Are You Missing Out?

Email from Clotilde:

Are you missing out on great quilting and sewing patterns? Check out e-Patterns Central!
I checked it out, and some of it might of interest, and there is very little garment sewing.
But I did find this nifty spring bag:



The caption underneath reads:
"When you create your own version of this humorous handbag, you can carry your favorite veggie with you all summer long."

Yeah, I'm pushing back my sewing line up to make room for this. Gee, it's downloadable -- that means there is still time to make it for Easter Sunday Church! Oh, unless I can't find the plastic carrot, or celery stick. That would truly be a let down.
Oh I got it! MIL is a gardener.....

My Irish Story

My biological parents both arrived in New Orleans in the mid 1950’s from Ireland as pre-teens. They settled in an Irish neighborhood, and a few years later, I was born to a 17 year old unwed girl. I was adopted 3 months later from a Catholic Charities in New Orleans. I never wanted to know my bio-parents, but always thought it was cool to be 100% Irish.
I also thought the story of my adoption was sorta cool. This is the 3rd person version, but it’s the truth, only slightly embellished.



The couple had already adopted a girl, and were going back to Catholic Charities two years later to pick up a boy. They had no idea how God and Sister Margaret had a different plan. Back in those days, they were allowed to ask the most intimate questions of adoption candidates, so Sr. Margaret already knew everything about this couple. She knew that the husband was a champion of the underdog; a quiet, nurturing man who had a very large heart and would help anyone in need. She knew the woman would be so happy to have two little girls, but also wanted her husband to have a boy to carry the family name, and well, just because men should have a boy.
When she knew they were coming, she dressed the girl baby they had named Bridget, in her Sunday best, powdered her up, and waited, rocking her and praying that her plan was within God’s own will. Bridget was severely cross eyed, and therefore would be a hard child to place. There was nothing else wrong with her, but try to convince prospective couples of that! Ha. For the last two months, Bridget had been turned down several times.
They always had to tell the couples that insurance would not pay for the multiple eye surgeries that she would have to have, as they were considered cosmetic. Because the couples were asked to make a donation to allow the sisters to continue their work, (and they all did, quite generously); they were usually money-weary by the time they picked up the child. Lawyers, donations, nursery expenses... . it was just too much to hear that the child also had medical problems! Many wanted detailed information on not just medical history, but also family talents; most importantly, how smart the mother and father were.
Most of them looked at this cross eyed child and worried about mental problems too.

When the couple arrived, she made light conversation with them, and informed them there were two children waiting for homes, a girl and the boy that they came after. She told them she’d like to bring the girl out, as they were trying to train her to not cry with strangers. Could they please help the good sister out by holding the little one for a few moments? Knowing no good Catholic turns down a nun’s simple request, she succeeded and brought out the baby. She carefully laid her in the man’s lap first, something she’d never done before. The woman dared not act insulted. They weren’t here for this baby anyway, so it didn’t matter. Sister Margaret sat for a moment, telling them about the poor child’s needed eye surgeries, and how it would sure take a special couple to adopt this little dear one. She asked if she could leave the baby with them while she went to prepare the boy, as she was short handed today.

Sister’s heart was beating a little faster than usual. She had already told the couple that this would be their last baby to adopt, as they were too old for any more adoptions. The rules prevented more than one baby at a time, unless it were twins that they didn’t want to separate – though most of the time they did separate them. Two girls would mean no family name passing. And since this man was an only child of an only child, this was very important to them. She felt a twinge of guilt about that. But, the children came first with Sister, period.
She left the room and didn’t return for 15 minutes. This too, was out of the ordinary. Even with an already established couple, it was important to be there when they spent time with a prospective child.

She returned without the boy, of course. She sat and waited for the couple to speak first, and offer her the child back and ask for the boy. They did not. The man and his wife were doing what they all do when they have fallen completely in love at first sight. Because she was 3 months already, Bridget was cooing and smiling, and had gotten them to do the same. Sister said some silent urgent prayers but maintained a cool smile on her face and let them play. She asked if they would like a few more moments alone. They did.

The next day Bridget was on her way to her new home. The man had tears in his eyes as he told Sister, “We want her – we don’t care if she has to have surgery. She needs us.” The woman was ecstatic to have two little girls, and didn’t care in the least that one was not so perfect. They just wanted to take this baby home and love her. And they did.

Only, they changed my name to Mary, doggone it! I liked Bridget better.

What is Wrong With Me??

