I fail Fearless February

...and to top it all off, it took me three tries to spell February right!

Sorry, people. I haven't done a single buttonhole. I was traveling, and moving, and packing, and unpacking, and making new friends, and staying up to ungodly hours and going to bed early.

There are four days in February left, so I will try. But I make no more promises, because this moving-to-Germany thing isn't quite as easy I had thought it would be.

Major facepalm

Well, I have been on a massive organizing kick recently. I did post something a while back about how I had purged my patterns and fabric, but I didn't really do anything else. I've spent the last few days getting my sewing stuff really in order, and so far it's working very well. I have a whole shelf devoted to my stuff now, rather than a few boxes. But I think I screwed something up.

I think I gave away the wrong box of patterns.

Fail. I'm still not sure how I managed to do that without noticing, but I know I wouldn't have kept some of the patterns in my pattern box, so I can only assume I got out the wrong box when I was giving patterns away. Luckily, my favorite patterns weren't in the box I got rid of, but I'm still pretty frustrated.

Much needed repairs!

It's been pretty chilly around here lately. Not super cold, but enough that you do want a jacket. However, my jacket looks like this:

No lining! I have a lovely winter coat my parents bought me for my 18th birthday, which is well made and has served me well. But last winter, the lining started to tear out along every single seam. The pockets tore, and stuff fell out. So I tore out all the lining. In typical Sophie fashion, I then didn't put a new lining in. I did cut out new pattern pieces, and I did sew some of them together, but then when May came around and I moved out of the dorm, my winter coat was put in a bag and forgotten.

See how crumpled the lining is? At least I was able to find it! I've been working on putting it into the coat since Wednesday, in small chunks when I have time.

At the moment, I have the lining all sewn together, and one pocket is all the way in and the other is halfway in. I am hoping to finish this up tomorrow, and then devote the weekend to two pursuits: writing final papers and going to G Street Fabrics for the DC sewing blogger meetup!

Well now.

Apparently Blogger decided to reset all my stats to zero. It has happened to others too, and Blogger says they are working on a solution. Just a heads-up that this is a wide-spread problem, so I think we should be able to expect it to be cleared up in a few days. I hope so, any way.

Not my most attractive moment, perhaps

I have worn my Very Hungry Caterpillar skirt several times since I made it. Every time I wear it, I get a compliment on it. Yesterday CUA's honors program went on a fall hike, and I decided to go ahead and wear my skirt to hike in. After all, going hiking with a bunch of academics isn't a very strenuous endeavor, and Rock Creek Park isn't exactly the world's most challenging hiking grounds. Half our hike was along a paved bike path, for crying out loud!

Then I saw the group photo the ranger at Rock Creek Park took of our group.

 

Hmm. Not the most flattering of photos. The shirt length and the skirt length aren't well matched. It doesn't help that I'm not standing straight. But really, I think the worst thing is the height of my socks sticking out of my work/hiking boots. My hiking boots are not a flattering piece of clothing. But they cost $25 at Walmart sophomore year of high school, and they do their job.

Good thing I wasn't trying to win any fashion competitions while hiking.

And maybe someday I should cultivate the habit of looking in a mirror before I leave the house.

Today's Duh, I'm a Moron Moment

Sewing machines work a lot better if you put the bobbin in. You know, just in case you were wondering.

No More Captchas

JillyBeJoyful alerted me to the fact that those horrible captchas which are totally illegible are Blogger's default. I had thought that mine were still the easy-to-read ones they were when I decided to add comment captchas.

Anyway, they're gone now. I can't read them, and I'm 20 and have excellent vision. I can't imagine what sight-impaired or more, shall we say, well-seasoned people do. If I get a lot of spam I'll moderate comments, but I'm not too worried. Those captchas are not an option to me!

In praise of mothers

Last night, I was close to a meltdown. It was about 9:00 or so, which is about the point in time where I begin to stop being rational. After about 10pm, it's just downhill all the way, and I either use the internet, chat, or go to bed. The skirt was almost done, but not completely. I had everything done except the eyelets.

Then, disaster struck. I couldn't get the eyelets in. There were too many layers of fabric to get them through. I tried everything I could think of. There were sewing tools, and non sewing tools, scattered all around me. I needed advice, but didn't know where to turn--my mother, my usual go-to sewing helper, was out! Normally, I would have packed everything up and waited, but I had to finish the skirt that night so my cousin could wear it the next day. So I kept struggling with it.

Then, Mama arrived. Everything became instantly so much better. I don't know what special gift mothers have, but somehow they can fix anything. Or my mother can, anyway! It's actually kind of amusing--I sew much more often than she does, and am willing to attempt much harder things than she is, but I have never yet run across a sewing problem she couldn't solve.

We decided to make buttonholes by hand, and resigned ourselves to a long night. Then, an offhand comment made by my father gave Mama an idea. Instead of making eyelets for my cousin's ribbon, we just sewed lacings out of the fabric we had, and sewed them on (neatly covering the holes I had made trying to get the eyelets through).

I drove the skirt over to her, and was in bed before one. Of course, I had done no Greek homework at that point, but you take what you can get.

