stitchery

I am on a roll! Over the past few weeks I've snuck sewing time in 10 and 15 minute increments and it has finally turned into something.

When I bought my sewing machine a few years ago, I was very excited about it's ability to make awesome buttonholes. I also was keen to try out some free-form machine quilting. I may have inherited my walk and some mannerisms and also a love for olives and cream cheese on english muffins from my mother, but I did not inherit her smashing hand quilting ability.

tipsy owl

Yes, I know that if I quilted as frequently as my mom does I would probably improve. But for now I'm juggling knitting and crocheting and also trying to make that damn bread so getting my hand quilting leveled up is just not going to happen. Enter: la machina. It has this dandy foot that stitch regulates while you glide the fabric underneath. And it is way, way harder than it looks. You can make a serviceable stitch that holds fabric together right out of the gate, but to make it actually look good is proving to be more difficult than I thought.

completely drunken tree

My first project is a blanket for the boys to roll around on while we're in Hawaii. I want to minimize sand-in-baby-crevices, so I used some of my coated fabric for the backing. It's the same stuff that backpacks are made out of so it's water resistant but very malleable. The middle layer is an old Ikea curtain. Then the top is a zany yard of a new Moda print that I love. Owls, yes. I love owls. I basted the layers together (by hand, mom!) and then tried my hand at putting on just enough stitchery to hold the layers together. I tried some outlining, some crazy curlicues, and some sort of straight lines. The end result looks like I sat on my glasses and then proceeded to sew, but it does the job and from a distance you can't really see how crooked and wonky it is. First attempt: satisfactory.

Then because I love having bags for everything, I had to put one together for this too.

stitchery

new year, folded fabric

Somehow it's almost the end of January already. There's been more than a bit of rain so I've been quite the homebody. I re-organized my studio and got all of my fabric folded, all of the yarn separated into bins by weight, all of my many patterns and alteration notes tucked into magazine boxes. Many of my projects haven't been given to their recipients yet so there are only teases of photos available.

on the ironing board, matching cupcake pajama pants for Isaac and Julian (who share an enduring love for cupcakes)

in hand tonight, button application on some shirred fabric

why yes, someone does have a birthday coming up soon!

I also finished a pair of socks for Charlie

Dec 10

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: one sparkling snowflake, one blue ball, a spangled pink ornament, one frosty tree, one batman symbol, one nibbling squirrel, one letter B, one Charlie Brown ornament, one bunch of grapes, and a bearded Santa Claus.

---------------

Now that Sappho's birthday has gone by I can safely post a photo of her party dress. I found some soft, soft tiny wale corduroy with hip birds and almost a peacock design. It was calling out to be a smock dress, meant to be worn over a long sleeved shirt and pants. Because it's cold outside!


Harry thinks it is very cold, and the only way to deal with it is to curl up on a recently-vacated chair and cover his nose.


I've been snip-snipping at this year's snowflakes. One of my favorite family traditions is the labeling of gifts with snowflakes as gift tags. Snowflakes are cut from little squares of paper. And you know what comes in a perfect square? Origami paper. None of that white christmas stuff for me....I am quite partial to the brilliantly metallic purple one up top.

costumed

costume inspiration

What was my costume? Why, the Queen of Hearts of course. I saw a picture of a little girl's version of the costume and loved the graphic elements of the Disney movie character design. With the help of a corset pattern and Suzanne's sewing experience with gored skirts, the costume worked out pretty well. My favorite part was the bright red poufy petticoat worn under the skirt. The costume got worn first at the company Halloween party and I felt quite regal.

driving with a petticoat is entertaining

the queen on halloween

We had no party to attend on Halloween, so I implemented my genius plan: get dressed up and go out to dinner at a favorite restaurant.

John Lennon, a chef, the queen, and Indiana ready to party with tasty italian food

gratuitous shot of handsome Charlie

We ate good food and then came back to our house for an evening of playing Beatles rock band, in costume of course. Except for Charlie since he couldn't rock in his chef's coat and hat.

Legendary Fluff

The summer fluff season has begun around here, much to my delight and my horror. Delight is obvious: floating on the breeze are hundreds of tiny white tufts from the cottonwood trees. If you've ever seen the movie Legend you will look in my backyard and expect a unicorn to trot out of the shrubbery. It looks positively magical.



It's also the bane of my life because the fluff season corresponds with Charlie and I getting slammed with seasonal allergies. We're both constantly jittery and stoned from pills and you can tell when they've worn off because the fusillade of sneezing starts. But the fluff certainly is pretty.

---------------

just a fragment of one of the piles

I spent most of the day in the basement hiding from nature and working on my scrappy project. So, so many pieces of fabric.

