Simplicity 2508 Coat part III + Found Fabric

Last post pictures seemed like I was in the same place as before basically but with the addition of the pockets and the collar we have made more visible strides toward finishsed coat. 

Odd thing with the collar.  I took out 1/2" width to account for the width taken out at shoulder seams.  All dots and markings match up, but the collar does not over lap at CF as it should.  How odd.  I don't dislike the effect and so I'm leaving it.  Can't do anything about it anyway. 


Now I just need to cut out the lining, sew lining, button holes, and finally buttons!

These are plaids from my mom's stash that I pulled out of the storage unit.  This brown plaid is my favorite.  I laid it out with a pencil skirt pattern and found some moths took small bites out of one area.  Also, it was a little stinky.  So, after I figured out that despite the moth lunch I still can get a skirt out of the yardage, I trotted it off to the dry cleaners to be cleaned and steamed.  Back this Thursday after 4:30.  Hopfully it will not be stinky when I get it back.  I have some redish maroon lining and will just whip that up after coat is finished for a quicky project.

Then I have one more dress for Winter sewing and will move on to Spring/Summer- I think.  I figured out that with my travel for work I could sew spring dresses year round- danger.

I'm off to Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam and China soon so I need a few cotton dresses to be comfy for factory tours and meetings over product costs.  I don't know if you are aware but the cost of producing products in Asia has sky rocketted due to labor increases (thanks iphone) and material increases (cotton shortage, oil prices driving synthetics).  We've yet to be effected as consumers but eventually retailers may have to pass the increases on to you.  I know many companies are trying to avoid that at all.  My advice is find some good quality, long lasting products and you will not be victim to seasonal fluxuating prices- or learn to sew and take care of it all that way :-)

To China with much love, b rgds

I'm back from a week in China. M y trip was good work wise. I wore this dress on the plane:
Vogue 1027 made in bamboo viscose (essentially that's rayon) and spandex.

See pattern review here . It's wearable, comfortable and packable. My only concern was the twirliness. As I entered the tiny sky high airplane bathroom, I had to make sure it didn't swish itself into the commode and bring back with it germs and ickiness.


I love this dress.

Meanwhile, I know you didn't ask, but, here are my thoughts on traveling for business. Disclaimer: I'm a grouchy, jaded traveler so take it with grain of salt.

Once upon a time when I was in my twenties and had a bunch of roommates and no pets, I begged to be sent anywhere in the country/world. As my career progressed, I did go everywhere in the country and the world, often. At least twice a year to New York and Hong Kong. The rest of the year was sprinkled with trips to one or more of the following: Peru, China, Singapore, Korea, Egypt, India, South Africa, and most of the countries in Central America at least once. I've seen many awesome things, including the biggest metal Buddha in the world and the Buddist monastery (located on Lantaou Island near Hong Kong airport.)
This is a photo that I took a few years ago. Follow above links for many more.
I love/d traveling for work for many years. Traveling allows you to see wonders in the world, eat great food/suffer bad food, meet fantastic people and generally expand your understanding of the planet. However, as the mystique fades the reality is that you are not home. WARNING: Log out here if you do not want to read my bitter burned out traveler comments.

The part that is tough about traveling is that when the work day is over, sometimes at a reasonable time and sometimes not, it's not really over. That is the time that the host whisks you off to dinner and sometimes drinking and karaoke/ktv for hours late into the night. Sometimes great food, sometimes not so great, sometimes fun, sometimes not.

So your day isn't over till you get taken back to the hotel at 10pm or sometimes WAY later. Which is good or you would go to bed early and create jet lag CHAOS. However, it makes for a long tiring day with no time to unwind and decompress and not be "on". And if you throw a hangover in there, well you can guess how fun the next day will be.

Hotel living, kids, is not my favorite. On this trip we changed cities each day so we left the office, went to the airport or train, arrived in next city/hotel went to bed and woke up the next morning, checked out, went to work, same thing. Packing and unpacking, especially toiletries, can be disastrous, if you don't put everything in the same place each time you end up searching, which isn't easy after several cocktails (enough to sing Greese Lightning at the top of your lungs) and getting home late. AND finding all the light switches to go to bed- my most hated activity.

On arrival all the lights are on and, inevitably there are what seems like 100 lights: entry way, bathroom, desk, closet, minibar, bedside, overhead, corner, nightlight, etc. All with separate switches and sometimes if you turn off most and then find a weird switch, it turns half of them back on and you don't notice till you are the rest of the way through and you can't go back and figure out which one it was. DAMIT! This is a curse, UNLESS, dear readers, you get the blessed MAIN SWITCH by the bed that will shut off all of them at once. My favorite! Thank you whoever invented that!

The oddest thing on this trip this time was: the gym factor. Now, I like to exercise in the morning usually, but will do ig anytime I can due to schedule. It makes you feel better when you are living a weird schedule and eating strange foods and battling jet lag. Granted, most hotels do not have 'nice' gyms but they will at least have a working treadmill which is all I need for a short run to energize me and keep me on track.

The first hotel I was in was familiar and the gym was open early and late. I had a short run before bed- yay!. Second hotel the gym was open at 6am but no AC was on. It was about 75 degrees with about 95% humidity and there was no water in sight. I made it about 15 minutes into my run before I gave up to shower and the oasis of AC in my room. Blah.

Next hotel, woke up early, thank you jet lag, and went to the gym to discover: not open till noon, rats!!! Next hotel, after work (two days at this hotel), went to hotel to work out before dinner because we finished early and I called the night before to ask gym hours (I learned from the last hotel). I changed my clothes and followed the signs to gym, only to discover, gym no longer exists. Thank you language barrier and the concierge that told me it was open from noon to 2am instead of: we closed it forever, no work out for you. arg!!!!

So, in summation, traveling is awesome! Traveling for work is also awesome but grouchy circus girl needs some things to be consistent for her trip to be good. What I didn't write about was my frizzy hair and the episode with the flat iron as well as the burst blood vessel in my eye. Hey, don't cross yourself like that, I'll get a complex. You were lucky this time. Next post may include the bloody eyeball story.

Someday I will post myself in an actual garment. For now, I'm out.