Sew Chaotically! - Summer of Basics Make-Along - Garment #3 - B6378 in a bookish Liberty of London print!

In July I picked out and started work on my 3 garments for the Summer of Basics Make-Along to include:

Garment #1:  The BEST pants - Butterick 6178

...and this...Lisette B6464, Liberty of London Top, Garment #2!

This combo completes items #1 and #2 who really do play well together, and on their own, in my chaotic little world!

Here's the final garment!!!

B6378, in - I guess you'd say - View D, but without the tie, the uneven hem, and a neat pleat tucked into a small cuff to finish the sleeves rather than the elastic finish the pattern called for.

A soft simple blouse in this bookish Liberty print in my favorite colors!

I think I dealt with the subtle "stripe" in the print successfully!

I was going to add the thin tie if needed, but the "collar" and neck line stood up well on their own, so I was pleased about that!

There are soft intentional (!!!) gathers to the sleeves and shoulder seams.

Given all the pretty sleeve treatments I've been examining lately and the lovely drape of this fabric, I thought I could do better than a simple elastic, gathered finish!

It seemed a simple pleat and narrow band might achieve the look I was after.

And I think it did!!!

It is a basic for work!  (If you ever 'graduate' again, Frankie, this will be my outfit!!!)

It's a basic for PLAY!!!

And....

...I think it is perfect with my BEST pants!!!

Sew....there you go!  The fab finish to my Summer of Basics Make-Along!!! 

This was super fun and fit in with my sewing plans generally, in making things that I truly love, that really work for my life and style!  Thanks to  Fringe Association and Grainline Studio for going to the trouble to develop and spread the word about this fun project!

#summerofbasics  #sob17bestcombo  #sob17finisher

Excited about all the summer sewing things I've learned and looking forward to fall sewing plans!
Sew chaotically! - love, les

Travel Chaotically! - Rock Scramble in the Shenandoah National Park

I mentioned to B that a little get-away would be fun....and with that - we were off to Shenandoah National Park.  Just a bit of a drive up to Knoxville, north on 81, on up to Virginia and the Skyline Drive.  We stayed at Big Meadow Lodge...which was indeed....across from....

...a BIG meadow!!!  Justice to its openness and beauty is not achieved in this shot, but I wanted to try to give you an idea.  Formed a zillion years ago when great lava flats were created in huge layers over time, it is nothing short of amazing!

The Lodge (as is true of many in our national and state parks) was itself a bit of travel back in time, with no shower (we did have a tub), minimal WiFi, no air conditioning, phone, or tv.  The last two of which were perfectly fine.  No air conditioning was okay, but with one of the windows missing its screen, one little donkey enjoyed his fan....though later in the trip with dips into the 50's at night...we were thankful the radiators were turned on and actually worked for a few hours.  As Agatha's French ladies would say, "Le Camping!!!!"

However, none of the accommodation issues really mattered to us!  THIS was our view!!!

B told me that per his reading before we headed out, there would be lots of wild flowers.  I was thinking, "Sure....in the spring!!!"  But, there were!  NOW!  Sooooo many beautiful flowers!!!

Jewel weed....

...in all its variations grew in great bunches near any moist areas.

These made me think of Ruthie and were beautiful up close...

....and in great swaths in fields and along the roadways!

 So...after driving up and checking in...we headed out on a little hike before dinner....that somehow turned into a 3 mile bizness with lots of steep ups and downs!!!

But, we were rewarded with this!

We quickly learned that in Shenandoah...there are ever so many spectacular vistas!

We also learned that trail markers consist of these concrete pillars, with metal bands embossed with the name of the trail and an arrow pointing the way.

 

Despite having to exert more effort than anticipated at the end of a pretty long day, there was much to see - with beauty in things large and small!

Next morning....it was adventure time!!  We were off for our first main hike on Bearfence Mountain Trail with an option to choose a path with or without a rock scramble.  I'm sure you'll never be able to guess the path I took!  ROCK SCRAMBLE!!!  There's my path!  See the blue marks????

