Yellow knit!

Back in August 2019, I bought one of the Fabric Mart Fashion Bundles.  It's just a mystery box of six yards of fabric.  In it, I got a yard and a half of a red knit, a couple of yards of a white cotton with a 1980's rainbow print on it, and almost three yards of a modal blend banana yellow knit.  Since this past weekend, I've been working on garments from the yellow knit.  In total, I made three items from it and I also made a shrug from the red knit (still have plenty left to do something else with the red knit!).

By no means a pretty picture but these are a very practical pair of gym shorts.  They are from New Look pattern number 6139. I'm not too concerned about how they look because, well, gym shorts.   They did come out well though.

The shrug is out of the same yellow modal knit and is edged in black lace.  The pattern is a modified Simplicity 4334.  I elongated the sleeves to elbow length because I don't want super short sleeves.  This looks fabulous on.  Also, I highly recommend the pattern if you can get your hands on it - it just has a lot of useful basic items and is a good wardrobe builder as the linked page suggests.

The above images are of the red shrug I made from the cotton blend (I think?) I got in the fashion bundle and a yellow t-shirt dress.  The shrug is also from Simplicity 4334 - with slightly shorter sleeves but still longer than the pattern.  The dress is McCalls 7432.  

This is the dress without the shrug and yes, it looks funny on the dress dummy.  That's because the dress dummy is a size 6 and I'm...not.  It's also short waisted and I'm not.  The dress actually fits well but is a bit clingy.  I might make a longer jacket to go with it or just wear the dress under sheer overdresses for now. 


I promise, some actual SCA clothing is coming soon!  I just need to clear out some of my "work" clothing projects and the UFO bin.   Also, I was waiting to loose some weight before I start back on garb.  Luckily, I'm finally managing to keep my weight down and, hopefully, can make some neat looking garb starting next week. 

Happy Easter!!!

Since, where I am, we are on lockdown, I decided this Easter to bring out the decorations as much as possible.  The tablecloth is a piece of barkcloth my Mom gave to me a bit ago.  I love the color and know enough about barkcloth that I am not cutting that up.  Instead, I just hemmed the edges.  

The chair covers are one of those thrift store disappointments turned into a lucky find.   I bought what I thought was 3 meters of linen for €10 back in February at my favorite thrift store.   When I unfolded it completely when I got home, rather than a small bit of embroidering near the hem, there were three large cut out and embroidered pieces in the middle of the fabric.  I threw the fabric to the corner until I decided I wanted to have a nice Easter dinner outside.

I realized the cutouts in the linen just happened to be the same shape as the back of the chairs.  I drafted a patter, cut everything out, sewed it up, and have two nice white linen chair covers for the garden chairs.  

The bunny on a top hat was just fun.  I bought that when I went out to get hand sanitizer.

Not the greatest picture but it works!   This is the dress I made out of some silk blend I got at Fabric Mart.  The lining in the body and the cuffs is also silk.   

The pattern is McCalls' 4061 and is from 1974.

I had to edit it a bit because the original pattern was just a bit too small.   I also drafted my own sleeves because I never like the pattern sleeves - no one needs that much ease!!!!   

The dress itself was pretty simple and straight forward.  I messed up the collar a bit but the rest of the dress came out well.  I think it might work slightly better with a knit material instead.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Easter!!!

I'm having too much fun making these...

This one:

The base is out of black cotton and more of the tropical weight tan wool.  The wool serves only as an inner layer to the actual mask.  The veil is out of some semi sheer silk dupioni I've probably had for years (the tag on it was Hancock fabrics!).  The coin trim I think I got from Joanns a few years ago as well.  The black bias trim is thanks to an Amazon purchase in which I ordered 50 yards. 

The pattern:

Same one!  The masks all full cover your face and are comfortable. Even without the veil, these are pretty coverall masks and will allow you to get into the grocery store.  I love that this is the only time in history that you have to wear a mask into a store or bank!   No mask, no gloves, no service!   :-)

New Facemask!

