Jun

23

Ode to an ill sewing machine

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My sewing machine is not well. It either “won’t go” or it “won’t stop“. I find myself obsessing over the fact that I can’t sew.
When I obsess this is what I do -

In the last 2 days I have cut out 4 new projects, had inspiration to the point of drafting out another, and am frantically rummaging through old BWOF to find another project that I suddenly remembered I wanted to make. In times of personal trouble or stress, I get obsessive. I clean, I cook. So in times of sewing stress, I cut, and cut and cut! I find project after project that have to be done NOW, and I can’t stop thinking about the fact that I can’t accomplish what I want to do. Meanwhile, the work is piling up, and nothing is getting done.

Boy would a therapist have a field day with me!!

Standing up tall and proud…

“Hello my name is Connie and I am a sewing addict”

Now come on all of you …..

“Hello, Connie”

“Sigh” Then…brightening up…

“Wanna see what I have planned for when I have a sewing machine that works??!!”

Project 1. Vogue- that Rucci dress. All is underlined and ONE dart is sewn. Wow have I progressed! (hear the sarcasm dripping here?

Project 2. A take off on D #5’s new tee. At least this one can be done on the serger! Lauren came down for church on Sunday wearing the cutest shirt. A knit, shortsleeved tee with a turtleneck and gathers that started just above the bust. “I bought it in three different colours“, she stated. Someone pays that girl too much money to cut grass! Well I just had to have it. So I pulled out “Patternmaking for Fashion Design” and went to work. By the way, if you do not have this manual, and like to design and draft, you should really get it. It is a great resourse. But again I digress.
So far I like what I have come up with. Laurs fabric is thinner and more drapey. I also think I went a bit overboard on the gathers. But I like it.
Oh by the way. I was sitting at the serger with this top, thinking about the drafting, and my eye fell on this pattern that I picked up a while ago. See the yellow one? If you curved the upper bodice, changed the sleeve and made the body more narrow - that would be it! Oh well- drafting is fun!

Project #3. Just a simple skirt using McCalls 5591 and brown floral silk. I had a really hard time finding a nice light fabric for the contrast band at the bottom. You would think that brown is brown - nope! I settled on a lovely cotton/silk/bamboo blend that I am also using for lining (which, by the way, the pattern does not call for, but is neccessary in my mind)

Project #4. The Swimsuit. It is coming along swimmingly. (oh I kill myself with my puns!)

No photos today- you were lucky to get a post at all! Work has been nutso. With planting and reporting deadlines and new programs, farmers are going crazy. The weather hasn’t co-operated much either. While we haven’t had the rains the midwest has, the “windows of opportunity” are few and far between. Add to that disease pressures such as the ugly army worm, and a new project at work that I have been asked to be involved with, and you can imagine that my free time is nowhere to be found!

Jun

13

Finally starting Vogue 1048

Filed Under Rucci dress, sewing, wedding dress | 10 Comments

The quick and dirty muslins have been adjusted and revamped.  (Just to let you know if you are attempting this dress- I had to do alterations on 9 pattern pieces.  That was not including the lining which I still have to alter.  Oh my goodness- and I thought this was a nice “simple” dress!)

Tonight I finally had an evening alone and at home. 
Perfect, I thought to myself.  An hour or two and this baby will be cut out and ready to sew…That was at 7pm.  It is now past midnight and I am still not done!  I  know why this dress is rated advanced- your brain has to be at an advanced stage of atropy to think it is easy!!

 Pattern pieces- 28
Number of pieces needing underlining - 11
Total number of pieces one needs to cut out -I think 60

60!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To add insult to injury, I got bored with all the cutting and handbasting underlining to fabric and thought I would run a few pieces through the machine. 

Umm…
UMMMMM…

My machine- a Husky which has not given me even one hiccup in 5 or so years of running continuously, won’t go.  Hey, I sound like a petulant 5 year old- “won’t go”!!!  I really hope the electrical storms that went though yesterday did not affect it.

I’m too tired to look at it anymore tonight…tomorrow is another day.

