Living la vida loca

My Boy Picks for 2012

2012-02-28T22:08:00.007-06:00

Okay, you already know my top 2 favorites are Reed Grimm and Phillip Phillips.

Phillip changed up Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight so much it was crazy. I wanted it to go a little faster, but it was still Adam Lambert-like in its creativity.

Here's the rest of the list in no particular order....

These next 2 are at the bottom of my list, although Colton may stick in there.

And I forgot to get pictures of Heejun and De'Andre with the long frizzy hair - they're definitely going home...I think. Since they have to cut so many, all I can say is that Jermaine is definitely staying (3rd pic from top).

And can I say how fast fabric.com is? I got my fabrics TODAY and they're already washed and dried and ready to go! I'm thinking an infinity scarf with the zebra knit - it's really thin and pretty sheer. Sheila linked a great tutorial for making one. Haven't figured out the moss green one yet...

My Keen Powers of Observation

2012-02-27T14:49:00.001-06:00

I ordered these 2 books after reading Victoria's post about fitting books. I'd hyperlink her blog, but that function's been squirrely, has anybody else noticed?

So I started reading the Singer book on the flight from Colorado, which is not too cool when you're sitting next to a man and there are all these pictures of women in underwear with measuring tapes around them. This book is from 1984 I think, and the pictures were cracking me up.

Now today I picked up the other one to start reading it because Gwen mentioned it on her blog (I am easily influenced by others, huh), and guess what...

they have some of the same pictures. I got a strong sense of deja vu when I hit that picture (smaller pic on bottom) because that Vogue pattern's so old and it's weird that it's in a book written in 2012. I went back to the Singer book and found it (larger pic on top).

Then imagine my surprise when the underwear and tape measure lady showed up again!

So does that strike anybody else as odd, or I am just being nit-picky? (I checked the photograph and illustration credits, and nobody overlaps between the 2 books.)

American Idol - the Early Predictions

2012-02-26T09:23:00.004-06:00

Man, it stinks to come home sick from a vacation. I'll never complain about living in the armpit of America again. (See, if Florida is an arm, Mobile is the armpit. Or say Florida is a leg, then we're definitely the crotch. And both of those are hot and humid, wouldn't you agree?) Colorado is beautiful, but being high and dry for a whole week hurts! I think I only slept well one night out of 5. That last night my throat was so sore and my nose was so stuffy that I dragged a chair into the bathroom at 11:30 PM (we'd left a light on for the boys) and read a book for 3 1/2 hours. The book was 1Q84, for anybody who needs a 1,000-page Japanese mind-boggler.

But I digress. We got caught up on American Idol, and here are my favorites. First is Reed Grimm, who is insane.

And who is also a dead ringer for Edward Norton, whom I love.

Second favorite is Phil Phillips, who reminds me of Dave Matthews with his voice and freaky leg movements when playing the guitar.

And finally, Heejun Han, who has an okay voice, but is mostly hilarious in a totally deadpan way. His whole bit with the overbearing cowboy was over the top, and when their group made it, he apologized to the cowboy and said, "I talked a lot of craps about you [behind your back], and I apologize to your parents." Ryan was interviewing him about being nervous and said, "What are you sweating right now?" Heejun says, "Mostly water."

In sewing news, I was a bad girl and bought some sweater knits online while I was freezing in Colorado. (I know, it's like grocery shopping when you're hungry, right?)

What should I make with this zebra thing? I have no idea, but it looked fun.

And of course we left 3 degrees in Colorado to return to 58 degrees in the armpit, so I better sew something up quick with these, or I'll have to save them for next year.

Pure Joy

2012-02-23T14:52:00.001-06:00

Yeah, a wind chill of -2 degrees and wind gusts of 30 mph makes for some painful skiing, as evidenced by this face.

Snow!

2012-02-22T17:14:00.002-06:00

So from the wildness of Mardi Gras to the freezing cold of Colorado for skiing. This is Dean on the little single rider roller coaster which was a hoot and shot you through the trees. No skiing injuries yet, as expected with knee braces on both of my knees for protection! (And the headache, fatigue, dizziness, racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, and sleeplessness was totally to be expected, coming from sea level to 10,000 feet, so it's not even worth mentioning.)

In sewing news, Sandra Betzina is coming to Mobile April 19-20 for a sewing workshop (make one of her patterns with her help), and the 3-hour demo lecture thing on the 21st. Flights are cheaper early! She'll be at All About Sewing - sorry I can't do a link, but it's called Google - you may have heard of it.

Mardi Gras 2012

2012-02-19T16:48:00.008-06:00

Alas, there were no Elvis spottings in the French Quarter this weekend - what is Mardi Gras coming to? The weather was horrible, so maybe that was their excuse. The best dancing this year was not at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, though I did break it down to my new favorite, Florence and the Machine's Shake It Out. The magical moment was actually in the cajun chicken joint across from the Old Absinthe House, where they play LOUD songs while you wait in line.

I can't remember what song hit my dance gene, but several patrons and the lady frying the chicken reveled in it with me. My friend snapped a pic but he was apparently dancing too. (I like the topstitching on her jeans!)

Last year I got a pic of the most interesting throw; this year it was the most interesting T-shirt.

Some people don't really dress up for Mardi Gras (they're in white bathrobes).

Some people do.

I think these were supposed to be Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but they sang. Is that what they really do?

And here's the grand finale - Endymion's Extravaganza in the Superdome with 14,000 of my closest friends.

Arrived at 8 PM, parade floats started coming in around 9 or 9:30 (you can see them in the mass of people), Maroon 5 started playing around midnight, beddy-bye at 3 AM. Goodnight!

The Shoes

2012-02-16T16:32:00.003-06:00

Remember my quest for just the right shoe to wear with khaki pants or jeans? I wanted something loafer-ish, preferably pointy and modern, and interesting. All I could find was the brown leather pair I bought in Soho last year, but every single scratch showed on that leather and they looked terribly worn out.

Well I asked the lady at DSW, who was wearing skinny jeans herself, what she recommended. She said try some Skechers, which I did, but they were black with black laces and I looked like I was going to my job at McDonald's. (My sister wore shoes just like that when she worked at McDonald's, in fact.) Now they had a flyer at DSW with 4 shoes on it, and there was a great pair of blue suede saddle shoes like Ellen wears (DeGeneres, my style twin, I think). I asked the manager if they had that shoe; he said they did. Then he pointed me to the men's aisle. Hmm...challenge accepted.

The good news about buying men's shoes is that they run 2 sizes larger than ladies - so I bought an 8 instead of a 10 - woohoo! Now that's got me thinking about my problem with creeping undies. You never see a MAN pulling his underwear down in back...

I Am Not My Worst Critic...This Time

2012-02-14T17:52:00.004-06:00

So I was interviewed for a morning TV show to address a pretty complicated health topic. They told me I had 2-4 minutes, so keep the answers short. I did as well as I could and my nurses said it was as concise as it could be (they were listening in the hall during the interview).

I recorded it and showed it to my loving children, for whom I have bought Valentine's chocolates to surprise them with after dinner.

The 9-yr-old turns to look at my face halfway through the segment. Apparently he never knew I had a mole until he saw it on TV. He says I should have asked them to "blur it out." He also thinks one of my answers was too silly. This would be when the interviewer says emphatically, "Thanks for having us!" I responded equally emphatically, "Thanks for coming by!"

The 15-yr-old says that I didn't explain the subject very well and he is still confused by it. He apparently doesn't understand that it's hard to cram 7 years of medical training about a subject into a 4-minute blurb.

Perhaps I will be the one eating those Valentine's chocolates after dinner....

Ulta, I'm Yours!

2012-02-13T20:32:00.003-06:00

I needed some new mascara and powder (did you know Neutrogena powder foundation has an expiration date?) so I ran into our new makeup store, Ulta. Do you have one of these? They sell makeup, hair supplies, skin stuff, everything - it's the size of a Books-a-Million. They were having a free gift thing if you bought $17.50 of their brand of makeup, and I was in one of those moods. You know, that "just came off 9 days of call and finished putting together a big Grand Rounds lecture for tomorrow and you need to splurge on something you NEVER buy" mood - you know that one, right? So I bought $18 of Ulta stuff with my usual Neutrogena powder and look what I got:

This rang up as $88 for free, but they may have jacked the price just to make you think you were getting a great deal. But DUDE, I got a lipstick, 2 lip glosses, mascara, blush, 8 eyeshadows, 3 makeup brushes, 4 eye liner pencils...it's just mind-boggling! And you could choose from 3 shades, oh plus the little bag it all came in. I just finished washing out my makeup basket and throwing away the old stuff (it's been at least 3 years since I bought that Arbonne blush - how am I not dead of a skin infection yet?) so I could reload the new stuff. Deep cleansing breath....so much better.

Oh, one other thing, have you seen the commercial for the Flipstick that takes you from day to night? Gloria's been telling me to try it every night, so I wrote the name down and bought that sucker.

I LOVE it! I wore a little of the shimmer side to the Pack Meeting tonight and felt a little less like a man in my bulky Scout pants. (The Cubmaster asked me why my accent went from Hillbilly to Hispanic.)

A Riveting Tutorial

2012-02-12T17:06:00.000-06:00

I know you people know how to put on rivets, but I forgot today and I lost my instructions, so this is for me in the future. I figured it out by looking at a picture from an old post where I just happened to catch the back of the riveting tool package. It was a little blurry, but good enough. Moooo!

Take a nail and push it through the spot where you want the rivet. The little black disc that comes with the tool is so you can hammer on it if you want to - put it under the spot where you're hammering. (I figured that out by the tiny nail holes I saw there!) Take the nail out and come back in the opposite direction to make a good hole - it's at the tip of my thumb (not IN it, surprisingly).

Load the rivet "tool." They supply a long cylinder to help you get it seated well - you don't really need it, but you feel more like a machine worker if you use it.

The tool is ready. Inside rivet part on the bottom, outside rivet part on the top.

I've pushed the rivet stem thing through the hole from the inside out - that's the hardest part because there are lots of fabric layers and this isn't sharp like the nail. See the silver bit sticking out near my thumb?

Now lower the top so it sits nicely over the bottom and bang away. It really only takes a couple of blows.

Remove the tool from the inside and outside - voila! One time the seat of the tool came off with the rivet, and when I removed it there was a huge black rubber thing where my rivet should've been. I nearly panicked, then I realized what happened and just pulled it off and stuck it back in the tool.

Oh Spaceman, I'm so sorry!

Skinny Jeans....Done.

2012-02-11T16:48:00.005-06:00

I have a beautiful grosgrain ribbon to use inside a waistband on the next pair like Robbie suggested, but I didn't want to hide my spaceman on this pair so I took 6 tiny darts in the waistband.

You can barely see them on the outside, plus I don't tuck.

I practiced a buttonhole using topstitching thread on the right. Yeah, um, that didn't work. I changed to regular thread - it's bright orange but looks exactly the same.

Uh, okay. My Brother doesn't like doing buttonholes on denim layers - the plastic foot doesn't seem to have the pressure to move the fabric. I had to pull it through by hand pretty much. I'll try the Janome next time.

"Howdy! Can I getcha some tartar sauce to go with that fried catfish? Yeehaw!"

Tucking only to show construction details. Note right front pocket wrinkles - pocket bag indeed has too much fabric....nailed permanently in place by rivets.

Note the illusion of a contoured waistband...

which can actually stretch to accommodate a small child. Well...I exaggerate...maybe just an automatic weapon.

The end.

I'll tweak the pattern to get a better fit around the waist, and I'd like to work out that right leg wrinkle on the back, but that one's on every pair of RTW pants I have. I'm happy. Stay tuned for a rivet tutorial...

Mardi Gras Dress Extravaganza

2012-02-07T19:30:00.004-06:00

First dress, bought in 1999. Found to be off grain with twisting of the fabric over the lining - very annoying. And absolutely nothing interesting about the front.

Marginally interesting back. This is what I look like if you're sitting at the table.

Oh, I actually look skinny in one! Again, nothing interesting about the front other than some dark beads around my neck - feels like a dog collar. Also bought in 1999.

Va-va-voom! I can just approach everyone backwards. Unfortunately, I'll have to have some serious Spanxage for the side shot. (Oh, you really shouldn't drink when you're pregnant - can I get you an O'Doul's??)

