Choir Wardrobe 11 18 12

It's been a long day, and I'm pretty frizzy and rumpled, but I had on the CWC knit jeans, with a sleeveless gray rayon/lycra jersey Christine Jonson Basewear 2 Turtleneck and my rayon blend brocade Sewing Workshop Tribeca top.  This was the first version of this top that I've made; the second one was a green silk dupioni (the cheap slubby dupioni from Hancock's) that just doesn't fit nearly as well.  Hard to believe the fabric makes that much difference, but I guess it does. 

And I'm still needing a haircut in the worst way.  Not sure my stylist got the first message; I haven't heard from her.  I may have to try again ... ;-)


In other sewing related news,  I have come to the conclusion that I probably am not going to be starting any new projects until I get some serious cleaning/regrouping/ housework done. I will be whittling away at the WIP pile, so I *might* have something to report every now and again, but it won't be anything major.  I thought about putting the blog on hiatus until I got some level of order and organization established again, but in all honesty I haven't been posting much anyway, so I don't think there'd really be that much difference.    I finally just decided that, while I'm not exactly pulling out the dust covers, I'm probably not going to be showing up in the feed burners very often.  It's ok.

But I did have an epiphany about housework yesterday that, after much personal debate, I decided to post over on my faith blog instead of here.   So if you're curious...you can check it out.

Thanks for hanging with me. ;-)

Style Musings

Still no sewing happening.  I've hit a brick wall and come to the conclusion that I've just got to do some sorting and reorganizing of the house in general before I'm going to feel like I'm free to sew again.  It's been almost 8 months since The Artist moved out and left a sort-of empty bedroom, which has been used for guests a couple of times but is basically unused.  The Flute Player may be moving into it shortly...although her brother has made noises about preferring to move into that room, as it is painted a more masculine color than the room he is currently occupying.  I told them to have a discussion and come to an agreement as to who is going into what bedroom, 'cause I need to move at least SOME of my sewing gear...the part that was out in the sun room prior to the no-end-in-sight renovations that had to be done out there... into the leftover bedroom.  It is just randomly spread around the whole main living area and I have GOT to get it OUT before I try to make the house look all Christmassy.  I was hoping to get the moving done before Thanksgiving, but unless something miraculous happens next week it doesn't look like it's going to happen.  So we may be moving things on Thanksgiving weekend.  We'll see.

Anyway, in my not-sewing state, I'm reading blogs and looking at projects and considering what I'm going to do once the atmosphere shifts and I can get creative again.

And in the course of all of this, I find myself wondering if I have a personal style; something I can sort of use for my cornerstone of creating.  I've been less tossed by the winds of fashion in the last few years than I was when I was younger, but I still don't think I have a handle on what my style should be.

I cruised through the last couple of years of Choir Wardrobe posts, just kind of looking at the lines and the silhouettes and trying to decide what looks good and what doesn't.   Of course, that is rather limited, based on the fact that we wear jeans in choir pretty much all the time, but I did see some things

The first conclusion that I came to is that I need to decide what I should do with my hair.  The hairstyles are all OVER the place; mostly just looking frazzled, no matter what I did with it.  But I may not be entirely objective on this, as I have been frustrated with my hair for pretty much my entire post-adolescent life.   I have a friend who is a very sharp lady, about the same age as me, who has had basically the same hairstyle since I first met her about 8 years ago.  It's striking on her, but I don't know if I could keep the same hair...no matter how flattering...year in and year out.  I don't know if that is because I get bored easily or if I really just don't have a good idea of what I should look like...I haven't found my definitive style yet.

The second thing I saw I will mention and then go on...I need to lose 20 pounds.  Got a good start on it this year, then I got sidelined somehow and the weight crept back.  I know what I need to do...just gotta do it.

