PETER SINGS -- New Year's Wishes from MPB!

Friends, I've decided to skip the usual end-of-year reviews and leave you instead with a simple holiday song, sung in a simple holiday house coat.

Have a Happy New Year, everybody, and thank you for all the kindness and warmth you've shared with me this year!



(If you're on a portable device, click here.)

She Hated It.

I wish I had good news to share about my mother's reaction to the psychedelic robe I made her this weekend.

Her response in a nutshell:  "It's really not me."

She didn't want to take the robe home with her.  (If that's not straight out of Emily Post, I don't know what is.)  On the plus side, my mother willingly posed for photographs in it. 



She acknowledged that the robe fit perfectly and said (when I asked) that she'd wear one just like it only in a solid color.  As you can imagine, I'm rushing out to get that fabric this very minute.

Knowing my mother as I do, I wasn't very surprised.  I guess when you're eighty (plus), you can stop pretending to like what you don't like.  Which sort of makes sense but doesn't exactly endear you to others.

Like most parents, my mother is a mixed bag: she's loving in many ways but also a bit of a killjoy.

There is a moral here but I forgot what it is. 

Have you ever made something for someone and they didn't even pretend to like it?  If so, what was your response?

In closing -- Mothers! (exasperated palm slap to the forehead)

Have a great day, everybody!

(Peter, Peter, Peter....)

Plate Pocket-Palooza!

After hemming the psychedelic terrycloth robe, the only thing left to do was add pockets.

Originally I thought I'd make the rectangular ones from the pattern, but then it occurred to me that it might be more interesting to make round patch pockets for a groovier feel.  Tracing a bread plate, I cut four circles, stitched each pair right sides together (leaving a small opening), and then turned them right side out.  I used a little fusible web to seal the opening.





Next I topstitched them, then stitched them to the robe, leaving an opening at the side/top. (These are really just to hold a Kleenex or keys.)







And voilá, my robe is finished and ready for mother!  (Tune in tomorrow for her reaction.)



Everybody wants to get into the act... (Guess who)





Happy Sunday, everybody!

A (Psychedelic) Robe for Mom

A few weeks ago my mother came over for lunch and said she needed a bathrobe, so we looked online and ordered one from Macy's (their Charter Club label).  Yesterday she told me it had arrived and was dreadful, so I told her to bring it down with her the next time she came over, and I'd return it for her.

Today I decided I might as well make her a robe, which has actually been on my long-neglected To-Sew-For-Mom list for a couple of years now.

I used the same vintage Butterick pattern (4025) I'd used to make her the housecoat below, only I added a center zipper instead of buttons and traded the Peter Pan collar for a simple band, her preferred style.

My mother actually dons this when she visits so she won't get dog hair on her slacks.

I used some vintage terrycloth I'd purchased the summer before last at a thrift store in Provincetown.  Very mod!



I picked up a long separating zipper at Sil Thread since I didn't have one on hand.



I think it's fun, but it might be a little too Jo Ann Worley for my mother.   Regardless, I hope she appreciates it -- I mean, how many sons could whip up something like this for their mother in an afternoon?  (And of those, how many would?)







Tomorrow I'll add pockets and hem and I'll give it to her on Monday.  If she likes the fit, I'd be willing to try again in a more luxurious fabric -- it's not difficult to make, especially since I eliminated the facings, which on a knit like this really aren't necessary.  Plus, most of the seams are serged.

How nice to make something that doesn't require hair canvas.  I'd wear this, wouldn't you?

Have a great day, everybody!

On the third day of Christmas....

Seasons greetings from the parking lot of the abandoned Pizzeria Uno in North Wales, Pennsylvania!

We didn't actually spend Christmas in the parking lot, but close -- too close for comfort.  Was it all a dream?



Thankfully, we're home again, and today, Friday, Michael and I decided to do a little post-Christmas fabric shopping.   I wore my new coat and hat.  I may need a new scarf.



Friends, I have not learned my lesson: do NOT go fabric shopping with other people, particularly if the other people is the person for whom you're sewing.  Go to the store yourself, bring home 4-5 swatches of fabric you'd be willing to sew, and let them choose one.  It makes life so much easier and they'll never miss what they don't see.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First we decided to grab lunch on 32nd Street off Fifth Avenue, otherwise known as Koreatown.  Both Michael and I love Korean food, and we ate at the amazingly delicious self-serve restaurant, Woorijip. 



I couldn't name half the things I ate, but I loved them all.  Honestly, if you're shopping in the Garment District and feel like something off the beaten track -- unless you're Korean, of course, in which case it would be the beaten track -- I highly recommend walking the ten minutes out of your way and grabbing a bite at one of the dozens of restaurants in Koreatown (basically one street).  Yummy!  (맛있는)









On the way to lunch, we passed by my favorite hat shop, J.J. Hat Center, just around the corner from Koreatown, on Fifth Avenue.  If I hadn't just bought a hat I might have been tempted to buy another!



