On your mark, get set, SEW!

I know, a repeat for the title, but I really do like it. Dropped DH off at the Baltimore airport around 3 and then just went home from there.
I changed clothes and headed straight to my sewing room around 4. Now it's 8:20 and I've been prancing around in my new lounge bottoms for around 1/2 an hour. The pattern was already traced (THANKS, WENDY!) and the fabric washed. So all I had to do was press the fabric and pattern a little, lay it out and cut. After a little lamenting because I didn't have enough of the fabric I had my heart set on, I just decided to go cropped, pinned and cut. Used scissors because it was so easy. Used a piece of bias binding for the tie, with a piece of elastic in the middle for some give. And done. I was going to post a picture, but my camera battery was dead. It's charging now, so I'll have to catch up later.
Sew, what to sew tomorrow? Maybe a tee to go with the bottoms? I have some fabric and a perfect embroidery....
When did Friday night substitute LA Ink for What Not to Wear? Guess I don't spend many Friday nights in front of the TV. But NOT and acceptable replacement, in my book.

A little of this....

It's been a while since I last clued you in on what I'm not sewing. And I have no photo's since my camera is packed and ready for the next trip. So far in December, I've spent 3 nights in Maryland, 4 nights and Detroit and 2 nights in Denver with the days spent either working or getting from one exciting location to the other. I did get to visit Denver when it was -20 degrees. Can you say BRRRRRR!?!?!?! - but at least all the planes stayed on the runwasy. And it snowed in Detroit. We're off to Tennessee tomorrow (12 hour drive) for 4 nights followed by another 12 hour drive to get home. That's if traffic cooperatees. Kev will meet us there on Wednesday. Let's see, that's 13 nights away in this month. I'm tired.

Very little sewing. I'm still stupid stuck on my Marlene pants. Stupid because: (1) I took the basting out of the front too soon so the zipper was off, so I had to take the whole front apart, including the zipper and waist band. (2) I reinserted the zipper backwards. Not a problem if you don't need to actually USE the zipper (3) I top stitched the zipper closed. Again, OK if you don't need a functioning zipper. They are nicely folded awaiting my return from Christmas. I just don't get the fly front. I can't visualize it well enough to get it together right. I've struggled on every one, but this is the WORST!!! But I really want these, so they haven't hit the trash chute yet. I hate sewing stupid. But if anyone knows where there's a tutorial on fly fronts, I would appreciate the link.

I still need to hem my BWOF skirt I made from the Vogue fabric. That's all. Just hem. And it's layed there for weeks. I got less enthused when I realized how poorly I'd matched the fabric. I don't know why I'm so concerned. I've purchased much worse, but I'm still disappointed. I should have created better match points when I traced the pattern, but too late now. HEM IT!

A Canadian friend sent me 2 TWO Deux issues of BWOF. November and December. Decembre is en francais. She was going to send me November, from Quebec, but warned me it would be in French. She surprised me with the added bonus of December. November turned out English and December is French. Shouldn't be a problem because I can read some French, I own a dictionary, and there isn't much to BWOF directions to start with. I'm taking both issues with me to TN and will share with MIL. I'm sure she's never seen how the rest of the world gets their patterns. I'm sure she won't sew with them, but I think she'll enjoy seeing them. There's a number of items in both issues that I want to work on. If I can stay home long enough to do it.

I am officially giving up beading. I gave it a good shot, but just didn't get into it. Notice you've seen only one item and (confession time) it wasn't really finished, nor did I really like it. I'm taking all my supplies - not really all that much - to my niece. She's much better at it. It's all packed up in a baggie and ready to go.

All my Christmas shopping is done and wrapped, I have to make a run to the post office for some late deliveries soon. Then finish work today, pack up tonight and hit the road bright and early. It's unlikely that I'll post again before the holiday, so MERRY CHRISTMAS and travel safely if you have to do it.

I FOUND IT!! Again.

The cable for my camera. Yea! So now, all y'all (a REAL southern term!) can see pictures again. It was on my ironing board. Under my pressing cloth, behind the lint roller, up against the starch and on top of the Teflon pad. Wonder (1) how it got there (2) how I didn't see it in placing all that stuff around it, item by item (3) how I iron with all that junk in the way (4) why I never looked there. Yeah, the last one's just funny.

