Sussing Out Sleeves

I like the New Look 6344 pleated-front blouse pattern, but you may remember that I had a terrible time setting in the sleeves. Contrast that to Simplicity 9469—fast becoming a favorite of mine to wear—where the sleeves went in smoothly and fit beautifully. Why the difference?

I find it’s helpful to lay out the pattern pieces as if they have been sewn together and look at the shape of the armscye. Here is Simplicity 9469:

This, to me, looks like a beautiful, well-shaped armscye.

This is the armscye for New Look 6344. I flipped the photo so that the front piece would be on the left, as it is in the photo above:

What the heck happened here? Someone’s first day on the job?

I want to note two things: First, the length of these armscyes is the same at 19-1/2". Second, the sleeve cap shaping on both patterns is identical. I have no explanation for this weirdly-shaped armscye other than bad pattern drafting. Am I missing something?

After comparing the shape of the armscyes, I wanted to know how the front and back pieces differed. If the armscye was shaped differently because of the pleating on the front, one would expect the fronts to be shaped differently. Nope. Here they are, laid one on top of the other (9469 on top):

Where they differ is on the back pattern pieces (again, 9469 on top):

Why? What am I missing? I don’t know what I don’t know, which is frustrating sometimes.

I re-traced New Look 6344 with the armscyes from Simplicity 9469. We’ll see if that fixes the issue.

When I see this kind of stuff, I understand why people don’t sew clothing for themselves. I have enough knowledge to at least begin looking for the problem. If I were a rank beginner, I’d be baffled and frustrated.

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While I’m griping, lol . . . one of the things I notice when watching sewing videos is people’s bad sewing habits. Yesterday, I watched someone make a dress while sewing over pins. Ack! She will stop doing that as soon as she hits a pin and throws the timing off in her machine, necessitating a trip to the repair shop. The other habit that grinds my gears is watching people with one hand in front and one hand in back pulling or pushing the fabric through the machine. That is almost guaranteed to deflect the needle and cause it to strike the needle plate, which is another great method for throwing a machine out of time. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I was doing a serger demo one time when a lady sat down to try out the machine and serged by pulling the fabric through. (I stopped her as soon as I saw what she was doing.) I don’t know who teaches these kinds of habits, but they are more prevalent than I expected. All I can do is correct these habits when I see them in my classes, and demonstrate good techniques. My serger students know that if I see them serging with pins instead of clips, they are likely to get a lecture. Pins and serger knives do not mix.

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The weather looks to improve and dry out a bit this week. I’ll be working on plant sale stuff and mowing the grass. Conventional wisdom here in Montana is that we don’t plant our gardens until Memorial Day weekend or until the snow is gone from the mountains. There is still snow on the mountains, and I won’t be planting anything except maybe peas and brassicas, because the soil hasn’t warmed up yet. This has been a weird spring.

34 Years and Counting

Today is our 34th wedding anniversary. We’ve been together for 37 years. I wonder where the time went, because in my mind, the husband and I are still in our 20s. LOL.

Class submissions are open for Sew Expo 2025. I love that they changed the submission process for this year. Instead of requiring teachers to submit fully-developed class proposals—with no guarantee that a class will be chosen—they are asking teachers to submit high-level class ideas for review. After a class is selected, the teacher is responsible for submitting a complete proposal. I can’t tell you how much that simplifies things on the teacher’s end. I’ll be submitting quite a few more class ideas now that I don’t have to do all that extra work. Proposals aren’t due until August 1, so I have time to think about what I’d like to teach. I’ll submit more knitting class proposals, definitely, but I might also screw up the courage to submit some sewing class proposals.

I ran errands in town on Friday and stopped at Joann Fabrics on the way home. I haven’t been in there in several weeks. I know Joanns said they wouldn’t close any stores as part of the bankruptcy reorganization, but our store is well on its way to being out of business. Shelves are empty. The home dec section only has about half the stock, and the rolls that are left are down to a few yards. The employees look like they are at a funeral. I won’t be the least bit surprised to see a “Store Closing” sign in the window before the end of the summer. They are rapidly running out of anything to sell.

The commercial pattern companies have released their summer lines and so far, I am underwhelmed. That’s not a bad thing as I am not lacking for projects. The only pattern I might get is this McCall’s apron pattern:

I don’t have any apron patterns in this style.

The husband is home from Colorado. It rained again yesterday, so I cleaned our bedroom and ran the air scrubber for a few hours while waiting for him to arrive. I am glad to have him home. Keeping all these animals (and plants in the greenhouse) alive, dry, fed, and watered is a lot of work.

Susan had to make an unplanned trip to Oregon to help care for aging parents, so I’ll have a few extra tasks on my plate this week for the plant sale. I will manage. She will be back in time for the sale next Saturday. The weather is supposed to be lovely. I have a Serger 101 class scheduled for Tuesday but I need to check to see if anyone is registered.

I took some time yesterday afternoon to clean up and organize my sewing area (again) while watching weather coverage. The husband laughs about my channel watching habits, but I don’t think they are any weirder than his channel watching habits. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I pulled out the patterns I want to make soon and put them with a stack of fabric. I am starting to feel like I am getting near the end of my closet makeover. What’s hanging in there now is certainly much more colorful—and fits better—than what was hanging in there two years ago. I am conscious of the fact that I don’t want to switch out fast fashion for fast sewing. I know it doesn’t sound like it sometimes, but I have cut back on fabric acquisition quite a bit.

My friend Christi, who lives in California, has been taking some sewing classes locally. She sends me periodic updates and photos of her projects. I am blown away. She just finished this shirt for her husband. Look how well it fits!

I love to see people being creative.

Farmer Girl

The husband has been in Colorado this week visiting his dad. He’s on his way home today. His absence was a big motivation for me to clean the house. It’s easier to do when he’s not here, and it stays cleaner longer. On Wednesday, I tore apart and cleaned the living room, then swept out the old garage. Yesterday, I cleaned the kitchen and two bathrooms. The sun came out yesterday morning, so I also mowed the grass after lunch. (It’s raining again now.) I’m taking a break today to run errands and record next week’s podcast episode. Cleaning our bedroom can wait until tomorrow.

