Overly Ambitious Class Plans

Today will be a day of sewing. I have to get my decorative coverstitch store samples done so they can be put up on display. Some students will sign up just because it’s a serger/coverstitch class—even without knowing what they are going to learn—but others want to be able to see and touch an example of what we’ll be doing in class.

It’s a three-hour evening class, so there won’t be a ton of time. I sketched out a class plan with ambitious goals, but soon realized that if I want to teach everything on my list, we would be having a sleepover at the quilt store. Fun, but probably not what the owner imagined.

I’ll see where I am at the end of today. We might have to have an advanced coverstitch class after the holidays. It’s about time to be planning spring classes anyway. I have two students who want a Harper Cardigan class—they couldn’t take the one I did last month—and I talked to another woman yesterday who also would take it if I offer it again.

Quilting on the cream-and-white Scrapper’s Delight top has reached the halfway point:

I worked on it yesterday afternoon. I need to can up a few more items for the pantry for winter, so I ran 15 pints of red beans through the canner while I quilted. Beans take 90 minutes to process at 15 pounds of pressure:

I still need to do some white beans and pintos. The beans that have been drying in the greenhouse also have to be brought back to the house so I can shell them in the evenings. And we need more chicken stock.

It is slow going on that quilt top. It’s a king-sized top, and the table is 6' wide when the extensions are up, but quilts are surprisingly heavy. Moving the quilt around to quilt the pattern I’ve chosen—circles with a ruler—takes a bit of effort. I have to roll the quilt and make sure the edges aren’t hanging off the sides of the table. I do have the Horn table with the hydraulic lift, which has been a godsend. I brought in one of the tall chairs from our kitchen table and raised the table so the quilt won’t drag on the floor.

Slow and steady wins the race. Two hours here and two hours there and it’ll get done eventually. Loops would have been faster and easier. Ruler work always takes longer than free motion quilting. I’m trying to expand my horizons, though, and I do like the way this pattern looks.

If I get the coverstitch samples done today, I will move on to the Linda pants from Style Arc. (So far, we’ve had the Linda Top by Sinclair Patterns and now the Linda Pants by Style Arc, which is not confusing at all.)

I also picked up this New Look pattern on my travels last week:

I have no idea when I will get to it, but I like both the top and the pants. Both would lend themselves well to some decorative coverstitching on the seamlines.

Next week is ridiculously busy. I really need to have a talk with the person who manages my schedule. The Diva goes in Monday morning for body work on the damage from the accident last spring. (Yes, it took this long to get an appointment.) I will be driving DD#1’s Acura for at least a week. Monday afternoon is a dental appointment for a cleaning. I am scheduled to teach a class at the quilt store north of town on Tuesday, and I have the Socks on the Serger class Wednesday evening at the quilt store south of town. Thursday is open—for the moment, at least—and then it’s a day trip to Missoula on Friday to teach a serger mastery class. November is going to be a marathon, too. I had to let the music teacher know that I wouldn’t be available to play piano for her concert this year, much as I would love to, because I know better than to try and shoehorn anything else into the schedule.

Treasures From the Trip

At the Quilting Bee, the large quilt store in Spokane, I bought myself something nice with some of my profits from the craft co-op sale. I have been wanting one of these custom seam ripper/stilettos:

Each end pulls out and flips around to reveal either the seam ripper or stiletto. The tool has a nice weight to it, as well, and I think it will make ripping seams less tedious. I am learning to appreciate a really sharp seam ripper.

I picked up this serger pattern:

This might make a good class. I’ll make one up and see if the quilt store can order the pattern. Most everyone in my classes at the quilt store south of town has an L890 and thus has coverstitch capabilities. My big quibble with some of these patterns is that they say “serger” on them but you have to read the fine print to realize that they require coverstitch settings for some of the stitches. Not all sergers can coverstitch.

This is the blue damask—Joanns labeleled it “Delft” on the bolt—ponte fabric I picked up at the Alderwood Joanns.

Technically, I think it should be labelled a doubleknit, not a jersey knit. I categorize knits based on their structure, as you might expect a former knitting designer to do. This Threads article on identifying knits is very helpful, although I also think—splitting hairs, here—that doubleknit and interlock knits are really the same thing; doubleknits sometimes have a jacquard appearance to them, with different patterns on the two sides of the fabric. The term “doubleknit” carries that unfortunate taint of 1970’s polyester with it, however.

I will check my Sandra Betzina fabric book and see what she has to say.

Moving on . . . DD#2 suggested that I listen to this episode of the Glossy podcast, which is an interview with the Chief Merchandising Office of Macy’s, Nata Dvir. Macy’s has stopped carrying the Charter Club brand—at least in stores—and replaced it with a new women’s apparel house brand called On 34th.

This interview was fascinating. Dvir explained that Macy’s realized that they were underserving the 30-year-old to 50-year-old market (duh) and embarked on a project to find out what those women wanted when shopping for clothing.

[What a novel concept—asking customers what they want. How odd. /<sarcasm>]

They surveyed women, held focus groups, tested products, and finally came up with this new brand. I went to their website yesterday morning and checked it out. I like what I see. I especially liked these pants and ordered a pair, which made DD#2 remark that they got their target customer right:

I am withholding judgment until I see how they fit. The sizing for these pants was bizarre. The sizes ran from 24 to 36, which I understand can be similar to European sizing, but there was no way to correlate that—even by body measurements—with US sizing. I finally broke down and had an online chat with one of their stylists to figure out that a size 12 in US pants corresponded to a size 32 in the sizes listed.

[I am being rather pedantic today, aren’t I? Did you miss me?]

I do like that top, too, although I didn’t order one because I could tell by the specs given that the tops in the On 34th brand will be too short on me. Oh well. I can make one in a similar color.

Macy’s seems to be pulling out of the nosedive it has been in for a few years. Perhaps they should offer a master class to Joann’s corporate staff and suggest the same strategy of listening to customers.

I can’t believe that even has to be a thing. 🤦‍♀️

I am itching to start a quilt but I need to finish the one on the Q20, first. I worked on it yesterday afternoon. I used Warm and White batting—not Warm and Natural as I usually do—and I am finding it very irritating to my eyes. The bleach? I can only work on that quilt in two-hour stretches. I am almost to the halfway point, though. And I need to get my decorative coverstitch class sample made.

Spinning at SRF

I have had a whirlwind week, but it was great fun. I left last Tuesday morning to drive to Spokane, stopping at the small quilt store there to drop off two pairs of pants—one Jalie Renee and one New Look 6689—and talk to the owner about next month’s pants class. I visited one of the three Joann Fabrics stores. (Eh.) I checked out three Walmart remnant racks. One had been eliminated completely since my visit in August. Another had been scaled back to half the size. The third one was still there but didn’t have much inventory. I picked up a salad for dinner at Fred Meyer and checked into my hotel.

Early Wednesday morning, I headed for Seattle. The town of Moses Lake sits about halfway between Spokane and Seattle and is a good place to stop and stretch my legs. Moses Lake also has a Walmart and Joann Fabrics close to each other. I found two remnants at Walmart—a double-brushed poly and a rayon spandex—and spent an hour wandering Joanns. That location has only been open for about six or seven years. Their remnant rack is always full to bursting. Their clearance rack is well stocked, too. I scored some microfleece—I need some for my serger sock class next week and every store in Missoula, Kalispell, and Spokane is out—and got three cuts of Christmas fabric at 40% off. I also found some of the rayon sweatshirt fabric from two years ago. That was a really nice fabric—muddy earth tones notwithstanding—and I couldn’t figure out why they didn’t continue to carry it.

[Who am I kidding? No one is making rational decisions at that company.]