After downing our last kimchi pancake at Woorijip, we headed to Mood Fabrics.  It wasn't as crowded as I'd feared and I always enjoy looking at fabric.  We headed straight to the third floor and the wool coating aisle to choose something for Michael's winter coat.





Too black?



Michael is going through a transition period from Autumn to Summer (actually "light summer") which has left him a little uncertain about what looks best on him.  If it's not in his season's palette, he won't consider it.  Honestly, I can hardly tell the difference.

 

I spotted a gorgeous wool plaid I loved (for me) but I wasn't sure what I'd make with it.  Too loud for a sportcoat?





With too many choices before us, it wasn't long before we were both spent.  We headed home empty-handed.

To reiterate: I think I should bring home a handful of swatches and let Michael choose from a narrow selection.  People who don't sew don't know what suitable fabric weight for a coat is, or what designs are more/less challenging to sew, etc.

If I have to sew it, I have to like it, right?   Right???

How would you handle this fabric selection challenge?

Friends, I hope you are enjoying the holidays and that your shopping experiences are proving more productive than mine.

Have a great day, everybody!

Tweed Coat Selfies + New Hat!

Readers, is it still called a selfie if you balance your camera on a flat surface and switch it to auto mode, or do you have to be holding it in your hand and standing in front of a bathroom mirror?



I took some shots of my coat during today's afternoon dog walk, and you can also see my new hat, just purchased from J.J. Hat Center, where one could easily burn through a couple of grand if one wanted to.  My brown melton wool cap was only $35, which seemed like a lot until I priced some of their other hats (like a $350 Borsalino fedora).

It's a belated Coatmas present to myself.

Thankfully, the dogs match my outfit.

And here's a photo of my coat turned inside out, for those who enjoy such intimacies.  One of the really nice things about this tweed is that while it's not lightweight, it breathes (as does the rayon lining), so it wasn't uncomfortable on a warmish day like today.  It also holds up just fine in a drizzle.



In other news, I wish I could say I'm in the holiday mood but I'm not.  With Coatmas behind me, all I really want to do is sleep.

Michael and I don't really exchange presents but I was thinking of making him a coat beginning (and hopefully ending) in January.  Am I crazy to take that on?  Once one catches the tailoring bug, it's hard to shake!  (I did end up purchasing a used copy of "Vintage Couture Tailoring" and look forward to reading it.)  Would you sew a coat for a loved one?

OK, it's 5:10 pm and pitch black outside -- very depressing. 

Have a great day, everybody!

Goldilocks and the Three Linings

Friends, you may recall that a few days before Coatmas, I was in the process of putting the finishing touches on my donegal tweed peacoat. 

I had just purchased lining material -- a rich-looking, heavy polyester satin.



I'd bought it to replace my original lining fabric, a luscious silk twill of a similar color.



Sadly, the silk proved very difficult to handle, especially when I tried to create an inside breast pocket.  The results were less than favorable.



But the poly had its own problems: it was so heavy that it would only hold a crease after considerable pressing, and I quickly realized it was too thick and spongy for this coat.  Not to mention, it wouldn't breathe.  One of the lovely properties of wool is that it does breathe, so why suffocate myself in poly?

In my stash I had a light brown rayon lining, but it was too thin for a coarse wool tweed; you would have been able to see the haircloth interfacing through it.  I needed something else.



I decided to return once more to Mood, where I purchased lining #3, a brown Bemberg rayon lining of suitable weight (below).



While the Bemberg frays a bit more than the heavy poly satin, it drapes beautifully and it is much easier to work with than the shifty silk.



The inside double-welt pocket turned out nicely.





I inserted the lining by hand, which in the scheme of things isn't all that much work and will make the lining easier to remove should I ever need to.  I used a simple slip stitch, except at the vent, which called for some felling stitches.





The Bemberg was neither too thin nor too thick.  It was just right.  Don't you love a happy ending?



And now a rare product endorsement.  As you know, my close vision has deteriorated a bit these last few years, necessitating the use of readers when I hand sew.  Threading needles -- a chore in the best of times -- requires one of those little metal foil threaders.

Then I discovered self-threading needles.  Instead of having to thread a hole, you snap the thread into a little dip at the top of the eye.  This still requires me to wear readers, but it's much faster than the old way.  These are especially useful for pulling a thread through the back of your sewing, something I had to do a lot on this tweed project (particularly when I was attaching my buttons by machine but needed to create a thread shank).  Mine are by Clover but there are other brands out there as well.





Do you ever use self-threading needles?

Friends, I hope you had a lovely Coatmas on Thursday, and thank you for all your lovely comments, both here and on the Mood Sewing Network. 

Have a great day, everybody!

PS - If you're traveling this holiday season, don't forget to travel light....