Welcome to My World

The Itsy Bitsy Spider.......

2010-10-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

For a couple of years, I have wanted to make Halloween outfits for my dolls. Again this year, I just didn't seem to have the time. But then......

A contest emerged at work. Co-workers had already passed out spider web stuff a couple of weeks ago. I went crazy with it. Actually, I couldn't leave it alone. I sat at my desk fiddling with it all day. It now covers most of my desk, my phone and my monitor. Next, I decided I needed some spiders. Off to the 99 Cent Store. They has some great spiders. I bought pink spiders, silver glitter spiders and black flocked spiders. I was really enjoying my desk.

Then came the challenge, a Best Decorated Desk Contest, to be judged on Halloween. Well, there you have it! I set out last night to make my 18" Ann Estelle a spider costume. I am pretty darn happy with it. I drafted the pattern myself, which I am proud of. I made the entire outfit from scraps. I can't wait to take her to work on Saturday.

It Takes Courage

2010-08-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

"What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!"

..........The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

What makes a sewist put buttonholes in a garment? Courage! Especially when she hasn't done so for 30 years. Today I finished up a vest I started last weekend for S. I used to have a mantra, "No zippers, no buttons, no tears. No zippers, no buttons, no tears. " Well, last Christmas I made Christmas dresses for S and T........zippers. After all going well, I went on to put zippers in the flower girl dresses for S,T and A to wear in Heidi and Dan's wedding.

I skirted the buttonhole issue with a no-button vest for S last year. When I picked up a great piece of music-themed 100% cotton Robert Kaufman at JoAnn's, S knew she wanted a vest. She headed to her pattern box, pulled out New Look # 6914 and pointed to view C........not only a lapel collar, but buttonholes. I drew a deep breath and knew I could tackle this.

In the end, all went well. She wore it to town today and before she even got to the car, a neighbor told her she liked her vest! Good enough for me!

Challenges and new things I did on this pattern.

1) I removed the princess lines in the front and back. I really didn't want to chop up the fabric's print.

2) Had to do some adjustments in the bust. This is a Miss pattern. Skylar is on the top side of Girl patterns and can also wear Miss, if I remove the bust allowance. Because she was at school when I started it, I didn't do much fitting. I see know I needed to fold out some of the fullness at the armhole.

3) First time I've pre-shrunk my fusible interfacing. Never thought about it before. Thank you, Brook.

4) I am also pre-shrinking my fabric three times before sewing. Thank you, Margaret. Some ladies just purchase some darling 100% cotton knits. In the first wash, they shrunk 30%.WOW! Can you inagine the disapointmnet of sewing something darling for a gift, only to have it ruined in the first wash? I am committed to always pre-shrink three times. Margaret does a more scientific method. She measures her fabric, washes it, then measures again. She repeats this until she has all the shrinkage out. I am not that patient. Three times through the washer and dryer...it is what it is......I start sewing.

2010-08-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I last blogged. Guess I lost my enthusiasm after the Christmas rush. My favorite sewing pattern magazine, Ottobre, has a contest going and it has encouraged me to get back to blogging.

All the patterns I sewed up last fall/winter were from Ottobre. They have a truly marvelous selection at a wonderful price. I love them and wish I could sew even more of them. My job keeps getting in the way. Mind you, I am thankful to have such a wonderful job right now, but I do love sewing more.

Check out http://ottobredesign.blogspot.com/ . Order an issue or two. I promise you won't be disappointed. For an added inspiration to visit their sight, I'm posting the cover of the newest Women's Magazine. Click the link above to see all the wonderful ways to wear this shawl. Maybe this is the beginning of a "units" line, similar to that of the 70s? Whoo weeeee.

Sad to see the tree go...........

2010-01-04T11:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone........it was great. The new year, the new decade, has begun. Today I was remind of my Valentine Tree, from years ago. I had mentioned it a while ago and decided today is the day to tell you about it.......

After Christmas, I couldn't bare to take the tree and all its beautiful lights down. I had so enjoyed getting up extra early, pouring myself a cup of coffee and spending an hour by the tree relaxing before getting into another hectic day . Whether I daydreamed, read, planned my day or my life, it didn't matter. It help me immensley, one blustery winter.