I noticed a couple of my wardrobe pieces need to Go Away...they're not flattering in ANY of the photos in which I am wearing them.  Several pieces looked really good before the post-menopausal weight gain (see the previous paragraph) but look kinda skimpy now.  I need to consider remaking them a size or two up.  Because even if I lose 20 lbs., it's not gonna happen overnight.

My last absolute conclusion is that I look better in dresses than I do in blue jeans. ;-)

I'm sure I'll have more to say on this...since I'm thinking way  more than I'm sewing...but that's probably enough for one go.

Choir Wardrobe Eleven Eleven Twelve

So.  Yes, we have Lee Bootcuts, which means there are POCKETS in today's choir selection. Which is good, because the Loes Hinse Bolero Jacket has none.  I opted to wear the burgundy from the color options this month (purple-burgundy-mustard yellow with gray).  This is one of the few months in which I have a plethora of garments to choose; purple and burgundy are both colors I really like.  This is a Land's End rayon turtle neck from a couple of years ago; I love this color.  I think that deep red really looks good on Women Of A Certain Age, for some reason...

Got a call in to my stylist for a haircut; hoping I'm in time to get in line before Christmas.  I'm ready for something a little different....

Choir Wardrobe Nov. 4 2012

Just realized I hadn't done this yet today...and my body thinks it is 10:30 so I am fighting to keep my eyes open.

Anyway, November's colors are burgundy, purple, mustard yellow and gray in whatever combo.  I decided it was TIME to wear something other than jeans so I went outside my fashion comfort zone just a little.

It's my purple bamboo/lycra jersey Madison Avenue dress, worn with a purply poly/rayon boucle Loes Hinse Retro Jacket.

This is out of my comfort zone in the following ways:
1) The purples in the jacket and the dress are near matches, but not dead on.  Normally, I insist on things being pretty doggone exact.  Breaking out of the norm here.

2) I'm wearing boots with a sleeveless summer dress.  Normally, the summer stuff gets shunted off to the attic storage; wearing boots with summer stuff is not even an option.  But I'm incredibly late in switching over the summer/winter wardrobes and just thought I'd give it a try.

And I didn't realize the third non-standard quality until I got to church; neither the dress nor the jacket has pockets.

I spent an entire half day at church with no pockets.  Nowhere to put a kleenex, my office keys, or the little sealed up cup of weird grape juice with it's flat styrofoam-like wafer of something akin to a cracker, since we had communion today and the choir uses the prepackaged set instead of the fresh elements that are passed through the congregation. We grab one in the back hall as we are heading to the risers...most folks stick them in the jeans pocket.  I managed by setting my little cup down on the step behind me, but, wow, I think from now on I will make sure that if my first layer doesn't have pockets, the top layer does!

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... ;-)

Choir Wardrobe 10-28-12

I still haven't really switched the seasonal wardrobes yet, but I did pull my rayon/lycra Simplicity 3624 out of the winter bin to wear over the brown rayon/lycra Jalie 965 tank top (I have totally lost count of how many of those Jalie tanks I have made.  Pity the pattern is OOP...it is the perfect wear-under-a-low-cut-neckline top...).  With Lee bootcuts.

I gotta mention that I made the orange top...last year?  Wore it a few times last winter and then pulled it out to wear today, and it's nearly done in.  The knit is very thin and has really lost its shape (which makes it the equivalent of stylish RTW); fortunately the pattern needs a thin drapey  knit so I can get away with it for a bit more, I think.

The knit I used in the Jalie tank, though, is still as wonderful as it was when I sewed it up 3 years ago, and it has been a workhorse in my wardrobe.  Both knits were purchased online; both were 'rayon/lycra jerseys', although the brown one did have the word 'designer' in the mix somewhere.

I actually don't care if I ever buy another knit like the orange one, although I  would stand in line in the rain somewhere to get more knits like the brown.  If I could.

I wish I knew the magic words to find more knits of the quality of the brown tank.  "Designer" really doesn't always guarantee quality...

