THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF SLOW SEWING!

After too many years to count of speedy sewing, trying to get things done quickly, I have become enamored of slow sewing. Why? For one thing, I don't really need many clothes...I have so much and lead a fairly quiet life (Clothes-wise). For another, I have come to appreciate the steps in the process of making something, which includes A LOT of hand sewing, basting, and experiencing the magical process of MAKING.  And for a third thing, I am able to listen to audible books, music, podcasts for some of the time I'm sewing. When I get to a hard part, I turn off the sound and concentrate on what my hands are doing.

So, as I mentioned, I have been working on another Koos van den Akker
pattern, V1493, a kimono-styled jacket with "tulip-banded sleeves".

I made it in an "embossed velvet knit" in two shades of gunmetal gray from Emma One Sock, trimmed with (LOTS OF) bias binding in a stretch taffeta in metallic gray. This jacket used even more bias binding than my previous one, and was very labor-intensive.

Laying out the criss-crossing bias tape on the sleeve band.

After attaching the sleeve band. I probably spent more than 2 weeks on this, but I am very happy with the end result; I wore it out to dinner the other night and received many compliments.

After that was finished, I moved on to a vest to add to my travel wardrobe for our upcoming trip to London and Scotland.

I'm sure you recognize my TNT vest pattern, V1453; the fabric is a very interesting Black and Red Abstract Embroidered Lacy Mesh which I got from

Mood Fabrics sometime last year. It is embroidered wool mesh on a nylon tuile

base.

When I got it, I knew the red wasn't right for my use, it was somewhat on the orange side. So, I overdyed it...SEVERAL TIMES, with different types of dye, until I got the red I wanted. All that hot water also shrunk the wool a little

so that it's not so see-through. I really like it!

I lined it in a red satin, so it should be warm for the all-spectrum weather we will have in Scotland.

We leave a week from today; we will fly to London and spend a few days visiting the new Tate Modern wing and have a dinner at NOPI. Then we'll take a train to Glasgow for 3 days. After that, we'll go by train to Inverness, whereupon we'll embark on a week-long small ship cruise on "The Lord of the Glens" to the "Heart of the Highlands". Neither Dave nor I have been to Scotland, so I'm really looking forward to it.

For those who have asked, this is what I've been reading/listening to in the last few weeks:

books  

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Blacklight Blue by Peter May

Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves

Earthly Remains by Donna Leon

The Old Man by Thomas Perry

audible

Broken Harbor by Tana French

The Secret Place by Tana French

Celine by Peter Heller

music

C.P.E.Bach Symphonies and Cello Concerto

Leonard Cohen, Complete Studio Albums

Madredeus

Mariza

Podcasts-

On Being with Krista Tippett

We've been escaping the ongoing construction and termite work whenever we can...last week we took a picnic lunch to our old winery and vineyard (now Beckmen Vineyards) so I could check out some of the many roses I planted more than 35 years ago...

Those olive trees in the back are part of a gift for my 50th birthday from Dave...
50 olive trees!

Here's Dave with his well-loved and used tractor, which came with the raw land when we bought it in 1979!

My travel wardrobe will rely heavily on my past trips to Portugal and Paris... I have updated the pictures, which follow:

,

As I did during my Paris trip, I will not try to blog, but I will put some photos as we go on my Instagram account, here.  We'll be back the middle of May. This afternoon, I'm heading over to Visible Monday, where Patti is hosting our party!

TTYL

FASHION, FOOD AND FOOTWEAR!

I carved out some studio time over the last two weeks and worked on this;

I returned to V1510, Sandra Betzina's vest pattern from last fall. I have been holding on to this verrrrry interesting fabric from EOS which I got a long time ago. It's a medium weight black jersey with squares of faux leather glued on. It looks a little like an alligator, but with a lot more texture...and you know me, I'm all about texture!

..

I removed the extended shoulder, drafted a facing, and changed the pockets to folded patch pockets. The facing, collar and pocket lining were out of a lightweight faux leather, also from EOS.

Here are closeups of the collar and pockets:

The vagaries of the fabric made this a little hard to fit, but it's unusual and subtle and I really like it! The snuggly boots are my latest Stuart Weitzman find on eBay..."Humzozomay Shearling Studs Wedge Boots"

Dave came in the other afternoon with the first harvest of our "Moro" blood oranges...so we had these at cocktail hour...

