Down a Size and Stash Report

If it seems that I've been working on lots of small projects, it's because that is exactly the case of my sewing lately. This time it's a pair of jeans that I bought recently. I hate trying on clothes, especially in stores, so I waited to get home to put these on.

Once we returned home, though, there were groceries to put away, a demanding little granddaughter, and several puppies needing attention. The jeans didn't get put on. 



Two days later I noticed the jeans in the closet. Richard had washed them and hung them up in the closet. Wow! What a sweetheart! Except, wait, I didn't know whether they fit. Oh well, I'd make them work. I'd have to since I could not return them any more.

They did not fit. And making them work? Well, that took much more work than I first imagined. The hips, crotch, and length all needed altering, but 30 minutes of sewing and testing fixed up most of the problems. 

They may not fit exactly as I'd like, but they are pretty close. Considering how large they were originally, I'm satisfied. Surely they will be more comfortable than when I wore them on Friday and had to keep hiking them up. 

I suppose it's a good thing that I'm not particular about my clothes. I prefer comfort over style, so getting these comfortable was my most important aim. Which is more important to you, comfort or style?

And drumroll please, this month's stash report brought to you by "Be It Less Than You Can" weightloss systems! So that you can be less than you are right now.  Yeah, yeah, get over it, already. There are no drums and no weight lost. Just an ordinary stash report with a few yards used in October, but not many.

Stash Report for October 2016
Additions and Subtractions	Yards	Projects from stash	Projects in Progress
Used this month:	6.5	Baby Bunting	two scrap quilts
Added this month:	0	Yellow Chevron	Moda Noteworthy quilt
Used in 2016:	74½	various small projects	Quilty 365
Added in 2016:	41½

Faster Fastener

My granddaughter is just four.  She attends pre-K, which means she  wears uniform pants that are very difficult to fasten.  

The zipper is short (maybe 3 inches, but I doubt it) so the zipper head is a mess when it gets stuck and, worse, there are a button and a hook and eye. This means, of course, that going to the bathroom is difficult because she has so many different fasteners to deal with. Holding it till she gets home is not an option, and the teacher can't fasten 30 kids' pants.  So her mom, Jenny, decided that we needed to come up with a better solution.  Enter Velcro! 

First we had to remove the button (easy peasy) and the metal hook and eye (not lemon squeasy).  Her pants have the heavy duty hook and eye sets that require lots of interfacing for stabilization.  No matter what I tried, I ended up with a big hole once the metal parts were out. The solution was to cover the hole with the Velcro....that works.  The button hole is on the inside tab, so it doesn't show.

To remove the hook and eye pieces, I snipped a small hole near the metal hook, then cut around the hook on the two short sides and one long side.  I pulled the inside piece of the hook through the hole I'd made and clipped it out trying not to disturb the inside.  I removed the second half of the hook and eye pair, again making a big hole.  You can try to separate the two metal pieces, but that is very difficult and tends to shred the fabrics, which will cause other problems. 


Once the old fasteners were out, I cut two sets of 1/2 inch Velcro hook and loop tape about 3/4 inches long.  I placed one piece against the outside edge covering the hole and stitched it down around the edges. 
Then I added the second piece about 1/8 inch from the first. 

This part is important if you have little kids: the second piece is the opposite of the first (see the picture above).  So, if you stitch a hook first, you need to stitch a loop section beside it.  On the opposite side of the waistband stitch down the matching hook and loop pieces so that they line up with the first ones.  

Now to answer your question why I didn't just stitch one long piece: it's important that the two pieces be different so that they DON'T stick when Marley misses the mark.  She won't have to struggle to get the parts of the closure to work correctly because they work only when they are matched correctly.  This is important because she is, after all, only four.  

There you have it.  Marley can now fasten and unfasten her own pants, and they look especially darling, don't you agree? 

Back to School

Since I now know that I'll be teaching this year and will have little time in the library, I've been rethinking my wardrobe for the school year.  I've found khakis and tee shirts are perfect in the library because I do a lot of work that requires I be able to move, crawl, reach and so on.  We move armloads of books, clean, work on computers and other machines and climb on steps to reach high shelves.  

In a classroom, however, there's mostly walking around, slight bending, and standing.  Lots of standing!  I wore mostly dresses and skirts when I was in the classroom but never in the library.  I've decided to find a happy medium between those two styles: pants or skirts and tops that are more dressy than tees.

I've been busy the last couple of days sewing a few things for myself.  After paying $30 to $50 each for a couple of shirts, I decided it would be much more affordable to make my own, especially since I have plenty of fabrics that are perfect for clothing.  Remember the boxes of fabrics I purchased from the elderly lady a few weeks ago?  About half of that is beautiful linens that sew up into great fitting pants.  I bought this Simplicity pattern last week and spent a bit of time measuring and fitting the pattern to my size.  



I've made two pair of pants: one in khaki and another in black.  The linen is very comfortable and hangs very well.  I love the hand of this fabric, so I'll probably make several more pairs.  I have probably 10 more pieces of fabric in every color!  So it shouldn't be a problem.



I also made a few tops.  The first one I made is this beige pullover blouse in a light linen that I added embroidery to.  I'm not doing that again for a while....it was too stressful.  The computer is old and easily freezes, which it did.  


I ended up restarting the embroidery program and losing the adjustments I'd made.  So then I had to abandon part of the embroidery motif and just drop in the monogram.  Since I could not line up the border correctly and it is fairly simple, I chose to put it in manually.  And there's the stressful part!  Not bad in the end, but I'm not trying this again soon.


So, since I don't want to embroider on these tops and they are a little plain, I decided to try some other form of embellishment.  Today I made a blue top using the same pattern from the beige linen one.  The fabric is some type of rayon that easily melts, so I couldn't use any kind of iron on.  


Some time ago I'd purchased some wooden game pieces on Etsy.  Rich and I then drilled tiny holes in the pieces to turn them in to buttons.  I stitched several of the wooden buttons on and interspersed them with bright, colorful plastic buttons.   I like the end result.....bright, fun and nonsensical.  


Although I like these tops, one of the problems I've had is that there has to be a button, hook and eye or some other closure in the back neck.  My hair gets tangled in a hook and eye set and the loops that I've made to pair with buttons generally do not stay buttoned.  

I redesigned the back part of the blouse so that I could add a button hole and a small button--no pulled hair and no open back!  The left back extends over the right side of the back and I added a button hole on the extension.  Perfect!

After wrapping up the blue top, I decided that I'd make one more top.  This one opens to the front and is intended to wear over a tank top as a light shirt jacket.  I used a striped blue fabric that was in the boxes but was too small.  


To have enough fabric, I added a Copenhagen blue solid from my stash. I cut the front and sleeves from the stripe, the collar, back and sleeve band from the solid. 


The two fabrics are a perfect match, and the top will look smart with a solid white tank.  I'm considering whether I want to add some type of closure to the shirt.  That might be a little too constraining to work in, so I'll have to wait till it's washed and try it on with the tank to decide.