At Last!

Imagine the song "At Last..."

 It's FINALLY completed. Not perfect, but done. My first and probably only queen size homemade quilt.

Begun 5-24-2014 in a Jelly Roll Race class at the Quilted Heart in Vacaville, CA

Worked on intermittently throughout 2022

                    Long Arm quilted at ThreadBear in Las Cruces, NM March 2023

                    Finished at home in Las Cruces, NM 12/26/23.

Finally I can move on and get a few ideas in my head made into garments!

PJ Pants

 

Okay, they are done. Started late last winter out of some deep stash black flannel. Got one front cut out...had to cut single layer due to width of flannel versus pattern pieces. Put them aside for the baby quilt, then the face plant fall, which took a long time to recover from, and so on and so on. 

When I got back to them, I had to do a major clean and search of the sewing room to find the fabric, the initial front piece, etc. I'm still not able to stand and/or work for extended periods, so it took a while to get them cut out. By the time I was ready to sew, I was thinking I had used the flat front Loes Hinse Oxford pants pattern, so just went ahead with sewing. I left out the back darts since it was going onto an elastic waist, and it's pajamas. I rarely use pattern instructions since I've made more than a hundred pair of pants over the years. 

I wanted an elastic waist with drawstring, so measured around me and just put the waistband together. Wound up pinning and removing the waistband several times. Pants waist was so much bigger than the waistband!?! I hadn't stitched the back darts, so I stitched them in. Pinned again. Still way too much pants for the waistband. Set them aside and did some mending, ironing and other things.

When I took Don McCunn's pants pattern drafting class, I remember him saying for the best outcome, waistband should be about 1" smaller than the top of the pants. These were waaay off!

After much head scratching and procrastination, I realized I'd used Burda 6613 instead of the Oxford pants pattern. A while back, I'd added a wide front pleat to the Burda pattern, which added about 6" to the front pattern when both sides were included. Aha! Sewing in the pleats made it reasonable to ease the waistband onto my pants. 

So they are finally done, and I'm ready to move forward with some of the myriad garments swirlling around in my head. So onward!

Interesting Year

Not much sewing happening this year. Took a pretty serious fall in the Spring which took several months out of my year. It was just as I was getting towards the end of my Kayla class, and everything was set aside as I spent an inordinate amount of time at the Chiropractor's office and in bed with pain meds. I'm now on monthly maintenance visits with him.

I finally finished my first Kayla wearable muslin, which needed a bit more work. The upper chest area was too wide, and I think the neckline needs to come back up 1/4" in the front. The rayon challis is a little too soft and drapey for this style, and I realized that with aging, my colors have changed and I look very washed out in the tans/cream/beiges I have worn most of my life. I love this fabric and had been saving it for the perfect garment. It's from very old stash, I think mid 90's? SIGH. This is the first Kayla: 

Have the adjustments done and some chambray for the second one. It's in the "to be" pile along with several other items. 

I did a quick dress from the Kwik Sew for Toddlers for my great granddaughter, but found out she hates pulling tight necklines over head. She does love the dress though. The fabric is from Gorgeous Fabrics, and as soon as I saw it I knew it was for her. She loves bunnies, and her daddy calls her "bunny" as a nickname. 

I have the jelly roll quilt back from the long arm folks and it just needs the binding which will be done soon. Have a WIP of a pair of black flannel pj pants up next that needs to be completed as we are coming into cool and cold weatther.

I have just finished another outfit for my great granddaughter. I had enough of the bunny fabric left, and my granddaughter said it wouldn't be too much of one fabric if I did leggings and a tee. Again, it's from the very old Kwik Sew booklet, Sewing for Toddlers. I did the knit pants and used the tee shirt pattern with front yoke and turned it into a modified henley. The collar and arm inserts are navy mini rib knit. I think she'l love it. 

I've been tweaking my sewing room again, and trying to get more organized as we're moving out of the hot month and into my prime sewing times. Today the fan moves to storage until next spring. I have lots of new clothes ideas swirling in my head and hope to see many of them come to fruition. 

I'll try to be better about keeping up with the blog.

So Slow as to make snails look like movers and shakers.

Diabolical Jane completed and mailed off to forthcoming great-grandson, Beau. I love all the fabrics for their colors, ideas, and book references. Dr. Seuss, Hungry Caterpillar, monkeys playing sports, explorers, states, space exploration and on the back, endless planets. Hope it strikes imagnations of what the future can be.

