Weekend Project: Sometimes You Have to Trust Yourself

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

~ Benjamin Spock

Well, my first Christmas present project (the wine totes) got off to a rocky start... I skimmed the instructions from front to back before doing anything, and was intrigued by the instructions for squaring off the bottom of the tote. I've made a handful of bags and learned various methods for forming bottoms - but these looked different. It appeared that there was only ONE step, and I was accustomed to doing each of the 2 corners separately.

Here is EVERYTHING in the instructions referring to making the bottom:

I didn't quite understand the instructions, but assumed that it would make sense when I actually followed them, and was happily anticipating learning a new, easier and possibly ingenious method. :)

Alas, it was not to be...

The first step was to fold the square piece of fabric in half and stitch along the side and the bottom, leaving only the top open. Next was to turn the fabric 90 degrees and open it up, forming a triangle at the bottom.

My first interpretation problem came when I was trying to decide where to measure the 3.5 inches. The picture seemed to indicate that it was from side to side on the tote. But the instructions said "...from the corner" I decided to follow the words and use what I thought was "the corner":

It turned out that my stitching line fell just before the start of all the folded over fabric, so that made me think that maybe this was right. I stitched the line and cut off the excess and couldn't wait to see the miraculous squared off bottom! Ta Da!

Ooops - that is not a squared off bottom.

Okay, back to the drawing board - apparently they DID mean from side-to-side, as illustrated in the drawing. I could do that:

I still didn't see how it was going to produce a cool, squared off bottom, and I was still excited to see. I stitched and cut and...

Huh?

What the heck?

Realization dawned. The instructions were fundamentally flawed and this was one case where I should trust my knowledge of how to make squared off bottoms. EACH corner had to be made separately:

I stitched the lines (3.5 inches from side-to-side) on EACH corner and trimmed the excess fabric:

Now, turn it right-side out and... voila!

Finally! :)

Other than that, the rest of the first wine tote came together pretty smoothly. My only other minor quibble was the length of the strap (10 inches). It might be a good length for the finished tote, but it was just a tiny bit too short to fit comfortably in place during construction. If I were to do this again, I'd probably go with 11 or 12 inches...

Anyways, without further ado, here are a couple of pictures of my first, completed wine tote:

Only 8 more to go! ;)

I hope you had a wonderful sewing weekend and are ready for a new week... :)

Friday Confession

I made a joke last weekend about "Sewing Pattern Company Transfer Day", but it got me thinking - I spend money on my sewing, and, to be honest, the majority of that money goes to big companies - Joann Fabrics, the big 4 pattern companies, etc...

I have my own small, sewing-related business, so you would think that I would work harder at supporting other small, independent sewing-related businesses. But I haven't. In part, I suppose, because of the convenience of the big companies and in part because of inertia - I just keep doing what I'm used to doing.

But maybe I should make a conscious effort to change this.

How about you? Do you make an effort to support small, independent sewing-related businesses? If so, what types - fabric stores? pattern makers? others? And, why do you do it? If not, why not? What do you think about all this "Occupy" stuff? Should it extend to our hobby?

Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Marie, Gwen, Linda, Anonymous and Christine for talking back to my confession a couple of weeks ago! I mentioned an "aha!" moment when I realized how much my sewing skills have improved over the last few years, and asked if others had similar revelation stories to share...

The stories were wonderful, and I recommend that you read them for yourself (here) to get the full impact. But I'll do my best to summarize... ;)

I think every possible aspect associated with sewing was covered by someone in her "aha!" moment:

Before even entering the sewing room: Gwen recognized how far her skills had developed when she realized that she could look at a garment and figure out how it was constructed and how the design of that garment would be represented in pattern pieces.

In the sewing room - normal processes: For Linda and Marie, it was realizing that they no longer had to painstakingly read each step of the instructions before completing it. Linda reported that a year ago she couldn't have imagined herself at this point, but now, few things scare her and she only uses instructions for periodic reference material.

Similarly, Marie finds it easy to remember all the steps and techniques associated with each garment that she makes. As she said, "Things fall into place when I am sewing," and she knows how to adapt techniques to new situations.

