Time to Clean Up

Last year was a year of change, transitioning from India to the United States. This is going to be my year of cleaning and purging while we stay put in one house for a while. I got a good start during the packing and unpacking last summer and fall but now that the holidays are over it's time to get back on that project.

I went through my stash fabrics and I used this tutorial for a tree skirt for the Christmas tree, this one for a scrap skirt for Muffin (photo to come once I've completed the whole outfit), and this one for a Lego bag. I have a couple winter clothes projects planned, for which I had to buy some new fabric, but once they're done it's back to the stash for spring and summer sewing.

I've put a number of books up on PaperBackSwap.com and have resisted the urge to use all my new credits to receive a bunch of replacement books.

I've been cleaning out my closet. On Friday I put a ton of clothes up on Freecycle.com and by the end of the day half of it had been picked up. Anything that's not picked up by the time Muffin goes back to school on Tuesday will go into one of the many donation bins that we pass on the drive between home and school.

I gave a little TLC to the vacuum cleaner that was put into storage in 2008 and not used since then. The filters are supposed to be washable, but they weren't washed before going into storage (whoops!) and they are beyond washing now. Black and Decker no longer makes them but still has some for sale on their site so in lieu of buying a new vacuum I bought new filters so I can delay a vacuum impulse purchase and research a good one.

I realized that now that I'm driving around in winter with a kid in the car, I really should get things checked out in a timely manner because I really, really don't want to break down in bad weather with my little companion. On that note the car is going into the mechanic shop again today.

I joined a gang... of other moms who are training for the same half marathon that I am in March. Once the kiddos are all back in school we hope to start running together again. I need that. My lungs are all dusty from the cleaning. I need fresh air on a regular basis but without motivation I won't go outside when it's cold.

Right now it feels like my full-time job is to get ready for the next move and whether I'm cleaning out my closet or getting the car fixed, everything contributes to that goal. We don't even know when the move will be or where it will be to but it is always looming. I'm still unpacking boxes from the last move. I'm making trips to the dumpster every day. I'm spending time in various stores trying to decipher the best storage solutions for things like all my stash fabrics and sewing supplies so it's more organized for the next move. I'm reducing clothing and toys and books. We put every single DVD and CD into sleeves in binders and threw out all the plastic cases, reducing our next move by several boxes and pounds.

It's going to be a long, cold winter and I resolve to put my indoor time to good use. 

Happy Spring Holidays!

It's a holiday week here in Hyderabad. I'm more of a spring equinox person than an Easter person, but, you know, if someone invites us to a good party, we'll show up.

Last weekend, Muffin went to an Easter Egg Hunt party.

She's so sweet, she still thinks the fun is simply in finding the eggs. She never realized they were full of candy. After the hunt was finished, the kids got a bag of jelly beans and some chocolate ice cream, and she was satisfied with that. It never occurred to her to open the eggs. I emptied all the chocolate out later when she was sleeping. Since the party her favorite game around the house has been Easter Egg Hunt. I can't count how many times we've played now.

I made her dress from a 1960s-era vintage pattern.

From the clean and angelic to the devilishly cute and messy...

Yesterday was Holi. Muffin's first little friend ever is moving away from Hyderabad this week. Her mom invited Muffin over for the neighborhood Holi party so the girls could have a memorable last play date.

Happy Holidays, whatever you're celebrating this week!

Log Off and Go Do Something

Image from Pinterest.

I've been on a somewhat forced exile from Facebook and other things online due to the summertime power cuts in Hyderabad. The internet company doesn't have as good a generator for their servers as we have at our house so once the scheduled power cuts kick in for the day, the internet goes out even though we still have electricity.

I've been doing a lot of offline writing. (It's been frustrating because I'm the administrator at Hardship Homemaking this month. I'm frantically uploading and scheduling posts when connected internet coincides with a sleeping Muffin.)

I've been doing a lot of sewing, working on Muffin's summer wardrobe. I've given up on making her take off the long pants for school but I absolutely must hide away the flannel pajamas. After I've made her some summer pajamas.

