Blame Facebook

I got sucked into Facebook for a while, but it's changed recently, and it's more of a pain to use, so I'm not as interested. Fickle, that's me.

I did do a little more sewing lately. I have fabric for Easter outfits, but I spent a few days last week making a few outfits for one of Lauren's dolls as a birthday present.
I made:

• a tiered skirt in yellow, orange & red with a red tank top--very festive!
• a flowery tank dress with lace at the hem & neckline and a yellow bandanna/scarf
• a pair of jeans (complete with a hole for the poodle's tail) & purple top with a narrow ribbon around the neckline

I have a pattern for doll clothes for a 14" doll, but this pink poodle is from Build a Bear, and she's about the size of a newborn. The first skirt & pants I made were a little bigger than the pattern, but the pants still reminded me of the jeans I wore in high school, where I had to lay down on my bed in order to get them zipped up! I enlarged the pattern further still, which worked out pretty well, and I gave those first attempts to a friend, hoping they might fit one of her daughters' dolls.

There are a lot more things I'd like to make, but who knows when I'll get the chance!

Best. Seats. Ever.

Jeff & I got Red Wings tickets for Christmas from my parents. I've only been to a couple Wings games before, and they're generally nosebleed seats, because that's what we can afford. These seats though, were right on the ice. At first, we thought they were both second row, then realized that they were first and second rows, one right behind the other. For the first period, Jeff sat in the front--I wanted him to have the better view. But before the period was over, my knees were really bothering me and I realized I needed to be able to stretch. That's the beauty of front row, though--I did get that room!

Sadly, the Wings lost in OT--Osgood made some good saves, but let in goals within the first minute of each period, and the defense in general was lacking--but we still had a really good time.

Of course, the highlight for me was being close enough to get pictures like this:


and this:

Results

I thought I'd finally post the results of what I've been doing lately. The dress rehearsal for Joseph was Sunday, and I did get my three costumes in (luckily, all the other costumes didn't have to be made, just put together from stuff we already have), although there are some tweaks I'd like to make before the next dress rehearsal Wednesday night. In several of the pictures, cast members have taped their microphones to their faces, which is the white stuff you see. I wish I could have gotten pictures without that, but maybe I can get better ones during the show itself.

This is Kelsey as the villainous Mrs. Potiphar (that's someone else's arm behind her, by the way). The most frustrating part about this was that my flash was too slow to get all her great facial expressions! Poor Joseph just didn't stand a chance.

I'm happy with the dress itself: It's panné velvet, with a basic scoop/square neck, empire waist, six-gored skirt. I used gold lamé bias tape around the neck (which was wonderful finishing, so I didn't have to worry about the facing) and around the sleeve on the upper arm. It doesn't show, but I also put it around the cuff. I didn't even bother to hem it--knits don't fray and I didn't have time, so I just cut it as evenly as possible.

This is Jeff as Pharaoh/Elvis. He has the most awesome dance moves--not that I'm biased at all . . . This is the costume that gave me the most difficulty in figuring out. I was seriously stumped for the longest time as to what to make.

I briefly considered making a full out jumpsuit, but it would have taken at least six or seven yards of fabric, and I just didn't have time. Also, he's wearing black pants anyway for the chorus and as Judah, a brother, so it wasn't even necessary. I finally remembered an Evel Kenievel costume my sister in law made for Jeff's brother one Halloween. She started with a white dress shirt and went from there with decorating it. At first I thought I might use a shirt as a pattern to make something totally from scratch, but then I came back to my senses. I got a nice, heavy shirt from Jeff's Dad. Someone had donated a few yards of a wavy gold tissue lamé, and I used that to cover the cuffs, collar, and front & bottom edges. I also made a short cape. Once I was done, I thought it might be more Liberace than Elvis, but I do think it works!