A Review that has Nothing Whatever to do with Sewing

...because it's been WEEKS since I've been able to sit down and sew something.  I've moved some things around and filed some patterns (because I can't begin to purge until it's reasonably organized...), but the sewing just hasn't happened.

So I thought I'd share the results of trying something new, just so ya'll don't forget me. ;-)

Anyway, I love potatoes.  I honestly think I could eat a baked potato every day....I love 'em with all the trimmings, but I am happy with just a potato and butter.

But you've got to plan ahead to eat baked potatoes.  About an hour in the oven is required for the proper texture and flavor.  I've tried 'em in the microwave, and it's disappointing on both counts.

Anyway, I've seen these in the stores:

The promo blurbs all say things like 'Perfectly steamed potato in minutes!'    'unique FlavorWrap'!  etc etc etc.  The idea is that the shrink wrap somehow makes the microwaved potato comparable to the oven baked variety.

I would not have tried it, but my hubby bought a couple for a camping trip, intending to pull off the plastic wrap and roast them in the coals of the open fire, but, well, somehow that didn't happen and he brought them home.

And I'm feeling just a touch under the weather today and working from home and a baked potato sounded like it would hit the spot and not upset anything.

So I followed the directions on the wrapper and microwaved a potato, just to see if it would make a difference.

Um, nope.  Not a substitute for a real baker.

So.  If you're a potato purist, stick to the oven. ;-)

Choir Wardrobe 10-14-12...sort of...

See, this Sunday and next are also our 'Children's Ministry Fair' weekends...in which we have displays set up promoting the ministries we have available to kids.  Since I'm rather heavily involved, I wore the official ministry fair t-shirt, which says 'Ask me whyi serve' .  So I kinda got a bye on dressing in the official colors, although I did add my Smoke Ring Scarf  so that I could blend in just a little...and then ended up talking to so many folks between 2nd and 3rd services that when I heard the bass rumble and turned around to look at the service monitors, expecting to see that the countdown to the next service had begun, lo and behold the worship team was on the platform and the service was starting. 

*egg on face*

At least I *did* manage to make it to the platform for 2nd service choir.

Anyway, My Sweet Baboo nabbed a cell phone photo (he has a smartphone, which takes much better pictures than my stupidphone) of the display my high school girls put together for the fair.  Wish it showed up better; anyone looking at those photos would think that we have  a pretty good time...

Choir Wardrobe Oct 7 2012

We are hitting the 'old stanby' section of the calendar; the one where the colors are repeating from years past and  in which I am much more likely to pull stuff out of the closet...that's been there awhile...than I am to make something new.  Case in point:  Lee Bootcuts, w/ Coldwater Creek RTW jacket and  the  brown rayon blend knit sleeveless Jalie 2682, worn with a scarf made from a remnant of fabric left from another scarf.

I need to pull out the fall/winter clothes and do the semi-annual wardrobe switch...maybe next weekend... ;-)

A Revelation...

The Artist's knee surgery went well yesterday;  there was no actual repair work needed, just some cleaning up.  We were at the surgery center for about 4 1/2 hours.

Unfortunately, when I reached into my bag o' stuff to keep me occupied, I discovered that I had placed my scarf panel, scissors, and the two remaining Very Nice Handsewing Needles in the project zipper bag, but somehow omitted the thread.  I considered running down the road to the Bernina dealership and getting a spool, but I didn't want to loose my parking spot, so I sighed and pulled out the book I'd picked up (the new, non-science-fiction, release from Terry Pratchett, Dodger.  I'll let you know what I think when I finish) w/a good-this-weekend-only coupon from B & N and read whilst I waited.


Actually, part of me thought that might be just as well; that would give me the chance to pick up a finer microtex needle and see if I could get a guide line stitched w/o putting pull lines...I was that nervous about keeping the hem even.

So, when I took the Artist back to his apartment today after keeping him under observation for the recommended 24 hours, I stopped by the Hancock's that was just around the corner to pick up a pack of needles.

