February 2007 Archives

I've been having a lot of fun with the sewing machine. The knitting bag is almost done - I just need to put in the straps, attach the bottom, and punch holes in for the drawstring and then I can call it done. Before the middle of the week, hopefully. And I took advantage of JoAnn Fabrics Presidential Day Sale. Simplicity patterns, 5 for $5. What a deal, especially when these usually cost $15 dollars or so. I took the opportunity to pick up a bunch of Civil War dress and underwear patterns. I've always been in love with the dresses worn back during the 1860s, especially since my female ancestors likely didn't get to wear what their fashionable mistresses wore.

I picked two sizes of each pattern, since I wasn't sure about the measurements - are these measurements with or without corsets? I know some women won't wear corsets but I like to be as historically accurate as possible, and this line are as close to being accurate as I can determine. I also got a simple jumper pattern (5917), and "Buckets Gone Wild" (3892). I also picked up two Butterick patterns, one for a knitting bag and needle cases (5006) and one for sewing accessories (4521). Unfortunately, Sewing Accessory Organizers (4476) was out of stock at the store I went to. I'll have to see if I can find it at other locations or at G Street Fabrics.

Been doing a lot of thinking, and have decided that I want to get the guest bedroom rearranged so that it gets more use than is currently being used. Right now there's a queen size bed that is being used as a dumping ground, since we rarely have guests. I'd like to get rid of that and put in a futon counch that could be pulled out as a bed when we have guests. Move the armoire into our bedroom, put a sewing table or cabinet into the guest bedroom. I'd like to get this reorganizing done before May since I may have a guest for MDSWF.

And speaking of MDSWF, I'm going to play around with an idea I have and see how it works out so I can stock up my etsy shop to get some spending money . . .

I hesitate to call this my sewing room since it's a temporary location - it's too cold in the rec room right now (cheap sliding door lets in the cold plus there's no heavy curtain to keep the cold air contained). Tory, a net buddy, wanted to know if I had pictures of my setup so I'm putting this together for her to check out.

Bernette 60 is sitting on the pull-out keyboard shelf of the desk which hubby had built years ago and which he doesn't use anymore. I had to put the machine there because the knee room below is not deep enough (see that shelf with the old Mac computer). You can see that fanny pack project sitting to the left of the machine. I'm working through the steps that I can understand (some of the directions are not quite clear, plus there are some techniques such as gathering that I need to have explained to me by the sewing teacher).

To keep my stuff more organized, I bought that fishing bait box from WalMart. Very cheap for just 15 dollars. There's the sewing machine needles and some pins on the left (I have a little box full of pins out somewhere else - really must find it and put it back here), and on the left I have a seam stitch gauge with a partly-melted plastic slider (I ran the iron over it before I realized what I'd done) and a seam ripper on the right. As you can see, there's more space for other stuff. In the pull-out drawers, I have a thimble that I found at an antique shop that is just perfect for my small finger. Hard to find thimbles that fit me at the local fabric stores. A pack of sewing needles in different sizes (elsewhere in the office). Tape measurement, and accessories for the machine. Looking forward to filling this up with more footers from G Street Fabric . . .

Here I have space for 3 organizers, and I'm keeping scissors and rotary cutters on the left (be careful with those rotary cutters - these really are sharp and you don't want to be cutting your artery vein open when you're home alone) and other stuff on the right. I tried putting some of my pins in one of the organizers, but the removable slots aren't high enough and the pins just wander elsewhere when I put the organizer back in. Going to have to look for something to put these pins in so these all stay in one place - ideas?

As you all know, the Washington DC Metro area has been under a winter storm watch for the past couple days. First they were promising a nice, fluffy snowfall, but slowly it began to draw on us that it was instead going to end up as a nasty brew of snow, sleet and ice. All of which became too much for this poor tree standing next to the apartment complex that is opposite my townhouse. It was such a beautiful tree, which had lost a branch in one of the summer storms a few years ago. Now the other big limb is gone and here's all that remains of the tree. It'll probably have to be cut down. No more shade for the folks living there, I'm afraid.

