I am still sewing

I am still sewing. And making. Maybe I am making more than sewing. Here it is August, and, for the life of me, I cannot remember if I made anything from start to finish during July. There is no July blog post.

Wait! I did make something. Printed pants. But I have not worn them and I need to figure out why. Oh, yeah, they make me look fat. Yes, I know that is a cliche. I will pull them out and see if I can *fix* them.

The pattern was my tried-and-true fitted pants pattern, the Eureka, from Fit for Art. It still fits me in the challenging places. And it is easy to adjust for weight fluctuations.

The fabric I chose is a firm cotton Japanese print from deep stash. It has a pretty selvedge so of course I tried to incorporate that. I may have to rethink that, as I believe one of the issues with this piece is the hem length. I was going for a cropped length, but perhaps this is just awkward.

I will make it work, if only because I love the fabric so much. It is a deep navy with a muted print. It is solid navy on the other side - no bleed through of the print creating an ugly and wrong side.

These are definitely comfortable, so what gives? Maybe it needs pockets.

In other sewing/making news, I have taken two classes. One is the Sashiko Summer Slip-ons class, an online class offered by Tatter Blue and taught by Sanae Ishida in two sessions. There was an optional kit that I ordered. 

Sanae Ishida is delightful and the folks at Tatter are lovely to work with. 

That class concluded a week or two ago. Yesterday I finally finished a second slip-on, completing a wonky pair. 

They feel insubstantial. So I added a pair of arch supports which makes them stay on, more or less.

I have enough supply from the kit to make another pair. But, I am not sure if I will. The first one I made was entirely (well, exceipt for one mistake) like the provided instructions. That is, it was made entirely by hand. The sole is faux leather. Sewing it to the shoe top is definitely the only challenging part of the whole process, especially around the heel. My hands hurt when I finished.

So, now, several weeks later, my hands have heeled. I have completed the other shoe in the pair, this time, by machine. Using the machine definitely saved my hands, but it was still quite difficult to attach the tricky heel portion. I definitely should have added some stay-stitching and clipping there before trying to sew it.

The machine saved my hands, but it is quite difficult to control all the layers with a machine. If done by hand, it is easy to see if the layers are shifting and move them back into place.

So, if I make a second pair, it will be hybrid. I will make it by machine up to and including some important stay-stitching and clipping around the heel. But I'll sew the heel by hand. Maybe. We'll see. I am beginning to itch to make a garment. It has been too long for my mental well-being.

Meanwhile, my second class is another wonderful online class with the magnificent Jane Dunnewold. The title is Complex Compositions. I have been wanting a way to learn more about artistic composition. The principles apply to all sorts of arts and crafts.

This class with Jane, like previous ones, lasts several months with lots of videos, hand-outs, Q&A's, as well as an online community for sharing work and questions. It also includes a good deal of homework. It is not required but, knowing how I learn, I keep up with it for the most part. It really does help me remember stuff and then integrate it into future projects. 

The Jane Dunnewold course is not sewing but it sure is fun and definitely challenging.

So that is what happened to July!