Anyhoo... I finally got a picture of my grand-niece in the dress I made for her. She just turned two, and is a real camera ham. She even knows that cell phones take pictures and she'll hold one up and say "Chhheeeessshhhsesee" with a big grin on her face. I had really lighten the pictures, as my MIL's house has no lights. Lost of heat, but no lighting. That would be my DH in the background, trying to stay sane with a glass of wine.

And, just because she would be so embarrassed, my niece doing the "banana dance". She works at Coldstone and if you tip them $20, the entire staff has to do this dance on the counter. We all showed up at her store last year: me, DH, her dad, step mother, both grandmothers, and a cousin (my son) and another sibling, and made them do it. This year, it was solo in the living room.

I'm a little excited - I know it doesn't take much - because my niece (not the one pictured - her older sister and the mother of the baby) was inspired by my handiwork and wants to learn to sew. She and my MIL (her grandmother) bought a pattern and some fabric. MIL used to sew a lot! In fact she used to make the uniforms for the Cincinnati Reds. But she's a little out of practice and not as sharp as she used to be. They cut the first dress upside down. I told them to finish it and let her wear it, but apparently they were upset by the University of Alabama logo being depicted incorrectly. I thought it was fitting and told MIL she was a traitor. She rolled her eyes. They went back to Jo-Ann's and found some really cute red and white fabric (I think they already had red thread, etc.) with Christmas kittens (remember, it's for a 2 year old). And whipped up the dress. I don't have a photo, but I'm still all proud. Maybe Niece and I will make her another over Christmas.

In other sewing news, I'm just frustrated as heck with my latest pants. I pulled out my front basting too soon and the whole front is just a mess. I'm not sure I can fix them, and I hate that. LOVE the soft, grey corduroy they're made of, love the fit and love the pattern (yeah, I know you're all bored with Burda. Don't care. THEY FIT!). So they're wadded on my sewing table waiting for time and inspiration. Maybe the new year will find both.

And now for my really pretty pictures. We took these (okay, I took these) about a week before Thanksgiving. The water is the Potomac river in Alexandria, VA. This was on the first part of our walk. The last half was taken up by trying to get our stupid dog back after I convinced DH to let her off the leash for a romp in the water. She thought it would be great fun to chase a kayak. It was. For her. We got muddy feet, yelled out by park rangers, burrs on our clothes and a good scare. But the pictures are pretty.

Well, I've missed-placed my camera cable, so I can't show the picture of my grand-niece in the dress I made her. Or my third pair of Marlene pants. Or my new sewing toy. Or the skirt I made from the Vogue fabric. So I will show you this dumb, but fun poll.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Mark any items that you would never consider eating.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred: (I have to admit that I don't know what some of these are.)

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos Rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile – no, but I’ve had alligator

6. Black pudding – no f’in way

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp -

9. Borscht – don’t do beets

10. Baba ghanoush.- Don’t know what this is.

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi – again, clueless

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses - still on clueless

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn or head cheese – to no f’in way

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper – this falls into the “I’m not stupid category”

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda – What?

31. Wasabi peas – a current favorite snack

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted lassi - Still What?

34. Sauerkraut - nope

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat - just sounds nasty

42. Whole insects – I swallowed a bee in high school when riding my bike

43. Phaal – What, yet again

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu- and again

47. Chicken tikka masala – and AGAIN

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut – by the dozen.

50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi – AND AGAIN!?!

53. Abalone

54. Paneer - hmmmm

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine - Whatever

60. Carob chips – yes and I don’t know why anyone would eat that stuff

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads – yep, “lambfries”

63. Kaolin – And whatever

64. Currywurst

65. Durian – and whatever again

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake – yeah, all of the above.

68. Haggis - Yuck

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho – yeah, soup should be hot.

72. Caviar and blini – Cavier, yes. What’s blini?

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost – I think these are spelled wrong

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu - ????????

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail – No, but I’ve watched my BFF do it.

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini – YES! At Harry’s bar in Venice

81. Tom Yum - ??????

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky - ??????

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant

85. Kobe beef – no, but I’d like to

86. Hare – My sister in law claimed it was her favorite. Whatever.

87. Goulash

88. Flower

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam – Do I look stupid?

