I finally had a little time in my sewing room this week. The show I’m co-directing at the theater (Best Christmas Pageant Ever) opened last Friday night so I’ve had some time to breath. I’m happy to say that the show is going great! It has been an interesting experience to be on the other side of the foot-lights this time. I think we did a fabulous job casting this show and I couldn’t be prouder of how great the cast and crew are doing.

Back to the sewing. About a month ago I opened one of the many sale emails I get from Fabric.com and for some reason went to check out the sale items. I picked up 2 yds of this dark green wool jersey and some bright turquoise ITY. I’ve been in need of some warm tops to wear to work. I discovered that many of the tops I made later this summer and early fall have wide open necklines. That is a problem on two counts; one, some of them are too revealing and two, my neck gets cold! I’ve knit so many little shawls and scarves one would think I’d have an entire wardrobe of neck-warmers and I do in a way but I find shawls too fiddly for work. I cut a lot of fabric with rotary cutters, all I need is for my shawl to fall off at just the wrong moment and get cut in half by my speedy rotary slicing.

Enter Vogue 8597. I don’t remember when I bought this pattern, probably last spring sometime. Things I liked about this pattern:

• Raglan sleeves: easier to sew and comfortable range of motion.
• High cowl neck: doesn’t droop down too low and offer a boob flash when I bend over and covers the back of my neck.
• Optional tunic length: I chose the longer length in this version because I had enough fabric and I thought it would be warmer. I discovered that it would be very easy to add a few more inches and make a nice dress with this pattern and a similar fabric.

I made the size 20 and sewed it straight from the pattern with no alterations. It fits just about perfect. I love when that happens! I’ve worn it twice now, once to the girls’ holiday concert and once to work. It was perfect! It was comfortable, kept my neck warm, wasn’t too hot for when I was moving around at work, cowl didn’t gap or shift or need any fussing with all day. This is a case of perfect match of fabric to pattern. The jersey is 100% merino wool so I will have to be sure I don’t accidentally throw it in the regular laundry. Yesterday I paired it with my perfect fitting Mimosa pants and felt like a million bucks.

Today I’m taking Em to get her braces removed! Then I have sewing for other people to get started. Did someone also mention that Christmas was coming soon? Maybe I’ll get started on preparing for that too…

Us! Erin and I won the Best Couple Costume at the  party last night. They did turn out great if I say so myself. I’m so proud of them that I entered two online sewing/costume contests this morning. One on SewingPatternReview.com and another on Craftster.org.

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The cleverness and creativity displayed by everyone was pretty amazing. My two favorites were Cathy as Tippy Hedren in The Birds and Linda as a Tea Bag (there is an inside joke here that I just can’t explain. You have to know Linda and her funny story!) The inside jokes among our group of friends were well represented in costume form. As well as the metaphors (Law Suit, NBA Lockout) and plays on words (Purple Mountains Majesty). One of the (many) great things about hanging out with theater people is that we take our costumes pretty seriously and we tend to get into total character. Even the non-actors among us got into it. Steve passed out many shots of “Tiger Blood” (Hot Damn) and was heard saying, “WINNING!” all night long. I don’t have a picture of little Johnny dressed as Charlie Brown but he took it all the way by telling us repeatedly that all he got was a rock and he even had the Charlie Brown shirt on under his ghost costume so he could stay in costume even when he wasn’t in costume.

Emma got home from school and we got right to work on her costume. We already had the Finn Hat from an earlier Adventure Time sewing session together. She just made longer ears and put wire inside them to make them stand up and be more pose-able. I found the sweater at Old Navy today but it was long and roomy, more of a “boyfriend sweater” style. So I fired up the serger and took it in and took about 6 inches off the bottom. The skirt is just some cotton interlock from Joann sewn in a tube with a little waist shaping. Then I serged some wide elastic around the waist, turned it under and cover-stitched it down. The hem is just turned and cover-stitched.

The back pack is just wool/acrylic felt sewn into a pouch shape with the bottom corners gussetted. The flat is a piece of craft felt with the bottom corners rounded off and sewn onto the back of the pouch. Straps are 4.5” wide pieces of both colors of felt sewn together then folded into thirds and top stitched. The tops of the straps were attached with the flap and the bottoms were sewn along the bottom of the bag. All she needs now is a pink sword.

She’s 14 and in High School now. I keep thinking “this is the last year she’ll want me to do this stuff for her.” But then we finish something like this and she says, “I love it. I’m never taking it off.” Just like she did when she was 2.

I love that she is so free spirited and willing to be silly and have fun. Because I certainly have fun being silly and creative with her.

Now to go find some Tiger Blood and a cigar for my long lost Sheen brother…