LDT Success, Finally

The second iteration of the Laundry Day Tee fits me much better in the shoulders. I used a rayon/spandex jersey for this one (clearance fabric from Joanns). I think it looks better on me than on the dress form, but it’s easier to photograph this way. I have not yet hemmed it. I am making a stack of things to hem and will do them on the coverstitch in a marathon session.

I lowered the armhole on this size, too, by about half an inch. I’m glad I did. Apparently, this is not an uncommon hack for this pattern line, as the designer has a blog post about how and when to do it.

Speaking of the coverstitch, I need to set up the binding attachment and start practicing with it. The LDT has options for a regular neckband and a bound neckband. This is one top that could benefit from a bound neckband.

I like the LDT enough—now that I have the correct size dialed in—that I probably will make a few more. I think the next one will be out of that cobalt/turquoise double-brushed poly that I picked up at The Confident Stitch on Tuesday.

Whew. That was a process.

I cut the grass yesterday morning, hopefully for the last time. It tends to go dormant in July. The husband also wants to put the electric fence up around the orchard because the apple and pear trees are loaded and we still have a marauding bear in the neighborhood.

And it’s hot. It’s so hot. Everyone I know is complaining about it. Those of us who live here obviously prefer cooler temperatures. It’s nothing like last summer, but five days of 90+ degrees is five days too many.

Today will be another day of sewing, although I am heading over to a friend’s house for a bit this morning to help her plan out her garden for next year. She wants to get started on the prep work now, which is very sensible.

This is what is next up in the queue:

1. Another pair of Renee pants, but this time from some stretch bengaline rather than ponte. Hobby Lobby had all their fabric at 40% off this week. Our Hobby Lobby has some new and interesting garment fabrics for fall (are you listening, Joann Fabrics?) and I picked up this bengaline in a two-tone black/charcoal mini-houndstooth pattern. I’m curious to see how it works for this pattern. The Renee pants class is next Friday, so it would be nice to have these done as another class sample.

2. A second iteration of the Tessa Sheath Dress. I have hope of hitting the correct size now that I’ve made a LDT that fits me.

3. Another version of the New Look 6577 cowl neck top with my pattern adjustments. I plan on making this out of some black rayon/spandex. I can always use more black tops.

4. I’m going to cut a few heavier tops out of my stash of French terry using a Burda pattern that I’ve lengthened into a tunic. I made one last winter and I always get compliments when I wear it. As hot as it is, though, cutting those out may be as far as I get right now.

And I am going to try a Seamwork pattern, specifically the Lenny dress. I know, this isn’t turtleneck weather, either.

I have been listening to the Seamwork podcast for a while now, although I haven’t tried any of their patterns. I am curious, though, to see if these work better for me than the Love Notions ones, because Seamwork patterns are drafted for a 5’8” frame. The Love Notions patterns are drafted for a 5’5” frame. I am 5’7” tall. Perhaps that is part of my issue with the Love Notions patterns. We’ll see.

I bought a comfy Liz Claiborne tunic in Seattle in April. I’d love to have a few more in that style. I’m rather hoping to find a similar pattern (Burda, maybe?) but thus far, no luck, so I might have to draft one myself. Oh, and there is that Upton dress . . .

Here’s another garden pic for you. My tomatoes once again look like I planted them on top of a nuclear waste dump, and they are on the opposite side of the garden from where they were last year. They really do like that black plastic. They are setting quite a bit of fruit, too.

The Heat Wave is Starting

I went to Missoula yesterday. The drive down was lovely; it was early enough in the morning that traffic was light. I had the joy of listening to the Whipstitch podcast—Heather, thank you so much for the link to her website and to that podcast!—which made the drive even more pleasant. I was gratified to hear her talk about how much work it is to fit garments properly. Zede and Mallory said something similar on one of their recent podcasts. If these expert sewists have to make multiple muslins for some garments, I’m going to give myself some grace in that department.

I went to Joann Fabrics first. It’s on the south end of Missoula and I like to start there and work my way back. I am not sure what is going on with the Joann Fabrics in Kalispell. All the other stores in the region are open 9 am to 9 pm. Our store is still on pandemic hours and is only open from 11 am to 5 pm. Ostensibly, it’s because of the labor shortage, but part of me wonders if the manager just likes it that way.

I could not believe the selection of garment fabric in the Missoula store. We have maybe one aisle of knits and one aisle of special occasion fabric. The Missoula store has three times that much, and it’s no bigger than our store. We never got the modal sweatshirt knits. The Missoula store has the original stock AND new colors. I might have a chat with the manager next time I’m in our store. She may just not know that people want to sew garments and would buy that fabric in Kalispell if the store stocked it. To look at our store, you’d think that the only things people in Kalispell sewed are fleece blankets.

[Joann Fabrics pushes people to buy on their website, but they have a two-yard minimum on fabric cuts. That’s fine for garment sewing but less fine for quilting and other types of projects. Also, I don’t like to order fabric I haven’t seen in person.]

I scored some rayon ponte from the clearance rack. It was priced at 50% off with another 40% off red tag clearance, and when I got to the cutting table, the woman there knocked it back even further because the edge was dirty. (Someone had set the bolt on the floor.) The ponte is not a color I would wear, but at that price, it will be fine to use for another attempt at the Tessa dress.

[I was scrolling through the posts about the Tessa dress on the Love Notions Facebook group and ran across one from a woman whose body shape looks a lot like mine. She noted that she made a Large with no FBA. It fit her nicely with no pulling, so maybe there is just a lot of extra ease built into that pattern.]

I left Joann Fabrics and headed for The Confident Stitch. I don’t like this store for reasons that have nothing to do with fabric, but I cannot argue with the fact that they have an excellent selection of product. Joann Fabrics has acres of olive green, navy blue, and burnt orange, so it’s nice to walk into a store that carries bright colors that I can wear. I did a fair bit of damage there and came out with a length of Robert Kaufman Trainers French terry in a lovely dark teal, some Birch Fabrics Abyss interlock in a saturated medium blue, and some QT Fabrics double-brushed poly in a geometric cobalt/turquoise blue print. I have not tried any of those fabrics before.

I also picked up some Essex Speckle Yarn Dyed in Cream, which is a 68% cotton/31% linen/1% polyester blend. It’s cream-colored with tiny bright-colored speckles. When I was in Alaska, DD#1 and I had a discussion about cloth napkins. She said they would like some that match but are also unique so that guests can be “assigned” a napkin. DSIL said that his mother does the same thing and I think it’s an eminently sensible idea. I think this fabric will make nice napkins, and I can change the rolled hem edging thread so that each one has a different-colored edging.

I meant to add this book to my pile of purchases while I was there, but I forgot.

I ordered a copy when I got home. The section on full bust adjustments is fabulous.

I did not stop at Vicki’s Quilts Down Under even though she also carries a nice selection of knit fabrics. I bought enough at The Confident Stitch to keep me busy for a while. In fact, I was pretty well done shopping by noon (the heat! the traffic! the tourists!) and decided to head back to Kalispell with a stop at the Amish store in St. Ignatius. The husband wanted some Lebanon bologna to take for lunch and I’ve been having trouble finding it here in town.

We’re at the beginning of a heat wave here. I am planning to cut the grass this morning (hopefully for the last time this summer), then spend the rest of the day inside, sewing. I’ve been getting a couple of zucchini every morning, and the husband has been snacking on the first raspberries. I also cut this lovely cauliflower the other morning:

In my family, cauliflower is most often prepared by browning bread crumbs in butter—do not skimp on the butter!—then pouring that over a bowl of steamed cauliflower florets. I did that with this head of cauliflower and have been eating it ever since. Bugs and worms do not plague my produce. I brushed three earwigs off while I was cleaning this one and that was it. Thank you, snakes.