In the sewing room - dealing with mistakes: For an anonymous commenter, it was recognizing that she could deal with mistakes. Instead of letting a project stall when she messes up, now she just rips things out (even tiny black stitches on black fabric!), and re-does them!

Okay, maybe she doesn't LOVE ripping things out, but it's no longer a show-stopper. ;)

The Finished Garment: For Christine, it was actually a comment made by someone else on one of her creations. She made Halloween costumes for her nieces (see picture above) and her brother-in-law commented that "he was so impressed by the detail that he checked them a couple of times for [RTW] tags." :)

She didn't mention this in her comment, but I happen to know that, when the girls found out that the costumes shouldn't be washed, one of them refused to wear her costume to all the pre-Halloween festivities, because she loved it so much that she wanted to make sure it was perfect and clean for the big night!

Those are some pretty powerful compliments!

I think I know how good she must feel - for years, my nephews always made sure to wear the shirts that I made for them on School Picture Day. That was their own idea - not mine or their mother's. It made me feel pretty happy. :)

So, there are lots of different and wonderful ways to realize that your sewing skills are growing and you are learning! Gwen summed it up best: "One thing about sewing - you never, ever quit learning."

Thanks again to everyone for your wonderful stories! I loved reading about your "Aha!" moments! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

Here are 3 more fabric pairs (out of 9) selected by friends / co-workers for their Christmas presents:

Remember that I'm making each person an insulated wine tote and an insulated casserole carrier.

Don't these choices highlight the unique personalities of each person? I love that!

Oh, thanks for the suggestions regarding which fabric to put on the outside and which fabric to put on the inside!

I was hoping to have one general rule to follow, but I think I'm going to have to decide on a case by case basis...

I reviewed the wine tote instructions and it looks pretty quick and easy. I'm hoping to get started this weekend - it's a long one thanks to Veteran's Day. :)

Don't worry - I'll get to these soon! They're in my queue...

Tuesday's Torch Story

Secrets are made to be found out with time.

~ Charles Sanford

In my continuing quest to go over-the-top when planning our ESL classroom activities, I've come up with a secret message game to practice conjugating verbs. ;)

Does anyone remember that old board game (based on a TV game show) "Password"? There were game cards that you couldn't read, until you slid them into the magic decoder sleeve - with a red filter. Once the information was behind the red filter - voila! - suddenly you could read it!

Well, I thought I'd put my students in pairs and give each one a card and magic decoder sleeve. For each item, one card would have the verb conjugation problem and the other card would have the answer. And the cards would alternate, so that each student was solving half the problems and knowing the right answer to double-check his/her partner on the other half of the problems.

This way, the student pairs can work independently and all I have to do is wander around the classroom, making sure that everything was going smoothly.

So, how do I make these cards and magic decoder sleeves? A little internet research turned up the answer! It's not difficult - although it will be a bit hard on the red ink supply in my printer... :(

I write the messages in a fat, dotted blue font (see first row in figure below) and create a box with a red checked pattern (see second row).

When the overlay is on top of the text (see third row in the figure above), it's difficult (although not completely impossible) to read the text underneath. But when you slide this behind a red filter, it becomes easy (well, easier, at least) to read the text.

I can see what you are thinking... Why not just write the problems and the answers on pieces of paper and pass them out?

Oh, come on - where's the fun in that? ;)

Besides, who needs red ink in their printer anyways? ;)

(I'll probably make back-up pages, just in case anyone has too much trouble reading the words inside the magic decoder sleeve...)

So, that's the craziness I'm up to this week. Stay tuned for my next adventure in flying dangerously in the face of the basic "KISS" principle of life! ;)

Weekend Project: Sewing Pattern Company Transfer Day

Think globally, act locally.

~ Patrick Geddes

In honor of bank transfer day, I made this pattern from a small, independent sewing pattern publisher.

