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There was a full moon....
Aug. 15th, 2011 09:31 amI really needed Saturday to be productive. I had a whole lot of sewing I wanted to do. I had a dress cut out and ready to go as well as two pairs of bloomers. However, I started the day by having my glasses frames break popping the lens out and rendering them useless. I consigned myself to having a headache by the end of the day and went to work on my sewing anyway.
The dress went together fairly easily. But when I got to the sleeves, nothing seemed to work. The planned flutter sleeves stuck out like spikes instead of fluttering nicely around my arm. I was concerned that cap sleeves would be binding. I have large arms and I have a hard time finding sleeves that work. So I cut the pattern really big and put gathers along the cap. Unfortunately, it still was binding but only when I have to reach forward for something. Fussing with the sleeves took me several hours so nothing else got done. I still wasn't happy when I finished and I was really disappointed because I absolutely love the fabric. Unfortunately, had to leave if I was going to get to Rainbow Optics before they closed so I couldn't fuss with it any more.
On the way out, I discovered the world was full of crazy drivers. One pulled out right in front of me and then dithered about which direction he was actually going to turn. When I honked to let him know I was there (rather impatiently, I'm afraid) he decided to park his truck across both lanes and yell at me (See! Now what are you going to do?!) I laid on my horn and went around the back of his vehicle. It wasn't the best way to deal with it and I'm afraid he really got my goat. I was still trying to figure out how to let go of that anger when I went to bed. The Scandinavian Festival has all the roads blocked between my house and the main street so it's hard to get through. A train added to the chaos and made it a nightmare. Again, there were people pulling out willy-nilly with no regard to other cars or pedestrians and pedestrians having no regard for vehicles. (I enjoy the festival but I'm so glad when it's over!) Between my house and the optical store I had about 5 close calls that involved slamming on brakes. I stopped at DQ and bought a blizzard for comfort (and...almost got hit coming out of the parking lot).
When I got to Rainbow optics, they confirmed what I was already pretty certain of...my glasses were a few days past warantee. Of course this is my only pair of normal glasses. I have a pair of reading glasses but they are small and that makes wearing them all day rather annoying since I can see all the edges and all the screws. Fortunately, they are fairly close to my current prescription so I can wear them and they do help. While I slurped on my blizzard and tried to bliss out instead of stress out, the gentleman there tried to figure out what could be done to help me. In the end he concluded that he would order new frames and try to get them under warantee anyway. We'll see how it works. At the best, I won't have my glasses back until late in the week when I'm going to be out of town. I gave them my parents phone number and they will call them when they are ready. Then Mom and Dad might be able to pick them up and bring them to me on the way out to Saginaw. The clerk was kind and soothing and I appreciated his help. At the end he said "I hope we helped make your day better." Very sweet!
From Rainbow optics, I went to Lane Bryant and discovered that the fall selection seems to include no skirts and they only had a few dresses left from the summer collection. I picked up some panties and a night shirt...that's my retail therapy.
I arrived at Robert and Carrie's in time to sort my laundry, throw in a load and race to get gas and pick up Carrie. Robert asked the attendant to fill the tank but he only put in $40- not full, about 3/4 full...*le sigh* It went with the day. Robert told me he'd picked up fixings to make hoagies. I'd had soy milk, some cereal and my blizzard to eat and hoagies didn't sound adequate but I appreciated that he'd planned dinner so I kept my mouth shut. In the end it was ok. The meat was in big slabs instead of thin slices and my sandwich was filling enough. We picked up Carrie and then Robert and I vegetated over Netflix, switching laundry as often as possible. I finished three blocks for the sunflower lapghan and only have three more to go. I only had three loads of laundry but the dryer is slow so it was 11:50 before I finished. I got home about 12:30 and it was 1:30 before I got settled into bed.
I woke up several times in the night and when the alarm went off, I really didn't want to get out of bed. However, I did and got to my church's meeting on time. Afterwords, Mom and I came back to my house and went through the Scandi fest with a specific purpose- I wanted more bookmarks and wanted to show Mom some of the wall art. She's looking for a piece of metal sculpture for the living room and I showed her some wood intarsa sculptures that I liked too. They are expensive and Mom wasn't ready to buy but I got their cards and she can think about it. I got my bookmarks and then we shared a piece of Lefse and bought Dana's chocolate cheesecake for each of us (Dad too). Mean while, Dad had tootled off to Walmart looking for a specific tablet style.
