Back again

It's been a really long time since I last posted to this blog. My bad. Life got in the way. There was that pesky oil spill for months on end. My sewing machine broke and has been "in repair" for months now. I got antsy and made one of the couture project garments by hand (more on that in a minute) and have been focusing on my knitting a lot lately.

After returning from three months in the Gulf, I picked up my scissors and cut out a DKNY-designed skirt to be sewn completely by hand. With my sewing machine broke and the itch very much alive to create, I dove into the work. I had purchased some gorgeous wool gabardine at a shop in New Orleans the past March and  set to cutting it out. My figure is a bit on the strange side: larger hips and smaller waist make fitting a tad complicated, especially where a set-in waist is concerned. Usually, I just take up extra space on the side seams but this design challenged that status quo. The side seams are actually set on an angle to vertical. You can see it in the design drawing, below.  Pockets set into the side seam also prevented my normal response. So instead, I doubled the darts on the front (there are actually darts on the back too, but I wonder why they were omitted from the design drawing?).

Another change from the original was to lower the back slit. I am only 5'3" so this slit ran right up to the undies: not so hot! Lowered, I felt more relaxed and business-like.

I paired the camel-colored skirt with a forest green sweater with cowl neckline, leather healed sandals, and silver bracelet. It was a real winner, and working with the gabardine was very pleasant.

I've also been busy busting my stash lately. I'm trying desperately to limit my expenses right now and as such, I feel it necessary to find projects that fit the stash of yarn that I have hanging out in my basket right now. I'll try to post tomorrow on the four projects I finished out of stash yarn.