SWAP 2013 (Sewing with a Plan)

Ok, the official rules for the 2013 SWAP have been posted here.    To summarize, it is two 4- or 5-piece collections with a bridging piece that goes with both.  I've chosen 4 pieces in black and white and 5 in gray and white with the bridging piece in gray and black.  Here's my story board for the collection:

(click image to enlarge)

There's not a single piece of fabric in my oh-so-small stash that will work for this, so I'm going to have to buy fabrics and patterns.  Going to have to stock up on muslin, because I'm probably going to have to try out every one of these patterns.  Unfortunately, I've been away from sewing so long that I just don't have any tried and true patterns I can use.  Most of the pieces are relatively simple; they'll mostly be a matter of fit.  However, two of the blouses may be a little challenging.  The one with the smocked tucks is the first.  I'm designing it off a blouse from Coldwater Creek.  I found a Style Arc pattern that will probably work, but I need to play with the tucks to turn them into smocked tucks.  The other is the Girl Friday blouse from Decades of Style.  It has 3 collars stacked on top of one another.  Will probably get a little thick by the time all are sewn together.

Any way you look at it, though, I'm excited about this challenge.  I have no hope of winning it, but I want to try.  In my book, I'll be a winner if I even finish!

Finished my Purse!

I've made a purse to match my 6-PAC and finished it just this morning.  But I guess I'd better back up a bit.  I haven't said anything about the 6-PAC yet. 

After finding the challenge for the SWAP I mentioned earlier, I joined the Sewing forum website I was talking about.  They steered me to a different challenge that's not quite so involved.  They call it the 6-PAC.  Originally it meant 6 Piece Autumn Collection, but now they do one every season.  I decided to do it instead for this first time.

I'm using black and pink for my color scheme.  Usually, the idea is to do a 3-piece wardrober type bit in a neutral color--pants, skirt, jacket--or a dress, and then finish it out with blouses and other items to coordinate.  I've chosen not to do pants as I already have a lot of black pants.  So far, I've made a black skirt, a pink floral blouse, a pink jacket, a black jersey shell, and a black jersey cardigan.  Unfortunately, I don't like the cardigan and so I gave it to my daughter.  She loves it though, so not a waste of time.  I've got two more pieces of pink fabric that I want to make blouses out of and I think I want to redo the cardigan.  I've found a pattern for a waterfall jacket that I really like.  I also have a long duster-style jacket that I started a long time ago and never finished.  I'm going to finish it as well, so this is going to turn out a little more than a 6-pac, but should be a great shot in the arm to my wardrobe.

From the leftovers of the duster and the pink jacket, I've made tote-style purse.  I like the way it turned out.  Its not perfect, but I've learned a lot of lessons from it, so again, not a waste of time.  In fact, I like it enough to use it.

One of the things I learned is the value of basting your layers together.  I had to sew the bottom corner seams three times each because I kept missing the outer fabric layer. 

So, here's the finished product.  You can't see it, but there's a tassel hanging from the little flower on the closure tab.

One of the things I learned: How to put in purse feet. As you can see, they're not perfectly straight. The ones on the left need to come in a little.








The outside purse is sewn to the inside section to make pockets. The one in the back is big enough to hold my iPad.

 

  Closeup of the closure tab inside, showing the magnetic snap closure, another of the things I learned how to do. 

 side view showing the tassel on the closure.

This pocket turned out especially small.  I could barely squeeze my gloves into it.

Sure Fit Update

Well, I've had my Sure-Fit Designs kit for a couple of weeks now.  I got a muslin made and, for the most part, it fits very well.  It was a bit confusing to draw; the bust darts still aren't right.  I need to shorten the side bust dart, first of all.  Then there was this chunk of space above the dart and under the sleeve where there wasn't enough fabric--not sure what I did there, but that's got to be figured out and redrawn and then I still have all of the skirt fitting to do.

I'm not sure it was worth the $100 I spent on it.  At the same time I was doing this, I found the website for Silhouette Patterns.  She has a lot of free webcasts (once every two weeks going back a couple of years, I think).  They are very informative.  I believe I've learned more about pattern fitting from watching her (did I mention they were FREE) webcasts than I have from the Sure Fit Kit. 