Here's another picture that I took from my office in the front of the house. You can see just how thick the ice is. Nobody's going to be getting out of our house today. At least not till the sun comes out and melts all those ice away.

And there's so many things I have to work on. Sorry for my brief absence . . . I've been really busy the past few weeks. Remember that second job interview I had last month? Well, it didn't quite work out. I was disappointed, and relieved at the same time, since I knew it wasn't really a good fit for both of us.

I had an interview earlier this week with a consulting company. I don't know how that one will turn out since the interviewer said he was going to be interviewing other people, and you know there's a good chance of someone else being more qualified than you. Yes, it's really frustrating to go on all those job interviews and not getting a job offer. Especially when Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is just 2 months away.

Meanwhile, I've been busy knitting. I made two caps, as promised, for C's kids and will deliver these Sunday at church. I'm looking forward to taking pictures of them wearing these, and I hope to get permission to post the picture here. And, I'm working on an EZ seamless saddle-shouldered sweater. Remember that Ridgeway Lite sweater that I had to rip out? Well, I decided to use the yarn salvaged from the project for the sweater. Cast on at the beginning of the week, and I now have 10 inches on the body - not bad for mindless stockinette knitting. I'm going to put in a hem and I'll put in my Russian name and year, along with a secret message. These will be knit using the Cyrillic alphabet. My name is simple enough, since most of the letters are the same as in the Latin alphabet, but the secret message will be a bit trickier. I'm looking for a graphed Cyrillic alphabet but haven't been able to find any so far. There's a Dover publication that may have the alphabet, but I'd like to find something online first, if I can (instant gratification, ya know . . . ).

Meanwhile, I've been working on my sewing. I found this Simplicity pattern - S4542. All these items are designed for the knitters - a tote with needle roll, backpack, fanny pack, bag, and yarn caddy. Here's the fabric that I chose for the fanny pack and yarn caddy. I found the paisley fabric in the store room at the recreation center where I'm taking the class. I have the pieces all cut out for the fanny pack. There's one item which I can't seem to find at the local fabric stores, even G Street Fabrics - 1/8" piping. It seems that they think everyone wants to use 1/2" piping, even for small items. This is mildly irritating, of course. I did get the larger piping, but I'm still not happy. And it's a good thing I have quite a bit of the paisley fabric, because I had a brain fart and got confused on what I was going to use for the main and contrast fabrics. I also cut one piece lying the wrong side. Oops.

Here's another view of the pattern. I really like the tote, but I'm going to have to figure out how I'm going to redo the needle roll since I use circular needles. And I got the corduroy fabrics for a great price at JoAnn's - they're clearing out the winter fabrics. I'm going to use this for the backpack.

I found this really cool McCall pattern - M5283. The tote pictured on the top is just what I've wanted but couldn't find. Lots of pockets inside, and plenty of room for projects. G Street Fabrics has a lot of home decorating fabric remnants for a great price and I was able to find a lovely piect. I wanted tapestry with lots of roses but couldn't find one. So I went with a geometrical fabric where the main color is dark blue/blue purple. I like my totes to be of a dark color so that these don't show dirt too easily.

Of course, I need new clothes, but I can't find anything I really like at the stores. So, got to make my own. Here's some corduroy that I got at JoAnn's in the clearance section. And here's the pattern that I'll be using. The shape will be like the green one pictured on the bottom left corner. I'm hoping to get this cut out this weekend, and it shouldn't take me too long to sew together - hopefully. Need to work on getting my sewing straight and even.

Sewing class is coming along okay, but it's getting a bit frustrating when the teacher doesn't understand what I'm trying to say, because she's not used to my speech pattern and I sometimes have a hard time expressing my thoughts when I get frustrated. Someday I'll take classes at G Street Fabrics. They do have individualized classes (for a price, of course). There's a session being offered for spring where you get your body measured - I'm thinking about signing up for that. It will be nice to have my body measurements taken by someone who has a lot of sewing experience.

If you're a fan of "24" but sometimes cringe at moments where Jack is grilling the hardened suspect about the location of the nuclear bomb due to go off in 30 minutes, here's the Episode Guide where you can keep up on what is happening, minute by minute.