It sounds as though all of us are at the pattern-choosing stage. The Sewing With a Plan people have two main suggestions: use simple patterns, and use TNT patterns.

"TNT" stands for "tried and true" among the sewing bloggers. The idea is that you have patterns that you have made before, so you know how they go together, you have resolved any fit issues, and you can just sew them up without a lot of figuring out and folderol.

Serious seamstresses make all their alterations and cut themselves a new, perfect version of the pattern in interfacing for their permanent files. I haven't reached that point, but I admire it.

Neither have I reached the point at which I can actually make a whole SWAP with TNT patterns. The jackets I made for my first two collections are not in the TNT category, but in the "I struggled and eventually succeeded more or less" category. However, I do have skirts, tops, and pants which fall into that category. I can do half the SWAP with them, thus leaving time for angst-ridden sewing of jackets and blouses.

The new fall patterns are out, at least on websites if not in stores, and there are some differences from the spring and summer silhouettes. They are still using simple shapes with interesting seams and surface detail. Clothes continue to be generally close to the body, but now one half of the outfit may be flowing while the other remains close-fitted. So there are full skirts or wide legged trousers with small jackets and swing jackets with pencil skirts or narrow pants.

There are a lot of asymmetrical closures, wrap jackets and tops, that kind of stuff. Lapels and collars have returned, but often that is the place for an unusual shape.

If I am going to use new rather than TNT patterns, those are the features that I will probably look for, so I will have some pretense of fashionability. In fact, the jacket at the right is a pattern which I own but have not made, and am planning to use.

As for "simple," I have just barely reached the point at which any sewing seems simple, but I am trying to persuade myself that my TNT pants pattern, which has two main pieces and a facing, will work just as well as the classic trousers I had so much trouble with. Even though I would like to be able to master the classic trousers.

The next important thing about the patterns is that they should all work together. Wardrobe patterns are great for that. I have found that the wardrobe patterns also tend to have the new fashion features in less extreme forms. So this fall 2007 pattern from Vogue has the wrap-look top and the interesting surface detail on the jacket, but is very wearable and will not make us moms feel like mutton dressed as lamb.

All the pieces will naturally work together, and you could add a full skirt to this and have the beginnings of your SWAP.

The Australian Stitches folks usually use  their basic patterns more than once, making a couple of different views if the pattern has them, and using completely different fabrics, and their SWAPs do not end up looking repetitive, so this is probably a good plan. This pattern could have both the top and the pants done in a couple of different fabrics, furnishing half the SWAP right there.

Here is another wardrobe pattern. It is from McCall's fall 2007 group, though the illustration suggests that it might be a comeback from an earlier day. The wrap jacket is there, and it includes both pants and skirt. You could add a fuller skirt and the tops and have your SWAP all ready.

They're even showing it as a SWAP, aren't they?

 This pattern is not new for fall, but is from the spring and is still new to me. I like the classic jacket, and am thinking that I could make it in a length of really beautiful check wool I have been saving till I felt capable of matching the seams. As soon as I think of matching the seams, I decide that I cannot possibly make this jacket in that wool, and give up. That's why I haven't made it yet. Maybe I will become braver as we go along.

Jumpers and vests are also being shown for fall, though the sewing bloggers are saying no to jumpers unless you are young and/or skinny. I don't think my daughters, both of whom are young and skinny, would wear jumpers, so it might be that you must be young or skinny and have a cute rather than an elegant or earthy style. I have gone through two rounds of jumpers myself, so I think I will say no to that. I might make a vest, though. I am in the process of knitting a sleeveless cardigan designed to be worn either as a top by itself or as a vest.

The thing about making your own clothes is that it can be hard to decide ahead of time whether a particular style is going to look good or not. Sometimes you can fix it after the fact, but sometimes it just isn't a good style for you. This site has a formula. You plug in your measurements (a lot of measurements) and it crunches the numbers and categorizes your shape and makes suggestions for the kinds of styles that would be becoming.