My favorite-est pink puffy dress, bought in 2001. This is the one that I stepped on and yanked the shoulder strap from the dress, which I didn't realize until the breeze hit my chest and I saw beads pouring on the floor. That happened TWICE.

It's just so princessy, I should donate it to somebody younger. I think I'm too old for it now....and I never fixed that strap.

This is the one I liked best tonight, but my goodness at my gut! Bought around 2008.

Nothing terribly interesting about it other than the beading. I think it makes me look heavy...or solid.

Oh jeez, I can't believe I wore this. The worst one of the bunch, possibly. This is the one I made in 2010. Peter from New York actually commented on my review at PR and said "that is one fantastic dress."

God bless him for being nice to a new reviewer! He even gave me a zipper tip.

And the one I made last year.

Maybe I could redo the back straps to look more interesting somehow...nah, I only have 2 weeks.

So....which one will it be? In person I decided I would wear the dark gray beaded one, but in pictures I think the black one looks nice - maybe because I was standing farther from the camera!

And I DID wear my new skinny jeans to dinner last night...with a belt since the WAISTBAND stretched OUT! Arrrgh! I'm washing and drying them tonight to see if they'll shrink a bit, and if not, I may have to do put some darts in. Whatever, I'm not a tucker.

So Close to Finishing!

2012-02-05T17:27:00.005-06:00

I worked on them as much as I could today, but between being on call and having the Pinewood Derby all afternoon, I didn't get finished. So Lucas is a very poor picture taker, but this is what we have. I lightened it up so you can see the left pocket showing through because Vogue doesn't do pocket facings with cotton - just a big denim pocket. Dean noticed the pockets showing through right off the bat. The right one's not QUITE as noticeable because of what I did below.

I got rid of as much denim as I could on the right pocket.

(I love my little spaceship and astronaut!) The other pocket has the coin pocket and would be too involved, so I left it alone. Plus it's the leg with the big run in it, which Dean also noticed.

So I get a little pulling in the pocket, which some of my RTW do as well - I think it's that the pocket bag has more fabric than the leg...or something like that.

And here's the rear. You can't tell these things are skin tight, can you? The legs still look a little generous but they FEEL just fine.

All I have left is putting the carriers on, doing the buttonhole, and hemming, then I'll find a proFESSional photographer to get some pictures.

So Lucas's car set a track record in the first heat, but a wheel popped off with a tiny piece of wood when it slammed into the finish line. Dean worked hard to get it back together, but it didn't go that fast again so he came in 4th place, which means no trophy. He was pretty devastated. (Two Tiger Cubs cried but by the time you're a Webelos, you've learned to hold it in.) I told him that I knew how it felt to work so hard on something and then it doesn't turn out quite like you wanted, because I feel the same way about my jeans. He said, "Yeah, but Mom, your jeans didn't come in first place and then break." He has a point.

Jeans Almost Done

2012-02-04T21:56:00.003-06:00

Well, I worked for a couple of hours on these today. I used the Betzina tip of sewing a selvage in the crotch seam so it won't stretch out. I also did a faux flat-fell here a la Pants for Real People.

The inseam and crotch seam matched up perfectly on the first try!

The yoke took 3 attempts and I finally had to offset them slightly so that when the foot climbed over it pushed them into near-perfect alignment. (Drew didn't get that this was 4 pieces of material joined together - he seemed awed that this is how his RTW jeans were put together.)

Crappy iphone pic - I don't have the waistband on yet and they slide down if I let go, so I'm hiding my undies with my top. I look very short from this angle, and you can't see my pockets too well, but they turned out nicely.

So the legs are nice for work but baggy for jeans (especially skinny jeans - hello!), so I took an extra 1/2" seam allowance on the side seams, which made the hips too tight. I'll let those out 1/4" and hope to waistband and belt loop them tomorrow.

I'll probably use Jennifer Stern's instructions from the class on adjusting the rise and make another pair of these for work...we'll see. I really need to figure out what Mardi Gras dress I'm wearing in a couple of weeks. Maybe tomorrow I'll try them all on and ask for a show of hands. It seems like when I post pictures on the blog I can tell which one I should choose - much better than looking in a mirror. I'm sleepy - good night!

Flashback to the 90's

2012-02-02T15:32:00.007-06:00

I found the lingerie! I am so impressed with my workmanship on this - look at that lace. I didn't have a serger back then and apparently I could sew elastic well, unlike my attempt last summer at a bathing suit.

Of course, the underwear fit more like a thong and constricted my breathing, being up on my ribcage and all, so I only wore them 10 minutes.

Here's the Sewing Step-by-Step club I was talking about. Surely some of you women were in this.

You got 10 cardboard binders and every month you got a few new cards and a pattern. Let's see what it was like!

This is an example of Your Personal Style. Did you know that a well-defined waist is an asset? But a woman with a big butt should wear a skirt instead of pants. (See the paragraph on "Buttocks?")

And here's an idea from Sewing Home Accessories. I made some window treatments, but never shirred my walls.

This is from Learning the Basics. I actually left this one out to read through again - it had some good tips.

But now to the patterns. These are the only ones I kept - the rest were awful. I made all of these except the cape and the elastic-waist pants.

All that's in the envelope is the pattern, so you need the cards for instructions. They had nice pictures and tips for making your outfit unique.

So did anybody else get these every month? I think it was $11.99 a shipment and I did it for about a year and a half, and then they just quit coming. I guess they ran out of ideas. I may try that customer service number and see if they're still in business. Of course there's no website listed - we didn't HAVE the internet back then!

I also was a member of the World of Beauty club in the 80's - remember that one Junior? Every month you got a plastic tray of eye shadows, blusher, lip colors, etc. Now I've graduated to Meaningful Beauty, which is nothing but moisturizers and anti-wrinkle serum. (I guess for the next decade I'll join a club sending samples of laxatives and lubricants - look out now!)

Minor Jean Suckage

2012-02-01T16:06:00.003-06:00

Okay, Vogue said to interface the pocket then embroider it, then press seam allowances in. Unfortunately I grabbed the sew-in interfacing I guess - it wouldn't fuse. And this was the pocket I already embroidered. This is going to catch on my ring or something when I stick my hand in my pocket. If the point is just to stabilize the pocket, I may use that spaceship cotton fabric. Any other reason you'd interface an entire pocket?

Yikes, why did they place the pattern so high? If I did the top-stitching I wanted to do at the top, it would run into the design. I tried 1/4"-spaced stitching but it looks terrible. I think I'll toss this and move it lower on the next pocket.

And I flubbed the bottom of the fly stitching on the curve - see how it widens out then gets narrower again? My edge-stitching foot just has tiny little markings to line up and not an actual piece of metal to put the fabric against. Oh well, there's that big run in the fabric, right, so I wasn't going to wear these anywhere important anyway...

And these carriers are SO wide! Next time I'll do it Jennifer Stern's way - Vogue actually had me sew a seam, trim it, and TURN the whole thing! Do you know how hard it is to turn a strip of denim? Neither do they!

Now I'm already thinking about what's next when these are done, and I may try some Kwik Sew Boy Short panties. I found a panty plethora at Stitches and Seams and researched some Kwik Sew patterns briefly. I made some lingerie in 1993 - I'll have to dig those up and get a picture. It was a camisole and undies and they were so uncomfortable I never wore them, but they were so PRETTY!

Now that was back when there was a club that sent you several pages each month to put in your 10 binders, and you got a new pattern every month too. I'll take some pictures of it - it's hilarious to see the styles. I actually made a bunch of things but I've tossed most of the patterns now. More on that tomorrow hopefully.

Next up - what Mardi Gras dress will I wear this year? I kind of hate the 2 I made now. Did you read The Help? Remember how they talk about how homemade Elizabeth's clothes looked, but they didn't tell her to her face? I feel like that. But I don't want to buy a new one, so I may recycle the pink one with the broken straps and see what I can do.

Pants Progress Continues; One Gerbil Does Not

2012-01-31T17:57:00.005-06:00

Oh, this morning Lucas told me I'd better come look at something. One of his gerbils was lying dead in the food bowl. The other one kept sniffing at his face and putting his paws on him. Lucas said, "I think his brother killed him." I said, "No, he's just trying to wake him up to play." (That would've made my neice burst into tears, but Lucas is tough sometimes.) He finally decided it was his fault somehow, and hey, if that motivates him to be a better pet-owner, who am I to disagree? I did reassure him that their time was officially up last October, so I'm betting on natural causes.

Anyway, he wanted to bury him in the backyard, so after school today we double-bagged him in Ziploc (thanks to Dean for retrieving the body for me) then taped him securely into a box and buried him a foot and a half under a bench in the backyard. Lucas wanted to put some flowers on his grave but didn't think I'd agree to breaking off one of the new pink Taiwan cherry blossoms. When I did, he gave me a big hug - most awesome moment of the day.

In sewing news, I'm learning that you can go your own way with patterns if you know what you're doing. I'm taking Jennifer Stern's jeans class on PR and I paid extra for the videos on how to do it. They're awesome! Here's what Vogue said to do with the coin pocket.

Frankly, I had a Mad Cow moment and forgot how to miter a corner, so I had to pull out a dang book! Then I realized how bulky it was going to be and used Jennifer's suggestions instead - you're not going to see the bottom, after all, and it gets topstitched anyway!

And her fly came out perfect because of an odd way she does the seam allowance using Wonder Tape, but I did it the Vogue way, resulting in a wee bit of wonkiness that I shall photograph tomorrow. Vogue also had me enclose the edges of the fly and fly facing in bias binding! Not sure why exactly, but it's cute.

Anyway, I'm ready to sew seams and place carriers next, so I hope to have some pictures of a final product soon. Off to watch her video on flat-felling...

Taiwan Cherry Tree and Juvenile Pockets

2012-01-29T17:43:00.005-06:00

I emailed the newspaper's Gardening Editor 2 or 3 years ago and asked if a Japanese cherry tree would grow here, and he recommended a Taiwan cherry instead. Dean planted it for me, and we thought it was dead because we never saw a leaf or bloom on it. Until now - behold the wonder! (Well, it still looks kinda puny, and so nice with the power lines, but we have BLOOMS, people!)

And this is a random picture of what Jake does while I sew - watch the street for dogs to bark at.

I took the kids to spend the night at the beach, where I tested my pocket-stitching prowess on the Janome. First I traced the pattern I had and pinned it to the denim...

Not too shabby...other than a wonky stitch where I backed the needle up by hand - don't do that.

And here's what the inside of my front pockets will look like. Remember Pammie's fabulous lining fabric with pretty red roses or something that coordinated with her red jeans? Well, this was what I had in the stash.

Yep, I didn't feel like going out to get special lining because this is just not my dream denim. I also found a long run on the fabric after I cut the legs out, so some distressing may be in order....for the fabric, I mean.

Only I will know that I have a tiny spaceship in my pocket.

More Butt.

2012-01-26T21:06:00.003-06:00

Made another adjustment - took the back inseam in 1/4". I have no problems with the front.

I'm totally comfortable with this - they feel like they fit well, in fact!

Especially because this is what I paid for:

There will always be wrinkles. I am not a Botox woman. My butt may as well match my face! (Which reminds me of an old joke of my dad's...or my brother's..."Hey, got a match?" Unsuspecting person looks through purse for pack of matches. "My butt, your face!")

15 Pictures of My Butt, or A Tale of Two Crotches

2012-01-25T16:24:00.003-06:00

Well, before we dive into crotches...uh, I mean discussions about crotches...I'd like to share a dating dilemma. Drew has a date Friday night and asked me for some suggestions. They've just been on a double date to the movies, so I suggested dinner, bowling, getting ice cream, uh, that's all I could come up with. Bowling on a Friday night might be a bad idea if you're not with a big group, so we settled on dinner. We discussed various types of restaurants, and my recommendation was to stay away from table service - too much to worry about with a waiter, tipping, the danger of a steak being ordered, etc. (Seriously, we took some of his friends to a Mexican restaurant one year for his birthday and a kid ordered the T-bone steak...in a Mexican restaurant.)

I google-mapped a strip mall near the young lady's house (she lives WAY out) and found several restaurants and a Baskin Robbins - we're in bidness! Now she'd been all, "I don't care, whatever you want," in texts asking for specifics, but she did come out and nix the Chinese place. That left pizza (turned out it was out of business) and Panera Bread. Now it's not so awful to go there for a date when you're 15, is it? I never had a date in high school that I didn't chase down myself and drag to a formal dance, so I don't know these things. Lucas and I will be eating on the other side of the restaurant (no, I'm not dropping them off - I'm not ready for that yet - is that overprotective?), and then we'll go to BR for ice cream. I don't know, this is sounding kinda weird that the mom and brother are going to be so close. Why didn't they just go to a movie?!

