Weekend Booking and other things…

Whew! That was a crazy, whirlwind weekend, wasn’t it? Appointments, family visits, heavy rainstorms, no grocery shopping, a garden overhaul, and some last minute-but-really-good! booking:

The King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book- I’ve loved this ever since it was first hinted at, even if they faked me out and printed the regular-flour-cookbook first. Baking with whole-wheat is so tricky without help- stone biscuits and rock pancakes was on the menu at our house when I first tried baking with it! Ah. . . now it’s feather-light whole wheat scones and faerie cakes. (no, not faerie-in-or-is-a-cake! You faeries get outta that flour bin right now!)

Delia Smith’s Christmas- English Tradition Christmas, with time-charts! How much fun is this? I’ll be dreaming over this one for the rest of the year. Apricot Orange Chutney, Mince Pies and Pheasant Terrine! Okay, maybe not the Pheasant…

The Foster’s Market Cookbook- I check this one out from the library every spring and summer to ogle the luscious pictures of farm-fresh veggies, dreaming of opening my own restaurant someday, which oddly looks just like Foster's Market does in this book…

And I scored a hardback edition of The Best of Martha Stewart Living Great Parties! These are all so much fun to browse through for ideas, without having to dig out my collection of old magazines. I love that they have collected all her party layouts and Good Thing’s section from a few seasons of the magazines and bound them into a book- they’ve done this with a lot of the categories from the magazines. I especially like the Christmas ones. Great resource, and lots of fun to just flip through, dreaming of spring parties.

Lastly, I wanted to note here that I have officially started the Couch to 5K exercise program today. It went great! The stretching guide is the best part- it helped fix the first calf muscles cramp I’ve had in years (!!!), and got my heart rate down to where I didn’t need a nap after I got back from my run. (eep! I just went for a run! Who is this girl?) Go me! Actually, I will get going just as soon as I can peel myself off the floor- I haven’t done anything like this in about 5 years! Wish me luck…

Friday Musing

These are my sewing weights- little bean-bags used to hold patterns down while cutting or tracing:

I used scraps of my favorite fabrics- now they are always around where I can see them, and they’re useful!

Happy weekending!

Sewing a dress pt. III

Okay- let’s wrap this up, shall we? I’ve measured myself, picked out a pattern, prepped the fabric and traced the pattern. Now it’s time to lay out your pattern on the fabric:

That’s a horrible picture- my sewing area is in the back of the house, away from any natural light- I’ll have to take pictures in the morning from now on, ugh!

Cut out the dress, and sew the darts:

Darts can be tricky! I basted them in by hand first, then made a final machine seam. Make sure you iron all your seams before going on to the next one- it sets the stiches, and makes the material easier to handle. Now, sew the front and back together at the shoulders, then sew the sides together and check the fit. And at this point, I should mention that I didn’t baste the neckline curve- the material I used wasn’t too stretchy, and I had a different plan for finishing the neckline, so I skipped that step.

After trying the dress on for a fit check, I decided the side seams were way to big, so I shaved a 1/2'” off them:

Again with the horrible lighting! After all is said and done, I should have left the side seams alone- the dress is too tight now to wear over an undershirt. That’s why this is a fitting toile- I’ve made all kinds of notes that I’ll share at the end of what I intend to fix or change on the next one. So, I ripped out the old seams, pinked the seam allowance down a bit, and used a folded edge seam finish. Look- pretty!

You can also see in this shot how I finished the armhole seam- a double turned hem of about a quarter of an inch. This dress is made of plain old quilting cotton, and it frays like crazy, so I wanted a seam finish that would stand the test of time. I plan on washing this a lot over the next few months, mainly because it will get softer the more I wash it, and wanted to protect the seams as much as possible.

The neckline edge I was planning on just turning a half inch hem and zig-zagging it down, but then remembered my sewing machine has a few fancy stitches, so I did a nice little flowers and vine stitch:

It’s in thread that’s the same colour as the fabric, so I’m not sure if anyone will be able to see it. I like the tonal quality, so I finished the bottom hem in the same stich. It has some width to it, so it had the same coverage quality of a zig-zag stitch, only much prettier!

So, after finishing all interior seams- some turned and stitched, some whip stitched- I hemmed the whole thing with a double turned hem and called her done!