We Work for Fun

My friend Scott read my Sewcation post and sent me this video clip. It makes me giggle every time I watch it. I made the husband watch it yesterday morning, too, after I asked him what his plans were for the day and he said “Work.” We are peas in a pod.

The funny part is at the beginning.

I made quite a bit of headway on class samples yesterday afternoon. The scarf is done—all fringed—and I made more rolled hem samples. I lost my original set of rolled hem samples. I have looked through all of my class supplies and they are nowhere to be found. Of course, they will resurface now that I have made a second set. I experimented with a rolled edge on a remnant of rayon crepe de chine. I had to use some washaway stabilizer (OESD Stitch-2-O) on that edge, which took a bit of practice, but it turned out beautifully. I washed the rayon and have it hanging up to dry right now.

It’s a bit lettuce-edgy at the moment, but my experience with rayon is that it shrinks in water but stretches out again once it’s dry. And lettuce-edgy is fine, too.

Our renters’ little girl loves unicorns. I had just enough of a remnant of unicorn jersey fabric from Joanns to make her a T-shirt. I cut that out yesterday and will run it up this afternoon.

And I made another pile of fabric and patterns to play with this week, including Laundry Day Tee 2.0 in the larger size. If version 2.0 doesn’t work, I will call this a valuable learning experience and move on to another pattern line. DSIL’s mom had a great idea—she suggested I baste together my pattern pieces and try them on myself or on my dress form. I trace using Pellon Easy Pattern, which is a spun-bonded substrate that is stable enough to sew through. I will have to see how it works to use my dress form for fitting; I can pad out the bust, but the measurements in the hips and waist are different than my body measurements. (I didn’t take a picture of the Tessa sheath dress because it looks good on my body but bizarre on the dress form.) Still, it would give me a rough idea of what’s going on.

I redrafted the New Look 6577 cowl neck pattern and took out the armhole pleat. I also took out the back shaping. That might be a good candidate for the basting method, to see if my changes are an improvement or not. I know that one fits well in the shoulders and bust.

And if I can muster up the courage, I might start working on a muslin of the Upton dress. I’ve got some bolts of quilting cotton that were intended for quilt backs, but I could use one of them for a muslin. The dress requires about six yards and I doubt I’ll find that much of a suitable fabric on the clearance rack.

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My friend Anna, who owns a catering business, is interested in some of the zucchini for her menu this week. I will have plenty to spare. I am re-evaluating what I put in the freezer now. The husband eats a lot less wheat than he used to—I don’t know if it bothers him when he does or if that is just a consequence of me not having it around the house because it bothers me when I eat it. I don’t think I need to make and freeze 36 loaves of zucchini bread any more like I used to.

I might still get peas, in August, which is just bizarre. I think of those as a cool weather crop, but mine got nibbled on by some animal and they are just now reaching a stage where they are putting on blossoms.

I can’t control the weather. I couldn’t control it last year when we sweltered under a heat wave that made the cauliflower wither, and I can’t control it this year when it’s been so cool that the cucumbers are struggling to grow. Every year is different. I say that every year and every year it’s true. We’ll take what we get and be grateful for it.

What Works and What Doesn't

Warning, this is a long post. I have a lot to talk about.

The past two days have been a battle with the Tessa Sheath Dress pattern. I know there are people out there who are fans of the Love Notions patterns. The Facebook group has 54,000 members. I’ve tried two of the patterns and had issues with both, so I am not sure this line is for me. It’s either that or a whole lot of operator error, which is entirely possible.

My issue with the Laundry Day Tee was that I chose the size to make based on my high bust measurement, as recommended by the pattern. That resulted in a top which was too tight across the shoulders and too tight in the sleeves. Armed with that information, I chose the size for the Tessa dress in the same way, but then went up one size to make sure it would fit in the shoulders. I also used the full bust pattern piece.

I ended up with a dress I was swimming in. It fit me in the shoulders, yes, but it was huge everywhere else. I put it on inside out and started pinning. I took the dress in by 1-1/2” at each side seam. I got it to fit well from below my bust to the hem, but it still left me with a ton of excess fabric at the bust and under my arms. I took the sleeves out and put the dress on again inside out. I pinched fabric in various places to see where I could remove the excess. The best option seemed to be bust darts, so I played around with pinning them in different places and finally came up with a placement I liked. I also had to adjust the armsyce slightly, which actually made the sleeve cap set in better.

It took most of yesterday afternoon, but I finally beat the dress into submission. I like the end result very much. This is a flattering style on me and the ponte is comfortable, to boot, but I have no idea how to translate the adjustments I had to make back to the original pattern unless I take the whole dress apart. I could try grading the Tessa pattern from a larger size at the shoulders to a smaller size in the lower body, but I think what I am going to do is to frankenpattern the upper bodice of the Style Arc Kristen dress—which fits well and has the same kind of bust darts in the same location—to the bottom half of the Tessa dress in a smaller size. I will make another muslin to test out that idea. Thank goodness for clearance fabric.

I was talking this over with the husband last night. He doesn’t know much about sewing, but he can visualize what I am trying to do and he listens well. (He was unfamiliar with the term “frankenpattern,” so I had to explain that one.) I’m reluctant to blame the designer for these issues, having been a designer myself and knowing that it’s impossible to design something that fits every body shape and size out there. Based on the posts I’ve seen in the Facebook group, this is what I suspect is going on: People carry weight differently. I think that the people for whom these patterns work really well are those who have narrow shoulders but carry their weight in their bust and lower torso. I am, to put it bluntly, top heavy. I’ve got broad shoulders and I’m busty, but below my bust, things narrow quite a bit.

The fabric I used was the black ponte I got on the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby. Ponte comes in different kinds of fibers. The Kristen dress was made with the “summer ponte” from Joann Fabrics, which is 100% polyester. The first pair of Renee pants (the hot pink ones) were made with that same fabric. The second pair of Renee pants were made with the “refined ponte” from Joann Fabrics, which is 65% rayon/30% nylon/5% spandex. I have several lengths of the Robert Kauffman ponte, which is 67% rayon/28% nylon/5% spandex. The Hobby Lobby ponte is 63% rayon/32% nylon/5% spandex. The 100% polyester ponte does not stretch as much as the rayon blend pontes. The Hobby Lobby ponte seemed to stretch quite a bit while I was monkeying around with that dress yesterday. I am sure it’s a lower quality fabric than the Kaufman ponte.

I am trying to be patient with this process. Patterns rarely fit anyone well without some adjustments, and I am learning a lot as I go, but it takes time.

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When Susan and I were running around town last Monday, we stopped in at the quilt store. I got to talking with a woman who has been in a couple of my serger classes and she asked me why I was teaching the Cookin’ in Color apron class at the other quilt store and not at the one we were in.

[Some people will patronize both stores; some people are very loyal to one or the other. I know I am treading a fine line by teaching at both stores, but I did clear that with the store owners first.]

On Tuesday, when I was in to do the Facebook Live video, I mentioned the conversation to the owner of that quilt store. I said that I did not want her to think that I didn’t want to teach in her store, but I also pointed out that I had submitted a list of at least half a dozen potential serger classes—including the apron class—to her class manager after the Mystery Make in April and could not seem to get any of them scheduled. (The other store owner does not have a class manager; she tells me to pick an open date on the calendar and schedule what I want to teach.)

The store owner said she would talk to her class manager. The class manager called me a few days later and we had a good conversation. We put a few classes on the calendar, but now I am having to scramble and make up class samples and handouts and supply lists because some of the classes are next month. I’ve also got to factor in what I think makes a good class and what the store owner wants me to teach, which aren’t always the same thing. And both stores would prefer I teach classes unique to them, so even if I am teaching the same technique, I’ve got to approach it differently.