They told me that I was top-heavy, which is not how I think of myself, but their suggestions for styles -- shaped jackets with shawl collars, V-neck and surplice tops, straight-legged pants -- were indeed the things I feel best in, so I guess they know.

The area in which I am still uncertain about my pattern choices is in the tops. Suggestions, fellow seamstresses?

If you're thinking about including knitting or crochet in your SWAP, check out Drops Designs for a large (and growing) collection of free patterns. There are a few that look very fashion-forward, and some classics if you aren't going to bother with fashion this year.

Yesterday did not include as much scrubbing as I had intended, which is not surprising, I suppose. It is summer, after all. I spent some time with my boys, went walking with Partygirl, got in a bit of reading, caught up on the laundry...

I did finish the two tops for my SWAP Part II -- all but the hems, because I did not have the right color of hem tape. Both are Simplicity 4076, view D.

This top is wildly popular among the sewing bloggers, and justly so. It is fashionable without being overly trendy, the gathers at the neckline are flattering without drawing excessive attention to the bosom, and the shape is feminine without being revealing or fussy.

It is also very easy to make. It took me 1.5 hours to do the machine work on the first. 30 minutes on the second. If I make a third, it will probably have even gathers. This is the thing about TNT ("tried and true") patterns, and the reason that a SWAP is supposed to be made with such patterns. I hadn't sewn enough to do that before, but I might, next time around.

I did make some changes. First, I found the directions for sewing the neck band very confusing. I checked some of the 56 reviews of this pattern at sewing pattern review and found that most people said they had ignored those instructions, and that method worked well for me too. The pattern was designed with flighty little cap sleeves. I wore those the last time they were in fashion, and I think the rule is that you can't wear things again if you remember them from the last time around, so I just used the pattern piece for the long sleeve and cut it shorter.

The fabric is an inexpensive synthetic knit from Hancock fabrics, in two good colors. I rarely wear synthetics, and generally don't like to sew with them, but these will be great for the summer, and good layering pieces the rest of the year. I may make this again in a better quality fabric for the long term.

If you are willing to overlook the hems (which I intend to finish in the next day or two after work, when I won't have time for photographs), I have completed my SWAP Part II.

The jacket is McCalls 4972 in a plum wool-linen-rayon blend. The two skirts and two pants are all from Simplicity 4950-- one of each in gray-green Tencel, one in charcoal Tencel, and one in lilac linen-Tencel blend. The six tops: a tunic in Egyptian lawn in a batik print, Simplicity 3786; the two Ts from yesterday in synthetic knit in wine and green; a turtleneck in the same synthetic knit in plum from KwikSew 3093; a tank from Butterick 3383 in blue and green paisley sateen; and the Bijoux Blouse, a knitted tunic, in peach cotton. 

My fashion photography hasn't improved any, though my sewing skills have. I thought I would try these in the heap on the bed approach. You can tell how the shapes and colors work together, if nothing else.

These colors also look great with the foundation print for my SWAP Part III.

The space between SWAP Part II and SWAP Part III, according to Australian Stitches, is the time to take stock and figure out what else you need so you don't end up with duplicates or gaps in your wardrobe.

When I started my first SWAP just over a year ago, I wore khakis to work and jeans the rest of the time. I made a ladylike SWAP to cover church and social events.

Having done that, I found that I didn't want to wear the same thing to work every day any more, and so I did a SWAP Part II to cover my needs for work.

With the SWAP Part I, I didn't have the option of making TNT patterns, and there are some pieces that don't fit as well as they should and could benefit from a re-fashioning, so that will be part of my SWAP Part III. For the SWAP Part II, I didn't do as good a job of planning as I should have, and not all the pieces work together (the tunics and the jacket, for example) so I want to take that into account when doing the Part III.

So while hemming I will start planning for the SWAP Part III.

