It's Almost Time to Build a Boat

It’s the middle of June and the furnace is running.

The rain is still coming down. There has been some minor flooding down by the river. We’re on the side of a mountain so no flooding worries here, but my rain barrels are filling up quickly.

I wore my Renee pants to church yesterday. I am ready to make more. Honestly, I think that consumers—women, especially—have tolerated poorly-made, ill-fitting clothing for so long that we’ve all forgotten what it feels like to wear clothing that isn’t like that. I told the husband that I am going to make myself a whole closet full of clothing that I like in colors I can wear (Hot pink! Emerald green! Turquoise!) and then cull everything that doesn’t quite fit.

[My friend Elaine has an aunt who came to the funeral for one of her brothers wearing a hot pink suit. I told her how nice I thought she looked and I decided then that I want to be the elderly woman showing up at funerals in hot pink.]

I bought two lengths of Robert Kaufman ponte at the quilt store the other day—one black, one black sparkle—and I have some Kaufman royal blue sparkle coming from Fabric.com. (The sparkle is very subtle; these are not party pants.) The hot pink Joann Fabrics ponte is not bad, either, so I’ll keep my eye out for more of that fabric in other colors. .

DD#2, my fashionista daughter, tells me that skinny is out and wide leg is coming back in. I will consider modifying the legs on that pattern. The fit is perfect, especially in the waist and the rise. I did not have to tug those pants back into place at all yesterday. Usually I’m hitching my pants up half an hour after I put them on. And the spandex content wasn’t enough to bother my skin.

My friend Susan and her daughter came over yesterday after church. Our four girls stair-step in age and grew up together. Her younger daughter lives in Bozeman where she has a ceramics studio. She’s visiting her parents for a few days. We spent some time yesterday talking about her current sewing obsession, which is designing and making the perfect merino wool bra. Merino wool underwear—actual underwear, not long underwear—is surprisingly comfortable. Hikers and travelers prefer it because it’s easy to care for. Nordstrom carries a brand called Icebreaker (I have some), but the problem is that the currently-available bras only come in general sizing of Small, Medium, and Large. Susan’s daughter wants to figure out how to make bras that can be sized by band and cup sizing. Listening to her talk about that process was fascinating.

Susan brought me two apple trees that she grafted for me. She has a Duchess of Oldenburg tree that I raid in the fall for my canned apple pie filling. She thought I should have one in my own orchard, so she gifted me these grafts from her tree. The husband planted them out front with the rest of the trees yesterday.

Susan and I went out to look at the garden and discovered a dead rabbit. We’ve seen several hopping around the property lately. This one had tried to get through the fence from the pig pasture to the garden and gotten stuck in the fence and died. It was a sizeable rabbit. The death must have happened some time between Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, because we were out there all day Saturday.

I am hoping not to have a rabbit infestation in the garden. So far, nothing has molested the lettuce or Swiss chard, but I wonder if one of them got my melons.

I started making a muslin for the Sinclair Azalea top:

I can only work on it for short stretches because it makes my brain hurt. I am going to have to go watch the video again for the next couple of steps. The fabric is some double-brushed poly that was on the remnant rack at Joanns. Occasionally, I find two remnants in the same fabric that together provide enough for a top. I’m not crazy about the print, but for a prototype, it’s fine.

My serger apron class is today. Heavy rain is in the forecast for the entire day, so it will be nice to stay inside and make something.