The Columbus Day Weekend sale was lying in wait.  Three pattern companies with patterns on sale for $1.00 each.

I thought I did pretty well to limit myself to 6, although the truth be told I was looking for things that were different from things already in the stash.

Then I came home and entered them into my online catalog at Pattern Review.  When I finished, I happened to see the total number of listings.  I almost fell out of my chair.

Y'all.  What am I doing with SIX HUNDRED AND NINETEEN PATTERNS???? (And that doesn't count 3  um, 5 years of Burda Style magazines or the costuming patterns...)  When will I ever use them? 

Methinks a pattern purge must be in the near future.  I need to get a grip and pare them down to patterns I will actually USE.  Even if it's only a detail....

Wonder what I'll have left if I eliminate all the patterns w/similar garments??

Wonder when I'll find the time to do that....

Squaring Up

A while back, I threw a silk scarf panel into one of my online fabric orders.  It was ten bucks, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice my hand rolled edges.  One of the very first classes I took from Cynthia Guffey was her hand stitching class, and it included a marvelous technique for doing hand rolled hems.  Of course, it has taken me 8 years to get around to actually trying it...

The first step, though, is trimming the scarf panel down.  There was actually a little  void in the weave indicating where the panels were to be separated; that I can tell you it is there indicates that the fabric was NOT cut on the mark.  So I measured the narrowest bit of border and discovered that I needed to trim that black down to 2 1/4". 

Here's a tip I stumbled across...the panel was somewhat wrinkled when I laid it on the table, so I thought it would be smart to iron it out smooth before I tried to cut it to exact edges.  However, I found that the wrinkles were very stubborn...and I was afraid my steam iron would leave waterspots.

So, I quickly gave the panel a very gentle bath in some cool water and baby shampoo, blotted it with a towel and began to iron it again.  But I noticed that, damp, it didn't slip around nearly as much as it did dry.  Inspiration hit, and I laid the damp scarf out on my cutting table and trimmed it down.  MUCH easier to work with!

I took one of the long scraps to practice the hand stitching.  I didn't exactly remember how it was done, so I did an internet search for techniques, thinking I'd spot something similar.

Nope.  Not so much.  So I dug out my binder with my collection of Expo notes and found the notes I'd taken in the class.  Played around with it a bit and saw what I had to do to make it work, technique wise.  But it was tricky to do it by guesstimate;  all the tips recommend machine stitching a guide on the fold line.  I had skipped that step to just practice the technique itself

So I took one of the scraps to the sewing machine and stitched a line 1/4 inch from the edge so I could see if having a stitched line as a guide made a difference.
 
But, when I sat down to actually roll and stitch the edge, I was alarmed to see a very subtle, but noticeable, pull line at every single stitch.  So I pulled out a brand spanking new needle (60/8 Universal), stitched a bit on the other strip and...got the same thing.  The Universal needles apparently are not right for this fabric, and the smallest Microtex needle I have is  an 80/12, which I think would be much too large for the silk.  So I'ma gonna do what I did on the first sample and carefully eyeball that baby at 1/4" and see how it goes.  I just can't see putting those pull lines in my scarf...

'Cause I intend to start on it tomorrow; The Artist has managed to damage his knee again and will be having a bit of a procedure to try and correct it once more.  This is a minor outpatient arthroscopic deal, but we will still be at the surgery center for 4ish hours.  I expect to get a good bit of scarf hemming done while I'm waiting...

Choir Wardrobe 9-30-2012

It's a humid day...GREAT for frizzy hair...

Last day for the mauve/dusty rose/brown combo.  Got the knit Cold Water Creek jeans being coated in fur by the Sewing Assistant, and something that doesn't look like a twinset but is...Jalie 2566.  I never reviewed the crew neck top (shame on me)...I should do that soon, 'specially since I've made it twice now.  This is the purported-to-be-rayon-but-isn't knit print I got early in the month made up into the cap sleeve crew neck, and my wonderful really-is-yummy-rayon-and-lycra heathery brown jersey knit cardigan that I've been wearing forever.

