Space Jammies

We've had a bit of a cool snap again, so it's good that I finished up FuzzyHusband's new flannel pjs!

There was a bit of an issue with shrinkage when I pre-washed the flannel. The space fabric wasn't wide enough for the the pant pattern. The solution: tuxedo stripes!

He's quite fond of them and is looking forward to wearing them when it's cooler again in the late fall. I need to get back to some more sewing and a few boring chores before rehearsal tonight. See you next weekend!

Strawberry Girl

I finished my dress, except for the hem on Wednesday. 

Thursday I hemmed it by hand and got it washed and hung to dry.

FuzzyHusband and I both forgot to get a photo of the entire thing at the show. But I did remember a selfie on Saturday night. I wore my hair down, but I did it all by myself, which is a new thing for me. I've never been one for spending time in front of a mirror.

For today's matinee show, one of the other gals styled it for me. Not sure which I like more, but I feel pretty with both.

The only issue with this dress was rubbing from sequins on my upper arms where the strawberries were right next to the armholes. I will spare you the photo and say that it's a good thing I learned my own saliva will break down my own bloodstains back when I was learning to embroider. Ouch.

I did remove the sequins that were obvious problems. It should be better the next time I wear it.

My next project is sitting here on the table. Probably time to get it started.

Especially since it snowed again today.

Progress

I've got two piles. Outside of the jacket and the lining.

I'll be fusing the interfacing in place and marking the black pieces next. I'm looking forward to being done.

See you next weekend!

Straws

I reached the last one with the leather nonsense that was supposed to be FuzzyHusband's part of the project. It just wasn't turning out the way it needed to look. This is what's left of one section after I cannibalized it for parts. Patent leather doesn't like to be made into piping. And it certainly doesn't like to be stretched around tight curves. And no fabric that I could find looked good as a piping option.

It's on himself now and we figured out what direction he needed to take.

I've reclaimed the dining room table to do pattern layout and will be getting back to the fabric portion of things in the morning. I hope to have things done by mid week. Tonight is for Netflix, junk food, and kitty snuggles.

Sewing Leather

I've been stuck learning to sew with leather on the fly for several weeks. When FuzzyHusband and I agreed to take this project on, the original plan was for the items to be made in vegetable tanned leather. However our client had other ideas and thus it became my problem. I really do need to teach Himself how to sew so next time I'm not doing the lion's share of the work.

Said commission consists of many leather straps, some hardware, and three larger chunks of leather. It's rather mature in nature, so I shan't be showing the final product here. Let's just say it's for a burlesque show in an extremely specialized venue and leave it at that.

What I can show are pictures of the unassembled straps that are waiting for me to finish the larger chunks.

The lighter leather is chromium tanned. Quite lovely and soft. Someday I'll make myself a gorgeous purse out of scraps in different colors. The darker gray is patent leather. Patent leather has become a pain in my backside and Himself owes me big time for having to pull off the miracles I'm making with it.

I shall be spending the rest of my Sunday trying to finish those chunks so I can wash my hands of the mess and get back to finishing the fabric portions of the project. I don't mind learning by trial and error, but when I'm working with expensive material that someone else has paid for and have a timeline, I'm less fine with it. Once I'm done with the fabric portion, FH and I will start his sewing lessons.

I shall leave you with adorable distractions. They're so much fun to watch together. Victor adores Ellie. Ellie is intrigued by Victor, but beyond that she's still figuring things out.

We Survived!

The polar vortex has come and gone. FuzzyHusband, myself, and the critters hunkered down under bunches of blankets and didn't emerge from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning.

We probably should have informed Artan that pattern pieces are not blankies, but it's doubtful he'd have listened anyway. We also learned how many layers of garment leather my sewing machine will go through.

Thursday night I ended up with a fantastic chance to see a rescheduled concert featuring one of my favorite bands ever! I loved how the colored lights matched the colors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's colors. Disturbed is very vocal in their support of people with both addiction problems and mental illnesses. It was gratifying to have a bunch of rock stars validating so many people who struggle every day.

Last night Whiskey City Burlesque hosted a fundraiser in the form of a Cards Against Humanity tournament. This quarter we chose our local crisis nursery as the beneficiary for our charity. We raised a lot of money and had a packed house. Many people brought physical donations as well. This was the most successful fundraiser yet! 

There were short performances in between rounds of the game. I managed to get a few pictures, but I was running around helping wherever I was needed.

I need to get back to sewing and trying to get some cleaning done before rehearsal tonight. We're gearing up for our next actual performance in April. See you next weekend!

Teaser Revealed and Cuteness

Remember this teaser from last weekend?

Well here's what I've done so far with it.

Originally this was supposed to be a single Dresden plate on a wall hanging, but the teacher in our class gave us the bright idea to turn it into a more utilitarian quilt with four Dresdens. Whoops.

My difficulty was the fabric I'd picked for the sunburst rays for the original singleton. It's an older fabric and I snagged the last fat quarter in the shop when I kitted things up for the class. So I improvised and made each sunburst different. Two have blue backgrounds and the other two have green backgrounds.