This is the one I want to fiddle with, though. The front doesn't lay flat the way I'd like. I'd originally wanted the shirt to close in front, with maybe an Egyptian style flap in front, but I ran out of time, and also couldn't figure out how to get it to fasten. I didn't want to sew it shut, because then he'd have to put it on & take it off over his head--awkward and slow. Velcro seems to be the obvious choice, but I've never liked it. In order for it to be really stable, I have to sew it down with many seams, and I don't want them to show. Also, I was afraid that the force might damage the lamé. Hooks on the front edges are a possibility, as are snaps if I want to overlap a little. I'm not sure that if it's closed, he'll be able to do all his moves in it, though. I also got a suggestion to put some extra white fabric between the gold on front and fasten it with tape. That's also in the running, because I could attach it to the white shirt fabric instead of the lamé. Whatever I choose, it has to be today or tomorrow, so we can see how it works tomorrow night.

This is Corey as Joseph. Although this coat took the longest to make (on Mom's recommendation, I made a muslin, which really was a huge help), it ended up not being all that difficult. Now, there were problems and there are things that I would do differently if I were to make another one.

Namely, I would use the gold lamé to underline the coat, not line it. In other words, I would cut out an identical piece of lamé for each part of the coat--fronts, back, sleeves--and sew the lining right to it, then sew the pieces together. Instead, I made essentially two coats and attached them to each other. The point was to make nice finished seams on the inside. The problem was that I didn't measure well enough and cut the lining too narrow. I had a miserable time fixing it. I ended up edging everything with more gold lamé bias tape (which Eagle Eyes Sarah saw--I didn't even know such a thing existed) anyway, so it all turned out ok.

I am happy with the basic design of the coat--I wanted it narrow at the top and flowy at the bottom, so I used 3.5" x 45" rectangles of the patterned fabric (a wild Hawaiian floral that was a bitch to cut and had to be interfaced), For the solid pieces in between, I made a trumpet shaped piece that was 1.5" at the top and 13" at the bottom, with the flare starting 18" down. My rotary cutter was a true blessing for this project. Also, making it only 45" long meant that I could use narrow pieces of fabric and cut selvage to selvage as the length. Each solid color only needed 3/8th of a yard of fabric. I only had a to buy a few pieces, since quite a bit was donated. Even the smaller donated pieces ended up working for the sleeves.

Originally, I was going to make top and bottom separately, then attach them. After much talking, my mom convinced me that one solid line would not only look better, it would be easier in the long run. As usual, she was totally right. Trying to match all those seams would have driven me to madness. She also talked me out of set in sleeves, instead just running one seam under the arm and down the side. I can't remember how many hours I spent talking to her on the phone about all the sewing I've done over the past month, but it's been a LOT. It's absolutely true that I never would have made it without her help. Thanks, Mom!

Action Items

• Make a German quiz for Kelsey
• Make a Geography worksheet for Sarah
• clean the kitchen
• make pasties
  
• muslin pattern for Mrs. Potiphar's dress
• cuddles with Lauren
• pediatrician for Lauren (she's had a barky cough for about a week that just isn't going anywhere, and last night she was crying that her ear hurt)
• listen to Lauren read the next chapter in The Knight at Dawn (Magic Treehouse, yay!)
• go through Sarah's Girl Scout Badge book with her to pick some badges for her to work on independently of her troop (she can put them in Word and fiddle with the formatting, add some pictures to make it a Computer lesson)

Sewing

I have a lot of sewing going on right now. Our church is doing a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Guess who's on the costume crew?

I'm responsible for:

• the Coat of Many Colors--I've already made a test coat from muslin (my mom gave me a ton of it from her stash over Christmas, and I've been going through it a lot). I've got most of the fabric for the outer part of the coat, and I guess I'll line it with gold lame, which I don't have yet.
  
• a dress for Mrs. Potiphar--to be worn by our own fabulous Kelsey, so I want her to look great, but still appropriately trampy. I got a boatload of purple panne velvet, and I picked up the pattern for the bodice tonight, so I'll start the muslin test dress tomorrow, and hopefully I can get it finished by next week.
  
• an Elvis/Pharaoh top--I don't need a whole jumpsuit, because of other costume choices, but this is the one that is stumping me the most. To be worn by my own fabulous husband!

There are other miscellaneous pieces to be made, although we already had a lot of stuff. All the robes for the brothers, for instance, were already in our church basement. I'm incredibly thankful for that--not that basic robes are hard to make, but making 11 of them would certainly be time consuming.

Pictures to follow (hopefully) soon!

