A Little Yarn On The Side

Last night I finished up the buttonholes on Andy's belated shirt, and today added the buttons.  I've been hurting more this weekend, so I've been mostly on the heating pad, but with a little help from muscle relaxers today, I've been able to be up and about.  They're maybe not exactly great for one's sewing, since the first thing I did was to attach the pocket flap with the Velcro side UP but things got a bit better as I went along and the pants are now done and the whole thing is in the washing machine as I write this.  The whole thing used up 4 yards from the stash, so I'm just under 36 yards of fabric for the year.  To get to 200 yards, I should be at 50 yards by the end of the month, so I'm laying out one of the other fabrics treated with stiffener, and my helper and I are cutting out another tunic--this time in a bit nicer fabric.  To be honest, I love this fabric, and I did debate whether a tunic was good enough for it, but I've n...

Today I received an email offering a cotton-scented candle free with the purchase of cotton yarn. So, YES, there IS a perfectly normal explanation for why I am sniffing cotton yarn this morning..... I don't smell anything--maybe this is why I don't own too much cotton yarn.

I didn't sew at all yesterday, but I did remember it was Me Made Monday, so I wore one of my favorite sweaters  in an effort to remind myself that there are often about 10 days in the entire year when cotton sweaters actually fit the temperature because the catalogs are coming.  There is no bigger pain than trying to splice cotton or weave in cotton ends, but every spring those bright colors of cotton trying to suck me in with their promises of bright colors at 12-year-old models frolicking on the beach.  Thank heavens, there is cotton fabric.  Theo has rediscovered the joys of sewing, and has become quite a determined sidekick, which has slowed down progress--as if I needed any help with that. The pants I'm making have a drawstring, which I usually don't actually make as turning long, skinny tubes of fabric inside out ranks just after frogging mohair on my list of Activities to Make One Drink, but thanks to Nancy Zieman, I  now own a set of these: ...

It's now 70 days since I last bought fabric.  I have lost count of the number of catalogs and fliers I've received, but I'm obviously loved by a LOT of vendors--all of which are betting on my buying fabric before the end of the year.  It's a safe bet as I've never yet done it, but I am really, really trying.  And going through my shelves and finding fabric I have completely forgotten, it IS sort of like getting a lot of new fabric anyway.  Lots and lots and LOTS of new fabric............ It took a while to get the next sewing project underway as Theo has rediscovered the joys of sewing--or the joys of preventing sewing.  Luckily, yesterday was briefly nice enough to open the sewing room window, which is his favorite spot in the whole house.  With two cats in the house, I've learned to pin and cut REALLY quickly.  Call it a crafting survival skill.  Everything is cut, marked (which takes forever with these particular shirt and pants patter...

The dress is almost done: So close, in fact, that I have decided I can count the yardage but not the finished object yet.   The only thing missing is the zipper, which I did insert, and then hated how it looked so ripped it right back out.  I've never been really happy with the way zippers look on things I've made, so I have decided that it is time to try the couture method:  put the blasted thing in by hand .  It HAS to look better, and considering the time I've already spent on this, I don't think it's going to be much slower.  I have started it, so I'm not too worried about it getting set aside in Project Never-Never Land, so I feel okay adding the 2.375 yards to my tally.  That left me with sewing time but nothing else in progress, so I decided to try out that kimono pattern with what was left of the dragon-print fabric.  It's really poor fabric, and the remaining yard has flaws like this:  which are REALLY obvious in person, s...

With an extra day in February, I was hoping for one more finished project, but it didn't happen.  I got a little pinning and ironing done on both current sewing projects, but my hip was REALLY bad yesterday, so the rest of the time my little sidekick and I rested.  I have these days pretty rarely now, which is very nice, although never would be great, too.  I did remember Me Made Monday, and dug out this I made it in 2009, I think, and the fabric just had a bit too much body for the pattern, and some of my stitching in the darts is actually coming out.  I wanted to see if it was worth repairing the darts, and it isn't.  Some projects just aren't fixable.  I think I actually have more than 52 handmade items to be worn, so when we went to the Idaho Artistry in Wood show on Sunday,  I wore a new finished project: It's a keyhole scarf that I made last January and finally blocked this year.  I love this pattern.  It's so nic...

So while I did manage to finally get a picture of the finished tunic, and discovered that the neck opening is slightly crooked, there are no other finished projects yet.  My hip was finally feeling really good yesterday, so I cleaned the laundry room and we ran some errands.  I also took some time to regain more of my sewing table: There's still a small pile of stuff to deal with at the very end, but I have a LOT more working room than I did, and tools are back where they belong.  Then, while it was cleaned off and kitty-free, I cut the fat quarters   into strips before I could change my mind and decide they weren't exactly what I wanted.  Do you ever do that?  I bought these for no purpose, I want to try bargello quilting, but I was in serious danger of putting them away and not using them because they might not be quite right.  I find myself doing that a lot.  The black and white dress I recently finished fell victim to that as well....