I want to give shout outs of thanks to everyone who has visited lately, leaving such nice comments about my tutorial and my son! Thanks to Lindsay T, Cathy (what a cute blog name), Louise - but I can't find your blog, Marji, Debbie, and Cidell, Elaray, Lisa, and Linda.

If DH goes on his business trip as planned, and if it winds up being in New Jersey, close enough to Manhattan, I could go with him. This would mean GARMENT DISTRICT FABRIC SHOPPING!! Even if the trip winds up being in DC, that would mean G STREET FABRIC SHOPPING!!

Wrong. I'm turning it down. I hear the collective "GASP!!" I know, I'll loose my creds with all my fellow sewists by doing the unthinkable. Turning down a Garment District fabric shopping opportunity is almost as stupid as marrying the same man twice, or just insert here the stupidest thing you can think of.

I am spazzing out. I have two sets of feelings. DH says this will replace the family vacation, and DD would be going with us. Family vacation memories, right? There hasn't been enough of those in her life. Being a teenager, there's not much future opportunity either.

Then again, my Simpsonesque (Jessica, Bart, take your pick) child may have summer school this year and therefore does not deserve won't be able to take a vacation.

Why am I just NOT excited about this? Why am I not scheming already - checking credit card balances, inventorying the stash? Why aren't I contacting NYC sewists to join me? Why am I thinking that I really don't know any NYC sewists well enough to join me anyway? Am I that insecure? Did I give up fabric shopping for Lent? No.

It's because:

I really don't need any more fabric.

What on earth is happening to me???
I know that answer. It's my birthday and I'm 49. I'm in fashion-depressed mode. Maybe I'll snap out of it.
Right now, I keep going to the Unique, Simplicity and Vogue sites and putting patterns in the shopping cart, and then taking them back out. I don't even want patterns!! I need to take an aspirin and call myself in the morning.

Here is a little "Coonass Lenten Catholic" joke for you, of the Boudreaux and Thibodaux variety. (Coonass is the politically incorrect word for Cajun).

Each Friday night after work, Boudreaux would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a venison steak. But, all of Boudreaux's neighbors were Catholic...and since it was Lent, they were forbidden from eating meat on Friday. The delicious aroma from the grilled venison steaks was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally talked to their priest. The Priest came to visit Boudreaux, and suggested that he become a Catholic.
After several classes and much study, Boudreaux was sprinkled with holy water and became a Catholic. The priest told him, "You were born a Baptist, and raised a Baptist, but now you are a Catholic." Boudreaux's neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived, and the wonderful aroma of grilled venison filled the neighborhood. The Priest was called immediately by the neighbors, and, as he rushed into Boudreaux's yard, clutching a rosary and prepared to scold him, he stopped and watched in amazement.
There stood Boudreaux, clutching a small bottle of holy water which he
carefully sprinkled over the grilling meat and chanted: "You wuz born a deer, you wuz raised a deer, but now you is a catfish."

The Machine Blindstitch - my first Tutorial!

I figured a tutorial on blindstitching was right up my alley since that is something I actually do quite often. DH’s referee pants, and my kids school pants have all come in waist sizes only, unhemmed. Blech. DD’s uniform skirts come like that too!
And when I read that Cidell hadn't yet taken the time to learn the technique, I figured I'd get right on it. Anyone who can sew THIS lovely creation in a night has to learn to machine blindstitch. So, Cidell, this one’s for you!

Here is a picture of the foot you'll use.

See that little curved bar in the middle of the foot? That is where the fabric alligns, and the needle crosses over to just pick the edge of the fabric so that the stitch is barely detectable from the right side.

This picture shows the foot from the side.



Here is a picture of what the stitch looks like:



First, press up your hem, but don't pin yet. Start with the pants inside out, hems pressed, facing away from you, like this:



Then, take that hem, and fold it back under itself, going towards the right side of the garment.




You've now created a narrow flat shelf, where your main stitching will go. The folded part will be on the left side of the presser foot, and is where the needle will cross over and make just a tiny bite to secure the hem:



Pin in place. I'm trying to be less pin dependant, but this is one area where I need my pins. Sherril made a great suggestion to me, to tell you about pinning. Look at the picture, and pin the pants as shown. This way, your pins won't interfere with the foot, and you won't even have to remove them as you sew.



Bring to the machine, and settle it in under the foot. You want to butt the fold up against that “plate”.



Here is what it looks like after you're done, on the wrong side:



Settings:
Every machine is different, and settings are where you will have to read your manual. My machine is computerized, and it sets everything for this stitch automatically.

