A Little Yarn On The Side

I view it as a personal victory that I have even been able to make headway on the April project of the month, since I've had more than my share of "help"  They're obviously taking it in turns to "assist" me.  Actually I shouldn't complain.  Andy is out of town on business right now, and they have taken it upon themselves to entertain/protect/instruct/snuggle me--mostly at 3:00 AM.  A little sewing help is a small thing compared to trying to convince two cats that it is NOT in my best interests to have anyone sleeping on my head.  Even with the obvious case of insomnia, the floral jacket is now 99% complete, and has just been hanging a bit before doing the final top-stitching and the 4 front buttonholes, and I even have buttons that I think will work nicely:  They are some extremely pointless buttons I bought some time ago before realizing that the silly things are dry clean only, but since this fabric is dry-clean only as well, I thought they were...

While I really, really wanted to spend Finishing Friday working on the tapestry jacket or the new quilt, it occurred to me that doing strange projects like "Project of the Month" bags might be far easier and even less stressful if I stopped waiting until the very last minute to finish them. (Go figure).  So, most of Friday and the better part of today has been spent madly sewing, and ta-da!  A dress which is not overly well done, has huge problems where the trim and the zipper coincide, and won't be able to be worn for at least another 3 months without hypothermia.  But a Finished Project is a finished project.  I decided to go with the pink trim for the well-thought out reason that I simply couldn't find anything else.  I did have a little lavender ribbon-type yarn that matched better in color but it was too thin and I thought might look slightly anemic.   And I decided that even if the results weren't perfect, I've never sewn on trim before, so...

Sometimes even the most crazed of us have to accept defeat.  Though, in my defense, I must say that had I not gotten sick on Monday, this might have truly been finished in February.  I did at least finish this just under the wire, so I do at least have something to show for myself this week.  (Besides lots of napping with Theo). Yesterday I did pick a new Project of the Month bag to find this: which involves some of the oldest fabric in my stash and fabric that I fear might not be of the best quality.  Just as most knitters I have known had to start with cheap yarn before they could appreciate why one would buy expensive yarn, I had to start with cheap fabric before getting this concept in sewing.  So, I am not sure how well this will turn out, but I am going to wash the mystery fabric today and if the dress falls apart after one wearing, we'll call it a "muslin" and celebrate the fact that I have used up 3 yards of old fabric stash.  And hopefully if...

It's 9:30 AM on the last day of the month and it's possible that the February Project of the Month could be finished tonight.  I woke up early today and got the yoke facing and one sleeve attached, and I hope to be able to get back to sewing fairly early tonight. There are cuff facings, but nothing too hideous and only two buttonholes to be made, so there's hope! Saturday I dropped Jeeves off at the repair shop, then yesterday I finished this: The fact that my "Mark-Be-Gone" marker hasn't "be gone" yet makes me a bit nervous as the other pen disappears in less than 24 hours, but maybe this one disappears with washing?  I made the embroidery stitch a bit heavier by using 3 embroidery threads.  I wanted it to look slightly cartoon-like.  Not in a silly sense, just in a light-hearted sense.  I'm actually rather proud of myself for doing this, as I'm not good at drawing, I haven't actually embroidered anything since I was a child and...

..and there are BAD Finishing Fridays.  Let's see if we can guess which one this one was. I jumped out of bed bright and early because I had an entire day of sewing ahead of me.  It turns out that one can actually jump into sewing just a bit too early on a Friday.  This is what can happen when one changes a needle before having coffee. Seriously--the needle (still threaded) just fell out.  Oops.  Today is February 25 and the February Project of the Month, had progressed no farther than washing of the material.  With 3 days to go, it was time to get cracking! At first I thought I might make the pants as well, but when laid out the material that had started out at 61 inches wide, according to the tag I had attached to it, had shrunk to 51 inches wide after washing.  Apparently when they say "line dry," "no heat fluff" in the dryer still doesn't cut it.  Or, I was having a seriously measurement-challenged day when I wrote up the tag. ...