I’ve also been responsible for animals. I handle the routine chicken chores most days, but the husband takes care of the pigs. Before he left, he made sure that there were some bags of food in a garbage can in the chicken coop so I wouldn’t have to haul 40-pound bags of feed over from the garage. We don’t usually keep feed inside the coop because it encourages mice. For the pigs, he gets a 1000-pound tote of feed every couple of weeks from the farm store. The tote sits on a pallet next to the piggy palace, surrounded by hot wire so any hungry bears passing through won’t be tempted to gorge themselves. The feed gets scooped from the tote into feeders on the wall of the piggy palace. There is also an automatic watering system with nipples so the pigs have constant fresh water.

The husband is all about efficient infrastructure.

The hardest part was getting the animals onto my schedule for the week. He normally does a walkaround before he comes to bed and tucks everyone in. I don’t stay up that late and I wasn’t going to alter my schedule for livestock. I also didn’t want to be wandering around by myself in the dark. The first night, I coaxed the pigs in earlier using marshmallows. They learn quickly and I haven’t had a problem since. The chickens, given the option, would stay out partying all night in the chicken yard (and Dave would start crowing at 3 am). I don’t give them scratch grains until I’m ready to close up the coop, so they have to come in if they want their treat.

It has been a mostly uneventful week. Sarah brought a few more trays of plants to the greenhouse. She’s going to come over next week and help me organize what goes to the plant sale and what stays here for my garden.

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I would have liked to have had some sewing time this week, but I also like having a clean house. Part of the reason I swept out the garage was so I could work on the Juki 1541 now that I have the motor issue sorted. I have a stack of bag projects that need to be finished as well as some of the husband’s pants to mend.

One of the topics that comes up frequently at sewing is ideas for new items to make and sell. If I had time, I would make up some of these cute zipper pouches:

Moda has a whole Pouch Club with patterns for various kinds of zipper pouches. (coughSarahcough) These would be great for using up scraps.

I can’t get my sewing projects under control, though, so all I may have to sell this year is a stack of potholders. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Things might slow down in June once the garden is in. We’ll see. I scored a nice chunk of royal blue stretch poplin at Walmart the other day (for $4!) and that’s going to become a pair of Style Arc Linda pants.

Greenery

The greenhouse is a very oxygen-rich place these days:

Despite all the hiccups with this year’s plant sale, I am happy with the amount of inventory—and this isn’t even all of it. Elysian and Susan and Sarah have more plants in their houses. And I still have two trays of tomato seedlings to transplant into bigger pots. We should be in great shape by the end of next week. It’s raining now, but next week is supposed to be warmer and sunnier.

I bought metal racks to increase the amount of horizontal surface area and that has worked very well. I do rotate the plants every couple of days because the ones underneath don’t get as much sun. Still, the extra space has made a big difference.

The weed barrier for the herb garden arrived Monday. We are waiting on the last raised bed to be delivered, but as soon as it is, that project will move forward.

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I went to Missoula yesterday to teach a serger mastery class. I gave myself three hours of travel time, which was good because I ran into a lot of road construction and lumbering RVs. ‘Tis the season.

I had three ladies in my class and we had a good time. All of them are interested in fitting and clothing classes, so I told them to let the store owner know and we would try to get a few classes on the schedule. I think it makes a bigger difference when students ask for a class than when I suggest something.

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The rain means that today is a cleaning day, although I am warring with myself about it. I would much rather spend the day sewing. However, I am nothing if not disciplined. This morning will be spent tearing apart and cleaning the living room. If I have any energy left this afternoon, I’ll reward myself by cutting out a blouse. Tomorrow, I’ll attack the kitchen.

New Look 6344 Is a Winner

I carved out some time on Saturday to make a wearable muslin of New Look 6344. This pattern is heading straight for the tried-and-true pile:

The fabric is a Kaffe Fassett wideback. In general, I don’t make clothing from quilting cottons, but this is a lightweight cotton sateen-type fabric and it worked well. I wouldn’t go much heavier than this, though. (And those Kaffe Fasset prints are right up my alley.) I almost wore this to church yesterday morning but opted for the one I made from Simplicity 9469, instead. I prefer the armscye and sleeve shaping on the Simplicity top. I may frankenpattern those onto this one. I had a lot of trouble setting in the sleeves on this top and remember that they went in quite easily on the Simplicity pattern.

In any case, I’ve got two patterns for the summer, which is a start. I also have plenty of fabric. Now I just need to sew.

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I am glad we didn’t have the plant sale on Saturday. It was 45 degrees and raining—we wouldn’t have sold anything anyway. The plants in the greenhouse have perked up and are looking much better than they were a couple of weeks ago. I transplanted a couple of trays of tomatoes yesterday afternoon.

We’re supposed to stay in this cool, rainy pattern all week, so I am going to clean the house. The industrial air scrubber is ready to go. I will tear down a room at a time and dust, wash, and mop everything thoroughly. I can’t stand that gritty dust that settles on all the surfaces. The air scrubber has been a big help in filtering it out, but I have to keep on top of it.

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We got our pre-renewal notice for our homeowner’s insurance policy (through USAA) this week. In May 2023, our six-month premium was $1000. In November 2023, it went up to $1200. Our new six-month premium has jumped from $1200 to $2000.

The guy who deliberately started a wildfire south of here in July 2021 was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison. That fire burned 14 homes. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that our homeowner’s insurance premiums are skyrocketing.

John Michael Greer has written a great series on his blog recently. He’s been exploring what he has dubbed “lenocracy”—leno being the Latin word for pimp—or a system that consists solely of people holding their hands out for their cut of the proceeds. Nothing productive is actually being created; this is a system of parasites. I think it’s an apt description.

