No White Thread

How could this happen? I had a spool Friday. I suspect the baloney boy took it. Back to Joann's.

Swimsuit

I cut out a swimsuit from Kwik Sew's Swim and Action Wear Book in May of 2002, just before I learned I was pregnant. Yesterday and today, I finished the suit. This is the only time that I have ever cut something out and not made it up. This suit incorporates modifications based on the toile that I've been using to swim in. Hopefully, this one won't bag in the butt and leave me exposed in front. I plan on swimming in it on Monday.

I tried the triple coverhem stitch to finish the neck, arm, and leg holes. I'd never used it before. I used 2 green threads on the outside and a purple one in the middle. It really helps if you thread your chain looper correctly, but that would be true of all the coverstitches.

More Tracing

I traced Simplicity 5633 in a size 4 (41 inches) for DD. I traced the t-shirt (A), tank top (B), and skirt (C). I lengthened the flounce on the skirt. DD is 41 inches, and I'd like it to be wearable for a while.

The comments show up in the previews. Why not here? I guess I'm going to have to ask blogger for help. What would really help is if the template editing window was bigger.

Tracing & Cutting, but when will I sew

I retraced and cut out Kwik Sew 2489. It seems that I've lost a bit of weight since last summer. I've still got 2 yards of 18 inch wide eyelet and 3 yards of 36 inch wide eyelet to use up.

Comments Test

Why doesn't the Comments line show up?

Stupid Laundry

Big Sigh. In theory, DH was supposed to take the kids all day Saturday. Well, I thought that meant that he would feed them breakfast, but apparently not. They came bounding into the bedroom and rousted me out of bed because they were hungry, wanted breakfast, and their father was no where to be found. To make matters worse, BH (DH's evil persona) has not done much around the house for the past month because he bought a new boat. The boat did not start out "the damn boat". It's taken a month of his spending all of his free time with the damn boat to reall color my attitude. Anyway, because BH has neglected his chores, we were running out of clothes for the kids. BH is supposed to do the kids' laundry. So instead of sewing all day Saturday, I was folding and putting away laundry.

So my big day alone to sew, I managed to topstitch NL 6869, hem the sleeves, and serge the side seams.

A little sewing, a little shopping

I traced the pattern for Burda WOF 4/2003 157 - Girl's Dress last night. DD has been gaa-gaa over the dress since she saw it in the magazine. It's funny. She's a jeans and t-shirt girl, and this is a really frilly dress. But what's a mom to do?

I reviewed the gift bag and the baby pants.

I went shopping at Joann's. I can't put away the fabric that I have, so I promised myself that I wouldn't buy anymore until it was all away. So what do I do? I go into Joann's this morning to buy some patterns, and I find a "Mexican" stripe fabric that I have to have.

Then I walk over to the quilting cottons. For some reason, they put a couple of mud-cloth knock-offs over there. I've been eyeing one for several months, but it's $12.99/yard. Seems a bit expensive for printed burlap. It was gone! Like I need more fabric? Like I was going to go home and sew it right away? No & no. But I was so upset. So I go back to the clearance fabrics, and they have a rayon-cotton-lycra knit. You know I had to buy that. There was only a yard. I hope there's enough left after prewash to make a t-shirt. It feels really nice. Then because I'm feeling sorry for myself because the faux-mud-cloth is gone, I pick out a funky sweaterknit that I've been eyeing for a while.

On the way back to the cutting table, I see the faux-mud-cloth on the lower shelf. There's another woman right there, and she turns to talk to me when I exclaim, "THERE YOU ARE!" We examine the fabric together, and I lament the high price, but I have a coupon. "No", she says, "You have to come back on Sunday to use your coupon." What? I look at my coupon, and she's right.

Those @#$%#&!@ at Joann's. Their marketing scheme is working. I have to make 2 trips to get the sale patterns and to use my coupon.

Gads! May is crazy!

What a month! I can't believe it's the 20th already. My son was sick with a 104F fever for a week. My husband happened to be on travel at the same time. I was exhausted. Of course, that's why I had children. I wanted all of this to happen.

So I haven't had much time for sewing. I did manage to finish the gift bag for my mom e-mail list Mother's Day exchange. It came out very well, thank you, and the recipient is pleased with it. Overall I liked the bag pattern by Cindy Taylor Oates, and the instructions were excellent. However, I didn't like the way she has you put the top on. She uses a very wide binding, too wide for my tastes, and I think it looks sloppy. If I make another one, I'll use a different technique to attach the top.