I've been running and doing yoga. Not quite as much as I'd like to, but enough so that I feel reasonably happy and healthy without feeling guilty about leaving Muffin at home. She loves playing Legos and Play-Doh and all sorts of other things with her baby-sitter; she doesn't miss me. Muffin's school starts summer holiday in a couple weeks and I have to find activities for her to keep both of us sane. We can only go to the park so many times.

Base mileage, base mileage, base mileage. Every step counts for something. But this morning my steps took me to the coffee maker instead of out the door in my running shoes.

I'm Losing the Battle Against Long Pants

Muffin and I are in a battle of who could care less (to quote Ben Folds).

 Her school has a dress code policy of girls wearing leggings or shorts under dresses and skirts. I’m fine with this; Muffin spends a lot of time in the sandbox and leggings provide extra protection from sand getting into places it shouldn’t. With the Hyderabadi style of khurtas worn over pants or leggings, Muffin has embraced the the local fashion and wears dresses with leggings and sometimes even wears jeans under her dresses. I’m okay with all that. I want her to have confidence in choosing her clothes and expressing herself.

Here’s my problem. Summer is upon us. It’s near 90 degrees (32 C) when I drop her off at school in the mornings and pushing 95 degrees (35 C) by the time I pick her up. Each day seems warmer than the previous day. Muffin is insisting on wearing ankle-length leggings or pants every day and she is a little sweatball by the time school is over. She won’t wear shorts. She won’t even consider knee-length or calf-length capri pants. Long pants, Mommy, long pants.

Last week I told her that it was the last week for wearing long pants. Starting on Monday, she would need to wear short pants to school. I have lost that battle every single morning this week. On Monday, once she was at school, I reduced her collection of leggings from about ten pairs to three. I showed her! Then I felt a bad about feeling vengeful toward a preschooler, so I took out a bunch of fabric and patterns to plan a new summer wardrobe for her; this week I've cut out a few items for her already. At Mike’s suggestion, I’m also going to trim several inches off the leggings and sneak them back onto her shelves to see if she notices they are shorter.

She’s rotated through those three pairs of leggings every day this week and today I’d had it again. We hadn’t even left the house yet and we were sweating already. I told her if she wanted to wear long pants she had to put them on herself. If she wanted my help, I was going to put shorts on her. And what do you know? She battled with a pair of leggings for a few minutes, threw them aside, picked up a pair of jeans, and put them on. I lost again. (And damn, is she smart!)

Today I’m going to hold off work on her Easter dress in order to chop and hem all of her pants into shorter lengths. It’s not as if they’re going to fit her next winter and we’re moving from Hyderabad summer to U.S. summer so other than a couple pairs of jeans and sweatpants (for chilly beach evenings in Rhode Island), she doesn’t need anything but summer clothes.

Should I be more flexible and just let her wear the damn leggings and be sweaty? Is she wearing them because she knows it annoys me so much?

The Smallest One Was Madeline

I started thinking about Halloween costumes months ago. You need to start planning early so you can figure out what you can buy locally and what needs to be ordered from the United States. I can buy a lot of fabrics here but not a lot of other craft supplies. Some ideas were heavy on things that needed to be ordered or purchased whole rather than made. After a while I gave up the idea of a family costume and decided just to concentrate on Muffin, because my October activities calendar was filling up. Eventually I decided I could easily make one really great dress, so I gave Muffin the choice of Olivia or Madeline, two of her favorite characters.

She chose Madeline. I turned to the books for inspiration. I decided on a yellow hat and cape with a blue dress and found a vintage pattern -- 1970's Simplicity 7410 from Lanetz Living -- that was perfect for the cape and dress. I opted for the sleeveless dress because it's 80 degrees outside and it would make my life easier.

I got a little stuck on the hat. I couldn't find a suitable hat locally and I was afraid ordering one would result in a crushed hat. None of the patterns I had in my stash seemed appropriate. I turned to the internet to find hat tutorials. I couldn't find a good hat tutorial, but I did see a lot of Madeline costumes -- all of which looked like the modern cartoon rather than the classic book, which made me a little worried about my cape and my color choices. (And I'm sorry, but grown women wearing Madeline costumes rather than Madeline-inspired outfits is a little sad looking.)