I continued on to Seattle, arriving in enough time to visit the mall where DD#2 worked when she first moved there. I needed new shoes and was able to find two pair at Nordstrom. I checked in at Half-Price Books and found a blacksmithing book for the husband. (We established early on in our relationship that I am good at hunting down reading material for him, so I make a point of checking bookstores when I travel.) I visited the Joann Fabrics nearby and was shocked to see a large selection of new fall apparel fabrics. Granted, most of it was in muddy earth tones again (sigh), but I did find a beautiful bolt of ponte in a blue Delft pattern. That is destined to become a dress.

I am unreasonably annoyed by the fact that our Joanns has nothing. Either our store is no longer getting shipments of fabric or there are boxes upon boxes of new stock languishing in the back room, sitting unopened due to lack of staff. Either way, it irritates me. Our store might as well just shut down.

I had dinner with DD#2, then spent the night at another hotel—I love reward points—and flew to Nashville Thursday morning. I arrived around 4:30 pm and was met by my ride to the little town of Camden, Tennessee.

This is why I went to Tennessee:

Nicole Sauce, whose Living Free in Tennessee podcast I have listened to for eight years, co-hosts the Self-Reliance Festival twice a year with John and Amanda Willis, who own Special Operations Equipment in Camden. I attended Nicole’s Spring Workshop in April, and we arranged that I would come back to do spinning demonstrations at the fall Self-Reliance Festival.

SRF is held on the grounds of Special Operations Equipment. SOE is a sewing factory. Can you imagine????? I visited with John about the industrial machines—over 50 of them—and looked at a Red Eye (Singer 66) treadle that Amanda recently purchased at auction.

The tag line for SRF is “Find Your Tribe.” Oh, these people are my tribe and then some. My friend from high school—Bob—and his girlfriend, Deana, drove over from their home on the east side of Tennessee to attend SRF, too. Deana had a vendor booth selling her handmade aprons and shawls and bowl cozies:

Nicole brought her Ashford Traditional spinning wheel along for me to demo on. A few people took me up on my offer to try spinning. I find that it works best if I do the treadling for them. A newbie spinner has enough to worry about just getting his or her hands organized.

The highlight of the fall SRF was a keynote presentation and chicken processing workshop by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. The husband and I have been fans of his for many years, so getting to meet him in person was truly amazing.

If his keynote address gets posted on YouTube, I’ll make sure to link to it. The chicken workshop was Monday and I flew home Monday morning, but I am sure that those who attended got a lot of value from it.

I arrived back in Seattle around noon local time on Monday, picked up my luggage and the car, and drove back to Spokane. I spent the night in Yet Another Hotel—a theme for this trip—and drove home yesterday morning. I’ve got a podcast to knock out today and some paperwork to clear off my desk. I’ve also got to get back on a decent eating plan. I did fine at SRF because we had lots of keto/carnivore options, but I wasn’t so disciplined on the trip home and I am feeling it. I’ll show off my fabric purchases in tomorrow’s post.

A Twist Top, Potatoes, and Date Night

The narrow coverstitch hem on the neckline of the Linda Twist Top worked beautifully:

I will use that technique again in the future. It wasn’t as tricky as I thought it might be. The only change I would make is to use knit stay tape at the shoulders instead of organza ribbon. I use 1/4" organza ribbon to stabilize the shoulders of all my knit tops, but the hem was a bit bulky in those places. The shoulders have to be sewn before hemming the neckline. I prefer the ribbon over the stay tape, but I would use stay tape in this situation.

The top itself was fun to make and turned out well (still needs hemming).

Construction requires both a sewing machine and a serger. Both the center front seam and the topstitching around the opening for the knot have to be done on the sewing machine.

This version, unfortunately, is a bit too big. I was between sizes according to my bust measurement and went up when I should have gone down. I try to adhere to Zede Donohue’s admonition that “knits should skim, not cling,” but that can be a moving target depending on the pattern and fabric. This pattern does indicate negative ease at the bust, which is appropriate for knits, but the entire upper bodice is just a bit too loose and tends to slide around. I will go down a size—and possibly move that V-neck up a tad—when I make the next one. I don’t wear a lot of V-necks precisely because most of them are too low and too wide.

I finished the top just as the husband got back from a concrete-cutting job. He tends to fit those in on evenings and weekends because they are small jobs that don’t take very long. Our weather has been gorgeous, so we decided to go out and dig up potatoes after lunch.

The potato crop this year was a bit disappointing. That part of the garden needs some soil amendments. Next spring, I will put down a bunch of rotting straw and cover the whole area with black plastic. The area on the other side of the garden where we did that a few years ago is the spot that always produces a bumper crop of potatoes. We have enough for the two of us, though.

The husband needed new work boots, so he suggested we go to the Army-Navy store and then out to dinner. I dropped him off to do his boot shopping and went across the street to Joann Fabrics. This is the Butterick pattern that I want to use for my pants class—the one I thought was OOP because the Joanns website said it wasn’t in stock in Kalispell and wasn’t available to ship:

I checked the drawer anyway and found four copies—two in the smaller size range and two in the larger size range. (I should know better than to believe Joanns’ inventory system.) Butterick patterns are $1.99 each this weekend so I bought all four. I’m not thrilled with this pattern because it only comes in alphabet sizing instead of actual garment sizes, but at least I have it.

I think that I am going to bring copies of all these patterns to class and will decide in class which pattern will work best for which student. Each student can pay me for the pattern and take it home with her.

For dinner, we went to a different steak house between Kalispell and Whitefish. We’re trying to use up some gift cards. I had a chopped steak with bleu cheese on top and the husband had a Porterhouse. We finished off dinner with an amazing piece of caramel apple cheesecake.

And then it was off to Home Depot. The husband had a whole shopping list of things he needed:

We discussed cars over dinner. I want to drive the BMW for as long as I can, but I need a contingency plan. I told him to choose something for me because that Volvo station wagon is now out of the running. He knows cars better than I do. Also, he has to work on it, so it’s got to be something that isn’t going to cause him to throw wrenches around his shop. He is leaning toward the Acura MDX. These are my requirements for a new car:

• Station wagon or SUV

• All-wheel drive

• It has to be a color other than white. (White cars in a place that has snow six months out of the year is just stupid, IMO. You can’t see them on the road. Also, most of the time it actually would be light gray because of all the dirt.)

• Heated seats

• Sunroof

• A six-cylinder engine. (I have been driving a BMW for the past seven years and I don’t want to go back to something that plods along.)

I probably will do what I did with the BMW and keep checking the dealers in Seattle to find a two year-old lease turn-in. He suggested I test drive a few cars when I am there over Thanksgiving. I am not going to be happy about giving up the 40 mpg I get with the BMW—the MDX only gets 25 mpg—but I need something reliable.

The Pants Saga Continues

Butterick 6966, the Palmer/Pletsch pattern, will not work for the pants class. DSIL’s mom—an accomplished seamstress herself—noted that seamlines are useful places to make fitting adjustments. Having fewer seamlines is not always a good thing. I didn’t even bother to make a muslin of that pattern. I traced View D, the straight leg version, onto some Pellon Easy Pattern and did as suggested in the instructions, fitting one leg to my body using a piece of elastic at the waist. I had it hanging beautifully at the center, with the side dart perfectly positioned at the side of my body. (The pattern also had darts on the back and front.) However, that left a huge chunk of fabric billowing out at the hips and side leg. To make matters worse, the back rise was 2" too short.

A side seam would have been incredibly useful for fitting, but the pant leg was one wraparound piece of fabric. Add in that short back rise and it would have been faster for me to draft a pair of pants from scratch than to figure out how to get that pattern piece to look like the pants on the front of the envelope. Perhaps someone more experienced in tissue fitting could have made it work, but I have such lousy spatial perception skills that the whole idea was beyond me.

Back to the drawing board. I totally understand why people don’t like to make pants.

I pulled out this pattern:

Some of you may remember that I made the knot top from this pattern last year. (I liked it, but it was too short.) At the time, I also traced the pants pattern but never made them. I went stash diving through the bin of ponte for something suitable and came up with a three-yard length of black fabric that I think I found at the Walmart in Missoula in August. Robin was on that trip with me. The fabric looks and feels like a ponte on one side and a microfleece on the other.