As of this extremely lazy moment, all four are appliqued onto their background squares and I've cleaned up all the threads. However I don't have a picture because they're downstairs and it's actually after 1:00 in the morning here. I figured I'd type up the blog now so I can get right to sewing in the morning.

I'm trying to get several smaller projects finished to the point of hand binding, slip stitching, etc before Tuesday afternoon. I'm sending my sewing machine off for cleaning and the pickup is first thing Wednesday morning. I'm hoping I'll have plenty of hand finishing to keep me busy, but if I get desperate I can always piece something on my old machine. It still works just fine, it just lacks all the bells and whistles the new one has. And the rule of thumb with piecing is to start and finish a project on the same machine because they're all a bit different.

I'm actually finished with my friend's quilt, but want to wait until I've delivered it before I post pictures anywhere. So I'll be sharing that next weekend. Until then, have some cuteness to tide you over.

See you next weekend!

Top and Back

The quilt top got finished Wednesday evening. 

I'm quite pleased with the borders.

I finished piecing the back late last night/early this morning. This was an effort to use as much of her Downton Abbey fabric as possible. I did have to buy some more fabric, which was a neat trick since that line isn't made anymore.

Without showing the label, for privacy reasons, here's a closer lok a the details on the back.

The whole quilt gets layered and basted tomorrow afternoon. I'm got a friend coming over to help me since two sets of hands will likely be necessary. Today I'll make the binding because having it done ahead of time will be nice.

While I was out shopping for more fabric and batting on Friday, I picked up another stuffed animal pattern. This fellow is going to be fun!

And His Fuzziness decided to delay mowing the lawn for a few hours yesterday in favor of picking and de-petaling a mess of dandelions. There will be dandelion wine in our future. The spheres are re-hydrated golden raisins. The contents are happily bubbling in the stock pot. Apparently the recipe calls for letting everything ferment together for 3 days before straining the chunks from the liquid and continuing fermentation in another vessel.

That's all for now. I should find breakfast and get to making binding. I'm hoping to have everything mostly quilted by next Sunday. It's going to be a heavy job with all that fabric. There will have to be periodic breaks to rest my arms and shoulders. See you next time!

Forward Progress

I started trying to sew earlier in the week and discovered that it was extremely difficult to get up and down the stairs easily. Stupid knee is being grumpy still. We're thinking it's overwork from me attempting to work on my balance.

In an effort to keep me seated more, FuzzyHusband brought home a tabletop ironing pad. It worked out pretty well.

Once I got going with the blocks I discovered I needed to trim ad square up every single one. Apparently that was a step my friend skipped due to chemo brain. She also made the block seams a bit too wide, so they aren't the size they should be. But that's ok. I will add a bit more size with the borders.

In the effort to square up the blocks quicker, I put together a homemade template. It worked out quite well.

In fact it worked so well I've hinted to Himself that he could make me a few plexiglass versions in different sizes for fussy cutting and squaring up blocks. It gives him an excuse to play with the laser cutter at the makerspace.

At this point the rows are reassembled. They're looking quite nice if I do say so myself.

Next up is the horizontal sashing pieces.

As for the borders, I"m considering cutting a finished 3 inch border from the sashing fabric, as opposed to a 2 inch finished width like the sashing pieces. It would give a bit more size to the quit top. I"m not sure though, but I'll lay it out and ponder it once the rows are fully reassembled.

In other news, FH and I finally bottled the cherry apple cider he made last spring. Most of it's been given away to friends at this point.

It's not as clear as we thought it would be, but it does have a lovely color. If I was to compare it to a wine, I'd say it's most like a rose'.

Once carboy space was freed up, we started a mead. Honey is so pretty when it's pooling. This particular mead used 15 pounds of honey for 5 gallons of mead.

This batch is flavored with fresh ginger and these gorgeous, pink cara cara oranges.

It took a while, but the yeast finally got bubbling. Now we wait for several months.

That's all for now. I need to try and get some sleep and then get back to the quilt once the sun's up again. Hopefully I'll have a finished top and another 5 gallons of mead to show off next weekend. See you then!

Back to Sewing

I started the sad business of taking apart my friend's quilt top this week. As I worked, I could see her husband and I made the correct choice. Many of the seams were close to falling apart already. 

As you can see below, I've made a labeled reference photo and labeled each block individually. The blocks will be put back in the arrangement she chose.

This is where I am now. The replacement fabric needs preshrinking and to do that I must get the current loads of laundry out of the way.

While waiting on laundry, I started this fellow. I found the pattern for him and the fabrics at a new quilt shop in the area while on the hunt for the replacement sashing fabric. I'd originally planned on using a fabric from her stash, but when I did a burn test on the scrap, it melted. It's polyester.

The name of the pattern company is in the "before" photo. I have to say he was lots of fun to make. I may find excuses to made one or two more. I may also find excuses to purchase another pattern or two... or three. I was particularly enamored with the octopus and wombat patterns, but they were out of stock. Happily, there's a website!

The creatures left me alone the entire time I was working. But Ellie appeared in time to "help" me with the photos.

She was quite pleased with herself.

That's all for this week. I'm hoping to get caught back up with laundry and get the quilt reassembled this week. Bonus will be one or both borders.