Because there is no reason to not be fashionable during the plague!

I used the same pattern I used here.  The differences are that I have the bias trim so that the ties cross under the chin now to wrap around the lower part of the skull and tie at the base of the skull.   Also, the lovely black lace is a bit different.  :-)

I had some left over black lace from an 1860's Ball gown that I apparently never published here.  I made the gown a long time ago and really loved the look of the lace.  The piece left over was only long enough for one 18th C cuff but I couldn't part with it.   Luckily, it's now the perfect fit for a facemask!  I stay stitched it to the top of the facemask, matching centers, and then added the upper bias trim.

It was fun to wear this while grocery shopping.  I plan on making a few more like this - including one with my beaded coin trim because when else will I get to wear crazy stuff like this and no one think anything of it?  :-)

New Look 6495 in black and magenta cotton knit!

This is a project that has been lagging in my UFO pile for a few months.  With Zona Rossa, I finally got around to making it. 

I did view C.  If I do the pattern again, I'd probably do view D as the skirt is LONG.  It's lovely, but it's longer than you'd expect because of the weight and stretch factor of the knit. 

I used a cotton knit I bought at Fabric mart last year or the year before that.  It was one of their sales. I didn't change anything about the pattern since I haven't done this one before and I'm always a bit antsy about knits. 

Not the greatest picture and in full Covid Fashion wear.   I didn't make the jacket - I think I got that at TJ Max years ago- but the mask and the dress are both things I've sewn.  :-) 

The yoke on the dress is funny - it's too big in the armscye and you can see it's concave at the neckline.  I think, if I make this again, I'd skip the bodice section and just draft up my own bodice.  it's not bad, it just isn't perfect though. 

However the skirt?  The skirt is perfect!   I am in love with the way the skirt flows on this dress!   It's so lovely!   I'll probably end up wearing this dress tomorrow for fun and amusement because, eh, why not?  It's not like I have to be anywhere right now. 

Potato Leek Soup!

Since I have time again to cook at home, and I really wanted soup, I made Potato Leek soup today!  I bought ingredients a couple of days ago when I went grocery shopping.  We are supposed to limit our grocery shopping as much as possible here in zona rossa.  It came out amazingly well and I will very much make this again.

My actual dinner!

Ingredients:

• 4 Large Potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 large leek, chopped
• 1 sprig of thyme (optional)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• salt
• pepper
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• enough olive oil or any cooking oil to roast the leek and onions

Directions:

 I just used a big ole stew pot for everything.  Once, I had everything cut up, I roasted the leek and green onions with the garlic in the stew pot with the olive oil.  Just simmer that over low heat until the leeks are soft.

Then, add the potatoes, thyme, bay leaf, broth, and some salt and pepper to taste.  That that boil until the potatoes are soft (about 5 to 10 minutes on my oven.  YMMV).

Here's the hard part.  Take all that off the heat.  You need to puree these veggies until it's a greenish mashed potato look to it. Take out the thyme and the bay leaf!  I put all the veggies into a mixing bowl and just slowly put some in the blender.  Once that set was pureed, I dumped it back into the stew pot and then did the next batch until all the veggies were gone.  

Then, add the butter and the milk to the stew pot.  I'm honestly not sure how much milk I added - it was about half a small carton.  Just add enough milk to make the soup...soup and not mashed potatoes.  Also, a bit more salt and pepper.

In the picture, I also added some red salt to the top and marjoram which added a bit more spice to the soup. 



That's it!   It was great to have today since it's cold again.  I do not like the cold and can't wait until it warms up! 

The Latest in Italian Fashion....

The face mask! I designed my own using just some scraps and a bit of bias tape. I hope the pattern process that I'll try to explain below makes sense.

The lines represent where you should measure.

Measurements:

1. The Red line is from the bridge of your nose to just under your chin, where you want the mask to cover.
2. The Yellow line is from top of your cheekbone, under the nose, to the other side of your face.
3. The Orange line is from the top of your cheekbone, under the chin, to the other side of your face.

