My Favorite Time of Year

Late summer/early fall when it starts to get cool is my favorite time of year.   It makes me think of going back to school, family reunions and other good times.   It's the lush green before the leaves start to turn.  You can smell the sweet autumn clematis that has just begun to bloom.   It's the one with the tiny star-like flowers draped over fences like soft lacy blankets that smells like a cross between jasmine and vanilla.  The morning glory vines are mature and the flowers are pretty in the mornings.   The wild turkey chicks are all grown up.

Have you ever saved leftover scraps of fabric for it's beauty, colors and memories?  Here's what's left from blouse I made and later gave to my sister in Texas with a copy of an Armani pantsuit I had custom made for me in Korea from an Italian birdseye wool.   The fabric came from the best fabric store in the Washington DC area until it closed, Fabrics Unlimited.  They carried Abraham silk and Linton tweeds, and all the best French, Italian, Swiss and Austrian fabrics.  The socialites and embassy crowd came with their dressmakers, and their sales were legendary.   I had limited time to sew and never bought cheap fabrics.   I had to attend social events at Washington hotels, embassies, the Kennedy center and so I needed my clothing to look elegant and expensive.   I carried my own fabric to Korea on trips to the far east because it was better than what the Korean custom tailors in Itaewon had to offer.    I used to shop the back room of Loehmann's in the 70's and early 80's when they got real NY designer garments and removed the labels.  I fit into all the sample garments and found Oscar and other top NY designers for a small fraction of the original price.   

For the blouse I used tiny Italian glass buttons that were the color of the taupe with a little of the wine inside with loops at the back of the scrunched collar.     It went up in smoke with everything else in her house over a year ago.    The leaf and berry motifs and colors remind me of this time of year, colors and unusual combinations I love to put together.   Click on the photo to see the colors and the silk jacquard.    

I need to replenish my serger thread supply before I can sew a few things so I pulled out a muted wool plaid that I bought from Michaels Fabrics last August.    He had a new shipment of Italian wools, assorted shirtings and other fabrics that made it hard to choose.    I had the leaf silk remnants next to it, with the serger thread in a taupey green and blue and look how the colors work together.    I think I'll make an infinity scarf out of the silk.

Chinchilla Update:   The boys remain separated.    Unfortunately Snowball viciously attacked poor old Woodley when I put them together about a week ago.   Woodley dove into his tubes so he didn't get bit.    The cages are side by side.   Woodley is in the big three story ferret cage they both were in and Snowball sits in Woodleys old 3 level cage and looks at him.   I don't think we'll ever be able to put them back together.