Today's List

Looks a lot like yesterday's list. I made progress on everything on that list, but there is still much to be done. Happily, I don't have to leave the house at all, and can be a hermit and work on my chores (anyone willing to bring me lunch?) in peace.

Goals

Today's goals:

1. schoolwork with the kids until lunch (they have a friend coming over after that, so anything left over will have to wait until after dinner)
   
2. get the last of the Christmas stuff down to the basement
   
3. kitchen clean, done, finished. No dishes left in the sink!
4. two loads of laundry
5. garbage off the bedroom floor at the foot of the bed (garbage on the treadmill will have to wait)
6. start sewing
7. post about sewing projects--ok, ok, that one will be on tomorrow's list . . .
   

Why don't these exist?

I was rushing through the grocery store this morning, picking up some things for our first homeschool support group meeting (which went fabulously!), and grabbing a few things for home as well--I knew they'd stay cold in the trunk.

When we got to checkout, the four self-checkout lines were busy, and I was in a hurry, so we went to the express self-checkout. It's only supposed to be for 12 items or fewer, but there was no line, and plenty of spots open.

I realized that the reason there were so many spots is that there is only room for two bags for your groceries. I'd take bags off, or not bag stuff at all (using my own bags), and it would hiccup the system. So it wasn't as smooth as I would have hoped.

What I really needed was a cart that would let me scan my groceries and keep a running tally as I put things in it. Maybe with hooks along the side to hold bags, so the items would all be bagged as I went. Then, all I'd have to do when I was finished was go to the front and pay. Wouldn't that be fabulous and efficient?

Challenger Simulation

Last Tuesday, after three months of science ranging from geology to map plotting to phases of the moon, Sarah finally got to go to the Challenger Resource Center in Ohio for a space shuttle simulation.

It was SO COOL. Jeff said that he wishes he'd been able to do that kind of stuff when he was a kid, but I know that he'd love to be able to do it today if he had the chance.

The group was fairly small, so instead of dividing them up into two groups, they tapped some of the teachers who were there for training to share the mission. First, our kids were at Mission Control. They all had different jobs, from Life Support to Communication. Sarah was Navigation.

Halfway through, they switched with the other team, and went into the space shuttle. We even got to go through an "airlock."

Once there, most of Sarah's job was plotting potential landing sites, using longitude & latitude. At the end, though, all eyes were on her, because she was the one landing the shuttle. Let's say that Sarah is not likely to become an air traffic controller as an adult. She didn't react well to the pressure, but after some reassurance from the Mission Commander, she pulled it together and got them down safely. Whew!

After, we rode back down to Earth.

The whole experience was really cool, and well worth the time and effort we all put into preparing her last fall.

Coming soon: more sewing posts!

More Sewing

I managed to get Christmas nightgowns made this year, but only barely in time. As in, I finished sewing, went upstairs to change clothes, and left to go to my Dad's for Christmas Eve. If I hadn't finished them, I would have put them on their doors so they could have changed first thing Christmas morning. Happily, they got to continue the tradition of changing wearing them to bed on Christmas Eve.

I used McCall's 5744 and some snowflake flannel with white bias tape. I thought about adding eyelet lace, but in the interest of time, didn't. I also didn't add the bias tape to the waist, but no one seems to care. These went together in about an hour, although I didn't hem them or turn in the cuffs. I did serge the edges, so they won't ravel, and I'll finish the hems eventually, although I think the girls like that they go all the way to the floor.

Dress Breakdown: Lauren

I said that Sarah's pattern is one I would happily make again and again. Lauren's is not. Lauren's pattern is one that I will happily tear up into little pieces. And burn. Seriously, I've never had a pattern make me cry before.

Lauren chose McCall 5742, and we even got the exact fabric that was on the pattern envelope. I didn't realize it until I was in the store that the fabric is flocked--an off white smooth background with black velvety pattern on it. I've never worked with flocked fabric before, but since I could see it finished on the pattern, I knew it would work and look OK.