Anyway, onto my muslin. Side seams are straight.

That's not the real waistband.

Legs are loose for jeans. I'm going to use this pattern for work pants, I think, but I would also like some jeans that fit like jeans - gotta work on the wrinkles.

So Jennifer Stern talks about sitting room in your jeans (Won't you come in? Care for tea and crumpets? Wait, that reminds me of milk, milk, lemonade; round the corner - never mind!), so I scooped out the back crotch to get some.

But the shallow scoops didn't do anything and the deepest one did this:

Ewww - I don't know how to say this PC other than it looks and feels like they're creeping...I'll leave it at that. So I got the pattern piece from the Betzina jeans and used that rear crotch curve, which is drastically different. This is what I ended up with - double EWWWW. And so tight for some reason - good thing it's fuzzy - you're welcome!

So I think I'm sticking with my original crotch curve and I may just tighten up the legs and see what that looks like. We have another chat Thursday night.

Oh, and the mother of the GF just called and recommended dropping them off at PB because it's a very safe area, and said that Lucas and I can go eat at a nicer place. Now does that mean she thinks this is a crappy date?! No, I'm just kidding - I know what she meant. Ah, the joys of teenagers!

Dolly.....A Knit Shirt.......

2012-01-21T18:31:00.003-06:00

Uh, things that are cloned? That's right - you've won $10,000! Thanks for watching, I'm Dick Clark. (Quick, name that game show.)

Let's see, I started with my favorite shirt that I've worn for about 10 years. (I didn't say it fit well...it appears to have stretched out, in fact.)

Damn, I'd say I've done a good job! (I wish we could say the same for Dean's photography.) Aside from the shoulder seams being a little lower and the neckline being shallower, I've got the same drag lines on the front and the same baggy sleeves.

Mercy, these sleeves are REALLY stretched out.

I sewed this muslin and had to take almost 2 inches out all the way around because it was so baggy - there's something to be said for cloning a top that fits well.

What I'm proud of:
1) I finished something.
2) I did a nice banded V-neckline using my Jalie instructions from a previous shirt.
3) I stuck with my Forrest Gump foot through the whole project since it's a ribbed knit, and there's not too much ruffling of my hems.

What I'm disgusted about:
1) I still can't find a nice stretchy hem - I'm sure wooly nylon in the bobbin would help but I just didn't have the time....or the wooly nylon.
2) The drag lines around the bust - I still feel like I don't understand shoulders (see posts about Betzina's shirt attempt). But what the heck, it's just a knit shirt after all, and they ARE so forgiving! You can't even tell how I mangled the sleeve cap on the pattern, can you?

Okay, now to try and catch up on the jeans - first webcast is tomorrow night!

Weekend in New Orleans

2012-01-14T14:53:00.005-06:00

We went over Saturday because Dean had to do some business for Mardi Gras (oh my goodness, Mardi Gras is next month!) and ate lunch at Parkway. That was the juiciest roast beef po-boy I ever had (I guess it's like a hoagie if you don't know what a po-boy is...but what if you don't know what a hoagie is...you know, just Google it), and look at the yummy sweet potato fries.

You can sit inside, but it was such a gorgeous day that we sat in the courtyard. (Yeah, I guess it's more of an empty lot, but the food's still good.)

After that the plan was to go to the WWII Museum, but I was graciously allowed to drop them off and go to Promenade Fabrics. Now that link is to an article about the owner, Herbert Halpern, and I didn't even think to take a picture of the guy, but there's one in the article.

You may remember I shopped there last year and put some pictures on the blog.

This year he's pinned pictures of clothing to the appropriate fabric for inspiration...or to show you that he carries that exact fabric.

I sure wish I knew how to make a wool coat.

So I pick up a bolt of a gorgeous print that I thought was just a knit, and he tells me it's $48/yard. Huh? He says, "Isn't it a gorgeous 4-ply?" (What's a 4-ply?) Turns out it's silk, and darned thick silk - the thickest! - and very hard to find apparently. He made me wad it up - "Just SEE if you can wrinkle it!"

So I buy a jeans zipper and topstitching thread, but he tells me to use the jeans thread he has - he sold out last week and doesn't understand why it's so popular all of a sudden. I tell him that everybody's making their own jeans these days, and he says, "You teenagers, you like to make your own jeans!" (Teehee, I'll take any flattering statement I can get.) I laugh and he says, "You ARE a teenager, aren't you?" (This old guy's still got a bit of a flirt in him!) I say, yeah, I'm 44. He gasps and says, "Oh my heavens, to be that age and still be able to walk around and sew - you're doing great!" (I also bought a yard and a half of silk knit at $22/yard - go figure!)

Cloning a Shirt (Well, reading about it really...)

2012-01-13T13:36:00.004-06:00

Well, I actually worked on cloning a shirt that I started a month or two ago when I took the online class at PR. It involves lots of pinning and sketching and unpinning and lining up and drawing and repinning, and I finally got tired of that and just used weights on the paper and organza while I drew the lines. It's just a simple knit shirt so we'll see if that works or not. I actually finished the pattern pieces and started to cut them out yesterday, then I realized I forgot to add seam allowances. So I did that to the front and back, but I forgot to do it to the sleeve - DOH!

I found some old knit fabric to use as the muslin and barely had enough to cut it out. I had to cut 2 back pieces instead of cutting on the fold, but I did get that serged together (I'm just so happy that I actually turned a machine on yesterday). And I realized how much I rely on pattern instructions for the layout, etc. So that made me pull out my Easy Guide to Sewing by MacIntyre and Tilton to learn how to construct the shirt and do a neck binding. (I thought there was a way to put binding on flat before you sew the shoulder seams, but they don't mention that...maybe Betzina said that...maybe I just made it up.)

Anyway, so now I'm dug into the book, and it seems to be an excuse to keep from going up there and just sewing the thing up! Why do I do that? Of course I don't want to screw it up, but seriously, I can sidetrack myself so easy with books and DVD's and googling techniques, etc. Does anybody else do that?

Good Weekend

2012-01-08T14:20:00.003-06:00

Alright, we found something to get them out of the house! We gave Dean a paddleboard for his last birthday, and it was promptly overtaken by the boys Saturday. (Nothing will make you realize time is flying by like seeing your kid fit into your husband's old wetsuit.) Drew hasn't shown much interest in surfing or kayaking, but it was hard to get him off the paddleboard.

And of course Lucas had to try it too...without benefit of a wetsuit. Luckily the weather was great and the water wasn't freezing cold, plus he didn't fall in. They spent 3 hours doing this - I did not once have to say "Step away from the iPad!" They would've done it all day, but it got cloudy and colder, so that was all for now.

What you're missing here is the photo of me, because I attempted it in shorts and hooded top, to much derision from the boys, and guess who else didn't fall in! Of course, there are no pictures because they were so concerned for my safety that they couldn't be bothered to grab the camera (or more likely, they wanted to be the first one on the board if I fell off).

In sewing news, I decided to hold off on the skinny jeans till I take the class at PR and have Jennifer Stern's workbook in hand. Now, I DID get a package from her already - she mails it out fast! - and it had 3 yards of muslin as promised, but it had a workbook on turning a pair of jeans into a skirt - DOH! Oh well, great excuse to continue cloning my shirt today, which I'm trying to get finished.

In exercise news, I haven't danced as much as I should, but I have continued lunging around the house (not a drunken lunge, mind you, though the daily red wine really is keeping my cholesterol LOW...and my liver well-toned). Not only great for your thighs and derriere, lunging is a great exercise in balance if you tote a laundry basket while you do it.

And speaking of thighs, we were talking about boats last night and Lucas told us he likes boats with cabins. He said, "Well, it's nice to have a place to lay around since mom's thighs are getting smaller." WTF? (Mom, that's short for "What in the world did he mean by that, Friend?") And what he meant was that on long boat rides he usually lays his head in my lap, and he knows I've been trying to exercise, so he found a way to flatter me. And yes, he did get dessert after that comment.

Alrighty then.

2012-01-06T16:01:00.000-06:00

Just....Ewwww!

2012-01-04T13:57:00.003-06:00

Great granny pete - I look awful! I put the waistband on the skinny jeans muslin and tried them on - is that you gagging or me? This pic demonstrates (besides my big flat derriere and terrible panty lines - I have GOT to get some new undies that don't show!) one side with lots of wrinkles and the other side not so much, because I pinned them out a la Silhouette Patterns - got the link from either Gwen or Pammie, I think. THAT's why there's that big wrinkle under my right derriere - that's actually not a panty line.

And what's UP with the yoke? Now these seams are not ironed or trimmed or anything, so hopefully that'll look better in denim, because I don't see how that looks good right now. (Dang, I look old....I mean mature....in my glasses.)

And this is just to show you that it was a muslin, so I didn't cut out full legs - I was concentrating on the crotch and hips. And these go on without unzipping the zipper, so I may need to size down, huh? (This reminds me of an old man we saw on vacation years ago who was wearing shorts, black knee-high socks, and sandals.)

So hopefully these pictures are so awful that ANYTHING in denim will look better, especially with full leg length! This just shows that I blundered into awesome-fitting Betzina jeans with her help, and I really don't what I'm doing with pants. That's why I'm thinking of signing up for the jeans class at PR...because that last Clone a Garment class went so well, right? (It's all in a bag where I left it after the final chat - never had time to get it really started.)

Anyway, we'll see if I can actually get my changes transferred properly to the tissue....I DOUBT it!

(Ooh, just a little PS after I visited Jennifer Stern's blog and purchased her jeans workbook (thanks, Pam!) - I was thinking that I had similar wrinkles on my Betzina muslin and Sandra lengthened the back crotch tip to make them go away - which is what Jennifer talks about too - so I don't think pinning these out will help. Guess we'll find out!)

Fleece Jacket Mayhem

2012-01-03T17:15:00.004-06:00

Nothing will touch your heart like seeing your children wearing their custom-made (not homemade) jackets to school on out-of-uniform day. Today was 32 degrees so heavier coats were in order, and both boys opted for their fleeces. Lucas was revved up about it, in fact.

After school I asked him if he got any comments on it.
L: "Well, let's just say that we may need to wash it."
Me: "Why?" (Did somebody push him down in the dirt and make fun of his jacket?)
L: "Because there were so many hands on it! Everybody wanted to touch it! And you have been told what a good sewer you are."
Me: "Oh yeah?"
L: "Yeah, a bunch of people said it looked like a North Face jacket."

BUT....he decided he's ready to have it embroidered. Now, I'm thinking something like Drew's "The Derp Face" in a font and location similar to the North Face. Well Drew refused to let him get "Derp Face Junior," so he thought about "Make Mine Decaf." Kind of cute...but he decided finally on "I'm with AWESOME." Now that'll be 2 lines of text with an arrow pointing up at the end.

And that's going in red thread (as suggested by the monogramming chick)...on the BACK of the jacket just below the blue overlay....in BIG letters.

I didn't cry in front of him, but he saw the look on my face and again made his case that this is HIS special jacket. And he was impressed that the monogramming chick was very serious about fonts and placement and not smiling at all. (Oh well, the sleeves were a little too short anyway.)

What Year is It?

2012-01-02T10:58:00.003-06:00

Man, my legs are sore from the 20 lunges I did yesterday, and you bet I'm doing more today. I will lunge, dance for 30 minutes, and sew today in keeping with my resolutions. I also played Qwirkle and chess with the kids last night, so the resolution to have less screen time and more family together time is off to a good start.

Now I want to share a newspaper article with you. My first thought was, hey - those girls in white look like my great-aunt's wedding photo where she had all her sisters wear white too!

Then I saw it was a debutante ball. So my second thought was, does the rest of the country do this, or is this just a southern thing? Is this how the Kardashians and Paris Hilton came out? (My third thought was that somebody could make a killing sewing white dresses in Mobile!)

Then I looked at the whole page and I thought, wait a minute - what year is this again?

