PJs and Robe for Riley

Note: This project was started and completed awhile ago (2/9/08) but I've just now got around to posting it. It was (mostly) a good one, so I wanted to be sure and get it up there :-)

Project: Robe and PJs for Riley
Pattern: See & Sew 4322

Fabrics: Turquoise fleece (robe), white and dark pink jersey knit (PJ top), and blue sleeping doggie flannel (PJ bottoms)

A couple of years ago, Chelsea made a great robe for Riley. It was a rich, dark purple fleece with a cozy hood and belt. When Riley first put it on, it was a bit big, so we rolled up the sleeves and she pretty much wore it daily from there on out. One day I noticed that the sleeves had become 3/4 length (or even 1/2 length!) and the bottom of the robe barely kept her upper body covered.

The only way to get her to give up wearing it was to promise a new one in whichever color she choose. She said she wanted turquoise, so I bought the pattern, bunches of turquiose fleece and fabrics for matching PJs as well. When I brought it home and showed her, she said, "Oh. Is that turquoise?" I said, "Yes, what did you think turquoise would look like?" She said, "Pink." Uh-oh, I thought. Then she fortunately said, "But I love it anyway." Good girl, Riley!

The good: Riley loves the new robe and wears it daily. It went together remarkably easily and looks and fits great. Good pattern. PJ bottoms were equally easy to put together and worked out equally well. Very cozy and good fit. Both were a pleasure to cut and sew.

The bad: Not so much with the PJ top. Cutting was fine and most seams went together pretty easily, but the middle front and back seem to be quite short compared with the sleeve lengths and the length of an actual sized-seven child. I give it about a month before it is way to short for Riley to wear. Hrumph!

The ugly: Again with the PJ top. I have to assume that this is my inexperience sewing stretchy fabrics like this jersey, but all three narrow hems (both sleeves and the bottom edge) came out wavy and almost fluted. Yuck! I must have either stretched it during the ironing or sewing, though I tried to be careful not to. Ah well, better luck next time!

Wearability: Robe and PJ bottoms: Super-high. PJ top: Super short-lived.

Over on the fun side of the building

I have a new job (still within Microsoft). Looking back over my e-mail, I realize it's been a long time in the making, but I officially started on 11/3. It's a big transition in many ways: moving from program management to product planning, moving from part-time to full-time, moving from wearing any old thing to the casual end of business casual attire. In other ways, it's a ridiculously small change: moving from one end of my building to the other, even staying on the same floor.

So how is it going so far?

The truth? It's good, very good. As much as anything, I think it is about habitat. The natives are friendly, the atmosphere is inquisitive and knowledge-thirsty, the challenges are big, and the topics are exciting and interesting.

And speaking of habitat, I decided I was suddenly tired of the desk-crammed-against-the-corner-with-random-computer-equipment-piled-everywhere look for my office and I needed to do some serious nesting in my new place, particularly since my new place has this kind of cool cement wall. So, I dragged Jeff down to Ikea and we hunted up some furnishings to spruce it up:

I find myself thinking about pears more than I used to.

Nothing says 'business environment' like a black shag rug.

"x" marks the duck.

Desk-shoved-in-the-corner.

DOCS roundup - 12/7

Rolling the dice. Taking that first step into the unknown. Closing your eyes and hoping for the best.

Okay, it might not have been quite that dramatic, but the summary word for the most recent DOCS is: risk. Will one sleeve really match the other? Can I stand using DPNs for two whole sleeves without throwing my knitting across the room? Can I manage to make both shoulder straps look the same? Will it look like I am wearing pants on my head? We addressed these questions and more.

Projects worked: 5

New projects started: 2

Projects finished: 1 (if you count the frogging)

Snacks: Veggies and hummus, potato baguette and basil cheese spread, mini croissants

Donna - It's all about the DPNs. Following in Sam's footsteps with the same sweater pattern and having finished the main body, Donna pulled out her DPNs and continued work on sleeve number one, reinforcing her opinion that the only thing worse than DPNs is having to use them. In spite of that, the sleeve grew in good length during the day. I suppose the real risk here was on the rest of us if Donna's normally-excellent self-control would snap and she would huck some DPNs our way. Those suckers are pointy! Pointy on both ends!

Chelsea - It's all about the using what you already have. Chelsea's been finding herself scouring her rather large home stock of fabrics and trims, rather than haunting the local fabric stores. (She's been haunting the local beading stores instead, but she didn't bring that project along.) She began another tattoo-baring off-the-shoulder shirt. (See previous post for a short description of the tattoo. It's a dragon. It's really cool. I'll try to get a good picture of it next time.) The primary fabric is a soft black wool with wide light pinstriping, and for the trim she brought into play some trim (that she describes as Byzantine) from her home store that had been waiting for that special project. She ran the risk that this would not, in fact, be a special enough project for the trim or that the wool pinstriping would look too much like wearing pants in the wrong place. However, by the end of the day the project was looking good, as is the usual for Chelsea's projects!

Sam - It's all about the sleeves. Being a few steps ahead of Donna on the sweater project, Sam, after quickly frogging a failed wrap candidate with Reed's "help" turning the crank on the winding machine, spent the day finishing up sleeve #2. As opposed the usual practice of knitting both sleeves of a sweater at the same time to ensure identical results, these sleeves are knit separately. The risk, of course, is that the sleeves would come out completely different (or as Sam's put it, the errors would not be exactly duplicated for each sleeve, ultimately leading to a mis-match). But, at the end of the day she'd finished sleeve #2 and it looked just like a twin of sleeve #1--no problem!

Me -It's all about the second time being a charm. Last winter, when faced with some formal events, I sewed a fitted bodice sort of thing out of this cool black-with-red-flowers Asian-style brocade (wrong side of the fabric is shown in the picture, making it look red with black flowers - sigh). Although I made several mockups, my first attempt at the bodice last year didn't fit very well. And, one of the straps came out shaped like a snake that had swallowed a pear and the other looking like it hadn't eaten in months. Mindful of risking a repeat of the great strap snafu of '07, I took another run at it using a smaller pattern size. On the plus side, the straps both look relatively (and similarly) healthy and the fit is better. On the down side, it is a teensy bit too small in some places now. However, I think I can correct. We shall see!