A Big Green Patch On My Right B..b

Wednesday was supposed to be switch day with cleaning and errands to mark the change from work to play in the studio only I realized that with the house for sale, viewers tend to come around the weekend so it'd be better to enjoy working in the studio on Wednesday and do the cleaning on Thursday or Friday as required. That turned out to be a good decision. I'm cleaning this morning; viewers this afternoon.

The back is my favourite part of the project so far. As you can see, the side seams are open and the collar is only pinned in place BUT... it looks great already.

Here's an example of one of those issues you have to deal with that I mentioned yesterday - there's a lot of bulky seams along the armhole. The pattern was drafted with 5/8" seam allowances. With exposed serging, 1/4" of that gets serged away which may be just enough to cut around the bulk otherwise I'll need to pick out the stitches and skinny the seam allowance down a bit.

One of the most difficult aspects of this project has been to remember to sew wrong sides together with an exposed seam. With the patchwork, mistakes were easily fixed. I just cut off the seam and did it over correctly. When I sewed the shoulder seams backward, it wasn't so easy.

There is a big green patch on my right b--b! The collar is toning it down a little bit. I'll wait until the end to decide if a repair job is in order only I can't think of anything, other than a smaller darker patch, that would solve rather than highlight the issue. The grey patch on the other side is similar but not so big. An idea will come to me. I'm just letting it sit for now.

The collar is the ribbing from the XXL men's sweater that I bought at Value Village. I cut the bottom off leaving about 1/2" of sweater above and pinned that edge to the neckline. The other edge was stretched through the serger in hopes of getting a lettuce finish only it's a REALLY stable knit so no such luck. I do love this blue around the neckline though.

Each piece was cut individually. After removing the pins and before picking up the piece, I pressed a 3/8" wide strip of fusible knit interfacing around the neckline and a 3/4" wide strip across the shoulders to stabilize. The interfacing is fused to the right side of the neckline and the collar is pinned over the interfacing. Later, I'll stitch an exposed seam with the interfacing invisibly sandwiched between the main body and the collar. With the shoulder, the interfacing was fused to the wrong side and encased in the shoulder seams.

Above are the good scraps. The pile on the left is assorted small bits. The pile on the right is sweater yardage. I've used almost all of the dark blue otherwise there's more than enough for several cardigans. I'm not sure what I'll do with these left overs but as you know, I have a hard time throwing out potential although...

... I told myself these little bits absolutely had to go even if I have ideas for them and am resisting the urge to drag them back out of the garbage before it's too late. Otherwise I'll be starring in some reality show about artists with studios full of hoarded scraps.

Finishing the cardigan will have to wait until after the house showing because even at this stage, there's fluff everywhere. I need to vacuum... again. Luckily the viewers are coming early in the afternoon so - hopefully - I can get a bit more done before dinner plus Wendy is coming to work on her quilt tonight and I can sew then.

Once I finish the shoulder seams, it's time to plan the sleeve hems and the frill around the bottom. The sleeve hems will probably be blue like the collar but I'm not sure about the frill. The original intent was to use the ribbed grey with a lettuce edge because it's a light and flowing and easily shaped fabric only now I think that will be too light in value to work with the rest of the patchwork. Hmm... we'll see. That's be another "issue" to deal with.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - another showing

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Personal Growth - I referred to the land between in a blog entry I wrote at the end of October.  It was the title of a sermon about the Israelites roaming around in the desert. The pastor talked about the desert being fertile ground for several things - complaining, emotional meltdown, God's provision, and God's discipline - and about the importance of living in TRUST. In October, it felt like so many things were yet, still, again up in the air and now it feels as if I may have reached the promised land. In terms of life this side of heaven, I think the promised land is a bit like attaining balance and perhaps they even work together because we seem to flow in and out of them BUT... right now... I'm feeling confident and capable with direction and focus and I'm VERY thankful for that.