One morning, mid-January, while I was musing beside my tree, an idea hit me. I would turn the Christmas Tree into a Valentine Tree! I raided my craft and sewing stashes. I did a little shopping. When I returned home, I told the kids my idea.

Anything which didn't pertain to Valentine's Day was carefully wrapped and put away. The lights, tinsel, red and pink ornaments, artificial candy ornaments and heart-shaped ornaments were all that were left when we finished. Now, we added red and pink paper doilies, yards and yards of pink and red ribbon, lace ribbon and more Valentine goodies. It looked delightful! Very Victorian!

Throughout the next month, the kids made paper snowflakes and Valentines for the tree. When it was time to make our annual (which has never become annual) Lebkuchenherzen, we hung those on the tree, too.

I spent six more weeks enjoying coffee, in the peace of twinkling lights. All-in-all, it was a beautiful tree. Although, I did hear whisperings mentioning locking me up if the tree became a St Patrick's Day Tree!

Mom's Birthday

2009-12-23T20:47:00.001-08:00

While adding a picture to my birthday post, made me think of the picture I have of Mom on her 80th birthday, last October. I love this picture. Thought I would share it with the world...LOL.

And sew it goes.......

2009-12-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

I have come down with a bug. I hate being sick during the Christmas season. It seems to take the enjoyment out of everything.

I did get quite a bit of sewing done today, in spite of feeling miserable. I finished off three PJ tops, and made a denim skirt for S. I've never made a jeans-style skirt. It was challenging. I had a couple of moments when I had to move away and think about it, but in the end, it looks darn nice! It will be so nice with the zebra-print and the leopard-print hoodies I made for her last week. I'm sure she will like these a lot.

Tomorrow will be PJ day. I finished Matthew's chameleon PJs yesterday. I have now managed to get Robert, Heidi and Erik to try them on. From there I made notes on adjusting the pattern for each of them. I still need to make the guys PJ shirts, my PJ top and bottoms and Heidi's PJ shamrock set. I love the shirts. The fabric is a deep red, deeper than a Christmas red. It has a wonderful hand. Then I have appliqued a penguin on the front. Adding the googlie eyes made them come to life. They are so cute! Robert liked them enough to think a penguin on the guy's shirts was ok.......hurray!

Plan for tomorrow:

4 PJ tops-three w/ appliques
5 PJ bottoms
1 bed jacket

I better hit the hay!

My 60th Birthday.......

2009-12-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

It is strange. As many with other birthdays, I feel no different today than last year. My mother used to ask, "Do you feel a year older?" I never do. I always feel younger than I am. I don't worry much about age. The most memorable thing about this last ten years is it was much easier than my previous 50.

When I turned 50, I had the feeling, "I had made it." I had many turbulent years during my first 50. I was proud of myself for living through it. Surviving with a certain amount of sanity. I was happy to be 50.

Now at 60, I have peace. The last 10 have been relatively good years. There have been changes, challenges and moments of chagrin. That will always be. Life changes, life is hard and I respond, at times, in ways which, later, embarrass me. But peace and joy cometh.......

Peace knowing I can face the challenges of life
Joy knowing my children and grandchildren love me
Peace in restored relationships
Joy in a wonderful new job
Peace in my relationship with Robert
Joy in the small things all around me
Peace in my relationship with God

Yes, 60 and life is good.........

Going SEW slow!

2009-12-17T07:16:00.001-08:00

Sewing has really slowed down this week. Heidi came home from Cambodia a week ago. I've been working lots of overtime and the Christmas tree..........

We were all going to put it up last Sunday. I was going to make clam chowder and we would trim the tree. Those were the plans. The reality was, once we thought about out large fake tree our enthusiasm waned.

We have had fake trees since 1982. Mostly, it was an economic choice. But, also, as a newly single mom of a five year old and two year old, muscling a tree into a car, dragging it up the stairs to the house, getting it into the tree stand and then dropping needles all through the house, as I removed it after Christmas, wasn't my idea of fun. Add to this the fact that I like to keep the tree up forever (hmmmm, may blog about my Valentine tree sometime), an artificial tree made sense to me.