Before I traced the pattern, I laid the Renee pant pieces over it to compare them. I should have done that with the Palmer/Pletsch pattern because I would have seen, right off the bat, that the back rise was going to be a problem. The Renee pant pieces looked very similar to the New Look pieces in that area, so I felt confident in going forward.

I cut out the pattern—20 minutes—and put it together on the serger—another 20 minutes. The pants fit me perfectly. They are long enough in the rise to come up to my natural waistline; in fact, I went back and scooped out about 1/2” in the front rise to make it sit slightly lower.

[I had a similar pair of Liz Claiborne pants that I finally donated to Goodwill, because the rise on them was just short enough that they constantly felt as if they were falling off my hips. It is lovely to have pants with a waistband that sits where it should.]

If I were going to make them in a ponte or interlock, which I will at some point, I probably would go down a size. That ponte/microfleece fabric is wonderful. If I could find out who manufactures it, I’d be tempted to buy a bolt.

This pattern will work for the pants class, yes? Maybe not. My one quibble with New Look patterns is their limited size range. The largest finished hip measurement on these pants is 43", so anyone with hips bigger than about 45" around is out of luck.

I’ve found one Butterick pattern that is very similar, and it has a shorts option, which is even better. When I teach the Renee pants class, I have everyone make a muslin in shorts length, because there is no sense wasting fabric on the pant legs until we get the top of the pants to fit properly. Of course, this Butterick pattern appears to be out of print, although I did find a copy on Etsy. (ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH)

I will figure out how to teach this pants class come hell or high water. We can always default to the Renee pants, although I really like that New Look pattern. I just know the New Look pattern is probably going to be too small for one of the women who wants to take this class. These are so quick and easy to make, though, that I suspect we could re-draft the pattern to fit her through a bit of trial and error. And the goal of this class isn’t to make a pair of tailored, well-fitting pants; the goal of this class is to introduce students to the agony joys of measuring crotch curves and rises and getting a forgiving pair of knit pants to fit reasonably well, because there is only so much I can do in a six-hour introductory pants class.

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I press on. After I finished the New Look pants, I got out the Linda twist top. I am not going to finish the neckline with the binding/facing as suggested in the pattern. I am going to make a coverstitch hem there, instead. That requires folding down 1/4" of fabric and using the narrow coverstitch hem on my machine. I got as far as pinning it in place yesterday afternoon:

We’ll see how this goes. I am really good at coverstitch hems, but this one is narrower than anything I’ve done before. In theory, it should work. I will test on some scrap fabric, first.

I don’t use those fine glass-head pins very often. They are great for situations like this, but I always manage to stab myself (multiple times) with them.

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In podcast news, I recorded episode 6 yesterday. It will be posted next Tuesday. The podcast has been a great deal of fun, even if I am the only person who is entertained by it. I also—finally!—figured out why it wasn’t posting to iTunes. There was a glitch in the RSS feed which was preventing it from being picked up. It is on iTunes now, however, so if you are feeling charitable and would like to leave a review, I would appreciate it.

Pants—What Have We Learned?

I got my summer tires changed over to snow tires yesterday morning. On the way in to town, one of my tire pressure monitors lit up (how timely). I let the guys know when I got there so they could check it out. It turned out to be a small screw stuck in the tire.

This tire place delivers service. I am only there twice a year, but as soon as I walked in the door, the owner pushed a piece of paper over to the guy next to him at the counter and said, “This is for Janet’s car—go get her tires started.” How he knows my name is beyond me, but he does. I usually sit in the waiting room with my iPad and some knitting while they change the tires. Typically, it takes about 45 minutes. One of their employees was an hour and a half late yesterday, so I was there for two and a half hours. They apologized profusely for making me wait, but they also found the screw in the tire and repaired it for free. I wasn’t going to complain. I go into that situation twice a year knowing that I might have to sit and knit for a while, or read a book, so I deal with it.

Attitude is everything.

I stopped at sewing on the way home. Our checks were all ready for us. Between teaching and the sale, last weekend was fairly lucrative.

I came home, had lunch, and got started on the Éléonore pants. About twenty minutes into them, I decided they won’t work for this class. The issue is that they are very fiddly. There are back yoke pieces, front mock pockets, a fake front fly, and everything has to be topstitched with two parallel lines of stitching. And that didn’t include the back pockets, which I left off this muslin. When I prep for a class, one of the yardsticks I use—no pun intended—is how long does it take me to make something? I time myself, then multiply that by at least three. This is an all-day pants class, yes, but the construction is going to take so long that I worry there won’t be time to address fitting issues. Also, this store has a tiny, tiny classroom area, so having everyone on both sergers and sewing machines is tricky.

[Conversation over dinner revolved around why anyone would have fake pockets on their pants. The husband thinks fake anything is a waste of time and wanted to know why there weren’t functional pockets in the pattern. Personally, I am not obsessed with pockets in clothing but I suppose he has a point.]

I finished the pants anyway. I’m not in love with them, but I am glad I made them so I could see how they went together.

It’s back to the drawing board. I am going to try this pattern today:

This one is dead simple: two pattern pieces and a length of elastic. It’s also a Palmer/Pletsch pattern, so it has fitting tips included. I’m going to make a quick muslin for myself, and if I like the way they fit, I’ll make up a pair in a nice ponte for the store to display. The waistband on these is similar to the Jalie Renee pants, with darts and elastic, although the waistband isn’t as deep. These can also be made entirely on the serger. The goal of this pants class is the same goal I have with my introductory T-shirt classes. I make sure that students understand that fitting is a process and that they are unlikely to nail it perfectly on the first try, but we have to start somewhere.

If this pattern fails, I will just go ahead and use the Renee pants pattern. I’ve taught that class here twice and it has gone over well both times.

Not an Alterations Shop

I had an amazingly productive day yesterday. I’d love to have a week of days where I can buckle down and work for six or eight hours straight.

After the husband left for work—he was pouring concrete at 8 am so he was out of here fairly early—I headed to my sewing room to clean and organize. Everything related to the sale had to be put away. I took advantage of some newly-emptied tubs to sort and store my knit fabrics. I earmarked a stack of fabrics to become either long-sleeved LDTs or possible Linda twist tops if I like that pattern. A muslin for the Linda top has been traced and cut out, but I haven’t had time to assemble it yet.

The next order of business was hemming a bridesmaid’s dress for a young woman at church. I have no desire to do alterations, but I will do small jobs here and there. She brought the dress and shoes to church on Sunday, and I pinned and marked a new hem. The dress is made from a gorgeous dark green stretch velvet. The skirt overlaps in front and is open to the hem. I hung it up in my sewing room and looked at it a couple of times to make sure I understood the construction before I started taking it apart. In the end, it was easier than I expected. The dress and the lining were sewn in a continuous circle with a coverstitch hem. I worked around and pinned up the entire circumference, then hung the dress from a hook on the wall over my coverstitch machine. I put the seam guide on the bed of the machine and very carefully stitched a new hem. Once I was sure that the new line of stitching looked good and was correct, I pressed the hem (on a towel), then went back with a pair of duckbill (appliqué) scissors and carefully cut off the excess fabric just above the new stitching line. That is not my preferred way of making coverstitch hems, but it’s a legitimate method. In this case, it was much easier and more accurate than first cutting the excess fabric, then folding up and stitching a hem.

I am happy with how it turned out. I’ll deliver the dress on Sunday.

After lunch and a phone visit with DD#1, I tackled the Jalie Éléonore pants.

I traced the pattern, then located the stretch poplin I bought on clearance at Joann Fabrics and cut them out. I went up a size from the Renee pants because those were ponte and these are poplin. This pair is being made straight from the pattern without alteration. I didn’t have to alter the Renee pants, so I want to check the fit on these before I start messing with them. Also, these are going to be a store display/class sample.

By then, it was time to start working on dinner. I changed the needles in the sewing machine and serger and rethreaded both with black thread so they would be ready to go today.

