Ench By Sew-34:Sewing with the Flow - Fairy Inspired

This month’s show is Fairy Inspired… Fairy Gardens that is– where my sewing (like my gardening)  knows,  It’s the Story that makes it.

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Enchanted by Sewing IS, An  EXTENSION OF my regular sewing blog - Me Encanta Coser, which,  roughly translated means, Enchanted By Sewing 

My blog is written in English. The name celebrates the historical and modern use of the beautiful Spanish Language in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where I live

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 I was feeling pretty serious about my sewing when I got back into town last month. I was thinking that any day I’d get on with some serious pattern drafting work.

Well, I haven’t! As a matter of fact whenever I thought about doing intense pattern work – either drafting or pattern alteration – I just found something else to do. And, as this has been an unusually busy summer for me, both professionally and personally, it was easy to put sewing off.

Finally I just quit worry about what I’d planned to do, and responded to materials and projects that were singing out to me from the bins over my machine. And I was, once more, reminded of Lori Van Monnans’s advice to ‘sew forth now’.

Sometimes you just gotta sew. By just responding to what I had on hand, I was working on getting in some summer garment essentials. They were essential because there items I really use at this time of year, and also essential to my happiness. It doesn’ t always matter whether I’m carrying through on garments I blue sky about. What matters is that I respond to my essential need to sew because, sewing enchants me.

In this month’s show

1) Recent summer essential sewing – Journaling about what’s useful additions I’ve sewn for my summer armoire.

Lucy Locket's Mobile Pocket Bag - http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/06/lucky-lockets-mobile-device-pocket-bag.html

A new Tapestry Cap - http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/06/replacing-my-tapestry-cap.html

Enchanted by Sewing(Aug 2014) Capping Off Summer - Creating a simple pattern for, and sewing a cap http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/08/ench-by-sew-023-capping-off-summer.html

-Singing the Blues Tee - Pattern drafted from my moulage http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/07/sewing-summer-essentials-singing-blues.html

- Rose Embellished Straight Skirt - Pattern drafted from my sloper http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/06/terminado-rose-embellished-straight.html

2) Technicos: Techniques I used to complete My Rose Embellished Denim Straight Skirt – Sloper to Pattern, and embellishment techniques

Enchanted By Sewing Show (May 2015) Parlez Vous French Pattern Drafting ?http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2015/05/ench-by-sew-32-parlez-vous-french.html

3) Fairy Gardens Inspire My Sewing
Whether gardening or sewing – it’s the story that makes the creation

Postcard from California - How to Invite Fairies to Live in your Garden - A Fairy Garden Tutorial http://postcardfromcalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-to-invite-fairies-to-live-in-your.html


Postcard from California - There are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden - CA patio garden that is
http://www.postcardfromcalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-to-introduce-fairy-to-california.html

Both these Disney Garden books inspire my theme gardening style. I like the tabbed-cookbook style of DISNEY'S GARDENING WITH MICKEY when I want to quickly review the steps for creating a hanging basket or well illustrated how-tos for small topiaries. (There's lots of good info for larger topiaries and garden sculpting as well - I just haven't tried it out) In addition, there is good gardening (yard or pots) basic techniques as well as many recommendations for plants that work well for specific themes and temperatures. I highly recommend it, because I have used it a lot over a period of several years.

I also turn regularly to my Secrets of Disney's Glorious Gardens book. It has a lot of similar techniques and information as DISNEY'S GARDENING WITH MICKEY and it also has lovely, lovely photos that inspire me. So when I want to sit down and just get ideas for themes or gardening styles, I pour through the photos in this book.
                

Wegman's Nursery in Redwood City has regular Fairy Garden Classes! http://www.wegmansnursery.com

Fairy magic is definitely adding a little more enchantment to my life, when it comes to gardening.

And ….It’s also given me a better understanding of how to keep my sewing enchanting.

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.

Ench By Sew-021- CA Summer Skies Sewing Summer Vacation Is a State of Mind

Hey! 

The latest Enchanted by Sewing Podcast has been published!

Listening Option I) You can listen to the show right on the web by clicking on this link 

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Listening Option II)  Click on this link to iTunes  to download this and other Enchanted by Sewing shows to your mobile device (iPhone, Android, etc.) free from iTunes

Did I miss any links mentioned in the show? If so, please post here and share them with everybody

Email- EnchantedBySewing@gmail.com

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I know your June weather may not be the same as mine. Here in CA it’s time for summer skies, a little more heat, and a vacation feeling whether or not we’re able to leave town. (Hey,  feel free to post about what kind of sewing your climate inspires below!)

