She's a morning girl -
Always clad in her tutu.
My buddy, Glory.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Saturday, July 12, 2014
California Berry Time
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| Ollalieberries were pretty much picked out by now, Blackberries and bayberries were still hanging out on the vines |
Sure, I can buy my berries at the grocery store.
I can even trot on down the street to tomorrows' Farmers Market, a lovely place to hang out.
But nothing beats taking a day off and driving on over to the San Mateo County coast, to take in the sights and pick my own at Coastwaise Ranch/ Swanton Farm.
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Web Resources
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Western Style Horses Define America (Field Trips)
I still remember moving west as a young girl. We had been living in an extremely urban part of Ohio. The midwest that I remember was towns, trucks, crowded streets, smoke stacks, row after row of towering buildings, and cramped houses.
And then we came to the farm and ranch lands of the west and I saw herd after herd of horses. I knew I had arrived.
This is my kind of America.
Clean As A Whistle Bobbin Zone (Sewing Machine Maintenance)
Cleaning out the lint
Puts less pressure on the works
Keeps it all going!
I absolutely wore out the engine on the first machine I bought - a Viking the salesman swore would last me a lifetime. If I took good care of it! After about twenty years it's motor was shot, even though I got it serviced regularly. The gentleman I took it to for it's final maintenance told me that motor had given up the ghost, because I let the lint build up around the bobbin case too many times.
You can bet that these days I'm very virtuous about cleaning out the lint. I clean it at least every time I change projects, when I also change the needle. And if I'm using a fabric that makes a lot of lint - like denim or fleece- I clean it out several times. It's reminds me of flossing my teeth, if I want my gums to hold up for the long haul, I need to get those little bits and pieces out.
Knowing how to care for my machine, and helping it to a long life, is just part of being....
Enchanted by Sewing
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Postcard from Disneyland
It's about
Color
Images
Fantasy
Flower patches
Gardens
Baskets of flowers
Happy, yelling children
Swans
Moments with my daughter
Flying elephants
Elephants bathing in a river
Flying pirate ships
Talking birds
Singing birds
Dancing dolls
Singing dolls
Mark Twain Steamboat
Well behaved, fun loving pirates
Singing ghosts
Buying souvenir socks with Mickey's face
Aladdin and Jasmine flying overhead in the Hyperion Theatre
Soaring over CA
Swimming in the Candy Cane Inn pool
Checking out the current crop of flower baskets at Candy Cane Inn
Disneyland is my home town.
Terminado! My CA Summer Skies Seersucker Shirt
Yeah!
You know the joys of completing another project, don't you?
Love my new blue and white checked seersucker shirt. It's just made for summer. Well in fact it is! That's what I made it for :-)
And it's perfect with that new denim, elastic waist skirt I finished a few weeks back and have been wearing all the time. No, I don't think of myself as a skirt person but this garment has changed my mind. It's both comfortable and flattering. Nothing beats being able to design for my own figure.
I drafted the skirt myself but the shirt is an altered version of B5526, that infamous pattern I've made four times now and talk about all the time in my podcast. Yup, it's the one my buddy Susan originally altered. It started out life as my No. 1 Ladys' Detective Agency shirt. It's so great having a pattern that fits well, and lets me move on creatively from there.
Alterations on B5526 this time, in addition to Susan's original alterations to fit me
- No collar band. Oh I like that!
- Cut ends of my 3/4 length sleeves straight. Then rolled them up and hand sewed them into a permanent just-above-the-elbow roll. I'm the kind of person who always rolls up a sleeve, so why not make it permanent?
- Added pockets on either side. I varied the original pocket on the pattern, taking out the tuck. Lined the inside of the pockets with silk organza. I also used silk organza for the interfacing on the front facing (not included on the pattern), and the collar.
-Less topstitching this time because of the seersucker. I just did one row on all the edges - the hem, collar, and front facing. On crisper fabrics I do 2 or 3 for more of an edge. One row on the seersucker gave it enough definition. I continued to use commercial bias tape on the inside hem, to define the hem edge. Gee that works great.
I'll be talking more about sewing this shirt in my June Enchanted by Sewing podcast.
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Web Resources
The Enchanted By Sewing Podcast http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com
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