I started reading The Potluck Club Troubles Brewing and stopped pretty quickly. It contains overheated prose and disgusting recipes. Instead I am going to reread Money to Burn by Katy Munger. Since I have the day off today, I should get some of that book read, even though it will be an extra book for the week under the terms of the Summer Reading Challenge.

Mostly I intend to clean house and sew, once I have actually quit reading blogs, gotten dressed, gone to the gym, and all that.

I found myself in a philosophical discussion last night. I have leftover thoughts on the subject because a) the discussion quickly veered off toward other topics, which was probably wise because there were elements of denominational division arising, and b) it is a difficult topic.

Denominational division is when someone says. "Well, I think that sounds kind of Baptist" and I find myself debating whether to bring up the Doctrine of Election or not. This can lead to strife.

Anyway, the question was about whether things happen for a reason or not.

One popular position is that things do not happen for a reason, or at least not for any cosmic reason. They happen by random chance, unless they are a result of human choices. Hurricane Katrina was a random event, or the result of bad ecological choices over the years, or a combination of the two.

Another popular position is that things happen because they are part of God's plan. Hurricane Katrina, in this view, happened because God wanted to tell us something. Some people who espouse this view think that God was making a point about those bad ecological choices. Others think He wanted to draw attention to other kinds of sins that they associate with New Orleans.  Still others hold that every single thing that happens is part of God's ultimate plan, but we cannot know what that is, so we shouldn't be trying to interpret God's intentions for others.

Now, there is a third position. There are people who want to hold the second position, but without the inconvenience of believing in God. They think that things are Destiny or Meant to Be or astrologically ordained or something like that. Do I sound scornful? I am, a little bit. It is like people who do not believe in God but do believe in angels. They want the appealing trappings of religion, including a sense of meaning for hardships, without the hard work of faith. Wimps.

Anyway, I am going to think of the third position as a variant of the second, and lump all of it into Random Chance or God's Will.

If you don't believe in God, you have position #1, and you have no logical inconsistencies or difficulties to deal with. You are free to go.

But if you do believe in God -- and all of us in last night's discussion do -- then you have some problems.

If you take option #1, then you have the classic Problem of Evil: why does a just and omnipotent God allow evil in the world? The orthodox answer to this is Free Will. God gave us free will, and we screw things up. Our choices have consequences so far-reaching that we cannot predict them, which is why we ought to take God's advice more often than we do.

This view conflicts with some things in the Bible, and it also conflicts with the personal experience of many people (including some who were present at last night's discussion) who find that they have benefited from their hardships in ways they could not have predicted, enough so that they are personally convinced that God planned their hardships for them. Your response to these factors will depend not only on your religious convictions, but also on your views on data.

If you do not believe in God and are still here, your orthodox position on this conflict will be that Religion is the Opiate of the Masses.

If you take the second position, then you still have the Problem of Evil, and you have to consider a God who would decimate medieval Europe with the bubonic plague (for example) in order to make some points about hygiene. Or mess with New Orleans to make some points about stewardship of the earth. As one of the participants said last night, that's not a god most of us want to be associated with.

The orthodox position on this is that God's view is so much larger than ours that we can't really understand it. Ozarque wrote a poem on this subject, comparing her use of mouthwash and the resultant dead microbes with God's use of wars and pestilence. I would add that God would presumably not think of human death as a bad thing, any more than we think of birth as a bad thing -- though unborn babies probably do.

There is also the Doctrine of Total Depravity, but I think that is an advanced position, to be discussed in the graduate section only.

Now, all the orthodox views seem to me to be defensible and possibly true. However, it strikes me that we tend to look at this issue from a very human point of view. We are hampered, for example, by time. God does not operate in our time dimension, so He would not have the same view of cause and effect that we do. A being who can see all points in time at once does not think "I will do this, and then maybe they will do that" or even "Since they did that, I will do this."

Another participant in last night's discussion suggested that our response to events may be the thing that is meant. That is, God does not plan for someone to lose their job and thus draw closer to God, but He may plan that, once they lose that job, they do draw closer to Him.