Okay, it was mostly a coincidence - I made the pattern because I like it and I had this gorgeous pink fabric waiting for me. ;)

It went together very easily. As you can see, there are princess seams - and I was careful to place the longer piece of fabric on the bottom, to let the feed dogs help me ease it in - another thing I learned from you guys! :)

The only odd thing about the pattern was that the instructions didn't call for any type of reinforcing the waistband - no interfacing and no second layer of fabric... I went ahead and interfaced it, because it seems like the majority of the patterns I make call for that. I'm not sure why - maybe this piece receives extra stress?

I did have to take in the hips - but that is most likely a reflection of the disproportions of my body, not any issues with the pattern.

I love the neckline - isn't that a nice detail?

It is super comfortable, suitable for work and a reasonably flattering silhouette. I'm really happy with it! :)

I hope you had a wonderful sewing weekend and are ready to start another week!

In the Queue Wednesday

For my friends / co-workers, I'm making insulated wine totes and casserole totes as Christmas gifts. I sent everyone a link to fabric.com and asked them to pick out 2 cotton quilting fabrics that they liked. My plan is to use both fabrics on both totes - one on the outside and one on the inside - to make a matched set.

One of the things I love most about projects like this is letting people pick their own fabric and then getting to work with all the colors and patterns that they pick.

Fabrics have started coming in - here are pairs picked by 3 of my friends:

One question to decide is which fabric to put on the outside and which fabric to put on the inside on each tote. Of course, I don't have to use the same fabric on the outside of both totes - I could switch it up...

With the casserole tote, both the outside and the inside will show (at one time or another). With the wine tote, really only the outside will show - people will never get more than a peek at the inside.

So, for each pair, I'm trying to figure out how to arrange them. Any suggestions for these 3 pairs?

I'll be starting on these soon. They are in my queue... :)

Tuesday's Torch Story

We are in community each time we find a place where we belong.

~ Peter F. Block

This is what I want my class to be for my students - a place where they belong. And beyond that, I hope that by helping them improve their English, they will begin to feel that they belong to the larger community of this town... this state... this county. :)

No story for you today - just a group picture of the students who showed up this week. I'm having it imprinted onto ceramic Christmas tree ornaments and I'll pass them out as Christmas gifts this year. Just one small symbol of our community. :)

Weekend Project: Number Crunching

In God we trust. All others must bring data.

~ W. Edwards Deming

No sewing for me this weekend - I spent the majority of my time in front of my computer, typing in numbers from the backs of sewing patterns for children.

The process to create a set of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards goes like this:

• Christine and I scour the internet for sewing patterns and print out the images of the envelopes' fronts and backs.
• We divvy up the printouts and type the tables into spreadsheets, which have lots of formulas going on in the background.
• Once we get enough patterns to establish a stable average number for every size, we copy the tables into PowerPoint slides and look up representative examples of patterns that require the minimum, average and maximum amounts of fabric for each type of garment.
• We paste those images into the PowerPoint file as well and then ship the whole thing off to our graphic artist, Beth.
• She creates the artwork - putting our numbers into nicely formatted tables and creating sketches of the representative patterns that we provided to her.
• Once we approve the artwork she emails the files off to the card printers and they work up proofs for us.
• Once we approve the proofs, they print the cards for us and punch holes in the upper left hand corner of each card.
• When the cards are delivered to my house, we hand check each one to make sure it's a good print, collate them into sets and slide a ring (like a key ring) into each set.

One thing that this process really illustrates for me is the uneven production of patterns across sizes. We easily found over 200 top patterns for children's sizes 7 & 8, 175 patterns for size 10, 160 patterns for size 12 and 138 patterns for size 14.

Guess how many for size 16?

25.

Yup - just 25 of those patterns went up to size 16.

Of course, for children it's probably not so bad, because by that time they may be fitting into adult patterns. But we had the same experience with women's plus sized patterns - we had a very hard time finding enough patterns to establish stable averages. It was really frustrating.

Anyways, I had hoped to get all of the materials to Beth by the end of September, so I'm already a month late. :(

But this weekend I was able to get her the materials for 3 of the cards (dresses, pants & tops) and I should be done with the other 3 cards (jackets, skirts & pajamas) within the week.

So, we should still be able to have our LAST set ready for Christmas! Yay!