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From the “Where has common sense gone?” department, I logged into QuickBooks Online yesterday morning to write some checks and was met with a message that an update was available. I agreed to download and install the update. (I always wonder if something will break after the update and turn a two-minute task into a three-hour ordeal.) After the update, I was met with a splash screen letting me know that, Hey!—this update is intended to restore the appearance and function of QBO back to the Desktop version familiar to users!

Gee, maybe you should have left it that way from the get-go. 🤦‍♀️

Back in the olden days—get off my lawn—it seemed that companies were actually concerned with meeting customers’ needs. Build a better mousetrap, etc. More and more, it seems that companies are completely tone-deaf to what people want. Instead, companies bring the items to market that THEY want to sell (or are being incentivized to sell) and try to jam them down consumers’ throats. No one really wants to buy a car loaded with useless options that add 10K to the price tag. Joann Fabrics customers would like to buy fabric, not cheap Dollar Store crap from China. Everyone I know hates the software-as-a-service model that Adobe and Intuit have espoused, which is intended to bleed users slowly and continuously. (I did switch to Affinity, but I miss some things about Adobe Creative Suite.) And while I am sure that it kept a whole office building of software engineers busy, the QBO redesign slowed my workflow to a crawl because everything that used to require one mouse click now requires five.

I’m getting tired of being held hostage.

I was considering a Volvo station wagon as a replacement for The Diva when she finally wears out. The husband and I watched a video review of the Volvo the other night. The reviewer is a very sharp guy who owns a repair shop, and he went over that car with a fine-toothed comb. His recommendation? You don’t want this car in your life if you’re ever going to have to work on it. I thought the Germans were bad. The Swedes make the Germans look like kindergarteners when it comes to over-engineering. Halfway through the video, I looked at the husband and said, “I’m not getting this car, am I?” and he shook his head.

Honestly, I am about ready to go back to a Ram pickup, except that I don’t want to have to drive one in Seattle. I’ll keep looking.

Is This Too Loud?

I am still trying to catch up from last week. We had an unexpected emergency here this weekend—nothing major, but it required that I spend all of yesterday attending to it. And even though it disrupted the schedule, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. The situation is sorted now and I am working to get back on track. I haven’t even unloaded my car from this past weekend.

That also means that this week’s podcast might not get posted until later today. We’ll see how things go this morning and if I can get it done before I have to leave to teach my serger mastery class.

Have you seen the Minerva video highlighting the release of their new crush velvet fabric?

I’m trying to be good and not buy anything else until I sew up some of what I’ve got, but I will need a Christmas outfit and I want something luxe. The prints are absolutely gorgeous. This one caught my eye immediately:

I love love love it but I think it might be too loud for church. I may have to go with one of the more demure prints. I’m still thinking about it. This print also comes on some of their other substrates, like the viscose jersey.

I should have started sewing my own clothes a long time ago.

Other than trying to keep my schedule on an even footing, nothing momentous is happening this week. It is the first of the month, so I have a lot of paperwork to handle. (I still hate QuickBooks online, in case you were wondering.) DD#2 asked me yesterday about plans for Thanksgiving, so I need to get those in place. I think I’ll be going to Seattle. I am looking at taking a private class at the Sewing and Design School in Tacoma that week. I’m being very generous to myself with the birthday gifts this year. (My birthday is the day after Thanksgiving.) Taking some sewing classes is exactly what I want.

Be a Good Student

I taught a Laundry Day Tee class at the quilt store yesterday to six students. Seven registered, but one had to make a trip out of town unexpectedly. All in all, it was a very good class. Every student finished a top by the end of the day, although most took theirs home to hem. I had one motivated student who cut and finished two tops, because she’s leaving on a trip today and wanted to take them with her.

I did get a bit preachy at the beginning of class about students coming to class prepared—or rather, not prepared. Once again, I had people show up and tell me they didn’t have a pattern, so we went over the need to check the supply list for links to patterns and details about what to bring. The store owner overheard part of my sermon and said that she would make some changes at the registration end of things. I also made a point of saying that just because a pattern was free on the internet did not mean that we were entitled to do whatever we wanted with it, and that part of using a free pattern involved supporting the designer in other ways. I encouraged my students to go to the Love Notions website and purchase at least one pattern.

I think I got the point across. Truly, though, it is a PITA for the teacher when people don’t come prepared. I had one lady who came with no pattern and no fabric, so she was behind from the start of the class. She was able to finish a top, but she required extra help from me in finding fabric and getting the pattern traced in her size.

I’m not opposed to helping people figure out how to download and print patterns—I know that some of this technology is new—but those arrangements have to be made before class.

I sound like a grump, but I do love teaching. One of my students made her LDT from some crepe fabric, which was a real leap but worked beautifully. I wouldn’t have thought of using crepe. It is stretchy enough that the only change she had to make was to cut the neckband on the bias. And now I want to make an LDT out of some crepe I have in the stash.

Another student made her LDT entirely on her sewing machine (and used some Walmart remnant rack fabric). Yet another student—who wasn’t very comfortable with her machine when she started—was serging like a rock star by the end of class. She made a gorgeous long-sleeve LDT with the cowl neck option and modeled it for us when she was done.

I loved that each student was willing to experiment a bit and choose the pattern options that worked for her.

After class, I headed back to the church to help clean up after the sale. Here are a few more pictures:

This was Sarah’s table full of linen handtowels and beeswax candles. These were very popular at last year’s sale. Sarah has done a lot of craft shows and knows how to create a beautiful display.

Sunnie had a number of paintings for sale, too:

I have a couple of her paintings. One hangs in our bedroom and I get to look at it every morning. The scene is the pasture behind Sunnie’s house and it’s one of my favorite spots in our little community.

Our last customer left at 4 pm and our group got to work. While the cashiers did the final calculations—we surpassed last year’s total—the rest of us collected the items that were left, packed them up, and put the church back the way we found it when we started. It helps that this is my church because I know where everything lives and I’m also the person with the key to the door. We were done in an hour and a half.

I came home, had some dinner, and went to bed. The husband was out in the shop repairing a cylinder on the forklift, so we didn’t get a chance to visit with each other. (The repair was completed successfully.) I have to play at church this morning but I plan to relax this afternoon. This has been a busy couple of days. I am looking forward to having a break. It looks like the rain is ending for a while, too, but still no frost in the forecast.

Another Growing Season in the Books

Our next-door neighbor, Mike, and I left around 8 am Thursday to go get pork. Mike’s property backs up onto our pig pasture and he feeds our pigs scraps over the fence. He also bought half a hog from us this year. He offered to drive his truck up to the processor and help me haul boxes of frozen pork back here. We probably could have gotten it all into his truck, but I drove the station wagon. The processor is halfway to Spokane and I did not want to have to make two trips.

I love this time of year. The drive was lovely. Tourists are mostly gone and the fall colors are coming out. The processor was ready for us and had all the boxes labeled and ready to load. I asked to be put on their schedule for next fall. I don’t know if we’ll do pigs again, but if we do, we will have a processing date in late September or early October. We used to do that with our first processor until they went out of business with no warning.

I am glad to have all of that sorted. And with all of this cool and rainy weather, I am ready to stay inside and sew.

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I missed setup for market, but other members did a wonderful job getting all the items placed for sale. The quilts are laid out over the pews in our church sanctuary:

We started doing this at last year’s sale and it works very well. Besides being a dramatic focal point, it frees up space for other items in the fellowship hall:

We had quite a rush as soon as the doors opened; in fact, I had people stopping me in the parking lot as I was walking in at 9:30 because they wanted to know if we were open yet. (We opened at 10 am.) Business was brisk until well after lunchtime, when we got a break. Smaller items seemed to be selling better than quilts. I expected that. Quilts are a ton of work and we price ours accordingly. Also, I think that people have a lot less money to spend right now thanks to rampant inflation. All of my potholders went quickly—they usually do—and the majority of my canvas grocery bags.

