Some new sewing, broken into five minute sessions

 Is it sewing if it's altering?

It was a hot mess of fray inside and I fixed it

The Sven holiday sweater: I haven't worn it yet, but it needs to be shorter. I have folded it to where I want it to hit. I may just cut off the lower snowflakes and reattach the ribbing. I would miss those test tubes, and it makes an easier cut than adding a ridge and removing the MeTV logo.

And I seem to have bought more pants fabric

Ventana Twill is the diggity bomb of winter pants fabric. It softens right up, the colors are deep, and it doesn't seem to pill or distort (although remember, I don't put the finished stuff in the dryer after I prewash and dry the bejebus out of it.
It also comes in solid colors and I need some boring pants. Prints and prints are too busy for my boss' eyeballs, and I have other fights to fight at work these days. He actually commented yesterday that this was the first time I dressed normally for work (leggings and a big sweater is normal?). I reacted to it as  if it was a compliment although I don't think it was meant as one, and today I made sure I wore something in too many colors. Sorry, didn't have time for photos.

It was nice to have a couple of actual days off this weekend, so I focused my energy on finishing a shirt.

 I have a couple of long sleeved shirts cut out and half sewn, but it's too cold at work for shirts unless i can wear a down vest over them. Is a down vest not normal clothing? Still puzzling over that....

Which explains why instead of working on the sweater, I am handbasting  the fly on the new Ventana twill pants. Still too much work to do, so this is happening in five minute blasts. This is a skill I developed when the kids were toddlers, and while it's not as satisfying as a long bath of sewing, it scratches the itch.

Holidays Edition: November 2017 The One With All The Food

It's the beginning of the parade of social events.
We cleaned up for the guests: for the board members, for the board of review, and the family.
It has to happen at least once a year.

Sliced up old boys underwear for rags (quite a pile of them)

I save some of the elastic for the ErnieKap bands.

This isn't going to get old for me for a long time. 

How in-store marketing works

My family and The Office. I never cared for it, but here it is, in my living room, on the ginormous television. As I write this, my spouse is watching The Americans. I don't get that one either.
Clearly, there are no superpowered people in either show. 

This is the view from my sewing table now.

The television got moved upstairs out of the room I sew in. We haven't had a television in the living room in the 21 years we've lived in this house, and we did that on purpose.

this means I get the rest of that basement room, but I'm still not sold on the tv as fireplace.

Other holiday related events.

Never? Never ever ever.

The Bodyguard touring show was a matinee 'meh' for me. I never saw the movie, unlike everyone in the audience.  The star Deborah Cox was very good, but she had almost all the singing and not much acting. Not much acting from anyone actually.

 Also no plot twist at the end.

I mean, everyone could have been the Stalker: the sister, the publicist, the old security guy. I wanted it to be the Kid; they all had a grudge. They could have taken turns (Orient Express much? Oh, you didn't know that? What planet are you from?

Am I the only one who reads murder mysteries?)

It was a much more fun show in my brain.

Yes, National Lampoon brand Christmas lights. No, I didn't buy them. 

At Ernie K Labs, we never take ours down.

Went to see Ragnarok again with the Teen. He's the Adult Thor now.

I'm Senior Thor!

I love Mjolnir.

And Agents of Phil Coulson  Clark Gregg SHIELD is coming back this Friday.

While I wasn't cleaning or cooking or cleaning

I spent a great amount of time making a couple of shirts. One more than once. We will visit them next week, after I air the stink of shame out of my sewing cave.

Ow.

Wrapping up gifts and birthdays Winter 2016/17

I made pajama bottoms for the men

I finished the quilt for my friend

Finally made myself tights (pattern taken from a pair that fits)

Almost finished my McCalls vintage blouse but can't bring myself to put in the pleats on a shirt I won't get to wear for months and months. And yes, the plaid match at the front is PERFECT. There's an overlap and buttonholes there.

City maps available on www.spl.org website. I love the library!

I made a lot of tea towels out of fabrics I made the designs for on Spoonflower and didn't take photos of the towels. Or the awful scarf I made for my sister. Infinity scarves are not my forte.

Two hats from one sadly felted sweater vest.

The pussy hats will get there own post later, when I have the photos to prove it. Although I have a feeling that getting fashion photos is not on her agenda during the Women's March in DC this weekend. It was a gift, not a photo op. I'm good with that.

lousy photos I know. The dress has left the building.

I knocked off a dress for my niece

My niece is transgender, and has a lot of unrelated agoraphobic issues about shopping, leaving out the whole 'nothing is going to fit you because you're not a size  0 - 14 so you should just disappear' thang.  On top of every other thing she's dealing with, that is a crappy thing to discover that everyone else knows about it. "What? There's no size 40 A cup bra? You're not rioting in the streets?"

Eh, no.

Anyway, my sister and my niece were walking out of Macy's and saw a Michael Kors dress in the window and Niece pointed and said Yes to that dress.

So they found it in the store, got one that mostly fits, and I made a straight copy, different color, of it for her over the holiday.

Since I am trying not to swear quite so much, I am making up a profanity for use regarding this fabric.

Cotton stretch sateen is a snurbswobble. The lowest rung of hell kind of snurbswobble.

It was a perfect rectangle until I ironed it.

So many puckers and bubbles. But the exposed zipper was a breeze for once.
I guess you give up a lot but you get one back.

 It won't take a hard press, it has just enough stretch to pucker and pull when you're topstitching, and this dress is ALL TOPSTITCHING. 

There is an epic tragedy under that wobbly patch. Actually less wobbly in person, but still tragic.

There is an entire roll of Wonder Tape in this snurbswobble, and even that wouldn't quite grab enough to stop the shifting. I couldn't press hot enough to fuse the fusibles. I pinned the nonsense out of this mother-snurbswobbler!

Wouldn't it be cool if that multicolored fuzzy thing was the sleeve extension? It's a purse I made almost ten years ago that hangs on the wall so I will see it and figure out how to make it functional. It's taunting me.

There will be no modeling yet. Aren't there yet. Looks good; she picked out the fabric and the notions, and while the fabric is a demon from hell, it's a good choice for the item and a good color for her.

This is my sister and that's the best view of the Space Needle from a pizza restaurant you will ever see. It's even better from the bar of that restaurant; the bartender has the best view in the house. For a change!

I had a birthday on Monday, I'm now roundly and soundly 58. Every day above ground is a good one.  Thing One turned 20 as well (same day) and he got snowed out of his Whistler skiing trip. It was his prepaid birthday present from me, so every penny he can get back from that is still his gift. Sorry sweetie. The irony is strong with this one.

And my favorite card. So favored, I could not give it to its intended recipient.

See, we can cross borders and boundaries in sewing with humor. Or the other thing.

Dad jokes forever!