Sewing Lessons

This month I had three private sewing lessons to learn how to sew knit fabric and to sew apparel.  I've tried making clothes before, but they never fit right.  The biggest thing I learned was to make the first version in a fabric that you don't care about.  If it turns out, great.  If not, adjust the pattern and make it your own before making version two.


Here are the first shorts I made for Henry.  The pattern was from the 70's and had super wide legs, so I took them in (roughly) but they still work for jammies.

Here is the second version of my own pants pattern.  The first version I made with crummy flannel and this last pair was out of junked t-shirt of Ben's.  

I like how these cover and stay up over the bulky cloth diaper.

Lastly, here is a t-shirt for Henry made from one of Ben's old shirts.  This one turned out well the first time!  You can bet I'll be making more when my quilting bees are a little more caught up.

Unexpected Finished Object

I have to start with an admission....  I am a terrible housekeeper.  I like to start a lot of projects, but I'm not good at finishing things and, to top it off, I'm awfully forgetful.  So, that results in my house covered in lots of little piles of things that I mean to finish.  But, I move to the beat of my motivation (not the best priority-setter), and I'm usually inspired to start something shiny and new.

So, this week I decided to tackle the piles around my house and thin a few.  I didn't get far uncovering the dining room table, but I did sort some lovely fabric bits in my craft room in the basement.  Henry was "helping" by tearing up the shelves and banging on my project on the loom.  My table loom sits on the floor now that the sewing machine and a million projects live on the craft table.  Remember my scarf from this post?

It was woven only 36" long (not just the 6" in the picture) and still was on the loom five months later.  While I sorted fabric, Henry was yanking on the scarf and futzing with the parts of the loom and then he toppled over.  That's a good sign for nap time, so I came back to the loom during my free time.

The first step was to examine the project and figure out why I put it down in the first place.  In this instance, the grey alpaca yarn that I chose for the warp and the weft is truly, truly lovely, but it is so overwound that the lines of weft couldn't be beaten snugly.   This resulted in a scarf with lots of holes and a stiff fabric.  That doesn't seem cozy to me.

So, I took a deep breath and then started the tedious job of unweaving 36" of work line by tangly line.  That took most of a three hour nap on Tuesday.  The next day (and next nap time), I auditioned eight different yarns, chose a new weft and wove 16".

On Thursday I wove another 32" during nap and some more after Henry's bedtime.  I also took the loom outside for some pics in the outdoor light (the basement lighting is atrocious).

On Friday I wove another 2", tied the tassels, wove in the ends, washed and blocked it.  And there you have it.  The scarf is dry and soft and gorgeous and finished.

 (doesn't the overwound yarn make the most perfect twisty tassels?  i love them!)

I guess it isn't really unexpected that I finished it since it took four days, but it still is delightful.  Doesn't a finished object make your week a little brighter?

Now I just have to hold myself back from starting another loom project just to let it languish on the floor for baby fingers to play with.  Nope, I must must try to find my dining room table.
I cannot let the siren call of fabrics and yarns distract me.
:: plugging my ears and humming to myself ::
Really.  I know there is a table here somewhere....

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June's Quilting Bee

I used to make quilts.  In fact, I've made nine of them, but the last one I finished was in 2004.  I didn't know anyone else my age that quilted, and I mostly made it up as I went along.   I ended up with quilts that didn't always stand the test of time and finished products that I wasn't always happy with.

Well, this year I've been really inspired by the craft blogging world and all of the opportunities to participate with other crafters around the country and around the world.  I've read and learned so much from knitting blogs, mommy crafting blogs and now I'm enamored with quilting blogs.  I put up this link about quilting bees in the sidebar awhile ago. About a week after that, I finally got up the courage to join a quilting bee, Sew Buzzy.  June was led by Kristen in Oregon and she wanted wonky stars made from 1930's reproduction fabrics.

So, every month for the next twelve months (excluding December), I'll be posting another block for the group.  July's block is for Muriël in the Netherlands.  We are making wonky houses for a neighborhood quilt.  I'm looking through my fabric stash for cute animals to peek out from the windows and the tree.  I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from these ladies and I hope to share a little with you.

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Finished sewing project line up

I could write about someone's first birthday, a slew of summer visitors, our fabulous vacation or a new virtual quilting bee that I joined.  But I have some very important, yet unfinished business to attend to today.  I'm overdue in properly introducing you all to Margene.  She and I have been busy ever since I asked for some help in naming her.  The photos below are my finished sewing projects for April and May.  June's sewing will have to wait for another day. 

First up is the Best Bib pattern from the JCasa *handmade.  I tried the pattern because I thought it would be a great way to practice quilting techniques.  Then I got completely hooked on bibs and on quilting.

These bibs were for a charity auction for Womancraft (awesome organization--really, go check the link).

These were for gifts.

(Two of these bibs were sent to two wonderful mothers that donated some breastmilk to Henry when he was about six months old.  I send yet another "thank you" out to them.) 

I loved making these rag quilt letters from a tutorial on Happy Together.  This bright set was a gift for one of Henry's internet baby friends.  ::waving::  Hi Scout!

I hope to make another set for Henry to play with soon.  This has been his favorite book for months now. ("I'm a Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuss, as you can plainly see.")

And this was a gift for Scout's mom.  The quilted photo album cover was a pattern I made up myself.

This may be my favorite bib to date.  It is a first birthday bib for Henry's friend River.  (She came to visit recently, so you'll hear more about her soon.)

And last, but not least, a gift potholder for my sister-in-law.  I absolutely love how this turned out and I want to make another just like it for me.












Check out the labels I made recently.  The bibs have them, too.

So a couple of months ago I had a grand plan to make Margene a nice sewing machine cover to keep the dust off.  But she rarely has much downtime, so I'm plugging away at the rest of my sewing list instead.

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I did it!

On Saturday I made it through my first triathlon! 

The swim was crazy tough and a lot of people passed me, but I still beat my own swim time by 2 minutes!  The bike ride was hilly but exhilarating.  Unfortunately I can't say the same about the run, but I can say that I finished the whole thing in about 2 hours and 9 minutes.   

There may even be a next time and it may be in late July.  We'll see.

For now, I can entertain you with silly photos of Ben and I.

Before:

After:

And the best pit crew and baby watching team ever:

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Seeing Red

Everywhere I go today:

Red, red, red.

I never buy strawberries at the store.  We wait for the local season, pick a few flats ourselves and then I can jam, freeze some berries whole and freeze some sliced and (barely) sweetened.  I also eat as many as I can stuff myself with while they are still fresh.  So, today, we indulged in waffles stacked high with berries and whipped cream.  (They were devoured too quickly for photos though.)  We also had berries for late lunch and after dinner and we'll have more tomorrow for breakfast. 

This is my favorite local eating quote from Barbara Kingsolver's fantastic book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Please note that I'm substituting strawberries for asparagus.  I think it still applies:


"...[Strawberries] seem like a good place to start.  And if the object of our delayed gratification is a suspected aphrodisiac?  That's the sublime paradox of a food culture:  restraint equals indulgence. "

So, my hands and counters are dyed pink, but the freezer is flush with berries to be enjoyed in another season.

Picking season photos are a wonderful way to show how time passes.  There is no way he'd fit in a flat today.

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