Today’s postscript…  
We are starting to think about a wedding dress for Daughter #1 - Erica.  She has given me these inspiration pictures.  The bodice is what we are really trying to create. I think!  It is actually a double bodice.   There is the regular bodice, then a shirred or pleated layer over top.  Finding a suitable base pattern may prove impossible.  Thank goodness I have 11 months 10 months.


Jun

12

Oowie, Oowie!

Filed Under Lauren, Random, children | 8 Comments

I read this today in our local newspaper.  On the front page no less- it must have been a slow news day!

Eric Lammers wondered if he was just a wimp when he felt the occasional shot of pain in his foot when he played soccer in his bare feet.

Now, the London high school teacher knows he wasn’t.

Lammers recently injured his foot while coaching at London District Christian secondary school and went to Victoria Hospital for X-rays.

“Sure enough, my toe was broken but they also found a little something else,” he said.

After several images were taken of his foot, medical staff began asking him if he ever remembered stepping on anything.
 
 “The doctors called me over and said , ‘Come have a look at this.’ There was a sewing needle in my foot,” said Lammers.

The needle, which appears to be broken, is wedged between his big and second toe. Lammers, 35, thinks it has been there for 13 years.

His mother, Nellie, had shag carpeting in their house.

“I remember stepping on something and feeling some pain. There was a little red dot, but I didn’t think much about it. That’s probably when it happened,” he said.

Lammers estimates the needle is about an inch and a half long, but cautions he’s a fisher and it could be less.

He has an appointment with a surgeon June 27 to see if the needle should be removed.
Want to bet that….

A.  His mother sews!
B.  I will be hiding this section of the paper from my family!!
C.  I will be doing a better job keeping track of my sewing needles/pins from now on!
D.  If they find needles laying around on the floor (head hanging in shame because yes they will!) I will not be allowed to live it down.

Thank goodnes we don’t have shag carpet!

Darn you Eric Lammers mom -whoever you are!

Today’s Postscript…

Monday was Baby Girl # 5’s 19th birthday. Boy do I feel old. I am much too young for my youngest child to be that mature! She traipsed into Toronto with a car load of girlfriends to celebrate at a Blue Jays game, and within a few minutes of being seated the group found themselves featured on the Jumbotron. Apparently they can die happy and fullfilled now!

Here is my beautiful girl then and now…


 
 
 

 

Jun

7

Weird coincidences!

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A totally non sewing blurb today, but an interesting and short one. 

(While you are reading this, softly hum under your breath the theme from “The Twilight Zone“)

My sisters and I got together last night.  It is something that we do not do often enough, but we do enjoy each others company- I mean what can be better than sharing wine with sisters right?! 

However, we are three busy women.  (We have an equally busy sister who lives in Calgary, but she couldn’t jet east for the evening)   We run the gamut from nurse to marriage thearapist and playwright to farmer/insurance adjuster.  Our social and work lives do not intertwine much, and we live in three different communities.  

(Keep reading - this is all necessary to the plot..)

Here comes the strange part-

My sister the nurse was excited to tell us about a job opportunity she is hoping to get.  It is specializing in the area of adult Cystic Fibrosis and dealing directly with patients.  My sister the marriage therapist/playwright said “Oh great.  You will be meeting and working with my friend “Ruth”.  She has Cystic Fibrosis.  In fact I had a wedding shower for her last weekend”

I happened to know that that wedding shower was for someone in the acting community, and I started connecting dots. 

I said, “Um, is that friend getting married on the 21st?”  The answer was yes. 

Well guess what.  I will be at that wedding!  A friend of mine has a Murder Mystery group that I act in sometimes.  It turns out that this wedding is going to be televised for “Wedding SOS”, a reality show on Slice.  For some reason they want to have a murder mystery as part of the festivities, so I will be acting at the wedding.

So, by  happenstance, this woman will know all three of us, separately.  How random is that??!!

Oh yes.
And on national television!

Have you ever had a stranger than fiction experience?

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