I made my cousin promise to get me a picture of her all nicely suited up in her costume, but I did get a few snaps of a sister holding up the skirt. Here they are:

What's the moral of this story? Don't embark on new sewing techniques that you've never done before an hour before a project is due. Or, maybe, Don't accept sewing jobs that involve drafting patterns in a week while taking Intensive Greek. Or, Don't leave the hardest part of a project to the last step.
But, if you do....make sure your mother is around!

It's not you, it's me. Or maybe her.

Apparently I kill sewing machines. I own two vintage sewing machines, for some reason I don't really remember. My first one, Marianne, developed some timing issues which I attributed to taking her on a long car trip in a car whose shocks were dying. Charlotte was doing fine until yesterday. Now she's having the same problem that Marianne was. The faceplate (I think that's the correct word?) is getting all scratched up around the hole where the needle goes in.

I'm getting frustrated. I seem to be terrible for sewing machines, but I don't know what I'm doing that's screwing them up. I wonder if this could be related to the fact that my little sister likes to use my sewing machine (without permission) and doesn't know how to thread it and usually uses the wrong kind of needle. Is that likely to have been causing a problem? Or have I just had bad luck? I don't know what causes timing issues, but I'm reluctant to go spend $150 to get it fixed if it's just going to happen again and again. On the other hand, I can't exactly keep sewing on a machine that works like this...

Argh. It hasn't been a good week. Any advice?

It never rains, but it pours!

First week of classes + tech week of show = no blogging.

Along came the weekend, when I could relax, and what happened? A giant thunderstorm that knocked out power (and came a little too close to knocking out me and H as we were driving home from opening night!). We didn't get power back until over 60 hours later, so the weekend was not spent blogging.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, so I could relax tonight, and blog, but my sister has the camera, and so I can't post all my beautiful costume pictures.

I'm trying, people. I really am.

Tip for little actresses out there....

...assess how tired and cranky the costume designer is before you loudly announce that you hate every part of your costume and aren't going to wear that hat!

Juryrigged Cone Stand

So, today I started to sew a wimple for H. (Don't ask me why a whorish nurse is wearing a wimple.) I realized that I had no white thread. How on earth does a seamstress run out of white thread? *sigh* I had some white cones of thread...but no cone stand.

Well, you know what? I needed to get that white thread to work on my sewing machine! So I made it work. I put my serger to the right of my sewing machine and used the serger itself as a cone stand.

 

Apologies for the terrible picture. I need to find a non-cellphone camera! Anyway, there's a white cone of thread to the right of the black one you can see in the picture, and you can just barely see the white thread coming along to the top of the machine.

I was very surprised at how well this worked! I don't think cone stands are necessary at all, although they are certainly useful. Note to self...when I get a real sewing room, put the serger to the right of the sewing machine...

A project so easy, you can't NOT screw up!

This tabard is a perfect example of a project so easy it's impossible *not* to screw up.You know the kind of project I mean? Four straight seams, people. Two shoulder seams, two side seams. It's so easy, you don't look at the ones you're copying, the pattern instructions, anything like that! So I breezed through it. It took me maybe half an hour. Then I looked at the other tabards, the ones from last year I was supposed to be copying. Oops. It was supposed to have slits at the side. Oh well, no problem! That can be added. And...how am I supposed to get all that ribbon trim and the eagle patch on? Oh yeah! I remembered her suggesting that I put on the decorations before sewing the side seams. I had filed it away in my "things people tell me that I won't worry about because duh, obvious!" box. (Sadly, I rarely look in that box. I forget lots of obvious things.)

So, I tore out the side seams, added all the trim, and resewed them, adding the slits. It still didn't take long at all, but if I had turned on my brain before I started sewing, maybe I wouldn't have made those stupid mistakes.

What are the projects you've found to be so easy, you can't not screw them up?

Busy? Who, me?

It's interesting, really. It never rains, but it pours! In my last post, I mentioned how most of my fabric is now assigned to a specific project. Normally, I would have picked one of those projects up and started sewing it. Probably an easy and short one for motivational purposes.

Enter, instead, more costume sewing. The school year is over, and with it, my job in the costume shop, but I volunteered to help make costumes for H's summer play, Romeo and Juliet. I had thought that this would take the form of someone handing me a pattern and some fabric and telling me, "Here, this has four straight seams. Sew this!" Was I ever wrong! The lady in charge of costumes and I had a nearly two hour meeting today. I'm sewing a tabard to match two left over from last year's play. That's pretty straightforward. However, I'm also sewing an overdress for Juliet! Clearly this woman is more trusting than I am, especially since I will have to alter the pattern substantially because it is multiple sizes too big! Don't get me wrong, I can certainly do it, but I wouldn't give someone I'd never met a costume for one of the lead roles.

These projects are supposed to theoretically be done soon. Like maybe Sunday if possible. On to the sewing! Pictures will come as projects are completed. I hope. I still haven't found my camera from my move home from college.

And...failure. Sort of.

