Dropping in...

 Oh, my goodness y'all, Saturday is AUGUST.  I am not ready.  I am not done with summer.  (And, technically, summer goes on for another month, but all the schools in these parts start back in early August and it becomes Functional Fall, even though the temps are through the roof.  Crazy.)

So...what HAVE I been doing all this time.

Not much sewing, I'll tell ya that.

I have darned some socks.  I have hemmed some tea towels.  I have hemmed a tablecloth, but I'll talk about that later.

To date, this year, I have constructed ONE pair of pants.  One.  And it took a ridiculous amount of time to do it.

I haven't been sewing, I haven't been writing, I haven't been painting...I have pretty much been living in my left brain.

Y'all.  We migrated the data base at church, where I (was) the data base administrator.

I knew it was coming.  See, back in the day, when we moved to the previous data base, let's call it ABC,  it had a somewhat limited scope.  There was a  part of it that was intended to be used for scheduling volunteers and planning services but it was useless.  I mean, it didn't work at all.    But that's ok, because there was this other software company, let's call them XYZ, who had developed this marvelous software for planning services...worship sets...scheduling band, choir, vocalists, with a music library and even reporting for the music use/performance license...and it expanded to be used for scheduling children's workers and other volunteers.  So we just used both of them.  And there was a third company that we used to interface our giving and registrations...the money handling...and hosting the church app.  We didn't start with them in 2013, but we did move to them.  We'll call them $$$.  Which of course, is not their name but kind of reflects my attitude about them, lol.  

So, got all this? It's crazy but it all adds up eventually.  Well, ABC did a lot of improving and upgrading.  They did finally develop a volunteer tracking system that worked almost as good as XYZ's, but it didn't have the same music library/ license tracking.  They were developing an app, and the capability for payment handling.  They'd even rolled out their payment scheduling for that and it looked to be cheaper than $$$.  This was back in 2019, and I really thought we could get rid of the other two software contracts and just use ABC.  Have everything in the same place.

Then, at the very tail end of 2019, $$$ bought out ABC.  Swallowed them whole.  Or, almost whole.  ABC went away, although everyone still referred to that system as ABC out of habit.  Things got rather rough as $$$ tried to integrate themselves with ABC.  But they never combined the data bases.  They talked to each other, but there were still two completely different sets of data.

Meanwhile, XYZ has been expanding their offerings, developing modules that could be used independently or together, depending on the needs and size of the church.   And our new online membership program interfaced with the relatively new people part of the XYZ software.  We were slowly duplicating a increasing part of our data in that other data base.  

It was getting ridiculous.  We needed to get everyone onto ONE platform.  And, thanks to the gold standard scheduling/ planning module that began XYZ, the decision was made to migrate everything there.  But our contract with ABC (now the church management side of $$$) was coming up for renewal and we didn't want to commit to another year with them.

Y'all. We had about 8 weeks to make that jump.

Now, I had said for quite some time that if we ever changed data bases I would not continue as the Data Base Admin.  I just turned 67, it doesn't make sense for me to learn a whole new system because the hubs and I are starting to talk about retirement.  I'd have to turn around and train someone else on it.  Much better to make that decision and have the new person/ people learning the new platform from the beginning. I, I said, will get the data ready to move and then stay and help cleanup.  After that...we'll see.

So that's partly where I have been.  I won't go into the ugly details, lol.  I will just say that, by way of comparison, we had 9 months to move the data base in 2013 and that was a MAGNITUDE less data than we have now.  

So now I am the data base janitor, lol, and others are running things and planning things and I'm basically merging the pile of duplicates that were created when we migrated to a data base we had been running in tandem with for 13 years.

Then there's the travel.

My sweet mother in law passed away December 12; she was 97 and tired of the health struggles and more than ready to go.  The memorial service was scheduled for a BITTERLY cold weekend at the end of January, and all the kids and grandkids...save one grand-daughter-in-law...were able to be there.    But the house is being cleaned out, with things being divvied out to whoever wants or is willing to take things.  There will be a sale of the rest to clean out the house and then the house will be sold.