This is also a process and I am doing my best to hold up my end of things, but it’s not just a matter of putting a class on the calendar and poof!—I have all the information immediately.

This scarf is a good example.

This is a pattern designed by the woman who taught the Mystery Make class in April. She made the pattern available for free, with the stipulation that if I teach it as a class, the students get the pattern only if they purchase the fabric at the store. I can only teach this class at the store where we had the Mystery Make class. Those are not unreasonable stipulations; it’s her design and she can put whatever limitations on it she wants to. (Please do not ask me for the pattern.) I had bought the flannel for this scarf during the Mystery Make weekend, so I cut it out and put it together after I got the Tessa dress sorted. Now I have to fringe the ends up to that line of stitching. I asked the instructor how long it took her to fringe her sample scarf, and she said, “Four episodes of Magnum PI.” That’s about right. I got this much done last night while watching YouTube videos with the husband.

The store owner suggested this scarf project for one of the technique classes, which is fine, but it’s going to take at least another evening or two to finish fringing the scarf so I can get a photograph for the class listing on the website.

I need to spend some time this afternoon making up a schedule for this week. I hesitate to make a formal schedule because that is an invitation for the universe to start lobbing wrenches, but I’ve got to stay on track.

Sewcation

In the past, when I’ve needed a break, I’ve hit the road. That is still my favorite way to unwind, but for some reason, I’ve been procrastinating about going anywhere. That’s totally unlike me. When I sat down and had a talk with myself, I realized that I what I most wanted was several days alone to do nothing but sew (emphasis on the “alone” part). I had amassed a stack of new patterns and fabrics and until Cinderella’s mice take up residence in my sewing room, it’s up to me to put them together.

I’m making headway. The apron is done and ready to ship. Yesterday, I knocked out New Look 6577, the cowl neck top:

Is it perfect? No, but it’s everything I needed a muslin to be because I learned a lot from it. We’ll start with the fabric, which is some glittery metallic spandex-y stuff from the clearance bin at Joanns. It worked well for this top and wasn’t awful to sew, but now I have glitter from one end of my house to the other.

I can’t decide if I like this pattern better than the Easton Cowl. This one was a bit more complicated because it has pleats at the shoulders to help drape the cowl. It also has a pleat within the armhole, which continues that cowl draping all the way down through the abdomen. I am tempted to take that armhole pleat out.

[I will say that standard garment 5/8” seam allowances are much easier to work with than 1/4'“ seam allowances given in the Easton Cowl pattern.]

This top also has a shaped back. I might redraft the back bodice piece to make it straight rather than shaped. The upper bodice fits well, but I didn’t like the fit around my hips. I think that letting out the back shaping would help that. (The model on the pattern envelope is about 12” wide, which should tell you something. I am not 12” wide.) As Zede Donahue likes to say, “Knits should skim, not cling.”

I really like the length of the sleeves. Fussy sleeves—and especially cuffs—drive me nuts. I had to flatten the top of the sleeve cap again to get it to fit, which I shouldn’t really have to do in a stretchy knit. Once the sleeves were in the top, though, they fit beautifully.

One thing I won’t do again is interface the edge of the cowl. I should have done that with the Easton Cowl, but this fabric didn’t need it. I think the top edge of the cowl would drape better without it. And I like the way the back facing is done. I’ve seen similar facings on some of my Liz Claiborne tops but hadn’t quite figured out how they were done. Now I know.

I am at the upper end of the New Look pattern sizing, so I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely this top fit. One of the views on the pattern package is for a dress. If I can find some suitable fabric—sans glitter—I might try a dress version. I have that dark green Lurex that I also rescued from the clearance bin, but I think it might be too heavy and stretchy for anything other than a top. It might work for version 2.0 of this one, though.

While I was in town yesterday, I picked up two yards of black ponte from the clearance rack at Hobby Lobby. My obsession with ponte continues. It will be today’s project—I am going to make the Love Notions Tessa dress from it. I learned my lesson with the Laundry Day Tee and went up a size when I traced the Tessa dress. This should be a quick sew, and if I end up with a Little Black Dress, so much the better. I have a whole collection of LBDs because I wear them when I play for funerals. (Morbid, but true.)

I also bought the Upton Dress pattern:

This one might be a stretch even though the pattern is labelled for Advanced Beginner. Jenny, at Cashmerette, has got it dialed in when it comes to designing for curvy bodies, so I have hope. Her explanation of making an FBA for a shirtwaist dress was my first introduction to the concept. (I can’t find the link right now, but she has other good ones on the Cashmerette site.) I would like to try the version of this dress with princess seams in the bodice.

I’m giving myself one more week to play around with patterns, and then I need to get back to gardening and food preservation. I’ve also got a couple of serger classes scheduled for August, September, and October that need some prep work.

Why You Make a Muslin

The husband was working late on a job last night—sometimes he has to babysit the concrete until he knows it is setting properly—so I ran up a Laundry Day Tee to see what I thought. I don’t usually sew in the evenings because I tend to make stupid mistakes, but the potential for messing this up was minimal.

Eh. I am not sure this is the right pattern line for me, although I might give it one more shot. Here’s the issue: The pattern suggests choosing a size based on the high bust measurement and doing a full bust adjustment. One the face of it, that is sound advice. Because of the way clothing sizes are graded, if you choose a garment size based on the full bust measurement—your largest upper body circumference—you run the risk of having the shoulders be too large. I run into this all the time with RTW even though I have broad shoulders.

I made a size Large in the Laundry Day Tee based on my high bust measurement, and used the full bust piece for the front (the designer thoughtfully does the FBA for you). I had a sneaking suspicion going in that there might be issues, just because of the shape of the front pattern piece:

This piece has been modified by the designer with a dartless full bust adjustment. The original front bodice piece was slashed vertically from the hem to the bust apex and the side section rotated toward the armscye. (If you need a better explanation than the one I am giving here, search on “dartless FBA” and a bunch of sites will come up with better pics and descriptions.)

Two things happen as a result of this FBA:

1. Extra fabric gets added to the front bodice, which is what we want.

2. Rotating the side section toward the armscye closes the armsyce, which helps to minimize the gaping armhole that sometimes results when extra fabric is added to the front bodice.

I had two problems with the finished T-shirt. The first was that the shoulders of the size Large—which I chose based on my high bust measurement—are too narrow for me. Good to know. Choosing a size based on my high bust measurement may not always work.

The second problem was with the sleeves. Look at that armscye again. See how short it is vertically? I also thought the sleeve cap shaping was too tall. (I modified the sleeve cap on the pattern piece, so I can’t show you what it looked like originally.) Indeed, when I tried on the T-shirt, there was a little tent of fabric sticking up at the top of the sleeve.

It is one of those paradoxes of pattern drafting that a high, tight armhole actually gives better range of motion than a looser, lower armhole, because you’re not dragging all that excess fabric around. However, this pattern has a VERY high, tight armhole—higher and tighter than I think is comfortable for a T-shirt, especially with that FBA. I suspect the sleeve cap needs to be flattened a bit to better fit the armscye, too, although some of that may have to do with the shoulder width.

I’m not faulting the designer here. Human bodies vary SO MUCH in size and weight distribution that it is virtually impossible to design something to fit every body. And this pattern gets rave reviews all over the internet, so it must fit some people very well.

Making this muslin wasn’t a waste of time. I learned a few more things about fitting in general, and about fitting my body specifically. I do like the neckline on this top. It is a bit lower than I usually make for myself, but it looks good. And even things that don’t fit can be used as class samples.