T-Shirts Are a Gateway Drug

The moment that you realize you can do something amazing like making yourself a piece of clothing is a heady one, indeed—at least it was for me. I think a young lady has also had that epiphany. My friend Cassie dropped her 11 year-old daughter off here yesterday morning and the two of us got to work. We went through my collection of patterns and chose one, then dove into my stash of fabric. This Pop! juvenile print from Joanns was just waiting to be turned into a darling T-shirt:

I demonstrated each step—everything from tracing the pattern to cutting it out to serging the seams—then had this young lady try it herself. She jumped in fearlessly. I found out that despite being in 4-H and having done some sewing, she had never used a rotary cutter. Their 4-H leader cuts out all their projects and threads their machines for them. I understand the need for such caution—no one wants a room full of little kids indiscriminately brandishing sharp objects—but I am of the opinion that young people are more capable than we think they are. I taught WS to use a rotary cutter a few years ago. He is making a quilt for his 4-H project this year.

The only sewing I did was to attach the neckband and hem the body and sleeves on the coverstitch machine. I turned the speed down on the serger so it wasn’t running away from her. When we were done, we took some of the leftover knit fabric and made a matching headband. I suggested that she think about making something to enter into the fair this summer and said that I would help her with it. Cassie has a serger.

[Cassie also has cows and is selling milk from them. I’m going to get a couple of gallons of milk next week and try making some cheese. I need another hobby like I need a hole in my head, but cheesemaking could be fun. We eat a lot of cheese here.]

That was a lovely way to spend a rainy Friday.

Just before dinner, a group of us met at the elementary school to load the leftovers from their plant sale into our vehicles to bring them back to my greenhouse. We’ve done this for a couple of years now. The school has a plant sale and donates what they don’t sell to the Homestead Foundation plant sale. We will have plenty of cucumbers and squash for this year’s sale.

Yesterday felt more like October than May. I am glad we moved the plant sale to June 1, although there is no guarantee of good weather that day. Still, the seedlings get an extra two weeks to grow.

I may need to run to town this morning for chicken feed, but I’ve earmarked the rest of the day for working on summer blouse patterns.

Done With Christmas Stockings

The grass has been cut and trimmed and now we wait for the next break in the rain to do it all again. At least I can walk through the garden. I am hoping to get peas in tomorrow. The strawberry bed also needs weeding, and I have a bit more pruning to do in the raspberry patch.

My friend Anna, who lives across the road, texted me yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to come over for tea and a chat. She and her husband go to California for several months during the winter and we haven’t had a chance to catch up since they got back. I toodled over in the golf cart, which made me feel like an old fart, but I am glad we have it for running around the neighborhood. The husband put a new battery in it a few weeks ago.

I may add “new golf cart seat cover” to the to-do list for this summer. It’s not exactly falling apart, but it could stand to be replaced. Thanks to help from some of the members of the Facebook vintage industrial sewing machine group, I was able to adjust the servo motor on the Juki 1541 so that the machine isn’t sewing at 200 mph. Owners of industrial machines are always touting the superiority of servo motors over clutch motors because servo motors can be adjusted for slower sewing. I don’t know—I have a clutch motor on my industrial serger and I have no trouble sewing on that machine, but I’m also used to driving a stick shift. The feeling is not dissimilar.

[One very un-helpful guy in that group told me that the machine was intended to go fast and I should suck it up and learn to control it through the foot pedal. Trolls are everywhere.]

I finished the fourth Christmas stocking yesterday afternoon:

I’ll take this and the serger version with me next week when I teach in Missoula. On this one, I used a single layer of fabric for the ruffle and edged it with a three-thread rolled hem in wooly polyester thread. I like this ruffle best of all.

I am glad to have these done. Now I can get back to working on some summer blouses.

The husband started putting my raised beds together yesterday afternoon. I ordered them from Vego Garden. We can’t set or fill them until the weed barrier gets here, but I envisioned the herb garden renovation being mostly a June project. There is no rush to get it done. We were hoping to have the Homestead Foundation garden tour again this summer, but personal schedules got in the way and we had to cancel it. Our Homestead Foundation has a fundraising committee chaired by yours truly. I am proud of the fact that our committee raises several tens of thousands of dollars each year for the Foundation, but the committee is not large—there are only four of us. I continue to warn the board that if we have to do all the work, the committee members are going to burn out and quit. Everyone nods and agrees that we need more volunteers. However, I do not see volunteer recruitment and training as the responsibility of the fundraising committee. Our committee’s job is to plan fundraisers and bring in income. I have no doubt that we could raise upwards of $50,000 to $75,000 a year if we had the manpower. I have lots of experience running businesses and I know how to make money.

We are getting more interest in the Foundation from community members. We are in dire need of someone who can spearhead a volunteer recruitment committee, though, and I keep hoping someone will step up.

So Many Patterns

I mowed the grass around the garden yesterday and was rewarded with four bags of grass clippings to use as mulch for the potatoes. The grass was almost a foot high in places. If only the vegetables would grow as quickly as the weeds do. I need to get out this morning and run the string trimmer. I’m a bit sore from this uptick in physical activity, but it’s a good kind of sore.

The piglets watched me cut the grass in the garden yesterday before heading out to nap under the trees. I always forget how sociable pigs are. On the way back to the house, I had to skirt two male turkeys having an argument in the back yard. Turkeys aren’t typically aggressive, but I’m not taking any chances. The bunny was munching on dandelion stems.

After lunch, I worked on the last Christmas stocking store sample. This is destined for the store in Missoula. I’m teaching a serger mastery class there next week and want to take the two samples with me. This is another coverstitch version:

I switched from the Glamore 12wt metallic to Accent 12wt rayon in the coverstitch section in the middle and it worked much better. The effect isn’t quite as dramatic, but I’ll take it if it means not fighting with the machine.

I haven’t had a chance to adjust the servo motor on the Juki 1541 yet.