Still full of indecision about the hat and having a little bit of self-doubt about the costume in general, I went fabric shopping for my blue and yellow fabrics. I knew exactly which store I wanted to go to, but my driver suggested an expo instead. Against my gut instinct I agreed to stop in at the expo. And after fifteen minutes I'd assessed the whole place as having many lovely fabrics but nothing that was anywhere near what I was looking for. It felt kind of good to continue on to the shop I'd originally asked my driver to take me to, walk in, and find the exact fabrics I wanted right away. I bought cheap "matching fabric," the material used to make the blouses worn under saris. It comes in all shades of solid colors and it was at least a cotton/poly blend if not 100% cotton (I could live with a  blend for this project.). I brought it home, washed it, realized it was a little too see-through and decided to line the dress, and gave my driver a swatch to take back to the store to buy another meters' worth for the lining. With my blue and yellow fabric and some black ribbon from the grocery store I was ready to sew a Madeline costume.

I made the cape first. Muffin was thrilled with it. As I started working on the dress she became anxious about my progress and started "working" in the sewing room with me so she could monitor how things were going. She has a Madeline doll and I keep some craft supplies especially for keeping Muffin entertained in the sewing room. While I worked on her Madeline dress she worked on clothes for her Madeline doll. It was kind of sweet and it was the first time she did independent projects while allowing me to sew, so it was a nice milestone for us.

With a Halloween party bearing down on us I still had to figure out a hat. I went back to my patterns and decided to use the sunhat from Butterick 3846 with the brim turned up. I made the brim slightly wider to give me a little more to play with. I was prepared to "starch the hell out of it," as I'd read in one of the many hat-making tutorials I'd poured over in the last few weeks, but it actually worked out quite nicely with just some interfacing. The hat and cape were so cute together that I didn't care anymore that it didn't look exactly like the book or exactly like the cartoon. Muffin looked like a little French boarding school girl and the vintage pattern added a bit of style.

Her new black Mary Janes arrived in the mail just in time to finish off the look.

Super Mommy

I'm pretty proud of myself this week. I prioritized my time, I delegated tasks, and I made this:

and I finished making this:

all for Muffin's birthday party on Saturday afternoon.

How to Make a Very Hungry Caterpillar Party in India
I have to thank Pinterest for the cake idea. I pinned it months ago and kept the idea tucked away in my head, thinking about how to make this in India.

First, when the Consulate placed an order with the commissary in Delhi, I ordered "one" food coloring box. Due to the confusing nature of the order form, I ended up with "one case" of food coloring boxes. I also bought one case of real vanilla extract (intentionally -- I use it a lot for baking) because you can't buy real vanilla in Hyderabad and the fake stuff sold here tastes awful.

Next, when we where on vacation in the United States in May, I tried the King Arthur flour gluten-free cake mix and I liked it a lot better than the Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mixes I'd been using. I bought several boxes of chocolate and yellow -- which actually comes out more like angel food cake -- and did a couple test batches once we were back in Hyderabad to see how the cupcakes would work in my oven. I also tested frosting recipes. I'd been using the Pamela's frosting mixes, and while I love the chocolate, the vanilla always tasted funny to me. I ended up using a butter frosting recipe from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

I used Heritage unsalted cooking butter for the cake and the frostings. I've found it in HyperCity and at the Heritage markets. It freezes well, so I buy several boxes whenever I see it.

I did a little bit of work each day. On Tuesday I made a batch of green frosting. On Wednesday I made a batch of red and kept both in the freezer. On Thursday I took a break. On Friday, with our housekeeper helping to keep Muffin entertained, I made one box of chocolate cupcakes (one box yields 24 cupcakes), one box of yellow cupcakes, and another box of chocolate into 12 cupcakes and one nine-inch round cake. I also made another batch of frosting, dividing it into half blue and half yellow. I moved all the frostings into the refrigerator to defrost for Saturday morning. I sealed up all the cupcakes into Tupperware, blasted the air conditioner and kept my fingers crossed for the electricity, and left them on the kitchen counter overnight because there wasn't enough room in the refrigerator for them.