Should I make another iteration of this pattern in a larger size, lowering the armscye a bit and flattening the sleeve cap? Or do I just go back to some of the other patterns I’ve drafted that don’t need so much tweaking? I’m undecided. I’ve been stocking up on clearance fabric from Joanns, so I don’t feel like I am wasting anything, but I don’t know how much more time I want to invest in this. I will say that making aprons is a welcome relief, because they don’t require as much fitting.

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I was a guest on the Quilt Gallery’s Tuesday morning Facebook Live video yesterday. I did a presentation on WonderFil threads. If you have a burning desire to listen to me talk about thread, click here and the video should pop up. You can also see me modeling the Renee ponte pants (they are so darn comfortable) and the Easton cowl.

Janet is Closed

Nicole Sauce, who does my favorite Living Free in Tennessee podcast, has a policy of taking time off periodically and telling people that “Nicole is closed.” Janet is going to be closed this week. Except for a few previously-scheduled commitments, I am not going to be available to solve problems, manage projects, or head off emergencies. If I don’t answer phone calls or texts, that’s why.

I spent yesterday afternoon tracing a stack of patterns in preparation for a marathon sewing session. I will start with the apron order. After that, it’s the lounge pants from New Look 6689:

The Renee ponte pants fit well, but I need to make a few other pants patterns to better understand crotch shaping and potential adjustments to that area. The top is nice, too, but it’s further down the priority list.

I’ve got the Love Notions Laundry Day Tee traced and ready to make. I joined the Love Notions pattern support group on Facebook and that has provided a wealth of fitting information, as have the patterns themselves. The patterns come with a full bust pattern piece, so I don’t have to do the full bust adjustment myself. After the LDT comes the Love Notions Tessa Sheath dress. I still have a couple of yards of that summer ponte in a lovely periwinkle blue that is earmarked for that pattern, although I plan to make a muslin first to make sure the length is good.

I scoured the clearance bins at Joanns the other day and came up with some slinky, sparkly dark green Lurex stretch knit—it sounds hideous, but made up into the right top, it’s going to be spectacular, I think—and I’ve got another New Look pattern to go with it:

I bought this one because I wanted to see how the cowl shaping compared to the Easton Cowl pattern. The basic design is similar, but this one has some additional shoulder pleating to help drape the cowl. I will not be making those flutter sleeves, ick. Sewing the Lurex may prove to be a challenge, but I have to try. If this works out, it may end up being my holiday outfit, and kudos to me for not waiting until the last minute to make something.

This is all part of the educational process. If I am going to be teaching clothing classes, I’d better broaden my experience.

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My refrigerator has some new artwork:

Our renters have a little girl who is a quite a firecracker. She was selling pictures the other day at a stand in her yard, so I went over and bought two of them. Please note that she signed her name in cursive, and she just finished kindergarten.

WS had his lemonade stand set up during the garden tour, so several tour guests came to my garden carrying their drinks. His lemonade has quite the reputation—you can choose to drink it plain or have raspberries, strawberries, or huckleberries added to it. I’m partial to the strawberry version.

And I am making progress with the little rooster. He decided that if the hens could eat scratch grains out of my hand, he could, too. I’m waiting for him to start practicing crowing. That should start any day now.

They Came, They Saw, They Toured

I think we had a successful garden tour yesterday. I was exhausted by the end of the day—I talked to a lot of people and I am not used to being out in the heat like that—but I met quite a few new people and answered many questions. The lavender shortbread cookies seemed to be a big hit. My baking skills are minimal, but it’s hard to screw up a recipe with only three ingredients, one of which is butter. The husband was happy that there were a few left over for him to eat.

My friend Robin was my hostess, and she sat and greeted people as they came in. We got to catch up after not seeing each other for almost four months.

Racer snake stayed out of sight, as did his garter snake friends; I checked the zucchini before the tour to make sure that no one was hiding under the leaves waiting to scare the living daylights out of a guest:

Racer snake completely ignores me when I am out there, but the garter snakes see me coming and slither off to hide.

I picked the first zucchini yesterday! The avalanche will not be long in coming.

I am trying an experiment. We can’t grow sweet potatoes here, but apparently, the leaves are tasty and good in stir fry and sautes. I had a couple in the house that had started to sprout, so I popped them into a pot and put them in the garden. The first leaves have poked through the dirt:

We’ll see how they taste.

I need to step up my baby rooster training efforts. One of the Barred Rock pullets managed to get from the separate space into the big coop yesterday. The baby rooster knew the pullet was not where she was supposed to be and was pacing back and forth, obviously agitated. I scooped her up to put her back with her friends—which made her squawk—and he started to come at me. I calmed him down and told him what a good rooster he was for looking out for his hens. I want him to be assertive about taking care of them, but he has to direct his instincts in the right direction.

It’s a process. At least he’s been watching Dave, which is good. I want to find a home for him. I’d keep him but Dave doesn’t like competition.

I hope things calm down now. I need some peace and quiet. The co-op sale has been scheduled for September 23rd and 24th, although I said to Robin that I may not sell there this year. I don’t have that much inventory and my cousin is getting married the weekend before. We’ll see.

I’ve figured out where I want to run away to for a few days—the trick is going to be shoehorning a trip into the schedule between Zoom interviews of interim pastor candidates and having to play piano at church on Sundays. The new Homestead Foundation website is just about ready to launch, too. I am getting together with the treasurer this week to get the e-commerce links set up, after which we’ll be able to take donations and sell memberships.

But first, sewing.

Down the Garden Path

For the locals, here are the details on this Saturday’s garden tour:

The Mountain Brook Community Center, 2353 Foothill Rd, will host a fundraising garden tour on Saturday, July 16th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm entitled, “What’s Growing in Mountain Brook (Legally).” The tour will feature 5 working gardens in the Mountain Brook community, which has its own microclimate challenges for gardeners.

Gardeners will begin each hour of the tour by introducing their gardens and participants will be free to ask questions and meander through gardens as they wish.

Five artists have been chosen to paint in the gardens, Lavonne Burgard, Lindalee Cleveland, Therese Ely, Lael Gray, and Sunnie LeBlanc. Sunnie LeBlanc will be doing Plein Aire paintings. Garden refreshments will be served.

Six artists will be at the Mountain Brook Community Center: Gail Hanson, Sandra Marker, Chris Olson Hartley, Dixie Turner, and Pam Wheat.

Tickets are $10/person. To purchase tickets, call the library, 406-314-8232 or stop by Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5-8 pm. Tickets are also available for purchase the day of the tour. After touring all five gardens, drop off your punched ticket for a chance of winning a gift basket.

Come and join us! I am sure all of us will be emphasizing the challenges of gardening in Montana in our talks this year.

I love my lavender. I’m going to cut some today to use in baking the treats we’ll be serving at the garden tour.

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In the midst of getting ready for this garden tour, I’ve also been juggling my responsibilities as a member of our pastor transition team. We went from having one candidate a few weeks ago to now having several. We are trying to schedule Zoom interviews, but that’s made more challenging by the fact that people are traveling—candidates as well as team members—and one of our team members drives truck around the state during the week.

I’d still like to get away for a few days, but that’s going to have to wait until we get these Zoom interviews scheduled.

Today and tomorrow focus completely on garden prep. I’ve been waiting to cut the grass one last time. Most of the weeding has been done; it’s minimal thanks to the black plastic.

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It turns out the duck that was in our yard did not belong to WS but to someone else in the neighborhood. Apparently, that person’s chickens got out of the coop. I think the duck may have been living with the chickens and escaped at the same time, which explains why it was hanging around our coop and looked like it wanted to be inside with the chickens. (I suspect Dave would have had something to say about that.)

Elysian sent WS over with a net and the duck has been reunited successfully with its family.

