Book Coach, Editor, Author
Remember these shorts?
Well, today I made another pair, out of…get this… a curtain that I got for $1 at the thrift store. Yup – a curtain.
No pockets this time. Actually, I did make pockets, but I screwed them up. So rather than unpick everything and re-position them, I simply cut them off and sewed the seam closed. Problem solved!
I swear to you, they are hemmed evenly! (I must be standing funny…)
Meanwhile, everything in my garden is blooming!
I do not own a single pair of shorts.
Okay. Not true. I actually own several pairs of shorts, that I bought several summers ago after I lost 65 pounds. (Yes I did! Read about it here and here). But I can’t fit into them anymore. đ I’m working on it! I will get back to goal, you can count on it! Meantime, I don’t have any shorts and the weather is getting warm, my friends. It is now officially Shorts Season!
I have declared it shorts season in my sewing room, too.
I paid .25 cents for this (OMG Christie Brinkley!) pattern at the thrift store. I’ve actually been collecting quite a few patterns at the thrift store for .25 cents each. I’ll show you sometime đ
This pattern was published in 1989, and when I googled it, I found it being sold on etsy and ebay as “vintage.” Vintage? Really? …sigh. In 1989 I had a 4 year old, so I guess he is vintage, too!
I also found a table cloth for $1.00. (Yup! ONE DOLLAR) that looked like it would be good to wear. (Really, Nita? A tablecloth?) shhhhhh…don’t tell my son! He would die if he knew his mother was shopping in the linen closet at the thrift store!
Here goes nothing!
I won these Frixion pens in a door prize at Quilt Guild yesterday. Cool! They made marking the Big Dots and MMMs so easy!
Add one long-distance phone call for moral support:
And 6 hours later – yes, I said six hours later … (NOW can you tell I’m a total neophyte seamstress?)
Totally missed matching the plaids up on the front.
But I did a marvelous job of matching the plaids on the side seams! (actually, it didn’t occur to me that I should match the plaids until after I got to the side seams. Doh!)
This table cloth fabric ravels really bad, so I used the over-lock stitch on my Janome to finish the seams. I’ve never used that stitch before. It’s really cool!
Here’s a shot from the back. And hey! I managed to hem both legs the same length!
I put a button on the front so I know which way to put them on for decoration.
The pockets are…well…okay, let me just say that when you discover that the waist band is going to tuck in under your arm pits, you should probably take the pockets out and move them down instead of whacking the top of the waistband off (pockets and all) and folding the whole lot over to make the casing. Just sayin’…
Things I learned:
Now…click your heels together three times and repeat after me: “sewing is not scarey.”Â
Maybe I’ll feel brave enough to tackle a dress soon!
Today is Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet over at Lily’s Quilts. Two linky parties for the price of one!
Small Blog Meet is for bloggers with fewer than 50 followers. I definitely fall into that category! And Fresh Sewing Day is for telling what you’ve been up to the last month.
Sew…I’ve decided to have a home-made Christmas this year. And not only that – I have decided to have a home-made Christmas that involves buying as few supplies as possible. That means working out of my various stashes.  And since I’ve decided this rather late, I’m scrambling to see what I can create in the little amount of time that I have (which basically means in the evenings after work).
slippers…
and the helpers had to get in on the picture-taking action of course!
and more slippers…
And yesterday I made a quilt top which will be for my son. (I won’t tell you how old my son is, but let’s just say he is closer to 30 than I am, lol!) I’m certain he doesn’t read his mother’s crafting blog, so I feel safe to show you! Now this is NOT the fabulous quilt I have planned for him. I want to make him a full-sized bed quilt with Little Black Dress by Basic Grey. And I will! As soon as I can afford the fabric! So maybe next Christmas? But for this year I want to give him a small little lap quilt that can be put over the back of a chair and pulled over the lap or shoulders when needed. đ My problem was that I didn’t have anything in my stash that I thought he would really like! So I went rooting around in the bottom of the stash and found a chunk of grey. Where did that come from? No idea…I think someone gave it to me years ago. Now, I thought, this is something that my son would like! He likes grey! It would make the perfect backing. More rooting around ensued and I came up with 4 charm packs that I had purchased back when Craftsy was still shipping to Canada. And guess what…(no, they aren’t grey)…they are Petite Odile by French General! I love French General! Love love love. I know my son won’t love it the way I do, but the colours are nice for a man, and he does like vintage and whimsy and antique.
Being short on time, I took the easy route and simply sewed all the squares together. Three charm packs worked perfectly and I still have one left over!
It will be sandwiched today, and will finish at 41 x 55″. A bit of an odd dimension, but I’ll take it.  I am going to call the quilt “mon fille” or whatever the French word for my child or my son is! (help! if you speak French!)
Anybody else doing a stash-busting home-made Christmas? Inquiring minds want to know!