And I can turn my attention to my Christmas sewing plans... :)

I hope you had a great sewing weekend! To those suffering from early winter weather - I'm thinking of you and hoping that life gets back to normal soon!

Friday Confession

I was caught by surprise, recently, by a "look how far I've come!" moment with my sewing. I was making a dress for a young friend and was able to adjust my method of construction to adapt to the fact that I wasn't going to line it.

And suddenly I remembered an experience that I had early in my sewing, when I treated each set of pattern instructions as if they had been carved on Stone Tablets by a Divine Hand and couldn't even imagine trying to do anything different on my own... A woman at the fabric cutting table at my local Walmart kept trying to convince me that I could make a particular dress pattern without lining it and I grew frustrated when she wouldn't accept the fact that - maybe SHE could make it without lining it, but I couldn't.

And now I can. I'm not sure when it happened. I don't remember any particular moment - no ceremony, no sky opening up with trumpeting angels, nothing... It just kind of sneaked up on me. But I used to be in the group that couldn't, and now, somehow, I'm in the group that can.

So, how about you? Have you had any moments like this? Times when you suddenly realized - Hey! I really have learned a lot! I really am better at sewing than I used to be! I'd love to hear your stories! :)

Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Eileen, Carla, Anne, Sarah, Debbie, Gwen, Mary, Patsijean, Marie, Linda & Sarah for talking back to my confession last week! I asked if people were sewing any Christmas presents and the answers came from all points along the spectrum. ;)

Carla and Gwen came down firmly on the "no way!" side - with Carla saying (with a smile) "You can't make me!" and Gwen explaining that she finds it too stressful. I do agree that the last thing anyone needs is to have more stress associated with either your hobby or the holidays...

Taking an "intermediate" (i.e., reasonable) stance, 5 people reported that they do sew individual gifts for specific people, when appropriate. Anne, for example, has had requests for a lined bathrobe and soft pants for a niece and nephew respectively, and a doctor costume for the same nephew. Patsijean is making a set of camp shirts in jewel tones for a good friend. Marie is making her Mom an apron and Linda is making lap quilts for her parents.

Get this - Linda actually started her projects in May! Now THAT is being on top of things! And I was proud of myself for having a plan in place before the end of October... ;)

Sarah makes jewelry - necklaces and earrings - for the people in her life that she knows will appreciate and wear them - not an "en mass" project by any means - but (I think) more than 1 or 2.

At the other extreme, there was a substantial contingent reporting a history of making and/or plans for this year to make group gifts - a large number of the same item, in different fabrics - to be distributed to friends and/or family. Eileen is making potholders, Sarah hopes to make Bible covers, Marie has done coin purses, aprons and tissue holders in the past.

Patsijean is doing singlet shopping bags - that's a picture of one above - and you can read about it and see more pictures and useful links here and here. A friend in my office did that for co-workers one year and it was a huge hit! I use mine all the time. :)

Linda thinks she has just come up with a great mass gift idea, but she won't share just yet... I'm really looking forward to hearing about it! I'm starting to run low on ideas...

Finally, a couple of folks haven't really started thinking about Christmas just yet. I can relate - I just started thinking about it a week ago...

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! Best wishes with your sewing plans - whether they are for Christmas gifts or not. :)

In the Queue Wednesday

Okay, here's what I'm thinking of making for my friends and co-workers for Christmas (at least 9 people, maybe more) - matching, insulated kitchen carrying cases - one for a bottle of wine and one for a casserole dish.

One of the reasons I think that this gift will be well-received (for the most part) is that we regularly have potlucks at work and most everyone brings in delicious home-made dishes! Plus, many folks are also "into" wine. So, it may not be perfect for everyone, but it should work.

Of course, each person's set will be made from different fabric - either I'll choose designs and colors that I think they'll like OR I may even let them choose the fabric... Still thinking about that.

The internet has tons of free patterns for both of these items. I did some browsing and the patterns (pictured above) that I like best (so far) are these:

Kathryn Goodman's Wine Tote

2 Little Hooligan's Casserole Tote

If you know of other patterns to recommend, please let me know. :)

Well, another project with a deadline - for now, at least, I'd better order the insul-brite insulation... Don't worry, I'll get to them! They're in the queue. ;)

Tuesday's Torch Story

There are toys for all ages.

