One helluva couple of weeks!

Well, it was a lovely vacation, but, as always, we were happy to get home, pick up our dogs from the kennel and get back into our normal lives.

My best client had been waiting on pins and needles for me to get back and filled my calendar pretty quickly. I was back to work the day after we got home, and even did a Saturday appointment, which is almost unheard of. I continued working throughout the weekend, trying to get caught up on regular work, accounting, and all the rest.

Monday the 4th dawned, with another full week scheduled. Then on Tuesday evening, Dale woke me up with the news he thought he was having a heart attack, and it went downhill from there. It turned out he had most definitely had a heart attack. We went to "our" Kaiser facility about 20 miles away, and they wound up admitting him that evening.

Wednesday they informed us he needed surgery, and they would be sending him to either San Francisco or Santa Clara, which are the location of the Cardiac units. Wound up, he got to ride in an ambulance with a nurse in attendance in addition to the EMT. But he was disappointed they didn't use sirens. :P}} We were thrilled with the facilities in Santa Clara, but the 90 mile drive one way was a bit of a drag.

Long story short, a Cardiac Catheterization showed he needed a bypass. Next day was a quadruple bypass. Then Cardiac ICU, regular hospital, and a week later we returned home. We're trying to figure out a new routine now that will work for both of us when I return to work on Wednesday. He's always been in charge of his own breakfast and lunch because our time frames are different. No more. He's up with me and we're trying to coordinate our internal clocks to be in sync. I think it will take a little bit of a balancing act for a bit to get three meals a day on the table, still work full time and figure out a time to sew.

I'm thrilled he's okay, and our 11th Anniversary yesterday became a reality. The celebration was a little different than I anticipated, but all the more sweet because we were together.

Please hug your spouse and/or partner and think about how much they mean to you. It was a really big eye opener to remember to let the little things go and celebrate your life together. Also, despite the fact you think you're healthy, to listen a bit to the doctors. Watch your diet and get the exercise they recommend. To take the time to do the things that you enjoy and not worry about the small stuff.

Lucky for us, at 65 he's still doing construction and is in very good shape, so his healing is progressing much faster than anticipated. But we do have a good six weeks or so of recovery, so if you don't hear from me often, remember, I'm here in spirit, and even if I'm not sewing in reality, I am sewing in my dreams and day dreams! :P}}

Now I need to figure out how to make time for everything and let go of some of the external stresses that I really don't need in my life.

A wonderful Saint Patrick's Day to you all!

And we're back!

 

Well, it's been a few weeks since I posted. A busy few weeks in more ways than one. Work, as usual, has been super busy. It's a good thing when I think about it, but does cut into my personal life and sewing time a bit. Initially I was trying to get a little ahead to take care of all vacation expenses including missing income for while we were gone. Fortunately, or unfortunately, whichever way you look at it, it looks like this year will be an amazing year business wise for me. The housing market is starting to pick up, and due to the incredibly low interest rates, some people are able to refinance their loans into lower rates. As a group, Real Estate Appraisers in this area are typically nearing retirement, and I think a few more have left the business as I get calls from people every day that I haven't worked with before. Good for me all the way around. 

Before we left, I finished the rayon batik tee. My TNT Pamela's perfect tee shirt, short sleeved, Stash fabric, not sure when or where I got it. That's been worn several times and is a great addition to the wardrobe.



Brown Batik Tee

I got most of the next tee done, and finished the hems last night, so that's in rotation now. It's a ecru ivory Lacoste cotton mesh knit, bought on sale from Denver Fabrics. I have a tank already from the fabric, and enough left over for a short sleeved tee too. Having three nice tops for $21.50 reminds me why I sew. :P))

The next item is a "wearable muslin" of the Style Arc Franki top. The fabric isn't one that you'll see on me often, but for days off in the summer, it's a happy top IMO. It's a rayon knit that feels wonderful. I've made some panties (knickers for my sisters across the pond) out of it too, and I think there's enough left for another pair or two. Super comfortable fabric for those! There are still some issues with it, but generally, it's okay. Need to figure out why I have lines running from my neck down to the bust line. That's for when I have a few moments to sit and read my fitting books.


