I finished hemming the Pendleton wool tuxedo-inspired trousers last night, using the very, very last of my navy blue thread, so we should hopefully be able to have the photoshoot tonight and you’ll see the completed suit tomorrow!
In Patrones news, I’ve been very busy tracing off a bunch of patterns from the December and October 2007 issues that my wonderful East London benefactor has lent to me. So far I’ve traced off 6 patterns and scanned and cleaned up images for 11. My Type A personality is really shining through here, but what I’ve done is put the traced pieces (I usually use brown kraft paper but for some reason the same paper in green was half price so who am I to argue?) plus a scan of the fashion photo plus a scan of the technical drawing and instructions all into a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Hopefully this means I won’t lose pieces or forget what I have when I go to choose a project…
Going through all the instructions made me yearn for something like Naaipatronen’s Dutch sewing terms list that I’d be able to use for all these Spanish sewing terms. I don’t really need much, but I found it necessary to at least know the type of fabric required before starting off, so knowing things like punto means knit is invaluable. Using a variety of online sources I’ve managed to cobble together a small list of Spanish sewing terms, but it’s nowhere near comprehensive and, not being a native speaker, probably has a bunch of errors in it. But I can keep it as a work in progress, so if you speak Spanish and have any corrections or addition, PLEASE send them over and I’ll update the file.
Download my Spanish – English sewing terms translation list (in pdf format)
I’ve done a fair amount of Ikea hacking in my sewing career thus far, so when my friend rang me from Ikea the other weekend to ask if I needed anything, I immediately sent her details of these Ikea birch curtain panels I’d been lusting over in the catalogue.
When she dropped them off, though, they weren’t exactly as I was expecting! First of all, the colours are white and black, not silver or grey as indicated in the catalogue and online photos, but I can live with that. The fabric is a really stiff weave with lots of open holes, though, making it actually semi-sheer (I’ve laid it on top of the Patrones bags so you can see)! I’ve cut off a test square to see if it’ll soften up in the washing machine – it’s 100% polyester but the washing instructions say no washing, no drying, and no dry cleaning for some reason, so we’ll see how my test fares. Otherwise I might be left with a lot of sew-in interfacing!
Even if it does soften up, though, I absolutely must underline this with some other fabric in order to make any use of it, which is kind of a shame. It’s a great length of fabric with no finished edges to unpick so it’s almost made for sewing up into something else if it weren’t for that stupid open weave. But I’m thinking if I can get some white or cream suiting or coating, it’d make a fantastic trench coat…
One fabric I found recently that needs no such fuss, however, is Michael Miller’s fantastic Sew Wrong fabric (it also comes in pink or blue). With the scenes of sewing frustration and hazards, it’d be a great tongue-in-cheek lining for that project that just will not go as planned! Me, I’ll probably order a metre just to make up into one of my little summer vests so I can show it off. Alexander Henry better watch out, as he might soon have a usurper in my Favourite Fabric Designer stakes!
And finally, I’m just now looking at Pantone’s Spring 2008 Color Report while I’m thinking about what to sew for the spring, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the “Daiquiri Green”! It sure looks familiar, eh?