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T16:41:00.003-06:00

I found out how to get depressed and motivated at the same time....go back and read your own blog! I saw that on January 1, 2009, I rode bikes with the boys and did my equivalent of circuit training with them afterwards. In 2010 I was walking on the treadmill and attempting to get in shape, plus sewing a lot. I also seem to have had a rip-roaring sense of humor too! Wonder where all that stuff went?

So at 11 AM I got out of my pajamas and helped Lucas rearrange his room (he was eager to do this, so it's not child abuse). This is the kid who asked me to help him clean out his closet yesterday. He also did a great job of tossing stuff that was "cute," but said he thinks he's more like a girl in that respect - the things that he thinks are cute, that is. And apparently one of Drew's female friends has told Lucas she thinks he has taste like a girl too. But he's okay with that.

Then we went to Arby's for lunch just to get out of the house. They had a special - 2 French Dips for $5 - sign me up! But wait a minute - are you kidding me?

I'll give you that this is worth about $2.50. But Drew wanted another one, and if you don't buy 2 for $5, they're $4.89 a piece! What a scam.

Anyway, I also got my skinny jeans muslin cut out and most of the way sewn. Except this has a separate fly and I've only done a one-piece fly, so my world has been rocked. I called it quits on that temporarily, and danced for about 30 minutes on Just Dance 3 with Lucas, who was promptly discouraged by my superior moves and quit. Junior, did you see they had Jester's song "Jump ON It," about Tonto or whatever? Fun moves.

Okay, so back upstairs to put on the waistband. Thank all you people for reading my blog and for inspiring me with your blogs (like Sheila's infinity scarf, which I am totally making...after I finish the jeans). Oh, and I found a new one my SIL sent me - this chick cracks me up and went viral after her Elf on the Shelf post - good stuff!

Here's to continued productivity, good health, and maybe finding that sense of humor again in 2012!

Miscellaneous Things

2011-12-29T15:27:00.002-06:00

This is my MIL's potato salad. It's always a work of art - one year she cut a radish into the shape of a rosebud for the centerpiece. She's Japanese and can also do origami...without a book of instructions.

And I was delayed driving to work yesterday. I dropped Lucas off at my mom's and had to go by Municipal Park with the big lake.

The ducks (or geese or whatever they are) were crossing VERY SLOWLY to the golf course, but then they froze for some reason and wouldn't move. It took somebody honking their horn to get them to turn around and SLOWLY walk back to the lake. (Cool fog on the water, too!)

When I passed the golf course, there were about fifty geese already there. The ones in the street were grumbling about not reserving a tee time or something.

Back From Costa Rica!

2011-12-26T13:03:00.004-06:00

Well, Merry Christmas everybody! We went to Costa Rica the week before Christmas, and I'm back with pictures. So to jump right in - this is Playa Potrero on the Pacific side of Costa Rica - Guanacaste for those familiar. These can speak for themselves.

Now the rest of these are from the Arenal volcano area of La Fortuna - see the toucan on that branch? (Yes, they nailed bananas to the tree to attract birds.)

This last one has a little story. Our hotel had an animal rescue operation and they gave us a tour of the jungle cats they've rescued - that's a puma above. Below is an ocelot. As soon as Lucas stepped up for a picture, this cat stuck his paw out and grabbed Lucas's shirt, then looked at us like, "Can I keep him?" Luckily there were no scratches, but the lesson here is: just because the guy in charge reaches in and scratches their ears doesn't mean your kid should get next to one!

And here are some videos of zip-lining, mainly for my family to see how brave we were. This first one is me coming in hot with legs a-flailing - watch out now!

Next is Drew in a much more controlled fashion.

And Lucas was so light they started him out with a guide to be sure he'd make it all the way across.

But at the end they let him try one by himself. This one was a half-mile long and went through a tunnel of trees where a monkey was sitting - too cool!

Okay, wasn't I working on some skinny jeans a few weeks ago? Back to work!

Colorful Pictures (Jacket and a Tree)

2011-12-14T16:30:00.003-06:00

Thank you ladies for the nice comments on the jacket! Lucas is practicing his sad face for this one, but probably because I made him put the Nerf gun down. (And I learned my lesson about being lazy with zippers. I didn't want to cut one off so I used a shorter one - won't do that again.)

He wants something like "Make mine decaf" embroidered on it. Don't know where that came from.

And God waved at me today while I was going in the house. Very stormy-looking sky, but a ray of sunshine came out and found this tree - cool! More striking than the iPhone suggests - even the boys thought it was something.

Got Lucas's Jacket Going...

2011-12-13T16:50:00.003-06:00

I have actually almost accomplished something. Almost...

Remember that Lucas picked out the fabric and color combinations himself. I tried to force a blue or green zipper on him, but relented and let him have red. It is very colorful. But one problem - that 22" sport zipper said in very small print "non-separating." Bastards!

I had to go rip this one out and go to the store, where I read every word written on the package to be sure I had the right one, but that put me behind schedule so I didn't get it totally finished last night. Just have to fix one cuff and topstitch. He still wanted to wear it to Scouts last night.

In fact, he asked if he could brag a little and tell people how cool his jacket was and that his mom made it. I said not to brag, and he said if anybody commented on his jacket, could he THEN come out and tell them I made it. God bless that child!

He also has the Elf on the Shelf going (I bowed to pressure after 2 years). After I put every stuffed animal in his room into a big box and staged it like Billy the Elf is reading to them, Lucas wondered if Billy dragged them there or if they all came alive at night like Billy. He's thinking about leaving a note for them and asking.

My child still believes in his mommy and magic stuffed animals! Pre-teen years are so awesome!

The Christmas Card...and a Look Back

2011-12-07T16:43:00.006-06:00

Some of you may be getting one in the mail, but here's a preview. The caption is "Drew got his learner's permit, so watch out for the Mobile Hillbillies!" Get it? Drew is Jethro. Well, I forget how Dean made that connection when we were brainstorming for ideas, but there was obviously beer involved. (There're a couple of smaller better pictures too, so maybe Mimi will put this one on the refrigerator this year - DOH!)

The photoshoppage provided by Drew was a little rougher than last year - maybe we should've worked a little harder on head sizes. Here's a reminder of last year's card wishing you a tarball-free Christmas.

Oh heck, let's see all of them, so when the hard drive crashes I can still come here to see some pictures.

Oh jeez, maybe I should get a Kleenex. They grow up fast - even the dog!

Where Has All the Mojo Gone?

2011-12-04T16:55:00.003-06:00

I have no idea what's happened to it. I had to pack up my sewing room for Drew's overnighter, and then my brother and SIL slept over at Thanksgiving, so I have just now unpacked some stuff. And wouldn't ya' know it - I can't find my tracing wheel! Anyway, Lucas wants a fleece jacket like everybody else in the family, so that takes priority over skinny jeans and cloning a top. Plus I've made this thing 4 times already so there's no futzing around with the pattern. That's a relief, because the last thing I did on the jeans was add to CF after a tissue fitting, and then I was beset by doubts about whether the fly will turn out or not, so I just quit.

So I actually worked for about 2 hours on this jacket - woohoo! But look what fun the "rip-stop flag material" is - it came out of the washer like this. Needless to say, I began by serging all raw edges.

I tried to talk him out of this blue overlay, because the fleece is green. (Doesn't that make you think of 1983 when all the cool girls wore blue and green together? Except this isn't 1983.) And when he wanted a red zipper down the front, I put my foot down till he chose blue. Then he told me later that isn't this supposed to be is HIS special jacket, and I realized he's right and it can't get any worse, so I got a red zipper for that baby yesterday.

Now this is more exciting - Drew got his driver's permit Thursday!

Okay, off to watch a movie with the kids. And speaking of movies, has anybody seen Horrible Bosses? Now if you can overlook the language and most of Jennifer Anniston's lines, that is one hilarious movie, but what were they thinking giving it a PG-13?! How many F-bombs does it take to get an R, not to mention the other words and scenarios described by said words.

Okay, I got that off my chest.

Birthday Paintball and Creme Brulee

2011-11-22T20:51:00.003-06:00

So 15-year-old boys love paintball. And one girl joined us for Drew's birthday paintball party too!

Here's a little of the action. Drew didn't pass out this year like he did last time, but we almost had another one pass out afterwards - paintball is hot, even in November!

And his French class had a little party yesterday before the holiday break. Everyone had to sign up for a French dish, cook it themselves, and discuss the history of it while sharing it with the class. Drew knew that Dean has made creme brulee before, so of course he signed up for that. They spent all afternoon cooking (think 27 eggs and a run to Old Time Pottery for ramekins, not to mention the butane refill from Lowe's for torching).

Drew was very proud that everybody like his dish, and I was happy we got to use this nifty ice pack again (it's to wrap around your face after wisdom teeth removal...or to keep creme brulee cold, you know, whatever).

Oh, and did you come here to see what I was sewing? Well the paintball party was preceded by a spend-the-night, and of course my sewing room is the guest room, so I had to pack EVERYTHING up. You don't even want to leave a dressmaker's form in the room alone with teenage boys - yeesh.

Who Loves the Blues?!

2011-11-13T18:33:00.008-06:00

This is what we did Saturday. Man, forget watching them at the beach - this was up close and personal! We were given VIP tickets by Dean's best friend and the view was insane. Well, this first pic was taken from the stairs up to a cargo plane we got to walk through. Do not be distracted by the corn dogs.

This last one is terrible camera work, but maybe you can hear how loud they are - they snuck up on us.

Awesome weekend. And no, I did not do any sewing this weekend. Plus I've started reading Steve Jobs, and now I want to quit work and start my own company....making jackets! (Drew said a friend told him his fleece jacket was cool and would I make one for him....a business is born.)

Second funny story - Ladies Only

2011-11-10T20:58:00.004-06:00

I was driving the boys to school and I asked Lucas to look in my purse and hand me my lipstick. He's rifling around and says, "Oh, I didn't know you had these poppers in here.". I don't know what he's talking about. He says, "You know, these things you pull and they pop. You have green, yellow, and purple.". Then I realize he went in the zippered compartment where the Tampax are. Doh!

Okay back to watch Vietnam in HD on the History Channel. And next they're starting Big Shrimping which was filmed in Bayou la Batre - cool! (I think textbooks may need to be replaced by documentaries from the History Channel - much more personal and impactful.)

What Did I Come in Here For?

2011-11-08T17:28:00.006-06:00

Geez, that last post was supposed to be 2 funny stories, and I even started with "the first story." But then I got carried away and didn't have time to finish, and now I can't remember what the second story was. Aaaargh! I think it was something Lucas did. Who knows. Hey, here's a picture of cotton (sorry it's not bigger)!

Random, yes, but many of you people may not have seen a crop of cotton. I grew up near it and my dad pulled over one time and let us grab some (aiding and abetting, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, trespassing, theft, so much criminal activity). Anyway, I think it's so pretty and much more interesting than a crop of corn, for instance.

In other news, I attended my first class chat last week at PR. It says that your comment will be hidden from view until the teacher is ready to address it, but it just flies onto the screen, typos and all. It was fun, though, and I do think I've learned something. I don't KNOW for sure yet, though, because all I've done is thread trace my seams. Haven't even pulled the silk organza out of the bag yet. I missed the second chat last night, and the third one is Wednesday. Apparently these classes are aimed at women who don't work or have children in the Scouts!

Oh, and Paranormal Activity 3 was a hit. We had a great time, especially because the ticket seller asked me if the tickets were for me or not (odd), then I saw that lots of teenagers were getting carded and turned away. THEN there was an actual POLICEMAN at the door of the theater, and the ushers came in halfway through to raise a ruckus with some theater-goer. So exciting!

Dating in the 21st Century

2011-11-04T17:17:00.004-05:00

The first story is about kids these days and how different they are from when I was a kid. When I was in the 5th grade, the love of my life to that point (Scott Kenny for any locals) asked me to go with him. I told my mom in the car after school, and she was so excited that when we got home she told my grandmother.

Mom: "Guess what, Mother? Scott asked Lynn to go with him!"
Mamaw: "Well how nice! Where are they going?"

If you grew up in Sylacauga in the 70's, you knew what "going with" meant. And in 1977 it meant you swapped bracelets....leather bracelets that you stamped and painted with your name and design of your choosing. When you broke up, you had to give their bracelet back.