A whole slew of new indie patterns have come out recently. I’ve resisted all of them except the Algarve Top from Itch to Stitch:

I bought it because a) it was on sale; b) it is intended for knit fabrics; and c) I like this style. From what I’ve seen in the brand ambassador videos, it is also a quick make. I know I’ll have to lengthen it, but that’s not unusual. I am hoping for some sewing time next week as it is supposed to be cool and rainy again.

My friend Cassie posted on Facebook last week that she was having trouble finding nice clothes for her (tween-age) daughter, and asked for recommendations. Her kids are in 4-H and know how to sew. I offered to help her daughter sew up a couple of T-shirts, so this young lady is coming over tomorrow for a few hours. I completely understand what it’s like not to be able to find suitable clothing in stores.

Lawn Commander

As much as I love road trips, there is much to be said for coming home and settling back into my usual daily routine. The husband got the John Deere tractor and the push mower ready for me yesterday morning, so I worked on beating the yard into shape. Our lawn is no more manicured than my nails; I am satisfied just keeping the dandelions down to a dull roar. Given the choice between a magazine-worthy lawn chock full of chemicals and the barely-controlled chaos of a happy ecosystem, I will choose the happy ecosystem every time.

The pear trees in the front orchard look awful, which is odd considering the apple trees look great. One tree is dead and needs to come out. The other two are barely hanging on. I am trying to decide if we take them out and replace them with apple trees or give them a season to see if they recover. I may consult with Susan and see what she thinks. We aren’t huge fans of pears, so I’m not overly upset about this. Susan likely will be overjoyed as it will give her a reason to graft more apple trees for me.

I will mow the grass around the perimeter of the garden this morning as it’s getting to be quite a jungle out there. The potatoes are up:

Peas are going in this week, which means it’s also time to implement anti-ground squirrel measures.

The metal raised bed system for the herb garden was delivered on Monday. I’m waiting on the weed barrier material. Once that is down and the beds assembled, the husband will arrange for delivery of gravel to cover the weed barrier and dirt for the beds.

We are down to one bunny. We had two, but the husband said he found parts of one in the yard and thinks one of the feral cats might have gotten it. (Or coyotes, or a mountain lion—who knows?) The remaining bunny is living under the porch and is completely brown now. Mama robin is still sitting on eggs. The hummingbirds are here and two males fight daily over control of one of the feeders. The female eats from the other feeder.

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On my way through Spokane last week, I stopped in at the small quilt store where I’ve taught a couple of times. The owner downsized to half the space, sold off most of her quilt fabric, and has chosen to concentrate on custom longarming, embroidery, and continuing as a Juki dealer. She would like me to teach serger classes for her. While I was there, I bought this:

The package contains a piece of fabric printed with small embroidery designs. After embroidering the designs, you cut out the individual motifs and use them as the centers of hexie flowers. I think this will be next winter’s embroidery project.

Now that the chicks are out of the old garage, I’m going to clean up that area and get back to sewing on the Juki 1541. Thanks to help from some people on one of the Facebook sewing groups, I was able to obtain understandable instructions for adjusting the speed of the servo motor on that machine. The original instructions had been translated—badly—from Japanese and made no sense. I can sew on that machine, but it would be nice to slow it down so I have better control. One very unhelpful person told me I needed to learn how to control the speed by using the foot pedal, which would be good advice if the machine didn’t take off at top speed by depressing the foot pedal a mere half an inch . . . I’ll play around with some adjustments this afternoon and see what I can do.

Mother's Day in Seattle

I took the Jeep out for its inaugural road trip this past weekend. DD#2 moved into a new apartment last week and asked if I would come out and help her get settled. Her boyfriend’s mother also came for the weekend, so I got to spend some time getting to know her. She’s a lot of fun. DD#2’s boyfriend has an older brother who also lives in Seattle. In fact, the four kids—the boys and their girlfriends—now live in the same apartment building, one floor apart. We all had a great weekend together.

On Friday, the four ladies went shopping. We went to Bellevue Mall in the morning and had lunch at the Nordstrom Grill. I had a chance to see what was new in the fashion world for spring. Spoiler alert: We are back to lots of neutrals—ugh—although I did see some absolutely gorgeous Eileen Fisher linen pieces in this mallard green color:

The picture does not do this color justice. I love green anyway, and I like that this is not the bluish teal that is usually so prevalent.

I bought two Nordstrom label T-shirt dresses that are a relaxed princess seam style with pockets on the front seams. They are made from a beefy cotton interlock. Normally, I avoid cotton interlock because it has lousy recovery and looks baggy after a short time on the body. The Joanns cotton interlock is particularly awful. Most cotton interlock fabrics are either 100% cotton or 98% cotton/2% spandex. The Nordstrom dress was made from an interlock fabric that is 93% cotton/7% spandex. I wore one of the dresses over the weekend and it held its shape very well—

—which brings me to my current source of irritation. Why can’t home sewists find these kinds of quality fabrics? Why must we settle for cheap imitations? Yes, some stores carry deadstock fabrics—including Eileen Fisher deadstock—but those are entirely hit-and-miss in availability.

I’m still chewing on that. If someone can clue me in, please do.

After lunch, we headed over to University Village. The boyfriend’s mom wanted to do some furniture shopping and DD#2 wanted to see about getting some pillows for her new couch. I was tickled to see knitted items in Potter Barn and Crate and Barrel. This octopus was cute:

And this knitted pillow had some cabling on it:

I took a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon to run down to Pacific Fabrics. I could spend days (and lots of money) there, but I confined myself to three yards of a cotton woven from a new fabric manufacturer called Fableism Supply Company. From their website:

Hello there!  We are a small family owned manufacturing company called Fableism Supply Co.  We initially started Fableism because… if we’re honest… we are very picky with our colors.  We knew exactly what we wanted.  We wanted a range of desert inspired warm colors and a coastal inspired palette of cool colors.  After years of searching for just exactly what we wanted and coming up empty handed.  We decided to just go for it.  We took a giant leap of faith and decided to trust our Creator and trust ourselves with the vision He gave to us.  So we began.  We searched high and low for earthy colors.  The kind of colors you find in old book illustrations, and maps.  From the highlights and shadows of an acorn, to the sweeping colors that paint the sky at sunset, these are the colors that inspire us.  These are colors and textures we want to live in. 