The other related question, for me, is which option is more beneficial for us. Should we live as though our every choice has far-reaching consequences, and thus be more careful of all our choices? Or should we live as though everything in our lives is part of God's Plan, and thus be able to see purpose in our hardships?

I will be contemplating these questions as I scrub the bathrooms today.

I'm racing off to a work event today, so I just have something quick for you: a new toy.

The color palette generator is a tool that will generate a "palette of harmonious colors" from a photograph that you upload from your computer. If you are going to do a SWAP or a Fair Isle sweater or a beaded necklace, you can get the colors from a favorite photo.

I tried it with a few random pictures that I like, a picture from my living room, and then with my SWAP pictures. The tool gave me a nice palette every time -- though a forest picture turned out to have only shades of green, so it's not like the generator is going to be imaginative for you. 

When I compared the palettes generated by my original SWAP fabrics, my SWAP Part II, and the fabrics I've collected for my SWAP Part III, I was able to see the color shifts clearly. My basic gray and burgundy colors turned up in each, but with different accents each time. The generator also suggested a new neutral -- I've been  using gray all along, but for SWAP Part III they offered a nice mushroom shade that I would not have thought of.

You can do a picture of your face and get a palette that would be harmonious for you, if you are not sure what colors to start with. I tried that with pictures of my whole family, and consistently got good choices, though naturally heavy on the neutrals.

I would think you could also do this with a painting you love, and have suggestions for decorating the room it's going to live in.

Anyway, it's fun.

I finished reading Honeymoon by James Patterson and began Marrying Mom by Olivia Goldsmith, so I guess those can be my two books for this week's Summer Reading Challenge. Both authors are fine storytellers. Honeymoon was given to me by Blessing, who gave it high marks for having a twist at the end, but I would take off some points for loose ends.

I got some knitting done while I read (and watched Casino Royal with my kids.) Here is Ivy. Ivy is not going to be interesting to photograph for a long time, because she is all gray stockinette. However, the fabric is light and soft. This is Knitpicks Essentials on #3 needles, which is quite a different yarn from the one suggested for this pattern, but I think that it will be very nice for fall.

 And here is the Doctor's Bag, in Telemark. I have forgotten what size needles I am using. The book this pattern comes from, Knit 2 Together, has the very sensible suggestion of tying knots in the tail of your yarn to show what size needles you are using -- three knots for size 3 and so on. I did not do this, though. I'll have to check the needle size and let you know.

I hope that you can see the texture at least a little bit. It is a very cool stitch, and quite thick. The pattern calls for a double strand of heavy yarn, so the original must be like a carpet. Good in a bag, of course.

In addition to knitting and reading (and dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, and washing), I got the grocery shopping done. #2 daughter came with me to the meat market, where I picked up a Freezer Variety Bundle -- 25 pounds of meat for $75, so it's a bargain, and it lasts us a full month or more. I also had the Schwann's man bring us lots of good things. With the garden and the stuff from the farmer's market, I feel that we are heading into Back to School well provided for. 

I offer you gratuitous cat pictures. #2 son took them.

#2 daughter has returned to her town. It was fun having her here. It was also good for errand-running. She thinks shopping is fun, and it is more fun for me when I do it with her, certainly.

In addition to the meat market, we went to the fabric store to pick up a couple of yards of cheap solids so that I can finish up SWAP Part II with a hasty Plan B. That is on the schedule for tomorrow.

And we went to the outdoor sporting goods place. We have about four sporting goods places -- no, six, now that I think of it -- but this is a probably my favorite.

They have a little pond in which you can try out a kayak. #2 daughter is wanting to buy a kayak, and a car rack for it, and the people there were very helpful about those things.

I admired hiking boots. I did my hiking vacation in hand-me-down athletic shoes too old for the gym (not wanting to spoil my gym shoes, you know) and I found that after five miles or so, my feet hurt.