A Bear Was There

We have a path from our property through the woods to the other property where the greenhouse and garden are located. I walk that path multiple times a day. I know immediately if something is different. Yesterday morning, I asked the husband if he would walk out to the garden with me when I went to turn the water on. It was about 6 am—early enough that I shouldn’t be out wandering around by myself. As we walked down the path, I spotted some pieces of rotted tree stump spread around. They hadn’t been there the day before. I pointed to the stump:

“A bear did that, didn’t it?” I said.

“Probably.”

“This is why you are coming with me to the garden.”

The bears like to dig for grubs in the rotted tree stumps. This stump was only about 100 feet from the chicken coop, but presumably, the bear has figured out that it will get a nasty shock on the nose if it goes looking for a chicken dinner. The husband opined that it would be great if we could get the bears to dig up all the tree stumps for us.

It has taken a couple of days and a lot of hose dragging, but I think I finally have my watering system in place. We just had a thunderstorm rumble through, but not enough rain to fill a teacup so I’m trying to be diligent about watering every morning.

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There has been no sewing. None. I had Ali’s little guy for a few hours yesterday; it was too hot for me to be outside, so the scheduled activity at Auntie Janet’s Summer Camp was watching Jurassic World Legos on YouTube. The boys don’t watch much TV—which is a good thing—so when they come here, it’s a treat I don’t feel too bad about providing. I sat and watched, too, and knocked out a few hexies.

I’ve got the Love Notions Laundry Day Tee pattern and Tessa Sheath Dress pattern in the queue. (I might still do the Vivace Dolman, too, but I’m going to start with these.) Part of me asks myself, “How many T-shirts and dresses and ponte pants do you really need?” but then the other part points out that in order to understand pattern drafting and alterations, I need to sew these garments in actual fabrics, not simply theorize the construction in my head. At some point, I will have to do a ruthless purge of my closet. I am getting closer, though, to being able to sew the things I want to wear, in the colors I want to wear, and have clothes that fit me perfectly.

The last time Joanns had thread on sale, I picked up a spool of this:

Some of the patterns I’ve made recently—the Easton Cowl and the Renee ponte pants—require that some of the stitching be done on the sewing machine. I’ve been using regular thread and it’s been fine, but I’d like to try this on the next batch of patterns. This is stretch thread that can be used in both the top and the bobbin. I am curious to see how it behaves.

Blog posts may be few and far between for the next couple of days. I still have a lot to do to get ready for this garden tour. I’ll try to remember to take some pictures, though.

Little Bunny Foo-Foo

We have a rabbit. It hangs out here by the house, which is fine with me. At least if it’s here, I know it’s not eating produce out in the garden.

I christened it “Foo-Foo,” a name that baffled the husband until we determined that he did not know the song about Little Bunny Foo-Foo hopping through the forest, picking up the field mice and bopping them on the head.

(I sang it for him.)

I often tease him that he came into this world as an adult in a child’s body, but given the bizarre things I’ve pulled out of my brain from my childhood—like a song about a rabbit bopping field mice on the head—maybe he thinks that’s a good thing.

Moving on . . . when he came to bed last night, he said, “Did you know we had a duck?”

“A duck? We don’t have a duck. WS has a duck. It must have wandered over here.”

“It was out by the chicken coop eating scratch grains.”

I will see if it is still here when it gets light out. I think it’s looking for a pond.

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I have alerted the husband that once this garden tour is over, I plan to disappear for a few days. I am not sure when, or where I am going to go, but I need a few days alone not being responsible for anyone or anything. I may also just tell people I am going somewhere but stay here and sew without answering the door or the telephone. I haven’t decided. A few days of sewing in an Airbnb elsewhere would be ideal, but all of my supplies are here. Joanns had New Look patterns on sale this week. They hardly ever go on sale, so I took advantage and bought a couple. I’ve traced them and would like to test them out.

And of course, in the middle of all of this, we had an unexpected development in our pastor search process. It could be a good development, but it comes with time constraints. When it rains, it pours.

I begged off attending the Homestead Foundation board meeting last night. I want to live in a world where we have board meetings at 6 am, when I am happy and fresh and ready to tackle the day, instead of at 7 pm when I am tired and cranky and done with people. I gave Susan (the president) my report about the progress of the website. The garden tour booklet is done and I am going to start printing and assembling it today. I need to do some baking on Thursday; each of the gardens will have refreshments, and I’d like to serve some lavender shortbread and lavender lemonade. Lavender is one of the things my garden is known for, and seedlings from my plants have been shared all over this valley. The lavender hedges should be close to peak for the garden tour on Saturday. Have I mentioned that it’s going to be 91 degrees? We’ll be making use of that pop-up canopy I bought before the plant sale.

I also need to clean up the greenhouse. The garden looks reasonably good. It will just need some touching up here and there, and the husband has promised to do the trimming with the big weedeater some night this week.

And it occurred to me yesterday that it’s almost August. This is one of the weird things about living in Montana—summer is so short anyway that when we have a cold spring and cold June, summer feels even shorter than normal. I don’t mind; I prefer cooler weather, but the fact that fall is breathing down our necks just as the weather is starting to warm up is a bit disconcerting.

The young woman who does my eyebrow waxing got caught out on Flathead Lake Saturday during that hailstorm. She has bruises on her arms. We were joking yesterday that we should create a tourism campaign about not coming to Montana, because Montana will try to kill you, in lots of creative and horrifying ways.

That Road to Hell

This has been a difficult week. Everything I’ve attempted to do in the spirit of moving some things in a positive direction has come back to me in spades in the form of criticism and disapprobation. I’ve had to explain and defend myself left and right. Even an online community that I usually consider to be a good support system felt it necessary to tell me what I was doing wrong. The criticism is one thing; what bothers me more, though, are the swirling undercurrents in society that seem to be driving this behavior. Or maybe it’s the coming full moon. Either way, grace and kindness seem to be in short supply.

I’m going forward anyway. We’ve had to make some sudden adjustments to the garden tour plans. One of the tour participants had to pull out, so we are swapping in my friend Susan’s garden. I just finished laying out the garden tour booklet, which means a few last-minute adjustments, but that delay meant that we were able to sell a few business card ads for the booklet to help raise money. (See? It’s always possible to find the positive if you’re willing to look.) I also indulged myself for a few hours yesterday afternoon and worked on the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation website. This kind of work is not something I would want to do professionally or full-time, but it’s a form of design and I enjoy it, although I enjoy it far more now than I did when I had to hand code everything. I also like being able to showcase what our community organization is doing. The website is close to being done and I am hoping to have it up by the end of the month. I think it looks great, although given my experiences this week, no doubt there will be people lined up to tell me how I could have done it better.

The husband was trying to finish up a job about an hour and a half south of here, so he was gone all day yesterday. He had given one of our employees permission to work on his vehicle in our shop. That kid and a buddy were here most of the day. I spent the morning out in the garden trying to wrangle my watering system into shape. The robins are gone, thankfully, so I was able to pull all the hoses out of storage, but then I had to organize them and lay them out. The basic system is in place, though. I’ll tweak as needed.

And I finished up one more knot top:

This is the Azalea Top by Sinclair Patterns. The fabric is some double-brushed poly picked up for $3 a yard from the Joanns clearance bin at one of the Spokane stores. I am ambivalent about this one. It looks okay on me, although it needs additional length. And I think I somehow managed to put the sleeves in backwards despite carefully transferring the marks from the pattern pieces. I must have turned them around. I’ll have to take those out and redo them. (I understand the rationale for shaped sleeve caps in wovens, but knit fabric is so forgiving that including it seems unnecessary to me.) The knot construction is also very, very fiddly. I don’t like this one enough to make more of it.