---------------
Eggs laid in the coop today: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Tuesday: 3
Eggs laid in the coop this year: 383

inspirado

happy potatoes, outgrowing their containers

The warm weather has been doing wonders for the garden. I even had to break out my tomato-irrigation system early in the season. August is usually the dry time here, and you can go crazy trying to keep needy plants watered. When I was maintaining a p-patch at Marymoor park, I couldn't bike out to the garden every day and water. So I used a system of soda bottles. You poke just a few tiny holes in one end, fill it up, and let it drip. I bury the top few inches of the bottle in the ground and cut a larger hole at the exposed end, then fill it with a handful of rocks to help with stability. The nose of my watering can fits in the hole just right and the tomatoes get a low slow dose of water right where they need it.

drippy

I've tried to use soaker hoses before, but have found them to be a pain in the rear. Plus the garden is so far away from the house that I can't even stretch our super long hose all the way.

---------------

Inspiration struck for a sewing project today. If all works out, it will be a little something for some girls I know who are heading into renaissance fair season with their musical mother....

I am a compulsive saver of scraps

that eventually will become something

---------------
Eggs laid in the coop Monday: 2
Eggs laid in the coop this year: 376

buggy

There's been a touch of ceaseless unending eternal rain lately, so my outdoor festivities have been curtailed. Yesterday I realized that it had been simply ages since I had sewn something. Like the good stasher I am there were many projects that I could work on, and I chose a dress for my friend Maya. The fabric suited her perfectly, I just wasn't sure exactly what to make out of it. Since she is a growing girl I chose the dress pattern I made last year for my four little-girl friends. The shoulders are adjustable ties, and it can start out as a rather oversized dress and someday turn into a shorter something worn over pants.

Maya modeled it today over pajamas, which I found quite fetching.

Henry assisted in the making

Rain, rain, make my garden grow.

---------------
Eggs laid in the coop Tuesday: 3
Eggs laid in the coop this year: 361

Wingchair begins

ready to be taken apart

Last year I took an upholstery class and re-covered one of Mimi's bee chairs. The class was fun and the chair came out looking pretty professional, so I kept my eye out for a wing chair. I found one at the Goodwill for the princely sum of $25 and it first sat in the living room (to make sure we liked the shape of it) then the dining room (to get it out of the way) and finally the basement where it lurked waiting to be reborn. All of the late winter classes were full, so it languished for months and months. I brought home several fabric samples for Charlie and he picked out a taupe velvet and I bought a big roll during a sale at Joann's.

Henry supervises

some of the 4,000 reasons why I have blisters on my hand now

One thing I learned from the first class was the first day you do nothing but rip your chair apart. It takes hours and hours. Since that's something I can do at home I decided to do a little pre-homework and come to class with a stripped down chair and already made welting. That way while the rest of the class was prying out their first 23498273048 staples I could monopolize the teacher's time and get my chair underway. I spent most of the day Wendesday down in the basement prying and ripping and pulling and sneezing at all of the stuffing dust.

naked chair!

giving the legs a few rubs of danish wood oil

To make the welting I finally used a technique that I'd read about many times. Starting with a square, you cut and sew, then draft the lines for your strips, then sew one more time. You've got a bit of a moebius strip then and can continuously cut out your length. The seams are already done for you, which is very nice. Then I sewed and sewed and sewed and ended up with my 20 yards of welting.

the big lump of fabric

which, under Henry's careful supervision,

becomes strips

and then welting

As I was looping it into a bundle, the fabric store called and my class has been cancelled for lack of participation. I've been moved to mid-February. Ah well. I'm not entirely happy, but at least all of the pre-work is done. Now it will just sit in the basement a little longer.

---------------
Eggs laid in the coop today: 2
Eggs laid this year: 59

Resumed

sunny mornings like today, I will not forget you when you are gone for the season!

Much of my before-zombies life has resumed. This week I worked on some sewing projects for my favorite one-and-a-few-weeks-year-old, Maya. The first was an idea that came to me while she was crawling around in the mulch of my yard while Mona and I were putting out measuring stakes for the garden. Maya was having a grand old time but the ground was quite damp from rains and the mulch stuck to her clothes like crazy. Why not have an outfit that you can just pull over whatever clothes a kid is wearing, point them towards the nearest mess to play in, and then peel it off when they're done with no harm done to clothes underneath?
I have a pattern for overalls that I made for Calliope last year (her dragon pants) and I used some mostly-waterproof backed nylon fabric. It is thin and smooth and supple, but definitely creates a moisture barrier. It's the same stuff that is used to make some cloth diaper covers. Mona bought red and black, and I experimented with the red first. It turned out well. Maya tried it out as a full-body bib while eating some excellent eggs.

you can faintly see the red-bandanna-patterned fabric I used to line the top

Second project: overdue birthday present. Quite a few birthdays got overrun by zombies and Maya's was one of them. I used a great poncho pattern from Knitting Pure & Simple (scroll down for poncho #243) again, tried out on Calliope first last year. It's a quick knit, about three evening's worth. I intentionally used acrylic yarn so that it can be washed intensively. There is a time for gorgeous virgin wool, and there is a time for acrylic.

pom poms being vigorously shaken!

