Mantles 2010

It's the reverse this year...black on white instead of white on black. But they look cool anyway, doncha think? Many thanks to my friend the Embroidery Queen for donating the embroidery!

I meant to get a photo of the kids wearing them, but, well, I forgot my camera... :rolleyes:

But I checked and found that I *did* put that fabric in the stash when I originally purchased it, so that means I get to count it as 'Fabric Out'. :-)

Choir Sundays 2010 #18

May Choir Colors: Turquoise, white and/or black w/blue jeans

The Jeans are from Coldwater Creek; I've got on a turquoise silk/lycra charmeuse shell top modified from Loes' Hinse's City Dress, and a white poly/cotton twill Vogue 8045 jacket.

I finished the HMC mantles yesterday and turned them over to the staff last night; if you're curious, you can see the whole grad service online tonight, starting at 6 PM Central, at therockfamily.tv. The Artist will be participating as an alumni tonight...the young man who was going to play Jesus had a bad sprain/fractured ankle and is walking in a boot so he's playing the part of the understudy.

I think I'll be much relieved to see him playing Jesus instead of the enemy... ;)

Being a "Little Bitter'...

As in, resigning myself to the notion that the only way anything is going to get done in my house is to do it a little bit at at time. Gone are the days when I send the family off to work and school and have the entire day to work on a project...whether it be as sewing project or a home project.

I'm really just now beginning to get my head around that...and it's been over a year since I went back to work.

But, having said that, I am working bit by bit on some things.

-The HMC mantles are done to the handsewing. Obviously, that has priority for today, since the graduation service is tomorrow night.

- I marked my striped 'Gorgeous Fabrics project' Jalie pants as finished and hung them in the closet, but, when I put them on earlier in the week to wear them, I realized that there really is too much gappage going on at the back waist. So I put them back in the sewing room; gonna do an adjustment on that as soon as the mantles are done.

- I bought bodacious amounts of interfacing from the online sales last week, so now I'm well stocked and should be able to start working on some much-needed jackets.

But...

- I need to Cease All Sewing for a time to get my sewing nook cleaned out. It really has gotten to the stage that I can barely move in there. But doing it a Little Bit At A Time...yeesh.

- We recently had some work done on the house that involved the attic; unfortunately it involved the portion of the attic in which my Stash was neatly organized. Things got pulled out, shifted around, and put back willy-nilly; now I know where NOTHING is. Any available time this weekend will likely be spent In The Attic....since that needs to be in order before I can relocate the stacks of fabric clogging up my sewing nook to their appointed place in the attic.

Did I mention we've got out of town company in two weeks? Maybe I'd better work on the 'I've been sorely neglecting housework' situation a bit, too.

I'll blog when I can. ;-)

Choir Sundays 2010 #17

Wow...it's been a long day. This evening was our annual girl's ministry's Father Daughter banquet; choir was eons ago!But, anyway...

May's colors are turquoise, black and white w/blue jeasn.
I wore the Lee bootcuts again, with a New Look 6407 shirt, made from turquoise cotton/lycra broadcloth from Hancock's. The scarf is a really pretty printed silk oblong from Talbot's and, while it doesn't match the shirt absolutely perfectly, does a good enough job of camouflaging the alterations boo-boo I made that rendered the neckline too low.

Whew. Y'all, ah'm tahrd! G'night!

I think I just passed myself...

Y'all, it has been wild. Haven't had time to change the thread on the machines, let alone sit down and sew something, much less write about it.

But I just had to share...the Flute Player auditioned for the drama magnet today, doing a monologue from Anne of Green Gables, and she did well enough that she has been provisionally accepted, providing her end-of-term grades are good enough.

That's kind of a big 'if'; she dropped the ball badly in math class early in the term. While she's pulled it together lately, that was a deep hole and there aren't many graded papers available to help pull it out. We'll see...

However, despite the fact that she'll be joining The Actor, I'll keep referring to her as The Flute Player. I expect she'll keep playing around with it... ;)

Choir Sundays 2010 # 16

Wow, has this been a long day...

My apologies for the poor photo, we were rather rushed today.

May's choir colors: turquoise/black/white w/blue jeans



The Lee bootcuts, with my black rayon/lycra jersey Jalie 965 tank top playing the role of a cami, under the Burda May 2009 #103A top, in black/white/grey/turquoise poly lycra jersey.

And, just for the record, all the mantle pieces are with my embroidery queen friend Miss A getting lettered. So hopefully I'll get my stripey trousers finished before the mantles come back...

Another Mom Job

The Flute Player has been in the junior high drama class this year, and I've been rather fortunate in that their costumes were all mostly scrounged and borrowed. But now they're working on a puppetry unit and, well, someone had to do a little sewing.

It was funny the way she didn't ask me outright to help, just brought the stuff home.

But there was not much time, we had after school activities going on (i.e., the Last Band Concert), and I could do it tons faster than she could.

