There are many benefits of waking up early. Second week into the new school year and we're all pretty much better adjusted to the alarm clock ringing at dawn. The 10 mins walk to and from the school bus is refreshing and I find myself with an extra pocket of 20-25 mins each morning between sending Ji Yuan off and catching my own bus to work and the little one is still in bed. Some days I read the papers, some days I write out cheques for the bills. If there are photographs to be taken for the blog, I can now take them in the morning light and I won’t be in as much a rush as before.
Whisper has got a back. I love the dart decreases/increases at the waist. This is the first time I work with such shaping and it looks nice and tailored. The shoulders, I short-rowed instead of doing the choppy decreases as described in the pattern. As for the armhole, I experimented with placing the decreases one stitch from the edge and the result is pleasing, much smoother than before. Jody has also showed us earlier on in this post how she made her armhole shapings smooth her way.
I'm thinking of sewing a skirt to go with Whisper using this black floral fabric which was on clearance at Western Market, using McCall's Stitch n Easy pattern (#M4900) which seems the easiest I can find. Rather than testing on my girls, I'd better be the guinea pig of my own sewing.
I find myself often short of this and that when it comes to sewing. One day, I run out of interfacing, the next, I find that I haven't got the right colour thread. So I have to go to Shek Ban Street, which fortunately is just a stone's throw away from my office, during lunch most of the days. Speaking of which, there are two stores that are becoming my favourites. I would love to snap a photo of them but am so afraid the store owners will run after me with a stick. One of the stores is a zipper store that sells also threads, trims and other notions. The owner is really nice. The other favourite is a button store, the owner is a bit eccentric and has a habit of mumbling to herself but is really nice to chat to. She has a collection of odd and end buttons, seldom more than 8 of each type. She has some nice trims and ribbons and sequin and stuff too and best of all, she doesn't mind me standing them, going through her stuff. I don't know about you, I mind about service. If the sales person is helpful, I find myself patronizing that shop more often than one that has the right goods but poor service, just like that the other button and trim store run by the man in the same street. I asked if he has a particular type of trim and he replied not very kindly that all his goods are out there and you find it yourself, and he didn't even have a customer besides me then. Anyway, I walked away, wouldn't you?
Are you ready for some moon gazing? Mid-autumn festival is this coming Sunday! Check out the moonrise times from the Hong Kong Observatory.