~French proverb

Sometimes I think that part of the reason that I enjoy teaching my ESL class so much is the fun of going overboard with my "props". ;)

For example, I got the idea to model this week's activity on the game show, Family Feud. So, clearly a trip to Home Depot and Staples was in order...

What?!? Have people raise their hands when they know the answer?!? Keep score on the black board?!? Are you kidding?!?

OF COURSE we need bells for them to ring when they know the answer and OF COURSE we need a super cool pegboard score board system! ;)

The topic is comparisons - Shaquille O'Neal (famous basketball player) is taller than Einstein; Einstein is more intelligent than Shaquille O'Neal - that kind of thing.

I've got this software (another prop!) that lets me design electronic spinners and I'll set 3 up - two with names of famous people and one with adjectives. For each turn, I'll "spin" all 3 spinners and my students will have to say a grammatically correct sentence comparing the 2 designated people with respect to the designated adjective.

The main objective is to get them to distinguish between those cases when they can add "er" to the end of the adjective (basically, short adjectives with only 1 syllable) and those cases when they need to put the word "more" in front of the adjective (adjectives with 3 or more syllables.) Adjectives with 2 syllables are just a nuisance. ;)

Comparisons get a little more complicated in writing - because there are rules like "change the terminal 'y' to an 'i' before adding 'er' (pretty -> prettier)" and "if the word ends in 'consonant-vowel-consonant' then double the last consonant before adding 'er' (big -> bigger)". But, when you are speaking, people can't tell if you are spelling it correctly or not! ;)

Anyways, I haven't quite sorted out how I want to handle the accuracy of the sentences. For example, if a student says "Willie Shoemaker (a famous jockey) is taller than Shaquille O'Neal" is it fine because it's correct grammatically?

Of course, I'll try to use people they know. Last year I used characters from a famous Hispanic sitcom, El Chavo del Ocho and that seemed to work pretty well.

So, I'll be dragging my props off to class soon, and I'll let you know how our version of "Family Feud" goes! Wish me luck! :)

Weekend Project: The Prettiest Girls...

I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls.

~ Audrey Hepburn

This is why I sew for girls and why I always let them choose the pattern and the fabrics - even if their choices are ... um ... well, let's say, unusual. My sewing skills are average and the clothes that I make are adequate. But when a little girl puts on something that is EXACTLY what she wanted, the glow of her happiness outshines any of the flaws in my sewing...

So, I crammed over the weekend to make this dress for my friend Carolyn, for her baptism. She wanted the short version, with a short sleeved jacket.

She picked a white, satin polyester fabric - and a white lace overlay for the jacket - and a white tulle with sparkles overlay for the dress itself.

I didn't have time to follow the proper hand-basted underlining approach to create fabric sandwiches of the satin and the overlays, so I used a walking foot and machine basted the pieces together.

(Note that I only use a walking foot because you guys explained it to me and recommended it on one of my Friday Confessions. And I really like it!)

I hadn't realized that the pattern called for a lining, and I didn't have lining material readily available - so I adjusted the instructions and made it without a lining. The only place it really mattered was along the top of the bodice.

The instructions called for me to align the pieces like this:

dress - right side up

band - right side up

strap - upside down

(You couldn't have seen anything with all the white fabrics, so I'm illustrating it with scraps.)

Then, once you laid the lining over top of everything, sewed it on and flipped it to the inside, no raw edges would show along the top.

Given that I didn't have a lining, I aligned the pieces like this:

dress - upside down

strap - right side up

band - upside down

Then, once I flipped the band over to the front, everything was right side up in the front and no raw edges were showing. (The band was doubled over so that there wasn't a raw edge along its bottom.)

Does that make sense? Anyways, I was kind of proud that I was able to reason out how to do it. And it sparked a memory. Maybe the second dress I made 9 years ago when I first got a sewing machine - the pattern called for a lining and I was shopping at (brace yourself) Walmart for a lining fabric. The woman at the cutting table looked at my pattern and pronounced, "Oh, you don't need to line that pattern." I tried to explain that I didn't know enough about sewing to diverge from the instructions that much, but she didn't get it. She just kept saying that I didn't need to line the dress.