So we have made two more trips to northern Indiana to collect household goods...and my living room looks like we just moved in.  We've made one trip to Florida to deliver housegoods to the kids there, and we have another trip to Elkhart to collect the last few things, and another trip to Florida to pass things along in the early fall.

Plus, July 17 was The Flute Player's 30th birthday (can you believe it???) so The Princess, The Dancer (The Artist's wife)  and I made a quick trip down to surprise her.

If you're counting, that's three trips..so far... to Elkhart and two trips...so far...to Florida.  It's just a wee bit farther to central Florida than it is to northern Indiana, which is about 10 hours driving time, to which is added any stopping for food, gas, potty breaks and leg stretches.  And I have been working on data base migration around all of it.

Now, you'd think that I'd be glad to have a break from that by sewing but TBH I am pretty much brain fried, lol.  And I need to move around a bunch of stuff in the house to  make space for the things WE have collected from the house in Elkhart.  Lots of shuffling and moving and rearranging and maybe outright purging needs to happen and it must be done by Christmas or I won't have any place to put the tree, lol.

I have had Thoughts I would like to share about some of this process and maybe I will catch some time at some point to get it all written out in a coherent fashion, lol.  But, in the meantime,  here's a pic of the four of us...me, The Flute Player, The Dancer and The Princess, playing miniature golf but I am wearing the very comfy  loose drapey pants that I made especially to wear on trips to Florida, lol.  FWIW...I am TERRIBLE at mini golf, lol.

If you can, zoom in on the shirts...designed by The Princess to commemorate the weekend.  The Flute Player's is a bit different...she's the Honoree...but all of us that went to her celebration dinner wore the T shirts.  She was surprised and it was a great weekend...if completely exhausting, lol.

I am still managing to post somewhat regularly on the faith blog (where the above link goes) if you ever wonder if I'm still kicking around the interwebs.  And I got a wild notion to start a third blog earlier this year for just writing; it's barely active.  But it's hard to post on the sewing blog when there's literally no sewing happening, lol.  I will admit to being very frustrated and WANTING to sew...but I do better when I can dedicate some TIME to it and that just has not happened much this year.

So that's the state of things at the moment.  I have pretty much decided to not participate in the Christmas production this year, with one of the driving reasons being I just have too much on my plate.  I have to leave some breathing room somewhere...

2025 Christmas Production ...Production

 I didn't do much by way of costuming for this year's Christmas production;  back around the end of October I helped find and sort our Bible costumes and I brought home three garments that needed mending/ alteration.  The only sewing I did was to take care of those.  I thought I had pics of all of them but apparently I just thought I did, lol. The first garment was a green canvas robe that had places where it had fayed out in the seams.  It was stiff and heavy...not suitable for a robe, anyway, so I took the sleeves off, opened the front , and extended the armsceyes and turned the whole thing into a vest...vests being something we are ever short on.

The original hem had just been fused up with Stitch Witchery...which was crumbling.

One of the frayed out underarm seams.  The other side was just as bad or worse

The final iteration.  I am pretty sure this one was used in the final scene.

I got plenty of pics of that garment.  Unfortunately, I failed utterly in the photo documentation on the other two.  I do have a 'before' pic of one of the garments...

Believe it or not, that was the FRONT of the robe; the neckline was lower, although you can't tell from the pic.  Both of the other two garments were made from this pattern; the unphotographed one was a black/white/ red glen plaid wool with moth holes. They were two of several garments that have an unknown origin; they came from someplace else, so I have no idea why they were made with the great gaping opening.  I rehashed them in a similar manner; opened the front seam, removed the sleeves and opened the side seams down a bit from the underarm  I also took off the ties.I shortened the plaid one a bit to remove some of the worst of the moth damage.  (Why wool is NOT a good fabric for stage costumes...) Two more vests... I think the greenish one was used in the the finale as well, I am not sure about the plaid one.  It would have been good for it, as the finale was a show-within-the-show small church Christmas pageant, but I was not on stage for that and I'm not sure if the plaid vest was needed.