Yes, emphasis on “earth tones” (what is the fascination?) although they do have some nice, saturated colors. I bought a green that is a bit lighter than the Eileen Fisher mallard color from the first photo in this post. (Fableism does have a color that is almost identical, but Pacific Fabrics did not have it in stock.) I think the fabric is destined to become View B of New Look 6344:

This is another $0.99 Hobby Lobby acquisition. I am eager to try this pattern, because I think it has definite possibilities. The longer length looks like it will be just about perfect. I’d leave off that collar, though, and make a plain neckline.

We finished off the weekend with a Mariners game on Sunday.

Truly, the weather was spectacular. I’ve made dozens of trips to Seattle and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it sunny and warm for three days in a row.

I drove home yesterday, getting stuck in a backup on I-90 going through Spokane, courtesy of THREE (!!!!) accidents along a two-mile stretch of highway. What is with people?

Now it’s back to work. The husband took care of all the plants in the greenhouse and they are doing much better after several days of warm, sunny weather. The piglets had fence training over the weekend and now are busy exploring the pasture. I’ve got to cut the grass. Hopefully we are done with snow for a while.

A Stocking Variation

If you haven’t listened yet, this week’s podcast is an interview with Whitney Luckenbill of TomKat Stitchery. We got to meet in person at Sew Expo and made arrangements for an interview in mid-April. She is so darn much fun and I am excited to see where her business goes this year. She has plans!

We’ve had some good soaking rain here. I’m expecting the potatoes to pop up soon if they haven’t already. I’ll have to mow the grass as soon as things dry out. The piglets have plenty of straw to burrow in. The chicks spend most of their time in a clump, although I think that’s a defensive maneuver against the phalanx of big chickens staring at them through the wire walls more than it is due to cold; the clump is not under the heat lamp, which it would be if they needed warmth. The big chickens have nothing else to occupy their time, apparently, than to stare at the chicks, because every time I go out to the coop, that is what they are doing.

I finished the third Christmas stocking, although clearly I missed a step. I must not have measured or trimmed properly, because the center section of this third stocking is longer than it is on the other two stockings. You wouldn’t know that I had already made two of these. 🫤

Oh, well. I’m not re-doing it. We’ll call it a design element. I was watching tornado coverage while I was sewing, so perhaps I was distracted.

I did a pleated cuff on this version, just for something different. I think I like it better than a gathered cuff.

[Just an aside here to say that although I love Starlink, it has an annoying tendency to lose its connection a couple of times a week, usually around 4 am when I am trying to get some work done. It also happens occasionally at night, according to the husband, and interrupts his YouTube viewing. Sometimes it is out for 45 minutes. As I am writing this, I am waiting for it to come back online. I can see Starlink’s status through the app on my phone.]

Gail Yellen’s patterns are pretty good, although I suspect she is one of those people who thinks globally rather than at the detail level. There are times when I scratch my head and have to read the instructions again to make sense of what she’s saying. I am one of those people who prefers bulleted or numbered instructions rather than narrative-style instructions.

Good tech editors are worth their weight in gold, let me tell you.

We are drowning in eggs, so I made two pumpkin pies and a large sausage-and-egg bake yesterday. I am planting more pumpkins plants this year than I did last year, because we’re almost out of canned pumpkin. Those of you who have never seen the husband eat a meal have no idea how many calories he requires. He’ll eat half a pumpkin pie in one evening. And he still wears the same size clothing he wore in college.

The check engine light came on in the Diva as I was leaving the dentist Monday. Whatever is throwing the code doesn’t seem to have affected its performance. I think I’ve put more miles on that car with the light on than off.

All the Baby Animals

The pie social was a success, although we are suffering from the usual problems of not enough help. I said to Susan that the 60- and 70-year olds should not be the people doing all of the heavy lifting for these events. If it weren’t for Susan and Sarah baking pies, we wouldn’t have had many pies to serve, and one of our older board members did all of the table setup and takedown. We are glad that everyone comes and enjoys themselves, but I wish that more people stopped to think about all of the work that goes in to putting on these “community” events.

I was at the information table and visited with people as they came in. We had quite a few new attendees and people new to the area along with the regulars. I also heard a lot of positive comments about the fact that we pushed back the date for the plant sale. I think we will keep the later date from now on.

The weather stayed nice until the pie social was over. Now we are getting more rain. Our employees were here working on their trucks yesterday, and one of them helped the husband move the chicks over to the coop while I was at church. The chicks are a bit shell-shocked, as they always are. All of a sudden they went from a little brooder box to a 5' x 5' room with a bunch of very big chickens staring at them through the wire. They’ll figure out soon enough that they are safe and can run around.

The piglets are settling in, too. They found the food right away:

These are a good size—about 25 pounds apiece. I have to ask our supplier what breed or cross these are.

The weekend was busy, but everything went (mostly) according to plan. I have a dentist appointment at 8 am this morning. I haven’t decided what the schedule will be for this week. I have to finish the Christmas stocking store samples, and I need to start knocking out some warmer-weather tops and dresses. This is an ongoing problem. When I have time to sew, in the winter, I am not thinking about making items to wear when it’s 80F. And when I need them, I don’t have time to make them.

If it keeps raining, though, maybe I can make a couple of Malva Tees or Laundry Day Tees.

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Joanns has come out of bankruptcy reorganization and I am curious to see what happens next. I hope that the people now steering that company have learned a few lessons. Customers want a fabric store, not a glorified Dollar Store carrying plastic crap from China. No one needs acres and acres of polyester fleece. And if you teach people the skills they need to buy and use your products, you’ll be creating a stable, ongoing customer base.

