A Look To Dye For!

Love this, love this. Saturday I got to fabric dye for the first time in over 20 years (egads!). Then it was tie-dye for school spirit. This weekend it was the serious dye for things that you want to stand the test of time. This is me in my Serious Dye Gear. Yep, those are my swim goggles. DB said, "watch out for fumes" and, generally speaking, this gal listens to safety tips. (I really love those swim goggles, btw.)

Awhile back I had the opportunity to purchase some nice linen - like a lot of nice linen. I thought I could use it for around the house - pillows, embroidery, window coverings and such - and maybe a dress or blouse. Since I'm dyeing linen for curtains and clothes, I wanted to use something that had staying power against washings and sunlight. Did some reading on the web and decided on Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes from Dharma Trading (but of course). Everything I needed was there (plus more) and shipping was minimal and fast. Since we don't own a washing machine, I had to tub dye. A friend lent me an old washtub she had and it turned out to be perfect for a half-pound load or so (DB purchased a Rubbermaid trash can for the bigger jobs). For the test, I used Orchid. I was hoping it would work in the living room but no such luck. Such a beautiful color though! I also have some Azure Blue and Carmine Red. This is going to be fun! Below is a photo of the finished product. I think it turned out beautiful. No streaking or freckling with a consistent overall color. Poifect! Couldn't have been more pleased. I used soda ash to set the dye as well as a detergent that's supposed to assist. In addition to that, I used a dye fixative in the final rinse. I am happy to say that this fabric no longer bleeds. I'm really comfortable washing it with other items now. How cool is that?! This was a really fun project and I'm anxious to find the right color for the curtains. These will have to be dyed after they're made but I think it will work fine all the same.

I'm told the bamboo interlock I ordered (and that's dyeable) is shipping this week! Whoo hoo! I'm thinking I want to try some of that red..

Rachel S.

Quick Update

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We had a fairly quiet and restful one - just hung out at the house. Pretty lazy actually.

Except for the (almost) completion of a little Turtle Buddy for Nealla Rose. She ended up being quite a little learning project. Everything was sewn up twice, I think, due to my own thickness. Next time, it should go twice as fast and be a little stronger. This one is entirely hand-sewn. I'm happy to sew one up once in a while just as practice for the hand-stitching. At this point in my life I'm finally able to find some peace in a needle. Course my fingers are still filled with little scratches from jamming the needle into them. I had to laugh. With everything I did this weekend, I have tons of little scratches, burns, and cuts on my poor hands and fingers. The things we go through! Anyway, I'm anxious to sew on the little turtle eyes and mark this one as completed. In my usual impatience, I am posting a photo now of the little turtle. I'll re-post with eyes later. : )

In other news, here's the update on the list I posted Friday.

• need to get some non-iodized salt for dyeing


• scrub tub for test dyeing


• cut linen for curtains


• test dye!!!


• attempt Irish Brown Bread to accompany DB's batch of Irish Beef Stew


• finish baby blanket (um, yeah it's just a little bit that's left)


• sew up turtle buddy!!


• iron skirt linen, cut and mark for skirt

Overall, I'm fairly happy. I also made some pretty fantastic cupcakes (anything with 3 cups of sugar, 2 sticks of butter, and 16 oz. of cream cheese is pretty much guaranteed to be friggin good). If you're interested, the recipe can be found at Epicurious. I know the ingredients are deadly (deadly good) but these are simply awesome!

Have a fabulous Monday!
Rachel S.

Lots of Good Things

Pretty excited about today. I have a lot planned and want to get to as much as possible. First off, the baby has arrived! Hoo-ray! It's a girl and her name is Nealla Rose. So pretty. Haven't been able to see her or "mam" yet. Of course, DB got to see a picture and his words were, "She looks like a baby." *big sigh* I didn't even respond. Anyway, I'm on a mission to make her a Turtle Buddy today. I have some cute girly corduroy and dotted poplin from Bunte Fabrics and I'm thinking they'd be cute for the parts. Right now the poplin is washing. I thought I'd type a quick post before hitting the dryer and then it's off for a swim.

I have found heaven and it's in a little three lane, heated pool in San Francisco. The pool I'd been shlepping to previously took 30 minutes to get to (I'm a public tranport gal), was inside, and recently stalked by an annoying woman who seemingly waited in the hot tub for me to come swim in a free lane. Seriously, the same woman every time bogarts the only available lane! And every time I went - no matter the schedule. You'd think she'd have prunes for appendages. La-la-la-la she's no longer my problem now! The new club might have a smaller pool but you have to RESERVE the lanes. :-P~~~~~~~~~~~ So that was a long way of saying I'm off swim and then it's any one of a number of things.

* need to get some non-iodized salt for dyeing
* scrub tub for test dyeing
* cut linen for curtains
* test dye!!!
* attempt Irish Brown Bread to accompany DB's batch of Irish Beef Stew
* finish baby blanket (um, yeah it's just a little bit that's left)
* sew up turtle buddy!!
* iron skirt linen, cut and mark for skirt

Updates later this weekend. Here's a few photos. On top (or left), DB and his childhood BFF who is visiting in the area. Below (or right), partial installation of the knobs in the kitchen (& a canine profile). Both make me grin. Underneath is a shot of my skirt alterations (2" through hips). More on that later.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Rachel S.