Tan Tee and StyleArc Franki Muslin

I have the Burda top (#2998, OOP?) on the cutting board now. I think the fabric will be super for it. It's a beautiful rayon woven that I've had in my stash for a long time. I think it was initially slated for a dress when I wore them a long time ago. Although the background is black, there are grey swirls, and the beiges, tans, and creams that fit with my SWAP quite well. I also have the next pair of pants ready to go. They're a cotton twill, as usual, in a kind of taupe color. They'll be my standard quarter pocket pants for work.

Burda #2998 top
 

Taupe Pants Ready to Go
 

Still need to get the sleeves copied for my Butterick 5616 top, and it's coming up after these two. And I have the rayon-microfiber chocolate brown pinstripe washed and ready to go get pinned and cut for slacks too. I'm debating whether I want to do those with quarter pockets, inseam pockets, or welt pockets. I think the welts may make the cut this time!

Our vacation was fabulous. 60+ family members all in beach houses in Southern California from Wednesday through Sunday, and a big wonderful, emotional 50th wedding anniversary party for my sister and brother in law Saturday night. Besides Dale and I, both daughters, one with spouse, and 5 of my granddaughters got to visit and be there. My sister has 8 kids with spouses, and most of her 44 grand kids and 8 great grand kids were there. It was one big love fest and lots of laughter, tears, and fun. We're planning to repeat it in 2015!



Blue house downstairs unit ours


View from our porch
 

Relaxing on my porch
 

 



Sunset from my porch at the beach


Another sunset from the porch

 

We got back Monday evening, and I had a pile of orders waiting for me, so needed to get busy with work, so the planned day or two of down time and sewing didn't happen. I don't ordinarily do inspections on the weekend, but I even went and did one yesterday. An unusual property, in the Sacramento Delta. Dale and I went together, and due to the uniqueness and trying to find similar properties spent several hours riding around on various islands and branches of the rivers and sloughs of the Delta looking at houses and marinas, and all the rest. Even though I don't usually work on Saturday, knowing this inspection would take several hours, Saturday was the way to go.

So today, I'm typing an appraisal, running in to Hancock Fabrics to pick up thread and needles, etc., on their big sale, and then hopefully sewing on my pants and cutting out my blouse before I crash. We'll see how much I get done today!

I've added a few pictures not only of the garments, but also snippets of my vacation. It was so relaxing and lovely, I'm still basking in the afterglow!

Enjoy your week and I'll try to catch up and keep posting!

Map the Sewists

Really cool idea. I want to share with all of you! From this website:

http://anothersewingscientist.blogspot.com/2013/02/map-sewintists-goes-live.html

Map the Sewintists goes live!
I had a brain wave yesterday morning while I was supposed to be herding kids out to the car for a road trip to Ontario:  how can sewing and crafty people find each other IRL and never miss another meetup?

I quickly slapped together that post, and thanks to Shannon for pointing me in the right direction, and to Gillian for being my first tester, we're ready to go live!

Here's how to participate:

Open this link to get to Map the Sewintists
Click on the red Edit button on the left
Click on the blue pin on the upper left of the map
Click on your location to drop the pin
A box will open that will allow you to add your name or blog URL in rich text
Save et voilà!

**********update from users:  it appears that you cannot pin if you are using a mobile device / tablet; also, you may need to use Firefox since other browsers may not work; finally, you must be signed into your google account.  If worse comes to worst and you can't pin after trying all this, just comment below with your location and info you want to include, and I'll pin you!

I would strongly advise people to only pin their general location or closest city, since we don`t want creepers peeping in our windows while we sew in our unders, do we?

Gillian and I have also added some fabric shopping locations around the world, so please share your collective wisdom!  I'm going to start spreading the word online.  If you like the idea, please reblog so that we can get the word out to everyone who feels isolated from the "cool kids" in NYC and London  ;)

Hopefully this will develop into a useful resource for all of us around the world.
Again, here's the website. Look how many of us there are already~
http://anothersewingscientist.blogspot.com/2013/02/map-sewintists-goes-live.html

Catching up. The excitement is building!

