Reconnected

We were without internet for at least 60 hours. I noticed it was out when I got up at 4 am Wednesday morning. It finally came back on around 4 pm yesterday afternoon. According to our neighbor, Smokey, who stopped and visited with the repairman, a cable had come loose between the service boxes. Those of us who live here have longed complained about the fact that CenturyLink put the service boxes on a sharp corner—a corner routinely missed by motorists. Those boxes have taken a beating. If internet goes out, that’s the first place to check. The boxes haven’t been hit recently, but the damage has been cumulative and the cable was a casualty.

CenturyLink got in just under the wire, literally. I told the husband to be prepared to be without internet until the middle of next week, because if they didn’t fix it by 5 pm Friday, they weren’t going to work on it over a holiday weekend. The fix is temporary, but at least we’re all back online.

What did I do with my copious spare time? What I usually do, but without YouTube or periodic checks into social media. (I did miss having YouTube on in the background while sewing.) I puttered in the big garden—I am adding flowers and herbs here and there, which I’ve thinned out of the existing herb garden. I saw two garter snakes and half a dozen ladybugs, signs of a healthy ecosystem.

I do not use any kind of pest deterrents in my garden, and the fact that we have pollinators, beneficial insects, and happy garter snakes says to me that I must be doing something right.

I tried to install the rest of my watering system yesterday, but I needed soaker hose from a storage area, and when I went in to retrieve it, I was attacked and screamed at by two robins. They had a nest with babies on a shelf in that area. I retreated. I have never had birds attack me like that. They watched me the rest of the time I was out there, too, to make sure I wasn’t going to venture anywhere near that nest.

[At least I know enough to leave the wildlife alone, unlike the tourists in Yellowstone who are trying to pet the bison. This is not Disneyland, people. Even the robins will try to kill you.]

I also sewed. I made a pair of navy blue Renee pants. I think I’m going to swap this pair out for the hot pink ones I left on display at the quilt store.

I made a Style Arc Kristin dress:

This is also navy blue ponte, but it’s what Joann’s labeled as “summer ponte” and it’s lighter than the ponte I used for the Renee pants. I found it a bit easier to sew, too.

I did make some changes:

• I left off the patch pockets. I am not much of a pocket person. Were I to need pockets, I would put them in the side seams.

• Reviewers said the back zipper was unnecessary, so I left it out. I have no trouble getting the dress over my head.

• I had to adjust the neck facing because I eliminated the zipper. I might make the facing a bit deeper next time. I understitched it and tacked it to the shoulder seams and the neckline lies nice and smooth, but I wonder if a slightly deeper facing might be better.

• The bust darts—oh, the bust darts. These kinds of dresses have the potential to hang like shapeless potato sacks, so I was happy to see the darts and some waist shaping in the pattern. Unfortunately, the darts were nowhere in the vicinity of where they needed to be. They were too short and too far down on the body. I ended up opening the side seams and taking the darts out, then adjusting their location and making them longer. I did that completely by intuition. Amazingly, they look better now, although I think I still need to move them up vertically a bit more. I’ll play around with the pattern a bit.

• I like the length—above the knee looks very strange on me and this falls to just below my kneecaps, although I liked the length better before I hemmed the dress. If I make a long-sleeve winter version, I’ll lengthen it a tiny bit. This pattern includes a tunic-length version, too.

I washed that fabric before I sewed with it, but I think the dress needs another trip through the wash, then left hung to dry. Or steamed well.

Once the pants and dress were hemmed, I went back and cleaned and organized my sewing area. The owner of the quilt store where I am teaching the pants class in August thinks that I should teach more clothing classes. She may have an uptapped market there—almost all of the Robert Kaufman ponte she ordered for the pants class is gone. Joanns is the only place to get garment fabrics locally and that’s not saying much. I came home with patterns for two tops that she’d like me to make and teach. The only problem is that she orders fabrics in colors that she likes, which all tend to be muddy earth tones. She would never order hot pink ponte.

After cleaning up, I created a stack of patterns matched up with fabrics to make them. If it is cool and rainy here on Monday, as predicted, I plan to have a marathon cutting session in preparation for an assembly line sewing session.