Between the two, however, I was able to adjust some patterns that I already had and actually make them fit.  (This is a first in decades!) So far, I've made a jacket and two tops.  I intend to make another jacket/cardigan, two more tops, and a dress.  I have several other pieces of fabric I intend to sew up, but I'm not quite sure what I'm going to make with those yet.

As soon as I have pictures, I will post them here.  Since today is Labor Day, I have one more day off and I'm going to put it to use sewing.  I think I'll get on that cardigan today. Then maybe the blouses.

Got my Sure-Fit Designs Fitting System

Sure-Fit Designs

Alright.  First off, I have to say that it cost considerably more than $41.00.  In order to use the kit properly, you also have to buy tracing paper and the "design stylus".  And the DVD is separate, not part of the kit as I thought.  So, really, the cost was $99.50.  But I paid it, although reluctantly.

Now that I have it though, I believe it is going to be one of the best purchases I ever made.  I have about half of my sloper drafted out.  I still need to do the skirt back and the sleeve.  It has been an interesting couple of days working with this. 

First of all, I had my 19-year-old, non-sewing, daughter help me take the measurements.  She'd never done it before and all of her measurements turned out wrong.  I think she didn't realize that there's an extra bit at the beginning of the tape that you need to disregard.  I got to drawing out the pattern and everything was looking soooo big!  So I started remeasuring myself and found that everything was about an inch too big.  So I had to redraft the bodice front.  Twice. 

I also had trouble with the shoulder to bust apex measurement.  Every time I took it I got a different number.  I finally managed to get 11 inches 3 times, so I went with that.  I had to extend the waist length considerably.  I always thought that I was short-waisted, but I had to add a good 4 inches at the waist!  You should see the fitting dart--it looks like its almost 2 feet long!  (I'm sure that's an exageration, but you get the drift.)

So today's plan is to finish drafting out the master pattern and get the cutting out done.  I may have time to start sewing the muslin, but I'm not sure.  We'll have to see how the day goes.

But I can see where this is going to be a valuable investment for me, if I can get a good sloper drawn.  The instructions that come with the set show you how to draft patterns for any kind of variation you might want.  Since I've been sewing for so long (a good 40 years now!), I can see how they work and I'm getting really excited about this.  Patterns that actually fit when I'm done.  What a concept!  I've been surfing the net for clothing designs that I like and would like to try.  I'm saving them all on my iPad so I have them handy when I'm ready to start sewing.

All in all, a good experience so far.  I'll post results after I get the muslin done.

Wow, I've been neglecting this blog. I need to get a habit going...

So, update on the sugar free jams. It came out pretty good, actually. The first taste is a bit of a shock because its not nearly as sweet as you would expect. But, after that it was fine, good with peanut butter and toast. The color is not as pretty as I would like. It seemed to go to a dull reddish brown really quickly. This bothers me. I haven't tried making any of my other sugar free jams yet because of it. Does this mean its going to spoil faster? I just don't know. Maybe freezer jam would work better?

Now, on to the real reason for posting today. I'm starting a new journey and I would like to record the results here. I spent two Saturdays recently going through my boxes of sewing and craft supplies. Boy, what a mess! I ended up tossing an entire box of old patterns and a few pieces of fabric that was never going to see a sewing machine anyway. But when I was done I had all of my good patterns and fabric sorted and identified.

I have an app for my iPad that is sewing related. It is called Sewing KitHD. It is first of all a place to inventory all of your supplies. It records where they are stored, how much you have, etc. and there's a place to store pictures as well. Its very thorough. But the part I like best is that there's a place to plan and store projects and potential projects (they call it inspirations). As I went through all of this stuff, I entered it into the app and identified several projects that I could start on.

The only problem with this is: I gave up sewing for myself a long time ago because I can never get anything to fit and look right on me. I'm old and fat and lumpy and everything seems to come out looking like a Goodwill Store reject. This really bugs me because the things I make for other people don't look like that. I think that I need to learn more about fitting and altering patterns.

