Day 21 - Spring Has Arrived

Our weather has been mostly unpredictable (snow, rain, hot, cold) for a couple months, but the last few days have definitely been "spring." And in spring, a "younger" woman's thoughts turn lightly to yellow cotton sundresses.

There is something distinctly "spring" about certain shades of yellow, and all week I have been longing for a trip to Joann Fabrics to find a bright springy-yellow cotton print to make a summer dress. Do I have enough cotton fabric already to make at least 10 summer dresses? Yes. Does yellow make my little Norwegian self look like a large walking banana? Yes. Does any of that matter? Not in the slightest.

The addictive property of fabric is in its potential. The dress I could make, the jacket it could become, the suit I envision--the image is always much better than the Garment of Reality, which usually involves some editing, trimming, and lots of swearing. But in the fabric store, EVERYTHING is possible. I could look good in yellow. That gathered skirt really wouldn't make my hips look huge. Microsuede pants really won't make that corduroy "whooshing" sound with each step. In spite of all previous evidence to the contrary, attempting a full-size quilt really won't make me want to slit my wrists. Everything is possible.

Since the possibilities are always better than the reality (and take far, far less time), I can sit here and admire a closet full of fabric and yarn just waiting to be used. And all I can think about is buying more. A lovely, springy-yellow.......

It might be time

I admit, the sewing room has lately achieved a level of chaos that can only be described as "extreme crafting." When the cats join me for an evening, they can only be located by the jingle of cat bells. I have kept saying, "I just need to finish one more project, then I'll tidy up," and "Just let me finish this one," but I assure you I have had the best of intentions. Tonight I just finished up a birthday gift (5 days early, mind you), and was just starting to work on another birthday gift (2 1/2 months late, but it's wrong to fixate on these things), when I somehow knocked a pair of heavy scissors, which were obviously not where they are supposed to be, off a table and.....WHAM!

When the sewing room decides to strike back, it's probably time to clean--as soon as I'm done icing my foot....

Astounding Myself With My Own Cleverness

Well, Christmas has come and gone and Andy did receive half of his pajamas:
(Amazingly, he considers posing in them for a picture for the blog to be WELL outside of our marital vows--he mentioned something about "human Ken doll" before fleeing the room....)

The missing material is for the sleeves for the shirt, and now I am not only unable to find the material in any stores, it turns out I am unable to locate where I hid the shirt in progress.

Because I made them in November, I wanted to hide them somewhere Andy would never find them. Well, it worked. Even after a rather exhaustive search of the house, we can't find the shirt. Luckily, for some reason known only to myself at the time, I did not hide the pants in the same location, so we have those. We're hoping to find the shirt sometime before NEXT winter at least.

Some days I amaze even myself, but not often in a good way.

Day 6

Today's lesson, boys and girls, is about reading directions. Without reading directions, one might buy fabric for a Christmas gift for one's husband, not realizing one is 3/8 of a yard short until AFTER the no-new-purchases ban has begun. Tomorrow's discussion will be on whether or not yards of unsewn fabric qualify as a gift to a non-sewer.

Two Hours = 1 Seam

Yesterday I had a lovely 2-hours stretch of free time, so with that "I'm about to finish a project" thrill (which doesn't exactly rival the thrill of starting a new project, but it's light years ahead of the "I'm slogging through a project with no conceivable end in sight" doldrums), I locked myself in the sewing room with the almost-completed fleece jacket which would be quite handy right about now and which I ridiculously thought I might wear to work today.

2 hours later, I was one seam ahead of where I started out.

Step one: sew the sleeve hem in place, using a knit-friendly, ripping-out-hostile jagged seam, only to notice seconds later than I misread the directions and must rip out BOTH sleeve hems.

Step two: rip holes in fleece with seam ripper. Spend 20 minutes fixing holes with fabric glue & tweezers.

Step three: pin the sleeves correctly, sew hem. Sew cool decorative stitch using embroidery thread as described in the newest sewing book acquisition.

Step four: rip out decorative stitch that looks nothing like the pictures in the newest sewing book acquisition, and looks like embroidery done by a drug addict.

Step five: Still unwilling to do the suggested blanket stitch by hand, experiment with decorative threads in the serger, feeling VERY proud to have remembered to disengage the knives.

Step six: serge the edges

Step seven: rip out the serged edging, as it looks stupid and uneven.

Step eight: Admit that, for the day, the only thing I can successfully work in the sewing room is the CD player. Go get a nice, simple sock to knit.