September Skirt

Who thought I wouldn't get a skirt done this month?  Besides me?  Honestly this whole skirt project is not as fun as I thought it would be, probably because most months I procrastinate and have to cram the whole project in at the end of the month.  I even took the whole summer off so I shouldn't be complaining now.  Even though it's been challenging at times I'm still working on ideas for next year's projects.  (Hint:  I probably won't be making skirts.)  Here's what 2 hours of effort got me on the last day of the month:

No I didn't make the shirt, only the skirt, but the skirt looked really boring without it.  It actually is kind of boring - dark gray knit with an elastic waist - but I needed something fast (since it's the 30th and all) and something that will pack well and be comfortable to wear all day.

Just for the sake of giving out too much information I'll tell you that the mirror behind the dress form is angled not so you can see the back of the skirt, because obviously you can't, but so my disaster of a sewing room is not reflected in the mirror.  I took some "before" pictures of the room a couple weeks ago which I planned on posting, thinking that would shame me into cleaning things up a little.  It was pretty bad though, so maybe I'll post some pictures after it's all clean and pretty.  Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen!

How much do I love my daughter?

I love her enough to make this for her:

 

Ashley picked out the pattern and fabric. My "only" job was to put it all together. That didn't sound too hard a couple months ago. And it wouldn't have been if the wool fabric weren't so think and bulky, and if there had been a lining pattern, and if the girl at the fabric store hadn't given me the wrong interfacing, and if I hadn't had to come up with something to line the collar with that wouldn't make Ashley's neck itch. 

It all came together pretty well, considering the obstacles, until it was time for the buttons and buttonholes. The coat has 19 buttons. The fabric store doesn't stock more than eight at a time. It took me three trips to get all the buttons. But the worst was yet to come!

My sewing machine has a really nice automatic buttonhole function. I made a couple test buttonholes on a scrap of fabric and they looked awesome! Then I made one on the coat. Not even close to awesome. I ripped it out and made another one. Now ripping out buttonholes is not fun to say the least. It probably took about 15 minutes to take out all those tiny little stitches. Things really went downhill from there. I won't go into great agonizing detail, but in order to get 8 less-than-awesome-but-better-than-hideous buttonholes I ended up ripping out at least 8 unusable ones. There was a point when I actually considered having the coat held shut only with the belt.

This morning I sewed the last button on the last sleeve. It's finished. Parts of the process were even fun. I got to use my handy-dandy new buttonhole cutter (which is really just a sharp chisel). I learned some new things, like if you're going to use an awl to pull the staples connecting the buttons to the card they come on, you should keep your fingers out of the way; and those clear bandaids that come in the variety pack from Costco are waterproof and use some sort of superglue-type adhesive; and it's not a good idea to use rubbing alcohol to try to get that adhesive off your finger when you have an open wound.

I have never been so glad to finish a project. Now with only a couple days left in September I need to start working on a skirt.

Ticket to Ride

For anyone who has not played "Ticket to Ride" it's a really fun board game where you have to get your train from one city to another.  Sometimes the way you want to go is blocked and you have to find another route.  Sometimes the long detours turn out for the best because you get more points or because they include another route you need.  Sometimes you just can't find the cards you need to progress and the whole things seems hopeless.  I don't really want to explain the details of the whole game, I only want to say it's very appropriate that I learned how to play the game this month when I already had trains on my mind.

For about the past year I've envisioned my life as a train going full speed down a track toward a cliff, the cliff being the time when my kids leave for college.  I couldn't turn away because of course the train was stuck on the track.  (And I don't think a derailment would be good under any circumstances!)  The faster the end of August approached, the closer I got to the cliff.  I wasn't scared, but I was curious about how the whole scene would play out.  Would I suddenly have a parachute and drift safely to the bottom of the mountain?  Would the train sprout wings and take off into the sky?  Well the cliff came and went, and I'm still here.  It turns out there was a sharp corner and switchbacks along the side of the mountain, and I'm still going full speed, not sure where I'm headed next but enjoying the ride.

Ok, time to turn off my weird imagination.  Really, my life hasn't changed that much in the last couple weeks.  Sure, the house is a little quieter and I have to buy fewer groceries and do fewer loads of laundry, but I'm still so busy that I often feel overwhelmed with all I have to do.  I keep close enough tabs on my kids to know they're doing well.  I keep making lists of things I want to do whenever I have some free time.  I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be now that I'm technically not a full-time mom, but mostly I'm busy thinking about the paperwork piled on my desk, the floor that needs mopped, the emails I have to send and the bills I have to pay.  I don't have much time to worry about the future, I just need to take care of today.