duck bucket sewing

We said goodbye to him this weekend. I miss him a lot. Hunkered down in the window, snoozing in the sewing room, stalking heating vents, chasing his tail... the house feels weird and empty without him. Our other cat, Cinders, knows something's up, and she seems pretty unsettled. So am I. I'm setting up a memorial space in his sleeping spot in the sewing room, with his blankets and a toy and the ridiculous baby t-shirt the vet asked us to make him wear (which he hated). It had some patriotic baseball thing on the front, and I wish I could have snapped a picture of his expression when we first put it on him. What the hell, person? He was so funny -- the type of cat that took everything extremely seriously, until he didn't. Going through my photos, it's amazing how many of them are sewing-related. He was always there! He loved sitting on fabric and paper patterns (especially PDFs, as I was trying to tape them up), and watching me thread needles. (String, person. ...

Updates! 1. I'm making slow progress on view A of V1510 . Slow because Harley the cat is still sick (his cancer is progressing, unfortunately), and this keeps happening: Me: Hey Harley, want to go work on the dress? Harley: I have a better idea. How about I curl up on your chest and go to sleep? This... ...or this? I like the dress so far, though. (I'm doing the tunic version, but it's long enough to be a dress on me.) And how did I not know that Sandra Betzina's instructions are fantastic? 2. I'm totally drooling over  Dries van Noten spring 2017 , especially this coat: I need this! Where can I find a giant floral print? 3. I dyed some fabric with purple basil. Did some cotton (including an overdye on a tansy/iron mix I wasn't crazy about), and then threw some wool and silk into the exhaust dyebath. I simmered each batch for several hours, then let it sit for 1 or 2 days. Result: two totally different colors. Plants, you are so weird....

Two things are kind of ticking me off this week: 1. Gwyneth Paltrow's extremely expensive GOOP "basics."  Made in Italy, and she says they're "luxurious ready-to-wear at a direct-to-consumer price." The tagline is Buy Now, Wear Now, Keep Forever. Hahahahahaha. Let's take a quick look at the fabric content of that  affordable $695 blazer : 37% wool, 29% acrylic, 22% polyester, 6% nylon, 5% silk, 1% elastane. I'm guessing that acrylic/poly/nylon isn't all in the lining. Which means it's going to pill like crazy, no? (FWIW, I have a similar blazer from the Gap. It's ~10 years old (wait, no, it's around 20! holy shit, I am old), 100% wool, and still holding up great. It was also less than $695, I'm pretty sure. 2. This story's been making the rounds over the past few days, and the comments are driving me up the wall. I'm really tired of (presumably) well-off women instructing each other to buy less, by which they ...

The Seamworker's Guide to Amsterdam is up! I found out that Amsterdam — like  Antwerp  — is a really great source for knits. Especially sweatshirt fabric. (I'm really regretting not buying some as I get ready for fall sewing!) I loved Noordermarkt — it was like an open-air Mood, just stalls and stalls of every fabric you can imagine, lots of them organized by type: gingham, lace, etc. Albert Cuypstraat was like a New York street fair, with off-brand socks and makeup, food trucks, and — unlike most New York street fairs — fabric stalls (and permanent fabric shops behind them). Also, I stumbled onto a hippie restaurant with no set prices — at the end, the cashier told me to "pay what you feel or pay what you think." I laughed, but the food was very good. And they had cucumber-lemon-orange infused water. On the way back, I stumbled across an amazing shop called Sprmrkt . The entrance was filled with trees, s...

First, thank you for all the kind comments on my Alabama Chanin dress! I really appreciate it. Still mulling over whether to lengthen or shorten...I'm leaning toward shorten. Should be able to spare a couple of inches! In next-make news: I requested some metallic linen swatches from Marcy Tilton for V1510 .  They came super-fast -- I sent the request Friday and just got them today. I kind of love them all:  I can't decide which color to get. Leaning toward Hematite (in the middle), but I like the silver ones too. I also asked about more metallic linen, and they sent this note: MORE SPARKLIES. They know me!

Yeah, I can't believe I'm saying that either! It's going to be a long post, so here we go. Design choices Size and alterations:  Straight size medium, with neckline raised a few inches and made into a scoop neck; the original v-neck is really deep Fabric and thread:   Alabama Chanin medium-weight cotton jersey  — top layer in Sand, bottom layer in Dark Grey (only Dark Grey is currently available on their site) — and red craft/button thread Stencil: Anna's Garden Paint:  Tulip fabric paint in Black, watered down and applied with an airbrush Embellishment:  Outside reverse applique -- in which you stitch slightly outside each shape and then cut out the shape exactly on the lines Stitch type:  Straight stitch for outlining and construction, Cretan stitch for binding Here's how it looks on me: Hanging up: I picked the color scheme after seeing it in a sample book at the  two-hour workshop in New York  last year. (Hig...