 Blood Orange Margarita with Ginger  Beautiful AND Tasty!


Since I had the camera out yesterday, I also took pictures of an outfit I bought in Paris at Juliette Ozouf.I would characterize her clothing as high-end boho...simple shapes, exquisite fabrics, subtle textures.

These are mostly wool, but so lightweight that I can wear them in my climate at least half the year.

Dave and I celebrated our 41st anniversary last week...with a fantastic meal and a bottle of good wine.

To celebrate the arrival of my Rancho Gordo Bean Club quarterly box, I used

the RG Cassoulet beans to make one of my favorite recipes:

Here's the recipe: it's Caramelized Onion Cassoulet and has no meat or cheese in it. It's OUTSTANDING! And while I was at it, I made this: Bon Appetit's Best Chai Masala.

I'm drinking it as I write.

Books? I read "The Dry", a debut novel by Jane Harper set in Australia, which I quite liked. I'm listening to "The Mischling" by Affinity Komar...a very hard book,

but the writing is gorgeous. I listen to it in small segments. It's about a set of twins in Auschwitz. If you can handle the subject matter, it's well worth reading (or listening to).

And finally, sad news about our Teddy...he is deaf. He was not deaf when we picked him up from the breeder, but he is now, and is proving very hard to train.

But we love him dearly and will do everything we can to help him learn his manners.

That's it for now...I'll be heading over to Patti's Visible Monday to join up with the other Visible Women. Come on by!

TTYL

BACK FROM A BREAK!

Happy New Year!

Here we are, 9:00 pm on New Year's Eve, in a motel room in Pella, Iowa,

drinking champagne out of plastic glasses to toast the coming year. We were probably asleep by 10...such an exciting life!

We were in Pella for our eldest grandson's wedding, held in the afternoon of NYE. Here's the bride and groom with Dave and me

the groom with his dad, our son

and with his 3 brothers and 1 sister.

And our beautiful granddaughter

She's one strong young woman, growing up with 4 brothers! I wore a vintage

Marimekko velvet jacket in black and silver.

We fortified ourselves with Bloody Marys before the celebration...

The day after we returned from Iowa, our daughter and granddaughter from Salt Lake City arrived for a short visit. As we usually do for our California-born, but now land-locked family, we stopped at the beach in Santa Barbara for a few pictures.

Look at these 3 cuties!

While they were with us, Dave made a yummy Key Lime Pie...I LOVE having a

husband who bakes!

AND...here's that same guy making fresh pasta with the machine he gave me

for Christmas (I should add here that I had had a pasta machine since the '60s, but Dave gave it away at a garage sale. Anyone relate?)

After the visit, I was eager to get back to sewing, but first I had to give in to the

annual post-holiday urge to purge. Micmac availed himself of a growing pile of

soft clothes to sleep on.

Finally, after filling 6 plastic bags, I was ready to head to my studio.

I finished a robe, V9232, that I had cut out before Christmas, but wasn't able to finish.

The fabric was a garnet Minky from Fabric.com. 

READERS: You are my witnesses...if I EVER think about sewing an article of

clothing out of Minky, faux fur or any other plushy fabric, I've given my friend

Shams the order to come and shoot me. AARRGGHH. My studio is COVERED in

long red fluff as are my nasal passages. 

The robe, though, is very pretty and super soft and comfy. I extended the front zipper and changed it to a 2-way so I can open it to get it on. I changed the pockets to plain patch pockets. It's a little big (I think I made a S), but that's ok with me...it's just more comfy.

A little RTW update...while looking for a coat that would stand up to an Iowa winter (it was actually unseasonably warm while we were there), I found a very

handsome faux-shearling coat.It's by Ralph Lauren, and is not so heavy that I won't be able to wear it here at home.

And why am I gazing lovingly at my shoes? Because they're uber-cool Stuart
Weitzman Zealous Black Platform Studded Oxfords, that's why...

AND I got them for $80 on eBay (orig.$425)!

 And who is this, in his trendy ZenCone? Why it's Teddy, recuperating from a little surgery (neutering, hernia repair). He hates the cone, of course, but it's better than the stiff white one he came home with. 

I'm linking over to Patti's Visible Monday where the cool women go...come on over and see us!

TTYL