Flash to this past weekend. Dean notices that Drew has changed his Facebook status to "In a relationship." It doesn't say with whom, but one of Drew's very clever acquaintances has typed, "Congratulations! Who's the lucky fella?" Funny guy. We assume it's with his recent date to Homecoming, but I've asked him every day if he's talked to her and the answer is no, they don't have any classes together. So we ask him if she's aware of the new relationship. No, she's not! (This reminds me of when he was in the 3rd grade and said a girl was his girlfriend. I, being very clever, asked him if he was her boyfriend, and he said no.)

Anyway, we tell him that he should talk to the girl before posting stuff like that. But this being 2011 and not 1977, he texts her to see if it's okay if he changes his relationship status on FB. She texts back yes. He texts back that he already did it but wanted to make sure she was okay with it. She texts back that yes, it's fine with her.

Now what just happened here - does she know that he thinks they're going together? And she turned him down to go to the movies tonight (all by text of course), so apparently she's not changing HER relationship status!

(I'm fine with it, by the way. We're going to see Paranormal Activity 3 and I didn't want to have to sit by myself.)

Online Class

2011-11-01T16:11:00.006-05:00

Okay, I am kicking my mojo in the butt by signing up for a sewing class at PR. It's Clone Your Own Garment by Kenneth King, and it starts...today! So thankful for Ely's, because I went to Hancock Sunday night and they don't carry silk organza, which you need to do the class. I went by Ely's Fabric Warehouse today and snagged some. Did you know that stuff is $14 a yard?! Good thing this doesn't take much.

I was checking out when I noticed another room I've never seen before kind of behind the area where they all sit. Well, it's 3 rooms, in addition to the other 3 or 4 off to the side. You have to go through the breakroom, where rick-rack is next to snacks...

And this is the cutest home decor fabric back here - why don't they put this up front?

Did you say you needed toile?

So anyway, off to a potluck dinner and Court of Honor for the Boy Scouts, but I'll post more later about my baby-stepping jeans and the class. Hey, by the way, have you ever cooked something at 450 degrees for 45 minutes...that was supposed to be at 350 degrees? Was it still edible? This corn casserole has a nicely browned top, but the sides and bottom are toast, I'm afraid. Dang Mad Cow!

Sisters with Hats

2011-10-24T17:35:00.003-05:00

Oh, Junior, you didn't expect me to post this, did you?! My sister sent my boys a Halloween card with these pictures in it. These are from about 12 years ago, and we were trying to be very sophisticated with our new hats.

But you know that saying, "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl?" There's a reason that sayings are sayings.

We Arnolds'll turn redneck in a minute when nobody's watching.

New Fabric Site!

2011-10-20T15:44:00.003-05:00

Okay, I don't know if I'll find a lot there to wear to work, but I found TJ's Fabrics, which is a store in Opp, Alabama, or online here for your shopping pleasure. I immediately thought of KID and Kitschy Coo, although I don't know if Amanda could get it shipped to the UK.

Isn't this too cute?!

And for you sewists with kids, check out this site for awesome appliques and embroidery machine discussions.

So this is like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, or whatever that saying is. I subscribe to Lake Martin Voice, which is written by John Coley, a hilarious realtor up there, and I left a comment for the first time on his site. Then he came to my site. (Funny how that works, seems like this is a new area of etiquette...like in Japan, you present your business card and they investigate it thoroughly, then they give you their's, and you're supposed to read it carefully - see? Okay, I digress.)

Anyway, he mentioned a friend who embroiders and has a site, so I go check out her site and find a post about TJ's Fabrics, then click her link and voila: fabulous fabric!

You're welcome!

Another Football Weekend

2011-10-16T19:49:00.003-05:00

Well Friday night Drew had his first date to the Homecoming dance. He's a very brave and outgoing person because he wore his fedora and walked into the football game by himself to find his date, who was already there. I would've begged somebody to go with me and couldn't have made eye contact with anybody in the stands. (I still get intimidated in a movie theater looking for empty seats with all those eyes staring back at me.)

Then it was off to Auburn for the Florida-Auburn game (thanks to my mom and Jim for hosting). It was more of a mess than the Florida-Alabama game, if you can believe it (thanks to my mom and Jim for providing post-loss cocktails). This one was exciting because we were on row 7 really close to the field, so in lieu of fabulous plays to describe, I'll show you what I was watching. Here's the War Eagle; I guess he has a name but I'm not sure. He flew right over our heads before the game started - very cool.

Gators take the field after half-time.

Aubie (the Auburn mascot) does lots of entertaining things, although I noticed the only law enforcement personnel who would dance with him was a woman. The men were too busy looking professional.

Lucas takes a break from complaining about how the guys in front of us won't sit down and fakes a sleepy face.

And I DID cut out the pattern pieces for those skinny jeans, but I'm taking my time watching the Pant Fitting DVD from Palmer-Pletsch again and trying it their way. I've drawn the stitching lines in marker so far. Next up is pin-fitting. And I saw that Erica got her version completed - don't they look great? There was only one other woman making these according to Google, so I need to get busy...

A Date for Homecoming

2011-10-14T17:46:00.002-05:00

Well Drew put himself out there and asked a girl to the Homecoming dance. He obviously takes after Dean, because I certainly never had a date in high school. (Well, we can't forget the nice guy who graciously accompanied me to a required club dance....he was the 5th person I asked.)

Anyway, it turns out that Lucas's best friend, we'll call him John, is this girl's little brother. We'll call her Marsha. So in carpool, Lucas goes and tells John that Drew is going on a date with his sister. John exclaims and runs toward his car to tell his mother. Lucas thinks this is supposed to be a secret, so he grabs John and says, "Wait, is your sister's name Hannah?"
"No."
"Oh."
"Ohhhhhh."

So Lucas tells me this in carpool like he has saved the day. I point out that now John will get in the car and report that Drew is taking a girl named Hannah to the dance. (Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like a good sitcom?)

The plot thickens. I tell Lucas he needs to straighten this out, so the next day he tells John the truth. John says they already figured it out....and that his mom and dad talked about how the date would work. His mom would take Drew and Marsha to a restaurant and drop them off, but John and his dad would be hiding out at a table in the corner to keep an eye on them. Now the funny thing is that Marsha's parents haven't even returned my call about transportation arrangements, but they're obviously discussing it at home. Odd.

Proves that you have to be careful what you say around little brothers....and that they can be excellent sources of information!

Impulse Buying

2011-10-09T15:05:00.003-05:00

I realize I'm quite good at showing you new patterns I've acquired, but not so good at showing new clothes I've sewn up, because there seems to be a very long delay between the two! My mojo is still MIA, but I'm taking baby steps to get it back. The first of which was to throw the stretch denim in the washer on hot for the first of 4 cycles....because I'm going to try THIS! (This being the Vogue 8774 jeans, which have not even been reviewed on PR yet!)

Q: But you said you needed dress pants to wear to work, and you spent all that time on the fabulous wearable muslin! Why not whip up another pair and just tweak the rear crotch like you said?
A: Because I have Mad Cow, and apparently ADHD.

Plus, these patterns were $3.50 at Vogue/McCalls/Butterick! I love the collar of this dress...till I read the directions - sounds very complicated. Also not reviewed yet at PR....maybe I should've waited.

And I've had this Butterick 5314 on my wishlist for a while till I found out it was out of print. Enter Ebay - I got it for $6.94 with free shipping - woohoo! I also love this collar. (You'd think I wear dresses a lot, huh? You'd be wrong.)

And speaking of impulse buying, Lucas pointed out that Toys'R'Us was having a sale on Just Dance 3 for the Wii. It was $5 off and you could get Michael Jackson's dance game for 50% off. Guess who's having a dance party this afternoon? Anybody else have an impulse-buying weekend?

Pants and a Band

2011-10-04T16:12:00.003-05:00

So I wore my homemade (excuse me, handmade) pants out to eat the other night, and the manager, who's known us since he was a waiter, came over to chat while we were waiting for a table. Out of the blue he says, "I like your pants." I say, "You like my pants?" (Because really, who says that?) Then of course I have to tell him that I made them.

Now, my mother was sitting next to me and didn't hear him say that he liked them to start with, so what she heard of the conversation was,
"You like my pants?"
"Yes, I like your pants."
"I MADE my pants!"
She thought I was terribly rude through the whole dinner. I was thinking, "DAMN, somebody commented on my PANTS!"

So I wore them to work the next day and gave a lecture wearing them that afternoon. Of course, nobody commented on them at that point.

In new business, this is what we did this weekend....

Yes, that is the University of Florida band (now Alabama has the Million Dollar Band, but I don't know what UF calls their band, sorry) warming up before the big game against Alabama.

You may notice there are no happy smiling pictures of us in the stadium. There were no happy smiles after that first touchdown, so we'll leave it at that.

Girls' Weekend

2011-09-28T16:43:00.000-05:00

So in addition to going to the Mecca of Medical Care last week (I wore the black pants - thanks for your help), I also stopped to see old friends in Alabaster and spent the weekend in Gatlinburg with my housemates from the college days. I was tucking Lucas in on my last night before leaving and spotted this....is it a dead gerbil? What bad timing! But they're supposed to live around 2 years, and mid-October will be Renewal time. ("Carousel is a lie!" - name the movie!)

No, he's just a heavy sleeper and really fat - whew! Disaster averted!

So we 6 ladies rented a cabin north of Gatlinburg and commenced to hot-tubbing, wine-drinking, and mountain-hiking.

We didn't do all that at the same time.

It's an interesting group - 2 Methodist ministers, 2 professional types (a doctor and a lawyer), and 2 educators, to paint it in broad strokes.

Or to be more shallow, 2 blondes, 2 brunettes, and 2 red-heads!

Totally Self-Centered!

2011-09-21T20:46:00.000-05:00

Quick - what should I wear? I'm going to the Mecca of Medical Care for my state tomorrow to meet the people I refer my patients to and they're giving me a tour of the joint. So what do I wear? Don't want to look slouchy, but don't want to be too edgy either (that's me, you know, so edgy with the manly clothes). So I think the white untucked shirt is just a tad slouchy, though it was the most tailored shirt I could find at the mall yesterday. (Should've finished that Betzina shirt - would've saved $45!)

Pants look pretty good from the back....

Tried a more feminine green knit shirt with an interesting neckline....

Hmm, I like the back of these pants better with an untucked shirt - still don't like that back center seam.

Tried it with the black Dolce and Gabbana pants I bought at some sidewalk sale in Soho when we were in New York...the shoes are too manly - I want pointy! But I don't to wear my Nuncio heels for a tour of a hospital - that's a little over the top.

So I was leaning toward homemade brown pants with green shirt, but the black seems to pop, but the shoes - eh! Help!

My Stalker

2011-09-20T22:29:00.001-05:00

As promised, Jake in the closet. "Whatcha doin' Mommy?"

"Wait, are you seriously going to wear THOSE shoes? Can I smell them first?"

"How long does it take her to unload the dishwasher?" (Notice the tell-tale lack of eye contact.)

"These boys are big enough to pick up their OWN laundry, why does she take it to their rooms?"

"Finally her chores are finished - time for a nap! Wait, Mommy, where are you going?"

2011-09-19T16:14:00.000-05:00

So I've been getting a creepy feeling lately from Jakey. Does your dog follow you around and need to be in physical contact with you at almost all times? I've been wondering if I'm going to drop dead soon, because he CANNOT be away from me. This is just from 8 PM until bedtime last night.

Lucas and I play Uno at the kitchen table. He lies down behind my chair.

I put clothes in the dryer. This is the only time he'll eat - if I'm doing laundry or someone is standing nearby for a significant period of time.

I check email at the kitchen table. What is UP with this sad face?

I tuck Lucas in. (Hey Jake, give Lucas a kiss....or just stand and stare at my leg.)

I clean off the kitchen counter.

I sit on the couch to watch TV.

Yes, I'm taking your picture baby, because you need help. Or I do - not sure which.

Tomorrow I'll try and catch the times he walks in the closet with me - it gets pretty crowded but he insists on being there!

The Pants are Finally Finished!

2011-09-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'll start from the beginning, because there are 2 separate issues here. This is a Frankenpattern using Kwik Sew 3614 shorts and the legs from Jalie 2909. I've been working on the pants upstairs in my sewing room, but my full-length mirror is downstairs in my bathroom, so it's been hard to make adjustments and check them quickly. I resorted to taking pictures like this upstairs to get an idea of what I'd done. The wrinkles were all I could see (plus the poor posture and flat derriere), and I'd get very depressed.

