Alabama Chanin Couching

Gorgeous boating this weekend over towards Pensacola...


Wait, what is that huge gray boat in the background? It is SO cool to be enjoying the beach and then see a Navy ship pull in the pass heading for port!

Also, Navy planes practicing their landings. No Blue Angels today, though.


Okay, now for better eye candy...


I've been couching all week!


Almost done with front panel #2! I think I'll celebrate by sewing them together before I start couching the rear panels.


So Robbie and I are planning a day of Alabama Chanin airbrushing, so I went through the fabric stash to find some candidates. I love this green tie-dye thing, but canNOT remember where I bought it. I'm specifically looking for tops to match some light coral pants, plus something to go over the couched skirt.


This fuschia works for the pants, but not for the skirt...and I don't think I'll spraypaint that.


But this white knit is perfect for both pants and skirt, and I could do a stencil just on one shoulder, maybe...


Now to think about what stencil, and what color....

Saved by Dr. Homemaker!

Whew! Shout out to Susie Homemaker, MD, who resuscitated my binding stat! She emailed me a link to a great Threads video tutorial on applying knit bindings. It was stuff I vaguely remembered doing before, but it laid it out in easy steps and was a piece of cake. I'd repost it, but I don't want to pirate somebody's intellectual material if it's only for subscribers. We'll proceed with a slide show of some different pants pairings.


My only problem was I cut the binding with the grain to get the border I wanted, and we know the stretch was cross grain, so I couldn't stretch this nicely to get rid of gappage.


It did stretch a smidge, though, so is definitely better than yesterday.


You know I had to try the purple suede heels!


I like this the best. This is a Front Door Fashion tucking tip - just the front!


Okay, have a great weekend. If you get bored and want to see something cool, Google Mobile Fashion Week, Helen Legg (sorry I can't get a hyperlink to work on the iPad). Here's a sample of her work posted on AL.com, and you can even go vote for her - they're choosing 2 of 3 girls to compete, and her work seems the most creative, though I also like the other girl's vintage halter dress with red sash....

Half-hearted Sewing

Well, I tried to finish the Japanese AC shirt. I took it up to the machine and serged all the seams instead of flat-felling them so I'd have a little extra security...not that my serging's secure at all, as evidenced by the seams FALLING OUT of that blue Mardi Gras dress last year. Anyway, I cut the blue border strip and pressed in half to make the neckline binding, which I thought I remembered how to do on the machine. This is an overall picture with the binding basted on. I cut this version a little bigger than the Gator shirt since it's for work and not as stretchy.


I'm still in love with the fit, though I did cut the neckline down so it wouldn't choke me, and I like the sleeves with the border, but note how the neck binding stands out away from me...as per my usual, of course.


I didn't quite get the white stripe on the binding out of the way, since I couldn't see that side as I was basting - bleh.


And I was in AC mode, where you just overlap the ends of the binding and stitch them down, no big deal, but DUH! I believe on machine-sewn shirts this requires some type of mitering, or sewing ends together before applying - arghhhhh!!! I'm just so disgusted with myself now. I shall henceforth be known as Dr. Fun, Special Needs Sewist. I couldn't face any more failure and suddenly became very sleepy, so I'm just dropping it for now and we'll see what happens tomorrow. Perhaps I'll sew an AC cretin stitch in regular matching blue thread around that binding to make it lay exactly how I like. Or maybe I'll look up a tutorial on applying neck bindings.


If you're a sewer, you can click away from this train wreck now. I just wanted to save this cool pic for posterity. We were piled up on the couch watching TV last night and Dean snapped a pic of 2 feet. They're the same size, but one's been around 12 years, and the other for 47 years - what a difference 35 years makes! I bet somebody'll offer Botox and dermabrasion for your foot one day, at the rate we're going now. Which reminds me, has anyone watched Botched? We caught an episode the other night - forgot what channel - and just EWWW! But how sad that somebody feels that badly about themselves to go through something like that. Just heartbreaking to see how messed up things can get...kinda like that neck binding.

An AC Shirt out of Nonregulation Fabric?

So here's how the Gator shirt turned out with the neckline bound. Drew says it looks weird. I think it looks like a coed picked up a school shirt and bedazzled it to reflect her own unique personality.


Or it was sold in a boutique specializing in upscale school shirts.


But here's the big dilemma. This is fabulous Japanese knit fabric, which looks upscale and resistant to bedazzling. See the clever thing I did with the sleeve? That border was going to be the hem of the shirt, till I realized the stretch went in the other direction, so I made it be sleeve borders. Brilliant!


But the trouble is that if I flat-fell the seams, the thread will show, and it'll look weird. I tried stitching a second line along the first line to secure the seam, but you can still see the stitches.


Not terribly professional looking...I'm thinking of taking it to the machine and treating it like a regularly-sewn shirt, down to the neck binding. The only other way to handle it is to find matching thread that won't be so noticeable, but that would be impossible with button craft thread, I'm afraid. What are your suggestions? Hey - I even had the idea of outlining some of the geometric shapes with embroidery, but it's just really wrong for this fabric, I think. Maybe on a more playful fabric...that I didn't buy in Japan!