On Saturday morning, while Mike kept Muffin busy, I started frosting everything. I locked up the cat. I kept air conditioners blasting in the kitchen and the dining room. I ate a good breakfast and a good lunch and didn't drink too much coffee so I wouldn't have shaky hands and drop anything. I cut out little feet and antenna from black felt. I placed the cupcakes on a piece of white fabric (an old tablecloth that had a couple stains in it so can't be used for fancy dining anymore, but works well as a cupcake canvas) and the felt stuck to the fabric nicely. I kept the caterpillar's head in the refrigerator until the very last minute to keep his face from melting.

Several weeks ago I'd ordered official Hungry Caterpillar party supplies from the Eric Carle museum and some cheaper plain green supplies from Oriental Trading. I also found some party stuff at HyperCity and the party store next to Qmart.

Mike and I spent Friday night sealing up the goodie bags and I also finished Muffin's dress that night. Each day for the last two weeks I'd been working on the dress in about five-minute increments whenever I could. It's the Oliver + S Seashore Sundress in Michael Miller Lolli Dot from Fabric.com and red "matching fabric" from a sari shop.

All the work culminated in two hours of insanity. Nineteen kids and sixty cupcakes. We bought samosas from a kiosk around the corner for a savory snack and we had plenty of juice, water, soda, and beer for guests of all ages. We just let the kids go crazy with Muffin's toys until cupcake time, then they went crazy with cupcakes. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Muffin was a little subdued but she loved her birthday cake and she didn't cry when everyone sang "Happy Birthday." That's about all you can ask from a two-year-old.

And we had our housekeeper come in for the afternoon to help with cleaning up. That is a key element to throwing a party in India.

It was a pretty good party, but I'm glad birthdays are only once a year. I can't be Super Mommy every week.

Green Smoothies and Excuses

This is my Pin-spiration for the week.

Last Saturday night Mike had to go out of town at the last minute and we didn’t know how long he was going to be gone. As of this writing, he’s booked on a flight for tonight. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but we know how things can change. He was supposed to come home last night, so I had to face a disappointed little Muffin this morning when she went through her list of who is home and who is not home when she woke up.

In the past week I’ve been frantically trying to keep up-to-date with my schoolwork (thanks to a generous extension from my professor) while providing Muffin with at least the minimum requirements of food, clean clothes, school, and fun time. She is tired of being passed off to our housekeeper for a couple hours every day, but she’ll survive. I have not been running. I have not been sewing. I have not been formulating the plan I need for making dozens of cupcakes and multiple colors of buttercream frostings for Muffin’s birthday party next week. (Mike will be home from work for a few days next week, so I’ll be putting him to work making goodie bags. He can also assemble her birthday present.) I think I can manage to finish sewing her party dress, too, if things go back to a more normal version of normal with Mike's return tonight.

I’ll have to slowly work back in to the half marathon training. I know I can do the distance and the first of the two races is still over three weeks away. I know I could have taken Muffin to the park with the jogging stroller or left her with the housekeeper for going to the gym to run on the treadmill. But I didn’t. It was the last thing on my mind. If I wasn’t working on my schoolwork or doing something wholesome for Muffin, I felt guilty. Even with our housekeeper’s help I was exhausted by the time Muffin went to bed each night. If she was asleep by 8:30, I was asleep by 9:00. I think I would have passed out in her bed each night if I’d added running to my daily schedule.

My first green smoothie.

Despite the stress of the last week we kept up with our healthy eating for the most part. Annie’s gluten-free macaroni and cheese made a few appearances throughout the week, but so did green smoothies. Muffin sipped from them (and she actually asked for carrots with dinner last night!). I don’t know if the Indian spinach has a stronger taste than American spinach or if everyone who says you can add enough fruit juice to cover up the spinach taste is a liar. Regardless of what I do, I always taste spinach. It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s there. So, green smoothie drinkers, I dare you to tell me if you really don’t taste the spinach, or if you just don’t mind the taste of it, or if you suck it up and drink it anyway whether you like the taste or not.