As I mentioned in the comments to this post, my knitting all-nighter didn't quite work out as planned. I did get everything I wanted to get done done before I went to bed, but I underestimated how long the sewing together would take, and I forgot about the neckband. So the sweater wasn't finished by the time K and I left campus to go our separate ways. This is a perfect example, in my mind of the point that anything worth doing is worth doing right. I shouldn't have gone to bed before the sweater was done, or I should have gone to bed at a normal time.

Oh well. Not much I can do about it now, and the sweater is now done, and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I took a crummy cell phone picture to text to K, and promptly forgot to take a good one, wrapped the sweater up, and taped it into a box. So I will make sure to get a picture of him wearing it, and in the mean time you all will have to content yourselves with phone pictures. I'll upload it soon.

Live blogging my knitting!

So, tomorrow I go home for Christmas break. I'm excited to be going home (duh) and quite pleased with how I finished the semester. But there's one project left unfinished. And that's K's sweater. I have the front, the back, and one and a half arms done. Unless I start getting way too sleepy, I'm not going to bed until I'm done the knitting. (Tomorrow I'll sew it together.) I'll live-blog my progress--although I expect the sane people are all in bed!

1:08--Just finished watching Legally Blonde for the first time ever. I liked it! I'm currently 11 inches into the 21 inch long arm. 10 more inches to go!

1:52--12 inches done, 9 to go. At this rate, I'll be done in, oh, 6.6 hours. Hmm. I guess this really will be an all-nighter. Or I'll give up. We'll see.

2:43--13.5 inches down, 7.5 to go. I am definitely feeling the time now! We'll see how long this lasts.

3:13--14.5 inches down, 6.5 to go. Slowly getting there. I'm taking a quick break to eat an orange and move around a little.

3:45--16 inches down, 5 to go. The pace is picking up! As is, probably not unrelatedly, the wrist pain.

4:15--17.5 inches down, 3.5 to go. The number left to go is getting reassuringly small, but the time is getting disturbingly late....

4:45--18.75 inches down, 2.25 to go. Slowing down. :( I should hopefully still finish within the hour, though.

5:15--20.5 inches done, .5 inches to go. So close I can taste it! I just realized I forgot that there isn't just assembling the sweater; there's also knitting the neckband. I think I can still leave that until tomorrow, though. I'll be getting up early and not leaving campus until 3 or so.

5:27--Binding off! Why is the last 1/2 inch always the longest and most time-consuming part?

5:33. DONE. Goodnight!

Maid's hat!

Wow, sorry about the formatting screwup!
(Note to self: mobile publishing = bad idea!)



Anyway, I worked on this maid's hat in the costume shop last week.
It wasn't clear if it was a muslin or not. Haha.

Secret sewing

Sorry for the lack of progress. I'm currently working on a secret project which I can't post about yet. I highly doubt the recipient reads my blog, but better safe than sorry! This project has come to a standstill because the next step is ironing. And when it's this hot out, I delay ironing. Sometimes on warm days I iron outside, but not when it's this warm. Standing outside in a heat index of 113 with steam and heat coming up into your face? No, thank you! I spent an hour at the pool sitting in the shade this morning while J swam laps, and that was bad enough. Even at 9am, the heat index was 107.

Actual Quilting

I've started the actual quilting of my quilt. Finally! After looking up tips on how to pin it smoothly and flatly, I'm pretty sure I have been constructing this quilt all out of order. Luckily I'm not much of a perfectionist! The next quilt will probably go much more easily.

Also, I'm looking for binding tips! Blanket binding seems a little too shimmery for putting next to denim, and it adds up fast. Should I make my own binding out of leftover flannel? Or do something else entirely?

I'm alive, I swear!

This is why I was reluctant to start a blog. I had a feeling I would post regularly for a while and then slip off the blogging wagon. I will spare you apologies and rash promises of regular posts. I hope to sew more often during the summer, which is almost here (two classes, two papers, four finals, and then I'm freeee!), but I can't guarantee that.

Anyway, I did promise a post about the accessories I wore. Here's a picture (slightly blurry, sorry) of what the hairband, necklace, and earrings:
The hairband is an extra piece of the ribbon that the sash was made out of. I sewed a line of beads down the middle of it and my mother put elastic in the back. It's a very nice hairband, but it's really too wide for the amount of hair that I have. It didn't work terribly well. As a matter of fact what I wound up doing was getting my hair wet, and then my roommate blowdried it to give it a little more volume. The hairband then spent the evening sliding around and looked rather strange by the end of the night. Oh well. Live and learn.

The earrings and the necklace were made by my little sister. I did tell her that if she writes up a description of them I will post it here for her. So far she hasn't. (M, if you're reading this, it's not too late!) So I will do the best I can. The necklace is simply a bunch of smaller beads with large flat glass beads interspersed regularly throughout. The earrings are a tear-drop shape of smaller beads surrounding a large bead. The smaller beads are the same as the ones that I sewed on the hairband.

I haven't worn the hairband or the necklace since the inaugural ball (although I'm sure I will wear the necklace), but I wore the earrings (and the shoes) to Easter Mass and dinner.