It's summer here now!

In Las Cruces, New Mexico summer has arrived. Our ten day forecast shows six days with highs in the 90's and four with highs in the 84 to 88 degree range. Our night time lows are all in the 60's. We may even get a bit of rain on the "colder" days, so that would be nice and refresh things a bit.

Dale had gone to Santa Rosa, California for the last week to visit the kids and watch our granddaughter graduate from Sonoma State University. She graduated with honors, and he got a nice visit with both his daughters and their families, and even got to have dinner with my daughter one evening. On his return, he had a layover in Phoenix, where the temperature was 108 degrees at 4 p.m. He was glad to get back to our 90 degree temperatures. It was 94 when I picked him up at the El Paso airport at 9:00 last night!

I'm quite pleased to report the serger is back and in use once again. I had a few things cut out that are finished now.

I used my TNT pattern, and made up a quick royal blue tank top. Nothing out of the ordinary other than the fact I used cross grain for the neck binding, and the armhole bindings, and turned and stitched them. I may have to redo it with bias. It seems to me to not be quite tight enough on the neck band, and after a quick washing and drying I'm going to reevaluate and perhaps take the straight grain off and add some bias. We'll see how that works.

  

Once the tank was done, I did two quick pair of pajama bottoms out of cotton flannel. Both pieces were from JoAnn Fabrics a while back. The floral was several years ago, and the teal was purchased in 2016. Neither is good quality fabric, but they will be useful in my wardrobe. I don't post pictures of things like this to bore you, but because this blog is actually my sewing record of things I've made throughout the years.

I am using these as a kind of "muslin." They are from the Style Arc Barb pattern, shortened to about an inch of so below my knees. The pattern is designed for knits, and these are both wovens, but with the weight loss, they fit fine in the woven. I had decided to do a quick and dirty muslin to enable a few pair of quick elastic waist shorts to wear around home in the heat. It was a big success in my book. The only changes I'll have to make is to add pockets, since I'm not sure I can be awake and not have pockets! As Barbara from the Sewing on the Edge blog mentioned a while back, my main accessory is poop bags in my pockets! LOL

I've been cleaning rather frantically because like a lot of sewers, that is lower on the list than sewing most days, and I have a granddaughter coming to stay for the first week of June. I'm very excited to see her, and we should have some nice photos of things to share. But, I do have to clean, as she'll be staying in the "guest room" aka the sewing room, and there really does need to be enough room for her bed!

The next outfit will be a pair of "desert color" stripped shorts, and a sleeveless, collarless, button down shirt using my TNT pattern I've made several from before. Those shirts are getting a lot of wear in this weather!

Hoping you are all enjoying your sewing, and making lots of gorgeous or at least useful things!

More later,

Quick catch up

I've been sewing, but it's been a little of this and a little of that. 

The bathing suit tankini took a lot more contemplation and a lot more testing and work than I anticipated. Getting an inner bra installed in something you're not sure where the bustline will be is a process. It was overall successful, but harrowing and difficult in my brain. I spent a lot of time mulling over what exactly would work. In the end, I eliminated their lining piece and did one of my own design, adding the bra cups where I felt they should be on my body. 

Sorry about the flannel pajama pants underneath the top! If you look closely, you can see that the bra area is not ideal, but it is certainly wearable. Sorry about the fuzzy picture of the pants. They work just fine, but as I'm peeling pounds away, I think they won't last for long.

I did make some decisions based on this muslin. I need to shorten the straps by about an inch. In the future, I'm not going to try to add the bra into the tankini top, but actually make a swim bra out of the same fabric (from my custom bra pattern) and just it combined with the tankini top. 

I have upped my Aqua Aerobics to three times a week, and hope to get in five times in the combing weeks. That will necessitate a few more suits as I go along. I'm thrilled that this program is really enhancing my range of motion, and ability to move. Every week I am able to do something with my body and my knees that I haven't been able to do in years. It's very exciting to get closer to "normal" physical status for me. 

Currently, I'm working on several things at once. I am adapting the Morris Blazer from Grainline Studios to my personal body, and a muslin will be coming out fairly soon. I have a tank top begun, but the serger has issues and so will be out for servicing starting tomorrow. I have some pajama pants laid out on the cutting board as I can do those without the serger. I'm also going to be working on a muslin for a sleeveless woven shirt. Just an old fashioned shirt with front buttons, back yoke, and regular collar. 

Our weather is a bit crazy right now, but overall warm and sunny. We did get a few drops of rain this week, but our temps are generally in the 75-85 degree range during the day. That necessitates sleeveless tops, tank tops, and knee length shorts to supplement the bathing suits. Also need more shorts, so those are percolating too. 

Hope things are going well in your sewing world! More later!