YAY FOR SEWING MOJO!

The sewing mojo chez Houtz has been strong lately! I made another Paris Piece,
a very textured silver tunic to go with many of my already-sewn jackets.

The pattern is my old friend B5526, with added pockets and a stand-up ruffled collar. Shams from Communing with Fabric chose the fabric for me, a textured synthetic from Fabrix several years ago.

It enhances many of the fabrics in my Paris Wardrobe-to-be, so I made it so that I could use it as a layer, as well as on its own.

Here it is under the Minoru

under the Giant Houndstooth jacket I made for Portugal

and under my knit vest from last year

I'm very pleased with it!  Here is a peek at the new hanging rack I got to put the Paris wardrobe possibilities on...more on this later.

After I finished that, I went to work on my "Franken Pant" pattern, which is 
Marcy Tilton's V8929 plus my custom pattern from Lynda Maynard. I'm trying to get the combined patterns (that's the Franken part) to the point that I can cut them out, serge all the edges and sew them together in a day. The first one was a wadder, the second ok, but meh...and here's the third one in a stretch cotton from someone on Etsy...

o

It gets better every time! While I was doing all this sewing, I listened to the
final two books of Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes trilogy, Finders Keepers and End of Watch.  They're pretty good...I've not been a Stephen King  fan in the past, but I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes so I decided to follow through on the last two. After those, I started Barkskins, Annie Proulx's new book. It's loooooong and fabulous. I'm about ⅔ finished. All these audio books are available on Audible Books.

Before I bring you up to date on the puppies (I know some of you are mostly interested in them....!) here's a RTW outfit from Sun Kim that I had to have...

I've already worn it several times and I love it!

Our beloved housekeeper gifted me with this awesome charm "bracelet" for my birthday...her sister made it and I'm so touched by it!

It's a spool of thread, a button, a dress form, a measuring tape, a thimble and a pair of scissors with a rose. Love it!

And one more thing...there were quite a few questions after my last post about  my raincoat...here are some answers...

I didn't line it or add inside pockets as I wanted it to be as lightweight as possible.
I did not shorten it.
The top in "the wineglass picture" was the top of this Alembika outfit that I bought in Oregon

...

The sheer sleeves belong to my "Sleevey Wonder"!

And HERE are the latest pictures of the puppies...(they are English Cocker Spaniels, blue roan, and we're only getting ONE although Dave has been wondering if we should get TWO
NO I said...

..

I have a very cute video of them tussling with each other, yipping and GROWLING...
I'll try to up load it.

Well, I tried twice and I couldn't get it to work... 

I'm headed over to Patti's Visible Monday...come see us!

TTYL
SaveSave

ANOTHER CATCH UP!

WARNING: LENGTHY POST AND LOTS OF PICTURES!

That's what happens when I let 3 weeks go by between posts...I have been busy and actually have some clothes to show for it!

But first...a few pictures of our redecorated bedroom wing. We finally got the painting we wanted for over the fireplace

It's called Spiral Dance; the artist is Seyburn Zorthian whose wonderful painting
I bought 25 years ago and is over our living room fireplace.

(Remember when the contents of our closets were in the living room?)

Seyburn is a friend of ours; we love her work and are enjoying waking up in the morning to the sight of her Spiral Dance.

A few more pictures of the bedroom

The antique Katagami stencils above our bed were used to stencil family crests on clothing and goods in 19th century Japan.

These are old purses and bags I've collected on our travels; I hung them in the hall so I can see them every day. The color we used in the bedroom wing is very

difficult to photograph...the pictures of the bedroom show a more realistic color

match.

So...on to sewing! I made another pair of Marcy Tilton's Vogue 8929 pants,

although for my 4th pair I changed them enough that she might not recognize them!

The fabric is an abstract print stretch denim from Emma One Sock.

They're very comfortable and the type of pants  I wear most days.

I made another pair of loose harem-y pants from Sandra Betzina's V1355,

using a dreamy Ella Moss rayon challis from Hart's Fabric. This fabric is so perfect for travel to hot climates (India, I'm talking about you!) that I just ordered some more for another shirt.

I'm wearing a batwing tee with them...!

And for my final submission, I made yet another version of B5526...

in a wonderful French Circles and Squares crinkled jacquard from Emma One Sock. I am wearing it here with Eileen Fisher's Slouchy Ankle Pant in Silk Georgette, another supremely comfortable pant.