Took me quite a while to get the quilting and binding completed due to injuries and other delays. Also in the middle was the In House Patterns eight week Fitting Essentials course, but overall it was a fun project to do. This year I actually was able to complete the course, albeit I took a few extra weeks. I do want to go back and watch all the lessons again as there are so many nuances to each person's body that it is a lot to take in, to put it mildly 

I have many Kayla blouses to make, shorts for the new season, and I want to put the fitting essentials course to work making bespoke shirts for my "not standard size" husband. I hope to start my first wearable Kayla today. 

Plus a few more quilts are in the works, with the queen size one just needing its binding, and another being made from jelly rolls that supposedly will turn out to be a barguello rainbow quilt. We'll see. The instructions aren't really "in depth."

Hope your sewing is progressing and giving you great joy!

 

Diabolical Jane top is done!

 Although I continue to fight cold symptoms, (going into my fourth week!) I did get the diabolical Jane quilt top completed. I'm quite pleased with how it looks. As per the instructor's suggestion, I have trimmed with an extra inch around the edges that will be removed once the quilting and backing have been completed. 

I await the fabric for the back and the batting, and as soon as that arrives I hope to get it finished quickly and off for the forthcoming little guy.

Here's where it stands right now:

I quite like it and it has everything from Dr. Seuss to the Hungry Caterpillar, zoo animals, travel themes, space themes, soccer, baseball, and more. Just right for a little one IMO.

Not much else done in the sewing room this week, but as always, more later!

First week of 2023

Well, I've been pondering, and although the cold I got in December is still lingering and giving me strange side effects, I did get a little done, which makes me happy.

I worked on the Diabolical Jane baby quilt, and have the first two quadrants complete. 

Flannel Board Layout

First Two Quadrants Completed

I did pull out my Kayla muslin and know there are issues with the back neck area. I have had an issue in the past where the back neck "rises" up too high and what I have done is just cut down from the center back of the neck whatever amount is needed to lie correctly arcing to zero at the shoulder point, and just redraw that area from the center back to the shoulder point. Not sure that is the "right" way to do it, but it has worked for me in the past. However, I am wondering if that will make my back yoke off grain, and I should split half way down the yoke and overlap the indicated amount to lower the neck area without effecting anything else. Will contemplate and see which approach I think will work. 

That's my sewing for the week. This week I have things to do getting ready for tax season, so I hope to do a bit of sewing in and around the work life.

More later,

HAPPY 2023 TO ALL!

I’ve been pondering my wishes and dreams for the last month. No resolutions, just wishes and dreams that are hopefully doable.

One of my decisions is that no longer would I work for a Company that does not respect their employees but would once again start my own company. That means January to April I will be, as a friend says, “the boss of my own time.” In reality, that means I will be able to spend time doing what I love, and better serving my tax clients.

Decision #2 is that in reality, approaching the grand age of 76, and being mostly stay at home, I do not need a large number of garments. To that end I won’t sew many this coming year, but hope to get some really good fitting ones.

I anticipate taking the In House Patterns course “Fitting Essentials” again and hopefully get farther than I did last year before imploding. My intention is also to redo my bodice sloper, and a well-fitting pants sloper using the top down, center out pants fitting approach. I would like to get a basic jacket sloper also, but that is farther down the list. It is also possible I will need to make another grandmother of the bride dress, but that one is awaiting actual dates.

I have very much enjoyed the quilting classes I have taken at our local quilting store, Thread Bear, and with Great Grandbabies arriving and household items aging out, I anticipate doing more quilting in the coming year.

Decision #3. I just picked up This Is Your Brain On Food by Uma Naidoo, MD from the library. I read a review that indicated not only the subtitled things, “An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More” that it may help stave off Alzheimer’s and/or Dementia in older adults. I do spend time on activities each day to “exercise” my brain, but I also have friends and acquaintances dealing with these difficult diseases and prefer not to put my loved ones through that. I have noticed some slow down, both physically and mentally over the past several years and want to alleviate as much as possible in whatever way I can. I anticipate making some changes, hopefully minor, to help with cognitive functions.

Add to that the universal wish to get healthier through exercise and we have all the intentions for the year.

I’m hoping all of us have our creative and personal wishes fulfilled in 2023. Hopefully this blog will be updated more often, and with beautiful items.