The last thing I created for the production was a stage baby; my own prop.  I had the part of Elizabeth, mother of John, and the setting was the bris celebration for John, so we needed something that resembled a newborn from a distance.  I wanted the prop to have the heft of a baby, and also the need to support the head area as we (I was double cast and there was another lady who played Elizabeth in half the shows) had to hand 'John' to someone else to hold for a moment.  It was obvious from rehearsals that our subconscious needed to BELIEVE it was a baby or we'd slip up in handling him.  Just before tech week, I got an idea and threw something together...

Here are the components, LOL:

The sawdust pressing ham I inherited from my grandmother, some BB-filled pattern weights wrapped up in a pressing cloth, a square of linen, a baby blanket, and some cotton strips.  The 'hair' is black Decor 6 thread stitched onto a couple of short lengths of ribbon.

Stage baby was hefty enough to trigger the 'I am holding a baby' response...my arms were sore after the tech week rehearsals and two shows, lol.   Someone did bring in a doll with fuzzy hair and the other Elizabeth felt more comfortable using the doll...but I'd practiced with Stage Baby so that was what I used.  I didn't want to do anything to change what I did on stage and the doll...felt like a doll.

I grabbed an image from a retrospective compilation from the production that was posted on social media;  this is the moment when Elizabeth is describing how John leapt at Mary's voice...

Don't be weirded out by the anachronism; we were playing with time travel in the script, lol.

Not much sewing has happened in 2025, which makes me sad.  Hopefully I can manage to get into the sewing room a bit more in 2026.  I miss creating....Hope springs eternal!  

A happy and creative 2026 to all my friends who stop by here!

Twenty Years of Blogging....

 Nov. 4, 2005....I was in the early stages of costuming our church's second production of "The Gospel According to Scrooge" and found that I was monopolizing a couple of threads on sewing discussion boards...so I took a deep breath, signed on with Blogger, and put up the first post.

The photos I added to those early posts have all been dropped by Blogger; I think that happened when Google took over.   I tried linking them to an external album, but Photoworks has closed up shop as well and those are also gone.  

I don't suppose anyone is trying to see them these days anyway.  

I posted almost every day back then.  Hard to believe now, but I was immersed in sewing and had lots to talk about...much of it centered on the clothes I was sewing to wear in our church choir, as we were asked to wear garments from a specified color group, which changed monthly.  So it would look good on the broadcasts.  But I found myself feeling really out of sorts with posting about what I wore to church, when the service was so good and touched my spirit.

So, in 2008, I started a second blog, where I could talk about faith and related topics.  I was still posting *almost* daily to the sewing blog, but sometimes the faith blog would take precedence. 

Then, in March of 2009, I found myself gainfully employed.  Part-time, to be sure, but it took a big chunk of my time.  A year later, I moved from general office work...just helping the accounting team as needed...to being the church data base admin.  Which made sense, since I have a degree in Computer Science.  My work commitment increased to 24 hours a week.  Which doesn't sound like an awful lot, but it was now what was controlling my time.

For the last 10 years, I've been doing well to average one post per week in each of the blogs.  

Despite that, earlier this year I decided I needed a place to collect various bits of fanciful writing I've done over the years....some of it has been published here, some over on the faith blog, some to the now defunct Facebook Notes....and some didn't fit anywhere.  So I opened up a third blog so I would have a place to post and link those things.  It kind of amuses me that I did that.

I think maybe 12 people have found that one, lol.  But that's ok.  I haven't posted a boatload of stuff there yet anyway. If I were doing the proper author thing, I would be posting that to Substack, which is sort of like Patreon for writers, with a paywall that would only allow subscribers to read my stuff, but I don't feel like I'm quite on that level.  If I had  a boatload of followers who left lots of comments on what I posted, maybe, but as it's pretty much crickets over here on all three blogs these days...I'm just grateful for folks who DO stop by and read.  Substack is way over my grade level, lol.

But, blogging has changed over the years.  When I go back and look at those early posts I am gobsmacked by the number of comments.  But, as the years have passed, many of the folks whose blogs I followed in the early years have dropped out of blogging altogether.  The community that all read and commented on each other's posts has  moved on.  

And, you know, I had to work through that.  Was this worth doing if only a few people read it...or if only bots were hitting the posts?  I finally decided that I blog for me, to help me process life and work and, you know, all the things.  It feels productive to write a post, even if it serves no other purpose.