And now, here I am - able to adjust a pattern so that I don't need to line it if I don't want to.

Oh, and I dealt with the unlined jacket by using bias tape around the edge - another thing I learned from you guys in one of my Friday Confessions!

The dress was a tiny bit big, but Carolyn absolutely loved it! :)

Without further ado, here are some pictures from after the baptism ceremony. Carolyn is the young girl in the white dress.

I'm not the best seamstress in the world - not even close! But it doesn't matter - it's still worth sewing for people. Because it makes them happy. And happy girls are the prettiest girls. :)

Friday Confession

So, the LAST thing I should be thinking about is more sewing projects, but my mind is wandering to projects that I might make as Christmas gifts for my friends and co-workers... I have a couple of ideas, which I'll show you soon. ;)

But first, I wanted to ask - what about you? Will you be making any Christmas presents this year? If so, what and for whom? And, have you started yet? I'm looking forward to hearing about your holiday sewing plans!

Talk Back Thursday

Thank you so much to Lisa Laree, Carla, Marie, Claire, Debbie, Linda, Barb, Gwen, Anotheryarn, Becky & Summerset for talking back to my confession last week! I asked about your experiences with people commenting on and/or asking about the clothes that you are wearing.

So, who asks us, “Did you make that?” Well, almost everyone (9 out of 11) reported that they are usually asked by someone who already knows that they sew – a friend or family member. (Although, at the other extreme, Summerset reported that her friends and family just take it for granted that she has pretty much sewn her whole wardrobe, and thus they rarely ask…) Only 3 people reported that they get asked by distant acquaintances or strangers.

And, almost everyone (9 out of 11) reported that they generally take the question as a compliment and feel good when they are asked – regardless of whether they are wearing one of their own creations or something RTW. Certainly no one reported feeling offended by the question, but sometimes Mary feels a bit caught off-guard and embarrassed, and Anotheryarn remembered a time when a stranger asked if she had made her skirt and then did not follow up with a compliment, and so she was never quite sure how to take it. (I’ve had that happen too – it is disconcerting.)

There were two other popular refrains echoing through the comments. The first, brought up by 4 people, was that many people who don’t sew are not able to tell the difference between RTW and handmade. They don’t know what to look for and sometimes don’t even recognize the differences between well-made and poorly-made garments. Barb, for example, reported that her sewing experience has taught her to notice and be critical of lots of details, such as puckers, mismatched seams, etc.

The other theme, also brought up by 4 people, was how amused and/or surprised they were by the reactions that they get when people find out that they are wearing something that they made – apparently many people are amazed by the idea! (Possibly getting the cat face pictured above.) Debbie has even met people in Joann’s – in line to have fabric cut! – who are shocked by the fact that she is wearing her own creations. Okay, here’s one place where the idea should NOT be coming out of left field…

Becky, on the other hand, has the opposite experience – her friends know she sews and so they are more surprised if she tells them that she bought something in the store! ;)

Finally, Lisa Laree called out a reaction that she gets – and that she finds quite annoying – when people find out that she makes her own clothes. Apparently some people take it for granted that, if she sews, well of course she’d just love to sew (or mend!) something for them too… Yikes! Thank goodness I don’t run into that situation too often!

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! I love reading your stories! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

Brandon's shirt is done. Carolyn's dress is the next frantic project in my queue - to be done by this coming Saturday afternoon. Yikes!

She asked for the shorter dress and the short sleeved jacket. And she picked a charming, perfect-for-a-nine-year-old, combination of (a) a white satin polyester for the foundation of both pieces, (b) a white-with-sparkles net overlay for the dress and (c) a white lace overlay for the short sleeved jacket. It's going to be unique and she's going to look beautiful in it! :)

Again, I'll try to get pictures for you this weekend.

