Author Archives: Jan

About Jan

Musician and geek and Juris Doctor; lover of fine art and fine craft; mother and grandmother and significant other and friend. Passionate about sewing.

Stolen Moments

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I’m a sucker for early-morning shopping from my inbox. Once my stash is full, I have to consciously tell myself, “Don’t look. Don’t look.” While on vacation, I looked at a Fabric Mart sale email and fell for this black and white “tie-dye” stripe. And I’m glad I did. This rayon/lycra blend knit is soft and super comfortable. I love the lime green version of Katherine Tilton’s Vogue 8710 that I made in June, but I don’t think it goes with anything but white pants. Summer. In Northeast Ohio, summer is long gone. Additionally, I made the green top with … Continue reading →

A Labor of Duty

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Most of my sewing, when I’m not the intended recipient, is a labor of love. My most recent experience didn’t follow that tradition. The store owner approached me with three bolts of fabric and a pattern for a little girl’s dress and asked me to make it for a store sample. I was complimented. To my mind, that meant she liked the work I had done on the (much disliked by me) Amy Butler skirt and skirt overlay I had completed a few weeks ago. Now, I love to sew. Obviously. One could not turn out the number of garments … Continue reading →

Eating Serger Pie

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You’ve heard of eating Humble Pie, or of eating one’s words, right? Well, after this weekend’s sewing, I’m eating Serger Pie. Way back in, oh, 1998, I bought a serger. Honestly, in retrospect I don’t know why I bought it. The magazines I was reading and the classes I was taking at the time all talked about sergers and the beautiful work they allow the home sewist to produce. So I thought I needed one. I bought the Bernina 1100DA, took the guide classes offered by the dealer in Vienna, Virginia, and then tucked it into a cupboard. I moved … Continue reading →

Favorite Travel Jacket

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Doesn’t everyone have a favorite travel garment? This is mine. Every time I wear it, I receive compliments. It’s the Nikko jacket from The Sewing Workshop. The fabric is a home dec linen that I found at a store near the university in Tucson. From my googling, I believe the store no longer exists. I can picture it and about where it was, but can no longer remember the name of the street. I lived in Tucson from 2000-2008—eight years. I’ve now been gone from there for six years. I’ve forgotten many of the places, but still remember all the … Continue reading →

And How Do You Feel About That?

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I’m currently having my first experience with on-demand sewing. The Bernina store owner came to me one afternoon about three weeks ago, carrying a pattern and three bolts of fabric. She said, “Why don’t you make this skirt and overskirt (referred to in the pattern as an ‘apron overlay’) so we can display it at the store to help sell some of these patterns.” I’m not going to try to convince you that I have a definite style. My style is all over the place! But if you look at my Pinterest boards or if you’ve read a lot of … Continue reading →

It’s in the Details!

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One of the things that led to my employment at the local Bernina store was the owner’s seeing me in the store wearing garments I had made. She is also a garment sewist, so she knew just by looking that quality had gone into the construction of these garments. She told me she had picked up some apparel fabrics at the Pittsburgh quilt market, and within a few days I stopped at the Twinsburg store on my way to a Cleveland rehearsal to see these fabrics. The owner was there and we talked a bit more, culminating in her asking … Continue reading →

Summery Scarf

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Catching up on some older projects that haven’t made it to a blog post yet …. One of Wolf Creek Yarn’s weekly newsletters in March grabbed my attention. In Northeast Ohio, we were still in the depths of a brutal winter, but the scarf shown in the newsletter sang to me of spring. The scarf is made of Berroco Lago yarn, a rayon/linen blend that gives the wearer accessory options for warm-weather outfits. I made a road trip over to Grove City to visit Wolf Creek for the first time, where I bought two skeins each of the colors Papaya … Continue reading →

When is a Uniform Not a Uniform?

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When it’s a great, beautifully constructed, Katherine Tilton Vogue top. My friend, Leslie, teaches at Interlochen Arts Camp during her summer breaks from the university where she chairs the dance department. My son, grandkids, and I drove up to Interlochen earlier this summer to visit her. Now, anyone who has attended or visited Interlochen over the years knows there’s a camp uniform. Light blue shirts and dark blue pants or shorts (or, much mocked through time, knickers for the girls). When I observed one of Leslie’s musical theatre classes the first day we were there, I was horrified. No one … Continue reading →