We met at the house, made dinner and then after cleaning up, mom and I went down to JoAnne fabrics. Keep in mind I only have two evenings left for sewing before my church convention but I had this harebrained idea that I wanted to make one more skirt (on top of the bloomers still in the queue.) I had this really cute daisy print but I only had two yards because I'd purchased it to make an apron not a skirt. Sometime during the day on Saturday or Sunday morning, I realized that if I cut the fabric in half length wise and added a contrasting color band along the bottom I could create a pleated skirt that would be long enough to be modest. So....the point of our trip to Joanne's was to find a good contrasting fabric to complement the busy print. It took some doing but we finally settled on a deep blue and I found a wide gold ribbon that matched the flowers to put through the middle of the blue. Hopefully, it will work out well. The print looks a lot lighter than the blue band (which matches the bachelor buttons scattered throughout the print) but I think it will be ok. The clerk asked what I was making and I said "A skirt...but only if I grossly underestimated the amount of time I'll have to sew!" Somehow, in the next two days I'll have to get it done. I see a couple of late nights in my future.
Mom and I went back to the house and I went up to use her sewing room (which is better equipped than mine and used less frequently- she has an expensive embroidery machine and a five thread surger and she has a nice corner unit which allows you to go back and forth between the machines quite easily without feeling crowded). Since the blue fabric had to be washed, I worked on sewing up a pair of bloomers while Mom cut out thick flannel pads to be used for Andrea's bed. (They soak up perspiration and if there are any accidents they help protect the bed too). Mom kept an eye on the drier and brought the fabric up when it was done. She then laid it out and used her quilting tools and rotary wheel to cut it into the strips I would need. She had one moment of panic where she thought she'd cut it the wrong direction but it was fine. (It wouldn't have mattered too much anyway; the fabric was 45" by 36" and I really only needed strips about 6" x 36".) I managed to finish one pair of bloomers down to the elastic casings but didn't get the elastic put in them before we had to head for our gospel meeting. They felt really nice. Also during the day, we managed to figure out that if I shortened the sleeves on my new dress there was a whole lot less binding. So I will be doing that.
We had dinner together at Shari's after our gospel meeting and then I scurried home. It was 9:00 but I put on an episode of Crime 360 and set about putting elastic in the casing. The first try I managed to put the leg elastic in the waist casing. After looking at it for a moment and wondering how I'd made such a huge measuring mistake, I realized what I'd done. I'd planned to work on the skirt but I was too tired. So I pinned the four bands of fabric together and I'll work on it tonight.
I headed for bed about 11:30 and had a restless night. Getting up this morning was tough, but I'm here at work and almost awake.
The dress went together fairly easily. But when I got to the sleeves, nothing seemed to work. The planned flutter sleeves stuck out like spikes instead of fluttering nicely around my arm. I was concerned that cap sleeves would be binding. I have large arms and I have a hard time finding sleeves that work. So I cut the pattern really big and put gathers along the cap. Unfortunately, it still was binding but only when I have to reach forward for something. Fussing with the sleeves took me several hours so nothing else got done. I still wasn't happy when I finished and I was really disappointed because I absolutely love the fabric. Unfortunately, had to leave if I was going to get to Rainbow Optics before they closed so I couldn't fuss with it any more.
On the way out, I discovered the world was full of crazy drivers. One pulled out right in front of me and then dithered about which direction he was actually going to turn. When I honked to let him know I was there (rather impatiently, I'm afraid) he decided to park his truck across both lanes and yell at me (See! Now what are you going to do?!) I laid on my horn and went around the back of his vehicle. It wasn't the best way to deal with it and I'm afraid he really got my goat. I was still trying to figure out how to let go of that anger when I went to bed. The Scandinavian Festival has all the roads blocked between my house and the main street so it's hard to get through. A train added to the chaos and made it a nightmare. Again, there were people pulling out willy-nilly with no regard to other cars or pedestrians and pedestrians having no regard for vehicles. (I enjoy the festival but I'm so glad when it's over!) Between my house and the optical store I had about 5 close calls that involved slamming on brakes. I stopped at DQ and bought a blizzard for comfort (and...almost got hit coming out of the parking lot).
When I got to Rainbow optics, they confirmed what I was already pretty certain of...my glasses were a few days past warantee. Of course this is my only pair of normal glasses. I have a pair of reading glasses but they are small and that makes wearing them all day rather annoying since I can see all the edges and all the screws. Fortunately, they are fairly close to my current prescription so I can wear them and they do help. While I slurped on my blizzard and tried to bliss out instead of stress out, the gentleman there tried to figure out what could be done to help me. In the end he concluded that he would order new frames and try to get them under warantee anyway. We'll see how it works. At the best, I won't have my glasses back until late in the week when I'm going to be out of town. I gave them my parents phone number and they will call them when they are ready. Then Mom and Dad might be able to pick them up and bring them to me on the way out to Saginaw. The clerk was kind and soothing and I appreciated his help. At the end he said "I hope we helped make your day better." Very sweet!
