A Little Yarn On The Side

Okay, so new jobs interfere a LOT with sewing.  Who knew? I had the day off today, so along with a three-mile walk, making a LARGE pot of spaghetti sauce for lunches for most of the week, I finished the black jacket: which is actually much darker in real life and covered in cat hair--they DID have a lot of sewing time this week, it seems.  Another 2 and 3/8 yards out of stash, so I'm just short of 48 yards for the year.  The shirt ran into a bit of a snag, so we might need a bit of time apart--which probably works out well since I won't have another day off until Friday. That should give it plenty of time to think about what it has done.

It's the last day of March and I am still at 45 yards....because I started my new job on Tuesday! This has been the wildest thing.  My hip has gotten better, and I had started looking through jobs trying to decide what I could do that would work with my hip.  My background is outside sales and fundraising, which are both long hours and a lot of stress, and I don't think I'd be able to do that.  And not being able to sit for long periods of time rules out many things.  I had just been wondering about retail, when I saw an ad for a music store.  Did I mention that I have 4 guitars, a piano, a keyboard, and a trumpet?  So, it was just 2 weeks ago from tomorrow that I emailed my resume, had 2 interviews last week, and started Tuesday.  There is a lot to learn, and today will be my third day, and I still can't believe someone is going to pay me to talk to people about music all day.  If I could work yarn or fabric into this scenario, I might not even...

The pants are finished except for adding the elastic, which puts me over 45 yards so far for the year, and as my friend, Gaidig, pointed out, I didn't start trying to reach 200 yards until February, so being a little short this quarter is okay. The jacket is just down to attaching the sleeves and the narrow hem around the entire edge of the jacket, so it could still happen as well.  The tank top is pretty simple, and I've attached the facing (which I'd be showing you except black on black on black looks like pretty much nothing) for the neckline, but it's going a bit slower.  But I'll either get one more thing done by the end of the month or have two early projects finished next month. And without solving the question of whether my records are wrong, or if there is also a 6-yard piece of this fabric lurking somewhere in the sewing room.  Let's call it a secondary goal to know what's actually IN my fabric stash, shall we? Yesterday was Me Made Monday, an...

Thursday I did indeed finish the skirt! And for one brief, shining moment, I thought I had found a "freebie."  Last year I finished these pants,  up to the point where they would get elastic for the waist.  Since I was putting elastic in the waistband of the skirt, I put some in the pants as well, and was hoping to get to count the yardage for the pants--but I found I'd already done so.  However, I get to count it as a finished project, though as my goal for the year is 50 finished projects and I'm now at 26 with 3/4 of the year left to go, that's less exciting.  Oh well.  I do have a new skirt and a new pair of pants.  With--or in spite of--Theo's help,  I got the lining for the tank top cut out, sewed the darts and the shoulder seams,  and I am happy to say that I figured out this was not going to work at this point, rather than after sewing the pieces together at the neckline.  This is usually the sort of thing that I do...

I'm trying to always plan a bit ahead with my sewing--leaving something pinned and ready to sew for the next day, having a next project lined up--that sort of thing.  It helps keep my mind off buying MORE fabric, and it's actually really helping with getting more done.  So this morning when I came into the sewing room with my coffee, I could finish another seam while waiting for the computer to boot up.  Maybe I really CAN get to 200 yards this year.  If I can reach 50 yards by the end of the month, I'll be on track.  Sitting too long anywhere makes my hip hurt, so I had to take a break from the sewing machine after attaching 4 of the godets, and Calisto and I decided to talk about the next project.  Theo has obviously been coaching her on her "helping" techniques.  I think this fabric is a black peachskin I bought to make the green outfit in this pattern: I've used this pattern quite a bit--having made all the pieces in a green and black p...

Yesterday I got all the pieces of the skirt cut out and mostly marked, and I think I might have an idea why the pattern was so difficult for me.  Looking at the layout chart. there are 8 identical rectangular strips, and 8 triangular godets, one between each strip.  For reasons known only to the pattern manufacturers, in spite of being absolutely identical and having exactly identical notches, they have chosen to mark them as front and back and side pieces, and without knowing that it doesn't matter in the slightest, I was probably driven half mad trying to keep my backs and fronts separate from my sides.  There is an optional drawstring, which would make "front" a bit important, but as I didn't include it the first time, it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest.  It's just this: over and over and over and over.  I'm not even using the pattern instructions at this point.  For future pattern notes, this gets to be a very boring skirt. Since I ...