TGIF

We pick up our CSA box on Thursday afternoons.  I am not only a subscriber, I am also the neighborhood organizer, a volunteer position.  Friday mornings,  before I go in to my market (paid) job, I combine my community and family jobs by taking Iris to our neighborhood coffee shop and CSA distribution point,  Neighborhood Grinds.

Iris and I return the empty box for reuse, she gets a decaf mocha, I get a soy latte, and we tear into a fresh loaf of challah (baked at Manhattan Bread and Bagel, but delivered to NG).    I also pick up the subscription orders for the following week that have been dropped off at NG.

Last week, she hammed it up for the camera while wearing her newest top.

Then we walk around the corner from NG to her school.  I sign her into the afterschool program, talk to her teacher to coordinate her math lessons (I homeschool math with district-provided materials), pick up CSA orders left at the school and walk home.  At home, I collate the CSA orderrs, update the google spreadsheet and email the total to Tanaka Farms.

Only then am I free to go to my market  job.

With all this on my plate, I am not sure how I found time to make this top, McCall's 5135.

She selected a pink pima cotton poplin that feels great next to the skin.  It is a remnant I picked up back in grad school.  We paired it with some white Swiss dot I bought last year from SAS Fabrics for $3 per pound.  I bought a pound of black and white pieces and it should last me a decade at the rate I am sewing.

The original pattern had two-piece sleeves.  I turned it into a one-piece sleeve with a dimpled pleat at the shoulder.  This eliminates one seam and gives a cute detail.

We trimmed it with cotton lace from Dharma Trading.  The pattern shows the lace meeting in a V at the bodice seam.  This lace is wider and less bendable than the recommended lace, so I couldn't shape it to meet in the center. 

From her measurements, she should have been a size 8 in girth and a 10 in length.  When I have sewn for her using Kwik Sew and Simplicity, I usually just trace the 8, but extend the hems to the 10 length.  It worked fine until this top.  Is McCall's sizing less consistent than other brands'?  This top is too tight.  She can barely get it on.  She says that is why she has to wear it as often as possible before she outgrows it.

I think that means she likes it.

If I make this again, I will go up a size and add length to the upper bodice.  She doesn't like the empire line.  She would prefer the seam at her waist.

Unsuitable for obvious stripes

Actually, it says, "View A,B: Unsuitable for obvious diagonals, plaids, or stripes."

So why do they illustrate view B with a striped fabric?  The warning didn't deter me in Unsuitable for plaids or stripes so I plowed ahead.

That looked awfully short on the left side, so I took the triangle-shaped leftover pieces and sewed them to the selvedge edges of the skirt in an enclosed seam.  If you do this, bias garments take only a little bit more fabric than straight of grain ones.  But the drape is so much better.  I left the selvedge fringe on the outside for visual oomph.

Before I roughly trimmed the hem, I steam-ironed it strenusously, pulling it lengthwise.  Then I pin-basted the skirt, sprayed it generously with a mister, and left it on my dress dummy for a week.  You can see it on the dummy, peeking out under this vest that I knitted in ~2001 (from a circa 1983 pattern).

The linen just grew and grew.  In the end, I realized that I didn't need to sew the extensions on at all.  It would have been long enough on the left front side.

An obvious stripe would obviously not match at the side seam. I'm not really bothered by it. Unbalanced stripes and plaids are not for perfectionists because they will never match perfectly at all the seams.  Just aim for a visually pleasing effect.

Here's the back (with center back chalk marking).  Did I tell you how much I love the stripes in this skirt?

Bias Tips

1. Bias garments do not have to be fabric hogs if you sew the leftover triangles to the opposite side.
2. Use extra wide seam allowances, 1" if you have enough fabric
3. Iron the pieces and stretch them lengthwise (with plenty of steam)
4. Pin or thread baste the pieces together and hang them up to let gravity do its thing.  This works better on a three-dimensional form like a dress dummy or a human.  Dampen the fabric.  Add some weight to the hem.  Let it hang for at least a day, preferably a week.  This is why you should buy a dress dummy.
5. Try the basted and stretched garment on for size, adjust the basted seams.  Roughly trim the hem.
6. Fuse 3/4" wide strips of interfacing to the seam allowances from waist to below the widest part of your hips.  This helps prevent bulges and wavy seams at the hips.  I remembered to do this because I read this transcript.  It is well worth your time to read it, too.
7. Now you are ready to sew! Sew the side seam up to the zipper opening.
8. Insert a zipper using your favorite method.  I used Kathleen's centered zipper method.  Then I pick-stitched down both sides of the zipper by hand.
9. Sew up the other seam and attach the waistband.  (This one has an easy and non-bulky grosgrain finish.)
10. Put the skirt back on the dummy and mark the hem for real.  I serged 1/2" beyond the hemline, then ironed up the hem and topstitched it down.

