It's All So Boring.....

It's all so boring but at least it's still sewing-related. So I'm still on track Since last I posted, I've still not been creatively productive, in that I still yet to put the first seam in the Simplicity blouse. All is not in vain, however. The tension has been reset on the sewing machine along with seam samples sewn. The serger has also been re-threaded, no small feat, as it has been a long time since I've done it and I'm still getting acquainted with it. The tensions on it were all screwy for such a silky fabric from the last project done on it in thick cotton so that in itself was a process!

My beloved son honored me with his mending, making my first official completed project for 2011 reattaching the elastic waistband on his boxers. They aren't in bad shape, in fact, nearly new. He merely pulled a thread he shouldn't have. Yes, the thread attaching boxer to elastic, leaving more than half the poor waistband dangling haplessly. Order and support have been restored to the kingdom.

Simplicity just released their new patterns and I have to admit I'm really disappointed in the offering. Everything seems a re-hash, re-release, or just plain boring. The only the that caught my eye was this little pretty:

Of course I have no red carpet event to wear it to, nor any special occasion I can even think of that would be appropriate for such a dress. But I am just mad about all that pleating at the bodice! The slightly trailing train is so glamorous, too. Who wouldn't feel like a movie star in a dress like this? It's so timeless yet modern.

Oh, well. Sigh. Back to the blouse and boxers for me, though.

Feed My Soul

It seems like I've had this pair of pants on my sewing table for months. They're finally finished and I got to wear them to work yesterday! They're the Simplicity 4366 that I wrote of earlier. They're made from a navy blue microfiber I purchased on a mini-vacay to Land Between The Lakes. I've tried to photo them on, but I'm a poor self-photographer and my schedule is so wonky this week what little time I have with family is better spent without a camera. The fly treatment was new for me and I'm still undecided whether I like it or not. I had one of those lightbulb moments, and suddenly the hemming foot made sense to me and worked beautifully. I have a lovely blind hem for for the first time!

Sewing seems to have fallen very low on the priority list since October. I'm not sure how that happened but I sure need to change it--it gives me so much that "feeds" my spirit. I dearly love fabric & colors and sewing allows me to saturate myself in them. It's also a creative process matching the color scheme to fabric and pattern and determining the processes to be used in construction and whether or not add embelishment to the project. There's also the visible gratification when a problem, and there's always a problem, is successfully resolved. (I also have a "That was easy" button I can hit for a little verbal praise, too.) I enjoy learning and sewing involves so many skills there'll never be nothing left to learn. Best of all, I love that wonderful sense of accomplishment and pride when that project is finished. For there's always a 3 year child lurking in all of us that says "I made that!"

It's been kind of a funky last two weeks here on Bittersweet Lane. Both Mr. B and I have had emotionally draining turmoil in our workplaces but both places seem to be settling down (or we're aclimating to it). Kiddo 3 has been stressing over several papers for her college classes especially the one where she has to interview the owner of a hotel/motel that houses sex offenders (in a seedy part of town, of course). She was accompanied by a classmate. Kiddo 4 is struggling to write papers for his Senior Portfolio, necessary for graduation. He has a very dry, sardonic sense of humor (can't imagine where he gets it from) and is guarded about his emotions. Unfortunately, the teacher doesn't get the humor and has some kind of Lifetime-movie notion of reaching each child's emotional core, exposing it and saving/reforming/tranforming them. That is so not going to happen with this Aspy.

I was checking out favorite blogs this morning, and was amazed at Hip to Save's shopping trip to Walgreen's this week here. Isn;t she amazing!!

On the happy things front, my sewing machine is is happily purring away. After a monthlong hiatus, I finally got the sewing mojo back.

I'm working on Simplicity 4366, view B, the lower righthand photo, in a dark navy blue microfiber. It feels so good to sew again. That creative process is so restorative to my emotional well-being and keeps the closet stocked, too.