Speaking of gardens, the plots have been staked out and I'll buy the wood sometime this week. I took a picture from the back deck so you can see where they are in relation to the fire pit. Keep in mind that each plot is 10feet x 4feet. It's a little hard to get scale from these pictures.

front plot for greens, back left for tomatoes, back right for who knows what!

those brown mounds are from me trimming down the dead ferns and brambles; must compost

---------------
Eggs laid in the coop Friday: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Thursday: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Wednesday: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Tuesday: 3
Eggs laid this year: 239

twirl

I came home this afternoon to a phone message from my sister requesting a super-twirl skirt. It is a credit to my sister's fun-loving and fancy free nature that I first started computing in my head to see if I had enough fabric to make her a super twirly skirt.

Then I realized it was for Calliope. I've had fun over the years making her clothes that are sometimes practical and sometimes more like dress-up. It seems that lately she has been preferring the items that have the best twirl. I know exactly what she means. When Gabe and I were young we used to do the same thing. Put on a skirt, whirl around, and then judge it on movement. There was one pleated skirt (or was it a dress?) that did this crazy thing where it belled out horizontally and then fell straight down. While you turned around fast you looked like you were wearing a tall wedding cake.

Calliope twirling in the petticoat of a red riding hood costume I made her last year

Sewing experience tells me that the more volume the better. I headed downstairs and pulled out a big piece of lilac calico that I hadn't known what to do with and some plain white. I figured I would intersperse some straight panels with some triangular pieces. Sort of a bastardization of a dirndl skirt and a flamenco style. Along the way I kissed my serger for providing me with a three-thread rolled stitch which meant that I could connect the fabric decoratively and have no seams to worry about having to hide. It also made for a weightless hem, important when you are looking for swishy volume.

twirly back

twirly front

I piled a lot of fabric onto the waistband and gave it two ties. Since it's more dress-up than super functional, I'm assuming that it will likely be worn over pants or tights. No fussy zippers or buttons here. And just in case the twirl isn't enough I threw together two gypsy wristbands with bells. A girl should have her own musical accompaniment (and Gabe, I promise the bells are not too annoying!).


This will go in the mail tomorrow....and I demand pictures of it in action! I'm kind of breaking my rules by showing pictures before it's been received, but since it was specifically requested I'm not ruining a total surprise.

---------------
Eggs laid in the coop today: 5
Eggs laid this year: 123

Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

My spooky sewing project? Well, Wednesday was our fourth wedding anniversary. I think that the traditional gift is fruit, which just wasn't very exciting. A basket full of peaches is not very romantic.

What is romantic? Being in bed! Being in a big comfy bed with soft sheets and sleeping for eight hours. Charlie has been working a lot lately trying to get a product shipped, and sleep has been at a premium. So I decided to make him a pillowcase and a sham.

Besides work and sleep, right now Charlie likes Cthulhu. We've both been reading the Lovecraft short stories and also playing a rather involved board game that is set in the universe. Cthulhu, in short, is a huge tentacled horror of a god, lurking and waiting until it is his time to come wreak havoc upon the world. He hovers on the edge of dreams, occasionally gifting sensitive people with glimpses into his realm. They pretty much always go mad. It's dark stuff. It's wonderful, creative, spooky, creepy dark stuff. And Charlie loves it.

I went to my favorite quilting fabric store, one that has a stunning array of cotton prints, and tried to pick out a handful of fabrics that looked like parallel universes of utter insanity. Then I cut them up into strips and made a few long swaths and turned those into the borders of the cases. Tucked up next to them is a thin strip of black-night-and-stars, the border between dreamtime and madness.

innocently lying on the deck

Perhaps I got carried away. But part of the glory of being married to someone for this long is that you know that they understand exactly what you were thinking and can appreciate it. Not everyone can say "Happy anniversary, love, here are your pillowcases for sweet dreams. See that strip of stars? It is the only thing lying between you and the unmitigated horror of these other universes. I especially like the one that looks like tentacles or eyeballs, whatever you pick."

---------------

Eggs laid in the coop today: 5
Eggs laid this year: 110

Miscellaney

I am patiently waiting for my mouth to un-numb. I spent the morning at the dentist getting some old fillings replaced, and he had to shoot me up a few extra times with anesthetic. Thankfully no one can see me drooling.

---------------

how to tell we're having a party: mountain of shoes

On Saturday we hosted a baby shower for friends. I didn't manage to get any pictures of the actual festivities, but it was a rollicking afternoon of kids playing in the chicken coop, adults drinking "punch", and everyone eating lots of good pot-lucked food. Elisa planned the whole thing....I just provided the house. Easiest party I've ever thrown!

Ido and Elisa fully explore some toys

---------------

I solved my smocking problem. I knew that my bobbin case had a tension you could fiddle with, but I'd been told to never ever mess with it from the factory settings if they are working. Having a spare bobbin case let me play around with the adjustment without fear and it worked! The outfit is going in the mail tomorrow, and if it fits and is comfortable a whole new world of smocking awaits me.

smocking success!

---------------

Eggs laid in the coop today: 5
Eggs laid in the coop Monday: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Sunday: 3
Eggs laid in the coop Saturday: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Friday: 4
Eggs laid this year: 70