I have a mauve blouse about half done; it's not going to get worn for choir but at least it will be a check of the pattern tweaks.  I've got some cream and brown sewing up next, I hope, since that's gonna be on the list for the next two months.

Is anyone other than me totally amazed to realize tomorrow is October???

No Choir Post Today...

I actually got up and dressed in my new cream/mauvey floral knit top (yes, the one that was Most Likely to be Sewn actually was...) and brown Jalie cardi and went to church and taught my two classes, but I happened to wake up with symptoms of a little recurring problem I've been having for the last 3ish weeks, so after the second class I cashed it in, came home by myself (leaving My Sweet Baboo to catch a ride with the Actor, who'd driven separately) and began downing cranberry juice.  Looks like visit to the dr is in my immediate future.  I don't think the antibiotics I've taken have quite kicked the bacterial tail yet...

So, no singing and no photo.  But I will share one thought that occurred to me whilst at the Sewing Expo Friday....

Cynthia Guffey made the statement that ladies give up sewing for themselves when they can no longer fit into patterns without alterations; we try, more or less trial-and-error, to fit ourselves but give up when it doesn't work and start quilting.  She didn't say, but either someone else did or I thought it (I actually can't remember, isn't THAT scary...), that the final process in aging as a home sewing enthusiast is to become a quilter.

So I decided that, to avoid aging, all I need to do is to keep sewing garments and resist quilting....d'you think that'll work??? ;-)

Back from the Friendly Neighborhood Sewing Expo

It's been 4 years since I last was able to go to the annual sewing expo's stop in Atlanta, GA.  There was just too much on the plate...in more ways than one...for me to make it work.  But I missed it; missed the camaraderie, missed the learning experiences, missed the break in the routine, missed the sewing geek shopping opportunities.  Every year I watch the info pop into my in box and look at it wistfully, hoping I can go 'next year'.

Then I got an out of season notice...and was surprised to see that the Expo was coming to Birmingham, a mere two hours away!  My traveling buddy and I filled a day with classes and went yesterday.

Now, this was the first time the show had been to Birmingham.  It was a fraction of the size of the huge Atlanta show, both in terms of venue space itself and vendors exhibiting/ teachers teaching.  But I did get to see Carolyn.

I had basically a full day of fitting classes from Cynthia Guffey, with an additional class from Louise Cutting.  Most of it I had seen before, but it's been 4 years and the reminder didn't hurt.  Besides, some things came with a lightbulb moment that I don't think I'd had before.    Louise came to the Birmingham ASG last fall, so I had heard her much more recently, but the chance to look at her garments made up is inspiring in itself.

I bought a piece of ivory silk/linen from Louise, and a top pattern from Cynthia.  Not much by way of shopping, but, given the current financial season, even that felt like an over indulgence.  But I need ivory for choir; it will get worn.

The question now is...will I get the chance to jump into sewing before I lose the fresh inspiration?  Or will that lovely silk linen blend just get regulated to the stash for another season? 

I commented to a lady who was purchasing some raw silk from Cynthia while I was waiting on the credit card to clear that I had a goal of wearing one year's Expo purchases to the next Expo.  Cynthia responded, 'That's a very good goal.'  I replied, laughing, that I don't think I've ever actually done that, but she shook her head. 'It's still a good goal.'

She's right.  It is.

Face Palm Moment

I've been subscribing to Burda's style/patten magazine for a little over four years now.  I haven't actually sewn from very many of them,  but I do enjoy looking through them and dreaming about what I might sew...if I could just get to it.

Anyway, early in the game I decided what I needed to do was copy out the two-page line drawing spread from each magazine  and put them in page protectors in a 3 ring binder, so I could sit down and dream conveniently.  I also emptied my kitchen of gallon zipper-seal bags to put the pattern sheets in, and filed the magazines in one set of bins and the pattern packages in another bin and cross-referenced with the binder.  It worked.  Sort of.

