Avoiding Being Run Over By A Semi

There are a lot of semis out there, and I don't want to be run over by any of them, especially semi-retirement. The thought of any form of retirement can be daunting, and if you don't have a plan, you may be in trouble. How will you spend your free time? Who will you become?

Retirement By Inches

As I approach traditional retirement age in my 46th year in the fabric business, I realize that my employment in this industry has become my identity. Who will I be if I retire, even if I do it gradually? (I have that answer: I will ALWAYS be Dan the Fabric Man!)

Work Less, Live More

One of my 2019 goals is to work less. Fortunately, Springs Creative has graciously agreed to allow me to reduce my work week from 5 days to 4 days (with the comparable salary reduction). I'm in my third week of the new schedule and must say that it has re-invigorated me at work. This is a great first step into semi-retirement as my geezerhood rapidly approaches. I have no plans for full retirement any time soon.

The Spring Stash

The extra free day every week has also spurred some re-invigorated activity in the sewing studio! I have begun working through the spring stash selections (above). There are planned shirts, pants and suits in this pile.

Mad For Plaid (And Checks)

I paired a black and white linen plaid for a jacket with a black and white check for a shirt, based on the inspiration above (very 1970s). In the spring stash photo these are on the bottom of the pile in the back left.

Each garment was a test in some way. The jacket was sewn with a new modern-fit pattern that is underlined instead of lined, streamlining the process. The lining is applied to the back of the outer fabric, edges are finished with a serger and they're sewn up as one piece of fabric. Linen is fun to sew, and I just need to do a final pressing and it's ready to go.

The shirt is made from a cotton madras checked fabric using my usual early-90s Burda pattern, but since I planned to wear this as a dress shirt, I wanted to add collar stay pockets to keep the collar crisp (I dislike wearing button-down collars).

A few years ago I found an old late-70s era John Weitz shirt pattern from McCalls on Etsy, and ordered it. I owned this pattern back in the day (and later discarded it), and it has a collar stay pocket option. I used the old McCall's pattern as a guide to create similar components for my Burda pattern, and the stay pockets came out fine.

More Panting For Change

Regular readers will remember the purple pants from the previous blog post, made as a test using a skinny jeans pattern from Burda. They are really snug from the knees down and I wanted to make them slightly larger for comfort. Next up were two cotton yarn-dye denims, a pinstripe and a plaid. The pinstripe was sewn first, and I enlarged the legs about an inch at the hem, tapering up to about 20" from the hem. The result was better, but not quite right. On the plaid, I extended the enlargement, tapering up to 24" from the bottom, and that widened up the knee area sufficiently. Successful test!

Paraments R Us

There has been more than apparel coming out of the sewing studio this month. With Easter coming, I had recently talked to Pastor Jeff about making a new parament for the front of the pulpit for Easter Sunday. With the gold and white theme and the embellishments, this parament will also be appropriate for Christ the King Sunday later in the year.

When I delivered the parament last week, Pastor Jeff noted that a matching stole would be great (joking because of the quickly-approaching holiday). "Next year," he said. Why wait? With about three hours of labor, I'll be delivering this matching stole before Sunday. "Next year," indeed. Pastor Jeff thinks I should go into the stole-making business, and I'm seriously considering that.

Next up, I'm diving into the solid brown linen for a suit (shown on the bottom of the center back pile in the spring stash photo, a very reddish brown), using the new jacket and pants patterns. Stay tuned!

Until next time, keep those sewing machines humming, and try to work less and live more if you can. And don't get run over by a semi.

danthefabricman@yahoo.com

@danthefabricman