Now that the Sewing Lawyer is retired, there are vanishingly few occasions for the wearing of anything resembling a suit, but (surprise!) the stash is full of wool that was bought over the years to match dreams of future office finery. But it's too nice not to use. So I've come around to the idea of more casual wool clothing that won't demand to be dry cleaned.  My first foray in this field was making a shirt for my son for Christmas. He has recently taken to wearing wool shirts as a work alternative to a jacket and didn't reject the idea of a mom-made version. I considered using this Mc ..read more

  Here I am enjoying my new Dawn jeans on a wonderfully sunny, if quite chilly day. Winter is definitely coming, but there are still plenty of leaves on the trees.  What to say about these? They are very comfortable. Time and wearing will tell me if I should have made them snugger through the hip.  I did slightly overreact on the waist seam adjustment as informed by my TDCO fitting experiment. I took something less than 1cm out of the front length and brought the back up by about 1.5cm at the very CB - these are sewn with a 4mm seam allowance at that point in compensation ..read more

I lusted after jeans with long, wide legs in the 1970s. I have a specific memory of an ad that featured an impossibly leggy young woman wearing such a pair. If she had feet, it wasn't apparent; the hem of her jeans skimmed the floor around her (no doubt) very high platform shoes. I thought this photo might pop up on the internet but sadly it did not. Instead, I found a bunch of snaps that will show you the general vibe, capturing my wish for my current sewing project.  The essential features: The waistband sits at the actual waist. The hips are snug but not skin tight. The legs are wi ..read more

I made another pair of shortie Carolyn PJs for myself. But this time I changed the collar to be a more straightforward sew.  I don't love the fabric, which is a strangely flimsy cotton with this extremely large repeat.  I obviously wouldn't wear it tucked in but I think the shorts are hilarious (random pattern "matching") and they would be covered up if I had laid them out differently.  I redrafted the front to have a straight folded CF edge and copied the shape of a collar from a mens' shirt pattern I have been using for my husband's PJs, shortening it at CB so it fit into th ..read more

  We (the retreaters) have revealed our finished and mostly-finished cardigans to each other and to Nic Corrigan and are cleared to show them to whomever we please. So here is the cardigan I mostly made while in Yorkshire, but finished here at home. There, I used the assigned machine, which was a Silver Reed punchcard (maybe a 328?). Here, I used my Brother KH965i.  The Lumb Bank Slipover pattern is named after the location of the retreat (the steep hill) and Nic designed it with or without sleeves and with 3 different stitch patterns that evoke different aspects of the location ..read more

Last month, I went to a machine knitting retreat. It was AMAZING!  Five days in a beautiful house perched halfway down a steep hill (Lumb Bank) outside a quaint, tiny village (Heptonstall) outside a quaint small town (Hebden Bridge) in the Calderdale district of Yorkshire, England, with 15 like-minded knitters, 3 wonderful hosts and 2 expert instructors.  I'm still processing it.  For now, enjoy these photos. Here is the house. It's the Ted Hughes Arvon Centre at Lumb Bank. I took this photo from across the very steep valley. The house is an 18th century millowner's house that ..read more

Should I edit the title of my blog?  As of mid September, this is me. More time for doing my stuff. We shall see if it includes more sewing and knitting projects, and if I make time to blog about it.  Stay tuned ..read more

Once again, I fell for a new Closet Core pattern. This time it is the Jo Dress & Jumpsuit. The dress immediately appealed to me, but as I'm about to retire (no more office clothes!) I decided maybe I shouldn't be sewing a structured dress that I would have very few occasions to wear. So then, the pants...   But an actual jumpsuit????? No way.  I think jumpsuits and I passed each other on fashion street when I was in my 20s or 30s (?). I cannot actually remember but I know that I didn't want to wear them then either. Their immense impracticality is a deal breaker.  ..read more

I usually make my husband a pair of tailored PJs at Christmas, but for some reason I was sleeping in disintegrating non-me-made flannelette PJs (winter) or t-shirts and shorts (summer). I have a couple of trips coming up this summer and needed to up my game.  I decided to make the Carolyn Pajamas pattern from Closet Core. Enter this Egyptian themed and weirdly badly printed fabric, pure cotton, that I bought years ago at the Fabric Flea Market. I had always earmarked it for PJs because ... well, that print! It's so strange! Now behold, my new shortie PJ set. When I make tailored PJs ..read more

How many years ago did this pattern come out? At least a few. And I've owned it for a while. But this is the first time I've tackled it.  This version is made from a mid-weight woven embroidered blend (maybe viscose and something) from stash. I had more than enough to cut the extravagant sleeves and the pockets. I predict more. Not that this pattern is perfect. I had to tweak it to get it to a state I was prepared to live with. This dress has 2 bust darts but otherwise no shaping at all. The side seams are dead straight - no flare, no curve in at the waist. This makes it challenging for ..read more