The work schedule is continuing at a dizzying pace, and we are looking forward to going on vacation next week, so I want to get as much work done as possible. Everyone thinks being self employed is wonderful, and at times it is, but what they don't think about is you don't get paid vacations. That means for vacation, you have to cover the missed income plus what you'll be spending or your finances wind up kind of upside down. To that end, I've been adding a few jobs into an already full schedule, which leaves little time for sewing or for me!

We're going to San Diego for my sister and brother-in-law's 50th Anniversary. I can't believe that they've been married so long! Although they got married quite young, it doesn't seem possible that we're all so old. We'll be staying at the beach in Oceanside, and for the first time in probably about 20 years, my children with spouses and grands, and my sister and brother-in-law, and all their 8 children with spouses, grands and great-grands will be within a few blocks along the beach in rented beach houses. I expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 of us! AMAZING!!! Unfortunately, my oldest granddaughter won't be there as she's not able to take additional time off work. She will be sorely missed. I expect a week long party. It should be fun, exciting, full of love, family and fun.

BUT... all that said, I've been trying to stick to my 15 minutes a day at least, and it is helping me progress my SWAP. The brown pants are complete and have been worn, and are into the rotation. The striped shirt turned out quite well if I do say so myself. Front and back stripes line up perfectly, which may not be apparent from the picture. The sleeves are cut on the straight grain, so they don't line up that well, but it is what it is. I'm quite pleased with the tee, it fits well, and is flattering.

I am excited about sewing right now, and have moved on to the next top, which is a rayon knit in a batik of browns. I love the fabric and think it will make a nice and more dressy looking top for work.

 I also have my second "muslin" of the Style Arc Franki top cut out and ready to go. The first was made of real muslin, and this is from a wild looking rayon knit I got on sale. It's not my usual style or colors (on line shopping sometimes elicits surprises LOL,) but I think will be fun for summer. The fabric feels wonderful and drapes fantastically. I'm hoping the alterations I made will make for a really nice fitting and flattering cowl neck top. I love the pattern, and I love cowls. Fitting me with them is more difficult! If I can make this one work, I have a luscious chocolate brown knit for it.


After working on the batik top last night, when I was getting a bit tired but not ready to go to sleep, I pulled out a Burda top and started tracing and doing my standard alterations on that one. It's Burda 2898, I'm pretty sure it's currently OOP. But I have loved this pattern since I bought it and never made it up yet. To me it's lovely and will look wonderful for a summer top of a light weight fabric. I bought a beautiful French Cotton Lawn from Marcy Tilton and that will go beautifully with my swap and be perfect for work for summer time.
The muslin for that will be coming up soon.



AND on top of that, I have the Butterick #5616 top also in the "next up" pile. It's undoubtedly out of print too. It is going to be a muslin of denim first, and will be useful for a light weight jacket.  I have a muslin fitted except the sleeves, and hope to trace them off tonight and get a sleeve done to see if it will fit my bodacious biceps. They measurements look okay, but I never know until it's put together and tried on. I'm hopeful that no further alterations  will be necessary on this one. Once the fit is correct, this one will be made in a beigey-tan stretch cotton and will be my bridging piece. And because I love, love, love, red, expect to see it in a red too. That will be my next core collection after the SWAP is completed.

I have several more knit tops to do, and am optimistic that my SWAP may actually get completed this year in the appropriate time frame. AMAZING!

Hope you are all doing well on your sewing and having fun with it!

 

Thought clippings and some progress

I can't believe it's February 4 already. I had a busy January which is usually the only time of the year I get some down time. So who knows what this year will bring.

Last weekend was my birthday weekend, so my hubby and I, my daughter, and two Grands met up in Berkeley for a little fun. We got there early so had time to go to Stone Mountain and Daughter which is my all time favorite fabric store. I got several pieces that called to me, and you'll see many of them over the course of the next few months. Then we had lunch at a Brazilian place, never had Brazilian food before, but we'll be going back. It was yummy. Then over to Laci's textile museum. They are the most fascinating place, and I'd wanted to go for years and never got there before. The exhibit was exquisite hand made laces from as early as the 1600s. We got a history lesson along with the docent led tour. My husband wasn't too thrilled when I first talked to him about it, but loved it as much as we did. They even had one piece made of human hair in the 1500s I think!

