Fleece Thoughts -Plus- Most Fabulous French Onion Soup Ever

From inbox

First, thank you for the comments on my fleece cami. It's nice and warm. Sally had an interesting thought, which made me think. She mentioned that she'd like something that came up higher on the back since her upper back was always chilly. I then wondered why you couldn't use a pattern like Jalie 2568 with fleece. You could make the back neckline higher without too much trouble, although at some point a CB seam, some shoulder darts or other shaping method might be desirable.
You might have to be a little careful of the size you cut, comparing the amount of stretch in your fleece to the amount called for in the pattern, but fleece is pretty stretchy, and I think this could be a real winner. I have an OOP KwikSew pattern that is almost identical that I would use.

Now on to the onion soup. The perfect meal on a cold, cold day.

I have to give all the credit for this to my dear friend Barbara, of Cat Fur Studio. She is many-talented, and also has a cooking blog where I found this. Her method for making Caramelized Onions in the crockpot is fabulous and unbelievably simple. I now make sure I always have some of her caramelized onions at the ready in the fridge at all times. Makes for some wonderful things, and of course real French Onion Soup is not the least of those.

Barbara's Caramelized Onions and French Onion Soup Recipe and one more look at the delicious result.

From inbox

Fisher Skirt

Link to All Photos

I finished Onion's Fisher Skirt, and while I like it, I don't think it's by any means my best style. It's interesting, fun to wear and terribly comfortable. It's somewhat ungainly at the top where the flange folds over the tied belt, and I cannot for the life of me figure out something flattering to wear as a top with it. I think I'm too rounded for this style. I tried belting it at the hip rather than the waist, and I didn't care for it. I'm not sure this will see the light of day very often, but it was fun to make. I keep thinking it would be a great gardening skirt...



I used a fabric which purports to be wool, and may even be wool or partially wool. I love the interesting texture, but as I noted previously, it wasn't going to show the seaming without emphasis, and that's what the topstitching is meant to provide.


Click here for a better view of the stitching.

I've been working on Alex's Drops Cabled Sweater some and am up to about 2" of ribbing so far. Another 3/4" and I can begin on the pattern stitches. But, I am going to quit for a bit and work on a baby sweater which needs to be done sometime in April. Not by the first, I hope.


I'll finish with the first crocus of the year. I saw them a couple days ago, but never remembered to take the camera out and take a picture. Aren't they cheery?

Skirt Progress

The skirt is coming along nicely, if not quite as I expected. I made the longer version which turns out to be about ankle length before hemming, and I'm pretty tall, so that surprised me a lot. The fabric I'm using has a lot of surface texture, and I realized that the interesting seaming wasn't going to show at all. I tested some piping, but I didn't like it. I don't want to emphasize the black, and I thought a printed piping would be interesting, and would go well with a Japanese style, but I didn't like that either. I ended up using decorative stitching on the seams, using a variegated cotton thread. I like it, but it's still pretty subtle. I tried on the skirt tonight before finishing up the last seam, the hem, etc., and I tried pinning up the hem to different lengths, and what really is looking good to me is giving it a very avant-garde hem treatment. I pinned a few places and it gives it a bit of a bubble skirt look but much more casual. I unpinned it all to be able to finish the last seam, etc., so we'll see if I can replicate it after that. I'm kind of excited about it.

I've also begun knitting on Alex's sweater. I'm about an inch and a half into the ribbing so far.

Bendigo Yarn is Here

Photo Link
The yarn I ordered for my nephew's Xmas sweater came today. All the way from Australia in only about 2 weeks. I chose the yarn, Bendigo Rustic, and he chose the color so it should be just right. I thought blue would probably be the color for him, but there were 6 different blues, plus some blue/purple colors as well, so I thought he'd better choose.

Since I was ordering anyway, I also ordered the pink wool you see. You can never go wrong with pink! When I saw it I remembered that I need to make a baby sweater for our neighbor who is expecting, and since it's to be a girl, pink would be perfect. This color would be great, but I think I should probably get a softer baby yarn instead. I need to start on it fairly soon, so I'd better decide.

I've just begun working on a skirt from Onion Patterns. It's the Fisher Skirt, and it's one of the few Onion patterns that do not come with an English translation of the Danish instructions.

It's not a terribly complicated skirt by any means, but it's unsettling to have no idea what is written. I've worked with lots of German, French and Italian patterns, and from my voice studies, I have a pretty good working knowledge of these languages, and dictionaries at hand as well. Danish is another matter entirely. Luckily, I found some very nice people at Stitcher's Guild who were willing and able to help me. I cut the pieces tonight, and will see if I have time to begin sewing tomorrow. I'm using a black and white wool with an interesting weave that I got on a Fabric Garage Sale from the Hillestad Gallery Friends. There are always interesting things there, and I'm glad to find a good use for this.

I was going to try to answer a question from stillpatrice about the little embroidered tag I put on my pajamas. It was stitched on a Pfaff 2144/2170 on grosgrain ribbon, without the embroidery unit. No special technique, but some finger manipulation after the stitching and then a lot of pressing.


gwensews had such an interesting idea for the gray scarf. She suggested that I try some paintsticks or something to change the color. I do have paintsticks, and I'd like to try this. I have quite a bit left that I can test techniques on, and I think this could be very exciting. Thank you, Gwen!


Finally, I am very excited that Caroline has tagged me with the Sisterhood blog award. Thank you, Caroline! I'm thrilled to be your sister.