Sometimes I’m able to take an actual summer vacation and other years I focus on treating the summer like a vacation, even when I don’t leave the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live. This summer I was able to take a mini vacation weekend trip to Disneyland. As a matter of fact I just got back☺  I went with my beautiful, kind and funny, young adult daughter. Getting to bond with her at this age is really fun!  I took along a newly finished garment from my summer wardrobe on the trip and I’ll talk about sewing that in the show. I’m going to continue to focus on treating the rest of the summer like a vacation, no matter what I get to do. And I’m going to continue to sew for my summer vacation, no matter how far afield of home I manage to go.

Here’s what I’m talking about in this month’s show

* Primero: Planning My Summer Vacation Sewing

I may be a casual dresser, but I'm not into Normcore, anti-fashion. No, I go for an arty-romantic look, creating summer vacation outfits that make me feel special– whether I wear them on a trip across an ocean, a local museum visit, or just special tea with a buddy on my patio, is the kind of thing that keeps me Enchanted by Sewing

I’ve gotten a lot of great ideas for summer sewing, either for a vacation away from home or making a includes patterns for relaxed and beautiful garments that vacation right where I live, from this new-to-me book



* Entonces/Then Key pieces I’ve created so far for my summer vacation sewists wardrobe

Love my new denim skirt - It flatters my figure type!
And how about that CA Summer Skies Shirt?
You bet I'm happy with my latest rendition of B5526
Of course I had to get some new red sandals to enhance my blue and white summer wardrobe theme :-)

a. Straight denim skirt
b. Summer Skies shirt

c. I refurbished two pair of shorts and and a pair of pants by adding thread belt loops. Guess who feels like she got three new garments? This posting from my regular blog includes a how-to link for those belt loops http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/06/wardrobe-refurbish-sewist-loves-to.html

d. Closet Shopping turned up a couple of pretty, arty shirts I’ve made in past that work well with my refurbished pants

These garments together give a slightly dressy edge to my summer vacation and make me stand up a little straighter and really feel good about myself. -

* I followup with Technicos: Focusing on seersucker sewing  with my CA Summer skies shirt


 

Postcard from HI 152 (Field Trip San Francisco Bay Area)

The natives are friendly on CA HI 152

Highway 152  leads out of Gilroy, self-claimed Garlic Capital of the World, then meanders gently through quintessential CA farm land before rising up Pacheco Pass and out to Interstate Highway 5. HI 5 is a powerhouse interstate, filled with big trucks and small speeding cars. It's famous for talking folks, livestock and products there - in a hurry wherever it is that we need to get to, that's far away. It's the speediest route from the southernmost point of the west coast, up through the low lying, central, predominantly agricultural valleys in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Highway 152 reminds us of our agricultural heritage, 

moving San Francisco Bay Area dwellers on a multitude of western adventures. It's takes us out of Silicon Valley and onto Disneyland, San Diego, or even the Cascades. 

Then it leads us back home again.

HI 152 Farmlands

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Web Resources

CA Highway 152 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_152

Gilroy CA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilroy,_California

Three bitcoins in the Fountain

What kind of happily-ever-after is there for the bitcoin?

"Three Coins in the Fountain" was a regular post-war, classic oldie, on late night television when I was growing up. When it's heroines, Frances, Anita, and Maria tossed their lucky coins into the Trevi Fountain, they were wishing for diamond rings. Actually, they were supposed to be wishing to return to Rome, but every popcorn snacker in the 50's theaters knew they were intent on love - the kind of love that ends in marriage. A girl of that time wasn't supposed to have much on her mind other than traditional marriage.

With all that "glorious technicolor",  and the romantic lure of handsome fellas like Louis Jourdan and Rossano Brazzi (yes, the ultra-suave Emile De Becque in South Pacific), viewers 
just knew any coin - whether it was American quarter or a five lire piece - that got pitched into that much-visited Roman landmark 
was a guarantee of a happily-ever-after ending.

Not so much with todays not-quite-mainstream bitcoin. 

With twelve and a half million bitcoins in circulation, however, we've come to a point where it's not just a select group of digital know-it-all, hacker types controlling this crytopcurrency. Nowadays, the IRS and Wall Street are taking an interest. The IRS has issued tax guidelines for virtual currencies. Agencies in other countries are making similar moves. Banks and speculators are investing in Bitcoins*.

Oh and various criminal types are focusing on bitcoin transactions as well. Gotten in on any good Ponzi schemes lately? Ponzi masters are only one style of robber barons misusing Bitcoin technology. Who knows what other trolls are hanging out under bridges, persuing bitcoins on the dark side of the web.