So, instead of working on the last remaining Gorgeous Fabrics garments, or even working on the HMC mantles, my sewing this week (what little I actually had) was...felt puppets.


The rather bedraggled red one was the prototype. It is from her Valentine's party from either preschool or kindergarten...can't remember which... I made those little red puppets for at least 3 of my kid's preschool Valentine's parties but, wouldn't you know, we couldn't find the pattern I used. So she pulled out her old puppet...I guess there are some benefits to being a packrat.

So I had her trace the puppet onto paper, and we had a new pattern. She wanted some good shears to cut them out, but I couldn't stand to see her take an hour or more to do something I could do in an instant w/the rotary cutter. So instead of giving her scissors, I took her to the cutting table and whacked them out two sets at a time. In about 10 minutes.

She was impressed.

Wednesday night after church she still had homework to do, so I went out to the sewing machine and had them all zig zagged in about 15 minutes.

I don't know what they're going to do for faces, but I know she has some colored felt that they are going to cut into paper-doll type clothes and apply with a dot of sticky velcro.

I think they're supposed to perform it for their class sometime in the next few days; I'm hoping it all holds up!

Oh, well, I had to change the thread in the machine to do the next step on the mantles anyway.

Choir Sundays 2010 #15

May choir colors: Turquoise, white and/or black w/blue jeans.

I finally pulled out my spring/summer jackets; this is the jacket from Vogue 8045 in a white poly/cotton twill from Hancock's, worn over the scoopneck Simplicity 4076 in a poly/cotton? jersey from the Vogue Fabrics booth at the Atlanta Expo(...two? Three? years ago...) worn over my test version of the Jalie 965 Tank top, from a poly/rayon?/lycra jersey from the cheap table at Wal-Mart.

The jeans are my Regular Lee Bootcuts, which means they're really about 3" too long and I should wear high heels. I wore the lowest shoes I could get away with...not ready to subject the low back to standing through worship (twice...) in heels.
The shorter jeans have disappeared into the black hole of the laundry; I'm beginning to think they got put into someone else's basket...I'll have to make inquiries amongst the children to see if someone has my jeans in his/her closet....

Happy Mother's Day to everyone who's raised kids, mentored kids, taught kids, rocked kids, loved kids or prayed for kids! Great is your reward in heaven... ;)

It also happens to be The Actor's 17th birthday; he was born on Mother's Day, 1993. Time flies... (and yes, he chose a cherry cheesecake instead of a baked cake for his birthday. We tried candles last year...they won't stand up on cherry pie filling!!!)

You Don't Know Anyone Who Sews...

(Picture Obi-wan waving his hand and quoting the title...)

Carolyn's post made me chuckle today...and remember a conversation from last week.

My cell phone rang while I was checking out at Publix. I dug around in my purse, pulled it out, and had the following conversation with a friend, P.

P. Hi, Lisa, say, do you know (lady)?

Me. No, I haven't met her yet.

P. Her and her husband are the ones who have that (such-and-such a product).

Me. Nope. Don't know them.

P. Well, she wanted to know if I knew anyone who sews...

Me. P, you don't!!! You don't know anyone!!!

P. You were the only one I could think of...she needs someone to make a wedding dress.

Me. (trying to pay the grocery tab while stifling hysterical laughter) Absolutely you do not know anyone!!! I don't do that!

P. Well, Ok, I just thought I'd ask...


A wedding dress. I suppose I should be flattered, but...sigh.

I *might* make wedding dresses for my daughters. But unless I go into business doing it, that'd be IT.

On another note, my 12 weeks were up; Ann has already posted on Facebook about being Officially Done with chemo (Yay for Ann!!!). So, she got done w/chemo before I finished my 12 garments. I hit turbulence with the striped pants; the waistband is pinned on at the moment, so they are close to done. The 12th garment has been in the queue since the Great Stash-Busting Chop of 2007...the fuschia jersey Donna Karan Vogue wrap top.

But it's heading into graduation season, and I need to take a break from garment sewing to work on the mantles for the Masters' Commission students who will be graduating at the end of the month. They have to be cut out, interfaced, and partially sewn so I can hand them over to my embroidery queen friend, Miss A, to letter, and she needs them this weekend so she'll have time to get them embroidered and back to me to finish before the grad.

So, I got 10 garments made in 12 weeks...not too shabby...and I'll finish the others up in pretty short order.

When I'm done, I'll post a photo collage of the lot of them. ;)

Choir Sundays 2010 #14

May Choir Colors: Black,white and turquoise.
Today happened to be our 11th anniversary, so instead of blue jeans we're just a tad dressier w/black pants.

I've got on Loes Hinse's Bistro jacket, made in a black poly herringbone weave suiting; my favorite black wool gab Loes Hinse Oxford Pants and a silk/lycra charmeuse shell made from the bodice of Loes Hinse's City Dress

I'll post a 12 weeks update tomorrow; I didn't quite make 12 garments in 12 weeks...