I've scoured the city looking for a class but to no avail. So, I started looking on the internet. I found a few possibilities right away (don't you love the internet?). The first thing I found was a forum called Artisan's Square. I started reading some of their threads. These women are amazing! I could learn so much from them. But the neatest thing I found there was a challenge.  They call it SWAP (Sewing with a Plan?—not sure, but that made the most sense to me.)  The challenge is already completed of course, but it was such a great one that I’ve decided I’m going to take it on.  It should not only improve my sewing skills immensely, but I should end up with a great basic wardrobe for work. 

So here’s the challenge: (link to site here)

Out of the following list, choose 7 items and then pick four of those to make twice:

(I underlined my seven choices, and then starred the ones I will do twice)

×Button-down shirt with collar
×Blouse or shirt (collar optional)
T-Shirt
×Vest
Overshirt
×Dress
Jeans
Trousers
Shorts or Capris
Skirt
Jacket (meaning windbreaker, hoodie, car coat, etc)
Coat (suit or sport coat)
Overcoat or Raincoat
Bathing Suit and coverup  

You end up with a total of 11 garments that should work well together and mix and match.  This was a hard choice.  I will probably eventually end up making all or most of the items.  But for now, this is the list.
So now, I need to start making plans.  I think I’ve identified most of the patterns I plan to use.  I will post them here as I get pictures saved, etc.  As for fabric, I want to use mostly what’s already in my stash.  Most of the fabrics there are pink. Don’t ask me how—I like pink but its not a color I usually choose, especially for myself.  But there it is.  I have a lot of good quality pink in my stash, so maybe its time to add it to my closet.  I look good in pink, so that is not an issue.

The color scheme therefore, will be pink and black.  I have a great floral chiffon in a monochromatic pink scheme that I will use for the palette.  The style I like and look best in is classic.  I also like adding just a touch of the feminine or the dramatic for giggles.  I think dramatic works best for me, but I do like a feminine look.  I have to be really careful with that, though, because lace and ruffles are not good on me. 

 Next issue:  Find some way to learn better pattern fitting. 

 Another search of the internet (I  do love the internet!), yielded a pattern fitting system called Sure-Fit Designs.  I’ve been watching some of their videos and have come to the conclusion that this is going to be the best way for me.  Their materials seem well planned and well-explained.   It comes with a video, patterns, tools and only costs $41.00.  I’m going to start with their dress fitting pack, then when I’m ready to move on, we’ll go to shirts and pants. 

And lastly, the plan of attack:

1.       Identify patterns and fabric

2.      Make a storyboard outlining patterns and fabric

3.      Get measurements

4.      Purchase fitting system pattern

5.      Purchase some muslin and tracing paper for fitting purposes

6.      Draw slopers

7.      Purchase any additional fabric and notions needed

8.      Start Sewing:

a.       Blouses

b.      Dresses

c.       Shirts

d.      Vests

e.       Skirt

f.       Trousers

g.      coat

In the original challenge, they had from December through April to complete the project.  This journey is going to take me a lot longer.  I’m thinking one year from now is a reasonable deadline.  So, by August 11, 2013:  New pink and black wardrobe done!

Sugar Free Jam

I tried making jam again today.  This time I made it with Splenda and Sure-Jell's no/low sugar pectin.  The process was easy, almost easier than regular jam. 

Since we had both strawberries and cherries left over from the weekend, I mixed the two together.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a recipe so I improvised using a recipe for Strawberry and a recipe for Cherry and kind of mashed them together. 

It occured to me while I was making the jam that if I'm going to get a handle on the diabetes, I need to master the art of cooking with Splenda and other artificial sweeteners.  I don't like it.  I don't really want to do it.  But I think I need to.  Does that make sense? 

When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I tried making a cheesecake with Splenda for Thanksgiving.  It was OK, I guess, but it wasn't a really good cheesecake.  It was grainy and flat.  It din't rise very well and as it cooled it kind of flattened.  So I've never tried again.  That was four years ago.  The diabetes is getting worse and I can't seem to give up sweets all together. 

I guess its time to get a handle on this.  Wish me luck!  And I'll let you know how that jam came out after it cools and we taste it.  If its any good (or when I get it right), I'll let you know.