Trying to figure out what will sell is tricky and not worth the extra effort because every year is different. I think it makes more sense just to make a variety of items and have fun doing it. I am trying to concentrate on making items that other people don’t—I have a serger and an industrial Juki, so I probably will continue to make items like canvas grocery bags.

I sat in the Christmas decor area—unfortunately, we have to keep an eye out that items don’t walk out the door—and worked on a prayer shawl. This is usually a good time to do some visiting and catch up with people I haven’t seen in a while.

Market is open today, as well, from 10-4. I’m teaching, but will come by after class to help clean up. And then I expect to come home and fall into bed, exhausted, LOL. I think I will be able to get in some serious sewing time this week. though. It’s time to make pants.

A Wrench in the Schedule

We are supposed to set up for the craft co-op sale today. The meat processor called yesterday afternoon and said, “Your pork is ready.” Implicit in that statement is “You need to come get it ASAP” because the processor needs the freezer space for the next round of processing. We never know when they are going to call; we only get a ballpark estimate of a couple of weeks from when the pigs go in. The husband is pouring concrete at 8 am today or he would make the trip.

That means that instead of helping to set up for the sale today, I will be driving two hours one-way to the processor to pick up 700 pounds of pork. Our next-door neighbor is coming along with his truck. He bought pork from us and said he would be happy to help transport. Between his truck and the Diva, we should be able to get it all back here and delivered this afternoon.

I knew this was a possibility when the pigs went to the processor. I just wish the processor had called on Tuesday, because we could have gone yesterday. Oh, well.

One of the (common sense) rules about the co-op sale is that everyone has to help. That means helping with set-up/take-down and being there for part of the sale. I’m not going to be at the sale Saturday because I’m teaching. I can’t be there for set-up because I have to retrieve pork. It is possible to sell at the sale without being there, but the co-op takes a larger cut of the individual’s profits because other people have to do the work on that person’s behalf. I don’t have enough inventory to make it work if the co-op takes a larger cut, so I had decided not to participate in this year’s sale. However, when I went up to the church last night to give my key to the two ladies who were setting up, they convinced me to bring my stuff anyway. As long as I am there on Friday and come to help take down after my class on Saturday, I will fulfill my obligation to the co-op for the sale.

Everything is priced and labeled, so I will drop the boxes off at the church on my way to the processor.

The next couple of days will be a marathon, but next week’s schedule is mostly clear.

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I had a discussion with one of the quilt store employees yesterday. She also teaches there, and we discussed the fact that students are not coming prepared to class. (I touched on this in this week’s podcast, too.) The supply lists for each class are on the website, but apparently, students aren’t reading them. She had a student come to class last week without a sewing machine. I find that baffling. Why would you come to a sewing class without a machine?

[My supply lists are incredibly detailed and always begin with “Sewing machine or serger in working condition.”]

When I related this to the husband, he said he doesn’t think this is anything new. I think it is. When Tera and I went to Sew Expo, each of us took a rolling case containing everything we thought we could possibly need for any of the classes we were taking. If we had shown up unprepared, the teacher likely would have shrugged her shoulders. The expectation that someone else—in this case, the teacher—will take care of everything for you is odd, but it’s becoming more prevalent.

We’re going to ask the class coordinator to find some way to highlight the supply lists on the website so that people will know to take a look at them for each class. The husband says he doesn’t think that will help. (Such a cynic.) If someone shows up to one of my classes without a machine or a pattern, though, I’m just going to shrug my shoulders.

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The Walmart remnant rack was jam packed with new fabrics yesterday. I looked but didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without. Looking through my stash, I have gotten some absolutely gorgeous fabrics from that remnant rack in the past year.

I whipped up a Pattern for Pirates Cocoon Cardigan yesterday afternoon:

This is such an instant gratification project. It doesn’t take long at all, although I still have to hem the sleeves. The fabric is a waffle knit from Walmart.

Shoemaker's Children

Someone needs some new potholders.

I wonder if I know anyone who sews? LOL. I made these about 10 years ago. I remember sewing them on my Singer Rocketeer. Now I make them in bulk by layering large pieces of fabric for top and bottom with batting and Insul-Brite. I quilt the whole sandwich on the Q20 and then cut the large piece into potholder-sized pieces. Finish with binding and ta-da!—potholders. I’ll have some in the sale.

Everything is tagged and priced. I don’t have a ton of stuff to sell, but I have enough.

All of the squash came in except for these huge babies. I have no idea what variety they are. If ever there was a label, it’s missing.

Some of our squash from the plant sale was mislabeled. I heard that from a customer and I also had incorrect labels on some of the plants I brought home. These acorn squash were labeled Galeux, which is that warty pumpkin.

I started Table King acorn squash in the greenhouse, but these don’t look like Table King. We’ll have to be more careful about our labeling next spring. Squash seedlings look very similar.

The butternut squash are finding homes, happily.

I made “egg roll in a bowl” in the Instant Pot for dinner with one of my cabbages. The cabbages—the ones I was able to keep the ground squirrels from destroying—did really well. Elysian had a variety in the plant sale called Jung’s Triplet Hybrid. I put in a couple of those and they made the cutest little softball-sized white cabbage. Those are going into the rotation again next year. Sometimes I want a small cabbage and they are the perfect size.

All that’s left is to dig potatoes.

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The fourth podcast episode is up. The podcast is getting some traction; I host it externally at BuzzSprout, and they send me an analytics report every few days. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the number of downloads. I will keep trying to make improvements as I go along. There are a thousand details still needing to be addressed, though, mostly having to do with social media (ugh).

I found a very interesting video yesterday; it was linked on the Joann Fabrics subreddit so I went and checked it out. The YouTube channel is called Sewing Report and the host of the channel did a two-hour dig into what is going on at Joann Fabrics. I think she may be a former (or current) journalist. She stated right up front that she only used sources that could be verified, which included everything from Joanns’ own website all the way down to SEC filings. I watched the video while cutting out a Patterns 4 Pirates Cocoon Cardigan.

Yes, Joanns is currently owned by a private equity firm. (Technically, it is a public company, but the private equity firm owns something like 70% of shares.) This private equity company has owned it since 2019, I think, but it may be that they have finally decided it is a lost cause. The company has a staggering amount of debt. Of course, it seems to be trying to dig itself out of a hole by cutting employees to part-time minimum wage status and forcing customers to buy online. The current inflationary environment doesn’t help, either. People are cutting back. I watched another YouTube video a few weeks ago on the Quilt Addicts Anonymous channel where the owner talked about how inflation was crushing their business, directly and indirectly. Her business went from a high of 14 employees a few years ago to now simply trying to keep the doors open.

The whole situation is very sad. I doubt Joanns management understands what customers want, and until they make an effort to figure that out, they are trying to bail out a sinking ship with a teaspoon. Perhaps some of the execs should take a pay cut.

I also found out yesterday that Target is closing two Seattle stores, both of which my kids shopped at. The reason given was increasing theft and security issues. DD#2 told me that the Target nearest her—one that is closing—has everything locked up in cases, so if you want to buy anything, you have to find an employee to unlock the case.

Empires fall.

A Million Butternut Squash

I rely on Michael Snyder’s Pacific Northwest Weather Watch channel on YouTube for an accurate weather forecast, and he’s been talking for a week about the impending storm train coming in off the Pacific. We had a lovely day yesterday with sun and temps in the mid-70s. Today is supposed to be slightly cooler, followed by a week of temps in the 50s and rain. (Still no frost in the forecast, though.) I want everything brought in from the garden—either stored in the house or, temporarily, in the greenhouse. I cleaned off the two Honeycrisp trees yesterday afternoon.

