nm

Is nm a nanometer or a nautical mile? Usually, I'm not opposed to abbreviations, but this one took me 2 weeks to figure out.

Denim Jacket & Stuff

Denim Jacket

I made the FBA too big and too low. I'm going to have to figure out what I am doing wrong. It might have to do with my being overly erect. When I fit the pattern, I pin the shoulder in place on Buttina and position the FBA from that. Then when I sew it up, the front is heavier than the back and pulls the shoulder seams forward? But then, wouldn't the back-neck get hung up on my neck? You would think I would notice that. Of course, Buttina doesn't really have a neck, so it would be hard to tell on her.

Eating has not been good. In fact, I felt so out of control that I didn't bother doing my entries in Calorie King I didn't go off the deep end like I did after xmas. Oh, well, today is the first day of the rest of my life. Everything starts today.

I rode my bike to work. It was hard.

Good News

One of my scraps was just barely big enough to fit the upper collar pattern piece. I had to piece together 3 pieces for the under collar, but that's okay; it won't really show.

ARGH!!!

So I'm happily sewing along, enjoying my time alone. I finish the jacket bodice. I did the collare earlier, while I was waiting for my buttons to arrive. I take the collar out and get ready to attach it to the bodice. Then I notice that I sewed the collar bottom shut, including topstitching, instead of the top! I don't have any fabric left. I cut up the last of it for a pair of pants for Chungita. I suppose I could use the pants, but the grainline would be crosswise. I'm going to see what that looks like. Denim has such a defined grainline. Altho, it is likely that the only people who would notice are other sewists, and maybe not even them.

When The Cat's Away ...

jacketFront2

Other than just about killing myself from the exertion, I had a very nice day and evening yesterday. I rode my bike to work, getting so hot and sweaty that my hair was dripping. Oh, well. Work was ... well ... work, unexciting, except for the extreme frustration when stupid microsoft excel wouldn't do a workbook search. I still don't know what's wrong, but if I launch excel by clicking on the file, I can do the search.

I rode my bike home, collapsed in front of the TV, and sucked down a lot of water. I managed to stagger to the kitchen to get some dinner, spinach salad and crab lasagne (YUM!). I ate my dinner without being touched by little hands and was able to watch a TV show with no interruptions.

Sabrina came by to take me to OA, and we had a good meeting. A new person showed up. I'd really like to get more people interested in the meeting. We only have 3 core members, 2 semi-regulars, and 1 commited newcomer. If the new person is able to make the commitment, that would bring us up to 7. We haven't had 7 members in a long, long time.

After the meeing, I watched another of those terribly violent crime dramas. I love Tivo. I took a bath without worrying that a small child might wake up and need me. And I sewed.

I decided to use the automatic buttonholes in the 180E. It's so much easier, especially with the automatic buttonhole sizing program. And it has the pointy end buttonhole. The fronts are together. I still need to do some topstitching and the facing stuff, but it's starting to look like a jacket. I'm still concerned that I did the FBA too big and too low.

Granny Visit

Granny & Chungita

Since I've been complaining about having MIL visit for 2 weeks, I thought I'd show you what she looks like. She's playing with Chungita. They are pretending to make and eat soup made from Chungita's button collection.

This morning, at the last minute, DH told me that I didn't have to go to Tahoe with them! I was stunned. Then I asked if he was sure. He said he would rather I spend the day with his family on Friday (I was going to work) than go to Tahoe and sit with the kids at the hotel while his family skied. So, of course, I said, "OK." They left this morning and won't be back until Thursday. Can you believe it? I haven't been alone for this long in years.

On the eating front, I think I figured out why I was out of control. It wasn't that MIL & SILs were visiting. I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to control my eating while we were at Tahoe and that we would be eating out A LOT while they were here. I was so stressed out about that that I couldn't cope and my eating got out of control. A self fulfilling prophecy for sure. I, also, think I'm about to get my period.

It was so weird. Once I realized what was going on in my head, I calmed right down. So the binge ended last night. And this morning the miracle happened.

So what's new with the sewing stuff? Last night I used my 180E to do some test buttonholes instead of the trusty old 1001. The buttonholes from the 1001 aren't very good because the satin stitching is too close together. I couldn't cut the hole without cutting some of the stitching. I learned a 2 pass method where you stitch a buttonhole, cut it, and stitch it again. I really like the finish on the 2 pass buttonhole. The edges of the buttonhole are wrapped with thread. It's a much cleaner finish than just cutting after a 2 pass buttonhole.

