Thank you all so much for your sympathy and condolences and kind thoughts regarding Bosco’s sudden death. Last week was one of the worst of my life and I’m sorry to say that his departure was only one of a long line of awful things which happened to myself and those I love, so please bear with me while I piece things back together. I’m going to be more fragile than usual for a while.
In an attempt to clear the slate and document some blogging-accumulation guilt, here’s a catchup on the sewing-related events over the past fortnight…
Montreal
I was in Montreal for a few days for work immediately after my birthday, and I managed to shoehorn a very brief visit to Suzi Spandex into my 18 hour work days (in preparation for the launch of Zik.ca – Canadians, go see what I’ve been slaving over for the past 9 months in my day job!).
The shop itself was a bit of a PITA to get to – it doesn’t look far from downtown on the map but was a metro ride + 15-20 minute walk through a really dull neighbourhood, and I’m glad I had the address because the setup was very much like the NYC Garment District – an unmarked, nondescript office building with their premesis several floors up, with a front office and enormous warehouse full of rolls of fabric.
The setting may have been sparse, but I got such a warm welcome and the lady really helped me to choose the best wicking exercise fabric, which by all accounts seems to be their version of supplex, “Suziplex”.
It’s got a great hand and recovery, and fabulously soft inner, loopy side:
I bought 2m of dark, muted purple and 1m of pale grey Suziplex, and then another metre of some muted turquoise lycra with silver foil swirls.
I was feeling pretty restrained with my purchases, but having sewn some of it already, I have a feeling I’ll be a regular visitor of Suzi’s whenever I’m in town!
I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get a chance to visit the shop that Jalie Patterns recommended to me on Twitter, there just wasn’t enough time to travel that far (business travellers, you know what I mean!)
Top & Trousers
Last weekend (the last of the Bosco Era), I was still feeling rundown and jetlagged from my trip, so I sat down and sewed another Pattern Magic flip-turned top (this time in orange!) and the Burda slim trousers from the March 2012 issue.
I only just wore the trousers for the first time yesterday since I had finished the handsewing on them up on deck in the sunshine, with Bosco rubbing up against me, and I couldn’t bring myself to lint roller them. It seems so long ago now. And in a particularly brilliant lack of foreshadowing, I sewed the pocket linings with the “Naughty kitties” fabric, too, so they doubly remind me of him. As James says, hopefully soon they’ll just prompt happy memories instead of sadness like they do now.
Papercut leggings
Then, after seeing Bloom’s review of her new leggings from Papercut Patterns, I just had to buy myself a copy there and then. Papercut are a relatively new New Zealand pattern company, but handily for me, their sole European reseller is Sewbox.co.uk, so I had the pattern in my hand in two days! I must also add that Sewbox gave me WONDERFUL customer service when I had a payment problem, and bent over backwards to help, so I’ll definitely be ordering from them again (UK ladies, they stock the full range of Colette and Sewaholic patterns and Liberty fabrics, too, I’m just saying…)
I was totally not expecting such beautiful packaging though! That hanger folds back around to seal up the cardboard envelope, keeping everything neat and tidy.
The instructions are in a nice booklet, and the patterns are printed on sturdy brown paper, similar to KwikSew. I really enjoyed reading the instructions – the seaming on these leggings looking particularly daunting but the constructions was done very cleverly, and in an order that I wouldn’t have thought of myself.
Here’s their size chart, which was printed inside on the pattern paper: 
I’m almost exactly a Size Medium, but Cidell warned me about the super-stretchiness of the Suziplex, so I made a Size Small in my leggings, and the fit is nice, much closer to my RTW compression tights.
Here’s a sneak preview of the finished leggings, but I also put in some further practice time on my Coverpro binder attachment and finished my sequin running top shortly after, too.
Alas, no photoshoot for a few more days at the earliest due to lingering shingles/pox/HSV/sores all over my skin. Yes, see above regarding the Worst Week Ever.
Upcoming
A reversible jacket for James, and a HUGE running gear refashioning challenge for my running group, and then we’re off to drydock in a few weeks, too, so I’ll be staying elsewhere without my usual sewing room and full supplies/machines, which should be interesting…