Fun Stuff

We've had a really warm spring so far, actually our winter was pretty mild, a huge contrast to the eastern part of the United States. I've been selling a few things at the shop, but so far I'm just paying my rent. I've been working on some spring things, Deb said they're short on tiny girl's stuff.

So I'm making some sun hats:

I started this shawl a couple of years ago, it was intended for working on while sipping my coffee on my Mexican balcony. But it got too big to take so I worked on it sporadically at home. It's a little long, but I wanted to finish the color sequence. It's mine, I think, lol!

This was also a take-along pattern. I got impatient so I finished it. It's a Drops pattern, the patterns are translated from Norwegian and many things are lost in translation. I persisted and figured it out. It's for my gift stash, I couldn't get enough for it to sell in the shop. My niece is pregnant, maybe she'll get it if she has a boy.

Today is a big day, I'm going to start teaching knitting! My first class is toe-up socks. I rewrote a pattern and added child and toddler's sizes, got the pattern copied and I'm ready to go. I hope I can instill a love of knitting in others, it's been something I've loved to do ever since I swiped my mom's books and yarn and taught myself at age 11.

Busy January

I had decided my jobs for the new year were to first get some things ready to take to to the gift shop, then knuckle down and really clean my sewing room. Got the stuff to the shop and now I'm working on that room. I decided if I didn't have storage for something it was going out, so I ruthlessly sorted my fabric.

I ended up with seven, yes seven bags of fabric to give away! It is a mix of scraps and full pieces. I had a huge bag of fleece scraps, our adopted granddaughter took it to the retirement home where she works and they're going to piece lap robes, a cool idea. I advertised in some of the local classified pages on Facebook and it's gradually going away. I'm down to three bags. A big bag of scraps went to the local 4H group for sewing practice. I thought about giving it all to Goodwill, but I knew if I advertised it the fabric would go to people who appreciated it. Someone is coming in the morning to look at the rest, hopefully she'll take it all.

Here's a disgusting before picture. It had been a really long time since I'd done anything.

Here's the same bookcase after sorting. This is my quilt fabric. I also have places for purse fabrics, apparel fabric, knits, fleece and flannel. Rolling it really helps to keep it neater.

This was in Stan's mom's stash. Made in France-I need to make something special out of it. The bad thing about being a sewer is that when people find out you sew, they give you all kinds of fabric and notions. So far I've been too nice to say no, you never know what treasures there might be, but I'm practicing my "no!" as we speak.

Twirly scarves for the gift shop.

Potato baker bags. These are so cool-you wash your potato, wrap it in a paper towel and microwave it in the bag. They turn out delicious! I also brought in a pile of other things, including bowl cozies.

I'm going to shy away from fabric stores for a while, I still have enough down there to keep me busy until I die!

I'm Alive!

My friends were probably wondering what happened to me. Well, I got sick, really sick. Just before we left for Mazatlan I got what I thought were back spasms. Then I developed a cough and it hurt my back to breathe. I went for acupuncture twice and my acupuncturist was concerned when the pain didn't go away, he felt there was something wrong with my heart and lungs. He advised me to go to a Western doctor if I wasn't better after my trip.

Well, I was sick the whole two weeks, finally the Tuesday before we left for home I called a doctor. I figured it was pneumonia and he treated me for that. But I didn't get better, I started getting worse. We had a long flight home that Friday with three layovers, we left at 6:00 A.M. and got home at midnight. I couldn't walk through the airports so I requested wheelchairs.

The next morning, after sleeping sitting up on the couch I got dressed and had Stan drive me to Urgent Care. They flipped out! They took a chest x-ray and started a breathing treatment. When the x-ray was developed the physician's assistant sent me to the hospital, she said my heart was enlarged. She wanted to call an ambulance but I thought it was silly, given that Stan was in the waiting room and I'd survived 18 hours of flying the day before.

After several hours in the ER I was diagnosed with viral pericarditis. The pericardium is a sac around your heart and mine was full of fluid,  my heart was enlarged and my inflammation markers were off the chart. Plus the albuterol from the breathing treatment put me in a fib. I was admitted and spent two hellish days battling with the staff-they didn't care that I was either allergic or sensitive to ask the drugs they gave me. I was sicker when I left the hospital than when I was admitted.