In Process:

• Kwik Sew 3028 - The sleeves are too long. I shortened one, and it wasn't enough. So I want to wait until DH can try it on to set the sleeve length. I didn't have enough material to make a neckband, so I used some cream colored ribbing. DH is very pleased with the color combination of olive green and cream. His chest is 41.5, so I made him a large. It's very loose on him. He said he doesn't think that I should cut the windpro version any larger. I don't think he understands how much of a difference the much heavier windpro fabric will make. This one is out of a light sweatshirt or heavy t-shirt knit. I haven't decided if I'm going to cut the seam allowances any larger on the windpro one or not.
• New Look 6898 is waiting for me to do some topstitching before moving forward.
• Kwik Sew 3028 - I traced & cut this last night. I cut the front crotch length by 2 inches. I'll probably have to cut off even more. I added 2 inches to the leg length. I'm using white powerdry which has more than 25% stretch. Hopefully, this will be a good chafe guard. I hope the legs are long enough.

I'm using Easy to Make Totes with Zippers by Cindy Taylor Oates to make this bag.

I tried out bobbin work. I wrapped some cone thread that I bought about 20 years ago to make a crocheted sweater around the bobbin, and tried it with one of the sideways motion stiches built into my Bernina Artista 180E. The stitch slipped around. I don't think the problem had anything to do with the yarn on the bobbin. I think it has to do with the stabilizer. Because it's bobbin work, the stablizer has to be on top. I was using Sulky Totally Stable, which is paperlike and slick. It's also rather lightweight. I think a heavier, less slippery stabilizer might be the answer. It worked fine when I turned the piece back over, with the stablizer on the back, and sewed with an embroidery thread.

I also use the yarn to do a decorative stitch along a seam. That worked well. I did a couple of seams with embroidery thread and decorative stitches. They came out good, so I got all cocky and did the next seam without a test. DISASTER!!! The stitches were uneven and the bobbin thread pulled to the top. Why do I keep making this mistake? Sure, I'm in a hurry to get this done because it's supposed to be a Mother's Day gift. It's going to be late. Fortunately, I can cover the ugly stitches with a ribbon and stitch that down.

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I went to the ASG neighborhood meeting last night. It was more of a stitch and bitch session than anything else. I think I'd like to go again. It's the only way I can meet other sewers locally, but I'm not sure. It was really hard on Tony. I've never been away from him in the evening. It was hard on Isabel, too. Tony refused to go to bed, so he was still up when I got home. Because he was still up, I couldn't pay much attention to Isabel. So, I dunno. We'll see how I feel about it in a month.

Well, I, rather stupidly, turned off my embroidery machine after the broken needle fiasco. It's a lot harder to fix an embroidery when you have to realign it, too. Fortunately, I had only moved the embroidery off center in one (1) direction, so it was pretty easy to get it lined up close enough.

It came out okay, but I managed to punch some holes in the fabric. I'm thinking of using Agent 007 fusible bonding powder to attach a piece of fabric behind the holes. Since this is for a bag, it doesn't have to be drapey.

Well, the orange & pink fabric purchase fell through. It seems that I am not the only one who has a penchant for orange and pink fabric.

Burda 4978: Finished. They came out okay. I messed up the elastic application. The casing allowance in the pattern was too small for my elastics, so I serged the elastic to the fabric, turned, and stitched it down for a faux casing look. I basted the elastic in place at the start but not at the finish, big mistake. My kids are slim, so I make pants the right length, then make the elastic fit their waists, and they don't care if the pants are big in the thighs or baggy in the seats. However, sometimes, the waistband elastic is so much smaller than the waist, and it's such a small waist, that I have trouble with the serge and turn method. I wasn't able to maintain tension at the end, and the elastic slipped, so there is a section of the waist that doesn't have elastic. Ah, well, live and learn.

Kwik Sew 3028	The sweatshirt is almost finished. All that's left to do is the lower hem. I decided not to finish the neckline and just let it roll a little. This really is just a toile. If DH likes the sweatshirt, and the neckband bothers him, I'll finish it.
New Look 6898	I decided I needed matching thread to do some topstitching, so this has been waiting. I have the thread now, but I need to work on the mother's day exchange gift.
New Look 6106, View B	I finished this one. BIG SIGH. I don't know what happened. I got the darts at my waist and the armholes too small.

I joined in the Mother's Day gift exchange on my mom's e-mail list. The lucky recipient will be getting a crazy quilted tote based on Cindy Taylor Oates bag book. Everything was going great until I managed to break a needle doing an embroidery this morning. Since I had to get to work, I didn't really assess the damage. We shall see what it looks like this evening.