kitchen attire

I played hooky from my alterations the other day. The client is out of town right now, so…….

For weeks now ( months, maybe?) I’ve been grousing about the apron that I usually wear. Yes, I wear an apron nearly every day. I cook, and don’t like the splatters that grace my clothes if I neglect to don one, and the convenience of a place to wipe my hands is the bonus. I’ve sold a few aprons in my etsy shop, but they are the half apron variety. Cute, though not the coverage that I want when I’m at the stove.

So, off I go shopping. In my sewing room.  Surely there must be something in one of the boxes of vintage fabrics that I’ve been ‘saving’ for just the right thing. One of the things I collect is old cotton prints – lots of these are the 50′s era, 36″ width variety. If you want to make a dress, you’ll need several yards. A 50′s full-skirted dress can easily take 7 or more yards using those narrow fabrics, so you have to get creative.

Will it come from the “pinks and greys” box?

The “greens and blues ” box?   

Or the “reds, blacks, & browns” box?    Hmmm, hard to choose.  In the end I opted for making two, as I couldn’t decide:

   and, I had enough of this to make a second one to put in the shop.  And the other was a shoe-in as I had just the perfect amount to eek out what I wanted::    I think both of these came from some estate or yard sale in the past few years.  The best thing about looking at old fabrics is that each time I decide on something else that I want to make from a particular piece. Sometimes I’ll lay the pattern of choice in the box, then when I open it up again see if I still know what it was to be paired with. If not, then I put the pattern back in the cabinet.  Other times, a piece begs me to sew it up right there and then.

After the aprons, it seemed only logical to give the table a new cloth as well. I found this fabric in a box a couple weeks ago and decided that it would be better suited to go under my new (to me) dishes than shopping bags.    Um, I guess I should have given it a final pressing.

Now, back to those alterations…………

breaking the cycle

I’m sad to say, that these days I live in jeans. There was a time, a few years back that days were spent in summer dresses. Skirts. Cotton blouses. Sigh.  What glamor is there in a pair of jeans? Okay, I don’t want to be ‘glamorous’, really, but the options seem slim for a cool, damp weather climate. And I’ve never spent $$$ on denim anyway. ( Do people still do that, I wonder?)

I find myself looking in the closet as though something new will be there, ( sort of like when you look in the fridge for that dream treat that doesn’t exist )  or that item that I had long forgot about will reappear. I see dresses, lots of skirts, and several pair of jeans. Summer before last? I made a couple pair of pants that came out okay. I’ve given a lot of thought to sewing my own jeans, but right about now I have no interest in doing so. It would just be more jeans. A friend on facebook made a simple post yesterday:  ”pants are evil”.  Right now I’m in total agreement.  But then I’ll go to get dressed, and what do you think I’ll wear?

I bought a new pair of boots a year or so ago, and then felt the need to buy a whole ‘lot’ of sweater tights on ebay. I think I’ve worn one pair. I was never very comfortable wearing boots with skirts, except when I was a teenager. I don’t know what to wear all those sweater tights with; pairing them with summer skirts is a no-go.  Ditto with vintage dresses.  And besides, it is supposed to be spring! I’ve long since quit subscribing to ‘fashion magazines’ and sometimes fear that I might join the ranks of the “I give up” tribe. Maybe I have already? No,  I can’t have done that as I don’t own or wear any sweats.  But I think the jeans and t-shirts are just a step or two away from that.

I did find a pair of shoes recently – at an antique store of all places – for a song.  New and never worn, in my size no less!

Hello, Dr Martens!       (I don’t know when these were made – I can find no info on them online. But I like them lots! )  I can now retire my ‘Simple’ brand mary janes which are old and comfy but too worn.  I ‘think’ these will work with skirts ( when I finish breaking them in ).

I will spend today and tomorrow finishing up alterations, all the while thinking about clothing that I can actually wear in this cool climate. I’d love some suggestions. I never went any farther than cutting out the red corduroy coat last fall, so I might get to work on it later this week.

Happy sewing!

Spring, and a little time outside.

While the rain has been happily absent for the past week,  I’ve spent most of my time at the machine, both sewing, and un-sewing.