Don't worry - I'll get this done! It's at the top of my queue. ;)

Tuesday's Torch Story

A man's character may be used by the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

~Mark Twain

My ESL class is going very well so far! My students are amazing - they are so motivated and on-the-ball and just basically really nice people. As for me, I think I've got a better rhythm going this year. Each class begins with this sequence of 4 activities:

1. Quiz on the vocabulary words that they were assigned for homework the previous week. The quiz usually has around 24 items - half individual words and half simple sentences - half asking them to translate from Spanish to English and the other half vice versa.

2. Pronunciation Activity - I focus on two easily confused phonemes (ex. the /t/ sound and the /th/ sound). We practice them individually and then practice distinguishing them.

3. "Five English Words You Already Know" - our 5 cognates and 1 false cognate activity.

4. The Idiom of the Week.

This usually takes about 45 minutes, leaving 45 minutes for our main activity.

Last week our topic was adjectives and rather than simply giving them a list of common adjectives, I asked them to think of 5 adjectives describing 5 people in their families.

To prevent everyone from using the easy adjectives, like "My mother is nice. My father is intelligent. My brother is tall." etc., I made it a competition to come up with the most unique adjectives.

My winner described the people in her family as:

creative

productive

wealthy

far sighted

disabled

Other adjectives that we got included:

sensitive

crazy

skeletal (yikes!)

hardworking

spoiled

studious

organized

athletic

strange

Not a bad set of adjectives to be able to habitually use in conversation, huh? ;)

Weekend Project: Some Things You've Taught Me

A man only learns in two ways, one by reading,

and the other by association with smarter people.

~ Will Rogers

I was thrown into a bit of a panic last week, when Ana informed me that Carolyn and Brandon's baptism ceremony - anticipated for summer of 2012 - was, in fact, scheduled for next Saturday (October 22nd). I had promised to make them outfits for the occasion, and thought that it would be a fun leisurely project to be started sometime next spring.

Instead, it has turned into a bit of a mad gallop, with a looming deadline nipping at my heels...

This weekend I made a muslin of Carolyn's dress and finished Brandon's shirt. As I sewed, I noted many of the little (and some not so little) things that I do differently, thanks to the comments and feedback that I get from you guys!

For example, based on your advice, I got some glass head IBC straight pins - and I love them!

I also regularly switch my needle position (left or right of center) to do top stitching - like around the pockets on Brandon's shirt.

And this time, I actually remembered a tip that Mamafitz gave me about applying interfacing to a facing.

Well, to be fair, I usually remember her tip - right after I iron on the interfacing and it is too late to follow it. ;)

This time I remembered it ahead of time. Instead of directly ironing the interfacing onto the fabric facing, I align the pieces (fabric & fusible interfacing) right sides together and stitched around two sides - the two sides that would normally have to be finished in some way.

Then I trimmed and clipped the corner.

Finally I turned them so that they were wrong sides together.

And finished it up by ironing on the fusible interfacing. This way, I didn't have to finish those two edges.

Didn't it come out nicely? Thanks, Mamafitz! I really like this method and plan to use it often!

So, Brandon picked out a very soft and drapey white fabric. He also asked for short sleeves. I was worried that this wouldn't be acceptable for a baptism, but Ana thought that it would be okay. He also picked out a bit of a cowboy pattern - with a pointy yoke. It isn't the most formal shirt in the world, but it should be super comfortable and I hope he really likes it just because it is what he asked for.

There is one way in which I did mess up - and I'm pretty annoyed at myself. His measurements were too large for the largest boy size that came with the pattern, and too small for the smallest man size. I went on the theory that it's easier to make something smaller than it is to make it bigger, and started by cutting out the smallest man size.

While that hypothesis may be true most of the time, I have now learned one glaring exception - the armscye. A larger shirt has a larger armscye and making that smaller would require adding fabric, not subtracting it. :(

So, I was able to take in the shoulders and take in the sides and shorten the shirt - but the armscyes are too large. :(

Here's hoping that it doesn't turn out to be a big deal for Brandon.

Here's a close-up, where you can see the herringbone weave pattern in the fabric.

I'll try to get pictures of Brandon and Carolyn in their baptism finery next weekend. Now, it's back to the sewing room for work on Carolyn's dress! ;)

I hope you all had wonderful sewing-filled weekends! :)