After being discharged I spent the next few weeks sleeping sitting up on the couch. It became obvious that if I didn't want to be sick anymore I'd have to take matters in my own hands, so I started taking colloidal silver. They had told me that the virus in my heart could be any kind-cold, flu, stomach bug-it was in my body and chose to hit my heart. Colloidal silver is a fantastic antiviral and it worked.

I was really sick a total of about 2 1/2 months. Just before my birthday I went for acupuncture and he told me I had really scared him. He did a moxa or mugwort treatment and by Sunday I was almost completely well! Thanksgiving was tough but our great kids came over and did all the cooking and cleanup. By Christmas I was able to do pretty much everything

I still have to be careful, no jogging yet or heavy lifting but I feel so thankful to have survived. I told Stan the best Christmas gift I got was that I got to live. He was pretty happy about that, too! I actually have been knitting and started sewing again just after Christmas.

It's been so cold I made the dogs some sweaters. Chloe loves hers but Merlin hated his and rolled around on the floor until it came off. Silly boy, wait until he gets a haircut, he'll like it then!

These are bowl cozies. You place your bowl of soup or whatever in it and put it in the microwave and it keeps you from burning your fingers when you take it out. I made 24 and gave them as Christmas gifts. 

The grandkids didn't get homemade pajamas this year, I wasn't up to that until too late too get them done.

I quit my job just before we left for Mexico. I do miss it, but there was a situation I couldn't tolerate. I am enjoying my free time very much and I have a burning desire to do tons of sewing and knitting. And I've been asked to give knitting classes at a new craft/gift shop here in town-that should be a real hoot!

Queen Elsa

Grace, along with every other girl in the United States, is nuts about the movie Frozen. So Gramma had to crank up the sewing machine so she could have a dress for Halloween. She wanted to sew it herself, but she just doesn't have the skills yet to do a project like this. Heck, it gave this seasoned veteran a few headaches! We're leaving for Mazatlan on Saturday and won't be back until late on Halloween so the pressure is on. She's hard to fit but I took copious measurements and it fits really well. The only problem is, even though I enlarged the sleeve pattern, they are still snug. She's going to be cold trick or treating. I might make her a cape-right, like I have time! I did line the yoke with flesh colored swimsuit lining to be warmer and hide her bra.

Just have to hem it, hopefully tomorrow morning. I have to work two days, pick up Sydney from school, go to my naturopath today followed by last minute purchases, and pack. Guess I'll sleep when we get there. And I had a bunch of stress last week, so my shoulders are so tight it's excruciating. I'll get there, I'm sure. One nice thing, after Friday I'll be completely retired.

Following in my Footsteps

Grace has been bugging me since school let out to give her some sewing lessons. I've been MIA all summer because I made the dumb decision to make my gluten free cookies and sell them at the farmer's market. The market was successful, but just took too much of my time. With working and baking and selling the summer flew by and I never had a free minute to sew, let alone teach someone. But Grace is an extremely creative person and I knew she should be taught.

Our schedules finally meshed and she came over Saturday. I set her up with an easy project-a pillowcase. I first showed her some of the equipment and explained what it was for. When I introduced her to the seam ripper I told her to get to know it intimately because even good sewers make mistakes. She was excited and really eager to learn. She did everything I told her and was super careful. I'm impressed with her talent, she will definitely follow in Gramma's footsteps.

Here she is at the machine. I had to keep reminding her to relax, but she is a good listener and did what I told her to do. She worked on the serger too, she thought that went awfully fast!

Ta da! Finished and looks great!

Then we went out for lunch and I took her home. She immediately raced across the alley to fetch her best friend so she could show off her project. Sierra was almost as excited as Grace. Who knows, maybe next time I'll have two little girls to teach!

Back in the Saddle

Finally got back to doing some sewing. It just seems like life keeps dragging me away from it. I decided that if I had to I'd work in small bits of time, even 15 minutes if that's all I can carve out. That helps and I got one of Stan's birthday shirts done in three sessions. Well, you might call it four-Stan has lost quite a bit of weight, around 40 pounds. He kept insisting that the XL would fit him still. I tried to explain to him that pattern sizes are bigger than ready to wear.

