Pinstripe Pants! & A little back story.

Just another quick pair of slacks for my new work wardrobe. I purchased this wool in Sicily many years ago on my first venture out after my late husband passed away.

Within a month of hearing a terminal diagnosis, my company let us know they were going to "downsize and sell the business to a competitor. I was an outside salesperson and the other company did strictly telemarketing. So I had several major life changes within a very short six months.

In trying to decide what I wanted to do, I made lists of what I was going to do with my life. At that point, just a few months shy of my 50th birthday, I sat and though about what I'd always wanted to do and didn't have the time, money, or energy for. There were several items on my list, and one was that  I'd always wanted to go back to school and get some kind of degree. In order to determine if it was something that would work for me, I took an Italian language class. Towards the end of the semester, some of my classmates about my age were talking about a local club that had fabulous and relatively inexpensive group tours, and they had one coming up to Sicily. Ten days. I thought about it and waffled, and went back and forth.

Finally I decided I wanted to go. I called to sign up and found out I was on a waiting list. I figured that if I were meant to go, I'd be cleared, if not, the Universe was telling me to stay home.
It turned out I had about 10 days from clearing the waiting list to departure. I did some quick sewing, and some packing, and off I went. It was glorious! So far as I remember, it was October of 1998. I loved being back in school, and I loved the trip. In my youth I worked as a travel agent for about 10 years, and it brought back all the longing for travel and to see the world. The weather was great, and I was enthralled with the depth of knowledge and history the guides were able to impart. Overall very successful!

Moving on, while there I decided I needed to buy some Italian wool as my "souvenir" of the trip. . I had a friend go with me and we wandered through the market until we found the correct shop. In my first year halting Italian, I was able to let him know what I wanted. It has been in stash for so long, and I wasn't sure which piece of wool was which until I got it out and was doing the prep prior to cutting, I use Eucalan soap, soak the wool for about 30 minutes in cold water with the Eucalan, and then hang to dry. When I got ready to press, I found this on the selvage:

Winner! A few days later, these were ready for my first meeting at work on Monday:

So now I'm on to a muslin for a new blouse. I hope to get several long sleeved, woven, business like blouses made during the month of December, and maybe a couple more pair of slacks. We'll see how it goes!

P.S. The last post omitted most of the verbiage! It did say Happy Thanksgiving. So I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day.

iT'S TURKEY DAY!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wishing all my blog friends a lovely thanksgiving with lots of food, friends, relatives, fun and love!

I'll be back soon with some more sewing projects.

Work pants

Feels a bit strange to be making a work wardrobe again, but I'm having fun and enjoying the fact that I'll be meeting lots of new folks and making money at the same time! AND best of all, it's only for a few months, so the rest of the year, we're hoping to get to play explorers when we have a long weekend.

My knees are improving and I notice odd things at odd times. I'm far ahead of my friend that had both knees replaced a few months before I did my stem cell therapy, so it's encouraging. I did see somewhere on a site that a woman who had hers done indicated it was about a year before she felt back to her "before" status. In that case, I'm only half way through and am pleased with my progress. It is odd though that I am having to "relearn" how to walk correctly. After 10 years +/- of knee problems, I had adapted my stance and my way of walking. Now I'm working back to normal and frequently get odd leg cramps because of the change. I am hoping it will eventually get me back the 1 1/2" inches that I've shrunk, but at the ripe old age of almost 72, I'm not holding my breath.

Anyhow, I spent my odd minutes here and there last week working on another core piece. These are a quick pair of slacks out of a grey stretch cotton. I'm pretty sure it's a piece I got from Gorgeous Fabrics back in May of 2016. Unfortunately, I copied the photo off the website, but didn't attach a swatch when it got here. I used the same Burda TNT pattern I've been using for almost everything that covers my lower half.

I do have some black linen for the next pair of slacks, and probably will also make a pair of black tropical weight wool ones too.

I also pulled out a very old Burda pattern...from before they added seam allowances! I looked but it doesn't have a copyright date on it, so not sure, but the wide shoulders appear to be maybe from the 80's? Fairly bad picture but my scanner isn't working so I'm having to use pictures from the Internet.

I had originally cut this back when I was a size 14 or European size 40, so I had to use the pieces from view A, the green one. I had made a lot of these tops back in the day to wear under a suit jacket, and I figured if I can adapt it to my current size using my Suzy Furrer block it should work. Plus it is super easy and quick to do. I have the pattern copied off with my adjustments and will be playing with that in the next day or so. If it works, a nice rayon challis will work well for my future plans.

Well, more later! Hope your sewing endeavors are going well!

Dia de los Muertos shirt

Just a quick post today to document that I actually made a shirt for my sweet husband.

Back in 2013 he had a quadruple bypass and ever since has been saying he came back from the dead. Quite some time ago he requested a shirt out of Dia de los Muertos fabric to wear on Halloween as well as to commemorate the life giving surgery. Long story, but the first one was done with a commercial pattern and did not fit AT ALL.

If you're unfamiliar with the Holiday and want to know more about it, here's a link to the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead

I went ahead and did a pattern draft for him, and it mellowed in the pattern drawer for several years as every time I'd offer to make it up, his response was he didn't want to take me away from what I wanted to do. Well, things changed this year.

Shortly after I started my tax classes, he said he wanted the shirt for this year. He's driving a school bus and many of the drivers were special things for Halloween. In and around my classes and homework (about 35 or 40 hours a week) I put together a shirt using the parts I found. Unfortunately, it's not perfect, and I've made some notes on changes for the next shirt I'll make him. But bottom line is he loved it, wore it, got lots of compliments at work.

So without further ado:

It's a bit wrinkled after a day of having a seat belt attached, but it didn't wrinkle as much as I anticipated being 100% cotton. I've got a few ideas for some more shirts, perhaps for Christmas in and around making clothing for my new work life.

There are a pair of grey pinstripe trousers almost cut out and ready to go, so I'll be off to work on them.

Hoping your sewing is going marvelously and you're enjoying your processes! More later!