Sewing Room Friday

Many people know that along with running and studying, I like to sew. It's often what takes a backseat when I'm too busy doing those other activities though. I've realized that if I don't watch as much television, cull my Google Reader to the blogs I actually enjoy reading, and spend more time doing rather than Pinning, I can actually get a lot of things done in a day. So, Sewing Room Friday. Friday afternoons are a good time because I strive to finish my weekly homework assignments on Friday morning and since I do my long runs on Saturday, I'm not running on Friday. Even if I'm only in there for an hour or two once a week, I can get some projects done.

Today while Muffin napped I dusted off my sewing table, threw some fabric in the washing machine, and traced out the Oliver + S Seashore Sundress pattern to make some party dresses for Muffin. She has her own birthday party coming up and a friend's party. I should be able to make two dresses in the next couple of weeks.

(Image from Fabric.com.)

This Week

This week I posted at What I Eat and I forgot to mention that last week I posted about Muffin's Easter frock at We Sew Retro.

Coloring eggs!

That Room

I wouldn't sign us up for Hoarders, but we collect stuff. Mike has his cameras and his bike parts. I have fabrics and bits of paper. We both have CDs and DVDs that have been listened to or watched once. We both have old clothes. Occasionally we do go through our stuff and pare it down a bit but we still end up with that room. That room where boxes remain unpacked and stuff that we need to keep but don't use ends up. All the moving around that we do hasn't cured us of our habit of collecting things and holding on to them forever. We moved in together about eight years ago and I'm afraid we might still have boxes from that first apartment stashed away somewhere.

We've lived in our current house for almost a year. We moved in just before Christmas and the last delivery of our household effects was on New Year's Eve. So I decided that before the end of the year, I want that room cleaned up and organized. I've had a junk room rather than a sewing room and office. It was a room that Muffin had never even seen because the mess was piled so high. Even when the mold hit, I braved the room long enough to rescue some fabric but we never go to the rest of the room.

When Mike had last Friday off and we had a full staff of housekeepers and nannies to keep Muffin busy, Mike and I went in and tackled that room.

It's still not perfect but it came a long way that morning. I've sketched out a couple little work tables to be made and I've figured out my storage needs. I've found homes for two sewing machines, the printer, and the scanner. All the fabric is on shelves. Our housekeeper gladly took some of the craft supplies that I felt I no longer needed. Her daughter and young cousins keep scrapbooks and love getting my crafting hand-me-downs. Muffin sneaks in there now and marvels at the fabrics, anxious to touch them all, making little "oh, oooh," sounds.

I can't wait to start using my new sewing room office.

P.S. We've been doing some big cleanups around the house, and one morning we put out several garbage bags, including one from the catbox, because, well, we have a cat who uses the catbox so we have to throw it away. Within an hour, every garbage bag was gone from in front of our house except the one full of kitty litter. It took several days for that one to disappear. The ups and downs of having a "private" garbage man. He doesn't really have to take anything he doesn't feel isn't worth sorting through to see what can be resold. Eventually it all disappears though.

Happy, Happy Hippo

If I had a kid, I’d decorate its room with this cheerful hippo motif. (Click the photo to see it larger.) For the time being, I don’t really need a quilt from Centre Artisanal de Musaga, but I want one. They hand paint and stamp fabrics with Burundian motifs and other African designs. They sew quilts, garments, and handbags. They sell lengths of painted fabrics. If they don’t have exactly what you want in stock, they’ll make it for you, from custom-painting the fabric to sewing the item. They are, essentially, awesome. If you like that sort of thing. I’m thinking of commissioning some fabric for curtains in my office. That way I can feed the fabric-shopping beast without adding to my overflowing stash at home while supporting and advertising a local business.

My Own Puffy Sleeves

They may not be the Princess Puffysleeviest, but they're there and they're all mine.

I've been working on a suit and I'm almost finished with the jacket. I put the sleeves in this morning and I am in love with them. I just had to take a few moments to share. Yesterday I assembled the sleeves and Mike can tell you, I was tickled by them. Perhaps more tickled than someone should be over sleeves. Now that they're successfully in the jacket I'm totally over the moon.

