Monday, November 28, 2022

Blew that one...

Welp, I found myself with more skirts to sew after our last-few-folks fitting on Saturday, so last night I was pushing hard to finish the skirt I already had started.  

I had zig-zagged dental floss to the top for gathering, and even gathered a fair amount up.  So I took a deep breath and forged ahead, pushing five yards of rather wiry fabric into gathers around the 45" waistband.  Took my time sewing it and decided it looked good enough, so I cut off the long tails of dental floss that were hanging about.

Then I found that I had put the opening in the waistband, through which the final touch of the drawstring will go, on the center back seam instead of at the front of the center panel.  Too bad, so sad, not redoing it.

Then I set about threading the elastic through it.  And discovered that I should have given myself a wee bit of wiggle room; I had cut the waistband exactly 2x elastic + seam allowances.  With the really bulky gathers, I lost some space and the channel in the waistband was a little too skinny in places.

Minor problems; I forged on.

And found that the doggone elastic would rather fold in half than deal with a too-skinny casing.

I wrestled with it, trying to get it to lay somewhat flat, and even started topstitching the drawstring channel, brute forcing it to stitch close to the seamline.

Then I realized that the elastic had dodged the stitching and instead of being caught and sewn flat, was folded in half. Again.

At that point I realized it just was NOT going to work, so I removed the waistband altogether, wrestled the elastic out and sliced a very slim bit off at the join, pulled out what was left of the gathering dental floss at that point, cut another waistband a half inch wider and went to bed.

Went to work today, and DS the Elder (AKA the Artist) came by after work to help put Christmas lights on the porch eaves, since My Sweet Babboo is still in shoulder-surgery-recovery mode.  And he also brought us our Christmas present...some wifi speakers so we can listen to the same music throughout the first floor of the house at Christmas, which he also set up for us ("I love doing stuff like this" he commented as he opened up the boxes).  It sounds fantastic when we have stuff streaming through it; I just have to load Spotify on one of my old phones or tablets, create some playlists and we will be set.

Then I heated up the rest of the Thanksgiving leftovers...that I haven't already put in the freezer...and we polished them off.  So I am actually going to have to cook something tomorrow, lol.

I should have headed upstairs and faced the mess again but...Cyber Monday... I had to go hunting for  a couple of things.  DS the Younger (AKA The Actor) did some streaming so I watched him as I perused the electronic aisles, and I decided to tackle a project that has been waiting for nearly a year.  

I got a cotton sweater on sale from Lands' End last year... a subtle Christmas sweater.  It was tan with knitted in evergreen trees...nearly missed getting a pic before it sold out but this is it...


It was backorded when I  submitted my order in late October of last year, supposed to be delivered in early December if I remember right. Delivery kept getting pushed back...I think I got in in February of this year.   It fit well, it was super comfy (like all the Drifter sweaters) and I loved the barest hint of 'Christmas Sweater' in the knitted-in tree shapes BUT the color is a lot more ...yellow/beigey... in person and it looked ghastly on me.  What to do, what to do...

Rit dye to the rescue.

So, as kind of a palate cleanse after the disaster yesterday...I am dyeing the sweater tonight. It's been through the dye bath and is now in the post-dye wash cycle; I was shooting for a deep blue-green color and I *think* that's what I have.  Won't know for sure until it's dry, but it will be a much better color for me than the beigey-tan it was to start with.

I have to work 4 hours tomorrow and take My Sweet Babboo to therapy, but I think I'll be ready to face that waistband...

I'll post a pic of the sweater after it's dry.

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