In other news, I have to participate in a Jeopardy style game of attendings vs residents next week, and we have to dress up with a team name and music. The Avengers movie seems popular right now, so I suggested we be....the Attenders - get it? The other lady agreed to get a Black Widow costume (she's younger, skinnier, and should be able to pull off leather pants in a professional manner), and the guy is getting an Ironman costume. Should be entertaining....


especially if I leave this costume as is! Who do they think would wear this without lengthening this skirt? I'm headed to JoAnn for blue taffeta so as not to reveal my assets when I sit down!


Have a great week!

Alabama Chanin on Call

By that, I mean that I'm on call so we can't go to the beach, but it was quiet enough to get some sewing in - yay! First I ran to Books-a-Million to get the 4th and final AC book.

Now I've been working on my AC couched skirt again because I'm at an impasse on my knitted lacy top - the sleeves have to decrease 2 stitches every 8th row in the lace pattern, which apparently involves drawing your own chart, which I've never done, so I'm stuck. Any help there? The up side of the dilemma is that I was forced to stop knitting and start sewing again, so I'm now halfway through the second panel of my 4-panel skirt I started last summer. Now the ADHD-sewing thing kicked in, plus my sewing buddy Robbie and I were planning to have an airbrushing session soon, so I needed ideas for something ELSE to work on! That took me upstairs to look at fabric, and I decided to try the T-shirt pattern from her third book, I believe. But I read that the fourth book had all the patterns plus a few extra, so I got it first.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the new book, Alabama Studio Sewing Patterns. There are only 2 or 3 new patterns (wrap skirt, a VERY blousy dress, and maybe one other thing I'm blanking on), and there are NO embellished items. The third book was my favorite because of all the eye candy with the sequins, beads, fur, etc., but this one is more about how to alter all the patterns, and it's very basic stuff. Plus, the patterns are all on a CD and you have to print them out yourself, or take them to a printer - bleh! You can order the paper patterns extra for $30. Oh well, back to the fabric. I found this slightly stretchy knit that I think I bought in Japan, and decided to test the T-shirt pattern on something else first to get the fit right before I make a shirt out of this.


Cue the XXL t-shirt I bought at an outlet center.


I decided to keep the Gator - maybe we'll go to a game this year....yeah, I doubt it.


Had a couple of these orange shirts donated to me, and this makes great sleeves that are hemmed already.


Well, hot damn at the fit! This is my first AC garment with sleeves, and I am pleased!


Still need to make the swayback adjustment...


and I haven't bound the neckline yet...orange or blue? I was planning on using white thread with a cretin stitch on orange or blue binding, but Drew thought that sounded weird, even though I explained that they don't make those colors in button craft thread. He suggested I use regular thread, but I kind of like the contrast with my white-felled seams on the shoulders and armholes.


Well, obviously I need to loosen it just a bit for work, but we'll see if I can get this done in that Japanese fabric. Then of course to the original plan of airbrushing some cotton for aNOther shirt....or skirt...curse this ADHD sewing! Hey, how was YOUR weekend?

Graduation and Dinner

Drew graduated this past weekend, and I didn't know if I'd be able to stop crying. Does everybody get depressed when their kid graduates? The school gave him a packet at graduation practice with his final transcript, all the standardized test scores, shot record, birth certificate, and the picture we had to submit when he started - awwwww!!!!


I did some sobbing after the senior breakfast while I was alone in the bathroom, and had some tears running down my face when he and Lucas left our family pre-graduation dinner at Jerusalem Cafe to get set up, but I was oddly emotion-less at the actual ceremony. (Could've been the 3 antsy kids sitting in front of us drinking Capri Suns and eating purple suckers.) An added bonus was that Lucas played the drums with the school band, and of course the song was Pomp and Circumstance, or as Lucas thinks it's called, Pompous Circumstance.

One other fun thing was that I volunteered to be a chaperone for the "don't go out drinking, stay here in the gym and be sober" party afterwards, which involved a hypnotist making these kids do the craziest things for over an hour - that was something! We're still waiting for videos of the valedictorian ripping off his shirt while dancing to make it onto YouTube...including the valedictorian himself, who can't remember anything. Good stuff.

So after moping around the house all weekend being depressed, I started call this week, but decided since I finished early that I should cook dinner. Pinterest sent me a timely email about quick dinners, so Drew, Lucas, and I whipped this up after a trip to the grocery store:


If you know me well at all, aren't you proud of me for cooking this?! And it tasted delicious! Okay, you just cook a pound of bacon, boil your pasta then throw in the broccoli, heat up your Bertolli alfredo sauce, shred some Publix rotisserie chicken and crumble up the bacon into it, and toss it all in a dish. Didn't leave too much of a mess for Dean to clean up...


Alright, anybody else have a depressing graduation story? Or a great pasta dish that I can't destroy?

Another 5K Win!

Dude, I came in 3rd for my age group (45-49) again - wish I'd stayed to collect the prize! Anybody know what it is? Another plastic water bottle? And yes, there were only 4 of us, why do you ask? If they hadn't subdivided 40-49, I would've been out, because there was a 41-yr old who was faster than me. Anyway, I'm making Lucas join me for Lulu's Hot Trot in June so he'll get some exercise, and I'm still trying to work up to a half-marathon in the fall. Alright, more gin and tonics for everyone! Happy Mothers Day!