Is it just me, or does it feel like this summer is flying by in the blink of an eye? I find it hard to believe that August is in just two days, when it feels like yesterday was June. Where has the time gone? While my mind is still fully focused on carefree summer crafting, I am starting to realize that I may need to start directing some of that thought towards what I want done for the fall and winter. Some of the projects I have been putting off all summer “because I won’t need it until fall” are starting to feel a lot more pressing. I have sweaters and quilts that need finishing, and sewing projects I haven’t even begun yet.
My sewing projects really are most in need of immediate attention. I am attending a wedding in Pennsylvania at the beginning of September and have been planning to sew myself a shirt for months, but have yet to get started. The wedding is for a good friend of mine whom I met when I was in grad school at CMU. We were both studying clarinet performance and in the same studio so we spent quite a bit of time together. I thought it would be fun to sew a special shirt to wear to her wedding with a bit of a cheeky nod to our history together.
From a distance this fabric looks like is has a fun stripe pattern, but is more or less nondescript. But up close, look what we have!
Clarinets! This fabric makes me laugh because it is so dorky, which is also entirely on brand for music majors. I am really excited to see how the finished shirt turns out. I am using a new pattern this time around that I have been wanting to experiment with. I have sewn myself 5 or 6 button up shirts in the past, and every last one of them has been with the same sewing pattern. The pattern above is from a great Canadian brand called Thread Theory, which focuses on menswear and menswear-inspired sewing patterns. I have quite a few of their sewing patterns in my drawer, but have yet to actually tackle one. I really need to get started making a muslin of this shirt because I know I am going to need to make a few adjustments for the final garment (lengthen the sleeves, etc.) This is a good opportunity for me to adjust sizing as well because, as much as I would like to believe I am still the same size I was when I sewed my first button-up in 2020, my belly seems to have grown alongside the pandemic and I can no longer rely on my old pattern pieces. The good part about sewing your own clothes is that it lets you make adjustments to fit your specific body shape. the bad part about sewing your own clothes is that you have to be honest about your body shape. No room for vanity sizing here!
If the shirt comes together well and quickly, I am also considering sewing a waistcoat to go along with it.
This pattern is also from Thread Theory, and while my very original and ambitious plan was to weave my own woolen fabric to sew into this project, the time for that has come and gone. I will use the paisley above as the lining fabric and I have some wool cloth arriving this week that hopefully matches the colors of the shirt well enough. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I am already feeling like accomplishing both of these projects in one month is a stretch, but I haven’t talked myself fully out of it quite yet. I just need to get started.
I have made progress on two of the spinning projects I shared with you in my last post. I finished the BFL/silk I had on my e-spinner and that bobbin is now waiting its turn to be plied. This fiber felt like it spun itself and the colors are so vibrant. I am eager to see what it looks like once I have it plied and washed, but I was even more eager to get started on my next project, so I set this bobbin aside and decided I would ply it later.
What I really wanted to see was how the Shetland I processed would spin up. This was a raw fleece I had been given by a friend as a birthday gift and the first fiber I have ever processed in any substantial quantity to become a finished project. I combed enough of the wool to give me 100g of spinnable fiber and so far have worked my way through about 1/3 of it.
I knew I would enjoy spinning this wool, but honestly I am blown away by how nicely this is turning out especially considering how dirty and full of vegetable matter the original fleece was. I love the variation in grays here and am full of suspense to see how it plies together and looks as finished yarn. I think it is going to be beautifully heathered and I am waffling between keeping it undyed, or using this skein to experiment with natural dyeing. First things first, though, I have to finish spinning it!
And now that I am actually processing and spinning the fleeces in my stash, I didn’t want to risk ever running out of wool to use (ha!), so yesterday I went on a drive to look at some freshly shorn Shetland fleece that someone in the area was selling. Considering it took me an hour to get there I couldn’t possibly leave empty handed, so I came home with these three lamb fleeces.
I’ve put them in storage for now until I have a mind to pull them out, open them up, and take a look at what I have to work with. I do think they may be a bit difficult to use – the fiber is on the shorter end and from what I can see there are quite a few second cuts in the fleece, but overall it is very clean and just look at that color! The natural colors of Shetland fleece just can’t be beat. But now I definitely will not be adding any more fleece to my stash until I’ve worked through some of it (at least until the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair at the end of October. I cannot be held accountable for anything that may occur there.)
With family coming to visit later this week and these sewing projects looming over me like a dark cloud, I better get moving otherwise September is going to creep up on me before I even have a chance to cut my fabric. I’ll let you know how it all goes.
Spring Creek Textiles 
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