Piece #1 Done

I finished the first garment from my list today. A simple cotton shirt, McCall's 4922 in an off-white embroidered cotton. (Click on the pics to enlarge them.)

This is just a great casual shirt, not too fancy, but nicer than a t-shirt. That's my objective for the summer. Easy, casual, but not t-shirts. I love t-shirts and I wear a lot of them. I'm thinking it's time for a bit of a change.

I cut out and started sewing my next piece, a black linen shirt. Tomorrow I have to venture out for notions--elastic for some of my shirts' sleeves and a zipper for my HP Weekender shorts.



Has anyone else had trouble seeing the preview of their blogger posts recently?

I love lists!

I wrote down my summer sewing plan this afternoon. I've gone stash diving, and I've also made some careful purchases. This is not a SWAP, since I won't wear every top with every bottom, but it's a good list of summer clothing that fills some classic, neutral needs in my wardrobe.

Tops.
McCall's 4922 in an embroidered cotton (right) that I bought from Textile Studios during their winter sale. I'm making a version with the longer shirttails and making it short-sleeved. It's almost done. Hemming and closures. Where I always lose momentum.

Simplicity 3887 (left). One in a black linen from my stash. One from an off-white cotton eyelet that I recently purchased.

Hot Patterns Floribunda cami in a white silk from my stash. Maybe also from a champagne silk in my stash. And maybe in black, if I get around to buying some black silk.

Okay, so a couple not-so-neutral stash fabrics want to get sewn up into summer tops, too. Simplicity 4589 will be made at least twice: a black and mauve print and a black and light blue print, both rayons from the aforementioned Textile Studios winter sale.

Bottoms.
New Look 6565 (right) in a white on white print, recently ordered.

Hot Patterns Weekender Chino shorts in a beige twill, recently purchased. I finished the muslin on Friday, received the fabric on Saturday, and pre-washed it today. I had planned on working on the shorts right away, but I might work on some quicker and easier stuff first, like the Simplicity or Floribunda tops.

New Look 6160, shorts modified from the drawstring pants in a white and olive print crinkle cotton, recently purchased.

New Look 6177 (below), as many skirts as I can possibly piece together from my stash.

I wrote down my list in ink and pinned it to my bulletin board with some swatches. It has to all get sewn up now that it's written in ink, right?

Movie Reviews -- Pan's Labyrinth

Last night we saw Pan's Labyrinth, or El Laberinto del Fauno. (The movie title people don't think Americans know the difference between a faun and a fawn. I'd bet even fewer actually know who Pan is, and the Pan in the film has nothing to do with the god Pan. And the subtitles refer to him as a faun, not as Pan, throughout the film. Give us Americans a little credit. Any of us going to see this probably know Mr. Tumnus from Narnia.)

Mike keeps saying it was so awesome. I'd say it's beautifully crafted, but a disturbing, adult fairy tale horror film. It's definitely worth seeing in the theater if you can find it. It's still playing in many arthouse theaters. There's a richness to the film that will be lost on a television screen, even a big tv screen.

Classic fairy tale plot. Ofelia and her pregnant mother move to the country to live with Ofelia's stepfather, who's a captain in 1940's Fascist army in Spain. They, of course, live next to an enchanted forest, which includes a labyrinth. Ofelia finds out from the faun in the labyrinth that she's an immortal princess but she has to do three tasks in order to earn her immortality. And hilarity ensues. No, not really. The exact opposite actually. There is cruelty and torture and death, in both the real world and the fantasy world Ofelia escapes to.

Fascists, rebels, magical creatures (including a disgusting giant toad), a fiesty servant whom Ofelia befriends, all existing in the dual worlds of Fascist Spain and the labyrinth forest. This film has a little bit of everything. (Except romance. If you're looking for one of those mushy princess/prince charming type fairy tales, look someplace else.)

This is not a children's movie. Mike thinks it's no worse than The Dark Crystal, but The Dark Crystal wasn't rated R for being somewhat of a horror film. This one is. I was afraid I'd get nightmares, particularly from one of Ofelia's task involving a gruesome child-eating monster. I also closed my eyes a few times, particularly when the captain, after being sliced through the cheek, sews his own stitches (because he shot his doctor after finding out he was aiding the rebels).

It's Spanish with English subtitles. This is a film that is told so excellently with images and very little dialogue that after a few minutes you'll hardly be glancing at the words. You don't need them and you shouldn't let them keep you from seeing this film.

ETA: Mike would like me to issue an addendum stating that as the film went on he realized it was darker and more disturbing than The Dark Crystal, in that Crystal is an entirely fantastical film, where as Pan had some frightening "real life" scenes.

So, those shoes (see yesterday's post). I was standing on a corner waiting for Mike, wearing my blue Franny Glass coat with a little bit of brown herringbone skirt peeking out underneath and those shoes and a little old man--a well-dressed, probably 100-year old man--walked up to me and started telling me how much he liked my shoes. My husband is a lucky man, but he shouldn't make such a pretty girl wait. That's the summary of what he said. He wasn't harrassing or threatening or vulgar in any way, but it was just a smidge creepy at first.

Mike and I wanted to see the Picasso exhibit at SF MOMA last night, half-price night. But it didn't occur to me to buy tickets online, and the line was around the block when we got there. So we decided to go to dinner early instead. I'll buy tickets online today for a weekend viewing.

I've gone through this phase before. I'm hoping it's easier to stick with it during the warmer summer months. And that my motivation is stronger this time.

Dressing nicely when I leave the house. I bought these shoes months ago and tonight they make their public debut. Carrie on Sex and the City works from home and manages to get dressed up when she goes out. Laura Bennett has her studio at home with her 27 children and manages to look fabulous. I work from home. I have the clothes and the shoes and the means for buying and making more if I want to. I really have no excuse.

Whenever I go through a sewing phase I find myself going full-speed into all aspects of it. Not just the sewing, but the browsing and shopping for fabrics and patterns. Of course, the browsing and shopping is quicker and easier than the actual sewing, and that's why I end up with so many more fabrics and patterns than I will actually use.

When I decided I wanted fuller summer skirts, of course I started browsing for new fabrics even though I'm supposed to be sewing down my stash. EmmaOneSock vexes me so.

I didn't do any sewing yesterday. But I made a deee-licious fresh pesto to have with dinner. Tonight I'm going to attempt my first salsa verde with roasted tomatillos.

To get some inspiration for sewing down the stash I've been browsing pattern sites. I know I have the fabric. What am I going to do with it all? For some reason I've been hit with an urge for super-casual skirts to wear in the heat of the summer instead of shorts. Like New Look 6177 (left) and New Look 6565 (right).


The way these skirts are pieced together, I can combine small bits of different fabrics, thus finding a job for some of those remnants that are too small to use but too big to get rid of. I tend to buy my fabrics in capsules, so I have lots of matching pieces. I also have leftover SWAP fabrics that can be used. The options are just about endless.