Eleven Stitches

Clam Bake (and a Dress)

I realized that most of you probably have no idea what a New England clam bake is like.  I didn't until I started attending them five years ago!  If you're not interested in the details but like sewing, you can skip to the end where I have a dress to show you.

A clam bake is quite an affair, and it takes a lot of planning!  First, several people have to gather rock weed. There's a certain spot my family goes, and it has to be at low tide in order to get to the rock weed. This year, I think they got 14 bags full.

The morning of the bake, we build a large bonfire on the side of our concrete-lined clambake pit. Interspersed in the wood are rocks about the size of cantaloupes.

We light the fire in the morning, and then let it burn for about 4.5 hours.  By this time, the rocks have gotten very, very hot!  Several men dress up in long pants, long sleeves, and gloves to rake the rocks (but not the wood) into the pit. This is so hot that they can only do it for a few minutes at a time, and someone also has a hose to spray them down every once and awhile.

While the men are raking, a lot of us are preparing the food to go into the pit.  We put lobsters, mussels, salmon, corn and onions into wire baskets.

Once all of the rocks have been raked into the pit, we pour all of the rock weed on top of them.  The water stored in the rock weed immediately begins to steam. We start passing the food down a large assembly line to go into the pit.

We have enough food to almost completely fill up the pit.  The steam escaping from the rock weed is very hot, and it cooks the food.

Everything is covered up after this with wet burlap bags, old bedspreads, and a tarp.  We let the food bake for a little over an hour. 

After that, all the food comes out!  We eat the mussels first, as they aren't as good once they go cold.  And then?

Oh, it's a delicious day.  As it gets dark we throw more logs on the bonfire to enjoy its warmth.  We have an unspoken contest with the other houses around the pond to see who has the best fireworks.  We were the unquestionably the champions this year.

You might have spotted me in one of the photos above.  I was wearing what I feel to be proper clambake attire: a very picnic-y dress!

This is Butterick 4443. It came together easily and didn't use a huge amount of fabric given the fuller skirt.  My one problem with it is the wide neck.  It looks nice when it sits correctly, but when I wear the dress, the straps tend to edge away from the shoulders and make the neck look gappy.  I don't know how to fix this.

I love the fabric I used for this dress.  I think it's perfect for a perfect summer day! 

My First Successful Knit

I finished a knit dress!  Now, don't get too excited, hand-knitters.  It's machine sewn, made out of knit fabric.  (I would love to hand-knit a dress, but I haven't taken the huge amount of time to do it yet.)

I think there's a time after learning a craft where I switch over from wearing what I make because I made it to wearing what I make because I like it just as much as what I would buy in a store.  Eventually, the hope is that my craft progresses enough that what I make is better for me than what I could find in a store!  I love wearing my quilting-weight fabric dresses, but I'm not sure I would buy so many of them if it cost money instead of time. The store-bought dresses that I wear and wear are made out of knit fabric.  They're comfortable (like a big t-shirt), they look nice, and they don't wrinkle.  What's not to love?  I've been anxious to try to make my own, but there isn't that much availability of knit fabric that I would like to wear. Last week, Jody and I went fabric shopping in Philly.  I came home with four knit fabrics, in chocolate brown, sheer black, a pink print, and the yellow you see below.  They will keep me busy for a while!

Pattern: McCalls 5752, view B
Modifications: The dress was bunching up funny where the bodice met the waist, so I took it in about half an inch on each side, and everything worked out.  I also made an integrated camisole/slip so I could wear this dress to work and not get in trouble.

The notches to connect the dress to the waist did not seem to match up in a meaningful way, so I had to give this a couple of tries before it looked right.  I'm not sure if it was pattern error or user error!

I learned a lot by reading this thread on Ravelry.  In the past, I would stretch the fabric and sew it with a straight stitch.  That never was comfortable for me, and I couldn't tell where the seam allowances should be because the fabric distorted when it was stretched.  This time I tried zig-zagging all the seams (except gather stitches), and the result was so much better.  The fabric fed easily through the machine, and the seam didn't look distorted when I finished.

I really love how this dress came out, and I'm excited to have another comfortable, great-looking dress in my rotation.  You'll see more knits from me soon, to be sure!