The story is that this doesn't happen if you have proper hiking boots.

With the sinewy, tanned staff there looking happy and relaxed and fit, I could believe that a pair of Sun Dragon hiking shoes would not only keep my feet from getting sore on long hikes, but possibly that they would also cause me to feel younger and equally happy and relaxed, if not sinewy.

I have to pay tuition and car payments and butcher's bills, so I did not lay down a C-note on hiking shoes, but I  can see why people do in this sort of setting. In fact, standing there near the climbing wall, I could see why people load up on all sorts of gear for hobbies they do not have time for and won't really do.

I don't do that, myself. I read my books, knit with my stash, and wear my gym shoes to the gym. But busy people who buy hiking boots -- or, for that matter, a kayak -- that they will never really use can, for a few minutes or even a day, imagine themselves part of the whole "Life is Good" balanced life young fit happy milieu, even if they really have more of a "Life is Horrible" setting.

Actually, for me, Life is Good.

I hope it is for you, too.

  I began this Doctor's Bag from Knit 2 Together. And then I also began Ivy from Elsebeth Lavold's Summer Breeze Collection.

I haven't made a whole lot of progress on either one -- about three inches apiece, I would estimate. They are not yet deserving of photographs, which is why I am giving you the pictures of the patterns instead.

This is because I have been doing frivolous things like going out for meals.

Yesterday after church we had lunch with my parents, which is always fun. Then, following a brief spell of knitting and reading, we went to the ice cream social at the church.

The choir sang, with #2 daughter's assistance, and then we went and got pie and ice cream and the praise band played for a bit. They were really incredibly bad. #2 daughter and I were sitting with the music director and another chorister, and we sort of didn't know where to look.

Our choir can certainly sound bad. I think volunteer musical groups often do. Last night, for example, we were singing outdoors, so the sound was different. That meant that everyone who wasn't looking at the director was slightly off the tempo. A couple of times it made an odd, echo-y effect.

This is why you have to look at the director. It's something about the speed of light relative to the speed of sound.

But the praise band, bless their hearts, had only four members. All were heavily miked. Each seemed to be singing in a different key. They sang "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." (This is a song made famous by Elvis Presley. By no stretch of the imagination is it a hymn.) They did a sing-along of "Be Thou My Vision," rocked up for the occasion.

If you click on the link, you will be able to hear this lovely song. You will also be able to judge the likelihood that everyone will have memorized all the verses and be able to sing along while eating pie.

Never mind. It was a lot of fun. The praise band normally plays at the Saturday night service, so I hadn't heard them before, and will have to do so again some time when they are more together. Here's the pie I brought. Apples and nuts, and more a tart than a pie, but it was very good, if I do say so myself.

Speaking of hymns, I encountered a really beautiful one that I had never heard before: "I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light" by Kathleen Thomerson. On this page you can find a link to hear it played (very slowly) by a brass ensemble.

So yesterday we had cinnamon rolls (#2 daughter's request, and it was a last-minute request, so I didn't have time to make them fresh and they were store-bought from a can type rolls), then a restaurant lunch, birthday cake, then the ice cream social, and then when we got home the guys were returning from working on a friend's garden and were very hungry. It turned out that I had not gone grocery shopping at all, apart from the quick run to the store for cinnamon rolls, and we had no meat in the house. Hmm. So #2 daughter ran out for burgers. Saturday was a restaurant lunch at about 2:00, a visit to a candy store, movie theater popcorn, and leftover restaurant food instead of cooking dinner.

Today will of course be a day of oatmeal and salads. And a trip to the grocery. #2 daughter will be heading back to her midwesten fastness today, and I will need to shovel out the house.

That's the plan.

#2 daughter went to the farmers market for me while I was at work yesterday, so we did not miss out on the fresh vegetables, though there was no fruit. Our region just won't have any fruit this year. Then she took #2 son to gymnastics, and then they came up and fetched me for lunch.