My second pair of brown pants are complete except for the waistband hook and eye. They look good, and did require a bit of alterations. I'm not sure why, but my standard pattern draft had got off somewhere along the line. These are a charcoal and bittersweet chocolate pinstripe that I actually cut cross grain because I don't want stripes going around these hips! LOL Pictures will follow.

After taking Don McCunn's pants class multiple years and about 50 pounds ago, I have drafted all of my own pants patterns and at this point don't have any RTW pants in my closet. But I get lazy, and as you make multiple copies, the darts start to fall apart, as does the front markings for the fly. So instead of doing a new draft, I copy, and then recopy, and then change for whatever design feature I want, and so on and so forth. Well, after the brown wool fiasco, I bit the bullet and redrafted the pants pattern once again true to my current measurements, so I should be ready to go.

I'm going to do what I call instant gratification sewing for a week or so, and then back to pants. I have several tees in the works that will go along with my SWAP, and not look like plain tee shirts, but a little dressier and/or interesting. I love, love, love, stripes, but again, at this size, don't want stripes running around my body. I found this wonderful cotton/lycra knit at Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkeley, and couldn't pass it up. It's the stripes I love, good colors, and fits perfectly in with my SWAP.

I sure hope you guys like my ideaas much as I think I will. That's on the cutting board right now, but it is taking a while as I want the stripes matched perfectly.


As I've been driving, sewing, and my various other tasks, I've been thinking about all things sewing, and thought I'd share. If you know everything, then skip this part.

Pins, scissors, and pointy things. We all know to get our scissors sharpened because they do get dull, even if you're careful to only use them on fabric. A gentleman who used to come around showed me how to tell when you're due. If your fabric is kind of bunching up as you cut, it's time. Along those lines, I just had the most amazing thought pop up a few months ago. I am good about having my scissors sharpened, but was using a seam ripper that was probably 25 years old. They, too, need to be replaced. And what a difference it makes! :P}}

Pins... I have multiple types of pins. For me, ruining a fabric that I purchased and loved because I had a pin not sharp enough that pulled the threads is so frustrating! And it has happened rather frequently with knits before I started replacing all of my pins every 3 to 6 months, depending upon how much I use them. Having a run up the front or back of a beautiful knit fabric because your pin had a burr is nightmarish! I have separate pin cushions, and/or magnetic pin cushions for my various types. I use ball point for knits; round head pins for wovens, sometimes the flower head pins for wovens, as they have long, narrow shafts that work well on thick fabrics, and I have dedicated silk pins for fine fabrics. It just makes my life easier.

Thoughts on pockets... use twill tape along the pocket edge seam line, about 1/4" shorter than the seam, and stretch to fit as you're sewing. It will keep your pants pockets from gapping. Also, I use twill tape along the back crotch line seam. If you've ever had a back seam pop, you'll know much more security with that little piece of twill tape to reinforce your stitching!

When I'm making pants pockets, after stitching the underside to the outside, I pink the seams at different widths. Then press open on a Tailor's Board, and press together over a ham using lots of steam to get it nice and flat. Once you have it flat, do your topstitching, and again, press over the ham, using lots of steam and a clapper. Your pockets will look super professional.

Along those lines, I do use my ham more than any other tool in my sewing room except my machines. Whenever you are pressing a part of a garment that goes over curves, the ham is your best friend. I use it to press darts, pin my pocket bags together, be sure my waistbands are pinned well, and so many other areas where one side is being drawn in to a smaller side. Try it. You may find your garments coming together just a bit nicer!

Well, it's Monday morning, and my week needs to get moving. Hope yours is fantastic!

Mama said there'd be days like this!