Fast forward to about last week, when I was copying the line drawings from a small backlog of magazines from the last few months. I decided it was annoying to have to look  up both the filed zipper bag w/the patterns AND the filed magazine, so I could have both the patterns and the directions.  I decided that I'd pull the instruction set out of the magazine, too, and put them in the bags with the patterns...I had to work with my short stapler a bit to staple the instruction pages together, but it was worth it.

I did that with the last two or three magazines that hadn't been filed yet, and then I thought it was a good idea so I started pulling the magazines/pattern sets out of the files; thinking that if I do a few a night, it'll eventually all get done.

After the second or third set, I kinda dropped the directions insert and cringed, expecting the pages to all fly apart.

They didn't.

It's all glued up.

Apparently, this is what one is SUPPOSED to do with those pages...pull them out of the magazine.

D'uh!

Choir Wardrobe 09 16

Wow.  I wasn't standing bowlegged; I promise.  Not sure how that camera angle happened but, well, c'est la vie.

Anyway, the choir wardrobe colors are cream, tan, brown, mauve and/or dusty pink.

I pulled out my well-aged McCalls 5191, done up in brown eyelet on stretch denim, breaking the 'no double denim' fashion rule, but oh, well. It has the brown element.  ;-).  The top is my new and as-yet-unreviewed Simplicity 2599 shell, made from a poly-lycra charmeuse I picked up on sale from Hancock's.  I really and truly intended to make it with the matte side out, but, well, old habits are hard to break and I had it sewn with the shiny side out before I realized what I'd done..

 Lee bootcuts and a self-strung brown wooden bead necklace and I was good to go, frizzy hair notwithstanding. (Trying to make it to the holidays before I see about a New Hairstyle...3 more months of growing ought to give me enough back length to do something different.  Maybe)

At least I managed not to dribble anything on my top  today...

Open weekend ahead

Good thing, since I indulged in a few pieces of fabric from a recent clearance sale.  I'm determined that at LEAST one of these will be a garment to wear by Sunday...

The one voted Most Likely to be Worn for Choir This Week is the floral rayon knit (ETA- pretty sure this is not a rayon at all, since there was not a trace of 'woodiness' when I washed it...but it is soft); not sure which knit shirt pattern I'll use but that can be transformed into something wearable within a couple of hours.  The mauve cotton/rayon broadcloth just barely visible behind it *could* be sewn up; that's going to be a matter of whether I can pick a pattern quick enough or not.  There is a diagonal print at 12:00 that is not getting fair treatment by the camera here, either; it's silk crepe de chine and will be going into the stash for a bit; I'm not sure whether it's going to be a blouse or a stunning jacket lining.

The panel print that is pretty much dominating the photo is also silk crepe de chine; this is going to be my 'learn to hand roll edges' project.  I'll trim the borders down to size and use the scraps to practice, then I plan to hand roll all of it and have a pretty snazzy print scarf.  However, that is not likely to happen this week, either.

I think I'm done buying fabric for a while, anyway.  It's going to take a pretty phenomenal deal to get me to invest in something.

Oh.  Except I'm going to the Sewing Expo in Birmingham next week...where I just might find a pretty phenomenal deal... ;-)

Choir Wardrobe 0909

Our colors for September are usually chosen from the palette used for the decor for our annual women's conference; this year we had tan/brown/mauve/dusty pink/cream.  The mauvish top I made last week came out of the dryer needing an iron, and, as this was the weekend of said women's conference I didn't have time to to that.  So I  grabbed the tube I'd sewn, kinda on a lark because it wasn't enough for anything else, from the remnant of the top fabric and put it on over a Coldwater Creek silk/nylon v-neck sweater shell. I intended to wear a cream RTW jacket with it, but I've got some smudgy something on it (I suspect dry erase marker, actually), so I punted with my khaki stretch cotton sateen McCalls 5860 over Lee bootcuts.

