - always purchased. Now everything has to be made from scratch because B is not allowed preservatives.

Truly it's like going back in time 100 years.

In the evening I've been doing a bit of sewing. I remade the Palmer/Pletsch perfect jean jacket in faux fur (McCalls 5860). I'm not sure why but it seemed a good idea at the time.



Now it seems a bit of a crazy idea as fur is a bit bulky and it's so hard and shiny. Feeling a little like I'm working the aging rocker look.



The good news is now that I've made it I've realised that the denim one was quite good after all and I'm actually enjoying wearing that. This would be the first time I've preferred the muslin over the final product but hey at least something's wearable.

I really love the touch of the silky fur (it's a beautiful cotton/viscose mix) but I think that may be female specific. My husband's verdict was that the jacket was trashy looking and the idea of a hirsute female had no appeal whatsoever.

So it's off to the magic wardrobe with this one too!