The sewing was to put together a bunch of goods for a ‘trunk show’ that I participated in at the local coffee roasters.  It was a small group pf ‘artists’ consisting of two women who made jewelry, one newfound friend (who is an amazing baker)  along with a photographer, and a painter. And me. I brought the wine bottle candles, several handbags, headbands, make-up bags, and grocery/tote bags.  It was all day both Saturday and Sunday, and I ended up doing okay. Well, none of the grocery bags sold, but several of the other things did, and the shop owner elected to keep a few things there to sell as well.    The un-sewing was/ is a boatload of alterations that have been stacking up, and a couple of ‘urgent’ things for two new clients.  One of them was this prom dress ( from the picture I can understand why she ordered it – but it looked Nothing like the photo; it was just a limp and cheap poly silky with bad embroidery and beading) It needed a bit more modesty, and I converted it to a halter as well. Quickly. The prom here is tonight, and I’m hoping the girl, who was very sweet, has a good time.  A couple more days, and I will be completely caught up and ready to take on the next round of things that are coming up this week.

The weather has been so beautiful and it finally feels like spring. There was a four day clam dig, which ended today. This morning a friend and I went down to the beach to participate in the quarterly beach cleanup, then stayed to dig clams. It was so balmy out that we were without jackets  - what a treat. And, we got our limit in about fifteen minutes. A far cry from the last time a couple weeks ago when we wandered around for nearly two hours and barely got our limit of 15 between the two of us.( That time it was the first non-raining day for three weeks, and the clams had buried themselves well and deep.)  Yesterday Richard and I went and dug and it was pretty good too – I got a giant one and took it to a local restaurant to enter in their Clam Derby. Here’s a shot of the ‘big one’ which weighed in at 183 grams on my scale:

This is what a typical clam looks like on the scale:

And I took this one just because it made me think of my dad – I don’t fish, but here is part of the catch nonetheless 

Looks like chowder tonight. Poor Richard has had plenty to clean the last couple days. Lucky for him the season is nearly ended. We have a freezer full of them. If only I could walk down to the beach and get crab. There would be none in the freezer, but I would be a happy woman.

Doing a bit of research on clams I found this article which told me that what I dug up was nothing. Damn! Yeah, well, they can keep their monsters.  ;-)

Progress Report

I’ve had a week (or two) of almost no sewing. I have been in the sewing room, doing lots of rearranging and moving. Getting re-familiar with fabrics that I (sort of) forgot about and putting other pieces away.

at least some of the fabric is stacked nice and pretty

is that an empty spot or two there?

Seems like that needs to happen now and again, along with a good cleaning. I do want to take my ‘wallpaper’ ( read: fabric ) off and then strip the real wallpaper off and then paint, but……………….that’s a bigger job than I want to take on right now. Maybe when the weather is a little better.

Deciding what to sew next. There is all the fabric that I bought at Expo, but the weather is still rain, rain, rain. So, a spring dress or blouse isn’t a real draw right now.     [As of this writing, we're at 33.89 inches for the year. Boo. I want spring. I won't be so greedy as to want summer, but a few days of dry weather would be idyllic]       I’m wanting to start on another quilt project. For months now I’ve been thinking about somehow using an image by Charley Harper as the basis for a quilt. Then today I see that Purl is now stocking needlepoint canvas with some of his images. I have done some needlepoint, a long time ago, and I’ve no desire to do any more, so a quilt it will be. Which image? That’s to decide. Or, perhaps its time for the big stash of silk duppioni to rise to the top of the heap and magically become a quilt.

I did get a bunch of headbands listed on etsy, now that I have a ‘model’.  One head + one cheap wig = __________? Maybe I should have a ‘name the model contest’. Right now I call her miss pouty-face, but I’m open to suggestions.

maybe you could smile a little?

So, this week it will be alterations. A blouse or two, and the beginnings of a quilt.

And get a cast on the grandson, who broke his arm Friday night.

this new thing

So, I’m having a go at moving over from livejournal. I’d like to be able to link to other blogs and stuff, and that’s not possible on their platform. So, moving on it is. I tried migrating using a couple of different tools into Blogger, but without luck. It seems that livejournal has changed a few things ( internal code and such ) that is beyond what I can understand. However, I may just be able to migrate from here to there. If I want to later.