I was hemming this top on the coverstitch yesterday afternoon when I started to hear rumblings of thunder. We’ve had some serious storms this week. On Thursday night, a huge system came barreling up from the southwest and dropped golf ball-sized hail on parts of the valley. The damage was spotty, though, and missed us. (I didn’t know anything had happened until the husband got home from fire training and came to bed, as apparently I slept through it.) We weren’t so lucky with yesterday’s storm, though, and got a few minutes of nickel-sized hail. As soon as it was over, I went out to check on the garden. The only casualty appeared to be this parsnip:

RIP, parsnip. (I planted parsnips once and now they come up all over the garden.)

Those of us whose gardens will be featured on this tour have been comparing notes on what a challenging gardening season this has been. Despite what some people, like Michael Bloomberg, would have you think—"I could teach anybody, even people in this room, to be a farmer. It's a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn"—growing food is not a foregone conclusion. It rains, it doesn’t rain, it snows, it hails, it’s too hot, it’s too cold, rabbits and ground squirrels think you planted a buffet just for them, grasshoppers snack on the tomatillos . . . I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I will be grateful for everything that comes out of the garden this year, even the zucchinis.

I realized yesterday that it’s been a full-court press since the plant sale in May. I went from the sale to traveling to getting ready for this garden tour, and I am ready for a break. Next week is going to be all about stuff I want to do. I’ll make my custom apron order, make a few more tops for myself, and play around with making that bodice block.

Racers in the Garden

I’ve figured out where the snakes like to sun themselves in the morning, so I am careful not to disturb them when I go out to the garden. Yesterday, this one was hanging out at the far end of the lavender hedge:

Montana has ten native snake species, four of which inhabit our corner of the state: garters, gophersnakes, rubber boas, and racers. We do not have rattlers where we live. I’ve got both garter snakes and racers in my garden. The difference is in the size and coloration. Garter snakes tend to be smaller, with orange or yellow stripes down their backs. Racers are larger—I had one here a few years ago that was a good two feet long—and are solid grayish brown.

I like the racers because they will eat small rodents, but they also act as a deterrent to the larger ones. (I’d love to have a gophersnake because one of those would take care of the big rodents, but I’ve never seen one here.) And the bug population has decreased significantly in the past week or so. Grasshoppers were turning my tomatillo plants into lacy works of art until the snakes moved in. Now the tomatillos are growing unmolested. I have never had a problem with tomato hornworms or potato beetles, either.

I worked in the garden yesterday morning until it got too hot. (Just for reference, anything over 75F is “too hot.”) My friend Susan came over with a supply of paper and we spent the rest of the day copying and folding our community organization’s quarterly newsletter so she could mail it out today.

Our community organization—the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation—is having some growing pains. The organization itself has been in existence for 20 years and was established to help maintain the original schoolhouse campus that sits in the middle of Mountain Brook. Up until a few years ago, the local school district had control of that campus, but they wanted out from under the responsibility. What followed was months and months of legal detective work to find the descendants of the family that had donated the property in 1927, because the original terms of the donation specified that the property would revert back to the family should it ever stop being used as an educational institution. When the sole living descendant was identified, she chose to donate the campus to the Homestead Foundation.

The husband and I have supported the organization financially, but this year, I got drafted into being on the Fundraising Committee. Sadly, there have been a lot of personal squabbles that have gotten in the way of some of our activities, but such is the way of human beings attempting to work together, I think.

The organization operates on a shoestring. We have determined that we need to raise a minimum of $15,000 a year just to stay viable. That amount comes from memberships as well as special activities such as pie socials, the plant sale, a yard sale, and our upcoming garden tour. And that $15,000 doesn’t reflect all of the miscellaneous donations of time and a tremendous amount of sweat equity—like spending five hours printing and folding a newsletter—that go into making these things happen.

[I have an office-sized copy machine that does double-sided copies and I am happy to have it be used for situations just like this. I also got to spend time visiting with Susan, although after we were done, I ordered a paper-folding machine to make the process go more quickly the next time, LOL.]

I want this organization to succeed. I hope that everyone involved can focus more on the goal, which is to help this community organization grow and thrive, and less on the specifics of how we get there. And we need to be careful not to let perfect be the enemy of the good. Yes, we should strive to do the best job we can, but we should also have some grace for ourselves and others. We are halfway through 2022 and we’ve already raised half of our financial goal for the year, and I think that’s amazing.

Once the garden tour is over, I need to finish setting up the Homestead Foundation website. We have so many amazing activities to share with the community and that will help us to get the word out.

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I do not have any more serger classes schedule until the beginning of August, which is good because I am going to need the breathing room after this garden tour. Next week is going to be spent making the garden pretty. I think the baby robins have fledged, so I’m hoping to be able to retrieve my soaker hoses and finish setting up the watering system without being killed by their parents. We are supposed to get much warmer temps next week and I expect stuff will start taking off.

Old School Serging

Yesterday’s Serger 101 class was a lot of fun. The lady from the Joanns cut counter did indeed sign up, so I had two students. She brought an old, old Juki MO-104 three-thread serger.

(Pic borrowed from the internet because I forgot to take a picture of her machine.)

According to the Juki website, that MO-100 series of sergers came out in the 1970s. I am sure they were state of the art at the time, but hers now holds the record for the oldest serger I have ever had in class. Except for needing some oil—and it could stand to have a good servicing anyway—the machine serged beautifully. She was thrilled when she was able to thread it with a decorative variegated thread in the top looper and make a colorful edging on some flannel baby blankets.

The other lady had a new Bernette serger, which is the lower-end line of Bernina machines. They still have the same air-threading technology as my Bernina L860 does, however. I got her comfortable with changing settings and tensions, and by the end of class, she was experimenting with all sorts of stitches. The lady with the Juki saw what she was doing and asked me if she could do those same things on her machine. Unfortunately, those early machines are pretty limited. She can’t do rolled hems, and even serging knits is going to be trickier with only three threads (she wants to take the ponte pants class and I doubt she will be able to sew that fabric on her machine). We talked about upgrading and I gave her some options. I pointed out that if she wants a newer machine, she doesn’t have to spend a boatload of money, and that knowing the limitations of her current machine will help her decide what features she wants to pay for.

Today is an all-day serger apron class at the other quilt store.

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The other night, while surfing Pinterest at 11:30 pm because I couldn’t sleep, I ran across a website called Dresspatternmaking.com, so I popped over and took a look. Oh.My.Goodness. This is a whole website devoted to drafting your own sewing patterns. I even purchased and downloaded an e-book on making my own bodice block. I do know some of this from my knitting design days, but sewing is a different beast. The author writes:

In the garment production industry, these systems work well. A pattern is drafted to a figure with predetermined proportions. All other sizes are based on that initial figure; they are ‘graded up’ or down. In this system, there is a proportional relationship between certain measurements (e.g. hip and thigh), so that proportion needs to remain consistent for every size.

She notes that this system works well if your body shape is similar to that being used as the standard in the industry.

However, if your body is different in a large degree to the Standard Figure that the block making instructions are based on, and you also differ in a number of ways (very small waist, larger hips, smaller thighs, large protruding bottom), it can be very difficult to determine where to start to make adjustments, especially if you are new to sewing or fitting.

She has devised a system, particularly, for fitting bodices based on cup size rather than full bust measurements, which makes total sense and is the one area that frustrates me beyond belief. I could have the exact same full bust measurement with a D-cup that someone else has with a B-cup, because their weight is distributed differently. If I choose a pattern size based on full bust measurement, it is going to fit me badly in the shoulders and upper bodice. (WELCOME TO MY WORLD OF SHOPPING READY TO WEAR.) I would have to choose a smaller size and do a full bust adjustment. How much nicer it would be to be able to draft my own tops to fit ME and not have to do a FBA or use hacks like a boob bump. (That BB method does work well with knits, though, I have to admit.)

[I have concluded that one of the reasons most Liz Claiborne stuff fits me (reasonably) well is because my body shape must be close to that of the blocks they are using for drafting their lines.]

