finished apron

 Remember that apron I liked?

I got some brick-colored cotton duck (heavy tent fabric) and finished one.

Back (taking pictures of the back is a feat; I use a hand mirror to see the image on the camera screen):

I like it. I might do another one. (You can't see the pockets in these low-quality pics, but I did hand pockets again, instead of the one chest pocket the pattern calls for. Someday, I'm going to go back to sewing a pattern just as drafted... but not yet.)

Sewing that duck is like working sheet metal. I got another piece to make shop aprons for myself and my brother-in-law, and after pre-washing and drying it, I can't iron it enough to get it flat and smooth. So these aprons are going to have a bit of texture.

Such are the vagaries of art.

starting the vest

 My phone falls out of the pockets of most of my shorts.

This is irritating. 

One of the times the phone fell, the volume button assembly fell out, rendering it unusable. While there are other ways to adjust the volume, on this phone, the volume button is necessary to take a screenshot. I had to replace the phone.

This gets expensive.

I have a vest that has a pocket that will hold the phone, but the vest is wool. 

That gets hot (see the note on shorts in the first sentence, and use your imagination).

One of the coolest fabrics, reputedly, is linen. Summer suits have been made from linen for decades, maybe centuries.

So I've got this idea of making a linen vest for myself, with a pocket to hold the phone.

I looked online for vest patterns, but most of them are either for fleece vests (with too much coverage) or for vests as part of a suit, and I didn't want the pants and jacket patterns (and I didn't like the styles, anyway). What I wanted was a version of the wool vest I have, but in linen.

I did some learning about how to make a pattern from existing clothing, and drew one up. Part of a first draft:

I made up a draft from that pattern in muslin (maybe the cheapest cotton fabric, and so commonly used for this kind of test garment that the test garments themselves are called "muslins"). It didn't close across the stomach, but I used the muslin to practice the pocket insert:

After adjusting the pattern, I made another muslin to test; the one fits:

Below, the pattern pieces:

At top are the front lining pieces: one in the outer fabric, and one in the fabric that the back will be made from (common in men's vests; I'll use light cotton on the back). At bottom left, the back piece (half; it's cut on a fold and unfolds to be the full piece); at right, the front (cut two opposites).

More developments as they arise.

apron adjustment

The pattern looks like this:

... and it looks like a nifty design with those swoopy curves in the back. But instead of that single rectangular pocket in the middle don't you think hand pockets would be better?

I did. and it turned out that the scrap from those swoopy underarm cuts made some decent pocket shapes. They'll want to be patch pockets instead of inset, "bag-type" pockets, and you can't put too much in 'em because it will affect the drape, but let's give it a try.

I made up a muslin, this time out of real muslin, which is lightweight and cheap, and I used the rectangle pocket marking as a guide for the patch pockets. It looked more or less like this:

Detail of the pockets:

(The shape reminds me of headless chickens.)

This one isn't useful for anything; the muslin is too thin. But I'm going to look for chambray, if I can find a heavy enough weight, or cotton duck canvas, if I can find one light enough. (The original is in linen, which looks great, but do you want to care for it?) I'm planning to make it as a birthday present for my sister; she never looks at this blog, so it will be a surprise.

The linen, though, has given me an idea for an unlined, summer-weight vest. After all, a guy's gotta have a pocket to keep his phone in, right? And I've got a lightweight wool vest I can use as a model...

bike jersey - first attempt

 

 My first attempt at a real jersey. It works well. The allowances for the seam widths are a little stingy, so I need to cut the next one a little more generously. And the t-shirt collar works, although this one is a bit too tight; I need to cut the neckhole on the front a little lower and adjust the size of the collar. There's a formula for that collar size.

The seams around the back pocket and the sleeve and bottom hems work well. I need to work on the elastic at the top of the pocket. And what you lose having only two pockets rather than three, you make up in the exceptional depth of the pocket.

That accent color was supposed to be a little less pink and a little more peach. Oh, well. 

(One stupid detail of which I am stupidly proud: the sections are all sewn with the matching color thread. For the bottom hem, I stopped the thread just at the color change, so the bottom hem is sewn on each section with the appropriate thread.)

Holy crap, but my bald spot is getting inescapable. The hole in my hair reminds me of the hole in the ozone.

Next project is another cross-back apron, different from the one I wrote about last month. I'm planning on sending it to my sister for the next gift-giving occasion after I finish it. It's got a single pocket in front, but I'm thinking up plans for hand pockets on each side; don't you think that would be better? It's kind of shapeless, so The Excellent Wife (TEW) isn't really interested. But I think it's a neat project.

Maybe after that, another try at a bike jersey. Competing fabric providers have different ideas of what teal is, and I may make one with the two colors of teal... or I may go with kelly green and off-white.

I'm having a lot of fun with this.

too easy

 The Trump impeachment acquittal didn't upset me for very long. Convicting him in the Senate was always a long shot.

And that was too easy of a method of keeping him out of office. Many Americans still support him, and would only have thought that this was part of the ongoing plot to attack him and keep them down. Some still haven't seen video of the attack on the Capitol; of those who have, too many support it.

The way to keep Trump out of office is to ensure that the electorate keeps him out. This means engaging those whose minds are not already closed and poisoned, and trying to re-engage those whose are. (But I think most of these are just going to have to die off.)

I hear Trump is still worried about criminal charges. Good.

moderna kicked my @ss

I work for Rutgers University Behavioral Healthcare. Many of my fellow staff have patient-facing positions; I do not, but when the Moderna Coronavirus vaccine was made available to UBHC staff, I got the opportunity to get the shot, and I took them up on it. I got my first dose on January 8, and had little reaction.

I got my second dose yesterday, February 5. I am having a substantial reaction.

Holy cow.

After the vaccination yesterday, I wound up with some achiness, and I fell asleep on a ZOOM meeting with friends last night. I went to bed early (for me, which is EXCEPTIONALLY early for most; I was in bed before 8:30pm).

At 1:40am by the bedroom clock, I woke with aches and apparent fever, and pain around the injection site to the point I couldn't lie on that side. I got out of bed and was up for about an hour; went back to bed, and slept fitfully until I could no longer stay in bed at about 3:45am (this is not much earlier than my usual waking time, but I was unwell, achy, and exhausted). 

I rarely take aspirin, Tylenol, or the like. I mean rarely; it might happen every few years. This was bad enough that I took a Tylenol (I seemed to remember that Tylenol was more effective than other over-the-counter medications against the ailments caused by the coronavirus). It reduced the fever effectively; it was less effective against the pain, especially a persistent headache. I was able to nap for a short while about 11am, and then slept from about 1:30pm until a little after 4. The headache was mostly gone immediately after arising, but has returned. It's bad enough that I've taken another Tylenol. There is still tenderness around the injection site.

Yesterday, Martin G dropped off a number of shirts for me to alter (he's lost even more weight than I). I had hoped to knock them out this weekend, but it's just too much for me.

I have a new respect for the coronavirus.