ANOTHER UPDATE... (01/11/21)
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BLOG CATCH-UP
I feel a slight apology is in order - not that I imagine there's anybody out there looking at this any more!
I hit a couple of 'tricky' spots with the banyan, not the least of which was trying to sort the hem out. There was no way I had the space to lay things out here, so I ended up using Martin-at-Pennell's wonderful cutting table - my goodness it's useful having a friendly local haberdashers! The garment is 90% finished I suppose...
The last hurdle is to sort out the sleeve length: I have left them over-long as I want to turn them back to form a cuff... but it means a bit of unpicking - not difficult with a hand-sewn garment, just tedious... so it gets put aside. Now I have a small kitten (of which more later) which means the banyan has been bundled away until there's less danger of someone's claws shredding the silk damask...
In the meantime, I have made myself several more items of clothing, ALL hand-sewn (I seem to have stopped using the sewing machine altogether). Let's face it, I have the time - masses of it now I am 'retired' - and, thankfully, the skill/facility (thank you EDW). I started with a type of shirt I've made before (with drop shoulders - think American mid-west) but have hit too many 'little' problems (like how the button loops will go, the front placket, etc) so it has been shelved for the moment.
Then there is a sort of kimono-style dressing gown, for more 'day-to-day' use:
There's plenty of videos out there on making kimonos, but how many of them may be called 'authentic' I really don't know. One thing I picked up - whether correctly or no - is that the garment panels are individually hemmed and turned-in before they are actually sewn to each other in the final assembly; a very intriguing method. In fact my music teacher, who has a Japanese wife and, therefore mother-in-law, said that the latter used to take apart her summer kimonos at the end of the season, wash the fabric, lightly starch it and then laid it out to dry on boards to keep the shapes, then sew it all back together again when summer approached...
From there I have made what was intended to be an autumn jacket, out of some very attractive plum-coloured fabric; and yes, it does bear a passing resemblance to a smoking jacket!
but it has turned out to be more of a winter jacket ... never mind - at the time of writing, it is definitely winter clothing time! I have also finished a thinner, more properly spring/autumn short coat, in a similar style.
Then of course there's all the crochet I do. My output is not huge, as often I'm working through a design (see one of my previous posts) but it keeps me occupied.
Finding good yarn has not been easy, as there are no decent yarn shops anywhere in this area. However, I have discovered two online stores: Lindehobby.co.uk and Hobbii.co.uk (both of which turned out to be in Denmark in fact), where I have struck lucky with yarns: some luscious wool and alpaca made by Drops, from Lindehobby and a very intriguing mixed fibre yarn from Hobbii. I now trawl through various other sites on the search for cheap/reduced yarn. I bought some more of the Drops from a company calling itself the Wool Warehouse at an even better price. I chose neutral, mid-beige as being suitable for a bit of hand-dyeing... More recently, I have been drawing up some of the patterns I have been using:
Another distraction in my life, which I mentioned in my last post, has been the tenor viol, which I took up back in April. Very absorbing - and frustrating! However, my technique is definitely improving :-) and my tutor is even threatening to 'encourage' me to play with a group of his other students - which is a very scary prospect... Ten years of playing the 'cello when I was at school certainly helps, although the technique is not quite the same. One project in the six months I have been learning has been to find a better bow: the one that came with the instrument is, at best, only adequate. As a good, hand-made bow costs upward of £500 it needs serious consideration. The luthier I am using - Merion Attwood - has lent me several bows to try out 'on approval' and it is quite extraordinary how a difference of just one gramme and a subtle shift in the balance point can make all the difference. Some bows simply 'feel' better in the hand even though they look pretty much identical - hard to explain.
And finally... there is Merlin... dear Merlin...
He's a delight - well, he IS a kitten! But I think I will dedicate a whole blog post to him, rather than extend this one still further...
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