As a rule, I read through all the pattern instructions before I make a single cut. Sometimes, I get to a part that I don't understand--I can't visualize it. When that happens, I think to myself, "Once is see it in the fabric, I'll see how it goes together." And that generally does work. It's like a puzzle for me, and once I get the pieces together, I can get them to fit. This dress, not only did I put it together wrong, I couldn't figure out what I'd done that was wrong. This was where the tears came in. Frustration, stress, and being really tired didn't help. So I put it down and went to bed. Even before I went to sleep, I started to realize what the problem was, and the next morning, I carefully took the pieces apart and fixed them. (I'd been worried that I'd need to buy more fabric.)

My goal for this Christmas' dresses was for them to be really well made, well finished. Although I think they look nice enough from a distance, I as more than a little disappointed in the quality of my work. I just think I could have done so much better.

Dress Breakdown: Sarah

For Sarah's dress, she picked Simplicity 3546 and a deep red crepe-backed satin. Looking at the front of the pattern, she wanted the one on the far right down at the bottom.

At first, I thought the fabric looked a little bathrobe-y, but in the end, I liked how it turned out quite a bit. My biggest concern was that I might snag it, so I bought new needles.

I had some trouble with the facings (as usual), and it was a little bulkier/not as sleek as I anticipated, but this is a pattern I will probably make again and again. I'm thinking that by summer, she'll have at least three more of these, probably in cotton, and maybe I'll be able to talk her into the contrast midriff and hem bands.

My sister in law commented that it's a more mature dress, not so much for a little girl, but it's not inappropriate at all.

I'm still alive

Here's why I haven't been posting much/at all lately:

Ready to Roll

This is the view as I left the basement 5 minutes ago (it's time to make lunch). Man, I had forgotten how much fabric I have! Lots of it is "inherited," and I don't know what to do with it. I'm hoping to make lots of totes and storage containers (for CDs, etc.) and use a lot of it up. There is a "shopping night" at our homeschool group meeting next Monday night, so hopefully some of it will sell. I'm also thinking about opening up an Etsy store, although I'm more likely to just give it away for Christmas of whatever.

Projects currently on the table are a mini messenger bag made from the leg of an old pair of jeans, and a grocery-style tote bag. Pictures will go up as things get finished.

Progress

So! The table is cleared off, and I've got some of the stuff out from under it as well. The carpet padding that was on the left is in the garbage pile by the stairs, waiting for Jeff to feel well enough to take it upstairs. The carpet remnants are over on the right, waiting for me to clear enough floor space to lay them out. I still need to get the TV and other assorted large boxes out of the way, and there's a table in another part of the basement that I need to clear off so I can use it to hold my sewing machines and other various items. And the laundry seems to have grown by a fair bit, but at this point, I'm just chucking it in the washer arbitrarily. Oh, and everything needs to be washed down--it's cobwebby and buggy and nasty.

As for the plan to put the tools on the shelves, some of them did make it over there, but most of the small miscellaneous stuff is in paper tote bags on the floor to the left. It's going to be even more difficult to get to those shelves soon, because that open area is going to be for the other big boxes and such.

But I see progress, and even a light at the end of the tunnel. At this rate, I feel confident that I'll be able to start sewing in earnest by Monday. Yay!

Frustration

I'm planning on doing a lot of sewing for Christmas this year. I mean, a LOT of sewing. And I'm really excited about getting started.

I use my dining room table to sew. And therein lies the issue. We use the dining room table for meals, and Jeff uses it in the evenings when he plays his online game. I have room for the sewing machine while he's playing, but it's loud, so it's hard for him to hear, and of course I can't do anything big like lay out fabric. Also, constantly setting up and taking down is tiresome and inefficient.

So a while ago, I decided to make a space in the basement to be a full time sewing area. I knew it would take a while to get stuff cleaned out, but the girls and I started working on it. We made some good progress, but then I ignored it for a week or two, so of course the mess crept back.

I started back on it yesterday, and again we made some progress. We already have a table in a corner of the basement that is right by an outlet and has great light (seriously, this bulb is amazing--it was in the house when we bought it, and it's like looking at the sun, it's so bright).

Here's the problem:
All the crap that is still ON the table. Pay no attention to the laundry--that's where the laundry chute dumps (have I ever mentioned how much I love having a laundry chute? The only thing that would be better would be a dumb waiter, so I could send stuff back up the same way.) so things tend to pile up. But the rest of the stuff . . . I don't even know if that TV works, the ceiling fan doesn't work, and then there's all the tools.