Not too shabby for 2 hours of prep time, 2 hours of sewing time, and a week to allow the fabric to relax and grow.  I don't have much time to sew during the week anyway.

I made a matching top, Vogue 8657, and zero waste shorts with the rest of the 3-yards of 54" wide linen.  The full pattern review is here.

When I met Peter in NYC, I was surprised to learn that he really is a beginner.  He is so prolific and adventurous, I forgot that he learned to sew less than a year ago.  I tried to give him tips for working on the bias, particularly in rayon, and he asked me why I would bother if it was such a pain.  I was in such a rush, I didn't have enough time to explain.

Bias behaves differently than the straight of grain.  I had bought this fabric to make this sheath dress, but it didn't feel right to me.  It laid on the cutting table for two weeks because I couldn't commit to cutting it for that style.  I picked up the fabric, draped it around my body, and instantly knew I wanted to turn it into a bias skirt.  Home sewing is a journey, and constructing bias garments is taking the longer scenic route.

BTW, Peter said that I was a very focused shopper.  He didn't realize that I was shopping on deadline.  Bad Dad kept calling my cell phone to tell me his ETA with a hungry and cranky child.  I knew that I had a very short amount of time if I also intended to hit the FIT museum and get her fed before she had a meltdown.  I am not embarrassed to say I spent $150, including shipping, for 7 cuts of very nice fabrics.  When I am in NYC again, I will surely make time to visit Kashi at Metro textiles.  (Kashi, who has a BS in electrical engineering, claims that Quantum Mechanics never made sense to him in college.  Next time, I will have to allow enough time for QM office hours.)

Do you know where that's been?

I meant to write a detailed Earth Day post about Iris' class trip to the West Basin Water Recycling Facility. It would have been a follow-on to Walking My Watershed. But, I am jet-lagged and all you get is this short post instead.

[Update, I subsequently posted the field trip report at Our Water Footprint.]

We bought 7-day NYC subway passes for the whole family during our visit. While Iris has taken the subway in LA, SF and DC, she doesn't do it habitually. Last week, she rode the subway as many as 7 times a day. I cringed when I saw how often she touched surfaces in the trains and stations, and then put her hands to her face. You could see the dirt on her hands and sleeves. Who knows how many germs there are? Who else touched their face and then that surface and where else have they touched? Yipes.

Moving right along...

Pennamite wrote on her Facebook wall that it was very windy outside this evening. Someone else noted that, not only is it windy, but it is cold (by LA standards).

My first thought was, of course it is windy; we are getting rain because the jet stream is parked over us.

Then I thought, hmm, this shows us the air that is headed towards us. From where did the airmass that is currently here originate? Well, NOAA has a handy web model interface that allows users to calculate both forward AND BACKWARD trajectories. So here's a 315 hour backward model for the air 500 meters aloft.

Yup, that's almost in Siberia. (The model only goes back 315 hours, but if it had a longer history, we might be able to definitively call it a Siberian airmass.) Whatever. It's from a very cold region.

Compare it to the source of our air from 3 days ago.

Does this help explain the weather?

If you want to run NOAA's HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model, read the tips in Fun with Finite Elements. Then visit NOAA ARL READY http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT_traj.php.

• A user agreement will pop up.
• Read it, then go back to the original window and select "Compute forecast trajectories".
• Leave the first page of options at their default settings.
• On the second page, select Meteorological Data: GFS and City: Los Angeles, CA.
• The default forecast cycle is the most recent one. Leave it alone.
• On page 4, select BACKWARD trajectory direction and select your start time and total model run time (315 hours max)
• You can leave the plot options at the default settings, but I like to plot color trajectories and add distance circles. For a longer model run, you may want to use label intervals of 12 or 24 hours instead of the default 6.

You MUST select GFS on the second page because the web interface assumes that you know that
NAM is North American Mesoscale,
RUC is Rapid Update Cycle and
GFS is Global Forecast System.

NAM and RUC cover only North America. If you want a map that includes other areas, there is only one choice, GFS. Have fun and don't swamp the server.