A Stitch in Time

To prepare for Brad and Makayla's arrival on Coronado Ave., I moved my sewing room to the basement. One of the things that prompted me to buy the house was the size of the bedrooms and the thought of having my sewing room on the same level as the bedroom. I was hopeful that accessibility would encourage me to do more sewing.

But now I love having the sewing room in the basement. There are two decent windows in the basement room. It's toasty on cold almost-spring days because the furnace is in the next room. And it's got lots of space. It does not have any electrical outlets, but right now I'm solving that riddle with a couple of long extension cords strong across the basement.

So what am I sewing? Did I mention my babes are appearing in The Music Man, staged by Easy Street Productions the second weekend in May? The costumes are outrageously expensive for the company to rent, so sewists are being called in to help.

Jaci found a vintage dress (1912) for Ridley, but it's not in the right size. I haven't yet learned how to slash-and-spread to get alter to the pattern to the right size, so I've found a similar modern pattern and I'm making it as a test. Once I know this fits, I'll work on the vintage pattern with the shape and size of this new pattern. If my plan works, we'll have a correctly fitting vintage-design dress.

My test pattern is a dress with a slip dress underneath. The slip dress is made in a small floral print on an off-white ground. The flowers are pink, orange, and purple. The overdress is purple. The slip dress has a ruffle on the bottom that just peeks out from under the overdress. I finished the slip dress on Sunday night (and it's darling!), and will finish the overdress tonight or tomorrow night.

Then it's on to knickerbockers for Boston. You remember how Harold Hill sings, ". . . rebutton his knickerbockers below the knee"? I found a Burda pattern and some gray striped [polyester - ugh] suiting. I'll make a test pair to see where I need to cut them off. This pattern illustration looks like they're ankle-length and that's just wrong.

I'm searching all the online stores, after cancelling my G Street run on Sunday. The polyester suiting doesn't feel like suit-weight. I'd like something a little heavier for the real pair of knickerbockers, and something containing some natural fibers. Polyester just isn't right for any year—1920 or 2009!

This project may be my greatest challenge this year. The vintage dress pattern has minimal instructions, so I've got to figure the whole thing out by drawing on my 45 years of sewing experience. And I've never sewn with a Burda pattern before. They're said to be more difficult to follow than American patterns. We'll see if this prompts me to explore the World of Burda, or to swear off them forever.

What are you doing with your hands this week?