The annoying thing is that I did a setup of wordpress a couple years ago in a class, and it has no memory of me. Unfortunately, my name of choice is now gone  —hence the ’66′ addition after my longtime blog name. Ah, well,  no doubt it will all be fine in time. It’s not like I have a zillion followers who will wonder where I went.

The importer seems to have worked fine ( and fast!), though maybe there are doubles of comments – I’ll have to go a ways back and see if that’s truly the case.  As I read through old entries (and most likely delete some ) I’ll tag them, as that part of the archives didn’t seem to move along with the other boxes.

Now, there will be a bit of housekeeping on the other (livejournal) end to finish things up there.

small stuff

 I’m part of a small guild, with about 55 members. Our show this past weekend ( exhibition, really ) has about 110-120 quilts featured each year, of every style and skill level. It is held at the museum in Ilwaco, and we don’t charge admission ( which helps the museum boost their visitor count ). We had over 750 people sign the guest book, and for the second consecutive year the 3000 raffle quilt tickets sold out – the proceeds of which all go to local charities. This year and last there were also a couple of glass cases with small sewn items of every variety, and there was a call for pieces to feature. I decided at the last minute to make a couple things:      plus
   plus      equals     I know I had a song version of "the Owl and the Pussycat" but I cannot remember the name of the woman who sang it, nor can I find it and it’s driving me batty. A google search was equally futile, so until I remember it will be going round in my head.
Now, I’m not sure what to do with them; possibly put them in the etsy shop. Which needs a total re-vamping ( soon, very soon ).  

I got the news on Sunday evening that I took second place in the Large category  for ‘Dressing the Part’   AND
second place in the Small category for ‘Room With a View’   This was a bit of a surprise in that this is by and large a pretty traditional guild. The voting is not judged ( thank goodness! ) but is a people’s choice ballot with spaces for small, medium, and large. I received so many compliments while there it was a little unnerving, and lots of requests for a pattern for the little dresses quilt.
Looks like I need to edit my to-do list, again.  

Now that it’s all over, it’s time to get back to some client work.  But this weekend of inspiration has me wanting to start a new quilt. 

I drove 400 miles for a tape measure

Edited -scroll down for a picture of the special tape.

Last week I made a quick trip into Seattle ( Puyallup, really) to go to the Sewing and Stitchery Expo. Billed as the largest in the country, though somehow I don’t really think that’s the case, it’s pretty big. However if you’re not in the market for a big ticket embroidery machine, then you can easily move fairly quickly through the booths. 
That is, if you don’t look for fabric, either. 
Which means that of course I need to look through any and all booths that have fabric. Not just quilting cottons, but wools, silks, linens, and beautiful cotton shirtings and lawn. And I always peruse any notions. I leave out any of the trendy customizing items, like the rhinestones, paintsticks, and the embroidery. 
There is a vendor that has trims – vintage, imported, beautiful buttons, in every color and style. All organized by color and displayed on pretty shelves and tables. I dream of bringing the entire booth home with me.  But this year I left it all there. I also left behind some amazing wools – both cashmere and vicuna – the softest wool ever and the most expensive (which sells for upwards of $2000 per yard, though the salesperson told me I could have it for a steal of about $95). Well, no.
I did buy some fabric – two pieces of lightweight cotton lawn
 and    Also a cute piece of  semi-sheer dobby type shirting: .
I bought one piece of Kokka linen 

All of these are destined to become blouses. Now to decide on patterns; here are some of the candidates. I think it’s really funny that in three of these patterns, the one I’m liking is the version in yellow.     
      Yes, I know that two of them are dresses; I’m just thinking ahead a little.  

The other big score was a tape measure that I’ve been looking for for at least thirty years: it has one inch markings at each end. This is such a simple thing that I’ve been stumped as to why no one made one until now. That alone was worth the trip.  

ETA: here is a pic of the old tape ( white one ) and the new one –    because I’m a garment sewer, I wear a tape around my neck all day. I invariably grab the wrong end – the one with the blank / 60" and have to fumble to quickly grab the correct end -with the one inch. Now, either end that I put my hands on is the right one!