Width: You do have some leeway here, and I usually go ahead and set the stitch width a little wider than the machine’s auto setting, to make the needle jump just a notch more to the left when it swings over to take that stitch. I do this just to make sure that it does “catch” the fabric. You can always test stitch on a scrap, and judge for yourself how well things are going, and make any adjustments. This is a very good idea if you have a really thick, fluffy or very thin, troublesome fabric.

Length: I find that a 2.5 to a 3.5 is sufficient for most skirt and pants hems. My machine wants to set this at a 2 and I find that puts the stitches too close together for my taste. Remember, the less stiches, the less puckering you’ll have with polyester fabrics.

Pressure foot pressure: If you have the capability to change this, try using a lighter pressure. I find that helps me a lot.

If you have a computerized machine, try it first with the machine’s auto settings, and then play with the settings. If you use the exact color thread you need, you can make the bite a little deeper, and you still won’t really notice the stitch from the right side, especially on school pants and skirts, where that hem gets beaten up daily and washed frequently.

Another tip is to go slow, and pay attention to that little allignment bar on the foot, where the fabric butts against. Make sure that the fabric is against it at all times.
All in all, my machine does a better job than I do. There have been fabrics that at first I couldn’t get to behave, such as nightmarish spongy polyester, which rippled badly, so I resorted to hand stitching. With more experience, I’ve not had to rip and hand stich in a long time.
Give it a good press, because sometimes that metal ridge that guides the fabric leaves an indention on the fabric.

Voila! Here is the result!


Do feel free to add comments on this first tutorial of mine. I would like to know if I left anything out, or didn't make myself clear. Thanks!

Good Sewin' Bloggin'

Good Sewin’ Bloggin’ – HERE is a link to a thread about this on PatternReview.com. I think it’s so timely. I’ve been thinking about this too, and in honor of good blogs, I’ve updated my blog roll.
And, I’ve decided to take some of the advice given. I probably need to cut back on the rants – especially about my mean adorable MIL. Okay, I’ll stop. I know, I know – it’s in bad taste to rant like that in a public forum, especially about beloved family members. Sigh. I’ll miss it though…..

I might delve into podcasting. I had stayed away from that since I was obligated to doing the podcasts on PatternReview. I’m considering an occasional interview and a few tips and techniques – I even thought sewing comedy and or commentary. My 15 year old DD on this subject: Sewing....Comedy???? Loser!

Every so often I run across one of those “extraordinary woman bloggers”. You know the ones. They sew an outfit every week, work full time, attend every sporting event of all 4 kids, volunteer at school, church and hospitals, cook every day, work out for an hour every night, wax the cars by hand, play with the puppies, and still have time to blog about it. With marvelous pictures. And tutorials. And that outfit every week looks smashingly designer. My feet hurt just reading about it. Remember those bumper stickers:



My mind turns defensively juvenile when I read blogs like that. Nah, I don’t want to beat up anyone – truly, I admire you. I just want to know: How. Do. You. Do. It?

I strive for a somewhat simpler life. Here are some tips.

1. To quote my sewing idol, Cynthia Guffey: “It’s your hobby, what’s your hurry?”

2. Dolman Sleeves can be your friend.

3. Learn to use the blind hem feature on your machine. I’m doing a tutorial on that right now. I have the pants pinned and waiting.

4. Serge wherever possible, (although this is very un-Guffey like).

5. Get a husband. One who works. No, really. Faye mentioned this yesterday. Having someone else’s paycheck to spend on sewing notions that make your job easier is so much more fun.

6. Better yet, get a wife.

7. Slow Cooker. Cream of Mushroom. Frozen skinless chicken breasts. Nuff said.

8. Delegate. 8 year olds love to wind bobbins and they come cheap. At 12 they can press pattern pieces and even trace. 12 year olds do not come cheap, so be sure and get your money's worth out of them.

9. Never, ever let on to your husband that you might be interested in lawn mowing or car washing. It’s his job, period.

10. Do work out every day, and make sure they know it's DOCTOR'S ORDERS. It keeps you energized for better, faster sewing, and gives you an excuse to have to delegate other chores.

Feel free to add to this list.

I know I could whip out that outfit a week if I could convince DH that that I shouldn’t have to cook. But we live in South Louisiana. We'd weigh 400 lbs if we ate out every day, and then I'd really have to sew. We do have health food here though; healthy is when it's only been fried once.

"Nothing Else Really Matters"

You've surely heard the Jacqueline Onassis quote about raising your kids right because "nothing else really matters". And, how many times have I questioned myself on that very thing? Am I doing it right? What went wrong?

