DOCS roundup - 11/16

Has it really been 8 months since my last blog post??? Holy cow! 'Bout time to restart, no? Here's a rundown of our latest DOCS. It was just Chelsea, Sam, Donna and I this month, and I'd say that "make some steady progress on something you love" would pretty much sum up the day.

Projects worked: 4
New projects started: 1
Projects finished: 0
Snacks: Fritatta, gooey pecan roll, doughnuts, 7-layer dip

Sam - It's all about the sleeves
Sam found, tried, modified, frogged, and is now making excellent progress on a blue pullover sweater with kind of a basket-weave cabled front piece. She has gone through a couple of the iterations on the sleeve, but her FaceBook reports she's now finished one. You know, one great thing about Sam is she does just does not fear the frogging as the price paid for experimentation!

Donna - Seeing it in red
Donna has been eyeing Sam's pattern for the last couple of DOCS, and she decided to take the plunge on the same pattern but in dark red (I think) Alpaca. In addition to the excellent progress she made on the new creation, she wore one of her previous creations--a gorgeous green pullover! Go, Donna, go!

Chelsea - A bit o' the dragon
Chelsea worked on a really cool loose belted tunic-style shirt using a funky argyle knit fabric. As usual, she made it look as easy as argyle pie and finished all but the belt by the end of the day. She admitted her chief concern while selecting shirt patterns (and shirts) these days is that they show at least a bit of her fabulous new back-shoulder dragon tattoo. The shirt came out looking great, and does indeed show a peek of the dragon tail :-).

Me - Quilt management
I've (finally) begun working on the quilting for the Women's Voices quilt I've been working on for approximately forever. Started as a hand project BEFORE MY CHILDREN WERE EVEN BORN, I've had it tacked and awaiting quilting for at least a year. So, between this month and last, I (finally) stitched-in-the-ditch the stabilization lines along the sashing between blocks. The biggest challenge is handling the large quilt in conjunction with my sewing machine, which feels somewhat like threading an elephant through a needle. Still, I'm now ready to begin quilting in earnest (finally).

DOCS roundup - 3/16

Plot summary for "DOCS - 3/16", in which two women finish projects unexpectedly and a third revisits an old friend.

The scene opens on a cozy sewing room with early afternoon winter light filtering in through sheer curtains and a fire dancing merrily in the background. In the center of the room is an arrangement of tables abutting the windows on one side. Three sewing machines sit facing the center, one on each of the three remaining sides. A woman sits at each machine with various fabrics and patterns spread out before her. The women chatter in gentle tones while working on the machines. A nearby table holds various snacks.

Donna - Donna deftly fingers the previously-cut black cotton with vertical patterning, holding it up for the other two women to see. She then holds up a pattern that was purchased two years ago (or more) and points at one of the drawings on the front. The drawing shows an impossibly thin female figure modeling a button-front, puffed-sleeve blouse with attractive ruffling around the bottom. The other women exclaim delightedly as Donna bends to her work.

Chelsea - Chelsea sighs unhappily as she reaches into the sewing bag at her feet and withdraws a partially completed dress. The dress is beautifully finished, with gathers and simple ties around the waist line and hoop closures for the small, round buttons that will adorn the front. She dejectedly pulls the dress over her head for her companions to view. As the other women proclaim the various merits of the dress, her countenance gradually lightens as she contemplates the project anew. With confidence now enlivening her movements, she removes the dress and begins work on the hem. Little does she know that her new found confidence will be severely tested as reworks the hem throughout the afternoon.

Cyndy - The grim cast to Cyndy's features tells the tale. She contemplates the sheer, pin-tucked blouse that has occupied so much of her time as of late. Her companions lend sympathetic ears while she regales them with tales of seams unravelling, stitches bunching, and fabric floating every which way. Bolstered by their compassionate utterances, Cyndy turns to her task with a fatal look of determination, knowing that by the end of the day, the unfinished project will have either perished or finished.

As the afternoon wanes, light fades from the windows and the day draws to a close. The fireplace has long since gone dead and the snacks have dissipated. At the table sit three now-triumphant women. The bodice of Donna's blouse has flourished under her tender care and now stands ready to move forward to the next stages. Chelsea's dress appears to virtually glow as she tries it on again, gloriously finished but for a few remaining buttons. Cyndy's exultant posture as she wears the finished pin-tucked shirt proclaims to the world that she has emerged from her ordeal victorious.

In the background, the sound of children's voices bubbling with excitement can be heard as the lights close on the happy scene.

DOCS roundup - 3/2

Before I launch into the summary of our next-to-latest DOCS (I'm behind by one!), I'd like to make a little side trip to explore why it is that when I coordinate these get-togethers via e-mail, I can't seem to match up the day of the week with the correct date. I double check and triple check and yet still send out things like "Let's plan to get together on Sunday the 2nd for our next DOCS," and then a sentence later adding "Looking forward to seeing you all on 3/3." Honestly, every single one of these I have made some day-of-the-week/date mismatch. Sigh.

So we had the four core folks on 3/2, and the theme for the day was sewing machines (sorry, Sam). Myself, Donna, and Chelsea have all recently purchased Pfaff machines to augment or replace our Bernina, Singer, and Elna, respectively. We very much enjoyed the machine talk, and we are now thinking of ways to lure Sam away from her Bernina to create a matching set. So far she's not budging.

On to the day's progress...

Projects worked: 6
New projects started: 2
Projects finished: 1, nearly
Snacks: lunch sandwiches, chips, chocolates, and ... okay I'm completely forgetting

Sam - Unexpected results
If you recall, the previous DOCS Sam was working on various mathematics to customize a knitting pattern to accommodate the yarn she wanted to use. Well, an off-by-one stitch gauge error compounded into a few rounds of knitting that would have accommodate Sam twice over, and probably Max and Colin as well (okay, not quite that far off). So she spent some time puzzling over that. Back to the calculation board!

