Sewing as Therapy: A Burda Style Cardigan

Some may be thinking, "does she really have anything wrong with her, because she sews so much?"   Well the answer is that sewing is good mental and physical therapy for me.    Sewing has always been a stress reliever, especially with the high stress jobs/projects I had before I retired.   So every day that I can,  my husband gets me up to the sewing room and I do the best I can, repeating the motions I've done for so long.   Today's project was Burda Style 7349, a cardigan jacket.

I saw this cotton "Tulum" knit cardigan in the Peruvian Connection's spring catalog ($159) that inspired me to try this pattern.   There are many variations of cardigans like this by Eileen Fisher and others.    I wanted to play with the dots and stripes again so I cut this out yesterday afternoon.   Styles like this enable lots of creativity and still look stylish.   This afternoon I sewed it up.    Here are some photos and there are more on the Burda Style Patterns Flickr Set.   I may pull out some ribbed knit from the stash and make another.

The pattern calls for you to cut 4 of the front top pieces and self face, but I eliminated that.   It also calls for a bias band to finish the back.    To stabilize around the neck so I used 3/8" fusible bias tape at the neck and about 9" down the front.    I also cut bias knit strips, pressed them in half and sandwiched the entire neckline between them for both a design element and to further stabilize.    I used Steam-a-Seam on both the front and back of the bias for that, and left the edges of the trim and the bottom raw.   This needs shoulder pads to look nice.   The sleeves are blind hemmed.

A Loes Hinse Bianca Top

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes and continued prayers.  Your comments mean a lot to me and I need all the help I can get.   I hope the good Lord, who has looked over me and mine all these years, has other business left for me to do.

I enjoyed possibilities of the double black and white cotton knit (from MyVogueFabrics swatch service) that I used for the Sewing Workshop eShrug, so I decided to cut out (did that earlier in the week) and sew a Loes Hinse Bianca top (she calls it a sweater) using the striped side on the bias for the neckline and hem.

Sewing is a tactile endeavor, so when the feeling in the fingers can't discern the correct side for fusible interfacing,  you have to punt.    So here's what I did when I applied some soft fusible to the shoulder seams.    I used some left over pattern paper that I keep around and sandwiched the fusible and the fabric between it and pressed.  If I applied the wrong side to the fabric, the fusible would stick to the paper and not the iron, and this also protects your ironing board cover.   Turns out my guesses were good on both shoulders.    Perhaps this trick will help you keep the sticky off your iron and ironing board as well!   More about this on the Bianca Flickr Set.

Fusible applied to shoulder -- I just cut off the excess

Fabric/fusible sandwiched between paper

The Bianca pattern neckline is too high and tight for my tastes, so I cut one inch out of the neckline.  The new neckline measured 23" at the seam-line, so I cut the bias 20 inches to lay flat like this.   I doubled it, and then sewed/serged/ and then stitched in the ditch the outside, using Marcy Tilton's instructions in her Easy Guide to Sewing Tops & T-Shirts (Taunton Press) page 92.    I made the 3/4 inch sleeve version and just did a blind hem.   This top is boxy but the sleeve is fitted.

For the hem, I cut the garment with the wide hem allowance, then applied a doubled raw bias band of the knit around the bottom.   So this Bianca top is longer than one that has the wide hem.

Oh yeah I made some mistakes because of these fingers but ripped them out and happily continued.    I'm just happy I can still stand/sit/press and use the presser feet --  going through all the motions required to make a garment.

The Bad News, the Good News and a Lesson

My neurologist was very concerned that I was losing ground and actually getting worse when he saw me the end of last month,  so he ordered the spinal tap that was done last Tuesday.   The tests on the spinal fluid confirmed that the Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is chronic, and again ruled out other bad things - good news.    I can hardly walk now and the deterioration in my hands and fingers is making it more difficult to type and do things using my hands.

I wish I could start this week, but beginning Monday for four hours a day, five days in a row I will  be hooked up to intravenous high dose immunoglobin therapy.    I sure have had my share of misery these past several months.  This has a lot of side effects so it isn't going to be fun or easy, but I hope this treatment enables me to finally kick this thing.

The Lesson:  Another example of the callous behavior I've endured since I came down with all this

Just what kind of person makes fun of, and actually celebrates the health problems of someone who extended their house and hospitality to them?

This e-mail message came from a person I met and befriended a few years ago on an internet sewing board.  It was sent soon after the onset of the baffling, undiagnosed neurological problems that I described online.   At the time I was in very bad shape.  Receiving this shocked me since I had not heard from that person in almost a year.   I discussed it with my family,  and a week later I responded with some pointed questions.  Was it meant to be sent to me, or did they accidentally add my name to the reply list?   Either way,  I told her that to say things like this about me was cruel and insensitive.   Given that the individual obviously never had any class, I never got a response, apology -  nothing.   I'm not sure of the identity of others involved in this messaging,  but I have a pretty good idea.

From:     xxxxx
    Subject:     i bad
    Date:     September 7, 2010 10:01:55 PM EDT
    To:     Terri K

does this mean she not able  to run around  with that damn hand heald vacum cleaner when people are trying to watch  TV  this could be a good thing

A couple of months later the same individual merrily joined the party to disparage me, and trash my reputation on the same internet sewing (?) board.   The bullies had lots of "fun" with that.    Any excuse is a good excuse.    Doesn't take much to ignite narcissistic bullies, no matter their age, especially in an online forum.

The lesson and a word of caution -- Don't think you ever really "know" people who post on internet boards or social media.  Many of the attention seekers who play in those internet playgrounds have behavioral issues, and and are NOT always people you want to be "friends" with.   Think twice about inviting them into your house or life, no matter how witty, intellectual, caring or sweet an image they project online.   And if you think you have better friends on the internet than "in real life" - Wow !  you're definitely spending too much time online and need to get a real life.