Well, if you've stayed with me this long, THANK YOU! I'll try not to stockpile

post material again...

TTYL

OF POP-UP TRAILERS AND NEW CLOTHES...

I didn't know till now what a pop-up trailer was...DD and DSIL were gifted one
for their wedding a year ago. They just took a two week road trip and traveled up and down the California coast pulling the trailer. They arrived at our house on Friday and left today.

This is the trailer un-popped... and here are some pictures of them setting it up yesterday so we could see what it becomes..

It's a two-person job, and Maggie and David have it down to a science...

Here it is half-way up....

And here it is being inspected by DH...

It was fun to see them and hear about their adventures.

Earlier this year, I bought a RTW vest with very interesting pleating...

except I bought mine in a pretty cool-toned taupe...and of course, I had nothing to wear it with...

So....I had recently bought this wonderful hand-dyed shibori dotted black cotton
from Marcy Tilton and decided to use my TNT shirt pattern B5526 to make a long shirt

I added a stand-up ruffled collar, as I have done before, and top-stitched the shirt in a contrast thread for a change...

and, what do you know, I found another taupe and black fabric in my stash, also

from Marcy, many years ago, and made another B5954 to go with the vest.

Well, I have NOT covered the last of our trip in Bergen, nor have I mentioned the very fun time I had at Artistry in Fashion several weeks ago... so more to

come...

TTYL

DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SANTA FE?

I'm still enjoying the wonderful "meet-up" in Santa Fe last weekend...seven wonderful fiberly types came from all over the US to meet, some of us for the first time "in the flesh", and to spend four days together, visiting fabric shops, visiting retail shops,

seeing the sights,

eating,

drinking

and having a glorious time.

Are we having fun yet?

Such a warm, welcoming group with LOTS to talk about...

pictures to share

purchases to show and tell

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to hang out with my good friend Sharon, from Communing with Fabric blog. (By the way, many of the pictures I'm showing were from her camera...we took so many and shared most of them, so I've forgotten exactly which ones she took...)I KNOW I took this one...

Sharon and I talk and text almost every day, but we don't get to hang out that much, which is too bad, as we ALWAYS have fun together...

We did a lot of "snoop shopping"...I had the exquisite pleasure of trying on a

dozen Issey Miyake pieces which were fantastic...and WAY out of my price range. We met a darling young saleswoman at Santa Fe Dry Goods, Bethany, who encouraged our frenzy, kept bringing us pieces to try on, then patiently buttoned/zipped them up and returned them to the rack. Yea, Bethany!

I got to try on some of my other favorite designers, too...Uma Wang, Dries van Noten

look at these SHOOZ! OMG, I had to put a padlock on my purse! I did buy another  pair of Fly London sandals...

(Sharon bought them in mustard...we switched out the ugly khaki shoe laces...

we are very much each other's enablers....)

I also loved this Dries van Noten belt, but I would wear it as a necklace

I bought a cute Babette cotton/linen jacket and mesh tee...

I LOVE the placement of the stripes...

Sharon and I took off for Canyon Road in Santa Fe on Sunday...we enjoyed the galleries and outdoor art

 Look at those fantastic Santa Fe colors...and check out my new purse...that had my name on it!


Beautiful antique baskets and weavings...

and an installation of one of my favorite artists, Christina Chalmers.

As we walked along Canyon Road, it got colder and colder...

what we thought were falling petals turned into SNOW, so we ran into the

TeaHouse to get out of the snow and eat lunch.

They had a lovely fire in the fireplace which helped our mood (as did the wine....) But then, we had to walk back to the hotel...

SO much fun!

I had started a black shirt/jacket before I left for Santa Fe...I just finished it yesterday. It's my TNT B5526 made out of a Babette fabric from Fabrix in San Francisco

I lengthened the shirt and added a stiffly ruffled collar

and am wearing it with my new "ink-spattered" pants from my last post

I can't help show casing my beautiful roses...

Thank you for hanging in for this long, long post! I will be joining in on the

Visible Monday post over on Not Dead Yet Style a little later this afternoon, thanks to our hostess, Patti.

TTYL

P.S.   I can't help but show this picture of MicMac and Paddywack, finding their

places in the sun, in my closet...