Our Many Projects

My father-in-law wrote in his Christmas card to us this year: “T & J—good luck in 2022 with all your many projects.”

That made me chuckle. I suppose the two of us do look unhinged sometimes with everything we have going on.

To wit, our lettuce just before I cut it for last night’s salad:

I cut about half, and that was enough for one salad. (Have you met the husband? You know how much he eats.) This is why I need to scale up the growing system. I left the roots, so the lettuce should grow back again, but it isn’t going to be enough. We need a bigger system. I did some shopping yesterday morning and this is on its way to us:

It is a three-tier Sunlite shelf from Gardener’s Supply. The system comes with the shelves and the lights. I will get the growing trays from a different company. Those Commander buckets in the top pic work, but they are too heavy for me to lift when they are full of water.

I get the whole concept of bootstrapping, and there certainly is a time and place for upcycling and using less expensive materials. The older I get, though, the more I understand when it’s appropriate to just spend the money and stop messing around. We have the money for a more formal system, one that’s efficient and easy to use. I will set it up so that each shelf is a week apart in growing, which should give us a consistent weekly supply of lettuce throughout the winter.

Gardener’s Supply was having a 20% off sale yesterday, so I also took the opportunity to order my soaker hose supplies for the vegetable garden for next season.

Having gotten my shopping out of the way, I went upstairs to sew. I am concentrating on garment patterns for me this week. I pulled all of the sweatshirt knits out of the stash. I also pulled out this Burda pattern (6315), which I traced a while back but never got to:

Burda patterns feature nice designs, but they are short on guidance unless you are good at decoding hieroglyphics. I made view C, which is the pullover sans pocket with the drawstring cowl neck.

[I am just not a pocket person. I think it’s because I don’t like the feel or weight of things dragging down pockets in my clothes. I don’t use them, so I don’t put them on clothing that I make.]

I lengthened the pattern, of course, and I didn’t put the drawstring in the cowl neck as it’s mostly decorative. (DD#1 gave me a test a few years ago and apparently, I do not like excessive sensory input, which means I don’t like my clothes to be fiddly. Perhaps you already came to that conclusion on my behalf.) The fabric is the same as some I used in a Nancy Raglan a couple of years ago (and still wear). I must have bought four yards at the time, because I had enough for this top, too:

(Where is my iron?) This only took a few hours, start to finish. The new coverstitch machine performed beautifully once I got the thread tension set where it needed to be for the heavier fabric. (Test, test, test.)

I ended up taking in some of the seams as this was more oversized than I wanted it to be. I then re-traced the pattern two sizes smaller for the next iteration. I don’t have enough experience with Burda patterns to know what size I need to make yet. I also redrafted the sleeves, because the ones in the pattern were big and floppy and I like my sleeves to fit more closely. I’ll probably wear this with a light turtleneck underneath.

I’ve got enough sweatshirt fleece for four more tops. I think I might actually make some that will be long enough to wear with leggings, too—almost like a sweater dress.

I’ve got a nice collection of patterns that fit me now. The danger is that I am going to make more clothing than I really need. But after years of clothes that don’t fit, wear out quickly, or only come in muddy earth tones, it’s lovely to put on clothes that are long enough, are made well, and come in colors I want to wear. I have my eye on some hot pink, emerald green, and sapphire blue sweatshirt fleece from Girl Charlee Fabrics. You’re not going to lose me in a snowbank, that’s for sure.