A Two Dollar Experiment

At three in the morning, when any sane person would have been sleeping, I was not, which means I'm blankly staring at the screen willing the words to write themselves. I was listening to my husband snore and resisting the very strong urge to put a pillow over his face. It's just tempting fate to snore your wife awake. That went on for over an hour. No amount of prodding, pushing, rolling him over, changed anything and then, the tenor changed. Thank God but...

He's been for sleep studies and to ear, nose, and throat specialists as well as the regular doctor and the conclusion - the situation isn't bad enough to warrant any intervention. Hmm... define bad enough. Define it at my house, at three in the morning, when you're the one NOT sleeping. Makes for a cranky Myrna - LOL. Since I was awake anyway, I started thinking about the process of creating.




When I was producing textile art, I would start with something, usually a piece of fabric, and create the piece one step at a time by continually responding to what was in front of me. Some of my favourite fashion sewing happens when I transfer that same way of working. It calls on you to use all of your skills in new ways, to pull from your current repertoire and to develop new abilities as necessary. That's what happened with the sweater above. It started life as Simplicity 2552, which looked buttoned up boring on me. I felt like Miss Priss in it and love the reworked version. It gets a lot of compliments.




When I realized the self ribbed purple fabric was going to be too stiff, Plan B was to use the two fabric above hoping that the pleated one would nicely drape for the flounce. It didn't. That led to Plan C which was to clean up the fabric closet and see what was in there. I refolded and boxed and sorted and cleared and things are looking more manageable now. This is good.




There were a LOT of black, grey, and purple fabrics that surprisingly don't go together well. I debated these two purple knits intending to use the wider rib - softer than it looks - for the body of the sweater and the smaller rib for the frill. I changed my mind when I realized the stretch went in the "wrong" direction and the ribs would be horizontal. NOT. Plan D was to use just the narrower ribbed purple.

There were a couple options for forming the frill. A straight strip just hung there without any fall even with lettuce edging. I'm always intrigued by how a fabric responds to lettuce edging. The reworked sweater fabric above responded beautifully. This one only formed gradual rolls as opposed to the tighter, close together ones that I prefer. I then tried transparent elastic along the other edge to gather it up and when that didn't work used a long basting stitch and my finger behind the presser foot. As you can see, it's relatively full. Next time, I'll try a flounce cut from a circle.

The frill is hand basted on. I need to stitch it securely, hem the sleeves, finish the neckline, and add the button closure. When I asked my husband what he thought of the sweater, he said it's perfect for a party but maybe too fluffy for every day. Since I wasn't making it for the party and I was making it for every day over a skirt or jeans, that's an interesting observation. Apparently, it's going to take him a while to adjust to any changes in my style as well.

We'll see how I feel when the sweater is finished and I try it on. What's so fun is..... I bought the fabric for $1.00 a meter in the bargain center in Red Deer last summer when I was visiting my daughter. This is a two dollar experiment. YES YES.

Have a great weekend. Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - sleep