Petite All Over (not just in my lower legs, it turns out)

I wanted to post some learnings from that skirt fiasco...
Most important: Making petite adjustments to a skirt and cutting extra off the bottom of the hem are NOT the same thing, Rach! Ok so I knew this and had actually had a thought about it in the beginning. In fact, I did that (took up my fabric length above and below the knee) with my current pants muslin. Why, oh why I didn't think of it for this I don't know. This has definitely shown me (con-clusively) how important it is to shorten a pattern correctly. Lopping off the bottom doesn't really do it unless your short-legged.

Second most important: It goes a long way if I work to keep the momentum on my project going. I need to stab myself with a pin everytime I put down a project because I come to an intimidating part. Better for me to jump in and attempt it (if I'm not too tired) then to set it down and take a chance on leaving it for a length of time. If I'd got to the hem a couple of months ago I'd only have a two-month wadder instead of a 3 monther. I think I'd be less bothered somehow - and a little less bummed with myself.

Also learned to sew in a lining and not to underestimate how time consuming or tedious that can be - serenity now.

And I proved to myself that I can produce a decent invisible zip.

I'm trying to be positive about this - can you tell?

Tonight, I'm altering the pattern, retracing, and cutting into the brown. Have to wait for the lining I ordered to come in but I'm going to see if I can't have this puppy finished by next week!

Rachel S.

I am Thick

..as in really dense. At least sometimes. Here's why I am this time.. I sewed the lining into my skirt (who knew it would take that long to sew it to the zipper tape - geez) and then did the topstitching of the waistband. I was really pleased. It's too big through the hips by a size but it went together nicely and since I don't like tight things I was ok with it. Went to hem it and saw my big error. Big, dumb, thoughtless error. Grrr! I'm 5'1 and I should have taken the skirt up (turns out about 2 inches) all across the hips and thigh area. The cute things about this pencil skirt are the two pleats in the back _bottom_ and the slit in the front. If I want to keep the design features, the skirt will be too long to wear (somewhere around mid-calf - blech). If I hem it to mid-knee (my preference) then I'll have to lose the darts and deal with a freakishly short slit in front.

Oh! I am starting to giggle (very slightly) at this point but I'm irritated with my lack of forethought. (To be honest, I'm afraid that the only troublefree invisible zip I'll get in this sewing life and was hoping I could at least wear it out!! *grumble grumble* ) Since the fit adjustments are going to be easy to make, I'm downright busting to remake this correctly. The only fabrics I have in the stash for this is a brown linen-rayon-lycra. It's soo nice and I'm sure it would make a nice skirt. I had envisioned pants but I do already have something similar in RTW. In the magazine, they made it up in a printed poplin. I have some cute Hilco poplin in green-on-green polka dots. I think it would be cute but I can't wear it to work and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it would be terrible because the dots wouldn't match in the center front seam and there would be a line of funny crescents down your center. I'm really hoping to sew some of the stash so I guess it's the nice brown linen. It should go fast, right?

Still working on my pants muslin. These are the pants from the November 2008 BWOF tutorial and feature those bias strips down the side of the legs (like tuxedo pants). So far I'm pleased with the fit but I'd like to go ahead and sew it all together to be sure. Probably just paranoia from the skirt flub. Ha!

I also have a couple of knit tops I'd like to make. One is already cut and marked but, of course, I'd like to make the super simple (and hopefully satisfying) BWOF boatneck tee from 01/09. :) Glutton for punishment with the unrealistic expectations! I'm hoping to step up my efforts and create some new habits though. It was disappointing (to say the least) to have dragged my butt so slowly through that last sewing project only to learn I was going to have to cut out a design element at the end. In the future, I'm going to try much harder to push through projects. I want my skirt!!!

Have a fantastic week!

Rachel S.

Hit by Spring

Oooh, it's gorgeous here. Well, it's mixed. We have a wonderfully, sunny gorgeous day and then a rainy, gloomy one. My moods have been riding the same wave so I've been hit and miss on my projects. I do just have the hem of the skirt (that just won't finish already!) but I am putting it off because I'm unhappy with the fit of the hips. It's just too big and I haven't the heart to rip everything out. It will get by and I know just how to make the next one work (I think). So I'm still dawdling on that one.

Not that I didn't move on (bad form, I know) to sewing something else. I sewed enough of the pants muslin that I'm pretty sure the fit is what I want. I cut for my hips (which meant the waist might be too small) and took quite a bit an inch or so (can't remember exactly now as it was a couple of weeks ago) both above and below the knee (to petite it). I was surprised to find that it seems to fit well and I won't need to let out the darts in the waist after all. Since I haven't done proper pants before (just jammy bottoms) I've decided to complete the rest of the pattern on the muslin before cutting into my nice pinstripe. I'll try to get a photo or two of the above up later.

Just got back from camping (to be read car camping) in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was so beautiful. I tried to sprinkle some throughout the post but it probably just seems weird until this part. : )

Until next time!
Rachel S.

Palette for My Kitchen

Stitched this up on Saturday for something different to do. I've been waiting on a huge shipment of linen for the bazillion projects running around in my head. How cool is this monogram? Think it should be filled in? I found it in one of my japanese stitch books. No other letters were available. lol - guess DB is out of luck. It's just as well. While he did appreciate my uniform stitches the background did not impress. "Too busy." What do you think? It so happens that the two blues in the flannel are a great match for the two different blues in our kitchen and I was planning to accent with white and red so - voila!
There it is.