Here are my notes on the whole operation:

1. After all is said and done, it’s pretty itchy material. Look into cotton voile for the next one.
2. Keep pattern seam allowance intact for layering possibilities.
3. Take an inch off the width of the neckline (collar bone area).
4. Lower darts by half an inch.
5. Increase the overall length by another 3-4 inches (surprising since I already lengthened the pattern by five inches).

Overall though, I really like the fit and look of this dress! I am using this one as a nightgown right now, which is another perk- If I keep up my sewing I may never need to buy another nightgown ever again! Never say never, right? Thanks for following along my first ever sew-along! Next time I’ll know to keep the posts shorter, and not outline every-single-little-detail to keep the pace moving along (I had a few complaints from the viewership this week: “wow- that’s a reeally long post!”).

Now what have those Faeries done with my quilting supplies?!

Hello Spring!

I was starting to think we wouldn’t make it! But Spring is here- albeit a wet and windy one:

A few of the more delicate herbs got squashed this weekend- the Dill will have to come out, but at least the Rose’s aphid invasion has been stopped in it’s tracks- they got blown off by all the wind and rain from Saturday’s storms.

It feels like a whole new year out there today- let’s go out and enjoy it, shall we?

This week’s List includes:

Finish hemming That Dress…

Make a Library run…

Find a new Park for Spring picnics…

Assemble the Watercolour quilt…

Make a new bag for Spring…

Prep the week’s dinners (this one’s already done!)

and Go Outside!

Sewing a dress, pt. II

Okay, where were we? Ah yes, you’ve decided to sew a dress, taken your measurements and picked out the pattern. First things first- read the directions! Seriously- this pattern has directions that if followed correctly, will result in a garment that you can wear to your heart’s delight, for as long as you both shall live- or until it falls apart in the wash, whichever comes first.

Each pattern you buy will have it’s own set of directions, steps to take in the construction of the garment. As you continue to gain experience in sewing eventually you will begin to notice that they all start to sound alike, have weird little quirks, and some are downright fussy and ill thought out, but you don’t know that now, do you? Well, I don’t- so I read the directions. This step helps me visualize the seams, darts, hems and whatever else goes into the construction of this particular dress, and will eventually help me figure out what short cuts I can or want to take while making it. Right now, I don’t want to take any shortcuts- I’m thinking that’s why my projects never fit, that I’ve been taking to many alterations before I’ve even learned how to sew properly, so I’m taking it slow and following each step of the directions the way it is written. That is also the advantage of making a toile, or draft, dress first- I can make changes in the next version if I need to later.

One trick I did learn about- and isn’t in the directions- is to measure the actual pattern pieces against my body measurements:

This helps me determine what size to cut, and how much fabric I’ll need for the dress.  In this case, the piece of fabric I want to use is too short by a couple of inches. Hmm… what to do, what to do? I like the look of tonal stripes, and asymmetrical color blocking comes to mind, so I seamed my fabric together to create a deep hem and voila- the fabric is ready to roll! This picture is out of order to show you how the fabric came together:

Okay, next step- tracing the pattern.

This is another step that I learned from my vast amount of research and development in recent years. If you don’t want to have to constantly keep buying the same pattern over and over because of mishaps and/or bad measuring practices (err, ahem.) you will learn to trace your patterns. Take a piece of freezer pattern, or tracing paper from the sewing store- it’s over by the interfacing- line it up over your pattern, and trace away. You might iron your pattern first, too- it helps to straighten it out and take away those creases and wrinkles. Make sure to transfer all those arrows, triangles, squares, dots and lines too, otherwise you’ll have a basic outline with no shaping to it. Fold the actual pattern back up and put it back into the envelope, then cut out your tracing. You’re ready for the next step!

As I type this post, I am in the process of ripping out two long seams- I wanted to let everyone know that you can make mistakes! Don’t let them stop you- keep working at it, even when you think it’s ruined, it can be saved. I am in the third week of working on this dress, but when you see it completed you’ll wonder why it took me so long! Because I am taking the time to learn from my mistakes, but I am very happy with my progress so far. I know it fits, because I’ve been trying it on from time to time to check the fit. I am very excited to wear this dress- it’s so me! Now, if I can just get those faeries to move out of the dress form- they’ve installed floors and furniture and papered the inside with floral- Hey! No windows you guys! That’s a structural integrity issue! And it'll ruin my dress form…

Friday Musing

Today feels like a listy kind of day. I’ve spent this crazy busy week-

Sewing and photographing a project to show in this space…

Cooking and baking, with disastrous results…

Playing and creating new characters in SWTOR. It’s addicting…

Losing seedlings left and right to damping off, drat…

Waiting on pins and needles for a new baby grandnephew to find his way into the world…

Trying to find the time to do my gaming homework on a very complicated,  but beloved character…

Struggling with emotions this week…

New spring plant purchases- I promised myself more flowers this year! Yaay!