If you ever get a wild idea to repair a bedspread or comforter, begin by taking a large, heavy object, then beat yourself on the head repeatedly until the urge passes. I am feeling better, but not 100% back to normal, so it seemed like a good day to tackle the bedspread problem.  After all, why ruin a perfectly good day?  I serged the remaining seams, then because I thought it best to reconstruct the thing in the same manner it had been put together (like a pillowcase around the batting), I sewed the edges together, and it was time to figure out how to attach the batting.  Luckily, I had a helper as usual.  Interestingly enough, the batting is several inches too wide in every direction, which had been dealt with by simply folding the batting over.  Okay.  The problem was that the manufacturer also had some sort of spray adhesive that is much more durable and firm than quilter's basting spray--which was no help whatsoever.  So, I decided the biggest ...

After two days of crafting torture, one long-standing sewing WIP is finished: and I hate to have to admit it, but I love how it turned out.  It still needs to be washed, and there is no way I would ever be dumb enough to use microsuede on a shirt like this again, but it turns out that I will NOT be roasting marshmallows over a bonfire featuring this pattern.  However, I shall not confirm nor deny the possibility that Theo wasn't the only one lying flat on the floor when this sucker was finally finished..... It occurred to me yesterday that I really missed picking a project bag every month, so I reached into the bin & was admittedly trying to "cheat" just a bit by grabbing the handles of what I thought was a sewing project, to pull out: which serves me right for cheating, albeit cheating badly.  So....I now have a scarf to finish in 15 days.  This would be a good time for the one-row scarf, so being me, I decided to do something different.  It's a bit ha...

Let's take a minute and refresh everyone's memories, shall we? Remember the ill-fated pajama top incident?  (For a refresher, see here , here , and here )  Remember how I had finally purchased some solid brown coordinating flannel to make a new top, and how I drew that bag for the Project of the Month for September? My trust sidekick and I decided we had better get cracking, so I cut out the back and the facing, then opened the material up to cut out the remaining pieces, only to discover...... I don't have enough material!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Can you believe it????  I think I got this material from Joanns (having not saved the info because I got as much material as the pattern said, so I assumed there was no reason and brown flannel is brown flannel), so I'm hoping to be able to match it and have a swatch stuffed in my purse for when I've calmed down enough to be reasonable and not come home with 14 bolts of the silly stuff.  Obviously, I w...

Not only because we finally have a picture of the socks, but also because I have figured out how to share a picture of the socks from my laptop.  This is very big news, because it means that A) the puppy has not chewed up a second cable, and B) I have figured out the Linux/Ubuntu methods of sharing pictures, which are different than the Windows/Microsoft software programs on my desktop computer.  In all other things, I really have learned to prefer Linux (especially on that money issue), but getting photos onto the blog has been a bit.....problematic.  I have been able to add them sideways or upside down, but tonight's right-side-up achievement is, perhaps, a first.  So....I will also show you the September Project of the Month which is the brown pajama top for Andy's coffee pjs, which wouldn't be quite as necessary now that I've found the missing pajama top.....except for the fact that now I can't find the extra material that I was going to piece together to ma...

So, you might have guessed that I didn't have the greatest holiday weekend.  Surprisingly, the Knitting Gods didn't think a broken "newly repaired" sewing machine & a cold were quite enough.  I ran into a snag on the Baby Reefer Jacket which, to be fair, is completely my own fault, but annoying just the same.  I decided to make the two fronts & back all in one piece, and just divide for the sleeves.  Simple, no?  Actually, no.  It turns out that the sweater is made with drop sleeves, so there I was knitting away, when I finally double checked the pattern and realized that I was going to end up with one great big piece of knitting with no armholes.  AND, there are no schematics for the pattern, so I have no idea how far down the body the sleeve will actually reach, so I decided to break at a reasonable spot for the sleeves and hope for the best.  I can either steek or sew a bit if I'm off, but I'm really hoping it will be the sewing option...