Thinking and tinkering

I've been simultaneously working on 4 papers and two proposals, both of which are large entities where I play a small role.  One is VERY large - 387 million over 10 years - going to fund a facility used by a huge community of scientists and the public.  I'm the outgoing chair of their board, so my role has been mostly organizational.  Lots of reading, not as much writing.

SO....my sewing has been a little slow these days, and photography pretty much nonexistent.  With the election I'm working to go through all the necessary stages as quickly as I can, ending up at the stage where I look at our future with resolve and a small measure of hope.  It's not what I would wish, but there is always a potential for a silver lining.  Perhaps a Clinton presidency would have just allowed these wounds in our society to fester.  I feel that she would have made choices that would have helped many of those who were the most angry, but I also suspect that she would not have been allowed to enact anything and the anger would just have grown.

Sewing - I've made the knit shirt from Vogue 1389 twice (Donna Karan suit) - once as a wearable muslim out of a rayon knit (now using for sleeping at night) and once out of a stretch green velvet (woah!).  It's raglan, with side seams that wrap around towards the back, and wide bands at the neck and wrists.  Very good practice for the serger!  The neck bands are a good deal shorter than the circumference of the neck whole, so either a ton of pinning or hand basting are definitely necessary.  Pinning didn't work well on my muslin (hence the new nightshirt), so I went through the process of hand basting both the neck and wrists on the velvet version.  I was very happy with how it turned out, and feel more confident about my serging-in-the-round skills now.  Hemmed with chain stitch.

I've also cut out two smocked sleeveless dresses for the girls, have completed the pleating and have started the smocking. They're in two shades of green flannel, and will be worn with peter-pan neckline white satin shirts for the holidays.

I finished my reversible plaid+black lawn dress, Butterick 6016.  It's not as flattering as my other versions - The waist is a bit baggy and the diagonal plaid is less slimming that I thought it might be.

I made a set of flannel pajamas for Jeanne and a matching doll outfit.  And I've cut out another pair of Jalie 2908 jeans, this time in blue corduroy, not stretch!  I'm planning on doing the side seams a little bit smaller, in hopes that I'll still be able to pull them on.  Just working on the back pockets so far.

I think that's it - I'm down to the last 20 rows or so on my mom's tablecloth and am hoping I"ll finish it by christmas!  She liked the gold dot one that she got for her birthday.