But then I'd check downstairs and feel better about things - I like the legs, even if they are wrinkley.

So I finally bought a full-length mirror for upstairs and that will hopefully get hung today. Then I'll work on my picture quality, because lighting is a little tricky there. But now I can slap these things on and quickly check them, which speeds up my sewing and doesn't interrupt the mojo.

So that brings us to last night, when I realized that even if I can't get these things to be perfect, they're certainly good enough to wear and deserve to be finished. So I'm comparing them to a pair of pants I bought at Dress Barn and wore once before deciding they feel awful and are way too tight to wear to work. Check out all those wrinkles - bleh.

Now compare my muslin, which still has some wrinkles, but nothing like the RTW's. And I actually could make the crotch wrinkles go away if I lift the waistband up.

Side view - I hope you're not eating lunch - I get nauseous looking at this. Sewista - I don't want to bring back your morning sickness - maybe you should bail out now!

And the muslin - still with those hip crater wrinkles, but I don't even care about those anymore. (Funny how crotch problems can take your mind off hip problems.)

Oh, did I actually go through an entire day at work with these pants? At least I was wearing an untucked shirt.

Okay, these actually do fit much better. I don't know why I got the little indent at the center back seam, but I'm okay with it. And I see that I have that back leg wrinkle no matter what pants I wear.

So this is the total picture, and other than powering out a couple of wrinkles near the knees where the fabric was folded, I'm happy with them. I even did a nice hem that works with these flats or the Nuncio heels Sheila made me buy (she's very persuasive when it come to shoes).

I believe I shall have 2 glasses of wine before I hem anything from now on, since that's what I did last night.

So, from here I've decided that I'll try the crotch curve from the Betzina jeans on the next pair, except I've got to figure out if a jeans crotch is the same as a trouser crotch - anyone? Will it fit too close? And I'm going to try a different leg possibly.

But maybe I'll make a quick shirt first....

2011-09-10T21:21:00.000-05:00

Oh, I am just giving you a heads up that tomorrow is going to be exciting! Not only did I stage a Cub Scout popcorn "show and sell" from 8-12 today (which means you show up at the local grocery with 11 cases of popcorn, a cooler of water, 2 tables, and some signs, then stand for 4 hours making conversation with strangers and telling the rowdy children to stop playing their DS's and no rough-housing or you'll call their mother!), but I also FINISHED my plaid pants muslin (I am SO going to wear this muslin)! And by "finish," I don't mean my usual "finish," which is done except for hemming and closures, I mean "finish" as in I did a blind hem and sewed in hook and eye!

Yes, I hemmed these pants by myself in the new full-length mirror I purchased at Al's 5 and 10 to go in the sewing room. I also bought a large hand-held mirror just like Pati Palmer told me to in the pants-fitting DVD. (My mother is in Auburn cheering the win over Mississippi State and the fact that she may not have to hem any more pants for me.)

Anyway, I took a few pictures, but given the wine I drank to give me the courage to hem pants by myself (I even took pics for a blind hem tutorial - eek!), I'll hold off on further pictures till tomorrow. I may wear these suckers to Sunday school tomorrow! Anyway, just so deliriously happy with my accomplishment tonight - hopefully I won't find in the morning that everything is caddy-wompus....or however you spell that. Till tomorrow...

2011-09-05T14:17:00.001-05:00

So I've been lacking mojo, but Dean has not. He finished the tree house last week and it's seeing plenty of use....when there's not a tropical storm around, that is.

Lucas has already hauled up a wrought iron chair and built a pulley system to bring up stuff.

And I did get a little mojo back at the beach - something about that little room with a huge window to watch the storm. I actually ripped the upside down zipper out of the pants muslin I started...only to find that it was a zipper for a purse or something. It's a non-separating zipper! Oh well. I got the waistband cut out, interfaced, and sewn as far as I could without the zipper in. So maybe when I sign off here I'll head upstairs to work on those. Oh, and I hit the Hancock Simplicity sale to get a couple of patterns - this is one of them.

Anybody made this one yet? I didn't see any of your reviews on PR, but it was a 2010 Best Pattern and I only checked the first page of reviews.

Okay, sorry sewists, I'm now going on one of those mind-bending jaunts that my sister (Junior) said made her dizzy last week. Siblings, stick with me here. This weekend we saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Pure awesome. It was an entertaining movie (the guy who played Malfoy showed up!), but afterward Drew helped me put a lot of things together - like they mentioned a manned mission to Mars and that they lost contact with the spaceship. That buzzed right over my head (I thought, oh, they're showing us they're in the future). Well THOSE were the astronauts who find themselves on the "strange planet" in the original movie! Brilliant! And the altered virus that makes the apes smart actually kills humans, and they show the beginnings of that at the end of this movie - don't walk out during the credits or you'll miss it. So now we see how we ended up in the original mess - thank you for making it accurate, screenplay writer!

On the ride home I got to thinking about the movies I loved in the 70's, and I remember lying in the floor of our den with my dad watching what must have been the Apes TV series, or maybe they showed the movie on TV.

Then I thought about how this new movie is actually a prequel, like they did with Star Wars. You go 70's movies - you're like bell-bottom pants. Give it enough time and you'll come back again!

Then I thought about I Am Legend with Will Smith (love this movie, and while I'm on Will Smith - have you seen his best movie called Seven Pounds? Get that movie tonight if you can. But I digress.)...

which is not a prequel, but is a remake of Omega Man, another one of my favorite movies from the 70's. Wait a minute...did you say...

Did your brain just make the connection? Do you get it? Charlton Heston was in Planet of the Apes AND Omega Man! (Are fireworks exploding in your head like they did in mine? Did your world just turn upside down like mind did?)

Now what did I just prove? Anything? Maybe just that Mad Cow is a bitch to live with. But the Dr. Fun family WILL be watching the 1968 Planet of the Apes tonight (pity my children).

2011-08-31T22:00:00.000-05:00

Well, the popcorn kickoff went swimmingly in my opinion. There were lots of laughs, lots of excitement about door prizes, and nobody fell asleep or talked loudly to their neighbor because they were bored. Now if we can say the same thing about the Friday lecture, it will have been a great week, despite the fact that I didn't sew anything.

And at work I've made the transition to electronic medical records with lightning speed, if I may say so myself. So I've got nothing to whine about at all....other than the lack of sewing mojo. I even went in Daphne Fabric and Lace today (home of $2/yard fabric!) and came out empty-handed. I'm hoping that when we go to the beach I'll get jazzed up about my new sewing room and dig into the mini-stash I left over there.

Now that makes me think of George Carlin's comedy bit about going on vacation to Hawaii. You pack a big suitcase. Then you run into someone you know who wants you to stay with them a couple of days, so you take a smaller suitcase to their place, and so on and so forth. It was really funny when I was a teenager.

And speaking of the old days, I heard "Lady" by John Denver today in DF&L. (La-dyyyy....are you cry-ing.....do your teeeears...beloooong....to meee?) That song just makes me want to cry - wasn't it in some movie about a woman dying? Wait, that was "Sunshine" by....John Denver?

And that was definitely in a movie about a kid's mother dying. And I'll always remember a movie from the 70's about a teenager with leukemia. He's playing basketball with friends and his mom says something about all his bruises. Seems like there were all kinds of movies about people dying from diseases back then. Whereas today, it's about people dying from being kidnapped, murdered, sold to foreigners, etc.

I think I like the old movies better - you could at least learn some warning signs of different diseases. But wait, I learned to be careful about what I trash and recycle from that Liam Neeson movie where his daughter is kidnapped because his stupid wife let on that they ordered pizza every Wednesday - duh!Oh wait, Liam Neeson's movie daughter got kidnapped in a foreign country because she lied to her parents about having an adult supervisor. It was Harrison Ford whose wife was stupid with the trash and the whole family got kidnapped. I think.

Yeah, let's stick with the disease of the week movie. I've never seen one about Mad Cow disease - I can play the lead.

Up for a Breath

2011-08-28T11:51:00.002-05:00

Lawdy-mercy, I've been gone a while! I just can't seem to get myself together to sew anything or to write a post. I did hem that retro-ish orange shirt, but I need to remove some basting stitches that are visible and tack the front together to prevent gaping before I wear it. Plus we've been having a heat wave and that's a hot shirt. Beyond that, the only sewing I've done has been on Scout shirts for the boys.

Besides my low-mojo, part of the problem has been 4 lectures coming up in September - hey, the first one is Friday! Those are hanging over my head, along with my popcorn kickoff tomorrow night for Cub Scouts - remember I'm the Popcorn Kernel. Speaking of hanging over my head, wanna see my hat?

I think I'll feel better once this week is behind me, so expect great things in the coming month. I'm going to FINISH those pants I started if it kills me, and I WILL wear that shirt at some point. (I will KEEP talking to myself like this, and I'm SURE it'll get me fired up.)

Oh, and beyond sewing, I want to go see The Help but haven't had time yet - anybody see it? And I started Duma Key by Stephen King (you know, on a different level than The Help and The Art of Racing in the Rain, but I've been loving this guy since I was 11 years old), so I also have a hard time putting that down to go fight with zippers and knits. Like Robbie (who may have a new grandbaby by now) said, sewing is supposed to be fun so if you don't feel like it, don't feel guilty.

Lucas's Schoolwork

2011-08-19T18:52:00.004-05:00

Lucas started school this week and had to fill out a form about himself, and the one that cracked me up was "I'm looking forward to 4th grade because." He wrote, "Because I'll be closer to being a parent." Nutty kid.

They also had to put 3 things in a paper bag that represented them. His first choice was the Just Dance 2 DVD case. Second choice was a glass figurine...to show he's a collector...of glass figurines. Thirdly was a magic trick that he actually performed in front of the class. And finally, they had to decorate their binder cover with pictures. There was one of Dean, 2 of himself, 2 of Drew (who would be really ticked if he knew), and zero of me.

We'll see how quickly he gets that fleece jacket he's been wanting me to make!

A Shirt

2011-08-15T16:56:00.002-05:00

Hmm, that's about all I can say for it...it IS, in fact, a shirt. I think I've wandered outside my style. This is Vogue 8323, which was made up fabulously by KID MD, but which somehow turned out almost grandmotherly on moi. Watch out for those double-wide hips!

Maybe it's the fabric-pattern combo. This is a cotton knit I loved from Amanda at Kitschy Coo, but I'm afraid I've combined it with the wrong pattern. (You can't imagine the guilt I'm suffering that I squandered a FOREIGN fabric on the wrong style.) Can you even see the princess seams on front and back?

Back to the pattern - it was so easy and fast, but this plethora of fabric at the neck is universal among the 47 sewists who reviewed it. KID succeeded in fixing the problem as mentioned on her blog, but I left out that step, unfortunately.

One sewist wore it with a belt, which looked quite smart and professional, but that is just not my style. (Sorry for the flash.)

Of course, it looks baggy without the belt. Maybe I should tighten up the side seams.

Now should I try it with a solid to accent the style? Or I may try another view with a regular collar and not this criss-cross wrap style, which I've folded down in most of the pictures. I'm also not used to this length, but I think it's in right now, and I wouldn't go shorter unless I tuck it in.

Well, I'm still wearing scrubs every day to work since sewing my own wardrobe is not going well. I can't wait for cold weather to get here so I can break out the 4 pairs of corduroys I bought last year and wore with my boots every day!

Back From Vacation

2011-08-14T17:32:00.005-05:00

So it was a very productive few days back at the beach. But first, I'd like to tell you about a new Japanese place we found in Gulf Shores - Aji Sai, which is Japanese for fabulous (not really). This is Combination B, which the menu did not indicate would involve a boat. (I expected 2 waiters to run it around the restaurant on their shoulders while somebody banged a gong, a la the old Farrell's in Birmingham!)

This is a close-up of the martini glass, which contained a fiberoptic ice cube and seaweed salad. Cool!

What a cool sushi bar! Feels like New York....or uh, just somewhere besides Alabama.

Look at all the fiberoptics in this place! There were 3 or 4 of these beautiful chandelier-things. Reminded me of my grandmother's shell lamp from the Philippines...which my mother was deLIGHTed to hang in the den when Mamaw lived with us. (Oh, it looked like I was emphasizing my unintended pun, but I meant it sarcastically.) Also, who remembers those oil lamps that had fishing wire running from top to bottom and the oil went up the center column then dripped down the lines so relaxingly. Also had a little greenery around the bottom for added tranquility.