The suit is a navy blue tropical wool, a first-time jacket pattern (I made a muslin several months ago) and a tried-and-true skirt pattern. I'll post more details once it's complete. I am in a sewing frenzy, trying to get quite a few projects done before we leave in two months. I plan on a second suit with the same jacket and skirt in a light gray tropical wool, but I think I'll wait and make that once I'm in Africa. I want to concentrate on blouses and other skirts to go with the jacket and some casual clothes. More time sewing, less time snapping pics and blogging about it.

Speaking of Africa and clothes, Victoria's Secret is having a sale and I went a little click-happy at their website this morning. I'm satisfied that I now have at least two years' worth of underwear. Most of it is in flamingo pink, since that was a big clearance color. It will be cheery.

I Sewed!

(Also posted at Sew Retro)

I've finally gotten around to not just finishing something, but taking pictures of it too. I bought this pattern from Lanetz Living a few months ago.

The waistband is supposed to be made from elasticized grosgrain ribbon, according to the instructions. But I couldn't find any of that (I'd never heard of it before!) so improvised with elasticized belting. It's not too stretchy, but stretchy enough. It's sort of stretched out and settled on my hips now.

I love the pockets and the piecework. This would be fun to try with stripes and create chevrons.

I cut out and sewed the longer version, thinking the short one would be way too short for work. But after the elastic settled on my hips the longer one was way too long. I chopped it off to the shorter length and did a narrow hem so it's now the perfect knee length.

I made this as a wearable muslin with a cotton from Repro Depot. I'd like to make it again with some tamer, conservative, office-wear fabrics. I may adjust the waist to using a zipper instead of the elastic though. Finding that elastic is difficult.



(Click on photos to enlarge them or see them on my flickr page.)

Recycled Clothing

Okay, so maybe Earth Day awareness isn't such a bad thing. Maybe it's just a coincidence but for the last week or so I've been thinking a lot more than usual about recycled clothing. Thrift shopping, whether it's for ready-to-wear garments or raw materials to make new garments is recycling. Recycling isn't just bottles and cans (and just clap your hands).

The internet is a weird, wild place and I happened across this article this morning, How to make a baby romper from a t-shirt, which reminded me that there are some thrift stores in my new neighborhood that I've been meaning to check out. Also, I know about a hundred women having babies this year so used t-shirt onesies, in theory, sound like good gifts. In reality though I can't think of anyone (except maybe Vicky, eco-conscious supermom -- let me know!) who'd actually want onsies made from t-shirts.

I set out to visit those thrift stores this morning. I had my canvas shopping bag filled with items to mail from the post office and once it was empty I was anxious to fill it with "new" stuff. Both stores were a bust. One wasn't open and I was tired of wasting time waiting for it to open. But judging from the window displays it didn't look like there was much inside I'd be interested in. The second one turned out to be for high-end consignments and they had absolutely no clothing. A nice woman showed me a tiny selection of cute linens, but nothing I felt like buying. I did, however, find a used bookstore so I filled up my bag with books. (Like I need more books, but they were $2 each. How could I resist? And one has already given me a recipe to try for dinner tonight.)

So, I'm not a garment recycler yet but I'm working on it. I'm still interested.

I Was Going To...

I was going to finish cutting out the muslin of a jacket pattern tonight, but Grendel has other plans.


I cut out a couple pieces this afternoon but then got busy with working, napping, and a pesky little necessity called eating. I didn't want to lay the fabric out and cut on the floor--I was trying to avoid cats stepping on it. The coffee table was the easiest flat surface to clear off and use. But it's small (the perspective is hard to judge in the photo because Grendel is so big and he likes to flatten out; he expands to the size of the surface he's sitting on). I have to cut pieces in small batches because I can only fit so many on the table top at one time. For the most part the cats ignored the coffee table all afternoon. But I woke up from a snooze and there was Grendel.

Mike's gone for a couple days, yet the hotel room still feels small.

I mentioned in my last post that I've actually been sewing. Photographic proof is here.

I'll Be Attending Fancy Parties?