But I have enjoyed it, and the friends I've made along the way, even if they have moved on and aren't checking blogs anymore.  It's understandable.  Life is busy.  It's easy to read a post on a feed burner and kind of a nuisance to click through the links to actually leave a comment.  My own blog commenting has fallen way, way off.  So I am guilty as well.

But it is nice to have the outlet to post to when I have something to say, and when I can make time to sit down and write it up.  We no longer have an active church choir, as our director has moved on to other demanding tasks, so the choir wardrobe is no longer driving my sewing.  I am helping a bit with the costumes for our current Christmas production...and I do have some photos and such to put into a post soon..but I'm not in charge of it.  Which is fine.  It needs to move on too.  

So... with that little look at the evolution of the blogs, I do want to say THANK YOU to all the folks who have read the blogs through the years.  I am deeply appreciative that you would take the time to check out my ramblings and even leave a comment once in a while.  It means more than I can say to know that it isn't just bots hitting the stat counter, lol.

Here's to more sewing!  And more creating!  God Bless Us, Everyone.... ;-)

Meh....

 I finished the white-linen - rayon-crepe tunic outfit a week ago and meant to wear it to church last Sunday, but, as it turned out it was one of those odd damp coolish days so I put it off for a week.

It is NOT the most flattering thing in my closet by a long shot, and it has clear construction issues,  although it is comfy and fun to wear.

 The biggest problem I had was that the fabric was crazy unstable.  It wouldn't even lie square on a single layer. It was just a beast to try and work with.  Hindsight...I shoulda starched the daylights out of it, but I didn't even think of that until I put the finished product on.  I think if I had starched it into paper stiffness, I would have had much less trouble with things going whopperjawed on me as I was first trying to cut it out (and I used a sharp rotary cutter) and then trying to assemble it.

The second issue is...it really would have looked better with out the waistline seam, although that allowed me to line the bodice, which I really wanted to do due to the sheerness of the fabric.  I need that double layer on top or I would have to wear a tank top or cami under it.  And because of the shiftiness of the fabric, the two layers kinda fight each other; hence the ripples in the top. Sure wish I'd thought of spray starch a little sooner.

The inspiration pattern had the seam above the waist but I left the top waist-length because I didn't want a gap between the top of my pants and the seam showing through the sheer skirt layer.  A little higher seam likely would have looked less frumpish, but then there would be that color shift underneath. So I picked the lower seamline.

The white linen pants are great...even though the construction details (pockets, seam allowances) show through the fairly  substantial fabric (Fabrics-store.com 4C22).  I thought it was stout enough that it wouldn't be a huge problem.  Never underestimate the shadow factor of white fabric... well, best worn under a tunic, lol.   

So, yeah, lessons learned and maybe I'l wear it on really hot days despite the problems.  Like I said, it's comfy and floaty, and if I keep moving...who will notice? LOL.  I wore a lightweight linen knit long cardigan over it...air conditioning and all... so I think a lot of the issues were camouflaged a bit.

I did cut a couple of scarves from the remnants of the green print; that might be a better use for that fabric.  Instability won't matter much there...

Smacked by Inspiration

 Despite the fact that I have way more  fabric than I can reasonably sew in the next 30 years, every once in a while I succumb to a sale.

Happened a couple of weeks ago and I ended up with what was supposed to be two pieces of crinkle rayon.  One was a crinkly rayon and I intend to turn it into a floaty summer maxi, but the other was a semi-sheer printed jacquard pattern.  I loved it...but I could read the newspaper through it.  Too sheer for a dress ( yes, the website did warn that a lining would likely be necessary but I thought something with lots of gathered up fabric would be ok...Not this).

It's white with a mint green reverse print.  Lovely and summery...just sheer. You're looking at a folded bit in the picture; it really is sheer.  Honest.

You can just barely see the little pattern woven in under the print.

Earlier this week, I had a flash of inspiration.  I have a Burda pattern that has been in my stash for...decades, lol.

I suddenly thought about making that split side topper from the green and white rayon, with some white linen pants.