He came back from mushroom hunting (it's morel season in Montana) just after I finished the shirt. When he tried it on partly assembled he threw it over his shirt, which didn't give us a true estimate of fit. It was huge on him! So back down to the sewing room to do some remodeling. Fortunately men's shirts are relatively easy to alter. I took close to 6" out of the chest and sides, plus raised the shoulder seams by about 1 1/2". Looks better now.

The other shirt is cut out, but I'll dig out a smaller pattern and recut it. Stan is happy at least one of his birthday shirts is done-his birthday was in December!

A Great Day!

Christmas day was a blast!  Lots of food, family and friends-noisy with lots of good smells.  And all the gifts I made were loved, yay!

Millie was happy to get her Montana State colored fleece blanket.

Syd got a stuffed spleen from Uncle Dave in Texas.

Dog photobombing.

One reason for the good smells.

The other reason for the good smells, Christmas smells.

Some of us took the dogs for a walk and got in on a fantastic Christmas sunset.

Happy birthday, Jesus

I think she liked her pillow bed!

Today I called in tired, I'm glad I have a job like that.  I'll work a little longer tomorrow.  Right now I feel like I got beat up, didn't sleep much Christmas Eve-had a food reaction that kept me up way too late, then lots of work yesterday.  Fun work, but I was dozing in my chair watching the kids play a game.  I feel blessed that I have so many great people to share the day with.

Merry Christmas to All!

Here is a small sample of why I haven't been posting lately. That and I've just been slacking.

These are pillow beds, kind of a long quadruple pillowcase, just right for sleepovers or movie watching. The three youngest grands are getting these.

PJs for the older grands and the adults.

Made a bunch of these and filled them with tiny candy canes and kisses to give to friends.

Made a few of these, some are a gift for my new friend Sherry.

My health is great, trying to stay warm. It's not as bad as it was a couple of weeks ago. On my birthday it was colder in Montana than it was at the South Pole!  But Montanans are tough, we still went out to dinner and to a local production of "White Christmas."

I'll post more pics after gift opening. Gracie and I made something special for her mom-actually I made it, she got distracted by all the fabric in my sewing room so pretty soon it turned into a sewing lesson for three kids. I ended up teaching them how to sew on fleece and they made little scarves for their stuffed animals. Grace even put "To Rosetta from Mom" on the gift tag. Too precious!

Getting Back my Mojo

My sewing has been nonexistent all summer.  Don't believe I sewed the entire months of June and July.  Of course most of that was spent chasing grandkids and making my heart behave.  Now that it's acting better, thanks to my acupuncturist, my nutritionist, and my own persistence I feel like doing something again.  I'm walking with the dogs about 1 1/4 miles a day, which they absolutely love!  Yesterday I walked uptown to the post office and the coffee shop and they glared at me all day because they couldn't go!  I'm down to 1/2 a dose of my beta blocker, thought I'd do that for two weeks.  Then to 1/4, then off altogether!  I will be so glad, it really messes with my asthma and walking is not easy when you can't breathe.  My body still isn't sure what to do with all that adrenaline that the beta blocker was telling it to ignore.  Been cutting back on stimulants, which helps.

This cute little skirt is from a panel I got off a Jo-Ann's clearance table.  The ruffles are pre-sewn and all you have to do is get a length just a little shorter than the waist measurement and sew up the back.  Grace loved it, but she is hunting for a top to wear with it since everything she owns is either pink or purple!  Might have to do a bit more sewing!  Do you see Chloe's ears?  She is such a ham, anytime the camera comes out she is there!

I really wanted to freshen my top collection, so I did this top.  It's a New Look pattern, but the sleeves are from my tee pattern.  The original pattern is either sleeveless or has fluttery sleeves.  Ladies with chubby arms ought not wear fluttery sleeves!  This is the third time I've made the pattern and it goes together pretty well.

I made another tee, forgot to take a picture of it.  I also made a floaty jacket, something to wear over tanks, I have to get it back to the sewing room so I can photograph it on Alice.  Sigh, Alice has a better shape than I do!

Need to get shots of the baby blanket too.  The baby is due anytime so I'm really trying to make an effort to get it done.