That may be too much to ask. We’ll see.

Pies and Piglets and Punch-Needle Embroidery

We went ahead and pushed the date of this year’s plant sale back by two weeks, to June 1. The snow we got on Wednesday was demoralizing. (We had 3" of snow one year on June 10, so this is not unusual, just demoralizing.) Yesterday was sunny and warmer. Today is supposed to be stellar, just in time for our community pie social this afternoon. Another system comes through at the start of the week, but at least it isn’t supposed to get so cold.

I made a roaster of chili for the pie social. I would prefer to stand behind a table and dish out chili, but Susan and I discussed personnel and I am better utilized at the information table. I made up a big posterboard display yesterday afternoon. I can schmooze and welcome people for three hours. It won’t kill me.

Sarah and Susan are our resident pie-making experts. Sarah has been experimenting with adding natural coloring to her pie crusts and texted me some photos last night:

Isn’t that gorgeous? Sarah is so creative. I am not a baker. I did not get that gene. Gardening and sewing, yes, but cooking is my least favorite domestic activity.

One of the women in our sewing group, Beth, has been playing around with punch-needle embroidery, and she brought this to show on Thursday. She’s another maker with a fountain of creative ideas. This isn’t that large—maybe 4" x 4"?—but it’s adorable. Beth said this may end up as a journal cover.

Before the pie social today, the husband and I have to go pick up five piglets. The timing isn’t great, but it is what it is. The chicks also need to get moved to the coop soon so they have more room to run around.

I’ve been juggling about twenty different things this week consisting of a thousand tiny details. The schedule should ease up after this weekend—and having two extra weeks for the plant sale helps considerably—so I’ve been tackling some projects that don’t require a lot of mental energy. I cleaned out a couple of closets and made a pile of items to take to the thrift store. I hemmed two pairs of pants. I moved the inkjet printer upstairs to my computer because it needed a firmware update, so I did that and made sure it was operational. The husband uses it to print foundation plans and he gets cranky when tech stuff doesn’t work.

I messed around again with the coverstitch machine and the 12wt Wonderfil Glamore thread. The machine simply doesn’t like it. That thread is a metallic and it seems to be getting hung up along the thread path. I switched to a 12wt rayon thread (Wonderfil Accent) and had zero problems, so I ordered some spools of Accent to have on hand.

I am still having a great time with the podcast. There are so many interesting people to talk to out there in the sewing universe.

One Coverstitch Stocking

I only finished one Christmas stocking yesterday. I worked on the coverstitch version, which I hadn’t made before, and ran into a few problems along the way. I am working from the pattern version that came out with the online class. I need to get a copy of the printed pattern that was released to stores and compare the two.

In any case, it’s done, and the second version should go more quickly:

I’m going to change the order of operations slightly when I teach this. The pattern starts with the foot section. I’m going to start with that upper panel. The stitch, a two-thread flatlock, is the same in both sections; the stitch settings differ slightly.

I had a lot of issues trying to do the coverstitch section in the middle (the white fabric). My Janome coverstitch did not like the metallic Glamore thread. The pattern says to interface that piece of fabric before stitching. I used Pellon SF101 and I suspect I need to use something lighter. I’ll try a different interfacing on the next one. It’s either that or I’ll have to switch to something like a 12wt rayon thread for that area.

When Ryan was here last week servicing the Q20, we talked about classes. He taught a class last year on basic machine issues and how to fix them. He did a good job and I told him he should teach some additional classes. Like most of us who teach, though, he knows that the class prep takes a lot of time and can be tedious.

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The weather for the next couple of weeks is not looking promising. I am happy about the rain, but we’re spending a small fortune heating the greenhouse. And the plants need the sunshine, not just the heat. I am kicking around the idea of moving the plant sale to a later date next year. (Of course, if I do that, we’ll probably have the warmest April on record here.) There will be inventory for the sale, but it’s going to be on the small side. My experience is that even small plants catch up by the end of the season. Small plants just aren’t as appealing to buyers.

And it’s tough to have baby animals when the temps still get down to freezing at night. The chicks are going to have to move out of the brooder soon. We do have a heat lamp for them in the coop, but I am sure it will be a bit of a shock. We pick up piglets on Saturday. They’ll stay in the piggy palace for a few days. I think the husband can put a heat lamp out there, too, if necessary. With enough straw, they should be able to burrow down and stay warm.

When we were out planting apple trees in the cold and rain on Sunday, I said to the husband that I was reminded of all of the camping and field trips I went on when the girls were in school. (He is not much of a camper; he likes to sleep in his own bed.) Those trips all happened in April and May and the weather was usually crummy. The kids who didn’t dress properly were miserable. I once slept in a tent in Glacier Park when it got down to 32F overnight, but it is that cold rain that really does you in.

April Showers and Christmas Stockings

The husband and I planted apple trees on Sunday afternoon. It was cool and rainy and Susan assured me that it was a good time to plant, so I went to her house and brought back six grafted apple trees. Having a friend with a master’s degree in botany and a love of apple trees is wonderful.

Infrastructure improvements continue. The husband is going to install a gate in the pig pasture so he can get equipment and trailers in and out of there. While he was at the farm store getting the gate, he also bought wire panels for a new-and-improved pea trellis:

I could grow a lot of peas on this trellis. I think I may use half of it for some cucumber plants or loofah vines or something.

After much discussion and negotiation, we settled on a design for the herb garden. This process was difficult because the husband wants a fully-formed idea that he can measure and plot out, and I struggle with producing the required fully-formed idea. (You know, because I can’t see things in my head.) I tell him what I would like and he then gives me five reasons why what I want cannot be done. We’ve wrestled through enough projects together that we come to a consensus, eventually, but it takes some effort.

I need to order the raised beds and weed blocker, and the husband will arrange for gravel and dirt to be delivered. I think it will be lovely when it’s done. The beds probably won’t get planted until June, after the row crops are in.