Spent yesterday tracing one of my favorite quick pants, Stretch and Sew 704 'Quick and Easy Pants', which are slim no-side-seam pants with welt pockets, in a bigger size than my 20 year old tracing, cut it out of some White 4C22 linen from Fabric-Store dotcom,  and sewed them to the crotch seam yesterday.  Today, I finished them to the hem, then set it aside to do the hand sewing whilst occupying my brain in other ways, and turned to the split tunic.

I have  had a good bit of trouble with Burda's woven patterns over the years coming out decidedly short on ease.  I was surprised when I pulled out this pattern and found I had traced off and apparently made the pants years ago; I even reviewed them on Pattern Review.  When I read the review, I vaguely remembered them...the review indicates that they were Too Small, even though I had made the size my measurements indicated.  So...no wonder.   I compared the Size 44  upper bodice to  my recently- retraced Cutting Lines Designs My Hearts A Flutter shell and saw that, yeah, that was going to be more fitted than I really wanted.

So, I just used the upper bits from the MHA top, and adjusted the skirt bits to fit and cut it out.

Then I had to cook dinner, lol. I'll hem my pants whilst watching number 2 son stream tonight.

 So, hopefully in a couple of days I'll actually be able to get that top whipped up and we'll see if my inspiration pans out...stay tuned, lol.

Sewing in June...

 I have done a wee bit of stitching here and there...I made a half-dozen diapers for my neighbor, who has a new baby; hemmed the remants of the waffle fabric I used for the linen towels last year to use as dish towels (they are rather oddly proportioned, but they'll dry dishes, so who cares...) and made up the first of several patterns that I made years ago, when I was about 30 pounds lighter, and recently re-traced.

This one is La Fred's Athena Blouse; I posted about the last time I made it back in 2006; I originally made it in 2003, Before Blogging, lol.  

Back then, I actually sized down from my measurements as pattern measurements showed that it had a generous amount of ease.  So I remembered that and sized down when I traced my ...bigger size...to have a go at it again. But...I didn't remeasure.  I just assumed consistent ease.  Ooopsie.

And I decided to use it on the the floral fabric I got in my recently - mentioned Fabric-store.com cash-in of my loyalty points.   It's a beautiful print on fine cotton fabric; but the size of the print was such that I didn't want to cut small pieces...like a band and collar...from it.  So I went with the Athena, because it has a cut-on collar.  But the print was so large that, when I tried to match it across the front, I had to place the front pieces such that it was then impossible to get the rest of the pieces on the fabric (and I had an extra half yard!).  So I just shrugged and cut it out as instructed, with no attempt to match.  Um, I'd've been better off going for a deliberate mismatch that was balanced, but more on that later...

The fabric is a very tight weave; it was difficult to get pins to go into it, and the pinholes didn't close up, even after I sprayed it with water and steam pressed it.  Maybe after it's washed they'll go away.  Maybe...

This pattern has 6 places where you have to sew an  inside-corner to an outside-corner; it's the caveat I would give anyone.  It does have a really cool shape.

But I learned that the larger sizes apparently don't have as much ease as the smaller sizes...my shirt is a bit snug.  I don't think it's unwearable, but I will add a bit...maybe via a full bust adjustment...if I make it again...and I probably will.  I want at least one in linen.

I'll tell you, my friends, but will not mention it elsewhere, lol.  that near match on the front made me gnash my teeth a bit.  Fortunately the print is fairly well balanced so it's not terribly noticeable, but it bummed me.  With a match that close, you'd think I could have actually matched it...but I'm telling you, I tried several different ways to get it on there and it broke up the yardage so bad I couldn't get the other pieces (back, sleeves...which are pretty big...and front facing) all on.  

A friend recently asked me if I was still working on that wardrobe from the Vivienne files...and while the specific additions for Nov. and Dec. of 2021 are still in the queue, the garments I have sewn since, by and large, all work with the pink-green-navy-white color scheme.  So, while I haven't 'finished' that series, I am still building on it.

