Oktoberfest!!!!

Oy three days of beer, brats, polkas, and that damn chicken dance!!! giggle/snort

Had a FABULOUS time.

And I just know you guys are dying to see what fools I made of us, so without further ado......

TA DA.....

Joe in all his lederhosen glory

Meine Herr Joseph







Und Frau Tracy



Auf Wiedersehen!!!

Deep Breath

I have to go lie down.

4 Days til Oktoberfest

It wouldn't be much of an Oktoberfest countdown unless I posted some progress photos now would it.

First up Joe's hiking socks.


I am soooooo cheating on these. I'm using two strands of WoolEase with #8 needles.

I used the Riverbed Architecture from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways. book for the foot and a very simple 4 stitch mock cable that runs along the outside of the leg. The rest of the leg is k2p2 ribbing. I am kinda liking the way the calf increases are looking. Totally cheated on the increases too, nothing fancy there, just worked the new stitch into one strand instead of both of them. I'm thinking these will be done tonight if there's a good movie on tv.

I guess I should have put something in the pic to indicate the size of these things but you can imagine, 12 inch foot, 22 inches from ankle to knee, and I'll prob'ly add 4 inches of ribbing on top of that. Egads!

The Alpine jacket is turning out quiet nicely, IMHO.

It began as this:




And now looks like this:



I still have the trim to sew on, and the closures. Loving the trim. Got it at JoAnn Fabric for $1.07 a yard.....score! The original garment was a of course a Thrift Store find from eons ago. It's an extremely heavy boiled wool with get this...a flannel lining!! WTF No wonder it was thrifted, it was nearly impossible to get on or off with all that fabric friction going on, so I threw in a normal lining.

And now the lederhosen...............

They too began their life as a Thrift Store find. It's not everyday that one finds a pair of Michael Jordan black leather pants for $5.00. :-) Joe and I picked these up a couple years ago. Oh the possibilities a pair of black leather pants possess as far as costumes go, so into the costume closet they went.....doesn't everyone have a costume closet??? Apparently not. Talking to my Bro the other night telling him about this Oktoberfest project he asked his wife if they had a costume closet? Trunk? Box? Nope. Well, we've got a whole closet, and a box or two.....guess my Bro and I don't travel in the same crowd. :-) One of these days I'll dig up photos from past costume parties, they are sooooo funny. Anywho, whatever possible costume these might have morphed into, a pair of lederhosen was never on my radar. lol

So here's a crummy pic of what the they looked before reconstruction, all full length and shiny black leather.




Now they look like this. Short, turned suede side out, zipper removed and waist band reattached.



Next step in the process is to make the front flap thing. I have to cut along the line that are indicated in the photo below by the pieces of yarn, and add some more leather to make the flap wider. You can see what I mean in the second pic, it is one I snagged from a website that sells the real thing.







Things are moving along swimmingly. Although I have to confess, that the real reason I'm blogging and not working on these things is pure unadulterated fear. The same mind numbing, paralyzing terror you feel when your ready to cut your first steek.

I'll get over it. Prob'ly by the time any of you read this it will have been done, just talking about it makes it better. Plus the fact that I've already scoped out the stash and know that I have enough brown suede to make a whole other pair from scratch if need be. :-)

As for my costume......I've been working on that too. Not a lot to show you though. I've made 2 prototypes of my vest and have tweaked the pattern enough to like the fit, and I've made my blouse. But I'll address my costume in another post.......Maybe later today, if I'm still avoiding the lederhosen. :-P

Oktoberfest Countdown

Just a real quick post to let you guys know what the current projects are. Wonder if I'll ever be able to write that sentence in the singular form?

Anyway, after the disaster that was the Drops 97-9. I've begun Drops 79-8. I wanted/needed something on my needles that was big and chunky. My wanton desire for something quick and mindless won out and I picked up plain old Lion Brand Homespun and started. Wow it does, or rather, did move fast. I got the back and one front completed in one day!! That was Sunday. I haven't touched it since.....sigh. BTW, no problems, everything is/was moving right a long. I did NOT stop working on this cuz I'm not very fond of the the yarn (never have been) It's not quiet "yuck" cuz I can't get beyond the fab colorway, and how soft it feels to the touch, but I really don't like this yarn. It gets too fuzzy in that "worn-out" kind of fuzzy instead of that nice "relaxed-fuzzy" that only something NOT acrylic can do, and that soft feel it has screams plastic to me, if that makes any sense. But it was at hand, worked to gauge beautifully, and I didn't have think about if I had enough. (got in a grab bag from an estate sale)

