Too Much Hype?

The National Weather Service appears to have changed how it issues some of its forecasts and warnings. Last winter, it seemed that we had several Armageddon scenarios that ended up being nothing more than typical winter storms. (Hello, this is Montana.) I’ve been watching the winter storm warnings ratchet up in severity over the past several days and I think the NWS continues to cry wolf. And you know what will happen? People are going to stop listening. One warning stated that there will be heavy snow with accumulations up to 1" (laughable) and that travel is not advised. You know what constitutes “heavy snow” in our neighborhood? Accumulations of two or three feet.

Right now, it’s 4:38 am and the temperature is 38F. It is raining. The temperature could drop and the precip could change over to snow. We’ll see. I am more concerned about the back-door cold front that is supposed to arrive this evening with gusty northeast winds. Those kinds of weather systems always bring problems for us in the form of downed trees and power lines.

No, I would not try to drive up Going to the Sun Road to Logan Pass today, but I probably wouldn’t try to do that at this time of year anyway. I don’t need an advisory to suggest that I don’t. The husband says that he thinks these warnings are for people that just moved here from places that don’t get snow. Personally, I think the warnings are useless and should be saved for events that are out of the ordinary.

/sermon

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I pulled tomato plants and stacked tomato cages Friday morning. Yesterday, the husband and I laid out the rest of the billboard tarps and black plastic. All of the growing areas are covered. If I can reserve a spot on his schedule in the spring and get him to level some areas with the track loader, gardening next year should be easier.

Yesterday afternoon, I finished—except for making the buttonholes—the Geranium Dress in the long-sleeved, collared version. I started this Friday afternoon:

The bodice is lined. That was, by far, the hardest part of making this because the sleeves were attached and had to be rolled up between the neckline and shoulder of the body and lining—a la burrito method. Were I to do it again, I might consider changing the bodice lining to a facing. Otherwise, it was a quick sew, taking approximately one day. The fabric is a lovely flannel from Riley Blake. The dress needs a good steaming.

I also went through my pattern stash and pulled this one to trace:

I am still on a quest to find a good dress pattern. I chose this one because I like raglans—I made four Toaster Sweaters, after all—and because this is a raglan with bust darts. I don’t have a raglan pattern with bust darts. I traced View A but in the longer length of View B. Above-the-knee-length dresses look funny on me. Something about the proportions is wrong. I also lowered the bust darts a bit. I think I am going to muslin this as a top, first, to see if it fits well before I make a dress out of it.

Theory is great, but actually altering and making a pattern is how I learn best. I haven’t given up on the dress pattern I worked on over the summer; I still need to make a muslin of the last pattern iteration. (I need to get more sheets from the thrift store.) This might seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it to me to be able to have clothing that fits well.