Government agencies, financial mavens, and calculating criminals are all interested in getting, keeping and enhancing the value of Bitcoins. Well we all know who comes next. Yup, us regular folks just may be thinking about slipping bitcoins into our virtual wallets any day now. I'm starting to get a vision....

There I am, hopping up on the elliptical at the gym, strapping on my Oculus glasses for that virtual ride through Disneyland, an experience that's bound to keep me entertained while I pedal the virtual miles away. Just up ahead is Snow White's wishing well. 

I'd really love to see the monthly sales figures go up on My Heart Beats Faster  ebook at amazon.  What could be a better investment in my sales futures than a Disneyland wish?

Is my digital bitcoin, like it's more traditional 1954 cousin,  going to guarantee me my own happy ever after ? Let me just reach  on down into that digital wallet.....

* Note the capital "B" - which 

refers to the technology and management of the currency, versus 'bitcoin' - the actual currency.

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Web Resources

Three Coins in the Fountain - The movie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Coins_in_the_Fountain_(film)

What's a bitcoin? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

San Francisco Chronicle Bitcoin Politics and Business Changes http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Bitcoin-supporters-clash-over-ideological-5360314.php

Facebook and Oculus - What about those 3D glasses? http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_25426490/biz-break:-harsh-reality-for-facebook-after-2b-oculus-acquisition

What's Crytopcurrency? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency

Where might digital trolls hang out? Dark Web/ Deep Web - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_web

Plain Sewing for Disneyland

(co-published with MeEncantaCoser/EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com)

Me in my my Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Shirt)
on a quick spring break at Disneyland

As regular followers of my Me Encanta Coser Enchanted By Sewing blog and podcast may have noticed, I spent a lot of time focusing on improving my sewing techniques over the last couple of months. The green and golden jungle print shirt (previously blogged about as my Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Shirt) in this photo, was the product of that work. 

After so much effort when it came to crisp edges, pattern fitting and alteration I had fun making a couple of simple tank tops with no pattern at all and the simple joy of scissoring wherever I wanted. The results were perfect as layers under a travel wardrobe for a recent quick-hop Disneyland trip with my grownup daughter. With my new green shirt as a top layer, I managed to pack light - using just a very small rolling suitcase for the trip. My simple shirt and tees wardrobe,  made a second floor motel room and return-by-Amtrak trip really easy - no problem hefting that bag up steps, onto the top shelf of the luggage area, or pulling it up the gap between train and track.

I loved this opportunity to use machine embroidery
I almost forget to use a top layer of stabalizer between
the needle and knit fabric! You know what happens if you
forget, right? The fabric is sucked down and gummed up
 under the throat plate and it's awful.

I enjoyed using machine embroidery to create this lovely zebra, the only motif on the green shirt for which I had a match on my (now) old-fashioned embroidery machine, which uses cards instead of the more modern downloadable designs. I also made use of an inexpensive white tee - which I totally cutup and simply used as fabric. The binding (and headband - which you see simply tossed over the hanger here) was the remains of a tee that didn't work out. I loved the 100% cotton knit fabric when I found it - at Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkley-, but it had an awful lot more stretch than I realized and the long sleeved tee I made  out of it is too broad and too short. It just didn't work out. But the remnants make great trim for this zebra shirt. Now that I've experimented with this tee, and another, I'm hoping to make a similar one out of better quality white cotton knit. I think I've still got enough of the black and white remainder for binding and enough black thread for another zebra too!

If you have machine embroidery capabilities and haven't done so on knits, make sure you use a top layer of stabalizer as well as a bottom layer. I use the kind that looks like saran wrap. You tear it away and any remainder washes away.

This is my kind of uniform
Something I can put on every day
and pretty too

As I've said before, I like making pretty clothes that I'll get a lot of wear from. Whether I'm in the land of Princesses and castles or back home on my bike, I'll get a lot of use out of this zebra tee. And I'll always enjoy pulling it out of my drawer.

Machine embroidered tees like this, keep me enchanted by sewing.

City Bound:Biking the Embarcadero (part 2)

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It's got a reputation for hills, but San Francisco still has a good stretch of flat, bike'able streets. I swung out of the train station at 4'th and Townsend and headed out around behind the baseball stadium. From there I merged onto the Embarcadero. The old piers are on the water side, many of them have been gussied up as businesses and shops. Across from the water is the intensely downtown business district.

This guy thinks he’s working hard on his cell phone, but I see what I see.* This place has always reminded me of Toon Town.

Go ahead and click on the picture to take in a few more details. See what you think.

To Be Continued

* What's that you say? You suspect Photoshop CS4 had a hand in his headgear? Bite your tongue!