We Work for Fun

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

The funny part is at the beginning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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