PS.  I seem to have a repetitive stress injury in my elbow.  I think a bunch of things added up to cause the problem, and I'm being proactive about fixing it.  But there might not be too much knitting for the next week or so, as I'm certain that knitting was one of the contributing factors to the problem.

More Sewn Shirts

My knitting is still pretty boring.  I'm about to start the sleeve cap on my first sleeve of Betty, and it seemed forever to get to that point!  So in the meantime, let me catch up on some sewing.

Pattern: Simplicity 4122, View C
Fabric: Spoonflower's fabric of the week from a while back.  I love the pears!
Modifcations: I added a pleat to the bottom of the sleeves to keep them from being so flyaway.

I love, love, love this fabric, and therefore I love the shirt. I do think the design is a little boxy, but I forgive it because the shirt has pears on it!

And here's a second shirt.

Pattern: Simplicity 2927

I feel pretty good in this shirt, but both time I've taken pictures of it it seems to not be fitting me correctly.  Perhaps I'll have to take a look at it again.  In the meantime, I think it's a cute shirt and I love the color combination.

So Good I Did It Again

For those of you keeping track, this is my last float in my FO parade!  I liked the dove shirt I made so much that I decided to make another one (but not with doves).

Pattern: Neue Mode J22717
Fabric: Amy Butler's Midwest Modern 2 Martini in Pink Dahlia/grey
Time to Sew: March 22 - 23

The second go-round of this shirt was super simple. I managed to lose temporarily misplace the directions, but I had no problem putting the pieces together after doing it the first time.  I wanted to make the sleeves a little shorter, and that was fortunate because these were as long as I could get with two yards of fabric!

This is the second time I've used this fabric design (in different colors) to sew a garment,  (This dress being the first) and I'm so impressed with how nicely both garments came out.  I think the modern print and the slimming vertical lines are a winning combination.

I think the modern print is really great in this pattern, as well.  The dove fabric in the first shirt was sweet, but I think this is a really winning fabric + pattern combination.  And it's fun to have a pretty necklace peeping out from this collar.

A little girl in my glass asked me today if I sewed this shirt, and it makes me really happy that she noticed!  I try to share my enthusiasm for knitting and sewing with the children in my classroom, and I love when when they show they're paying attention.

Sewn Shirts

Next in the FO parade is two sewn shirts.  I bought the fabric for both of these when I was in Berkeley, at a great shop called Stone Mountain and Daughter Fabrics.

The pattern is Neue Mode J22717 in size 42 (German sizing).  I found this pattern on sale at the Berkeley store, and I'm so glad I did.  I did have to add the seam allowance onto the pattern, which was a tad annoying, but I'll just make this shirt a few times to make up for that!

I like the way this shirt fits, and it was simple to put together. I cut the sleeves for the correct length to add a cuff, but then I got lazy and didn't put on the cuff.  So the sleeves are in an awkward too-long-for-3/4-length and too-short-for-long-sleeves place.  This is solved by rolling them up, and I have done that quite often! I added several lines of topstitching to secure the facings on the collar and fronts, and also because I think it looks good.

The second shirt is from Simplicity 4149.

I love the fabric I used to make this, and the tunic came together really, really quickly.  I think, however, that it is not so flattering.  I need something that has a defined waist, and this does not. Perhaps I should look for a darted tunic, or I could try adding my own darts to this shirt.  I do still wear it, though, because the fabric is so pretty!

In which my husband saves the day

I've been making great progress on my Venezia Sweater.

This photo was taken at about 8 inches into the body.  I'm loving the way this has knitted up!

I did, however, realize I had a problem when I tried it on.  It was Too Big. I realize now that I just picked the wrong size. (Why I picked the wrong size is still a little bit of a mystery. I know what size I am and that I wanted about zero ease in this sweater.)  Options ran through my head as I was processing this information.  I definitely couldn't rip out all of that work.  Maybe I could have two steeks, one on each side?  Could I live with a too big sweater? 

I went upstairs to complain to my husband, and he had a good suggestion.  He suggested I make it a "half-butt" sweater and re-start my waist decreases now.  (I tried to make this as verbatim as I remember so I can show off the fact that he knows what waist decreases are!)  I tried this out, and if I pulled the sweater down lower (to about half-butt), the sweater fits nicely over my hips, and I was at about the point where I would start waist decreases.