Okay, not to complain, HOWEVER, ahem. Some days I feel like I have lost my mind. I now know not to cut out my patterns early in the morning without checking and double checking what I'm doing! Senior moments happen more frequently when I'm not fully awake. :P}}

I spent last week working on my next SWAP garment, a pair of trousers in a nice brown wool from the stash. I was quite careful and did an excellent job if I do say so myself. All the top stitching was good with no wobbles, and the pockets were as close to perfect as I could get. Photo below:

 

So this made my third garment, and it was the end of the third week in January. Good. I'm keeping up and that's wonderful. I may actually get through this with flying colors. Since it was my TNT, self drafted pattern, I never even thought to pull them on until they were completed. Then... WHAT? I can't get them zipped. I know I'm a little bloated, but come on.

 

Panic sets in. What the heck. I run jump on the scale. No, I haven't gained 20 plus pounds in the last week. So what's going on? I am frustrated and confused. I pull out another pair of pants from the same pattern, in a similar wool fabric (from last year's SWAP) and they are fine. Scratching my head, I finally pull out a tape measure.

 

OMG! The proverbial light bulb went off. I was cutting out early in the morning to get them done so I could sew in the evenings. My pattern was drafted without seam allowances, as I can more readily adapt it to other designs. I CUT THESE SLACKS OUT WITHOUT SEAM ALLOWANCES, and then proceeded to sew them together. They may fit if I loose between 20 and 30 pounds. But not now.

 

Lesson Learned! I either have to add seam allowances to each pattern when I draft it, or check, recheck, and recheck again. A whole week's worth of sewing, and a lovely wool pair of slacks, which I need, going in the give away bag.

 

I have the next espresso brown wool for the next pair of slacks and a tweed for a jacket at the cleaners right now. They will be ready for pickup tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm starting on the next pair of slacks. A heavy charcoal/brown very subtle pinstripe in a cotton. I think I may add extra seam allowances this time just in case. LOL

 

Hope you all are having a wonderful time and getting great garments fit to your unique bodies!

 

More later!

 

 

 

 

Onward and upward!

Not a huge week for sewing around here. We have been fighting the bug that's going around. The flu hasn't hit yet Northern California as dramatically as it has the East, but that's not to say it isn't here.

As an Appraiser, I am absolutely flabbergasted that someone who is too sick to go to work would have me come to inspect their house while breathing their germs all over me and expecting me to shake their hand.

I am a firm believer in Zicam and seem to be abusing it somewhat because I don't have the time, or the desire to become ill. If you haven't tried it yet, think about it. For both Dale and I, when we notice a cold or flu coming on, we instantly start taking it. It generally will either prevent or lessen any symptoms almost immediately. I'm not in any way affiliated with the company, but heard about it from a Pharmacist many years ago and have been a die hard fan ever since. That said, I have been Zicamming a lot more than usual, and sleeping a lot more than usual, but didn't go down completely. So I'm happy!

In my spare time, around working, sleeping, and all the rest, I did have a few minutes this week to work on my second SWAP garment. It's my TNT Pamela's Perfect Tee shirt pattern, this time with a round neck and long sleeves. It's in a luscious silk/wool jersey from Mood this time. I love it and will get a ton of use out of it as it's the right weight for Spring and Fall as well as winter with a jacket.

And thanks to Caroline from Diary of a Sewing Fanatic for the hint about the knits. I only wear natural fiber fabrics and it's hard to find sweater knits that are attractive and don't have either poly or acrylic or some other such fiber mixed in. This one is as soft as can be, and I have enough to also make a tank for wearing under jackets in the warmer months. Woo Hoo!

Lying on my cutting table right now is some brown wool from my stash for slacks. Again, my TNT self drafted pants pattern will be used. Now debating on whether they need a separate lining or if I'll make a "pant liner" which to me means a pair of Bemberg rayon slacks with an elastic waist. I think it's a good option as I don't much like to pay dry cleaners, and if the slacks don't have a stain, generally I can get away with just steaming after wearing and airing. BUT, the pant liner can be washed much more frequently. I think it's a win, win.

I'm feeling encouraged that it's the end of the second week in January and I have two SWAP garments already done. I've made so many pants that those are almost second nature, so they will go quickly. I may actually finish a SWAP this year! WOW.

More later!