No, the reason I put this aside (which is ultimately going be a sweater for Annie, daughter #1, she'll like) is because Joe asked if maybe I could do a little sewing this week. Um, yeah, a "little" sewing. He wants to go to the Oktoberfest in costume. So since Monday I've been working on a pair of lederhosen, a boiled wool Alpine jacket in case it's cold, and a pair of knee length hiking socks, for him. He actually thinks I'm going to be able to make a hat too! LOLOLOLOLOLOL

As for my costume, it just so happened that we were eating dinner at the Kaiserhoff (the MOST excellent German restaurant) and I asked Gary (the proprietor) if he might have an extra dirndl hanging around. He did in fact and I brought an entire outfit home with me. It fits me OK. I'd certainly be making adjustments if it was mine and not just a loner. It's a lovely, very nice, proper Frau outfit. Joe I'm sure, no, I know, has something a little more Frauline barmaid thing in mind for me. Can you say cleavage? :-) To help satisfy Joe's desire for a little bit more, I greed to make one of those low slung vests that allow for boobage. Cuz of that, it means I need a different blouse. The one with the borrowed outfit isn't quiet right, and besides, it's soooo nice I was a bit fearful of spilling something on it and staining it. I'll be much more comfortable in my own blouse, while we're manning the kegs. (as workers folks, I don't really like beer!)

So now I have nine days to make:

• One pair of Lederhosen (as authentic as I can get....in leather)
• One Alpine jacket
  
• One pair of men's size 12 hiking socks (Oy)
• One blouse
• One vest
• One apron
• One hat
  
• And all the embroidery

I'll go into details of each pieces with other posts, I've already taken too much time writing this post. Anyway, suffice to say, of course my sewing machine died Monday night. I did a stupid thing and now I can't get the shuttle and race to align properly, thus...no sewing machine......HUGE SIGH I spent 3 hours on Monday night, and another 2 hours on Tuesday morning. I can't get the damn thing to work. So yesterday was pretty much a bust. I did get the lining for Joe's jacket cut, and I got one prototype of my vest cut out and another couple waiting in the wings. I'm hobbling bits and pieces of various sewing patterns to make my vest. I'm making prototypes cuz with a bod like mine NOTHING fits right out of the pattern and this vest is such a fitted affair. I've also done some hand sewing on the lederhosen. I didn't get the socks started until late last night, cuz believe it or not, with the sheer tonnage of fiber I have in this house, it could not yield enough natural or grey wool for a pair of socks!!!!

Last night Joe and I drove into town, for the purpose of buying material for my blouse, trim for his jacket, material for my vest, and a pair of hiking socks. I figured trying to make the socks was just plain silly, and since we were going into town we might as well buy a pair. Didn't work out that way. I got the blouse fabric, notions, and trims, and found the most perfect material for the vest, when Joe saw it he decided that I just HAD to get enough of it to make myself an entire outfit. So I guess you can add dirndl to the aforementioned bulleted list!!!!!

I took an obligatory stroll through the yarn section and ended up with an armful of WoolEase for Joe's socks. So much for saving time by buying the socks. Included on the list of notions I had to get, was a set of shoulder pads for Joe's jacket. While I was at the cutting table, I sent Joe over to the wall of notion to get the shoulder pads. Picture if you will, the floor plan of a typical JoAnn Fabrics. Notions on the far wall, cutting table running the center of the cavernous building. Standing at the wall of notions, Joe hollers. "Hey Babe, they have those boob enhancers too." Walking toward me, cupping, lifting and pushing together, imaginary breasts, he continues, "You know, the things that push them up and out, should I get a pair of those too?" Um, yeah, that's my guy! :-)

Joe went and got his mother's old sewing machine for me this morning. I'm not stressed yet. While the list sounds daunting, it's really not that bad. Some of the garments are reconstructions from existing items, I have some "special" tricks up my sleeve I'll explain later, and I'm working these socks double stranded on #8's. I'm to the heel on both already. Now upstairs with fingers crossed that this sewing machine that hasn't been used in 5-10+? years will sing for me.