I noticed right away that #2 son had a large bruise starting on his temple. I mentioned it. It turned out that he had fallen on his head in gymnastics class.

"People don't understand that falling on your head is no big deal," #2 son complained.

I agreed that people didn't understand that.

"It's the whole breaking your neck thing," suggested #2 daughter helpfully. #2 son pointed out that he hasn't broken his neck yet.

He also informed us -- and I don't remember how the subject arose, but maybe we were standing in view of the math section -- that math is easy, "especially geometry, because it's just shapes." I think that the simplicity of his worldview is rather beautiful.

The Empress recommended a good restaurant, she being more familiar with the town containing the current store, and told me that I didn't need to return to work. We headed off to the restaurant, which was indeed good, and then up to the next county where they have stadium seating in the theater.

We saw "Ratatouille," which was quite fun, except for the whole nauseating premise. We had the good fortune to arrive just minutes before the show began, so we sat in the second row, which #2 daughter said spoiled the whole point of the stadium seating, However, I liked the way the sound was. There were speakers all over, so it sounded as though the other patrons were joining in the songs. If that really happened, they wouldn't be in tune or anything, but as it was, it was great. Like old Fred Astaire movies or something.

 The theater is in a rather new shopping center that people were excited about when it opened. It is like a toy city set in the middle of the fields. Or a shopping theme park.

It is built to look like a normal downtown, if perhaps an unusually clean one. Every single shop that you see here is a national chain store, except one local toy store.

In a real city, there would be the Jos. A. Banks store, and then there would be the cheese shop that had been there for forty years, and then the newsstand, and then Nine West, and then an empty lot where the kids play baseball, and then a cobbler, and then a delicatessen serving matzo brei for breakfast -- well, I don't know. It is years since I lived in a city. That is how cities were last time I looked. But here there is just a whole crowd of chain stores, like a mall, built to look like a city.

With a play area for the kids instead of an empty lot.

There were a couple of chain stores that neither #2 daughter nor I had been in before, so we checked them out. It was fun, really, because it was just like walking in a city, except for the no surprises part.

We went into Sephora, which was quite fun for us girls, but #2 son did not enjoy it. He wouldn't even try out the men's scents.

"If I participate in this in any way," he explained, "you might forget that I don't want to be here."

He also wondered, as we were leaving, "When did stores get the idea that all their employees ought to look as  though they're ready to take you out?" It is true that Sephora was stuffed with black-clad women with headsets. I assume that they have an enormous problem with shrinkage (shoplifting). I just kept wondering where they got all the workers for this little city.

We can hardly ever find friendly, helpful workers where I live. You have to poach them from other companies, because no one is ever unemployed. We actually have negative unemployment, which the kind government man explained to me meant that not only did everyone who wanted a job have one, but some people who didn't want jobs had been forced into the labor force by the importunities of the employers.

Not that everyone has a good job or anything, so there is some room for poaching.

But the county where the toy city is located may have had so much growth that they have unemployed people. Or they might all have been actors imported in, like Disneyland. 

Anyway, there was a candy store, which #2 son liked. We bought rock candy in pretty colors for #2 daughter's birthday cake, which I will be baking any minute now. I also need to bake something for this evening's ice cream social at the church. #2 daughter is giving the anthem this morning, also at the church of course. We are having lunch with my parents in between those things, and will be eating birthday cake at some point. So the baking needs to take place soon.

Maybe now, in fact. Enjoy your weekend!

I had an odd experience. I was watching an online speech on marketing. First I thought, "That guy isn't as good a speaker as I am!"

I am like this. If I go to a restaurant, I want the food to be better than what I can cook at home. If I buy something, I want it to be better-made than I could do myself. If someone is doing something, anything, on a professional basis, I want them to do it better than I could. I guess this makes a certain frail sense when I am paying for things, but to have that reaction to something free on the internet is completely unreasonable. It is particularly unreasonable when you consider that I also get paid for speaking, so under my own rules, I ought to be good at that.

