Bloglovin, Of Course

Like most other bloggers, I have registered on bloglovin. You can follow me at http://bloglovin.com.
I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow when Google Reader leaves. Hopefully, the dashboard will remain the same. I read blogs from the dashboard. At this point, I have a few problems with Bloglovin. (Maybe, I don't care much for change.) I haven't figured out how to make comments without leaving the site and going to the website of the blogger. I love comments and know most bloggers do. I've limited my computer time and hate spend time going to the actual website to make a comment. Also, I can't see all my followers. I appreciate everyone who follows my blog and would like to read what all of you are doing. I sure wish that blogloving had a place for questions and answers. Maybe these issues are just me. I hope so. If so, I'll figure them out eventually.

Finally, I'm starting to have some time for sewing. My blog posts will increase when I'm able to get pictures. It's the rainy season in "sunny" Florida. When the sun does come out, I use the occasion to work in the yard. Right now, it's just too dreary for any halfway decent pictures. I'll just get back to sewing and create more stuff for blogging when the sun comes out. Maybe it will tomorrow! :)

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I'll start with the good. After seeing Carolyn's version of the Oscar de Renta Dress, I bought a couple of yards of Guipure lace to go with the silk/wool fabric purchased at one of Mood's 50% off sales. Hey, I got the silk/wool at such a good price I might as well buy fancy lace to go with it. The $400 a yard for 44" silk guipere was out of my price range (even in my wild mood of "gotta have Guipere lace"). Mine is cotton which is expensive but much less costly. Still, I almost called to cancel the order. Enough of my wild mood was left that I didn't. When it arrived, I did a happy dance and floated around the house the rest of the day. It is gorgeous! The photo does not do the lace or the wool/silk justice.

Over the past several months, I've lots of fun reading Carolyn's blog and thinking how I could make her garments to suit me and my life style. The lace dress is planned for my anniversary in June. I made a dress similar to one of her Butterick dresses in March (photo to come) and cut out the black pointe and faux leather dress. I really have to finish that dress one day soon. It was a challenge to do the pattern work and the cutout, but I had fun doing it. I was working on my SWAP garments and had brown thread on the machine. I was too lazy to change it.

Then, the bad comes. It seems like the past couple of  months have been one bad news thing after another. There was nothing terrible - just annoying and hard on the budget. As a result, there has been minimal sewing and blogging. It started with scratching noises in the attic. The neighbors next door left and took their cats with them. Here, I thought the cats just liked us so they spent most of their time at my house. No, it wasn't the treats and back rubs. It was the rats. When the cats left, the rats moved into our attic. When the exterminator climbed up to the attic, he managed to step on the shelf in the closet and pull it out of the wall. Years of old business records and forgotten fabric came tumbling down. About the same time, we had our annual air conditioner/heater check and discovered our 28 year old air conditioner wouldn't make it another year and needed to be replaced. I took my car in for regular service and learned that a tube thing had come loose and was starting to leak. If it wasn't fixed, the leaking would ruin my engine. I was advised not to drive it until it was fixed. Naturally, I told them to fix it. Then, the ice maker broke in the fridge. I think there were other things that I can't think of now (best forgotten anyway). All of these things happened in the middle of tax season. Although I'm retired, I still do tax returns for family and friends. They managed to give a few tax challenges this year, but that's all right. After the air conditioner and the car, I put off taking my sewing machine for annual service. It's in the shop now so I have my fingers crossed.

Here's the ugly.

The pictures above are most of the stuff that I had stored in one closet. Obviously, I am talented in putting lots of things in a small place. At least, the one bed is just my projects in progress. Everything but the business records are cleared out now. The majority of the mess went to the trash bin, to Goodwill, and to Red Cross. After I finish taxes, I'll do the shredding of those old records.

While I'm thinking about "ugly", is anyone watching Fashion Star? I really like that show, but they have started working in teams and showing the nasty conflicts among designers. I'm so disappointed. It is starting to be more like Project Runway that I have stopped watching. I just don't like all those ugly conflicts.

To end on a positive note, I'm back to sewing now. Yea!! I finished one top for Faye's Essentail Top Sew-A-Long Challenge and, hopefully, will have another finished before Sunday. This post is long enough so I'll blog about those is another couple of posts.

More to come soon.

The Buttonholder Took My Mojo

I lost my sewing mojo for the past couple of weeks. I never thought that it would happen to me. That'll teach me to be so smug. I was ready to put button holes in my red, white, and blue blouse. Also, I need to do button holes for the green linen jacket. For some reason I just could not bring myself to do them. I don't understand it. I have done many successful button holes. So, I found all kinds of other things to do: organizing stuff, tracing patterns, fitting patterns, cutting out garments, planning Fall sewing, even doing some much needed household chores. Meanwhile, Big Bertha (my sewing machine) sat idle and didn't even call for me. Thursday night DH wanted to watch "Top Chef". I said go ahead, without complaining, and just recorded "Project Runway".

Well, last night I watched all 3 hours of Project Runway. I was so happy to see Tim Gunn and Heidi again!! I was disappointed with the winners. At the same time, I enjoyed listening to the judges' comments. They must know a lot more than I do about style. I would not buy or make many of the garments they liked. Mainly, Tim Gunn is extremely motivating to me. Finally, I'm happily sewing again. I was up and at my machine early this morning. My button holes for the blouse are done. Of course, the thread broke on one of them so I had to rip and resew. I think that was my sewing machine reminding me not to forget it for so long! I've almost finished the Loes Hines Hepburn pants that were cut out in May. The instructions are so different from what I usually do. I couldn't make sense of them. The light finally dawned today. They are still challenging for me to make. I'm not sure that they are particularly difficult. They are just different from the way I normally sew pants. Well, I have the waistband to sew down, hems, and hook and eye. The mojo should last long enough to finish those few things!

I am going to take a sewing break now and look through the stash for jacket fabric. I've joined the ChanelJacketSewalong and still need to finalize the pattern and fabric.

I am amazed at how animals can pickup on our moods. Harry, the cat, is usually happily testing fabric and meowing with pleasure at my sewing efforts. Today, he is back to his normal Sewing Guru self. For a while, he looked more like this closing shot:

Mending Made Interesting

I hate mending. Actually, I'd rather make a garment from scratch than mend. DH has a lounge shirt that ripped up the side. He also wanted a button or snap to close the front opening. That's not a big whoop, right? So, it sat on my table (hidden under interfacing) for several days. After considerable nagging, I finally decided to get it done. The interesting part is the button loop. I often use an elastic ponytail tie as the loop for button closures on purses. I'd been wondering if that approach would work on garments. Well, it worked well on this shirt. All I do is position the tie, tack it down by hand, and cut off the part not used for the loop. I think it looks pretty good and is easy to slide off the button. That's not always true for thread loops in my experience. I don't think that it would work for any garment that is not casual but it certainly is a speedy way to do a closure.

Yes, I also fixed the ripped seam. I wanted it done to stop the nagging until the next mending project. Poor guy, he really does need to get some benefit from all the time I spend in my sewing room. This "project" took all of 30 minutes max. Once I decided to do a "sewing sample", it was no problem at all getting it done - just an attitude change.