It rained on and off yesterday; we need the moisture, but it would be nice if the temps got above 40F. The propane heater stayed on in the greenhouse all day.

I did a podcast interview just after lunch, then worked on some store samples. I am teaching Gail Yellen’s serger/coverstitch Christmas Stocking pattern at the store here and also in Missoula. Both stores need a stocking to display—having a display really does help to fill the class—but I only have one stocking made. The pattern includes two versions, so I thought I would make up one serger stocking and one coverstitch stocking for each store.

Truly, the hardest part of this pattern is cutting the pieces and keeping track of what goes where. Each stocking has two sides and I am making two stockings. The “feet” are made up of five pieces flatlocked together, and those five pieces have to go together a specific way. I used a lot of labels and made sure things were laid out properly before I serged them together:

The assembly should go much faster now that the feet are done. I’d like to finish these today. We are struggling to get out of this cool and rainy weather, so I’ll be inside again.

Birthday Lights

I asked the husband what he wanted for his birthday, and he said he wanted to stay home and get some things done around here. I completely understand that sentiment. This time of year, especially, there is so much going on that there is no time to stop and look around.

We had a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs, after which each of us looked at our to-do lists and chose something. I cleaned up around the house and threw in a load of laundry, then went out to the garage to clean out the chicks’ brooder box and fill it with clean wood shavings. In another week or two, they will move out to the chicken coop. I watered the plants in the greenhouse. The husband worked outside and took a load of garbage to the dump. We reconvened over lunch.

We didn’t get the rain that was promised on Friday. Yesterday was cool and a bit blustery. After lunch, I went to my sewing room to look at patterns again. I don’t know where my head was on Friday, but I hadn’t read that Simplicity 9469 pattern properly at all. I completely missed the middle size. The finished sizing reads Small, 42-1/2", Medium 46-1/2", and Large 50-1/2". I went ahead and traced the Medium and we’ll see how that one fits.

I also got out the Varda dress pattern and traced that one, although I am starting with the top. (Lengthened, of course.) The Varda is a French dart dress. If the top fits well, I’ll go ahead and make a dress.

By then, it was time to get ready for the wedding. Dressing for something like this is when I get to see precisely where the holes are in my wardrobe. Even though Montana events are much more casual than elsewhere in the country, I had fashion rules drilled into me at a young age. (No white after Labor Day, etc.) Also, as the pianist, I feel it’s my responsibility to dress nicely. I have many basics: pencil skirts in navy and black, wide leg pants in navy and black, lots of cardigans, but I need some blouses to tie everything together. In the end, I settled on a black pencil skirt with a green printed Liz Claiborne blouse and black cardigan. Green was one of the bride’s wedding colors, so I felt that was a good choice.

Besides blouses, I could use a couple of nice dresses, too. If I ever get that ponte sheath dress pattern worked out, I’ll probably make that in several versions.

A cold front blew in just after the wedding and it did rain, hard, for a while. While I was gone, the husband installed new lights in my office:

When we built the house, we put three banks of fluorescent lights in here. A few years ago, we switched out the fluorescent bulbs for LED bulbs, but then the lights began randomly shutting off for a few minutes before coming back on. I suspect the LED bulbs were causing the ballasts to overheat. I lived with it for far longer than I should have. About a month ago, the husband told me to order new fixtures. I like these; hopefully, flies will not collect in them and the light is much softer. I might actually consider making some YouTube videos now.

So I got a present, but the husband got to stay home and cross a few things off his to-do list, and that was his present.

Birthdays, Beans, and Blouses

Today is the husband’s birthday. He is five months younger than me, so from now until November, he and I will be the same age numerically. Today is also our neighbor Theresa’s birthday. And yesterday was Susan’s birthday.

Ryan, the Bernina tech, came out on Thursday to service the Q20. His mom owns the quilt store where I teach. We spent a fair bit of time gabbing about sewing machines while he worked. I think he enjoys talking to someone who knows enough about sewing machine mechanics to have an intelligent conversation about them. And I always learn something new from him.

I went to town early yesterday morning because I got letter in the mail that the Jeep title paperwork had arrived at the county MVD office. The last time I had to do this for a trailer—before the county farmed out LLC registrations to MVD Express—I arrived when the office opened at 8 am, took a number and got onto a text messaging list, then drove around town and ran errands until they texted me that they were close to my number.

I arrived at the office yesterday at 8:02 am. A line of people had already formed. I would have been #50 had I taken a number to wait, but I checked in with the lady at the information counter. She pulled my title paperwork, had me sign at the bottom, and said I could do the rest of the registration via their website and the county would mail me my plates.

Surely there is a more efficient way . . .

I did another batch of white beans this week. We were completely out.

We should have enough beans to get us through the summer.

I was going to prep a pattern yesterday afternoon, but after looking at it, I am having second thoughts:

I planned to make View B, which has a pleated front and keyhole opening (no tie). The issue is the sizing. This pattern comes in alphabet sizing, with huge jumps between sizes. I fall between the finished bust size for the Large of 42-1/2" and the finished bust size of the XL of 50-1/2". The Large would be slightly too small, but the XL is going to be enormous, even if I make it in a very drapey fabric.

I need to look more closely at how this is drafted to see if I can scale up or down. The design is not that complicated, so I wonder if I can frankenpattern this with Simplicity 9469, because I know that one fits.

I don’t know—maybe I should give up this quest for some nice woven blouses and just stick to knits. Those I know how to fit.

I Can Almost Taste It

I am so close to having a good blouse pattern. I finished this one and field tested it on a trip to town yesterday morning:

This started out as Simplicity 9469, with a few adjustments. The fabric is a rayon/linen blend from Hobby Lobby. On a previous muslin, I added bust darts and decided I liked the fit better without them. I am still puzzling over that one. Is it possible that bust darts may not be the solution for me that they are for many women because of my high hip curve? I can get the bodice shaped nicely with bust darts, but it’s almost as if there isn’t enough vertical space between my bust and my hips to widen out the top sufficiently to skim past my hips. If I can widen it enough, I end up looking like I’m wearing a maternity top. (A Scout Tee disaster comes to mind . . . ) I think it’s much more flattering (on me) to have a blouse that isn’t so fitted around the bust and flows gently all the way down.