Today, I cut down a massive t-shirt...almost too much, lol.  It was from the previous year's collection in the merch shop at last fall's women's conference; I got it for five bucks and decided I'd use it to test the Style Arc Kim's Swing Top.  I took a TNT T shirt pattern and used it to pick the size to trace (a 12) and then I did a full bust adjustment.  I had to shorten the top by 2" to get it on the boxy original shirt (which I somehow missed getting a photo of before I took it apart).

It also came out a wee bit snug.  May have been partly due to the difficulty I had putting in on the half-deconstructed t-shirt (I left the shoulders and neckline intact)...it may not have been quite right.  But I think I will trace off a larger size before I try it again.  The sleeves are especially...fitted, lol.  But for a $5 test of the pattern...it's fine.

So...one pattern from the deep stash and one from recent stash, lol.  I have a few patterns that I made back in the day that I've retraced in a larger size.  Some of those patterns were great, that I wore over and over, and deserve to come back into the wardrobe.

Is Home Sewing Collapsing? A bit of a rant...

 As if it wasn't bad enough that Hancock's fabrics collapsed in 2016, then Jo-Ann's  (who had previously gobbled up the Cloth World, World of Fabrics, and So-Fro Fabrics chains in the previous decades) failed under the ludicrous burden of the leveraged buyout back in 2010, in which the investors who purchased the company did not take on the debt themselves but pushed it onto JoAnn's -- something that, in my opinion. should be illegal; now the news comes that the conglomerate that owns ALL the major pattern companies...Vogue, Butterick, McCall's and Simplicity... has sold all assets to a liquidator. 

Oh, there are mail order options for patterns from independent companies...some of whom have quite good patterns...but the only sewing pattern tissue printer in the entire country is part of that liquidation and all of those indy folks who print patterns on tissue paper use that printing service.  Who knows what will happen to that equipment now.  And we do have online fabric vendors.  Michael's craft stores has supposedly purchased up a good bit of the Hancock's and JoAnn's IP and intends to expand their home sewing offerings but the whole situation seems ominous.  I don't know if I will ever be able to, in the midst of a project, run to a local store and pick up that thing I need to finish, be it thread, zippers or buttons.  

I have read a lot of the comments pertaining to these closures, many of which say something to the effect of 'Oh, (whatever company) just didn't keep up with the times, so the demise was inevitable.'

But that begs the question...why did (fabric stores, pattern companies) not keep up with the times?

Y'all, they were all done in by financial shenanigans.  One company bought out all (or almost all) the major competition, then itself was bought out by an investor group that cared only for profit and had no interest whatsoever in the  home sewing community.  The Big 4 were owned, and just sold by,  IG Design group, who is a leading manufacturer and distributor of stationery, crafts, party and gift products for goodness sake!  Home sewing enthusiasts got frustrated with the lack of quality and techniques offered by the blob organizations and began turning to independent pattern designers and online fabric sources.  Not to disparage those folks, some of whom have great service and products, but...had the local store resources retained their quality, the masses would not have turned to online vendors.  Home sewing is an intensely personal pursuit, and we ALL want quick access to items we can see and touch in person.  I know the main reason I buy sewing goods online is because I can't get them locally. 

Which sounds like a business opportunity...except the goods available to retailers have also been disappearing.  Almost all fabric is milled overseas now.  Remember when a visit to a local fabric store would have the choice of multiple color ways in various prints or designs?  That's been rare for a long, long time.  Home sewing offerings are now mostly manufacturing overruns, with patterned fabrics available in one choice of color scheme only.  

All of this makes it difficult for youngsters coming of age to pick up the sewing habit.  The resources just aren't there; not to mention the demise of home economics in the public schools.  Materials for theater groups/ costuming/ cosplay are also getting harder to find...and more expensive.  I used to costume entire church productions from the dollar table at the local Wal-Mart.  Now I hesitate to even call what shows up on the discount rack (just one small rack...not a piled high table) 'sewing fabric'.  It. Is. Dreck.  A biblical costume could be made for less than $15 twenty years ago; that same costume would be about $75 now.  That's hard on a shoestring budget.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do wish our financial institutions would not allow leveraged buyouts that enable investors to skim profits from a company and then dump the debt back into it. 

I think I will now go upstairs and sew something as my own personal protest, lol.