[A neighbor up the road caught a grizzly bear on his game cam the other night. I saw the pictures. So did one of the bear biologists at FWP, apparently, who estimated its size at over 1000 pounds. 😳]

After getting the apples in, I went out to the garden to deal with the butternut squash. I worry that if I leave them out in the garden, they will rot in the rain. I put in two butternut squash plants last summer and none of the squash ripened before frost. This year, I hedged my bets and put in five plants. And this is what happened:

I didn’t count, but I would guesstimate that there are about 60 butternut squash there. And another 20 or so are still out in the garden and have to come in today.

These are all up for grabs, local peeps. There are personal-size squash, family-size squash, and everything in between. I even told the UPS guy to stop and get some the next time he drives past the greenhouse on the way to the neighbor’s. Whatever is left next week probably will be taken to the food bank.

The load of pig manure that was spread out over that section of the garden last spring no doubt contributed to the bounty.

Our tray of lettuce in the greenhouse is pretty well spent. I need to start up the indoor system again soon.

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I had a great visit with my naturopath yesterday. He said my bloodwork was perfect and that I am one of the healthiest people he knows. Considering that I was a hot mess, health wise, when I first saw him 15 or 16 years ago, that is a big deal.

And I had a wonderful e-mail waiting for me when I got home—my class proposals for Sew Expo 2024 were accepted! The class coordinator sent me a lovely note and said she was excited to see my proposals. We are working on scheduling. I don’t want to give specifics about the classes other than to say they are three knitting classes geared toward knitters who want to increase their repertoire of skills. The dates for next year’s Expo are February 29 to March 4.

I am trying to find a pants pattern for the class in Spokane in November. This is proving tougher than I expected. I could teach the Jalie Renee pants, but I don’t think that that style—skinny legs—is going to appeal to some of the women I know want to take the class. I had a request for pants without an elasticized waist, or with elastic that doesn’t bunch. The Renee pants are like that. They have elastic, but it’s smooth and hidden inside the waistband. What I need is a pattern like the Renee pants on top, but with wider legs. I could hack the Renee pattern to have wider legs. StyleArc has a number of really nice pants patterns, but they split their sizing such that if someone has to grade between two specific sizes, where the pattern breaks, they’d have to buy two patterns. And should I do knit pants or stretch wovens? Questions.

Arrggghhh. I’m still thinking about this. I need to get cracking, though, in case I need to make a new class sample. Lots to do this week. The fourth podcast episode will be up later this morning.

Ruffly Aprons on the Serger

Apron class was a lot of fun. I only had one student—she took my Serger 101 class at this store last month—but she was engaged and ready to learn and that makes teaching that much more enjoyable. She has a couple of friends who were interested in taking the class but both had conflicts yesterday. I said that if they wanted to choose a date, I’d be happy to arrange something for all three of them. I’ve started offering that option to students. The two women who took my Harper Cardigan class also wanted to take the Laundry Day Tee class that I’m teaching next weekend, but they will be out of town. I told them I would do a class for them if we can find a date that works for all three of us and the store.

My student has a serger she inherited from a cousin when the cousin upgraded. It’s a Brother 925D and it is probably the easiest serger I’ve ever threaded. And despite being an older model, the machine was able to do all the techniques in the pattern. We were using an apron pattern designed by Deb Canham for BabyLock and provided as a free download on the BabyLock website. I like to use manufacturer patterns when I can—this store is a BabyLock dealer—but one of the issues I sometimes encounter is that manufacturer patterns are designed to showcase the latest and greatest features of the new high-end machines. Those features might be lacking on older or lower-end machines. For example, the newer sergers can make stitches up to 9mm wide. My Juki 654-DE only makes stitches up to 7mm wide, and this Brother 925D had a max stitch width of 6mm. The apron featured flatlock stitches with 12wt thread on the pocket. We were able to get the Brother to make the flatlock stitch, but it wasn’t as wide or as dramatic as it was on the class sample, which I made on my Bernina.

Still, the apron turned out beautifully:

The last couple of steps have to be done on the sewing machine, so my student was going to do those at home. She also plans to make a Christmas version of this apron. Both of us were very happy with the class. She added several new techniques to her arsenal, including working with decorative thread and gathering. I still think she’s going to outgrow that machine sooner rather than later, but it has been an excellent machine for her to learn on. If I ever run across that model in a thrift store, I certainly would consider buying it.

The store was very busy yesterday. Apparently, a large group of quilters was having a retreat somewhere here in the Flathead and shopping was on the schedule. They split into two groups; one half came to the store north of town and one half went to the store south of town. After lunch, they flipped.

Speaking of that Harper Cardigan (again), I ran across a YouTube video last night where the sewist made the cropped version and added buttons. I am so tempted. I shied away from cropped tops and cardigans during that interminable period of time when they were paired with low-rise pants but now that the fashion world has come to its senses and high-rise pants are back in style—forever, I hope—I find that I love cropped tops and sweaters paired with my high-rise, wide-leg Liz Claiborne jeans.

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The husband stayed home yesterday and worked on replacing all the screws holding the metal roofing in place on the porch roof. Our house is 27 years old and he has a laundry list of things that need to be addressed.

I’d like to stay home and get a few things crossed off my list, too, but we have another lunch and meeting after church today. I hope this is the last one for a while.

I’ve got an appointment with my naturopath first thing tomorrow morning. I want to get my snow tires put on this week, too, because I’ll be driving to Seattle in a few weeks. If I don’t get them put on before that trip, I can guarantee there will be a snowstorm over Snoqualmie Pass the day I drive over. The rest of the week will be devoted to getting ready for the co-op sale and the Laundry Day Tee class.

So Long, Tomatoes

The grand total came out to 45 quarts of tomato sauce. I haven’t decided what to do with the other ten bags of tomatoes in the freezer. If we need the space for pork, I may end up giving them to the chickens. If not, I’ll leave them and make salsa next month. I don’t have time for any more canning until the end of October.

Some of this week’s production waiting to be labeled and filed in the pantry:

I inherited Margaret’s collection of canning jars when she moved from Montana to Indiana. (Bless you, Margaret.) Every so often a really nice vintage one comes through the rotation. I’m pulling and saving those when I see them. The difference in quality between old and new canning jars is huge—and sad.

If anyone needs or wants extra tomatoes, let me know. You can have the ones from the freezer. The turkeys are eating the tomatoes that are left in the garden, although I pop out there every couple of days for cherry tomatoes for our salads. I still have to bring in all the butternut squash and the pumpkins but I am waiting for a frost. I can’t believe I am saying that on September 23, although the mountains got a dusting of snow this week.

I cleaned yesterday. The amount of fine, gritty ash that comes in with these forest fires is staggering, and if I don’t stay ahead of it, it will just circulate through the house all winter. I worked on our bedroom. That is the only room that has windows open during the summer—I keep the insulated shades on the upstairs windows all year now to help keep the upstairs cooler—so it needed cleaning the most. I stripped the bedding, took down the curtains, moved all the furniture, and vacuumed and wiped down all the surfaces. I emptied the tank of the Dyson vacuum twice. The air scrubber was running the entire time. It looks and feels much cleaner in there now. At some point, I’ll have to do the same thing to the living room and kitchen. I did them earlier in the summer but they need it again.

As part of yesterday’s cleaning festival, I worked on purging some stuff out of my closet. I am keeping my Liz Claiborne pieces, of course, but my goal is that everything else be made by me. My wardrobe is a lot more colorful now. No more muddy earth tones, and black is reserved for a few key pieces.

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I’ve got a pants class in Spokane on the schedule for November. I haven’t decided if I want to teach the Jalie Renee pants or another pants pattern. I scheduled it right after the Lark Tee class in Missoula. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going to arrange periodic teaching circuits around the Pacific Northwest. If I am already in Missoula, I might as well drive to Spokane. I was hoping to squeeze the Farm and Food Symposium in between the Lark Tee class—which is on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning—and the pants class, which is scheduled for Friday, but the symposium is on Wednesday and Thursday. I may see if I can take some a la carte seminars at the symposium on Thursday. If not, I can find plenty of ways to entertain myself in Spokane.