I’m mostly happy with this. I will make a couple of small adjustments before I make another one, though. This blouse wants to ride back a bit. I did some research on that problem and I think it has two causes:

1. The neckline opening is too large. This is a common problem with V-neck tops—too wide, too deep—and one reason why I don’t often wear them. I find that most V-neck tops slide back and forth around my shoulders, even though my shoulders are broader than average. The V-neck on the Emerald Dress fit well, so I’ll compare the two patterns and see what I think.

2. I looked at Sarah Veblen’s fitting book and I think I still need some kind of broad back/prominent shoulder blade adjustment.

I’ll incorporate those adjustments into the next iteration and see what I think. I am aiming for a basic blouse pattern that can be hacked with different neckline treatments—like a flounce—and varying sleeve styles.

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I soaked a large pot of white beans overnight and I’ll can those up this afternoon. It appears we will get some rain after all, starting tomorrow. I think tomorrow might be a good day to tear apart a room or two and do some spring cleaning.

I’m driving the BMW locally and saving the Jeep for longer trips, at least until next winter. I’m sure the Jeep will do better in the snow as its ground clearance is much better. I am reluctant to give up the BMW’s 40 mpg, and if it should break down, I’ll be close to home. I’ll have to get the summer tires put on it before the end of May, but I’ll wait until the rush has passed.

Moving Right Along

Yesterday morning was devoted to re-potting and re-seeding plants in the greenhouse. Growing inventory for this plant sale is a always bit stressful. We’ve developed a reputation for having a good selection of healthy plants, and in terms of dollars, this is our biggest fundraiser of the year for the Homestead Foundation. I always breathe a huge sigh of relief when it’s over.

Some of the tomatoes were large enough to re-pot individually. I did that. Ironically, the peppers germinated ridiculously well and they weren’t even on a heat mat. Go figure. I potted those individually, too. Any pots that were still blank—no germination—were emptied and cleaned. I planted several new trays of tomatoes. We’ll see how fast they come up and grow. They still have time to get to a reasonable size before the plant sale, especially if the weather stays nice.

The rhubarb is up and looking good:

And I found a parsnip:

I planted parsnips once, about eight years ago. They still pop up here and there around the garden.

After lunch, I took down my “happy lights”—that’s what the husband calls the string of lights I put up around the porch in the fall—and replaced them with the wind chimes. I filled and put up the hummingbird feeders because people just to our south have reported that the hummers are back. And I cleaned out the porch fridge where we store eggs for sale over the summer.

Susan has grafted several new apple trees for me. We’ll add Wolf River, Spokane Beauty, American Summer Pearmain, Aunt Penelope Winslow, Spice Sweet, Canadian Strawberry, and Sweet Sixteen to the orchard. I am happy to be getting another Sweet Sixteen—the original one I bought from Costco succumbed the second year after we planted it.

The chicks are starting to feather out and spend their days tearing around the brooder box. Dave stands sentry out in the chicken yard, giving the side eye to the tom turkey. I have assured him that the turkey has enough hens of his own without going after Dave’s girls, but Dave is still suspicious. The bunny is almost completely brown again. I am pretty sure the pileated woodpeckers have a nest in one of the trees, and I hear the owl every so often when I walk out to the greenhouse.

It is a relief to have settled into the summer routine.

I even found an hour late yesterday afternoon to work on another muslin of my blouse pattern. I am aiming for perfection and I’m not quite there yet.

The machine tech from the quilt store is coming out tomorrow to service the Q20. I’ve had it for three years, so it is time. I love that he makes house calls, because getting that machine out of the table and to the store would be a major undertaking.

Potatoes and Turkeys

The husband and I planted potatoes Sunday afternoon. He tilled that section while I was at church, and after lunch, I cut up the seed potatoes and we got them into the ground:

We planted German Butterballs (so good!—better than Yukon Golds), Clearwater Russets, and Umatilla Russets. I’ve been through Umatilla several times. It is a town in Oregon and it’s on the route I take to get to Portland.

[I ran across this news article this morning: Hutterites Share 250 Tons of Potatoes in Reardan. The Hutterite colony in Washington state gave away potatoes they couldn’t sell. Now I’m wondering what is going on with the potato market.]

I’m going to put the drip hoses on this area because we don’t have much rain in the forecast.

The husband also spread out the (very fragrant) pig manure for me, and we moved a couple of tarps to cover areas that I won’t plant this year.

I was entertained by this activity after dinner Sunday night:

This guy was very sure of his appeal:

It’s going to be time to get out the riding mower soon.

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Robin and I went to Missoula yesterday. I had to register the trailer that the husband accidentally bought a few weeks ago. Because it was purchased by the construction company, we had to register it through MVDExpress rather than Flathead County, and the closest office is in Missoula. Oh well, it was a good excuse for a road trip. The weather was stellar. We checked out the new Hobby Lobby store, Joann Fabrics—the Missoula store is in much better shape than the Kalispell store—visited The Confident Stitch, found a fabulous new restaurant right across the street from TCS, and stopped at A Clean Stitch on the way out of town. (Yes, two stores with similar names is not the least bit confusing. 😵‍💫 ) The owner of A Clean Stitch and I put two more serger classes on the calendar for June and July. And, of course, Robin and I stopped at the Amish store on the way home for a dish of ice cream.

I also stopped at The Good Food Store in Missoula and bought more seeds. I am going to replant some of the tomatoes and squash to see if I get better germination. The Good Food Store carries seeds from Triple Divide Seeds and I think I am just going to order from them from now on. They are a local Montana company and have most of the varieties I want to grow.

I don’t have anything on the schedule for the rest of the week—and that is not a challenge to the universe—so I’ll see if I can get caught up on the to-do list.