Okay, so onto the productive part. I hemmed 9 pairs of school pants. Yes, I even went back and redid the screwed-up blind hems I did on previous pairs. Then I made this shirt - the green one with 3/4-length sleeves.

Of course, you'll have to come back tomorrow for pictures of it, as I have to IRON the aforementioned 9 pairs of pants, so I haven't had time to take pictures of the shirt, which hasn't been hemmed yet anyway.

Oh, and lest you think that one shirt wasn't very productive, I also created a lovely handout regarding the upcoming Cub Scout popcorn sale (I am the Popcorn Kernel - you've GOT to see my hat), and I edited a Powerpoint slide show to present at the first pack meeting in 2 weeks. So combining that with the above, as well as the fact that I GOT UP ON SKIS for the first time in about 5 or 6 years without breaking a hip, now you've got a productive few days!

A New Sewing Space

2011-08-10T06:00:00.002-05:00

So when we go over to the beach, I've been carrying my machine and using the kitchen table in between meals. But there's this nifty little room the previous owner used as an office where we've been keeping Jake's kennel, which he doesn't use anymore since he's decided he likes sleeping with Lucas.

So I moved the kennel into the little attached closet and vacuumed up 50 pounds of dog hair that's accumulated over the past 3 years.

Then it was off to Target, where Lucas fell in love with this faux leather wing chair for tiny people. He asked me if I could sew one for him. Then he declared he was coming back to buy it when he saved enough money. He also saw a wastebasket in the shape of a monkey that he fell in love with. Then he said, "I know I'm a boy, but I really like this stuff." God bless my child!

So I purchased a white desk, awesome plastic green chair for $9.99, coordinating wastebasket (for threads and scraps, of course, plus it was green), and rolling drawers (because they're green) to hold whatever semblance of stash I build up. And voila....

A new sewing room where I'll keep Lucas's Janome that he never uses anymore, plus I'll bring the serger over now that I know how to use it.

Get ready for some knit shirts to happen while on vacation from serious pants! (Yeah, just like I said after that sewing class last weekend, right? Given that I bent a needle hemming school pants tonight, we'll be lucky if any more sewing happens this week.) But seriously, how awesome is that desk? I built that myself - got the callouses from the screwdriver to prove it!

Do You Like Dolphins?

2011-08-08T21:36:00.003-05:00

Ever dream of swimming with dolphins? What if you were tubing, and your parents spotted 3 dolphins and slowed down to let you get close to them? Wait a minute...how do you know they're not sharks??? Terror ensues...

You'll see them surface 3 times if you go full-screen. (Lucas is only near tears once.)

Kids Love Cattle

2011-08-07T08:06:00.002-05:00

Yeah, there were lots of cowboy boots and hats, but there were also plenty of flip flops, and a couple of kids were barefooted. Now that's country!

Rodeo!

2011-08-07T08:04:00.001-05:00

So who's been to a rodeo? I haven't been to one since I was a kid, so when I found out one was happening this weekend I had to drag the whole family to it. These kids have been to New York twice, so it's time to balance that with some country exposure. I've got video, but that'll have to wait till I get home to download from YouTube.

Warning - PG-13!

2011-08-05T17:57:00.004-05:00

So Lucas got some birthday money and wanted to buy some prank items from Amazon. Specifically, fake items that shock you. The product picture showed a couple of toy guns, pack of gum, laser pointer, etc. He pretty much got what he asked for. The flashlight and laser pointer actually work if you know the hidden button to push that won't shock you.

But there was one exception - no gum! Instead, they substituted a cigarette lighter...at least, that's what I think it is.

I had to include both pictures, because this thing starts flashing when you open it, and I thought it was funny that I caught each boob lit up! I can tell there's no lighter fluid in it, so I haven't tried it to see if it shocks you when you "light your cigarette."

This is just wrong on so many counts. Lucas came running to me when he opened the package and was especially titillated with this particular item. I didn't know what to feel - should I be incensed? Angry? Write the company a hateful letter?

Then I remembered the pranks my dad used to play with his friends in the 70's, and I remembered when a girl brought a prank pen to school in the 4th grade (yes, the famous Rhonda P. for my siblings). Her pen showed a buxom woman in a bikini, but when you wrote with it the ink drained down and left her naked - gasp!

So I decided to play it cool like my dad would have, and let Lucas keep it. (I WILL be checking his backpack daily when school starts up again, don't you worry!)

Debugging the Commercial Pattern

2011-07-30T16:46:00.002-05:00

So to ease back into my sewing mojo, I signed up for this class at my local joint, All About Sewing. This is who hosts Sandra Betzina and others during the year. For some reason, I was the only person who signed up for this. Maybe it was because it was hidden in the schedule, or maybe it was because it didn't involve actual sewing. (Robbie, had you noticed it and opted out, or did you not know about it?)

I took several patterns that were already cut out and basically had a private tutorial from Sue on how to double check patterns and see if they need adjusting before cutting them out of fabric. I got a handout with several rules regarding different garments. Some of this was common sense, like making sure the front and back outseams of skirts or pants are the same length. One thing I hadn't caught before was looking at the front and back shoulder seams of the Betzina blouse pattern - the slope was actually different, and when overlapped, it resulted in the very wrinkle I ended up with in my shirt! If I'd picked that up to start with, maybe I would be wearing that shirt right now...maybe. Sue's hypothesis was that the Today's Fit line is supposed to fit today's imperfect woman (with rounded shoulders), whereas her original Vogue 1000 (which is their pattern block - did I phrase that right?) had identical front and back shoulder seams.

Anyway, there was information on pattern blocks and drafting methods, and we looked at some of my actual patterns and where I might want to adjust them, so that was very helpful. It also forced me to cut out some patterns, so maybe I'll get the gumption to go upstairs and make something!

A Restaurant Review

2011-07-28T15:08:00.003-05:00

Still haven't made it up to the sewing machine yet, but we did eat some good Japanese food last night. When in Pensacola, discerning diners eat at Yamato.

They have 2 Hibachi tables, but we opted for the tatami room. You leave your shoes on the stone steps leading up to the dining room, and they have a recessed area under the table so your knees won't protest at being folded up.

They even opened a curtain to give us some ambiance.

Lucas loves the bridge (below) you can walk over at the entrance (I was tempted to, but this foyer is visible to the dining room and I didn't want people to think I was goofy).

Lucas said he felt like he was in Japan, so that prompted me to find some old pictures from when we took Drew to Japan in 2000 to meet the relatives. We slept on the floor at an onsen (hot spring place with a hotel - I think that's the name of it) and these pictures crack me up - especially Drew on the floor. My picture-taking skills have improved, but too bad I didn't have a digital camera back then.

Are You Kidding Me?

2011-07-25T14:38:00.002-05:00

From Sew Stylish. Am I mistaken in thinking that this looks weird? That you can't use the top of this pocket so why is it there? That the top 2 pockets are in a very unfortunate location?

Am I the only one who thinks it's dangerous to suggest this is stylish...especially to the likes of me, who doesn't know any better?

Seriously?

2011-07-25T14:37:00.001-05:00

I bought the summer issue of Sew Stylish magazine at Hancock. I would hope that if I made this, you would not let me outside. Or at least make me see an eye doctor to check for color blindness. How do these dark pockets coordinate in any way with this bright skirt?

A Couple of Must-Reads

2011-07-23T12:15:00.002-05:00

Okay, I grabbed this at LaGuardia last weekend and started it last night at 10 PM. I just finished it - a record for me, and now I need to wash my face because I started crying on page 312 and couldn't stop. Such a good book with some very good lessons, and some places are so funny I laughed out loud.

And I read this one last month because the title reminded me of how my grandfather taught us to spell Mississippi (which is of course how every Southern kid is taught, probably). I'd like to get this guy's other books to read now. He's an Alabama native with family apparently here in Mobile. This one rates up there with The Help.

Now to get out of these pajamas and get dressed for the day!

Finally....Brown Shoes

2011-07-21T20:17:00.004-05:00

Goodbye, my old friends. I bought you while at a meeting in Boston 7 years ago so I'd have something professional and sensible to wear to work.

But you're so mannish and square, and I've been searching for something more feminine...but not the Lady Gaga platforms - it's not really cool to wear those to work. Plus you're just so worn out now that people think I'm getting shorter.

And then I had 30 minutes to walk around Soho by myself last weekend, and I found some new friends. They are the answer to 3 years' worth of questions. All I wanted was something brown, interesting, pointy if possible, with a low heel. I'd been in stores and cruised the internet to no avail. It was either the same boring square or ballet flats. Until now...

Yes, the man who owned the tiny store called you wingtips, but he assured me you were handmade leather - thus the color variations - and are the hottest thing in NYC right now. How would I know? I'm from Alabama. But he lived in Huntsville for 5 years, so I can trust him. And when I put you on the first time, I felt like Gregory Hines and had to suppress the urge to tap across the store.

Yes, Drew said you looked like men's shoes, but I explained to him that I have always had a penchant for manly shoes, and at least you're slightly pointy. Dean was similarly condescending to you, but don't listen to him.

The search is over....you'll be with me a long while (apologies to Survivor).

Now to order a pair in black.

Perhaps Back to Some Sewing?

2011-07-19T21:09:00.003-05:00

Well, between vacation time and an upcoming lecture on Friday, plus call, I haven't set foot upstairs in quite a while. Now I ordered these two DVD's for my birthday present to myself (I'll find any excuse, really) but haven't looked at them yet. Anybody ever watch these?

Now I'm very excited about getting to them and then fixing that plaid muslin I had going earlier with the upside down zipper, especially since I ran across a "sample sale" in NYC where I purchased a pair of Dolce and Gabbana pants that were plaid and reminded me of the muslin. But it just hit me that the Fitting DVD has a terrible picture on the cover. That poor woman appears to be wearing nothing but pantyhose and half of a tissue pattern, and they've put her on the cover! God bless you, anonymous woman, unless that's you, Pati Palmer...then more power to you!

A Surprise Birthday Weekend

2011-07-17T16:21:00.004-05:00

Well mercy-percy, Dean gave me a surprise weekend in New York City (New York City??!!) for my belated birthday! We arrived Friday and wandered around Washington Square before dinner (yes, those are the Betzina jeans).

A magic show was going on (I thought they only had street performers in New Orleans...hey, this magician IS from New Orleans), and would you believe that Lucas got called up? You can skip the crappy iPhone video unless you're a family member who didn't get it emailed to you already.

On Saturday we ate lunch outside since the weather was so nice and went to see War Horse at the Lincoln Center.

Yes, I'm embedding the Youtube video montage of the play because it was that good. Dean tells me Steven Spielberg is making a movie of it - get your tissues! I bet it won't be the same as the play though - look at these horse "puppets." It was amazing - they did stuff on the stage that was mind-blowing. (Of course, when they suddenly changed to slow-motion galloping with what I think was a dramatic representation of getting mown down by shells and machine gun fire, Lucas whispered, "What exactly is going on?")

And then the piece de resistance....we participated in Improv Everywhere's 8th MP3 Experiment!

Here's a link if you're not familiar. And here is an actual photo where you can see the three of us (Lucas is too short) - prize to the one who can pick me out of the crowd!

One More Dance Video

2011-07-14T22:30:00.003-05:00

Well, since my mother doesn't want to appear on the internet before a bunch of strangers, this is the last dance video...until my sister or brother uploads their stuff to YouTube. It's so funny that you think there's no sound with this video...till you hear the pool players in the background, then it's really hilarious because they're just dancing their hearts out in silence!

Tina Turner! Live at Lake Martin!

2011-07-13T17:43:00.002-05:00

This is the first (and most entertaining) installment of the Lake Martin Dance Videos. Junior has got some moves...and is very agile! Let's see the slow part of Rollin' on the River first:

And now for the fast part - back up!

Next Year, Shirts

2011-07-10T08:35:00.001-05:00

I have discovered that when you are on a boat from 9am to 7pm, no amount of sunscreen can protect you. Though the only pale spot on Drew's back is where he sprayed the aerosol sunscreen at 8 am, complete with drip marks. Weird.

Blues!

2011-07-10T08:34:00.001-05:00

Pirates at the Beach

2011-07-10T08:32:00.001-05:00

We passed this ship on the way to Pcola. It was full of sweaty, shirtless, swarthy pirates and their wenches. And is apparently available for corporate events!

