The summer 6-Pac, which I was working on, got waylaid when I got super busy at work, my planned crop pants got very weird legs, and my granddaughter came for a visit. She generally comes for a few days each summer when she comes from Denver to California to visit her dad. I get a couple of days and her dad usually gets a week or a week and a half since she's been in high school. Before that she'd spend the entire summer with him.
She's very interested in fashion and design, probably because she's tiny and can't find a lot of clothes outside the children's section, which on an adult look strange. We've talked about her learning to sew for years, and I finally got through to her that she won't make the perfect garment the first time she sews. So this time, she wanted to learn how to sew, and wanted to make a pencil skirt. We drafted one, she sewed it with my directions, and btw, I've never seen a first time sewist so accurate... do you think OCD and perfectionism are inherited?...unfortunately, we didn't have time to do a muslin. It looked perfect until we got to the waistband. YIKES! She has the family need for a sway back adjustment. As we started tearing stitching out, I realized that the inexpensive denim we'd used showed all of the old stitching.
Long story short, I went back to the drawing board and she went home without the pencil skirt. Moving forward, I redrafted the pattern and did a bit of tweaking, moving dart placement as I thought they were a bit off, doing the sway back adjustment, and then getting more fabric. She's 22, works at Whole Foods, and although she wants a pencil skirt, denim is the most practical and will get the most use. I didn't have a dark wash in my stash, so got some at Hancocks sale.
I was ready to start pinning it to the new fabric when the most horrible flu I've ever had hit. I was down for the count for a full week, and another week to get back on my feet. Trying to work full time around the flu isn't fun. But as a self-employed individual with work that has to be completed within a strict time frame, I was out of luck. Had to run to appointments and hope I didn't spew in someone's house.
Finally, I have the skirt cut out and am ready to start sewing again. And of course, the summer 6 Pac that I was sure I'd have enough time for is over. :P{{ That said, I decided that I'd do the Stitcher's Guild Autumn 6-Pac. I have time to make the pencil skirt and still get six garments completed. I have TNT patterns for slacks and knit tops, and have one jacket pattern, and have started alterations on Butterick 5616 that I can use for a woven blouse and also for a light weight jacket. Plus my favorite TNT Hot Patterns blouse. Should be good to go, right? But, wait for it!
Yesterday, a bomb got dropped. Totally out of the blue, the fourth granddaughter announced her engagement. She graduated from high school in May, and has been waffling about what she wants to do, no job yet, thinking about culinary school, thinking about other things, but her boyfriend lives in another town, a little over an hour away, and she wanted to be closer to him, they were discussing, etc. Turns out the discussions turned pretty serious! They are planning on a wedding next May. Not much time, IMO!
Well, I had promised my oldest granddaughter that I would make her a Melinda's Heart barguello quilt for a wedding present. She finished grad school in May, and her boyfriend started grad school this July. They are not officially engaged as yet, so I figure I have a few years to get it done, and I'll be taking a class in November, so it should work out well. That's been percolating on the back burner of my brain. Oldest GD said I have to set her quilt aside and make one for Alex for her wedding. I've only made a couple of lap quilts to date, so need to find something quick and easy. Zowie!
Last night I got out my quilting books to search. Looks like I can do a rail fence quilt. The book promises they are quick and easy. Yeah, sure. But I will have it professionally quilted on a machine, so that will help a lot. I think fate is intervening. I have a postcard from my local quilting shop... it's their 8th anniversary sale. 25% off all fabrics. Sale yesterday and today. Better hustle my bustle as I have an appraisal that has to be finished today, and looks like I'm going shopping too!
So around my attempt at an Autumn 6-Pac, a denim pencil skirt, and working too much, looks like I'm going to be making a quilt too! Gives me something to do in my spare time! ROFLOL a little hysterically I must say. Not that I'm an overachiever by any stretch of the imagination!
I have been missing my blogging. Too much work, too much time at a computer. But I take great joy in reading everyone else's so I want to get back to it.