Now the Pink Ones

The pink flowering crabapple tree is doing very nicely.

I've been taking snapshots since this tree was tiny and had its first bloom.

Next: the lilacs!

The yard is filled with fragrance!

Hoping to do some sewing tomorrow.  I haven't been down to the sewing room for a long time.  Stan is going to be gone for the next few days so maybe I can squeeze in some sewing time.  Gracie is waiting for me to make Rosetta, her Build-a-Bear, some clothes.  She needs a nightgown and a cowgirl costume.

The dogs will probably want to sleep with me, at least Merlin.  Chloe doesn't sleep peacefully-she keeps jumping off and then can't get back up-very annoying.  Merlin crawls into a padded box in the closet and doesn't move all night.  Stan is going to Reno for the national bowling tournament.  It's mostly a guy-type trip. I could have gone but the casinos fill the rooms with so much fragrance I am miserable.  Besides, then I'd have to find a sitter for the dogs.  I'll just stay here and enjoy my empty house!

Let's Make a Tee!

My favorite wardrobe staple is the semi-dressy tee.  I am built so bottom heavy that the purchased ones stretch in all the wrong places and just don't flatter at all.  So I started the quest to make a simple tee that I could wear anytime and dress up or down.  My Facebook sewing club friends have asked if I would do a tutorial on making my tees, so here it is.  This top takes a scant 1 1/4 yards.

First is the pattern.  I'm not going to coach you extensively here about fit but this is the pattern I started with:

It wasn't perfect, I'm not narrow shouldered but this particular top was way too wide.  I took some of the width out and made sure my measurements matched the pattern pieces.  One thing I did was redraw the pattern without the dart.  Darts and knits just don't go together, I think.

 For fitting, I recommend Nancy Zieman's book, "Fitting Finesse," or check at your favorite fabric store-there are as many different ways to make patterns fit as there are sewers.

I have fat old lady arms so this is how I adjusted the width of the sleeves.

My redrawn freezer paper pattern pieces.  I have refolded the fabric so both front and back can be cut on the fold.

After refolding the fabric back to normal and cutting out the sleeves, I measure the neckline and cut a crossgrain strip 2 1/4" wide and about as long as the neckline measurement.  Fold lengthwise and press.

Sew one shoulder seam.  I like to sew it on the regular machine first, then take it to the serger.

Then serge.

On the regular machine, starting at the unsewn shoulder seam, start sewing the neckband on the neckline, stretching very gently.  You don't want puckers, but it has to have enough stretch to lay flat against your neck.  Practice makes perfect!

Serge the seam off so it looks neat.  Don't cover the original stitching with the serging, but just get close to it.

Sew the other shoulder seam, then serge.  Make sure the neck seam is pointing toward the body of the top, and when you're done serging leave a little tail on the neck edge, zigzag the tail down to make the neck edge look neat.

Press the neck seam toward the body, then topstitch through the body and seam allowance as close to the edge as you can, no more than 1/8".

Press the stuffing out of it.  This is when you can cover a multitude of sins!  Stretch as you press, smoothing out the wrinkles.

Sew the sleeves in flat, before sewing the side seams.  You can get a much smoother line by doing it this way.  Stretch to ease, always with the sleeve on the bottom so the feed dogs can help with the ease.

Serge side seams, then serge the sleeve and shirt bottoms.

Turn up hems 1 1/4" and pin close to the fold.  Stitch about 1 1/8" from the fold.  I usually use the throat plate on my machine as a guide.  If you don't have anything that would work, stick a bit of tape in a place that looks right.

After stitching, clip threads and turn to the right side.  Topstitch about 1/8" from the first stitching.  Once again, I use the left hand notch on the presser foot as my guide.  Repeat for the sleeves.

Someday I'll have a flatlock hemmer but for now this makes a nice fake finish, plus it's extremely durable.

Press, press, press!  And you have a new top!!

A closeup of the neck topstitching.

The whole project takes less than two hours.  I sometimes do an assembly line and make two or three at a time.  If you want a tank top, skip the sleeves and cut more banding crossgrain.  Ease it in the armholes before you sew the side seams and finish just like the neck.