These are the only measurements you'll really need.

The Pattern

I tried to do a video and well, I'll try again tomorrow to show how to really draw this pattern out. The red line is the same as the measurement above. Just draw that on your piece of paper, marking off about 1" below the top of that line. Now, draw the yellow horizontal line there using your undernose measurement. Using your measuring tape, as best you can, draw the underchin measurement - this will not be perfect and you'll notice it will not reach the bottom of the red line, that's okay.


Now for the slightly tricky part. Draw a curve from the end of the yellow line to the long end of the red line - this is the green line in the pattern picture above.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  I like using the Frixon markers for this because they are erasable!   Now, measure the difference between the end of the orange line to the bottom (chin) of the red line.  It's typically around 2", give or take an inch.  Whatever that measurement is, half it.  Now, from the red (Center) line find where that measurement hits the "green" line outer edge.  This is the start point for the bottom purple line.

Draw the curved purple line to just an inch or less above the orange line, hitting the red line.  Hopefully the picture makes that make a whole bunch more sense.


The blue line is nothing more than a very fat bell curve.  Again, it doesn't have to be perfect - you'll fix any issue with the mock up.  The top purple line starts along the blue line, about 1 cm or so from the red line and curves down towards the red line right where the undernose yellow line is.

If you want a decent curve, add the gray line - it's really a hand drawn very slight curve joining the two purple lines.  The inside of the two purple lines, the gray line, the green line and the top blue line becomes the outline for your mask.  (Shown in black above.)

The Materials

I used two layers of quilting cotton and one layer of wool. Wool is known to be antimicrobial, making it an excellent inner layer. You can absolutely use just three layers of cotton. I just prefer the wool.

1. 1/4 of quilting cotton - you probably will not use all of this and can just use scraps from the scrap pile like I did
2. Fat quarter of wool - again, scrap pile; I used an 8" strip of wool I had
3. 2 yards of double folded wide bias tape
4. Cotton thread
5. Fabric scissors
6. Sewing pins

Trace around the pattern on to the fabric.  You'll want to cut four piece of the quilting cotton and two pieces of the wool.  Mark, for your own sanity, what the inner seam is.

Once you cut out the fabric, using the wool - or whatever you have for the inner layer- sew up the center seam.  I used a small zigzag stitch but any will do.  Now, unfold it with the unfinished seam out, and hold it to your face.

Look in a mirror and see where you need to make adjustments.  Mark those, recut the wool, if necessary, and then make sure you also recut the cotton and, using paper scissors, recut your pattern as well to the "better" fit.

Once that is done, sew up the center seams, right sides together, of the cotton pieces as well.  You should have two quilting cotton layers and the one wool layer.  Sandwich them.  Have the "fashion fabric" or finished sides of the quilting cotton out (it doesn't really matter which way you have the wool).  Pin the edges, particularly at the chin, the bridge of the nose, and the "corners".  Stay stitch all around.

Now, the bias tape.  Start with a tail of the bais tape about 14"~16".  This will be one of the ties.  Sew the bias tape around the top edge of the mask.  Leave a similar tail on the other side.   For the bottom part of the mask, you'll need your seam ripper.

About 14"~16" into the bias tape, make a small hole with your seam ripper, right in the middle of the fold of the bias tape.  The hole only needs to be big enough to fit the upper tail through.  Once you've done that, sew the bias tape around the bottom edge until you are sure where to make the next hole to pull the other top edge tail/tie through.  Leave another 14"~16" tail.

That's it!  It sounds way more complicated than it really is.  I made this in about a half hour this morning and will make another one tomorrow.  These are 100% washable which is fabulous.  It also uses up some of  those scraps you have been hoarding in the corner.  :-)  Do NOT use silk, polyester, velvet, tapestry, a heavy twill, or any other materials other than quilting cotton, linen, and tropical weight wool.  You need to be able to breathe.