From Rainbow optics, I went to Lane Bryant and discovered that the fall selection seems to include no skirts and they only had a few dresses left from the summer collection. I picked up some panties and a night shirt...that's my retail therapy.
I arrived at Robert and Carrie's in time to sort my laundry, throw in a load and race to get gas and pick up Carrie. Robert asked the attendant to fill the tank but he only put in $40- not full, about 3/4 full...*le sigh* It went with the day. Robert told me he'd picked up fixings to make hoagies. I'd had soy milk, some cereal and my blizzard to eat and hoagies didn't sound adequate but I appreciated that he'd planned dinner so I kept my mouth shut. In the end it was ok. The meat was in big slabs instead of thin slices and my sandwich was filling enough. We picked up Carrie and then Robert and I vegetated over Netflix, switching laundry as often as possible. I finished three blocks for the sunflower lapghan and only have three more to go. I only had three loads of laundry but the dryer is slow so it was 11:50 before I finished. I got home about 12:30 and it was 1:30 before I got settled into bed.
I woke up several times in the night and when the alarm went off, I really didn't want to get out of bed. However, I did and got to my church's meeting on time. Afterwords, Mom and I came back to my house and went through the Scandi fest with a specific purpose- I wanted more bookmarks and wanted to show Mom some of the wall art. She's looking for a piece of metal sculpture for the living room and I showed her some wood intarsa sculptures that I liked too. They are expensive and Mom wasn't ready to buy but I got their cards and she can think about it. I got my bookmarks and then we shared a piece of Lefse and bought Dana's chocolate cheesecake for each of us (Dad too). Mean while, Dad had tootled off to Walmart looking for a specific tablet style.
We met at the house, made dinner and then after cleaning up, mom and I went down to JoAnne fabrics. Keep in mind I only have two evenings left for sewing before my church convention but I had this harebrained idea that I wanted to make one more skirt (on top of the bloomers still in the queue.) I had this really cute daisy print but I only had two yards because I'd purchased it to make an apron not a skirt. Sometime during the day on Saturday or Sunday morning, I realized that if I cut the fabric in half length wise and added a contrasting color band along the bottom I could create a pleated skirt that would be long enough to be modest. So....the point of our trip to Joanne's was to find a good contrasting fabric to complement the busy print. It took some doing but we finally settled on a deep blue and I found a wide gold ribbon that matched the flowers to put through the middle of the blue. Hopefully, it will work out well. The print looks a lot lighter than the blue band (which matches the bachelor buttons scattered throughout the print) but I think it will be ok. The clerk asked what I was making and I said "A skirt...but only if I grossly underestimated the amount of time I'll have to sew!" Somehow, in the next two days I'll have to get it done. I see a couple of late nights in my future.
Mom and I went back to the house and I went up to use her sewing room (which is better equipped than mine and used less frequently- she has an expensive embroidery machine and a five thread surger and she has a nice corner unit which allows you to go back and forth between the machines quite easily without feeling crowded). Since the blue fabric had to be washed, I worked on sewing up a pair of bloomers while Mom cut out thick flannel pads to be used for Andrea's bed. (They soak up perspiration and if there are any accidents they help protect the bed too). Mom kept an eye on the drier and brought the fabric up when it was done. She then laid it out and used her quilting tools and rotary wheel to cut it into the strips I would need. She had one moment of panic where she thought she'd cut it the wrong direction but it was fine. (It wouldn't have mattered too much anyway; the fabric was 45" by 36" and I really only needed strips about 6" x 36".) I managed to finish one pair of bloomers down to the elastic casings but didn't get the elastic put in them before we had to head for our gospel meeting. They felt really nice. Also during the day, we managed to figure out that if I shortened the sleeves on my new dress there was a whole lot less binding. So I will be doing that.
We had dinner together at Shari's after our gospel meeting and then I scurried home. It was 9:00 but I put on an episode of Crime 360 and set about putting elastic in the casing. The first try I managed to put the leg elastic in the waist casing. After looking at it for a moment and wondering how I'd made such a huge measuring mistake, I realized what I'd done. I'd planned to work on the skirt but I was too tired. So I pinned the four bands of fabric together and I'll work on it tonight.
I headed for bed about 11:30 and had a restless night. Getting up this morning was tough, but I'm here at work and almost awake.
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