I Found the Missing Fabric

The husband and I hit it hard yesterday. After a breakfast of bacon and eggs (ours, of course), he took apart the washing machine to see what was going on. It was throwing an error code because the drum wasn’t filling with water quickly enough. He thought that cleaning the filters would help, but after putting the machine back together, we determined that it still wasn’t functioning properly. The valve needs to be replaced. He ordered one and it should arrive next week. In the meantime, I can wash clothes if I add a few gallons of water to the drum and make the washer think that it has filled to the proper water level.

[I have a washing machine and a husband who knows how to fix it. I will manage.]

He went outside to work on some equipment-related projects. I did the rest of the laundry and tidied up the house. I started two trays of lettuce in the indoor growing system and set the chicken stock to cook down. I also froze containers of chili for the husband to eat while I am traveling. Our neighbor, Anna, brought us a big pot of chili left over from one of her catering events. We ate some for dinner the other night but there was a lot of it.

After lunch, I made a top:

I am planning to wear this to church with my hot pink corduroys. The fabric is a fine-gauge sweater knit from the Walmart remnant rack. It has a bit of shine to it so I think it must have some rayon in it. The pattern is the Nancy Raglan from 5 Out of 4. I love this pattern. It was one of the first ones I tried when I started making my own clothes, and comes in top, tunic, and dress lengths. I’ve made several from sweatshirt fleece; this is the first time I’ve tried a sweater knit. The entire top took two hours, start to finish. I did stabilize the raglan seams with some knit stay tape.

I also located my missing bin of fabric. It was in the closet; I just hadn’t dug deeply enough. I want to check the fit of the smaller size Linda pants with another quick bike short muslin, and if I’m satisfied, I’ll make a pair of pants with the Hobby Lobby bengaline. I’ll remember to cut them on the crosswise grain this time, because bengaline stretches down the length of the fabric, not across the width.

I wish I had started making my own clothes a long time ago. I could have avoided decades of muddy earth tones, sad pastels, and ill-fitting garments.

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Our congregation is getting ready to host our annual International Gift Festival, November 9-11. This sale features handmade items from artisans all over the world. We’ll also be serving soup and homemade pies in our Village Cafe.

We can always use more volunteers (the oft-heard refrain), so if anyone local would like to come and help, we would love to have you join us. Those of us working at the sale always have a good time. We also need donations of homemade pies for the Village Cafe. (Just not pumpkin—every year we get a ton of pumpkin pies and it’s nice to have a wider selection.) The Crown of the Continent Choir will present a concert on Friday evening at 7 pm.

This year, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Heart Locker and Sparrow’s Nest, two nonprofits here in the Flathead Valley.