Yep.  This is my trail!

And this....

And then, there was this!!!

So.  Absolutely.  Awesome.

Still on my trail!!!

Then back down to a lovely walk in the woods.

While there are many things I love to see along the trail...bugs and flowers, vistas, birds, bear, and deer (more on those soon)....and many things I like after a day on the trail...a bath, a glass of wine...there is NOTHING better than seeing my best bud, patiently waiting for me...after my MOST EXCELLENT ADVENTURE!!!

Thanks for sharing another chaotic adventure with me, Bentie!!!  More Shenandoah to come! - les

Vaccines and melanoma

As a rattie who participated in a Nivolumab (Opdivo) plus peptide vaccine trial from 2010 until 2013 ~  Here's a report on our study:  C'est moi!!! Results from the 33 ratties in my Nivolumb/Opdivo trial...published!
And here's a report on how much the vaccine portion of our trial helped us (Spoiler alert - NOT. AT. ALL!!!!):  Peptide vaccines do NOT trigger effective immune reponse to melanoma!!!! Of mice and men....
~ I still hold out hope that vaccines WILL play a role in ridding patients of melanoma.  Now, there's this:

Personalized RNA mutanome vaccines mobilize poly-specific therapeutic immunity against cancer. Sahin, Derhovanessian, Miller, et al. Nature. 2017 Jul 5. 

T cells directed against mutant neo-epitopes drive cancer immunity. However, spontaneous immune recognition of mutations is inefficient. We recently introduced the concept of individualized mutanome vaccines and implemented an RNA-based poly-neo-epitope approach to mobilize immunity against a spectrum of cancer mutations. Here we report the first-in-human application of this concept in melanoma. We set up a process comprising comprehensive identification of individual mutations, computational prediction of neo-epitopes, and design and manufacturing of a vaccine unique for each patient. All patients developed T cell responses against multiple vaccine neo-epitopes at up to high single-digit percentages. Vaccine-induced T cell infiltration and neo-epitope-specific killing of autologous tumour cells were shown in post-vaccination resected metastases from two patients. The cumulative rate of metastatic events was highly significantly reduced after the start of vaccination, resulting in a sustained progression-free survival. Two of the five patients with metastatic disease experienced vaccine-related objective responses. One of these patients had a late relapse owing to outgrowth of β2-microglobulin-deficient melanoma cells as an acquired resistance mechanism. A third patient developed a complete response to vaccination in combination with PD-1 blockade therapy. Our study demonstrates that individual mutations can be exploited, thereby opening a path to personalized immunotherapy for patients with cancer.

An immunogenic personal neoantigen vaccine for patients with melanoma. Ott, Hu, Keskin, et al. Nature. 2017 Jul 5. 

Effective anti-tumour immunity in humans has been associated with the presence of T cells directed at cancer neoantigens, a class of HLA-bound peptides that arise from tumour-specific mutations. They are highly immunogenic because they are not present in normal tissues and hence bypass central thymic tolerance. Although neoantigens were long-envisioned as optimal targets for an anti-tumour immune response, their systematic discovery and evaluation only became feasible with the recent availability of massively parallel sequencing for detection of all coding mutations within tumours, and of machine learning approaches to reliably predict those mutated peptides with high-affinity binding of autologous human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules. We hypothesized that vaccination with neoantigens can both expand pre-existing neoantigen-specific T-cell populations and induce a broader repertoire of new T-cell specificities in cancer patients, tipping the intra-tumoural balance in favour of enhanced tumour control. Here we demonstrate the feasibility, safety, and immunogenicity of a vaccine that targets up to 20 predicted personal tumour neoantigens. Vaccine-induced polyfunctional CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells targeted 58 (60%) and 15 (16%) of the 97 unique neoantigens used across patients, respectively. These T cells discriminated mutated from wild-type antigens, and in some cases directly recognized autologous tumour. Of six vaccinated patients, four had no recurrence at 25 months after vaccination, while two with recurrent disease were subsequently treated with anti-PD-1 (anti-programmed cell death-1) therapy and experienced complete tumour regression, with expansion of the repertoire of neoantigen-specific T cells. These data provide a strong rationale for further development of this approach, alone and in combination with checkpoint blockade or other immunotherapies.