So far so good! I'm now quite happy with the fit, and the sweater will only be a few inches longer than I was planning for it to be.  Also, if I finish the sweater and it looks Too Long, I can always chop off a couple of inches at the bottom and re-sew the hem.  But here's hoping that I won't have to do that!

I'm pretty sure that if he was willing to learn how to knit, my husband would be a great knitter. At least he can help me out with my projects!

Wear a Dress Day

According to Erin from Dress a Day, today is International Wear a Dress Day.  Of course, I had to participate.

This is the same pattern as my Olympic Dress, Butterick B5209 View B.  I wanted an easy success after the ugly dress, and I knew I would get it from this pattern!

I rarely wore dresses before this summer, but obviously I've become a total convert.  Here are five reasons I like to wear dresses.

1.  They're cool in the summer, and very comfortable in general.  Much comfier than that pair of jeans that's a little too tight.
2.  A dress is an easy outfit.  I can just pick a dress and a necklace, and I'm all set with what to wear.
3.  I get a lot more compliments when wearing dresses than I did wearing jeans.
4.  Dresses (when you make them yourself, anyway), are a reasonably cheap outfit.  Most of the dresses I make cost me $40 or less. 
5.  I feel pretty in them.

I have a few more summer dresses to show you.  After this warm weekend, however, I'm hoping that we'll soon be wearing fall clothes!

Wow, this is bad.

OK, I suppose it was bound to happen sometime.  I made (well, almost made, didn't finish) a dress that I really, really dislike.  I love the fabric on its own.  I've seen a cute version of this dress made.  But I was not thinking when I put them together, because this positively screams ugliness to me.

It's a vintage pattern, and although a lot of vintage patterns look cute and updated, with this heavy fabric (the fact that it was named "Tablecloth" should have been a dead giveaway), it really looks old. And the collar is too much.

Possibly, I could cut up the dress into something more summery and save it.  I think I could also redo this pattern with a lighter (in attitude and color) fabric and maybe not such a pointy collar.

The sad thing is that I bought the four yards for the pattern, cut it out wrong (the fabric is directional and I didn't treat it that way), and then bought two more yards to fix it.

So what do you think?  Am I over-reacting?  Am I under-reacting?  All suggestions are welcome-- maybe I'll get some value from this!

First Finish Line

My first Olympic project is finished!  I count it as a huge success.

Pattern: Butterick 5209, View B
Fabric: From Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Collection

This is essentially a halter dress with a back and sleeves added to it.  I love the shape and fit of the dress, as halter styles and V-necks usually look good on me.  I think that if I did make the halter version of this dress, however, I'd have to make some adjustments.  The neck comes up a little high in the back.  It looks nice on this dress, but it wouldn't be very "secure" in a halter style.

The pattern was pretty straightforward, which is a little bit unusual for a retro Butterick pattern! The only difficulties I ran into was with the lining.  The bodice is fully lined, and it was a little tricky getting everything folded around correctly.  It worked out.

Again this dress is my new favorite; it surpasses some of my previous favorites I've raved about before :)  I feel so pretty in it!

So the easier of my Olympic projects is completely finished!  My sweater is blocking right now, and I'll have a post about it after I sew on some buttons!

Yellow

I've maintained for a long time that I don't like yellow.  I know. I thought it was strange, too, given my love of all things red, orange, and pink.

But... my first skein of Malabrigo was, inexplicably, orangey yellow. Slowly, the leftovers from my scarf were used in pops of color in other projects.  Then, I bought a golden dress from Banana Republic. And this. And, then, I made a yellow dress. 

I think it is now plain that yellow has won me over.  (Also, it is plain that this dress needs to be ironed, but lets leave that be for right now.)

I know I say this every time, but I love this dress, and it's one of my favorites. The pattern was super-fast and easy to make.  It's Simplicity 4116, which is out of print but still available through the link.

I had one issue with this dress.  The collar was too stiff the first time around, so I remade it without any interfacing.  I'm not planning to wear it up anyway, so the interfacing wasn't all that necessary.

It's a little hard to see from a distance, but there are turquoise swirls in the fabric.  I think they look rather Seussian.  What do you think?

I will definitely be making this pattern again!  I will also, most likely, be making another yellow dress.