The "plan" was to move all the stuff on and under the table over to a shelf unit on the other side of the basement. Here's the problem with that:

I can't even get to the shelves. Yes, there is a bit of clear floor--that's the progress I made yesterday. Still, it's going to take considerable time to be able to get to the shelves, to clear them off so there is room for the tools, and then to move the tools themselves. I look at the whole thing and get so overwhelmed that I just don't know how to start.

I know, I know. Just start. But it's incredibly frustrating to still be so far from actually being able to get started on what I really want to do, which is sew. It's kind of like driving home from Florida, and you finally hit the Michigan border. You think, "Yes! We're almost home!" And then you drive for two more hours.

I even dreamed about it last night. I dreamed that Jeff went down there and cleaned up. I mean, there were boxes stacked neatly against one wall, but other than that, it was empty. It looked like we had just moved in! And I was so happy, because it meant I could get right to work. When I woke up, it took me a second to realize that it was only a dream.

At this point, I don't even know if I should keep working on it right now, or just cut bait and deal with working on the dining room table. If I did that, I could start right away, but I'd have to deal with making sure everything gets put away all the time and not being able to work whenever I want. If I go full bore on the basement, I might be able to get up and running by Monday.

Yeah, the pull of a dedicated sewing area is just too strong. I'll keep taking pictures and posting about my progress.

School Pictures

#0257

I decided to go vote early, to get it done. Jeff has the day off, so I didn't worry about taking the kids. I got up at 7:22, and was there by about 8:45. As I was getting close, I saw that there were a LOT more cars than usual parked along the street. When I got there, the line came out of the building, and snaked down the sidewalk to the parking lot (our polling station is at a local church).

So I got in line and started moving. Moving slowly, but still moving. Then not moving. I heard someone say that the machine that tabulates the votes wasn't working. So we waited some more. The woman behind me had her daughter with her, and even though she was only five, I was impressed at how patient she was.

Finally, we started moving again--the machine had been fixed. We moved slowly but steadily after that. By the time I got into the building, it was about 9:40. The line then broke in two, splitting the alphabet down the middle. This didn't work as well as I would have thought. My line moved much more slowly than the other; people who were well behind me in line outside ended up voting before I did, which was a little frustrating.

Finally, I got my ballot (I had to point my name out on the list), voted, and got out of there around 10:15. Jeff left when I got home and was back within the hour. Yeah, great idea I had to go early. :)

But now I've voted, and I need to run a couple other errands (and get my free coffee from Starbucks!) before I go to work. Then "my teen" is coming over to work on German, and I'm going to watch the election results. Should be an interesting night!

Happy Halloween!

Health

Of the two girls, Lauren is generally more prone to sickness. She has allergies, so it seems that for at least 6 months of the year, her nose is running almost constantly. When I realize that it's "that time" again, I try to make sure we've got Claritin stocked up so I can give her some every day. But I don't want to give it to her if she doesn't need it, so it can be a fine balancing act.

A few days ago, the runny nose started. The runny nose is usually accompanied by coughing at night--a result of post nasal drip, fairly easily solved by making sure she sleeps sitting up and maybe gets a shot of medicine, if she hasn't already had a dose.

This week seemed no different, until last night. Then, the coughing was much rougher, and she was breathing very fast, very shallow. I thought it might be bronchitis, so I canceled my classes today and made a doctor's appointment.

Nope. Not bronchitis.

We can't be sure until we see how she responds to treatment, but the doc is pretty sure it's asthma. In hindsight, it's obvious--that was classic "wheezing." I was surprised when the doc got her on a nebulizer almost immediately for a breathing treatment, though; that particular possibility hadn't occured to me.

That first treatment helped, but it's only a start. We have a month's rental on a nebulizer, and prescriptions for Prednisone (a steroid to help reduce the inflammation in her lungs) and Abuterol (the stuff that goes in the nebulizer). We're also getting the industrial sized Claritin, because it seems that the key to managing this is the preventive measures: keep the allergies under control, keep sudden cold air out of her lungs, and try to prevent colds as much as possible. Hopefully we won't ever need an inhaler.