Super SMALL  (5 and 6, in the studies respectively) numbers here.  So who knows if these outcomes really have any significance whatsoever.  But...a girl can hope!!! - c

Prognostic factors and treatment outcomes in mucosal melanoma

This is a tough road for far too many...

Prognostic factors and treatment outcomes in 444 patients with mucosal melanoma. Heppt, Roesch, Weide, et al.  Eur J Cancer. 2017 Jun 7.

Mucosal melanoma (MM) is a rare but diverse cancer entity. Prognostic factors are not well established for Caucasians with MM.  We analysed the disease course of 444 patients from 15 German skin cancer centres. Disease progression was determined with the cumulative incidence function. Survival times were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method. Prognostic parameters were identified with multivariate Cox regression analysis.

Common anatomic sites of primary tumours were head and neck (MMHN, 37.2%), female genital tract (MMFG, 30.4%) and anorectal region (MMAN, 21.8%). MMAN patients showed the highest vertical tumour thickness, had a more advanced nodal status and a higher percentage of metastatic disease at diagnosis. Mutations of NRAS (13.8%), KIT (8.6%) and BRAF (6.4%) were evenly distributed across all tumour site groups. Local relapses were observed in 32.4% and most commonly occurred in the MMHN group. Male gender, advanced tumour stage, nodal disease and incomplete resection status were independent risk factors for disease progression. Overall survival (OS) was highest in the MMFG group and in patients without ulceration. Multivariate risk factors for OS were M stage at diagnosis and incomplete resection of the primary tumour.

For what it's worth.... - c

Sew Chaotically! - Super psyched about some slooooow fashion and Tessuti's Annie Dress

I've been working on this project for a while, and I am so excited to finally be able to tell the story!!! I loved making the Tessuti Demi Pant but, the Annie Dress was the first Tessuti pattern that caught my eye...made as a top.  I just loved the front yoke and neckline.  So many bo-ho tops and dresses have such pretty embroidery work...

...like this one in Sundance

Annie Dress

...and this one from a shop in Atlanta....

It got my chaotic little brain thinking, "I can do that!!! It will be perfect on the Annie Dress!!!"  And really, with that inspo, how hard can making your own cross stitch pattern be????  Well ~ it can drive you to drink!!!!

Maybe it will look alright????

Hmmm.....figuring out how to finish up this hot mess!!!!

Okay!!!  There she is!!  Gotta say...I'm pretty pleased with the end result!!!  But I'm super psyched 'cause this gonna be a special surprise for a special someone!!!  NOW!  Just gotta make the dress!!!

Here we go...but...it has become a top....that's going to be lined!  Decisions made after a closer inspection of the quantity and "clarity" of my fabric!!!

I think it's cute!!!

The pattern goes together very well.  I made and used "valiene" shields as directed to keep the arm holes from stretching...or at least I used what I thought was an equivalent substitute from JoAnn's.  However, it was pretty stiff and unwieldy though it did achieve its purpose.  Not sure it was necessary as I have a walking foot that tends to help keep things from stretching out or slipping about.  But, I've vowed to try new techniques when I have the opportunity...so I did!

Worked out the needed lining though the pattern doesn't call for one.

No. Ugly. Insides.

Though this is not for me, I wanted to make sure it would fit a human person well!

I am pretty tickled with how this turned out!!!  Hopefully, it will be a fun sunny top for Ruthie!!! Happy Birthday!!!! - love, les