I plan to study this designer’s methods before my pants-fitting class next month because I am sure we are going to have some fitting issues that need to be addressed. And I need to enlist the husband’s help for measuring again, because I need about 30 different measurements and can’t take them all myself.

Spoiled by My Serger

I had two tops I wanted to get done yesterday. Never let a sewing machine know you are in a hurry. I had far more problems than I should have had.

I started with the Scout Tee. Let’s just say that my expectations for this top were pretty low. There is a small subset of women who look good in boxy woven tees and I am not part of that subset. (Also, “woven tee” seems like an oxymoron to me.) Everyone I’ve seen around the sewing universe who raves about this pattern is 12” wide and weighs 98 pounds dripping wet, including the woman who designed it.

Still, the pattern was sized for a D-cup, with darts, so I was curious to see how it would look made up. I got it all cut out, went to work, and was immediately reminded why I never used to enjoy sewing. I don’t relish making clothes out of woven fabrics. I have been spoiled by the ease of making knit tops on my serger. I got to the part where I had to attach the neck binding and hit an impasse. The pattern directs you to cut a band on the bias and use that to finish the neck opening. Perhaps if I had just followed those directions, I would have been okay, but I decided that I wanted an accent color on both the neckline and hem, so I went looking for some Wright’s bias binding in my stash. The fabric was white with small black polka dots.

I did not have any black 1/2” bias binding, although I had every other color imaginable. I had 1/4” bias binding, but I tried to attach that and it was an unqualified disaster. I spent more time taking it out than I had in making the top up to that point. Disgusted, I put the top in time out and moved on to the other one.

The Liesel + Co Easton Tee is a cowl neck knit top. I used some periwinkle blue cotton/spandex that I thought would be light enough to allow the cowl to drape. The pattern does say that if you choose a heavier knit, you might have to cut the front on the bias. I did not and it turned out fine.

The pattern gives the option for using a facing on the back or binding the back neck edge. I chose the facing, although I somehow spaced out and missed the step about adding interfacing to that piece. I ended up having to topstitch the facing down later. If I ever have time one of these days, I am going to put the binding attachment on my Juki serger and learn how to use it, but yesterday was not that day.

Some of the steps have to be done on the sewing machine. The first thing I will change when I make this top again is to widen the seam allowances. A 1/4” seam allowance is fine for piecing quilts; it is too narrow for clothing, especially knits that want to curl. At a minimum, it should be 3/8” but 1/2” would be even better. Very few indie pattern designers use 5/8” seams.

Once I got past sewing the shoulders together—the trickiest part because of the self-fabric cowl—the rest of the top went together quickly.

I was pleased to note that this size included a “boob bump” a la Zede Donahue of the Sewing Out Loud podcast, although if I hadn’t been familiar with the concept, I might have thought the pattern had a problem as nothing was noted about easing in that extra fabric on the side seams.

I’ll be making this top again. I like the way it fits and the length is not bad. The cowl neckline is flattering. I will change those sleeves, though—there was slightly more than one inch at the underarm before hemming and the pattern specified a 1” deep hem. I couldn’t quite figure out how that was supposed to work. I am not a fan of cap sleeves anyway. The pattern also includes long sleeves.

Once the Easton Tee was done, I went back to see if I could complete the other top. I went ahead and made my own black bias binding—I should have done that from the start—and finished the top.

Eh. It fits, but it looks like a maternity top on me. (Interestingly, the length of both tops is the same.) I expected it might because the silhouette widens from the bust down to the hips. I should have set the sleeves in flat, as I am used to doing, instead of following the directions. They are not my best work, but they look equally awful, so that’s okay, LOL. Maybe this top would be okay in a drapey rayon or even a knit, but I’m not likely to make it again. The designer did make it up in a couple of knit fabrics, as detailed in this blog post. Go take a look and you’ll see what I mean about the subset of women who look good in this style.

I learn something even from the projects that bomb. I like the upper bodice shaping on the Scout Tee and likely will use that in other tops because the darts are where they are supposed to be. If the pattern were lengthened into a tunic or dress and made out of a knit, it might be okay. I was reminded again that I prefer knits to wovens—both wearing and sewing—and that I know what is likely to look good on my body and what won’t. I also prefer the speed and ease of making tops on my serger.

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We went to a neighborhood BBQ Sunday afternoon hosted by our friend, Smokey. He put on quite the spread—appetizers, potato salad, macaroni salad, grilled ribs and chicken, and fried catfish and hush puppies. I love catfish, so I stuffed myself silly with that and some hush puppies. Several people commented to the husband and me that, “It is nice to see the two of you sitting down,” and “Every time I drive by, you guys are are out working.” I did not realize the neighborhood took such notice of our activities.

The schedule is stuffed full this week. I have a serger class today and another one tomorrow, the grass needs to be cut (probably Thursday), and I have to finish the garden tour booklet and get that printed. Next week be spent making the garden pretty in preparation for the tour on July 16. Hopefully, I can get to my soaker hoses soon, too, and finish setting up my watering system.

People Want to Make Clothes

I am hoping to get two projects done this weekend. The quilt store south of town will put classes for these on the schedule, but I need to make the sample garments, first, and I’d like to get them done ASAP. I’ve also got a custom apron order that I want to finish soon.

One of the tops is the Easton Cowl from Liesel + Co:

It calls for a lightweight knit, so I pulled all my knit fabric out of the stash to see if I had something suitable (I did). I would rather use up my stash fabric than buy more.

The second one is the Scout Tee from Grainline Studio:

I did not have enough of a suitable fabric for this one. It’s a woven tee, not a knit. Part of me is wishing I had splurged and bought a yard(ish) of the Liberty Tana Lawn when I saw it at the Joanns in Seattle, but I am not a flowy lawn clothing type of person and had no idea what I would do with it.

Because I needed fabric and thread, I made a rare weekend trip into town. Fortunately, the Joann Fabrics store is on the east side, just over the bridge, so I didn’t have to go into Kalispell proper.

I found two different lightweight cottons for the Scout Tee. One was a lovely Swiss dot in the clearance bin, marked down 50% with another 40% off because the stores are trying to make room for new stock. The other fabric was also a lightweight polka dot—a chambray—which I got for 75% off because there was a flaw in the fabric. It is not a big flaw and I can work around it, but the saleswoman offered the discount and I wasn’t going to refuse. Thread was “buy three, get three free,” which is always a good time to stock up on cones of Maxi-Lock serger thread. I also scored two yards of another knit on their Doorbuster sale for 60% off. (Maybe I should have bought a lottery ticket, too.)

Both top patterns have cup sizing options, which is fabulous. Most Big 4 patterns and even a lot of indie patterns assume a B cup. These go up to a D cup. The Scout Tee has darts in the pattern for that size. I may transfer those darts to the Kristin dress pattern because they appear to be in the correct location and also long enough, but I’ll know once I’ve made the top.

I traced both patterns and washed the fabric. Today and tomorrow are looking stormy, so I’m hoping to be able to knock out both tops. I’ve got a Serger 101 class on Tuesday afternoon and a Cookin’ in Color Apron class all day Wednesday and after that, I have to hit garden tour stuff hard.

I ran into someone I knew at Joanns. She and I were chatting at the cut counter and I said something about my serger classes this week. The lady at the cut counter got very excited and said, “You teach serger classes? And how to make your own clothes? Where do I sign up?” I gave her the information about the serger classes and I suspect she will be in Tuesday’s class. She wants to make her own clothes for the same reason that I do—because RTW fits so poorly.

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Something has been mowing down the peas about 6” from the ground. I wondered why they were struggling because I don’t usually have a problem growing peas. We do have more rabbits than usual this year, however, including one that has taken up residence here by the house. And ground squirrels, ugh. I would be picking off the ground squirrels with my .22 but the neighborhood is too busy and I can’t do it safely.