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I’m teaching a serger apron class today at the quilt store north of town. We have had a lot of trouble filling classes at this store. I expected to have to cancel the class because no one had signed up as of Monday, but when I called the store yesterday to check, the staffperson said a couple of people had signed up at the last minute. I don’t like to cancel classes, so I will teach this one.

I Know Knot What Top

It’s a technical sewing blog post today.

I traced both the Burda knot top pattern and the Sinclair Patterns Linda twist top this week. The construction methods for each top are quite different, even though the end result is similar. The Burda top has five—five—pattern pieces just for the front, and the neckline is finished with a facing. Those Germans, LOL. They overengineer everything. The Linda top has three pattern pieces total—fronts, back, and sleeves—and the pattern says, ‘Finish the neckline with binding.”

I am going to split some hairs here, although technically, I don’t think this distinction is incorrect. If you specify “binding” in a pattern, I am going to assume that you are referring to a strip of fabric that folds over to enclose a raw edge, like the binding on a quilt. The binding is visible on both front and back. If, on the other hand, you specify a “facing,” I am going to assume you mean a separate piece of fabric sewn to one side of the piece, then turned to the other side where it may or may not be sewn down. That piece of fabric won’t be visible from the public side of the garment. A subtle distinction, perhaps, but they are not the same.

I see a lot of patterns where those terms are used interchangeably. The Linda twist top is one, although Sinclair Patterns is based in Australia, so maybe the convention is different there. Who knows. I saw “binding” as I read through the pattern and thought to myself, “Hey, this would be a great time to try out the binding attachments for my coverstitch machine!” And then I took a little detour.

I’ve had those binding attachments for almost as long as I have had that Janome 3000 coverstitch machine, which will be two years in November. Have I used them? No. In order to be willing to bushwhack my way through a new set of skills, I either have to be in the right mood or it has to be an emergency. (I have been known to schedule a class on a technique just to force myself to learn it.) I haven’t had a good reason to make anything with binding.

One of the benefits of procrastination, though, is that if you wait long enough (like two years or so), other people will have blazed a trail and left signs in the form of YouTube videos and blog posts. Coverstitch machines are fairly new to the domestic market compared to sewing machines and sergers and it has taken some time for the collective body of knowledge to accumulate. I pulled out all my binding attachments. I have three. One does single-fold binding and the other two will do double-fold binding. They differ in what width of finished binding they create—either 9mm, 12mm, or 15mm.

This is what a binding attachment looks like on the machine:

There is a base plate that screws down to the bed, and each specific attachment is screwed down to the base plate. The binding—a narrow strip of fabric usually cut on the crosswise grain—feeds through that gate on the right-hand side and into the triangular-shaped tube, where it is folded into shape. Just in front of the needle, the binding makes a right-hand turn and gets sewn to the main fabric, which is fed in between the layers of binding.

[I bought the $30 binding attachments off Amazon. The Janome-branded attachment (singular) is over $200. I can report that this one works just fine.]

I read several blog posts and watched a couple of YouTube videos. I grabbed some rayon spandex tissue knit that was sitting on my cutting table and cut a strip 1-1/8” wide. That wasn’t necessarily the best choice for my first attempt. A more stable cotton knit would have worked better, but I was curious to see what would happen.

First pass through the machine:

Hmmm. Not bad. It sort of looks like underwear, and indeed, the concept is similar. I needed to dial the differential way down, though, to eliminate that gathering. Also, the strip of rayon fabric needs very little tension on it as it feeds through the binder. I accidentally fed it through so the purl side of the binding was facing out, but I left it that way.

The second attempt was better, although eventually, I dialed down to the lowest differential setting:

And this is what the reverse side looks like:

On single-fold binding, the reverse side isn’t folded like it is on the front. The coverstitches are supposed to cover (get it?) the raw edge. You can see that there is some raw edge sticking out past the line of coverstitches. I think that can be addressed by adjusting the position of the binding as it feeds into the machine.

So back to that Linda top . . . I looked at the pattern more closely. The “neckline binding” is actually a 1” strip of fabric sewn/serged to the right side of the neckline, then turned to the wrong side, the raw edge folded under, and the fabric sewn down, either with machine or coverstitch. Again, I am probably splitting hairs here, but I would call that a facing.

In any case, I think I will start by making the Linda top, as it looks a bit easier. I will play around with the double-fold binding attachments on my machine. I’ve had a few requests to teach a class on coverstitch binding attachments, and this would be a good time to schedule one. I already have first quarter 2024 classes on the calendar. Teachers who submitted proposals for Sew Expo are supposed to be notified by mid-October at the latest.

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I canned 28 quarts of tomato sauce over the past two days. I have another 11-12 quarts ready to can—maybe this afternoon—and there are still a dozen gallon bags of tomatoes in the freezer. I might make salsa with those. Next week is full up, though. Our craft co-op market is next Friday and Saturday. Set-up is on Thursday. I pulled out all my inventory for market yesterday. It’s in piles in the living room waiting to be priced. I also finished a stack of potholders.

I’ll be at market on Friday but I’m teaching a class on Saturday. I didn’t intend to double-book myself, but Saturday class slots are scarcer than hens’ teeth and I took that spot when it was offered to me.

Knot Tops Fascinate Me

The next podcast episode should be posted some time this morning.

I picked up this Burda pattern yesterday when I was in town:

I love knot tops. I just like the way they look and fit. I took the instructions out of the pattern envelope and puzzled over them, but I suspect I’ll have to make the top to understand how things go together. (Also, Burda instructions tend to be—ahem—brief.) This pattern is new, so there aren’t yet any reviews on the PatternReview.com website.

We’ll see if I can squeeze out some time this week to make this.

I also stopped at the blueprint copy shop and had them print out some patterns for me. I went on a bit of a pattern-buying spree last week. I bought the Sinclair Skye Shorts and Skort, the Juno zip-up jacket, and the Linda twist-front top. The Linda top and the Burda top look similar, but the construction appears to be quite different.

I also had the copy shop print the Declic top from Atelier Scammit and the Summer Caye pattern from Love Notions. The Declic top is a free pattern. Karina, at the Lifting Pins and Needles YouTube channel, did a review of this pattern last week. Karina and I have the same fitting issues—she is 5’8” tall—and we like the same clothing styles, so when she recommends a pattern, I tend to listen. I bought the Summer Caye pattern on her recommendation, as well, because she gave instructions on how she adjusted the rise on those pants to fit her. I suspect I’ll have to make a similar adjustment.

I have plenty to keep me busy this winter. And that doesn’t even include the quilt patterns I want to try. I really want to make a curvy log cabin quilt using the Creative Grids ruler.

Joann Fabrics was a mess yesterday. It sounds like many of the stores are down to skeleton crews of two or three employees, all while being expected to carry the workload of twice that many. I felt bad for the young woman at the checkout counter; she was trying to accommodate a customer who was unhappy about a pricing issue, and there were six of us waiting in line. The only other employee in the store was at the cutting table, and that line had several people in it, too. These corporate decisions to cut staff but attempt to provide the same level of service are idiotic.

Our fire department also had to respond to a terrible fatality accident yesterday. A cyclist was hit and killed, and when I got home, the husband told me he had been one of the first firefighters on the scene. (He just happened to be driving that way to get to a job.) The way people drive around here is maddening.

I follow Dave Collum, the Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry at Cornell, on Twitter/X, and yesterday, he posted this:

I have this terrible feeling that we are witnessing the early stages of the Fourth Turning and somehow many of us thought we could watch it from outside the splash zone: "Oh. It will be bad but I will be OK." That's not what Fourth Turnings do.

The husband teases me about thinking that I am going to watch the apocalypse on TV in real time from the comfort of our living room, but I think that’s my coping mechanism when things start to feel like they are spiraling out of control.

