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I had all these plans for writing a long post of reflection on my Lenten vegetarian experience, and then the mail came.
Look, it's the summer edition of Knitscene.
With a two page spread of my design!
My name in print!
This hasn't happened since I got a byline as an intern for an article on August Wilson's play cycle in the Jan/Feb 2007 edition of the Goodman Theatre's OnStage Magazine (So totally different).
And there it is again!
I was pretty much doing a little happy dance all night long!
I have a secret.*
I started running in July.
Today I ran my first 5k. My goal was to run the entire way.
I did.
Staying warm before the race. It was about 30°F outside.
There were 520 runners.
Annnnd they're off! (I'm in the red shorts in the middle of photo)
On the final stretch....
Final burst for the finish line...
And done!
My final time: 38:41. Average pace of 12:27 minutes/mile.
I met my goal, exceed my personal best time and got a snazzy new running shirt.
*unless you read my Facebook feed, then you already knew
(Finish Line Part II? - I completed my Lady Grey Coat last night. In the words of Maggie - this coat is epic. Photos and details when I return from Thanksgiving.)
After all my weekend travel in October, I finally had a chance this past weekend to get back to work on my Lady Grey Coat.
Some things I accomplished since Friday:
As one might guess from this list, I'm kinda going at this a little scattershot.
I sewed the sleeves and belt because I wanted to see instant progress, and I wanted to get all the pad stitching set up so I could do the actual hand-sewing watching TV during the week. My hope is to have all the hand stitching done by the end of Friday and get the majority of the shell sewn this weekend and the lining fabric cut out. The goal is to have a finished coat by Thanksgiving. Wish me luck!!
Here are some progress photos of my favorite details:
Top stitching on the seams. It makes the coat look particularly "coaty" to me.
Pad stitching on the lapel. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it makes a huge difference in the way the lapel lays. It's a time consuming process, but totally worth it I think. The finished lapel took me some Jeopardy!, an hour of the Ken Burn's Mark Twain documentary and two hours of Circus on PBS. (Which, have you seen Circus? It's really really well done. I'm enjoying it lot.)
Pad-stitching on the roll line of the under-collar.
As I mentioned before, I'm participating in the The Lady Grey Sew-Along.
I'm a teensy bit behind now, and since I'll be out of town for the next two weekends, I'll soon be really far behind. All that aside, I finished my final muslin yesterday.
With the exception of the two front flaps, muslin 1 and muslin 1.5 are exactly the same. My fit turned out pretty well, largely because I took a lot of time grading the coat for my varying bust, waist, and hip measurements. The one change to the front was to shorten the lapels to get rid of some gaping there.
But if anyone has any fit feedback, I've posted some photos below.
Front:
Back:
Back with arms raised:
Side:
Just when you though she didn't sew anymore, coming soon to a blog near you: The Notary Dress, in the world's most lint-attracting fabric, just a zipper and a hem (and some hand-finishing) away!
The Lady Grey Sew-Along: My first attempt at a coat!! (But first to find some fabric for the muslin...)