I saw two more garter snakes out in the garden yesterday morning—big ones—so I suggested that they move over to the other side of the garden and patrol the peas. The snakes have a tendency to hide under the leaves of the zucchini plants and scare me to death because I am not expecting to see them there. I don’t mind them, but I have to remember to look, first.

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.

Cut Off

Our internet went out yesterday morning. According to CenturyLink’s website—oh, how I hate thee, CenturyLink—current repair ETA is tomorrow morning. They keep pushing that out, however, so I have no idea when we will have access restored. Cell phone reception at our place is spotty, at best. If I stand in the middle of the driveway, I can check e-mail. Text me if it’s urgent.

I should not be this dependent on a utility, but several things have come to a standstill precisely when I need to work on them. I will be out in the garden if you need me.

Ponte and Patterns

No trip would be complete without some fabric-related shopping. At the store in Issaquah, I bought a couple of thread storage boxes. Thread is threatening to take over here and I need a good way to corral it. Floriani makes some nice drawer boxes that work really well for the smaller spools of decorative serger thread.

[I will be appearing on Quilt Gallery’s Facebook Live in a few weeks to talk about thread. The owner and employee who usually do the Tuesday morning broadcast will be away at a conference, so I offered to step in and talk about the Wonderfil threads that the store carries.]

I hit the Joann Fabrics in Renton, Kent, and Tukwila, although I am being much more selective about what I buy. I found enough remnants of a navy blue double-brushed polyester to make a top, and I also scored some navy blue ponte for a pair of Renee pants. I am making an effort to sew a few basic pieces of clothing that I need and that coordinate with pieces I already have. Navy blue has been hard to find. Sometimes I get tired of wearing black.

Ketchikan has a quilt store downtown called The Whale’s Tail. I wonder if it is under new ownership. When I was there last year, I was waited on by an older woman who spent several minutes complaining to me about the loss of business from the pandemic and supply chain issues. (Products are difficult enough to get to Alaska without supply chain disruptions.) I expected to see that the store had closed, but it’s still there, staffed by a couple of younger women. They also have a website, which they didn’t have before. Inventory is still a bit thin, but it seems like someone is making an effort to revive the store.

I bought this pattern:

The store had one of these kuspuks made up and on display. I thought it would be good to have something uniquely Alaskan in my pattern collection.

My mother and I spent Thursday and Friday in Seattle. On Thursday, we took the ferry over to the peninsula to visit DSIL’s parents. We also got to meet his younger sister, who was visiting from Norway. She went there a few years ago to get her master’s degree but due to the pandemic, she wasn’t able to come back for the wedding. She’s still working and living there. DSIL’s uncle—his mom’s brother—lives in Norway, too, so there is a strong family connection.

On Friday, we took a different ferry over to Bainbridge Island. My youngest cousin on my dad’s side, who also works for Nordstrom, is getting married in September and we wanted to check out her wedding venue. My girls, DSIL, my sister and her boyfriend, and my mother and I are staying at an Airbnb in Seattle for the wedding and I thought it would be good to know where we were going.

We had stellar weather in Seattle. This is a view from the sun deck of the ferry just before we left. Trust me when I say this is not usually how Seattle looks.

It’s about half an hour on the ferry over to the island, and then it took us another half an hour to find the venue because Google Maps confused a roundabout for a stop sign. The island is very pretty, so the detour wasn’t a big deal. We found the venue—it’s lovely—then went back to the town near the ferry landing to do more shopping.

Bainbridge Island sports a cute little store called Esther’s Fabrics. My mother went to the boutique next door and I popped in to see what Esther’s carried. I bought this pattern:

Yes, I can draft my own patterns, but there is value is seeing how other designers approach the process. This booklet has a lot of good information. I also got two lengths of some decorative ribbon, one with Singer sewing machines on it and one with pigs on it.

My mother was supposed to fly back to Cleveland on Saturday morning, but at 11:30 pm Friday night, Alaska Airlines texted her to say that the flight was cancelled and they could not re-book her on anything else. We couldn’t find a flight leaving Seattle for a few days, but Delta had one leaving Spokane in the afternoon with a few seats still available. We had enough time to pack up and hit the road, and I dropped her off at the Spokane airport in time for her flight. As much as I like Alaska Airlines, these flight cancellations are a problem. They’ve done this to DD#2 twice. My mother is supposed to take this same flight to Seattle in September for the wedding. At least we were able to find a workaround. There were several hundred other people on that flight back to Cleveland who probably got stuck in Seattle longer than anticipated.

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I got my garden chores done yesterday morning before it got hot. (It got up to 86 yesterday, which for some people is not “hot,” but my friend Anna and I were discussing how much we prefer cooler weather.) The rows of lettuce and collard greens have been weeded and I did more trimming with the weedeater. I was able to find some replacement plants at the nursery on Sunday and I will get those put into the ground today. The husband has been pulling stumps and doing some landscaping in the yard in order to make it easier to mow the grass. I’ll get some garden and yard pics today while I am out working.

The Fish Were Biting

DD#2 went up to Ketchikan on Friday—we arrived on Sunday—and specifically requested to go fishing. One of DSIL’s colleagues has a boat and was only too happy to take them out on Saturday.

DD#1 caught a 32-pound halibut:

DD#2 also caught a halibut, albeit a slightly smaller one. Here are the kids are with their haul for the day (several halibut and one ling cod):

We bought the kids an industrial-grade vaccum sealer for Christmas last year and they are getting a lot of use out of it. Living so close to the water gives them plenty of opportunity to feed themselves for the cost of a yearly license and some effort. We had dungeness crab for dinner one night:

Seafood for dinner every night is my personal idea of heaven, living as I do in cow country.

We also had crab fries for lunch one day at a local restaurant, which is dungeness crab over fries with a spicy ranch sauce and cheese on top. Yum.

The bay is full of fish and seals—sometimes sea lions and whales—and the eagles like to perch in a tree next door to see what they can scavenge. I counted two dozen of them in the tree one afternoon:

DD#1 got us all tickets for the lumberjack show downtown. That was great fun.

DD#2 flew back to Seattle on Tuesday and we followed on Wednesday. I had reserved the Airbnb close to DD#2’s apartment again as a home base for my mother and I to do some exploring on Thursday and Friday. More on that in tomorrow’s post, along with details of some of my fabric shopping.

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Traveling in the spring and early summer is always tricky. I went to Alaska in May last year, which is typically when I do most of the garden prep and planting. I shifted the trip to late June this year, thinking that most of that work would be done, but I hadn’t counted on such a cold, wet spring pushing the growing schedule back three weeks. The husband faithfully watered what was still in the greenhouse. I have a bit more transplanting left to do this week.

The peas look more anemic than usual—too much rain?—and the corn still looks shell-shocked. I’m going to top dress the corn with some chicken manure. The tomatoes, amazingly, are coming along well. The potatoes are spectacular, as is the lettuce, Swiss chard, and collards. We had a salad with our lettuce last night. We will have zucchini, no doubt, but something got to the melons and cukes. I went to a nearby nursery yesterday and picked up some replacement vegetable starts to fill in the bare spots. The beans I started in the greenhouse never germinated.

The grapevines are loaded. I have never seen that many grapes on them before. One of the members of the homesteading group I frequent manages a vineyard, and she generously advised me on pruning the vines a few weeks ago.

I will watch produce sales this summer and pick up what we need. I can get beans and carrots for canning. The husband might miss fresh watermelon and cantaloupe, but the grapes should make up for the loss. And the raspberry bushes are covered with flowers—and bees—so I expect we’ll be swimming in raspberries shortly. The cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli love this weather.