Change is Not a Dirty Word--I think...

So, I made jam yesterday.  Only 2 batches: 1 raspberry, 1 strawberry.  The thing is:  I'm diabetic.  Why would I do this to myself?  I can't eat it.  Sure I have a teenager in the house still, who would be happy to finish it off for me.  But is that really healthy for her?  Why am I doing this?

A friend asked me the other day if I was afraid to like myself.  It took me back.  What a question!  But its also caused me to think all weekend.  Maybe I am.  Maybe I'm so comfortable in my rut of feeling like I'm not capable, worthy, or whatever to be a likeable person, that I can't or won't change.  I mean really, change can be scary.  What would happen if I really learned to love myself?  Oh, no!  I might enjoy myself!  I might even enjoy doing housework and all those other things that I generally avoid!  We can't be having that!  People enjoying life; whoever heard of such a thing?

Now, how to change?  There's the 64,000 dollar question.  For some reason, I always want changes to be sudden.  Cold turkey.  Today, I'm a fat lazy slob and tomorrow I'm supermom.  I've never really beleived that small changes can make a big difference.  The same friend has been trying to convince me that it is not so.  She did get me to change my breakfast from whatever I could get out of the vending machine at work to fruit and yogurt.  And, its made a difference.  I feel full in the morning.  I can put it in a container at night and take it to work with me.  Now, I'm getting a good breakfast every morning.  So maybe she's right about the rest of it too.  What little changes can I make to start me down the healthy path? 

When I get home from work, I generally change into my pajamas, fix dinner, and relax the rest of the evening.  It occurs to me that this might be part of the problem.  Once I'm in my pajamas, I'm not going anywhere, or doing anything, except perhaps reading or computing.  So, here's change number one: change into sweats and t-shirt instead and PUT ON YOUR SNEAKERS!  This will put me in comfortable clothes, but ones I can go out in if necessary.  And the shoes, since they are Sketchers Shape-Ups, will keep my feet from hurting and help me keep the energy up through the night.  That may be a little bit of a challenge because I hate wearing shoes in the house--my feet get so hot and sweaty and uncomfortable.  But maybe I can learn to live with it.  Maybe a little Odor-Eaters powder will help?  Well, we'll try it. 

And the other change I think I need to make:  Make the next batch of jam with Splenda. I got carried away when I was shopping for fresh berries at Costco yesterday.  After making my two batches of jam, I still had enough berries for the following:

1 batch of Strawberry-Cherry Jam
2 batches of Triple Berry Jam
1 Batch of Strawberry Vanilla Jam (a recipe I found on the internet that I'm dying to try)
and at least 1 more batch of Strawberry jam, that I may turn into Strawberry Pineapple; another recipe we found on the internet.  After we made the two batches, I was so exhausted and my back hurt so much, I knew we had to find a better way.  So we sat down and prepared all of the fruit (mashing, pitting, etc.) and put them in freezer bags.  I plan to take at least one bag out each week until I get them all bottled.  Only THIS time, I'm going to do it with the no-added-sugar pectin and Splenda.  I'l let you know how it turns out!

I'm reading a very interesting book right now, called The Power of Full Engagement.  I'm not in very far, about 5 chapters I'd say.  The main premise is that our lives are made up of 4 basic "pillars" if you will:  Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual, and that we need to feed all four areas.  (reminiscent of Steven Covey, yes?)  If any of these four areas is neglected, the whole person suffers.  This tends to bring on detachment and illness, both spiritual and physical.  Things like depression, diabetes, gastric issues, even death.  As I said, I'm not in very far, but enough to know that this is what has been ailing me all these years.  I've let my physical and spiritual lives go just trying to keep our heads above water financially ever since the divorce.

Its time to become a whole person again.  I'll keep you posted.

A Whole New Me?

