Move Those Flowers

I pulled out a Walmart remnant and my reverse-engineered knot top pattern yesterday afternoon, just to make something quick. I cut the pieces, carefully followed the order of operations I had written down, sewed the center seam together, then opened the front bodice piece and laid it out on my cutting table:

Oh, what an unfortunate arrangement of the print. The only thing more unfortunate would have been to have those flowers separated by about four inches.

Note to self (also written on pattern pieces): For large-scale prints, cut each front piece separately and check the placement of the design.

I have to see if I have enough fabric left over to recut the front pattern pieces. If not, this may just get chalked up as a learning experience.

I think it’s important to show failures as well as successes. Our lives can’t be—and aren’t, if we are being honest—an Instagram parade of perfection.

[Speaking of Instagram, which I am beginning to hate as much as I hate QuickBooks Online, it won’t let me into my account unless I pass its Captcha verification every single time. It keeps telling me it has detected unusual activity in my account, which is weird because I hardly ever post to IG. The whole thing is getting extremely tedious. The issue seems to have started when I opened a second IG account for the podcast.]

I might not sew today. I need to edit a couple of podcast episodes and prepare show notes. I did pull a combination of fabrics over the weekend for the Oxbow Tote and could work on that. We’re under another winter storm watch for Tuesday night into Thursday morning and today is a holiday, so I’ll run all my errands tomorrow.

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I cleaned out the lettuce-growing system last week and replanted it:

The one part of this system that I’d like to change is the need for these rooting plugs.

The rooting plugs are a one-use item. They are not hideously expensive—about $18 for a bag of 50—but I don’t like that they can’t be used more than once. One or two bags will get us through the winter; once the lettuce plants are established, I can cut them and let them regrow 3-4 times before they exhaust themselves. Some people use rockwool, I think, but I don’t know if that can be reused, either.

When it’s up and running and I have it on a succession planting schedule, this system provides us with a lot of lettuce. And the difference in taste between what we grow and what comes in those plastic containers from the grocery store is huge.