Tag: Stitch: Handsewing

On sunflowers and stitches

~ Liz A ~ 32 Comments

Jude wrote a post with a new cloth she has tentatively titled the last sunflower. It sent me off on a search in Windthread, trying and succeeding in finding The Sun Flower I recalled from years ago … one that had been planted late and struggled to bloom … until it didn’t.

Don planted sunflowers this year. They bloomed months ago so he set the seeds out on the fence, but they haven’t yet been eaten by the birds …

Some of garden is struggling … the black eyed Susans are long gone and the coneflowers are barely hanging in …

The tomatoes succumbed last month to the unrelenting triple-digit heat, but Don has planted anew in hopes they might produce when fall finally arrives in Texas around November …

He’s a great gardener, long documented here. His most recent triumph is the dwarf pomegranate planted last fall and not supposed to bear fruit for two or three years …

Likewise the beauty berry is thriving …

So yeah … lucky me to have him and an irrigated herb garden to boot …

Meanwhile, I finished the second boho shirt with mixed results. It’s a learning process, so I’m pleased with the pintucks and how I managed to finish the shoulder seams this time. But I miscalculated the neckline, so it’s back to the drawing board for a third try …

I’ve already mended the first boho shirt, but wasn’t really surprised it needed it so soon. The pattern called for cutting very close to a stitched edge and the seam blew out after a couple of launderings. No matter, I think I like it better this way …

Last, but not least, I’ve been reading a fascinating book about Georgia O’Keeffe entitled Living Modern by Wanda Corn. There are pictures of clothing stitched by O’Keeffe …

put into the context of the world in which she lived …

and the paintings she was creating …

So I’ll leave you with this page depicting one of her New Mexico homes along with a telling quote …

“The painting is like a thread that runs through all the reasons for all the other things that make one’s life.”

Replace the word “painting” with whatever it is that you most love to do and I believe it reads true.

Channeling my inner Scarlett

~ Liz A ~ 25 Comments

Gone with the Wind is definitely not PC these days, but when I was a teenager my mom urged it on me, saying it was a classic. How well I remember reading it in the backseat of our car during a road trip to see what all the fuss was about. “Not much,” was my dismissive opinion.

That said, it was a semi-big deal in 1976 when it finally aired on TV and I got to see the movie version for the first time. I still gave it a “not much” rating, but thankfully it primed me to more fully appreciate Carol Burnett’s skit Went with the Wind, in which she parodied Scarlett’s drapery-inspired gown.

All of which has everything to do with the latest iteration of the boho blouse …

Since I was having trouble with the patchplay version, I decided to try out the pintucks on some vintage cloth that had been packed and moved five times. Purchased in 1980, there were two yards of it left over after I sewed curtains for the living room picture window in our very first house. Finally, it has found its reason for being.

I’m pretty sure it’s 100% cotton and it needles like an absolute dream …

My fingers are grateful … stitches are a cinch when the cloth isn’t clogged with excess dye and whatever else it is they use to finish fabric these days. Now if I could just figure out where to find more 40 year old cloth.

And while I’m looking back, here’s what we had for lunch today …

The backstory is my fond memory of 1974 shopping trips to Bloomingdale’s in Garden City (Long Island, NY), with my friend Rachel. We must have eaten at their in-store restaurant more than once, because I have a very clear recollection of Croque Monsieur being a favorite.

The version I whipped up today might better be called a Monte Cristo, as it had a distinctly Italian vibe. Lest I forget, it consisted of crusty Italian White Bread from Central Market in Austin, thin slices of Speck (a smoked version of prosciutto), leftover zucchini butter (from this Smitten Kitchen recipe), lots of shredded parm (regretfully not Reggiano … this time), all dipped in beaten egg and griddled in melted butter. Oh, and we did dab on a bit of basil vinaigrette at the table because there was some of that leftover, too.

Yum.

Synchronicity

~ Liz A ~ 28 Comments

I had to smile when Deb G posted about handsewing a linen top. Just one day before I had gotten a notion to try handsewing a shirt, thinking perhaps the reason I’ve long avoided garment making was simply an aversion to machine sewing.

What little I knew about making clothing involved going to a fabric store, picking out a pattern and buying cloth. So that’s where I started … gasping when I learned a Simplicity pattern would set me back $20.

And here’s where I ended up …

I honestly enjoyed the process (more about that in a minute), but I quickly realized how very much more I needed to know than what was included in the written pattern instructions, which were absolutely mute on anything to do with hand sewing.

So I went back to Deb G’s post and started digging for books and online videos about hand sewing garments. Then decided in the meantime to work with what I had in order to have a foundation on which to build more knowledge.

Here I pause to confess that handsewing a shirt was not a new notion. Some years back, while reading up on Georgia O’Keeffe, I learned that she was an accomplished seamstress. At the time I thought it would be incredibly cool to make some of the same clothing that she wore … a crisp white linen shirt perhaps. But I came up empty when I tried to find a pattern and that’s where I left it.

Anyway, I started my recent quest with unbleached cotton muslin and quickly realized I wouldn’t be following the recipe dictated by the pattern when it called for fusible interfacing. Bah! I couldn’t see any reason for that, so I simply stitched the front facing without it …

I batted .500 when it came to the shoulder and sleeve seams (definitely my untidiest outcome) …

Patted myself on the back for coming up with a sturdy solution to the split side seams …

And likewise cobbled my way to a cuff that wasn’t at all like the simple hem called for in the pattern directions …

Now I’m impatiently waiting for books to arrive in hopes they will take me to the next level. Already I’m envisioning a flannel nightshirt and a pintucked boho patchwork smock.

And and and … what fun!