Here is a short summation of the miracles that seem to have surrounded my son lately.

Having gotten himself in Drug Court a couple of years ago on a marijuana possession charge, DS still wasn’t finished with all the duties thereof. He has tested clean for a year now, and is a different person. But still, he had community service hours and meetings to catch up on. It was going to be impossible to catch up on all of it and maintain a job too. Because of a mentor who is also a “pillar of the community” putting in a good word for him; he’s been released from having to catch up with most of that. It's back to a more manageable level. He should graduate from drug court in about 2 months!

When all this first happened, I had people calling me asking to let them “do something” for him, to get him out of his troubles. What??? Yeah, I’ve seen what happens to kids who get out of every trouble they ever get into. Going through this very tough program is exactly what he needed.

So here are the other miracles:
1. Desperately seeking a resolution to his really bad, insane living situation, his brother calls with an offer to rent his place very cheap. We gladly paid 3 months rent in advance.
2. He got his dream job, a start in the world of computers as a “printer tech”. The top dogs who are making lots more money than he are calling him in their offices to teach them about Linux.
3. He gave my cell number as a backup on his resume, and his boss calls me, saying this: “I know this is weird for a boss to call the employee’s mother, but I want you to know that you should be very proud of the way you have raised your son. He has the heart of a servant, is customer service oriented, and has a great work ethic. He has a solid thought process, and is extremely intelligent. I am so happy to have found a young person with his attitude”.

After years and years of feeling this knot in the pit of my stomach every time someone bragged about their son, I finally can brag about mine! It was my dear Mother who made me hold on to hope. When I’d have my head in my hands, almost giving up, she simply said yet more prayers and novenas, asking others to do the same for him. She was stern, but also patient and gentle with him -- while at times; I was coming apart and frequently yelling.

Now, he sits by her bedside, saying the rosary with her. He speaks to her gently, assuring her that he is taking care of anything that she gets anxious about. He holds her face and tiny hands in his and comforts her for hours at a time, almost every day. The sitters are "amazed" to see a young person giving such loving care to an elderly grandparent. I'm not. She is getting back everything that she gave him, and then some.
Eventually I’ll catch up with him all dressed up in his Van Huesen shirts and Chris Madden shoes for a picture. I’m so proud of him I could cry.

Now it’s time to let go a little more, and stop calling him in the mornings to wake him up, stop wanting to pay his utility bill “just to help him out”, and let him be the man he can be all on his own.

Fabric Fast OVER

And, the marriage could be too if I keep this up! Ann Steeves has some seriously bad ass fabric! Did anyone else gorge themselves on her fabric sale last week? I had been on a successful fabric diet for over a year, dammit!. Then I started allowing myself peeks at Gorgeous Fabrics. Uh Oh.... the thrill is back.... that feeling when you allow yourself to go a little wild. And, I really needed it. I really did.





The flame print and the black and white paisley are poly jersey, something I think I'll enjoy wearing. These are so soft, and have substance without making me think they'll be too hot. The paisley has just a touch of gold in it -- nothing cheesy here though. Just enough to make it special. The white on black is a quality embroidered cotton.
My favorite right now is that indigo and off white floral print. I'll take a picture of the piece, as the little picture doesn't do it justice. It's really nice. Finally, florals will be in style!! Yippeeee. I'm such a sucker for florals. I also got some tan stretch poplin and black matte jersey for a skirt. Yummmmm. Wonderful stuff.

Then, I went back for more afer those arrived!! I need a dress, and I couldn't resist a high end woven that is reversible, as the blue one is. How cool!
This time I must remember to call DD and make sure she brings the box in before we get off of work.




DH found the first box before me. Drats! You know that tone of voice: “There is a box in the kitchen for you”. But, maybe he has a right to have that tone, since my new Jennair cooktop and range hood came home this week, something I’ve been whining about since we got married.

He finally told me “just order it, please” when he overheard me tell my sister how I get down on my knees every time I cook and ask God to please just put this awful cooktop to rest. That, and using the slow cooker for almost every meal sent him over the edge. Of course right now that won't change too much. The slow cooker has become my crutch, with Mom so sick, and me and DD working out at the gym as often as humanly possible.
Of course, I felt guilty and told him that this could be my birthday present. Am I stupid or what??? Cause then he goes out and gets himself a new Snapper riding lawn mower. I need to find out if that is his birthday present, hunh? He will at least take me out to eat.

Next year I'll work on the refrigerator that I hate....

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the miraculously fantastical other happening in my life. Something really good to report that I'm just too too happy and relived about.