I'm really not happy with that jacket...it just is too swingy in the bottom. Way too much ease in the lower front. Pattern flaw or alteration goof?  I've no idea; could be either or both.  The scarf was almost a joke; I mean, the end is just the kinda fringy selvedge. I felt rather frowsy and thrown together today.  But I got compliments on the outfit... which really surprised me.  Funny how often that happens...and when I wear something I'm rather proud of ...nothing.


But a compliment is a compliment, right?  ;-)

..um, yeah, well, ....

The promised photo did not happen today because I am a silly vain thing.

My Sweet Baboo had the camera in hand, and we were about to go get set, when he pointed out that I had a spot on the center front of the shiny top.

Well, I thought I'd just been splashed by the water I'd used to rinse the broccoli, so I went into the bathroom and hit it with the hairdryer.

Only it didn't go away.

I suspect it is a dribble of coffee that got by me when I was working on the data entry during the last service.

I could not bring myself to pose for a photo with an unalterable spot on the top.

So no photo of the only thing I have sewn in the last six weeks.

I will, however, share a photo of one of the difficulties I had in sewing the top; she jumped up there the moment I put it on the table:

"I is holding ur fabric hostage!"

Posting woes

Aside from the fact that I sewed absolutely nothing in the entire month of August, we've been having internet connectivity/ filter issues.  I am up and running on the 'net again, but 3/4 of all photos on blogger are currently blocked, so not only can I not see the majority of my own photos, I cannot see most of the photos on anyone else's blogs, either.  I have, however, been down this road before.  I think this is what happens...blogger dumps all uploaded photos into one of four bins...1.bp.blogspot.com, 2.bp.blogspot.com, etc...and I think they do it rather randomly, probably depending on which bin is available first.  Anyway, the photo links have the corresponding prefix on them, depending upon which bin they're in.  Apparently, blogger does not differentiate between the blogs that are listed as 'adult content' and those that are not as to what gets posted in the bins, so when someone stumbles across an offensive image and complains about it to our filtering folks, they block everything in that bin.  Which means everything with that prefix is blocked. 

I have unblock requests in.  Hopefully we will not come to the place where I have to request an unblock for every.single.picture....although the customer service tech seemed to think that would be what is necessary.  Surely not; this has been fixed before...

Anyway, I can see all 1.bp.blogspot photos but none of the rest of them.

Puts a dent in the inspiration file.

But I did actually get some sewing done today...I made a first go at Simplicity 2599.  I'll likely wear it for choir tomorrow, as it is the ONLY garment in my wardrobe in the dusty rose/mauve family, but it's barely a keeper.  I need to rotate a small dart out of the neckline for it to be really wearable, but, well, I'll deal with it.  Under a jacket, it may not be so noticeable.

That's the first time I've made one of Simplicity's multi-cup size patterns; I used the D cup front and, per my normal alterations, lowered the bust point by about 1 1/4" before I cut it out.  When I tried on the top after sewing together the shoulder seams, I laughed at myself and ripped the darts out and moved them right back to their original location.    I just didn't expect that.

But I think this is going to be a very good 'blank' top; something I can play with ...changing up necklines and such.  And there's all the frou-frou included in the pattern if I want something, well, frou-frou.  I left the frou-frou off this time and just made the plain tank top.

Our church women's conference begins Thursday;  we have some very good speakers coming in.  I'm looking forward to it...but it will consume the ENTIRE weekend.  The following weekend is the only weekend in September that does not have something going on. And I SO hoped to make myself a nice jacket this month....

I need to get myself ready.  I think we have begun the downhill run to the holidays, and it's only going to pick up speed until then.

I should start my Christmas shopping .   ;-)

Pictures tomorrow. I hope.  Even if I can't see 'em.