A new thrifting addiction- instant spring basket collections are so uplifting! And cheap…

Coming to the disappointing realization that I don’t like blueberries after all…

Spending too much time on the computer, and not enough time on laundry, but fixing that today…

Loving that sewing is fun again!

In the present

Happy Daylight Savings Time! Ugh. I woke up early today- before the sun was even up! My honey had to get up in the cold and dark to go to work in this first week of Daylight Saving, so I got up to keep him company.

Uh-huh, right. I got up to play my new addiction, err- game, Star Wars The Old Republic. It’s very moreish, as in one more minute/quest/hour. . . It’s also a time suck, which is why I get up at the crack of dawn to play it, so I don’t loose any crafting/sewing/cooking/chore time for the rest of the day. Which is how I’ve been able to get this done for you:

My first sew-along! I’ve been working really hard (okay, so it’s only got two pieces. . . I’ve done other things, too. Like gotten to level 10 in three days! ahem.) Let’s get started, shall we?

I’ve been wanting a new spring dress like this for a few years, but never had the guts to start one, ‘cause I thought it would be too hard. Darts and all, you see- darts are hard, right? Not as hard as I once thought. I am soo glad I made up this dress! This first dress is what’s called a toile- a first draft, a warm-up, a fitting shell as it were. I like it a lot, and plan on wearing it as is- but I’m glad I went to the trouble of making it, so that I was able to locate the areas that need a little work. The next one I make should fit perfectly- and, I now know what size patterns to buy, since I took the time to measure everything. Let’s look at the steps I took to make this, shall we?

Step one- I measured everything. And I mean EVERYTHING- I had my husband help me measure my back. Then, and here’s the sneaky part- I added an inch to every measurement. That adds your ease, automatically. I then used that measurement to pick out my patterns, and you know what? It worked! Turns out I’ve been buying the wrong size for years, which is why nothing I ever made fit, and why I lost patience time after time and had almost decided I hate to sew. I am soo glad I gave it another shot.

Step two- deciding what I want to make. I went through my list of demands, and went to the store with an idea in mind of what I wanted. Here’s what that list looked like:

1. less than five pattern pieces
2. no sleeves
3. darts
4. no gathering
5. cotton fabric

I resurfaced from the fabric store with about five different patterns- they were on sale, and I needed to start rebuilding my collection with the right size range anyway, so it was an awesome deal. I’ll get to the other patterns later in the year, now that I’ve gotten a successful project under my belt- finally. It feels good to be sewing for myself again!

Step three- picking out the fabric. I had a lot of quilter’s cotton in shades of pink, mauve and purples I wanted to use, so I dug those out of my stash, washed and ironed them. I know there’s a whole wash-don’t-wash before sewing debate out there, but that’s for quilters who want their quilt to come out looked smooth or rumpled, not sewing garments. You have to wash your fabric before cutting it, or it’ll shrink and be a size smaller after you’re done sewing and washing it. Or worse, the pieces will all shrink different amounts (especially if your lining with a different fabric content!) Wash, dry and iron your fabric- it’ll save you some heartache, promise. That takes me a whole afternoon, so I decided to spend a day per step with this project- I’ve tried too many times in the past to rush my sewing projects, only to end up hating the results. I’ve learned for myself I would rather stretch something out over two weeks that try to get it done by the weekend.

Oh, and a note here- I don’t craft on the weekend. My husband works during the week, and I am done before he gets home at night, too. It is less stressful for me to get my “work” done while I’m at home alone- I can relax and focus on the job at hand without distractions, and I don’t have to get embarrassed that someone see’s me loose my temper with a crooked seam. . .

So, at this point I’ve measured myself, picked out a pattern, chosen my fabric and gotten it prepped for sewing. I’ll show you the next few steps after you’ve had a chance to catch up. Meanwhile, I’ve got to lock up the sewing machine before the faeries take it out for a spin. Last time I caught them trying to sew their shoes to their feet. Something about losing shadows. . .

Friday Musings

Work with- and where- what you have!

The counter in the bathroom just happens to be the perfect height for cutting fabric. This jumbled mess is for my new Watercolour quilt. . .

Character building of a different sort. . .