However, the 180E does several different buttonholes, and I thought the one with the pointy end might be more interesting than a regular buttonhole. The test buttonholes looked fine except that they have those little pokeys of thread from the cut fabric instead of a clean, thread wrapped edge. What to do, what to do?

Jean Jacket Buttons

button

To your right you see a pocket flap from my jean jacket. I ordered a bunch of buttons from a "Dress It Up" dealer. I had intended to use either round or heart shaped navy buttons with this jacket. The dealer had a big bag of silver buttons on special, and since I like silver, I thought, "Might as well buy this, too." I'm really glad I did. I like that button a lot, and I think it's perfect for the jacket.

Hello Kitty Personality Test

I'm Hello Kitty Water Fairy! made by: Jen

Reorganization

A Spot of Color

I haven't been doing much sewing. I did clean up the sewing area, specifically the table that Chungita and Pulgito use to create. Before Pulgito was mobile, Chungita used a kid's table, but that had to change when he started walking. So she got my 40" high worktable, accessible with a stool. Pulgito is now old enough to create as well, so he was allowed to climb up on a stepstool, too. I decided the potential for falling off a stool was too great with both of them up there.

So I had to:

• Clean off the cutting table which would be folded up to make room for the kid's table.
• Clean off the worktable to put the stuff from the cutting table.

You would think it wouldn't be that hard, but as soon as I got the work table cleanned up, the kids would make another mess. It's not like I have time to do this all at once, and for my sanity's sake, I admit, I let them make the mess while I was tring to keep everything clean.

I wasn't able to do it until MIL and SIL's were there to occupy the kids. Did I menttion that I adore my MIL? She's the sweetest person in the world, and she loves to watch the kids. She and DH took them to the park, and I was finally able to get everything in order for us to all create at the same time.

As for the eating, that's not going well. I think yesterday was one long binge. Today, I'm not doing badly, but I did eat a Cadbury Cream Egg.

Btw, the image is of the gulfstream nandina that I have in the front yard. Nandina's can take a lot of abuse and are drought resistant, so you see a lot of scraggly, neglected ones, but they can be very beautiful and add gorgeous color to a garden in the winter.

The sun was shining for a while.

Eating Disaster

Well, today, I totally relapsed. I took the kids to Starbucks and had a maple oat scone, binge 1. Then I finished off Pulgito's muffin, binge 2. Followed that up by eating too many of the cookies that we baked. The last cookie of the afternoon was scarfed down while I was trying to get Chungita to a birthday party that DH had totally forgotten about. I had a piece of cake at the party that I didn't even enjoy. Then after dinner, I sat with Pulgito and ate cookies.

My stress level is very high with MIL visiting, DH forgetting the birthday party, and just general weekend stuff. Oh, well. As Scarlette said, Tomorrow is another day.

Last Day of Freedom

Tomorrow, MIL and 2 SILs arrive for a two week visit. I'm not sure today is a free day since I promised DH that I would clean a bathroom, and I have to drive to Pleasanton to get a birthday present for a friend of Chungita's. So what am I doing? Cleaning bathrooms? No way! I'm surfing the 'net.

The Bitching Part

I've decided to put my eating disorder (ED) journal here. It's just too hard for me to do 2 different blogs. I had wanted to keep the ED stuff separate because it can be kinda heavy, and this was supposed to be a sewing blog. However, this is my blog to do with as I will. So ...

Things are going well. I got into the eating disorder group at Kaiser and went to my first meeting. It was really good to sit in a circle with other women who knew exactly what I was talking about. OA is good, but most of the people in my group aren't as sick as I am. I'm not going to stop going to OA. Also, the ED group is lead by a psychologist who is an ED specialist. I think I can learn a lot more about my disease and how to get well with them than I could alone or with a general psychologist.

Daffodil

daffodil

The first daffodil of the season.

Almond Snow

Almond Blossoms

Pulgito

This part of town used to be one big almond orchard. We still have some of the trees left, and when they bloom it's rather spectacular. I like them so much that I planted a new one in my front yard. It's a different variety from the old orchard ones and blooms a little later.

When the petals fall off the trees, it looks a little like a dusting of snow.

Making Snow Balls

Throwing the Petals

A little baking, not much sewing

cookies
Originally uploaded by neefer.

So I haven't been sewing, but I did make cookies. This is the first time that I've baked cookies with both kids. I did it once before with Chungita, but she wasn't into it. Can you imagine?

Pulgito was exited immediately when I brought up the idea. He kept saying COOKIE over and over again. Of course we used the premade sugar cookie dough. I wanted to roll it so that the kids could use the heart cookie cutters, and the only flour I have is 100% whole wheat flour. It worked fine. I even got to use Robert's high tech rolling pin. I was going to use my mother's old apple wood one, but Robert suggested that I use the high tech one. I don't think it makes a difference.

