Another Year Older and Thankful for Meredith Vieira's Neck

Dear Meredith Vieira, please don't touch a single wrinkle.

I am officially another year older today. I really dislike celebrating my birthday. When Annie was born on the day after my 35th birthday I was like, phew, now I can ignore mine and focus on her birthday instead. But here I am telling the world I'm another year older, so go figure.

Today on my birthday I am thankful for Meredith Vieira's neck. Meredith, for my international readers, is the co-host of the "Today" show, the dominant morning news program in the United States. She turns 56 in December and Meredith looks like a woman in her mid-50s: She is still stunningly attractive but she has wrinkles around her eyes and sagging skin on her neck. Which is all perfectly normal except that so many of our aging celebrities have chosen to turn themselves back into 35-year-olds rather than look their age. And that pisses me off! When did looking your age become such a liability?

A Famous TV Actress who lives in my town is an example of this reverse aging by plastic surgery. She is in her early sixties and everyone knows it, just like everyone knows she went to one of New York's best plastic surgeons a few years ago and had twenty years of aging magically carted away. To run into the Famous TV Actress at the grocery store or a restaurant always causes a jolt—not because she is a celebrity but because she could be mistaken for a woman in her late thirties. Seriously! She's a very nice person in real life but it's just a little freaky that she looks like she could have kids in elementary school.

So I'm grateful for Meredith Vieira's neck and that Meredith is not afraid to look her age on national TV. I always give her a "you go girl" when she wears a v-neck. We aging baby boomers need a role model for aging gracefully and naturally, and Meredith you're my girl.

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Speaking of aging baby boomers, you could find them in droves Sunday at "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" at the Westside Theatre. I loved this little play (actually more a collection of monologues) about "matters of the heart and matters of the closet" (New York Times) by sisters Nora and Delia Ephron, who based it on Ilene Beckerman's book of the same title. It's the perfect thing to see with your girlfriends or daughters, especially if you appreciate lines like "Wear Eileen Fisher and you just might as well say 'I give up'" (huge laugh of recognition from the audience).

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Hey, I found the perfect embellishment for my blue coat! M&J Trims pulled through for me just like it always does. As soon as I sew it on I'll share photos with you, dear readers. See you later!

How To Make a Chanel Cardigan

Turn an off-the-rack cardigan into a stunning faux-Chanel cardigan with just a few strips of bouclé. (Juicy Couture cardigan courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman)

I happened to be in Greenwich, Connecticut, this week and when I'm there I always visit the Saks store for a little snoop shopping. There's a nice-sized Chanel boutique inside and the sales staff is receptive to shoppers like me who fondle the merchandise but leave empty-handed. I spotted a black cashmere Chanel cardigan that had some simple touches any of us could easily add to an off-the-rack cardigan. Here's what you do:

1. Start with a basic black cardigan, similar in style to the gray one I show above.

2. Take that black bouclé you have in your stash, preferably a bouclé with some contrast yarns in it, and cut bias strips about 1 inch to 1.5 inches in width. Leave the edges raw.

3. Sew strips to tops of pockets and on sleeves as shown above.

4. Replace the buttons with silver buttons, preferably with a little crest on them.

5. The Chanel cardigan had a breast pocket too, and this had two strips of different black bouclés—one was a solid black, the other had some ivory yarns in it—sewn in parallel rows at the top of the pocket. The sleeves had contrasting bouclé strips.
   

Pretty easy, huh? If I have some spare time this weekend I might try it with a black cardigan I already own. Please share the results if you decide to make your own faux-Chanel cardigan.

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Congratulations to Amber of Confessions of the Pink Obsessed who was the random winner of my giveaway drawing. Amber, please send me an email with your address so I can get your copy of Weekend Sewing out to you. And don't despair if you didn't win because I assure you there will be more giveaways in the future!

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Thanks for all your suggestions on what to do with my coat. Me too, I love the idea of wearing it with a fur funnel around the neck and some long gloves. I probably will wear it open most of the time, like the Milly inspiration coat I showed, but I do need some kind of closure for colder weather. There is a strong chance I'll be at M&J Trims this weekend to further investigate my options. (And, dear readers, I do not rue taking out the pickstitching. Surprisingly, the pickstitching took the coat in a more contemporary direction and I want a retro look. At least that's what I'm thinking today.)

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Suffering for the sake of sexy. These are the heels Annie wore with her sailor dress for Halloween. These are the heels that caused her to trip and bang her knee so severely it required a visit to the orthopedist and an x-ray. This is the mother who resisted saying "I told you so." (It's not so much fun to say when your kid is in pain, darn it all.) No broken bones, thankfully, the knee is much better and Annie is sticking to flats. For now.


Have a great weekend everyone! I am plotting my next Chanel jacket as we speak. Hope you get lots of sewing time in!

Wool Coat as Blank Slate

My coat needs help, dear readers! Technically it's finished—the lining is in—but in my mind it's far from done. It needs something; I'm just not quite sure what. The buttons I adored didn't work, unfortunately.


Here is a Milly coat that embodies the look I was going for: elbow-length sleeves, above-the-knee hem, loose A-line shape. Sort of a "wives of Mad Men" look but with some contemporary pizazz. I'm toying with perhaps some faux fur at the sleeve hems, or a wide swath of trim or grosgrain down the front openings. I really need to place this coat on a dress form at M&J Trim and just spend an hour playing with all the options.

Any embellishment ideas jump out at you, dear readers? I'd love to hear them!

It's Giveaway Time Again!

A giveaway to give you a head start on your holiday shopping!

Okay, dear readers, I have a brand-new copy of Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross to give away to one lucky person. Pair this with a couple yards of fabric and I think this book is the perfect gift for someone you'd like to see take up sewing. I gave a copy to my middle sister Melissa in hope it would spur her to take her sewing machine out of the closet. It didn't, but Melissa gave this book to a young colleague of hers and she's been going to town with it. Here's the review I first wrote about this book on June 30th. (Publisher's edition price $27.50).

To enter this random giveaway, you need to be a Google follower of this blog (see widget at left) and you must leave a comment on this post by 12 pm ET on 11/4/09. I'll announce the winner on 11/5/09. Good luck!

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Pick a little, rip out a lot. I spent much of last weekend adding white pickstitching to my blue wool doublecloth coat. (Purpose: Keep the coat facings from rolling forward and to tack down the seam allowances.) Pickstitching is easy, especially when you use Tiger Tape (left) to ensure your stitches are nice and even. Removing pickstitching is a huge pain in the you-know-what.

As you can see in the coat photo here I did a lot of pickstitching. And I was liking the look: Pickstitching is a great way to add trim without the expense. But I realized pickstitching and the buttons I bought are too much together. If I went with pickstitching I'd use snaps instead of buttons.

However, I love the four white buttons I bought, and they cost me $34 total—not a small sum to fester in my button drawer. So my second opinion-giver was called into my sewing nook to make a call: buttons and no pickstitching, or pickstitching and snaps. "Buttons, definitely," said Annie, and that was that. Thank goodness there's fine TV on these days to watch as I ripped out my handstitching.

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Attention Shoppers: PatternReview is holding a day of fabric shopping in the garment district on Saturday, November 7. If you like the idea of shopping with fellow sewists in fabulous New York City, then I urge you to come stimulate our economy and have a great time. I would be there too if I didn't already have plans to be in the city all day on 11/8. For more details, visit "Sewing Events and Conferences" on PR's message board.

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Thanks for all your compliments on Annie's sailor minidress—you guys are great! Hopefully I'll get some sewing done this weekend so I'll have something to write about next week. Have a great weekend everyone!