Black and Blue

I got into one of my closet clean out moods recently, and as I reached the back recesses of the cedar closet, I found a pair of  never worn,  me made wool pants. And there next to them was the jacket they were to have been worn with.  Made from Vogue  2952, an  Issey Miyake pattern from 2007.



The jacket is pretty plain in the front, but the center back is cropped with lacing over the opening, I remember making the pants in the same color as the jacket to make the lacing less obvious. But I never wore the jacket because I did not feel comfortable in it.

I tried on the pants and they fit great. I had some soft poly knit that matched the pants perfectly.  I have always wanted to make Vogue 8323 and had just seen it modeled at a recent ASG meeting "Show and Tell".  I liked this pattern for the shoulder princess seaming, which is great for shaping and fitting.

 I decided to make a muslin, probably because I had just finished watching two classes at Craftsy.com, Lynda Maynard's Sew the Perfect Fit  and Barbara Deckert's Plus Size Pattern Fitting and Design, both of which used muslins to resolve fitting problems. And both great classes BTW! I am glad I made the muslin. The shoulders were too wide, the sleeves too short and the neckline, shown as standing up along the neck in the pattern drawing, sagged and caused the front to gap. Also on my copy of the  pattern, there seemed to be misprint on the part of the center front piece that folded over to make the facing. It was not the same shape as the part it was supposed to face.  I corrected the facing shape, lengthened the sleeves and shaped the collar to fit up against the lower neck and then folded over.   I also shortened the shoulder seam. My first impulse was to take the extra shoulder length off the armhole edge, but I remembered how Cynthia Guffey altered my princess seam jacket for the same problem by taking in the excess at the princess seam.  That also keeps the placement of the princess seam in the middle of the shoulder seam. I am quite happy with the top and the way it  coordinates with the pants. Our ASG group is having a 5 piece SWAP challenge and I do believe these two pieces will be the start of my SWAP.

 So the top and pants are the blue of the post title. What is the black?  And why don't I have any pictures of me in the top. Because of these guys, who suddenly showed up  and decided to take up residence on the deck outside my sewing room  where I take my pictures.

They are black vultures. I sew three feet from the door where this picture was taken. Kitty decided she wanted to go out one day. I was looking down, trying not to step on her,as I opened the door. I  looked up, and we both froze. I quickly shut the door.  Day 1 they sat all day on the railing in the drenching, freezing rain. Day 2, I heard a sound at the  door and was unnerved to see one standing on the welcome mat, tapping on the glass of the door.  

 When I sent out our attack cat in full bristle mode, or DH yelling and waving his arm like a lunatic, they would fly to a nearby tree.  But back they would come.  Screaming and waving at them is one method suggested by a Google search of the problem,  Vulture eat carrion, or garbage in populated areas. I checked the garbage cans to make sure the covers were tight and looked  under the deck in case some animal  had crawled under there and died, but all was clean and tidy.   After 5 days they quit coming to the deck,  but they are still in the neighborhood. I see them and a bunch of their buddies perched in a neighbor's tree.