Something for Choir

I had nothing, really.

I went into work late on Thursday...ate junk on Wednesday and paid for it on Thursday...did a bit of work from home before I went to the office and, just before I shut the computer down, I checked a few online fabric vendors.  Because, like, I need some mauve in my life.

Found a knit and some lace yardage; click click and they were ordered before I left.

The box arrived this afternoon.  The lace...well, I'll talk about the lace later.  But the knit is spot on perfect.  I threw it in the washer, worked on my homework, put it in the dryer,  ran a couple miles down the road to Chick fil A and back to pick up a quick supper for The Flute Player and myself and, as soon as the knit was dry, took it up to the cutting table.

6:43 PM.  It shrank a quarter yard in the wash; I'd ordered 1 1/2 yards and measured exactly that before I threw it in the washer.  Plus, it was cut a bit crooked.  So I went with the TNT relaxed fit Vogue 9057 T, with my modified cap sleeves. 

 It took 9 minutes to whack it out with the rotary cutter.

 I had to change out the thread on the machines; plus I ditched the needles that had sewn the metallic-printed poly scuba knit.  I could tell they were getting dull before I finished that  jacket and I wanted fresh needles for the rayon/lycra 4-way stretch jersey;  I kinda expected some trouble. But at 7:14 the machines were set.
Short break to get a photo of a lovely sunset and switch the laundry.

Hashtag no filter  ;-).  But I hung out on the porch a bit to get to the full color...
After I hung up the dry clothes and got a new load in both machines, I trimmed some scrap interfacing to reinforce the shoulders and fused them down at 7:59

 I ran the teeny neckband seam through the sewing machine, then pressed it open.  While I was at the ironing board, I went ahead and pressed up the hem on the sleeves at 7:59..

 Shoulder seams were quick; the neckband went on at 8:17.   Match the centers, then mark and match the quarters and serge it on.

 Gave it a bit of a press and at 8:24 we're ready for sleeves.

 The sleeves are on  and it's ready for sideseams to be sewn at 8:44.  Had some trouble with skipped stitches and had to reinforce a couple of spots with a bit of straight stitch.  Neeldle Lube helped a little, but jersey is tricky and I didn't have stretch needles for the serger.

Switched laundry again.

 At 9:17 I'd switched to the double needle w/ wooly nylon in the bobbin to do the hems.  And had more trouble with skipping stitches and shredding thread.  Had to unpick about 3 different spots...that took more time than actually sewing the hems.

At 9:56 I have a shirt that just needs some thread tails buried and a bit of a steam and...yay! I don't have to wear all black tomorrow! :-)

Sometimes the Blogsphere is a very cool place...

I'm feeling the love, let me tell you!

Firstly, whilst perusing along the new posts in The Old Reader, I happened upon Rhonda's weekly Showcase post, in which she shares stories and photos of two other sewing bloggers.  I looked through the first set of photos, very impressed with Virginia's sewing (particularly that black lace dress!!), and then had a double take moment, because somehow the photo of the pillowcases I did for the Mary Bridge project popped up.  I was confused for a moment...then I realized that the second blogger featured this week was yours truly.  What a surprise!

And I got a lesson in photo posting...every one of the photos of mine that she posted were fuzzy; I'm assuming that's because I reduce the size/resolution of them before I add them.  I've always done that...first to reduce the upload size (back when I started blogging, there was a limit as to how much you could upload in a given month) and also to prevent my photos from being used by strange and unauthorized folks (still shaking my head over the guys who wanted to use a photo of a pair of plaid pants I'd made in a article about lame outdated fashion).  Not that Rhonda is either stranger or unauthorized...but I'm here to tell ya,  shrinking the photos works. ;-)  The blurries were not her fault.

Then, today I walked up to the front step and saw two packages on the step. One was the WAWAK package with my buttons and hymo, but the other was hand addressed...to me.  Puzzled, I reached for the package to see the return address and realized it was from my cyber friend Miriam in Kansas.  We've never met, but Miriam has been a long time reader (and commenter!) on both my blogs. 

In that package was a 3-yard piece of black denim.  Washed, dried and ready to sew.

My friends,  it reads 'black' against the other fabrics in the SWAP pile.  The real deal.

The black denim jacket has now replaced the denim shirt in my SWAP plans; it will be the second wild card.

I've already emailed Miriam to squeal my thanks, but I want to publicly say here 'THANK YOU!!!'  I will think of you every time I put on that jacket.

Here's hoping I don't mess it up sewing it. ;-)

I Won a Prize!

I still haven't managed to sit down and do a lick of sewing or pattern tracing or ANYTHING in the past way too long, but I do have a teeny bit of sewing news to report.

Jan hosted a little giveaway last week; normally I don't enter giveaways but the item she was going to ship to a lucky commenter was something I'd dreamed of finding somewhere...a ruler designed to add seam allowances to curvy pattern pieces.

So I left a little comment and, lo and behold, she drew my name!  The ruler arrived safely today, despite the fact that I'd had a brain hiccup when I emailed my address to her.  Didn't notice until she replied 'I put the ruler in the mail today', and I saw on the attached original email that I put my address down with the ZIP code of the house we used to live in...like, 8 years ago.  We lived there for more than 20 years, but still...I told her if it came back, I would send a check for the postage. Feeling very foolish.

But the USPS surprised me, and if I could, I'd take a batch of home made cookies to whoever marked out the wrong ZIP and wrote the correct one. 

Here's the little beauty:

I'm so glad Claire had the wherewithal to manufacture this!  I have wished for one ages.  Thanks to Claire for offering the rulers and Jan for hosting the giveaway and paying the postage on my ruler.  I am looking forward to giving it a try...as soon as I can.

'Cause I am seriously missing my sewing time.  Besides, I hear the rules are posted for the 2013 Stitchers Guild SWAP contest and I am in sore need of some new wardrobe pieces.  I would LOVE to participate this year.  Maybe my new ruler will save so much time that I can actually git 'er done this year... ;-)

Lookit, it's a PRESENT!

My friend, Gail, is an artist who specializes in scarves and banners.  Some time ago, she created a Facebook page for her studio and offered a little premium for the first few folks who 'liked' it.

I was fortunate enough to stumble onto it that very day...and I 'liked' it before I even read the offer for a hand painted silk scarf.  I mean, Gail is my friend and she does beautiful work that has been included in juried shows...what's not to like? 

I actually forgot about the scarf.

So you can imagine how tickled I was to get a package in the mail yesterday containing this exquisite silk chiffon scarf.

I sent her a message to let her know it had arrived and I loved it, and I had to ask about the processes.  She said it had been hand painted, then silk screened w/a discharge agent.  The phrase on the scarf is from Song of Songs 2:11 & 12:  See!  The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come...

I've heard rumors that fuschia will be one of the choir wardrobe colors again this summer; if that turns out to be true you'll likely see me wearing this... and I'll be singing... ;-)

Distractions!

So, how am I supposed to do the million things I need to do today? Sure wish I could squeeze about 6 more hours in the day...