Speaking of the TV—we ditched Dish Network last year because all we have been watching is YouTube Premium. We also bought a new TV to replace the one we got in 2008. We have an antenna on top of the house, but it never was able to pick up more than a couple of channels. On a whim, I scanned the channels from the antenna with the new TV and lo and behold!—it picked up over a dozen digital broadcasts, including the networks from Spokane! I doubt we will watch much network TV at this point, but the husband was able to watch the Steelers play the Browns last night. I went to bed and read a book. I am done with the Browns.

I will like having the option to watch some of the Spokane channels, however, especially during football season.

The Zoo Eats Breakfast

The deer and the turkeys had breakfast in our yard Saturday morning. The bunny was probably out there somewhere, too. And a small toad that one of our employees found.

All that rain we got in the last few weeks made the grass grow again. I’ve even seen people out mowing their lawns, which is unusual for this time of year.

I did get out to the garden, finally. I pulled all the bean plants and stripped the pods. The pods are drying in the greenhouse. I missed the green beans by about two weeks. They were too tough to can, so they went to the chickens. I may not do green beans again. They are easy enough to source from neighbors, and I am happy to trade for tomatoes or squash. Our neighbor, Anna, gifted us a huge bag of salad greens because she got extra from one of her suppliers. We’ve been feasting on salads all week.

I’m waiting for the squash vines to die back completely. I have probably 50 or 60 butternut squash out there. (!!!!) I’ll take some to church, but the excess will go to the food bank.

The garden is really ugly right now. It always looks bad this time of year. Once we get a frost and everything dies back, I’ll pull plants, make compost piles, stack tomato cages, and collect hoses. The last item on the list will be digging the potatoes. The husband will help me with that because it goes faster with two people.

Still no frost in the forecast, although I saw something about snow above 6000’. We are at 3250’ elevation, so no worries for us, but I expect to see snow on the tops of the mountains this week. Winter is coming.

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My mother alerted me to this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Hudson-based Joann Fabrics confirms layoffs but won’t say how many employees were let go

The company laid off employees at its corporate headquarters. Joanns’ stock price has plummeted from a high of $4.62 a share earlier in the year to $0.90 a share now. That seems to be an indication that they are circling the drain. Whoever is making decisions at the corporate level is either clueless or deliberately wants to gut the company. I understand that labor is a huge expense for companies—we have four employees—but no one is going to shop at their brick-and-mortar locations if they are understaffed or only open for business six hours a day. Again, that makes me wonder if this is controlled demolition. Perhaps the plan is to close all their stores and move to an online-only business model. If they do that, however, I think they can kiss their fabric business goodbye. Online buying might have worked during the pandemic, but it is not the preferred way to shop for fabric.

I’m still betting on a bankruptcy filing before the end of the year.

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Spotify and Podcast Addict both say that they have The Straight Stitch listed in their directories, but I can’t find the podcast on Spotify. Google Podcasts also says they have it listed. I am waiting to hear from Apple about it being on iTunes.

I bought a handheld digital recorder so I can do some interviews on the fly. I am hoping to try that out this week.

Canning the rest of the tomato sauce is on the schedule for this week, and possibly canning pumpkin depending on how things go. I am slowly changing my closet over to cooler-weather clothing and making a list of holes that need to be filled. I still need blouses. I never seem to have the kind I need in the color(s) I need.

A Fuzzy Harper Cardigan

I did not get out to the garden yesterday as planned. We bought a new-to-us diesel generator to replace the existing gas one and the electrician needed to come and do some wiring. I didn’t want to be on the other side of the property in case he needed something while he was here. I stayed inside and made another Harper Cardigan.

[Do I need all these cardigans? No, but I am rationalizing this by noting that making cardigans is giving me the opportunity to sew many different kinds of sweater knits, and that is important. I need to be familiar with how these fabrics behave so I can troubleshoot for students in class. Also, cardigans can be used as class samples or given away if I find I have too many. Sometimes, it’s about the process, not the product.]

I used another chunk of fabric from the Walmart remnant rack. It is fuzzy:

I dithered for the longest time about using the purl side of this fabric as the right side of the cardigan. There is a shiny turquoise rayon thread running through the purl side and I thought it looked interesting, almost holographic. In the end, though, I used the stockinette side as the outside:

This serged up quickly with no issues, although I did have to adjust the differential feed—the rate at which the fabric feeds into the machine—to keep the seams from becoming wavy.

I saw a hawk swooping around while I was working yesterday. My cutting table looks out over the driveway. We don’t often see hawks here because we have so many trees. I couldn’t tell what it was hunting, but I hope it didn’t get the bunny that lives under our porch.

I recorded another podcast episode yesterday afternoon. Yes, this is going to end up being a weekly podcast because I have a lot to say. Release days will be Tuesdays, I think. It seems to work well if I record late in the week and edit/write shows notes over the weekend. I got a little bit spicy in this one, too, although I keep the language clean. I have very little tolerance for people whose main goal in life seems to be sucking the joy out of others’ lives.

Today, I need to buckle down and work in the garden. I went out there yesterday afternoon to assess what needs to be done. And I spent some time shelling the beans that had dried out in the greenhouse:

These are Jacob’s Cattle Beans. This row of beans didn’t do as well as the others. I only got enough to can up about a dozen pints, but that’s a dozen pints I didn’t have before and I grew these. Beans are magical.

I’ll pull the rest of the bean plants and leave the pods in the greenhouse to finish drying out. More rows of beans are on the list for next season.

I have a completely empty week on the calendar next week. While I’d love to spend it sewing, I’ll be finishing up all of the canning. I have to get tomatoes out of the freezer and free up space for the pork that is coming in a few weeks. At least one of those huge, warty pumpkins will get processed so I have pumpkin for pies. And I might do a few more pints of green beans because the plants in my garden finally produced. We’ll see.

Harper Cardigans and the Walmart Remnant Rack

The Harper Cardigan class on Wednesday was great fun. One of the three students had to cancel, so I only had two, both of whom I’ve had in class before. We proceeded at a leisurely pace.

I love teaching in this classroom. It’s huge. The store owner designed it as an addition a few years after moving into the new building. Students have plenty of room to spread out and work.

Yesterday morning, I had a meeting with our pastor and Elaine, then dashed up to Whitefish (about 40 minutes away) for a blood test. I have one of my twice-yearly checkups with my naturopath in two weeks, and he likes to have the bloodwork in time for my visit. I have lousy veins due to all the blood sticks I had before my central line was put in for getting chemo 30 years ago. Sometimes the phlebotomists have trouble getting blood. This phlebotomist was terrific, though, and I didn’t even have a bruise afterward.

On the way back, I stopped at the bank to deposit some checks. The bank is close to Walmart, so I dashed in to see what was on the remnant rack. We had talked about the remnant rack in class on Wednesday because both students used remnant rack fabric for their Harper Cardigans.

The remnant rack had just been restocked:

I texted this pic to another friend. I knew she would tell both of my students from Wednesday’s class because all three of them were at Thursday open sew at the quilt store. A few minutes later, I got a text:

“On our way!”

About 30 minutes later, I got this:

LOL. I see pajama pants and Harper Cardigans in that cart.

I was good and bought only that turquoise fabric on the right side of the middle rack. It has chickens on it!

We’re hoping that Walmart corporate is getting the message that the remnant rack is a huge hit—at least here in Kalispell, Montana—and continues to restock fabric. I did not have “Walmart Remnant Rack” on my bingo card for 2023, that’s for sure.

My last stop on the way home was at our community center to check in with the sewing group. I visited for a bit and had some exceptionally delicious Key Lime trifle. Susan came over with her grandsons, and within a few minutes, I found myself on a couch in the library reading books to them. Susan opined a few days ago that two little boys have Auntie Janet wrapped around their little fingers, but I don’t mind a bit. I appreciate her sharing them with me.

I have to spend today (and possibly tomorrow) out in the garden. I have neglected it sorely for over a week. Most everything is going to come in, although I might leave the tomatoes until we get an actual frost. I still don’t see freezing temps in the forecast. The high by the middle of next week is only going to be in the high 50s, however.