Rambling: The Season Turns

So, it's November and the garden is done bearing. Well, mostly. I did just thin the carrots, rather late, so there's a Ziploc of baby carrots in the fridge waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. And some scallions and leeks saying, "Look, we grew; aren't you going to do something with us?" And some lettuce occasionally inching along when there's a pocket of warm weather. And so on.

But there's only so much to do in the garden right now, and the sewing machine and serger said, "Ahem. Remember us?" So I'm sewing. 

From far too many patterns new and old, I chose Butterick 5261, an out-of-print raglan shirt jacket pattern (see pattern envelope here), to work on. First I made a too-large size in a silk/linen blend in a denim blue. Then I started a a smaller but still-too-large-size in a nice lofty green cotton flannel with a small woven pattern The main body is done and pressed and topstitched and...it's too big. I'll finish it anyway. I'm hoping that I end up using them--I do like oversized clothes, but when I sew clothes I feel that they should fit. Maybe I should pretend I bought them.

Why did I make the wrong size twice? Frankly, I got tired of making muslins--two patterns had failed at the muslin stage, so I chose a simple style in a size that I knew would be big enough and just made it up in real fabric.  When I reduced the size I chose a sturdier fabric, and a sturdier fabric needs less ease, so the smaller size was just as too big. Whee!

Anyway. I think that the right size would be to go down yet two more sizes above the waist, one size at the waist, while staying at the current size at my hips. I want to persuade myself to finish that process; I tend to get irritated before a pattern is fitted and move on to the next one, ensuring that I never make a garment that really fits. The Liberty Shirt, for example, has been waiting a year or so for me to fix the armhole for my odd shoulders, and add an inch or two to the length. I love that shirt, but I just don't want to do the work.

Meanwhile, I've been doing almost no writing. I'm going to try to resume random burbling on the blog. We'll see how it goes.

That is all.