Last Sunset Cruise

2011-07-07T23:22:00.002-05:00

I bid you adieu from beautiful Lake Martin. Next up, Blue Angels at Pensacola Beach! Plus eventually some good dance videos from the Wii. We had a dance battle tonight with 8 people. Just have to find out who all agrees to be posted on the blog...my mom has already refused to sign her permission slip.

Cinnamon coffee cake

2011-07-07T23:21:00.002-05:00

And I stayed up last night till 10:30 cooking this cinnamon coffee cake - a neighbor's recipe. Only thing is, she left out the step where I should add vanilla. Yes, I brought vanilla, and I've made a cake before so I should've realized I left it out, but I was following the directions to a T. Thus, no vanilla. So it looks really pretty, but there's not a whole lot of flavor to it. Apparently I can screw up any number of things!

Crack Salad Recipe

2011-07-06T14:00:00.001-05:00

Amy asked about the recipe, and I got another picture to show you what it really looks like. The brown sugar kind of liquefies overnight and that's when it's really good...kind of like cooking cocaine to get crack, possibly? Don't let your children read this blog.

Mix 2 bags of red seedless grapes with 8 oz of soft cream cheese, 8 oz sour cream, 1 T vanilla, and 1/2 cup sugar. Pour in oblong dish and top with 1 cup light brown sugar and 1 cup chopped nuts. Lower blinds and lock doors. Not safe for intravenous injection...but Scott's working on that!

Tubing

2011-07-06T13:59:00.002-05:00

Goat Island

2011-07-06T13:56:00.001-05:00

I totally did not know that Goat Island near the dam really has goats! That explains the signs posted on trees that say No Dogs Allowed.

Poppers and Wine

2011-07-06T13:55:00.002-05:00

These are the jalapeño poppers stuffed with shrimp and cream cheese that Mom and Jim made last night....and the wine I drank to quench the fire. I ate half of this plate, but I'm not saying how many glasses of wine were necessary. Let's just say that I went to bed at 9:00! But hey, you should know that this house has tons of windows and a paucity of blinds, so we all get up between 6 and 7 am. There, I feel better.

Crack

2011-07-05T20:39:00.001-05:00

Last year was the first appearance of my sister's grape salad, which Scott renamed Crack Salad because we couldn't stop eating it....even though that first bite makes your salivary glands draw up something fierce! We joked that we could spit across the room after that first bite. Wow, sorry for that crudeness. (I got Bossypants by Tina Fey for my birthday - be happy I'm not dropping F-bombs - and can I say that I admired her before I started the book, but now I love her.)

Grape Salad

2011-07-05T20:38:00.003-05:00

So you can make out brown sugar and pecans on top, but there are actually grapes in there.....mixed with cream cheese and vanilla and some other addicting substance I'm sure! (I'm typing all this on my iPhone, which autocorrects "addicting" to "assisting" like a person in denial!)

Family Photo

2011-07-05T20:38:00.002-05:00

Well, I'll rely on someone to email me the big family photo with everyone, but here's the condensed version taken with my iPhone.

Yes, we're usually dressed up to go eat with clean hair and lipstick on the appropriate people, but this year it rained so hard and we're not eating out, so we'll be happy that we're clothed and smiling. (We'll ignore my mixing a plaid with a loud print - I made both, so there!)

Yummy Crust

2011-07-04T22:43:00.002-05:00

Too bad I started really late and took it out of the oven at 10pm. No taste until tomorrow....but it looks good!

Peach Cobbler

2011-07-04T22:42:00.001-05:00

I even branched out and attempted this Frank Stitt cobbler recipe my friend made a couple of weeks ago.

Finished Product

2011-07-04T22:38:00.002-05:00

It turned out pretty good for the first attempt, and Scott even had labels ready to go.

Papaw's BBQ Sauce

2011-07-04T11:59:00.001-05:00

My grandfather made this fantastic barbecue sauce that he would "put up" (or "can" for the city folk). After he died, it took us about a year to finish up the last jar. I remember that dinner. We never tried to make it ourselves until today. My brother had the idea to do it so we'd stay busy inside and avoid the boat traffic. (We'll commence tubing tomorrow when everybody abandons the lake.) So here's how it started...

Shrimp Boil

2011-07-03T22:43:00.001-05:00

So this was my brother's night to cook - yum!

This will be the first year Dean hasn't made it up here to dazzle us with gourmet cooking. Nope, it'll be my marinated flank steak out of the Flylady's friend's cookbook - something like No Time For Dinner. I'll let you know if anyone gets sick.

View From the Porch

2011-07-03T22:42:00.001-05:00

This house is really high up from the water. Cross your fingers I don't take a tumble here! Dean's parting words and nightly reminders have been, "I love you....be careful on those stairs."

So yeah, if you were going to rob my house while I'm here, too bad because Dean has to work all week and is actually home. So there!

War Eagle!

2011-07-03T22:40:00.001-05:00

So we spent one night in Auburn before checking in to the rental at Lake Martin. Ya gotta get a pic at Jordan-Hare Stadium!

Pants and a Zipper

2011-06-30T17:17:00.004-05:00

So I got my mojo fired up again by organizing my cutting table. This put me in the mood to make some pants. Well, I really had all my knit top patterns pulled out with some fabric from the stash, but I talked myself into the pants because that's what I really need right now.

Robbie suggested using the Kwik Sew 3614 shorts as a starting point since I made 2 pairs of these and wear them all the time, so I added the legs from the previous Jalie pants I made to see what would happen. I knew going into it that this might end up wonky because the legs on those 2 previous pairs of pants were a bit wonky, but I could trim them down on the muslin and work it out. I didn't put the zipper in but just basted the fly because this was going to be awful.

Well hold up a minute, this might just work out! I love them! Just have to work out the legs a bit and fix that smile at the crotch.

Maybe I'll let the side seams out 1/4" at the hips and put the zipper in. I'll check the crotch curve against my Betzina jeans to get rid of that back leg wrinkle hopefully, but this is definitely do-able!

So I make my adjustments and sew the zipper in for real since I am definitely wearing these suckers to work - Robbie will be so proud of her donated pants fabric! (Lordy, I haven't even checked to see if the plaid matches up - maybe these'll be to wear around the house after all.) I proudly come downstairs to check the fit now, and discover a little problem undoing the zipper. Can you figure out what I did?

Yep, I sewed it in upside down. Since it was right sides against the fabric, I didn't check to see which end was actually up. Ever done that? So I can add this to my list of cutting off zippers and forgetting to sew a new stop. And adding insult to injury, taking smaller side seams actually made more wrinkles in the back.

Some days God smiles at me, and other days he has a little laugh at my expense.

Just Dance 2 for the Wii!

2011-06-28T17:31:00.002-05:00

Yeah, if you're looking for sewing stuff you may need to come back another day or check the archives to the left. If you're thinking of buying Just Dance 2 for the Wii, on the other hand, step right up! Shout out to my old friend Lisa for bringing this to my attention. I'm a sucker for exercise videos, but only do them a couple of times before I get tired of them, but this is DANCING.....I LOVE DANCING.

This has a wide variety of songs from Avril Lavigne to Elvis, as featured below, and talk about a cardio workout! So I shoot for a few songs a day and I'm already a little less out of breath now that we've had it a week. It even has a "Just Sweat" option that tracks your progress every day.

Of course, it's primarily a game for up to 8 players, and Lucas demonstrates his superiority in this song. He's just done this one about 50,000 times is all.

Now to go put a $5 reservation down on Just Dance 3, which is coming out in October. Surely that one will have some Lady Gaga....

Big Fire

2011-06-27T14:15:00.005-05:00

So we were on the boat at Johnson Beach in Perdido when Lucas noticed something was on fire. It looked like it was coming from the vicinity of our house. As we were heading back, we spent 15 minutes in the no-wake zone and listed the appliances we'd each turned off. That's a creepy feeling when you think you might be looking at smoke from your own house. Then we realized it was further away. Now doesn't this picture look like the fire is right behind this building?

So H.K. (my deceased father and notorious ambulance chaser with no less than 3 police scanners in his possession) whispered that I should track down the source of the blaze. I concurred. This looks like a tornado, but it's the smoke. This is really creepy, like end-of-the-world creepy. Lucas expresses concern that we not get near the fire - it looks like it's really close.

Coming over the Alabama Pass bridge - Lucas says, "This is going to be devastating." I pray this isn't some condo full of people or the Publix which is right there and always full of people.

Turns out it's the Gulf State Park forest burning - awful, but thank goodness no people were hurt.

It was so eery to see it burning at night while everybody goes about their business at the beach.

So hooray for all the firefighters who got it under control today, I think. No loss of life or structure last I heard - phew!

Dean Accomplished Something. I Did Not.

2011-06-22T17:11:00.002-05:00

Well, I bought this rayon challis on sale at Hancock the other day. I was looking for something to make a shirt pattern I've had, but I think this wants to be a dress.

Dean's more productive than I am this week. He's floored the 2nd level (PICU-height).

It actually supports my weight!

All that's left is filling the yard below with fluffy grass and removing the stepping stones. Oh, and the handrails, rope ladder, steps, etc.

Father's Day Weekend

2011-06-20T19:21:00.003-05:00

Hope y'all had a great weekend - we had a nice one over at the beach. The dog needed to be right up in my lap on the way over. He actually put a paw up on the center console at one point, but Dean wouldn't let him drive.

We had some old friends over for a fish fry. Pat here has covered himself in the grass that washes up on the little beach. Last time somebody got in the grass, they complained of stinging and ended up with a red rash where bugs bit them. Luckily, Pat is an environmental engineer and knows what he's doing.

He brought a "box" of oysters over that took two days to finish. This is Dean's Father's Day breakfast - oysters and Diet Mountain Dew. I actually ate several right from the shell with cocktail sauce on them. Look Ma, no cracker!

Still waiting for the sewing mojo to return. I did go to Hancock and the manager still recognizes me. She cracks me up yelling, "Hey Girl!" and is very nice to talk to me, though she's never used the Simplicity binding tape maker they sell. If any of you have, let me know what you think because I might buy that with my gift card. Off to PR to read reviews.

Random Things

2011-06-16T16:40:00.005-05:00

So busy with call this week! I just have time to post some random pictures. This one cracks me up. Visitors to the Mobile Airport may be greeted by the lovely Azalea Trailmaids! WTH? Just lovely high schoolers who interview for the opportunity to wear gigantic antebellum dresses and possibly walk in parades or greet dignitaries at the airport. Dean walks proudly and with a smile as he passes them. (Note they have turned their backs on him - he is not their dignitary.)

And this is what Dean is occupied this week while he's off.

This would be a treehouse actually up in a tree, which will have 2 levels. The first level is emergency room visit-high, and the second level is admit to the PICU-high. I do believe waivers need to be signed before friends play on this with Lucas.

Yes, you may be confused because you see the fort in the background. Dean built that when the kids were smaller and it has a rock wall on the back. But they're bigger kids who are ready to take more risks....there is already discussion as to how to connect the 2 structures. Should it be a zip line? A rope bridge? Well, time to go jack up the insurance coverage. See you later!

I Cooked Better Than I Sewed...

2011-06-12T18:00:00.003-05:00

Okay, I've never done a sleeve binding before. I've never put on a cuff or placket other than the practice I got in Betzina's class recently. All I've ever done is fold up a hem and topstitch. So I tried 2 methods on this muslin, neither of which worked well.

For the first one, I tried a method I learned from a Jalie top where you fold a strip in half, finish the edges with a zigzag or serger, apply to the right side of the garment with raw edges even, then fold inside and press. They did that with the neckline, but I tried it for the sleeve. Yeah, that didn't work too well.

It looked okay on the inside, but wasn't RTW-looking on the outside.

So I tried the official binding of the armhole. I think you fold the strip in 3rds and wrap it around the raw edge, but this is knit so I just sewed one raw edge to the armhole then wrapped higgledy-piggledy to the inside and "topstitched," hoping to catch it inside.

This is an example of very CRRRRRRRAPPY (that's with an Irish brogue) stitching! I was beyond caring when I did this, and the 3rd cable guy was tromping around in the attic, so I was in a hurry.

So I may actually investigate a binding maker - I think that's what it's called. I've got to go back to Katie's blog and check her binding method. Hers are always perfect.

Oh well, you can't win 'em all.