So, if you’re trying to change your life and turn around, where do you start?  I guess a list of what you want to change would be first, right?  What if the answer to that is “Everything”? After stewing for a couple of weeks, I finally just brainstormed a list of what the “Ideal Me” would look like.  Over the course of a few weeks I refined it to a mission statement and 4 initial goals.  During the process, I went to the Franklin Covey website (http://www.franklincovey.com) and used their Mission Statement Builder (go to the Resources and Tools tab and then it’s the first thing listed under Tools) to get a jump-start.  It really did help. After that, I used the results to identify three major goals of my life:

1.     I will travel the world doing family history research, writing books about it, enjoying all of the cultural and artistic venues the world has to offer.  Learn everything I can about the history of the places I visit, maybe write novels, but definitely write histories of the people whose lives I’ve been researching. I don’t really care if any of them get published, I’m in it for the family.

2.    I admire these characteristics in others and want to incorporate them into my own life.

a.    Acceptance.  I will accept and respect others for who they are:  Children of God, and the divine potential they have as such.

b.    Leadership. Lead by example; inspire others to do their best.

c.    Perseverance.  You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. Never give up.  Never, never, never give up! (Winston Churchill)

3.    Constantly renew myself by focusing on the four dimension of my life.  I will start with the following:

a.    Physical:  Lose weight and get the diabetes under control

b.    Spiritual:  Commune daily with God by reading my scriptures and praying daily.

c.    Mental: Keep learning new things.  Start with the history of the Smoky Mountains

d.    Social/Emotional: 

                                          i.    Get my house in order so it stops stressing me out.

                                         ii.    Make some friends

                                        iii.    Make time for creativity.

From there, I condensed it into a short, numbered list of what my life is about and then wrote that list out into the following mission statement:

I will strive every day to fulfill my potential as a royal daughter of God. I will do this by learning everything I can and use that knowledge to help and inspire others. This help could take shape not only through coaching others, but through writing and/or other artistic methods.

That may seem to be a generalization of the goals, but really, isn’t that what a mission statement is?  A high-level, birds-eye view of your life.   

About a week ago, I was thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my life and found a website called bucketlist.org and subtitled 1000 things to do before you die.  This was great.  I used the list to spur thoughts of the things I would like to be able to do.  It amounted to about 7 pages and 227 items.  That should keep me busy for whatever time I have left. (I’m in my late 50s; who knows how much longer that’s going to be?)

So these are the things we’ll be focusing on in this blog.  Come on along!

Its a Beautiful Morning!

It snowed last night.  Can you believe it?  Its March, for Heaven's sakes!  We have had such a mild winter, and now it finally decides to be cold and snowy.  I hope this doesn't mean late freezes and the like. 

Its 7 in the morning and I've got to get myself to work.  I just wanted to set down a few goals for the day.  At work I've got to finish my purchasing card report and get it turned in to Accounting and complete my budget tracking report for February.  At home, I'm trying to go through all my boxes of books and get rid of some (ok, more than some).  I have things in boxes that haven't seen the light of day for years.  I also need to find the kitchen sink--I don't know how the dirty dishes get stacked up so fast, with only two of us in the house!

And, finally, I need to check up on the iPad announcement that is supposed to take place today!  At work, we have bonuses coming next week.  I'm planning to buy an iPad as soon as I get mine.  The only thing still to decide is whether I get a 2 or a 3 (or whatever they're going to call the new one).  If the price of the two goes down considerably, I may get the 2 instead.  However, if the price of the new one is comparable and it does include the SIRI feature, I may go for the 3.  Well, its 20 after; I've got to scoot.

Have a good day!

Mission Statement?

Ok, I'm not really a housewife, not anymore anyway.  I'm a single, working mom, who like a lot of other moms, single or not, can't keep up.  I've been so depressed the last few years that I haven't really cared about anything and the place looks it.  My house looks like Dorothy's tornado ripped right through it.  My life is in shambles.  However, thanks to my doctor and an alert friend, things are getting better.  I've started to realize that I don't have to be perfect, although I have to admit that this is a hard one to let go of. 

My plan for this blog is to chronicle my journey back to happiness.  I'm not sure if I will open it to outsider yet; I don't want my posts to be colored by how other people might view it.  But I do want to get things written down.  Being able to just dump the thoughts out of my head is not only a relief, but helps me see how I really feel and think about things.

So, off we go; lets see where this journey takes us.