Our tradition has been to set the tree up on Thanksgiving. This year, it didn't happen and we were looking at the tree on December 13 attempting to make a plan. No one was excited about getting the lights on the tree. Eight or so years ago, I invested in a pre-lit tree. It worked well for five years. By last year, most of the strings had burnt out. We through some new strands on and went on decorating. Some of those bit the dust during the season. I grumbled as I put the tree away.

So you see, it was easy to weaken to the traditional begging for a REAL tree. I succumbed. Robert, S and I went looking. We found a nice 6-footer for $29.00. Home it went. We stopped off to buy LED lights for the tree. When we all got back home again (Heidi and Erik had run to storage to get Heidi's stuff.), we discovered the tree stand I had was an electric stand, for my revolving fake tree. We decided we would try it again Monday night. We ordered pizza, watched a movie and went to bed.

Monday , Heidi and Erik made the clam chowder before I got home from work. Yippeee!!! It is a favorite comfort food for a cold and rainy night. Robert found a tree stand, after running to five stores. Everyone was out!!! He bought the last one at Orchard Supply Hardware. After dinner, Erik and Robert got the tree into the stand. We started to put the lights on the tree, only to discover half of the boxes had yellow-white lights. The other half had blue-white.

By Wednesday night, we finally have the tree up. Everyone participated in the decorating, which has been a struggle in the past. It looks fabulous! Needless to say, I got no sewing done, but I am back at it today. I have nine days off work, so I should get everything completed. I hope :o}

Checking It Twice...........

2009-12-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

While having a quick cup of coffee to rev up my sewing engine, I thought I'd post my Christmas/birthday sewing list:

STARTED
FINISHED
DROPPED :o{

Complete by 12/17

A-Christmas dress-Mailed

A-Christmas jacket-Mailed

A-Matching Christmas outfit for doll

A-Chameleon jacket-Mailed

A-Chameleon shirt-Mailed

A-Pants to go w/above outfit-Mailed

A-maybe a skirt to go w/above outfit

M-Chameleon PJ bottoms

C-Chameleon purse

A- Christmas PJ top

A- Christmas PJ bottoms

A-maybe matching PJs for doll

S-Leopard print hoodie

S-Zebra print hoodie

S-Black denim skirt

Finish by 12/11

Susan-Christmas PJ bottoms

Susan-Christmas PJ top

Robert-Christmas PJ bottoms

Robert -Christmas PJ top

Heidi-Christmas PJ bottoms

Heidi-Christmas PJ top

Erik-Christmas PJ bottoms

Erik Christmas PJ top

S-Christmas PJ bottoms

S-Christmas PJ top

T-Christmas PJ bottoms

T-Christmas PJ top

S-maybe matching PJs for doll

T-maybe matching PJs for doll

Heidi-Shamrock PJ top

Heidi-Shamrock PJ bottoms

Heidi-Shamrock "bed jacket"-not enough fabric

Finish by 12/24

S-Christmas Dress

S-Christmas jacket

S-Matching Christmas dress for doll

T-Christmas Dress

T-Christmas Jacket

I will be updating this list, as I am sewing. The goal is for the list to go from black to green to red. Hopefully, it will be all red a few days before Christmas.

In the beginning...........

2009-12-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking of starting a blog for a while. Suddenly this morning, I have decided to jump in. Why today? I'm not sure. Not like I don't have plenty to do.

A month ago, I wrote up a list and started my Christmas/birthday sewing. Now, you have to understand. In my family, we have eight birthdays between October 11 and January 10. It is a lot of fun, but does call for some planning, too. There are 38 items on that list. I dug out a calendar and went as far as scheduling my sewing. Because I have three days a week off from work, I felt confident I could have everything done the week before Christmas. Well, that was the plan BEFORE the freezing weather hit California.

We have been offered lots of overtime during this cold weather. This is a good thing......always nice to have extra money this time of year. Yet, it has left my sewing out in the cold (Sorry. Had to say it.) So today, I have to sew, sew sew. Instead of the planned of three days sewing this week, I have one. So, what do I do? I decide to start a blog. So typical. Well, I told myself I could work on it until it is time to take S, my oldest granddaughter to school.

The time has arrived.........off we go........I'll be back when I am ready for a break.