Chelsea - Unfamiliar territory
If you talk with Chelsea, she'll tell you that she tends towards a certain style of dress: wrap or kimono, beautifully trims, stretchy non-man-made textiles, bold patterns and color combinations. While still retaining the bold pattern and stretchy fabric, she opted for a different sort of dress with a kind of double-gathered waist treatment with front ties and cute buttons down the front. The original pattern had put the gathers in the most unflattering location possible--empire--but she'd altered the pattern to drop the waist several inches, shortened it a bit once she'd tried it on for us to examine, then made good progress (with some amount of cursing) determining placement for the extra buttons she wanted to add.

Donna - Uncomplicated entry
For her first sewing project on the new machine, Donna chose some great flannel-backed black satin to make some simple pajama pants and went to it. After having carefully sewn the pants together incorrectly (if you have ever tried sewing simple pants together, it is remarkably easy to assemble them incorrectly--it is sort of like working out the reality of an Escher drawing to get it right), she spent some quality time with the brand new seam ripper that came with her machine, ultimately completing all but the gathering for the waist.

Me - Unsatisfied meandering
Apparently suffering from restless needle syndrome, I hopped from project to project a bit. Rather than finishing the pin-tucked shirt I had started first that needed much seam overlocking and trimming, I worked on an embroidered suede skirt that I had started second and added the waistband. Once I found out that I would need to take it in by an inch or so, which meant undoing the waistband and bringing in the side seams, I moved along to another shirt project in the wings and completed the cutting and the gathers in the bodice. Much work, little payoff.

Riles

Riley has been taking ski lessons weekly over the winter through her school. I went up skiing with her a couple of weeks ago and her ski instructor calls her "Riles". I think it's a great nickname, but unfortunately Riley has banned me from using it anywhere but on the slopes. Sigh.

DOCS roundup - 2/9

We had rather a full house at our most recent DOCS as the whole regular crew was able to make it. If I had to characterize the session in one word, I would say "tenacious"--digging in and getting the work done!

Projects worked: 5
New projects started: 4
Projects finished: 2 (well, 1 almost)
Snacks: Two sets of cheese and crackers, yummy treats from Sam, mixed nuts

Donna - Knitting to the end
Donna spend the time making up (finishing) a sweater she'd been working on over the winter. She wore it to our house last weekend, commenting that she'd finished it just in time to be able to wear it once or twice and then pack it away until next winter. Anyway, goregous deep red cowl neck with shaped waist.

Heather - Sorting for the good stuff
Rather than bringing along her scrapbooking closet, Heather brought a relatively small-sized packet of her son's kindergarten work for sorting (read: huge). She proceeded to make those of us with several over-brimming schoolwork boxes taking up valuable garage space by sorting Matt's work neatly into four piles: one to keep, two piles to ship off to grandparents, and the fourth in the (gasp--brave!) garbage. My hero!

Sam - Careful calculations
Early on, Sam was deep into some serious number crunching to determine needle size and stitch count to bend the official project specs to her creative will (and the specific yarn she wanted to use). Also early on she'd considered making a wrap but figured with the amount of yarn she had on hand it would turn out looking more like a shrug. At the end of the day, she'd had cast on a sweater and knit a round or two on it.

Chelsea - Cut, pin, cut
Earlier in the winter, Chelsea made this fabulous (truly fabulous, and beautifully fit) deep purple winter coat with a mixed-color paisley lining. Unfortunately the lining had given way at the seams in a way that was not reparable, so Chelsea picked out some really pretty new lining fabric and spent the DOCS cutting the pieces (though she says she has yet to assemble).

Me - Cut, pin, re-pin, cut, re-pin, re-cut
Having now three different shirt options in the offing, I put it before the group which one to start on and opted for one I hadn't mentioned in my earlier post, Simplicity 3786 (the view shown on the model). The fabric I picked is very gauzy, light-weight, semi-see-thru (with the thought of wearing a cami underneath). It's my first experience with this type of fabric, and geez did I find it hard to cut. It wants to slip, slide, and float away when confronted with scissors. Anyway, by the end of the day I did indeed have it cut.

In search of shirts

Thanks to my dedicated labors to clear out my house (with the help of a professional organizer, Amy from Empty Your Nest), my closet and dresser drawers are now nearly empty. Turns out that once I removed all of the stuff I never wear, doesn't fit, doesn't look good and never did, etc., what I mostly own is a bunch of skirts, some sedate sweaters, and hoards of exercise t-shirts with various Microsoft logos on them.

So, in the interests of restocking with some unique, fun, and hopefully suitable new shirts, I met with with Chelsea and another friend yesterday at JoAnn's Fabrics, determined to find some good shirt patterns to try out. I gravitated, of course, towards sedate-sweater types, but in the interests of branching out at least a little bit and trying something new, I ended up with these:

Simplicity 3956 (Second-from-the left illustration, also shown in the top-left photo)

Butterick B5084 (Either view B, shown with stripes in the middle, or A shown in the photo)

I've added them to the long line of waiting projects (sigh), but I may tackle them next. Wish me luck!

One colon is never enough

Okay, at the risk of being excessively obsessed by my daughter's evolving handwriting, I thought I'd share a bit more. It used to be that Riley would make her "Y's" backwards, so she'd end up with something like this:

I just noticed yesterday that she'd turned her "Y" around. Another step forward. Sigh. Well, at least we still have the lollipop "i".

On the flip side, she has begun writing her name on her school papers in this format:

Riley:N:W

The middle name I get, since she's begun exploring her full name, where she got her middle name (named for a relative), etc. But I find the colons absolutely hysterical! I mean, why colons? Funny!