Time - The Good and The Bad

February 2, 2024

First, I hope this email makes it through all the new barriers put up by yahoo, gmail and some other servers.  It's hard to send bulk emails these days as the spammers make it harder and harder for the good ones to get through.  

I worked really hard with tech support to make sure this happens, but if you know of someone who didn't get their email, LMK - you can simply respond to this email and I'll get it - it's the emails to you that you might not get.  
 

So time is our most treasured resource.  You can go to the bank and borrow more money, but you can not borrow more time, no matter how rich you are.  That's why you have to be really careful with your time.  

I remember my grandmother commenting that as you get older, time flies.  That was particularly true when I was lying in bed working on trying to get a nap.  Nap time was boring, and I had many other things to do besides nap.  She kept saying one day, you will want to take naps in the middle of the day, but you won't have the time - enjoy that time now.  Yeah, right.  That made no sense to me when I was a little tyke, and here I sit, thinking how right my grandmother was!

So here I sit with this gorgeous bride and their family doing all sorts of wonderful things for them, but I can only really show you a little cause I only show these things after the wedding.  What's worse is that I have my favorite project going now.

From this:  

Please note I have found the most excellent quiet luxury buttons for this jacket.  

To this:

Only waiting on its sleeves and finishing.  I'm not sure which I like better here - the hand ticked finish...

Or a more welt top-stitched look...

Only I would do the stitching only one row - not on the very edge, but about ¼" from the edge to look like a welt edging.  I'm leaning more and more toward this finishing, and I'm not above putting in the stitching and if I don't like it taking it all out and doing the hand stitching.

The only thing really preventing me from doing that is my memory of the original double-knit suits...

I'm very sorry - I wish to apologize for this awful example of visual pollution, but you can see why I'm worried.    

Egads!  I don't think I'll ever get the vision of the awful pieces of clothing perpetrated on the innocent public out of my memory.  

This whole houndstooth thing started with this picture.

Only I was horrified with the showy wealth in the original photo on the left, and messed with it to get the much more stealth wealth photo on the right.  But that's not the end of my shock, cause going back to look up this jacket, I found the original source of the jacket.

Look at this - no line, no shape, the sleeves are huge at the wrist, the jacket is way too big at the shoulders, and frankly, if I saw this in the store, I wouldn't come close to sewing anything like this.  This looks like a peacoat and not a styled jacket

This is what originally drew me to sewing.  Here's the styled-out gal, in this magnificent jacket, and I automatically assumed that the jacket had style and shape and it had nothing of the kind.  

The whole idea of this shaped jacket with my new black draped pants is so exciting that it's all I can do not to do an all-nighter to finish the whole shebang.  But then there's the bride coming in this weekend.  And she's adorable and, even better, it's her grandmother's and mother's dress, so we're completely redoing it.   (NOTE:  I couldn't leave you with those two awful pictures at the end of my newsletter, so here is this partially-finished, wonderful jacket!)

The time now is kinder than it used to be.  It's not that I can't get as much done; it's that my passion is still as alive and well as it was when I was thirty; only my clients take up some of that time now that I didn't have when I was learning how to sew.  
 

I think we forget that when we are younger, we have the gift of time - time to learn,  time to experiment,  time to fail, and time to succeed.  But I also have something today that I didn't have back then - the confidence to know I can accomplish just about anything I can dream of, with discipline, the time to complete it, and the wisdom to use the gift of time as well as possible.  

Pictures of the wedding will obviously be forthcoming, but the houndstooth photos will be first!

The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid in you fitting and flattering your shape, size and style.  Check it out. 

Look for future classes coming in 2024
The Core Pattern Shirt, (one of my favorites for woven core pattern that you can make into a myriad of different garments), 
Basic Knit Top (core pattern class for knit basic tops, shells, tees, dresses, and tunics)
 

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