Home with flu but thinking of sewing.....

Last night I came down with a "flu" that kept me awake most of the night. Yuck! The flu part is over now but I am tired and a bit achy. It's really a bummer because it is so nice outside and I had a lunch "party" at work to go to too, so I missed that. T.V. is really boring; about the only think I can palate is watching French Open tennis, as I play tennis during the summer.

As I read someone else's blog, I think kbenco, I have, it seems, 50 sewing projects going in my head. Well, maybe not that much, but a lot. You see, I do two types of sewing; work clothes and play/home clothes. Thankfully, I do not have to wear a suit in my job but I do like to look nice and professional. At home, especially in the warm months, I wear shorts and t-shirts and in the winter, fleece tops. My sewing randomly goes back and forth between these "plans" depending on what I think I need in the wardrobe. Last Wednesday evening, I sewed up a LH princess tank dress (line drawing above) out of a tan/brown leopard kind of rayon/lycra knit that I got at the SewExpo in Puyallup. I will post a photo when I am feeling better. It did run a bit bigger than I thought, even sewing up the smallest size. I had to take it in on the back side seams about 3/8ths and hemmed it just above my knee. I wore it to work on Thursday and it was great. Dressy and nice considering the warm weather. I love sewing up knits as they are quick and easy to fit, most of the time. I usually hem them on my blind hemmer machine, which really makes them look nice.

Finished linen and planted garden....Yippee!

Last night, we finished planting our garden. We ended up with 3 raised bed boxes, and 2 raised beds without box frames. I'll post pictures later when we have things growing a bit more!

Tonight, I finished up my Garbo black linen jacket and cropped Cruise Pants.

The pants took awhile to fit because I cut out my old size and discovered that the front and back center seam was way too big. I had to take it in about an inch! Made a huge difference. My DS took the photos and when I loaded them on the computer, I noticed he did not get a shot of the pants in the picture. Mis-communication on my part I guess. What I am really pleased about is the camisole. It is from the Loes Hinse tank dress group, view E. It fits really well and covers everything up/ straps, not too low, etc. Gigi Louis had raved about this pattern a few years ago and I am just now trying it. I can't wait to make more; it is a winner!!

Garden variety sewing and gardening....

This afternoon, I sewed up the Garbo jacket and cruise pants in black linen. My serger was already threaded in black so I decided to finish these. I really wanted to sew a dress or two first but wanted to take advantage of the black thread. I know, it's easy to rethread on my Evolve, and wanted to get that fabric off my cutting table. I just need to hem them and put buttons on the jacket. Now to go with this "suit", I should sew up a couple camisoles from the LH tank dress group pattern. I did a muslin of one in a slinky and determined the size was fine but the fabric was way too thin. I'm not sure if I even like slinky but this was in my stash from years ago from Denver fabrics. I think slinky needs a lot of easy/flow to look good. Not negative ease!

This morning, I ventured out and got a few grocery items and came home with veggies. Early girl tomatoes, Harvest Gold tomatoes (orange cherry tomato--very sweet), cabbage, cantelope, chocolate mint, thai pepper, and red & green bell peppers. In seeds, I have zuchini, yellow squash, bush beans. So, this afternoon/early evening, my DS and DH made the raised bed boxes. DH wants to make a couple more. We have always planted in the ground and heard this was so much better. Stay tuned on this...

Now the big question is, what to have for dinner! DH wants to go out, I don't care, and DS doesn't want to go out because his hair is messy--didn't shower today. Heck, I could go for a big salad or bowl of cereal. The weather is so nice and it would be fun to go somewhere and sit outside on a patio to eat and enjoy the flowers etc. This warm weather has been a long time in coming!!!!!

New photos

Here are some pictures of what I wore today. The Burda jeans and the BWOF knit top. My DS took the photos so not a lot of close up detail. It was a bit cold today so it was perfect. I do love the Burda jean pattern but always wonder if another pattern would be better. The Jalie jean pattern has been reviewed by EricaB and it looks great. However, she has a different body shape than mine and it may have different fit issues--who knows? The dirt on my back leg is from feeding the goats a few minutes ago. Now I don't know what to sew next. I do have a black linen jacket (LH Garbo) and capris (LH cruise pant) cut out and ready to sew. Maybe this weekend. They have been cut out for about a month. I would like to sew up a raincoat/windbreaker in a bright fabric too. There's a BWOF pattern from March 2008, # 101, that is pretty cute. I'll try to post the line drawing.... see above. How in the world do you move pictures around on this blogger? This is driving me nuts! I want the line drawing below but it posts up top!!! Ugh!!!!

Back to the blog...

Time sure flies when life happens!! April was a busy month here at the farm. We have two goats, Nubian does, and both were pregnant. One gave birth to twins on April 17 but both were stillborn. We were so sad. We still do not know for sure what went wrong. However, last Saturday, May 2, our other doe gave birth to one cute buckling. He is very, very fun and did I say cute? We also were given 9 turkey eggs, which we incubated for 5 weeks I think, and they all hatched early April. They are a "Heritage" variety, not wild. Two are already spoken for next November, if you get the idea. They are growing fast and are not like chickens. We will see how it goes. I did manage to do some sewing; a knit top, fabric from Lucy's fabrics and just finished a pair of brown jeans this evening. I will post photos very soon. I love to make my own jeans; I have made about 5 pairs. I use a tried and true Burda pattern, 8408. It does take some time but well worth it. That's all for now!!!

Shopping and sewing

I hope to start my "trench coat" tonight. It will be out of Butterick 4865, double breasted view, lengthened a bit with the belt. Well, it is Spring Break and I am able to stay up a little later and sleep in a little bit.
I did manage to stop by Hancock fabrics today and acquire some new fabric: a turquoise pique for McCalls 5701;

It has been really nice to get some household chores done, like oil changes for the cars, get the dog washed/teeth cleaning/shots, and do some shopping for a few new things. In particular, I was looking for new denim pillow shams for the bed. Our current ones are very faded and a bit thread bare. I looked high and low at all the major stores and did not find any. What I did find, maybe in a solid twill plain sham, was overpriced cheap product from China. Then it dawned on me, I have some cool embossed blue denim that I just got from the Puyallup SewExpo. How hard could it be? So, this afternoon, I made two shams.

The actual color is darker than the photo and the embossed pattern is very hard to see. A few days ago, I brought out my embroidery machine (Kenmore 19001) and embroidered a couple kitchen towels. I had totally forgot about doing those kinds of things for the past couple years. And, in the middle of these two projects, I made sweatpants for my son. The hem is about a half an inch shorter than I measured but I think they are long enough. I'll post a photo of them an other time. This is one reason why I sew. I can make what I need and have the quality be much higher than what you see in the store. I see quality of goods going down and the prices going up. Because I sew, I don't shop for clothes and home bedding as much so when I do go shopping, it's kind of a little shock to me at the time. My DH and DS were shopping yesterday too, for shoes. Again, the quality and price really have changed in the last few years. I guess if I could make shoes, I would!!

I am still learning how to post photos around what I type. The blogger wants to put the photos at the top of the post and then I have been cutting and pasting my post around them. So, if this is a little choppy, you know why!

Finished!!

Here is the finished jacket. I haven't worn shoulder pads in a jacket in awhile so I kinda feel like a linebacker. The sweatshirt fabric came in the mail today and so I'm getting that washed up as I type. I just got home from work and as usual, I am tired but I wanted to get this photo posted. More later!!!