The kids managed to cut the cookies out without slicing off any one's finger, and we decorated them with red, pink, and purple candies. Pulgito seems to like the idea of a lot of sugar on top of his sugar cookies.

Valentine Baby

Valentine Baby

Is this a cute picture or what? He's the son of a friend of mine.

Jacket Front

Jacket Front

Before actually starting this project, I didn't consider that this is a princess seam jacket. Sure, it's not a full princess seam jacket because of the yoke, and the seam doesn't go thru the center of the bust, but the full bust alteration (FBA) is the same as for a princess seam top. Because I'm a member of the Big Ol' Dart club, I need to make a large alteration. The original side fronts were much more straight than these, but this should give the jacket nice shaping for me.

Jean Jacket

Jacket Back

Here's the back of my jean jacket. I know it's hard to tell any details from the picture because the fabric is so dark. It's a lightweight denim with black outline embroidery of a floral vine. I got it at Joann's.

The back doesn't lie flat. I added some extra room at the bottom for my big butt and hips, and while the top yoke has a flat bottom, there is a slight "curve" to the bottom 3 panels of the back, giving the back some shape.

I'm really enjoying sewing up this jacket. Denim is so easy to work with. It doesn't ravel, so after the initial fray, you don't have to worry about the edge finish. However, I did use my serger to finish the edges.

The top stitching is a bit of mindless work, but it looks really nice.

Another Pound

I lost another pound, so I'm 7 pounds down. Only 58 more to go. (sigh)

In kilograms, I'm down 3 kg with only 26 to go.

Is it better to have lost more or have more to lose?

I forgot to add that I finally made it to my first weight goal. I weighed this much when I was Maid of Honor at a girlfriend's wedding. My next goal is the weight set by Calorie King.

New Glasses

Perscription glasses are so expensive. My new ones cost $405(US). I think my insurance pays $80 of that.

Flamingos

Kitsch Never Goes Out of Style

It's supposed to rain today, but I thought you-all would like an idea of what February in the California desert is like. We're not really the desert. The local environment is classified as an "inland coastal valley". How's that for an oxymoron? I do live in a valley, we are about 60 miles from the coast, and we get the fog from the ocean ... sometimes. Sometimes, we don't, like when it's over 100F/40C. Our average rainfall is only 14 inches/35 cm a year.

A Little Gardening

My Backyard

I've been gardening lately. This is a section of my back yard. I have over 40 roses, and I got them all pruned this year. That's a big deal because I haven't been doing that for the past several years.

DH's Sweatshirt

Cutting out the windpro

After 2 fitting toiles, I decided it was time to cut out DH's windpro sweatshirt. Of course, I got the pieces cut out and decided I wanted to work on my jean jacket instead of the sweatshirt. I need to ask DH which side he wants out, too.

I have 1 1/3 yards left. I wonder what I can do with that? Sure I could make something for the kiddos, but I'd like to use the windpro for me.

Thread

Bottom Layer by Neefer.

A few months ago, I sent a large cone of serger thread back to the manufacturer because it broke every 18 inches. Their deal is that they will replace the thread and send enough thread & zippers to cover the cost of postage. I think they go over board, but it's a really good deal.

The picture to the right is of the bottom layer of thread. I had enough to fill 3 layers in that green box.

Middle Layer by Neefer.

This isn't even all the thread. I decided to sell some at a garage sale. Some was not identified, on very small spools. I'm not into hand quilting, and the colors weren't very exciting, so I'm going to see if that sells. They sent me a large variety of blue threads. I hadn't really considered that there were so many different colors of navy.

top layer

I know, I know, I'm anal retentive for sorting the thread into a rainbow and putting it away neatly in a box. I just can't help myself.

Vneck shell

I tried it on last night, and I like the v-neck. I'm going to have to alter for being very straight in the upper back. The back armhole is too long. I'm trying to decide if I want to go down a size. The shoulders seem a little wide, but the neck is fine, so I'm not sure. I have to change the FBA, so it's not that much more work to retrace. I think I will work on something else for a while.

Too Big and Too Low

What is my problem? It seems that every other time I do a full bust alteration (FBA), I make it too big and too low. It's really not an alteration you can fix after the fact either because you get a big pouch under the breast. Oh, well.

New Baby

New Baby

Lenore gave me the baby doll, and when I got home with it, I noticed that it's hair color was the same as Tony's. Tony really likes his new baby.