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - yep, good stuff

100. Snake – Rattle, yep.

Well for the most part I’ve tried most of the items that I can identify. What the heck are these things? This was blatantly stolen from Nancy W at http://encue.blogspot.com/ . It's fun.

A friend has promised me the French version of Burda WOF, November. I'm looking forward to this. Both for the patterns and the novelty. I should be able to read the French, I took a boat load of the stuff in school. But I'm woefully pathetic. I'm still excited. I'm easy.

So, I know that:

But I was missing blogging. I'm going to go look for may camera cable and take a bath. I'm been going to a chiropractor and my back is sore.

My new toy

First, WOW! I didn't realize how long it's been since I've posted. Did you miss me? But I've been REALLY busy. I spent an entire week, Sunday to Friday afternoon, in Rockville, MD at a training class. Then, of course, I was behind at work. And tired. And lazy.

But when I drove up to Rockville on Sunday afternoon I left in time to check out the Rockville G-Street. It really is quite a bit larger than the Seven Corners store. I scored a few items off the $2.97 table (yeah, you're shocked, I know), and a couple of skirt lengths wool cuts, including a piece of cashmere blend for $6 each. Sorry, no pictures. Not only is it not very exciting, but my husband left this morning for Thanksgiving and took the dog and the camera. (Not to worry, I'll fly out and meet up at the MIL's on Wednesday. We'll scarf on turkey as a family). I was VERY VERY VERY disappointed that they didn't have the November BWOF. That was a real goal, and I always find a copy at the 7-Corner's store, so I went with high hopes. Alas, they are crushed. And only to be lifted up by MY NEW TOY. The most awesome, bestest, most funnest, greatest time saverest gadget I've gotten (for sewing) short of my machine itself. It is (please create a drum roll in your head here........DRRRRRRRRR): Now this handy little ditty is a double tracing wheel. Both wheels slide out of the handle and can be placed, either singly or together, in 5 positions. (packaged they are placed flat against the handle, to use rotate 90 degrees). Now you have the perfect tracing wheel for BURDA. Oh yeah. I put my BWOF sheet: on my cardboard cutting board, placed my tracing paper (I have a roll of exam paper compliments of Lunesta and BFF) on top. Then, using my ruler and french curve I traced over the wanted lines. This left a double dotted line on the tracing paper. In the right light this was really easy to see, so I cut out on the outside line - yes my friends, a bodacious 1.5cm seam allowance - and drew over the seam line with a marker. Then I could lay my BWOF pattern down on fabric and cut/sew just like a big-4 pattern with seam allowances already there. NO THREAD TRACING!!! Start to finish - tracing pattern to paper to cutting fabric - was about 1 hour. Not the 3-4 thread tracing took. My fingers weren't sore, I didn't use a spool of thread, I didn't shift the fabric all over trying to place the tracing, and my sewing room wasn't cover with all those darned threads. And today I cut out the next pair of Marlene pants (yeah, redundant, I know. Don't care. Love these pants) in 45 minutes. For these, I layed my paper pattern I'd made before with no seam allowances on my fabric (a really soft, steel grey corduroy from G Street $2.97 - see above) and then put down some inexpensive tracing paper along the edges. And traced away, again. Woo-hoo! Now I have, again, 1.5cm seam allowances as my cutting line was marked. And with all the advantages as previously lauded. You have to keep shifting the tracing paper, as the pattern is larger than the tracing paper, but just slide it down and around as you go. Yeah, it gets pretty chewed up, but they sell more. I'm quite pleased!! Oh yeah. Very. Uh-huh.

I wanted to post some pics of this, but remember my camera's on it's way to Nashville. I'll be doing this again, though, and will try to remember. I still thread traced some of the details, but this was really a great time saver. And I think I got a more accurate cut because I wasn't constantly pulling and shifting my fabric to run my needle in and out. Oh, and no blood stains.

So, I'm off to sew these.

I'm not a knitter and I don't have a cat. But I have a BFF who fits into both of these categories. So, for you:

On your mark, get set, SEW!