Mike has informed me that I may need a ball gown, or an evening dress, or two (because I wouldn't want to wear the same one to every gala) while we're in Burundi. While browsing patterns today I saw this at Lanetz Living. It's a vintage 1960s pattern. Isn't it adorable? Wouldn't it be great in silk? And I could get little gloves, just like the girl in the illustration!

In other sewing news, I've been working on a plethora of small projects. Before leaving Walnut Creek I cut out several garments and I also packed up some UFOs (UnFinished Objects). My sewing machine has been whirring away and fabric is transforming from a pile in a box to pieces of clothing hanging in the closet. I've also been stocking up on tropical weight wools whenever I see them for a good price. Jackets and skirts, jackets and skirts. I have a dozen suits planned in my head.

Skirts

My stash-sewing skirts are coming along. Two are all finished. One just needs to be hemmed. Another has just been cut out. It feels good to be cutting fabric and throwing away the scraps. The lessening of the stash is probably imperceptable to anyone but me, but it's enough for me to know it's getting smaller.

Both skirts are New Look 6177, View C/D. This one to the left is two different brown cotton gauzes. For the main part and the upper flounce I used a chocolate brown, for the bottom flounce, obviously, a light brown. I added lace trim to make it a little flirtier.

The second skirt is two different cotton/poly blends, white-on-white Hawaiin floral prints. The bottom flounce is white cotton gauze.

I apologize for the lousy photos. I had no luck taking them of myself with the good camera, so I'm back to posing for the laptop camera. You can see larger images at flickr.

I'm trying to sew with Tim Gunn's basic wardrobe elements in mind. I like to think he'd approve of these as a sweatpants alternative. With an appropriate top and sandals of course.

Sewing down the stash

I've been in sort of a funk lately. Creatively, I've been cooking a lot. But cooking is not doing anything to help get the house cleaned up and organized. We have a big move looming over us, with the stress of still not knowing exactly where and when. I keep thinking that I have to take control over the things I can have control over, like the organizational state of the house. But I'm not actually doing anything about it. When I'm stressed out I tend to shut down for a few days at a time.

Stuff needs to be weeded through and sent to Goodwill. Books should be placed on bookshelves so they'll be easier to box up later. Cupboards need to be cleaned out of old food we will never eat. My giant wardrobe full of cloth has to be dealt with.

This weekend I've decided to deal with the cloth. Several months ago I bought this pattern with the idea that I can use lots of various-sized pieces from my stash. And last night I finally got around to cutting out pieces. These skirts are pretty quick to sew up, once you get the darts and zipper done. My hope is to get rid of some fabric and have some nice new summer clothes to pack into storage this winter, then be thrilled to unpack new clothes next summer. No matter where we end up, there will be summer weather at some point. (Minsk is no longer an option.) So I'm working on skirts right now.

Next weekend maybe I'll work on some real household stuff.

Piece #2 Done

Here is the black linen top. Simplicity 3887, View C. I know it's hard to see any detail in my poor photo. (Click on the garment photo to enlarge it.) I think the linen I used was not quite as soft and lightweight as is needed for this kind of top. But luckily, since it's black and puffy a lot of imperfections are disguised. When I make this up in the soft cotton eyelet, it should look like an entirely different shirt.

Yesterday when I finished this and put it on I didn't take any pictures because I was disappointed with how it looked. This morning I tried it on again and I loved it. I think the difference must have been the shorts I was wearing. Yesterday, Bermuda-length shorts made this top look sort of dowdy. This morning, short shorts made it look fabulous.

Piece #1 Done

I finished the first garment from my list today. A simple cotton shirt, McCall's 4922 in an off-white embroidered cotton. (Click on the pics to enlarge them.)

This is just a great casual shirt, not too fancy, but nicer than a t-shirt. That's my objective for the summer. Easy, casual, but not t-shirts. I love t-shirts and I wear a lot of them. I'm thinking it's time for a bit of a change.

I cut out and started sewing my next piece, a black linen shirt. Tomorrow I have to venture out for notions--elastic for some of my shirts' sleeves and a zipper for my HP Weekender shorts.



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