Anyway, after being cross about that, I thought, "I used to date this guy!"

Yep. It was my first or possibly second big crush. I was probably 18, and and an undergrad, and this guy was the grad assistant in one of my classes. He was probably 24 or so.

We all hung on his words. In fact, at the very moment that I mentally identified him, I flashed on a scene in that class. The girl next to me whispered, "He's unbuttoning his shirt!" in a tone of awe.

He did, as I recall, unbutton the top button of the plaid flannel shirt he was wearing. We all wore those shirts in those days, male and female, even though it was hot. Unbuttoning a button was a sensible thing to do.

But this guy was so handsome. He was a swimmer, and had golden bronze curls like a Renaissance cherub. When I read the words in "I, Evadne, was mate of the god of light," in a lit class, I totally thought of him.

Of course, I was 18.

So there he was, now in his fifties, looking like a completely ordinary guy in a business suit, and sounding a little bit silly with his EST-influenced pep talk.

Maybe he became a motivational speaker while he was still so handsome that people stared at him, mesmerized, without caring much what he said. Maybe he is still charismatic in person. The rule is, "Once a beauty queen, always a beauty queen." I myself, though I do know on a rational level that I am now a matronly woman who often dresses like a bag lady and forgets to get her hair cut, continue to feel beautiful because I forget unless I am looking in a mirror.

It is possible that he would have become a better speaker if he had looked like Woody Allen to begin with, because then he would have had to wow people with the force of his words. Beautiful people are not, as is stereotypically thought, always stupid or self-centered, but there is a level of beauty that allows a person to feel that he doesn't really need to bring anything else to the table. This man was intelligent, but he didn't have to be.

None of my business, really. I can only very hazily remember the details of our relationship, and haven't thought of him since then.

#2 daughter got here last night. I will be working today and missing all the family amusements, but we have a lot of fun stuff planned for tomorrow.

Here it is Friday again. My books for this week of the Summer Reading Challenge were Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, about which I have written, and Mrs. Pargeter's Point of Honor, which is another excellent entry in Simon Brett's excellent series. Brett is always fun to read. I am finishing off 44 Scotland Street, which I laid aside at some point and neglected to finish.

I just responded at last to an invitation I received about a month ago. I got a third email on the subject and it seemed like high time. The truth is, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go or not.

The Mendelian Ratio may not be a common topic of conversation at your house, but it is chez fibermom. You will recall that Gregor Mendel, fooling around with peas, discovered that in a case in which the parents have two different characteristics, you normally find that the offspring display those characteristics in a 3/1 ratio. We have four children, and we constantly see this ratio at work. We have three ectomorphs (Deer People, as they say in my husband's country) and one mesomorph (Horse People). We have three with dark skin and one with fair skin. One has some red in his hair. One has typically Asian hair. We have two grown up, and one is tall and the other is small. We are waiting to see which direction height will go, but the boys are hoping that it will be three tall and one small, and not the other way around.

So I understood completely what #1 son meant when he said that he hoped the Mendelian ratio wouldn't be one outgoing and three unsociable.

Actually, he began by asking "Does antisocial behavior run in our family?"

A somewhat alarming question to hear from your teenager. What kind of antisocial behavior did he have in mind? Had he been stealing cars or what?

Really, he meant unsociable. And the answer is yes. We have some family members famous for their charm, but we also have some who are notable recluses. Some fall into both categories. This trait is marked enough that it was not unreasonable for my son to fear that he might be genetically fated to hanging around an atelier, reading. And since he is going into horticulture, he might be fooling around with peas, too.

We are unsociable enough as a group that I feel as though I have to guard against unsociability. I have to make a point of accepting invitations even if I am not sure that I want to. At least sometimes. If you always refuse, you know, people quit asking you after a while.

So I said yes and offered to bring a salad.

