Knit Was It

The last time I sewed - twenty years ago - I sewed a lot of blouses and wore them all the time. Then babies, body changes, and working from home happened and I ended up forever in t-shirts, or so it seemed. It was impossible to buy a blouse that fit and I had no time to sew so... knit was it.

Since then, I've realized that I'm not comfortable in the typical, crisp, button down blouse and I especially do NOT want anything fastened right up to my neck. Even so, I thought a blouse would be pretty and now, I have one. YES YES - This raspberry fabric is a soft, rayon batik. It's lightweight with drape and flow. Far more me than crisp.




Even though it has been a long time, I still remember blouse sewing details like attaching the collar stand right side to wrong side so that when the collar lays open, the stitched part is revealed while the hand stitching is tucked underneath the collar. Works like wonderful. Be careful to keep the top upward when you attach the collar. It's easy to get it turned around.




Way too many patterns have way too much sleeve ease. This one - McCall's 6035 - fit nicely through the back as you can see in this picture but...




... had almost 2" of ease through the front of the sleeve cap. You can't spread that out between the notches because the center point at the top of the sleeve cap needs to match the shoulder seam or the sleeves will hang twisted. I couldn't ease that much extra fabric in smoothly without the puckering you see in the picture below AND... there was no need to. A sleeve doesn't require extra ease. Stitching the ease lines should pull the cap in enough without gathering.




On the front only, I slashed from the sleeve cap to the seam allowance on the opposite side and then overlapped the edges 1/2" to remove 1" of ease. As you can see, this shifted the position of the pattern on the previously cut sleeve taking out ease along the cap and shifting the one side. I pressed the two sleeves right sides together, re-pinned the pattern, and re-cut the sleeves.

When they were inserted again, the back continued to fit smoothly and the puckers were completely gone from the front sleeve cap. MUCH better.

Where in the past I would have put up with puckers or even with buttonholes on the wrong side, I've since learned that if I can, I want to make it better. Doing my best at each stage is a personal choice. It's one that I made with my textile work and it advanced my skills considerably. I want to do the same with fashion sewing. There's no rush. I can take the time to do my best especially when I see something to correct. That's how skills are developed - practice, practice, practice.

It's knitting day. Kyle has a doctor's appointment. After that, I'll drive him to school, and then go. I had to rip back yesterday. The sweater was getting too wide above the lace ribbing. I wanted to do that at home and pick up the stitches carefully. I did. Now, it's ready for straight stockinette stitching. I should make a lot of progress knitting at the doctor's office, at arts & crafts, and at knit night. YEAH.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - Becel has developed a vegan margarine with only 0.2% soy lecithin and only the possibility of 0.2% corn. That was low enough to take the risk. I tried it yesterday. It was good. YEAH - butter on muffins, butter on vegetables, butter for icing, butter, butter, butter - or as good as it gets. YES YES YES

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Personal Growth - O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art. - hymn originating with Carl Gustaf Broberg, 1849-1940, Sweden

We sang hymns in both the morning and the evening services of the church I grew up in. I love to sing and Sundays were one of the few opportunities I had each week. To this day, hymns resonate with me. Many are committed to memory and pop into my mind at the strangest of moments. The hymn above, How Great Thou Art, is a particular favourite.

God is powerful beyond amazing and yet he doesn't always act in the ways that we wish he would. Because of that, life often fails to make sense. We're human. We question. That's the way we were created.

Standing at my living room window, I look down at the houses below me. Two in with a dark roof is the home of a couple who married about five or six years ago. She lost her first husband, he lost his first wife, to cancer. She had two small children; he had two grown children. They fell in love and it seemed a perfect mix. Now, her oldest son, thirteen, is dying of a rare brain tumor, the same one that his Dad died from. It seems so unfair, so unjust. My heart aches. If you think of them, please pray for Zach and his family.