If you’re ever to get serious about your sewing, you’re going to get serious about using one of these:

It’s a little known fact that I really enjoy ironing. . . now. When I first started out as a young bride, I burned the heck out of my hand ironing one of my new husbands’ shirts. ‘Cause that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? 17 years later (!!! where does the time go?) I’d have to give that young lady some better advice- practice on the sheets first! I then went a decade without ironing as much as I possibly could- you know the tricks; take everything out the second the dryer is done; shake things really hard to get those wrinkles out; use that little can of compressed junk (which never worked!) and fold those collars down when still damp to get a crease into them. I am laughing so hard at myself right now remembering all this. Just iron it silly! The most important thing to know about ironing is to just keep your free hand off the board!

When I started sewing quilts, my husband suggested I buy a new sewing machine (he’s a keeper, that one. Cooee!), which then precipitated getting an ironing board. Which is where my whole love of ironing began. Having the right tool for the job is such an important step in making a practical job a joy. I’ll spend a full day or two prepping fabric for any project I begin, washing and ironing everything I’m going to be using. Sometimes it’s a pain, especially when I’m just faffing about. But when I take the time to wash out that stuffy fabric (ever tried ironing musty smelling clothes? All the lavender water in the world won’t help!) and then iron it all out smooth, taking the wrinkles out and straightening up the fabric, my projects just turn out nicer. And because I’ve spent all that time prepping the fabric, I tend to take more time with the project, doing it right, which makes it turn out that much better in the end.

Hey you Faeries! That’s a fabric bin, not a playhouse!

Right here, right now-

I am reading: Joelle Hoverson’s more Last Minute Knitted Gifts (it’s all knitting, all the time around here again- funny how the urge to knit is seasonal, isn’t it?) Also Jane Austen’s Emma, since I haven’t read it since college, and this time I read the introduction- which is helping to figure out the irony of it all.

Scored two new – old books this weekend: a lovely old Children’s Classics edition of Little Women, complete with coloured illustrations on the end pages, and line drawings I haven’t seen before all throughout  the interior. Bliss! And Gardening Essentials by Barbara Pleasant. It’s chock full of gardening information, with beautiful colour pictures of gardens, plant lists, tips, project ideas and step-by-step instructions for things like stone walls, and brick walkways. I dream in crushed gravel nowadays. . .

Planning the week’s meals: a spinach Gratin, maybe chicken crepes with mushroom sauce, definitely pork chops and sauteed cabbage, and something with fennel, my new favorite this spring. Or it could just get eaten up raw- I served it sliced paper thin and sprinkled with lots of lemon juice this weekend, and loved it!

Starting a new sewing project this week, and thinking of creating a sew-along for it.

And lastly, it’s time to fertilize my plant babies again, so it’s off to the garden I go!

Does anyone else feel like it’s the middle of summer suddenly? The weather here is so strange this year. . .

Friday Musings

Last year around this time it had been a record season for rain-

not so much this year, it’s bright and sunny today, due to hit the ‘80’s sometime later this weekend. Happy weekending!

Spring is here!

Well, okay- maybe not here, as in now- but it’s coming. I can feel it in the air, in the ground, in the clouds pouring rain down on me from the sky. And so can she:

As close as she can get, morning, noon and night- as long as it’s an interesting project.
No, dishes are not an interesting project. Ahem.
But purse-making is. Especially when the ironing board comes out:

Sorry for the horrendous pictures- it’s been raining a lot lately, hence bad photo land! Needless to say, there’s been lots of feather batting and crazy kitty time around these parts of late. . .
And some sewing:

I am trying out a new process, different pattern, new dimensions, and new materials. It’s a party! Not. Making things from scratch can be very frustrating, but rewarding as well. I needed (read: want) a new purse for spring, and need (read: no room for new!) to use up some of my fabric stash, so I came up with this colour palette: butter yellow print, olive linen (yummy stuff- must get more!) and robins egg blue print extras. We’ll see how it all fits together this next week or so.
The watercolour quilt, however- has ground to a screeching halt. The book I was using,  Harriet And Carrie Hargrave’s Quilter’s Academy Vol. 1, was due at the library and not eligible for renewal. Drat. I am actually learning a lot from this book, and am very pleased with the progress I was making, so I will have to look it up and see about procuring it from the bookstore.  Until then, hands off so I don’t make any changes I’ll regret later. Thus, the work on the new purse. . .
and maybe a dice bag or two. No peeking!