scraps

I tackled the scrap drawer Saturday afternoon after ignoring its’ overflowedness for months.

Using bits from Marie Kondo’s books, plus bits from Hila’s video, the unwanted items are gone. Oh, one does feel virtuous after diving into chaos and ending with order… perhaps a too infrequent sensation. 🥴

Next up is the clothes closet, but that will have to be done in stages, as the weather is fluctuating between hot Spring and warm Winter temps.

Walking across the street yesterday, the hot humidity of approaching thunder storms brought back memories. Unfortunately, they weren’t of ❄️ & 👢&🧣& 🧤.

From this week’s weather forecast it looks like anything resembling “cool” might not occur again until November or December. 😣 Where did those 50’s and 60’s go??? Couldn’t Mummy Nature crank out a few more before melting the tarmac?

Meeeeeeeeeeeee-eh. 🥺 Even blackberry muffins aren’t consoling. (Yes, it’s muffin time again, yummy-yum-yum!)

Guess it’s the closet next. . .

Trying not to dwell on that thought, have almost finished The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame; Ernest H. Shepard, illustrator). And it is so good I wish it would go on and on. Sigh.

Even the first chapter of Dorothy Sayers’ Have His Carcase can’t tempt me, and with an opening para like this that’s hard for me to believe.

“The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and the sudden acquisition of wealth… Harriet Vane found all three specifics abundantly at her disposal; and although Lord Peter Wimsey, with a touching faith in tradition, persisted day in and day out in presenting the bosom for her approval, she showed no inclination to recline upon it.”

Meanwhile a certain stripey brown caftan has been laundered, and after ironing just might find its way onto the cutting table with a trouser pattern on top.

Nothing promised, you understand… but caftans or long skirts are sometimes things I make before deciding what to really do with a fabric. They don’t require much cutting into… if you catch my drift. 😉

❤️❤️ Meanwhile, may your bobbins never run out! 😘😘

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remember these two rayons?

They’ve been sitting here quietly, waiting for me to locate some stretch lace for their waistbands.

I looked at Vogue Fabrics (Chicago) on-line first, but didn’t find any. So I looked a few more places, browsing other fabrics along the way, as we do. . .

Spent a weekend thinking how to proceed further. Finally thought I could at least call Vogue’s 800 number and ask if they had anything in the store, and they did.

Alleluia!

Turns out they had lots of elastic lace in different colours and widths and percentages of stretch.

We emailed and called over a day or two, and whilst doing that, I had a look at Vogue’s fabrics, as we do. 😉

Despite our winter weather I’d fixated on a summer pattern acquired last year, V1496.

With that on the mental back burner Vogue’s latest laser print linens and pontes were tempting me, until a rayon caught me eye.

The rest, as they say, is history and both the elastic lace and the rayon are winging their way to moi.

Hopeless, aren’t I?

🥴

a stretch too far?

What do you. think, Lovely Readers? (That white is a handkerchief, so you can tell where there’s a pocket.)

Do these two coordinate? Extra points for lining pockets with the rayon skirt fabric??

(Below: Sorry I didn’t stick a hand in to show that lining. It was too busy trying to hold the tablet steady whilst the other hand searched for the shutter button.)

It feels like I’ve been faffing about half-heartedly with these two forever, but haven’t minded it.

(Below: Doesn’t that double row of stitching down the front look nice? Just consider the wee fold in the pocket below it to be a design feature.)

These might both be considered out of season, and submitted for this month’s Monthly Stitch challenge.

But actually, there’s yet another duster, cut out in December, that was planned for the challenge. But even that’s hedging, as it was cut out last year.

What to do? 🥴

sorta silly saturday

Sandra, over at Wild Daffodil, has a year-long photo challenge on “windows” and I thought I’d add a photo.

It includes street lamps and hallways. Can you tell what’s what?

Don’t faint. . . but yours truly actually got some sewing done the other day. Remember this cotton batik? Recognise a slight problem? Note the neck facing attached to the front facing which is almost twice as wide as it should be?? Hmmm. Needed some trimming.

Also note the slight excess of fabric (that fold) in the facing of the other side? Measurement showed a one inch difference in the width between the right and left sides. Somehow the whole neck and front facing thingey got very unaligned.

I decided to trim off that extra inch on the too wide side so it would match the other. Maybe that would take care of that extra fabric that was causing the fold.

So I decided it was time to make things right. Note those chalk lines? That’s where the serger evened things out.

Success! Evening out and matching both sides fixed the fold and aligned all the facings. Remaining is tacking those facings down and hemming.

I guess this is called “Slow Sewing.”

🥴

personal identity & what to wear . . .

Really, how important are our clothes? What do they say about us? What are they saying to others?  Could changing our clothes really change our lives??

If you didn’t see this on Hila’s blog , grab a cuppa, take a break and watch it now.

AUTUMN ! ! ! And just in time for any chilling winds, the crocheted hat & scarf are tasselled & done!

My wooly news from last week was finishing my green acrylic hat & scarf set. Yeah!  And just about completing the 8th of my blankey rectangles. Many more to go. Also continuing to slow knit my autumnal scarf. (All my knitting is slow.)

The teal shorts continue to sit, whilst I decide what to do with a nice bit of leftover rayon…

this will make more sense after you’ve seen the last video – promise!

just another saturday
Having survived a side swipe from the latest  hurricane, it was going to be regular Saturday laundry & maybe cooking a meat loaf. Plus doing a bit of sewing whilst  listening to “Good Neighbors,” a 1970’s BBC series.

If you’d like a peek at the program, click here and here.  Margo’s outfits are so 1970’s I’m putting together a small collection to be aired after I’ve finished watching the 3rd season.

But about that meat loaf. Remember the meat loaf??

About half way through the bake I went out to check it. As I put my hand on the stove top it almost raised a blister. Uh-oh. Something was wrong.

Seems the thermostat had baked it’s last bake and was registering its’ displeasure by refusing to turn off.  Grr… Not an option.

Maintenance came to the rescue, and the dead thermostat was replaced once everything had cooled off.

The glass pan did scrub up fairly easily, and the meat loaf is edible, thank goodness!

But the meat loaf, once I got it out of the cooker, appeared to be more than done, registering well above the appropriate internal temp.

So while I didn’t get any sewing done, the meat loaf is edible.   😳

a life without books is…
Death in the Tunnel.  Despite the fact of the train’s not “com(ing) to a screeching halt” in the middle of the  2½ mile tunnel, I found Miles Burton’s book both challenging and boring; however, the layers of detail kept me interested.

Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm, and taciturn, as reflected by the author’s prose style. I don’t know if I like this one or not. It’s currently feeling ominous. Maybe that’s intentional, and I’ve decided its’ not best to read it before bedtime!

Rather than leaving you with the image of burnt beef and an iffy thriller,  here’s something many of us will find interesting.  And it explains my hand in the middle of the teal fabric…

❤        ❤        ❤