Sew, today is June 1 and the official start of the June Capsule Competiton from Stitcher's Guild. I made my "made before June" item back in May and have even worn it a couple of times already. I used a home dec rement I found at GStreet - Potomac Mills just before they closed out that location. The colors formed the basis of my capsule:

The lavendar is a quilting cotton from GStreet FC and the blue stripe is also from there. They were purchased when K was here in May. We also stopped at Michaels and I got the beads for the accessory. The white is a RTW cotton blouse - the one purchased item. So..... that's the background.

As of now, at 3pm on Sunday, I have cut out the top and the skirt, including skirt lining. And I have sewn the lining. I will probably get further tonight after W leaves for Kuwait. I'd like to finish it today, to be honest. And if the zipper cooperates, I may do so - hemming excluded.

__________________________________________

I have a pile of altering I need to do, though, as well. Issues with time? Oh, yeah.

Notice the snazzy new pictures - the 2 on the left. W bought himself a new Nikon Coolpix yesterday and I got to play with it. I asked for a camera for Mother's Day, I got the first season of "The Tudors", W's comment on his purchase was "this will be our new camera, I can keep it in my manpurse". Doesn't that still leave me without a camera? Hmmmm. But you gotta love the manpurse. Really his briefcase - a softside computer bag that make me envious of the stuff he totes around. Need a sinus pill, no problem, toothbrush? Gotcha covered. Had a little accident? Hang on a sec, I have a spare pair here somewhere.

The buttonholer for my Singer arrived from Ebay, safe & sound. It's missing a cam, though - there should have been one in the holer and there wasn't. Still haven't played with it any, just no time! Maybe this week I can dig out the machine and play some.

I'm back!

I know it's been a while, but I finally got my camera working a little better and took some pictures of my sewing work. Photo's are being uploaded into my flickr account as I type.

First, I'm going to discuss my combination June Capsule Competition entry at Stitcher Guild and the simultaneous and spontaneous Advanced Beginner Competion at Pattern review. The JCC requires 4 garments and 1 accessory: at least on bottom, one may be sewn before June and one may be purchased. The Advanced Beginner, also running for the month of June, requires one garment that must be sewn completely in June and has one new technique. Sew.... Here are my JCC fabrics. The skirt is V8363, view C, without the side buttons. It is my "sewn before June" item, the fabric is a Mills Creek home dec remnent from the now closed Potomoc Mills G Street. K & I hit the Falls Creek store on Saturday afternoon and finished our JCC shopping. The lavender cotton, a quilting cotton will be the top (the other top, not shown, is a white blouse - currently at the laundry) and the stripe will be the other bottom. Maybe from the same pattern - not sure yet. Now, to add the PR AB twist: I want to make my "new skill" to be pintucks AND I want to use V8419, with short sleeves. SO that will require changing the darts and pleats to pintucks. I'll have to try it out on some scraps first. The colors on the bottom photo are the most true.

Okay, enough for one night, but I have more for tomorrow. I'm having lunch with a SG new friend and maybe another. I'm looking forward to this and I'll update tomorrow and post some new pics of other projects.

Sewing update, part deux

I now have 2, count 'em 2, completed and wearable projects. I finished the blue cami yesterday. It looks nice. Not perfect, but probably no one other than me would every know. I've worn RTW that was done worse. Unfortunely, it doesn't go with the suit, either in color or style. I may alter the neckline before I do another. Make it a little more rounded & higher. I don't mind the V, but it's too low for work or with a suit. Other change I may make is to make it about 1.5 inches longer. Otherwise, it fits well and should go much easier next time.
AND I finished the skirt!!! Hemmed it (on the machine, sorry, mom) an used a skirt hook/eye for closure, rather than a button. I may still put some lace trim on the bottom, I think that would increase wear-ablility and direct the eye away from other flaws. I have a sweater set that will go nicely. Added: I did go back and put the lace trim accross the bottom. I think it looks much better. It adds interest, it was a little bland, and hides flaws.
Kevin says his ankle looks better. I'm still worried that it's healing outside and not inside.
Been looking for a new place to live. Our TH is for sale, so we need to move on. W has a meeting with the Pres of BU tomorrow and we'll see what's next. I like the TH, but not the emptiness and starkness.
Wish I had my camera so I could post pics of the sewing achievements, but I left it with Kevin so could send me pics of his ankle. He hasn't done so, though.