Work was very busy yesterday, right on schedule, and afterwards I went walking with Partygirl. She said how she often went places without her husband, since he was an old stick in the mud.

I also often go places without my husband. He comes from a country where the men and women don't usually socialize together. I wouldn't say that he is an old stick in the mud, but he generally hangs out with his home boys. I can feel sure that he won't go to the party with me. It will be just me and my salad.

 When last heard from, my SWAP Part II needed two tops to be complete. One I had cut out in March. When I went to get it yesterday to sew it up, I could not find it. I must have put it away somewhere during the Great Flood or something. The other I have sewn except for the hems, but I do not like it much.

I am toying with the idea of abandoning Part II altogether and going ahead with Part III.

In the meantime, I continued with my adventures in lingerie.

Chathaboune brought up the full slip, and Ozarque upped the ante with a mention of bra-slips. A bra slip is (or was, since Ozarque finds that they are as unavailable as teddies, which I had to define for a young reader) a bra with a slip attached to it. I had one once, and it was an actual underwire bra with a slip, much like the boned sundresses you see on the runways for the summer.

I tried to find one ready-made for Ozarque, and it appears that they are still made and presumably worn in the UK and NZ, but not here in Hamburger-a-go-go-land.

In fact, it appears that Australian Stitches gave instructions on making one not long ago. I do not have access to that magazine on a regular basis, but I don't see why we couldn't figure it out ourselves.

I can see two ways to do it. First, one could make a bra, lay it over a full slip pattern to see where to cut for the seam, and sew the bottom of the full slip to the bra. Second, a girl who didn't really need that engineering could make a powernet lining for the full slip, just from the neckline to right below the bust, and sew on plush elastic at the edge, creating something like the "shelf bra" somteimes found in tank tops or swimsuits.

The second option is clearly the easiest, so I gave it a try yesterday in between appointments.  I cut a simple chemise shaped full slip, just a front and a back, from crepe-backed satin.

Then I used the same pieces as a guide to cut a shelf bra from Lycra satin. I sewed the pieces together in a tube, sewing the slip in the usual way and then sewing the Lycra in as a facing.

When I turned it right side out, I had a slip with a 4-way stretch panel as a facing.

 I added elastic to the bra part. To do this, I just used a machine zigzag stitch to apply a soft knitted elastic to the edge of the facing, just like the leg openings of panties.

In case you have never done this before, here is how:  you divide the elastic into quarters, and do the same withthe edge to which you plan to sew it. Pin the elastic to the edge of the fabric at those points. Then sew it on, stretching between the pins. Your elastic will be nice and even, and the fabric will gather up just right.

I could also have done a casing, but I thought the former option would be more comfortable to wear.

When I turned the facing to the inside, I ended up with a simple slip with a shelf bra.

I made spaghetti straps from the crepe-backed satin and sewed them on. This also is quite simple. You sew a tube of the fabric, turn it right side out using a safety pin, and Bob's your uncle. I like to catch straps in the seam between the facing and the fabric, but in this case I was afraid to complicate matters with the shelf bra experiment, so I just sewed the straps on neatly by hand afterwards.

I now need a good way to make a crisp edge at the top. I tried tacking the facing at the seams, but since the facing is tight and stretchy (which it has to be for the bra effect), that distorted the shape of the slip, so I undid it.

The obvious solution would be to sew a trim to the top edge. However, I have run out of the ribbon I've been using on the satin pieces.

Since this slip will obviously not be worn with the half slip or camisole, it doesn't really need to match them, though.

I have a lot of nice laces in my trim box, but the recipient of this garment is not a lacy girl, and in fact has spoken out against lace even on underwear in my hearing more than once.

 It may be that understitching -- simply sewing the front of the slip to the seam allowance of the facing and slip seam -- would do the trick, but I don't know about having a line of stitching there, especially since I have been avoiding all visible machine stitching on the satin pieces.

I will contemplate these things today at the store.