Well, that’s unexpected….

All that pretty topstitching... 😦

I can’t say that it’s a first (though maybe it is?) but my jeans are too big. I even took in the side seams by about 1/2″, and they are still too big. 😕 So now, I’m not sure what to do, since I can pinch out about another inch before activating the stretch (that would be about 2″ total). The fly is already finished, so I don’t want to rip that out. Maybe the center back seam? That’ll ruin two rows of nearly perfect topstitching, plus a row of regular stitching, but if it will make them fit it will be worth it. How much can one reasonably take out of a center back seam though? I’m scared to take much more out of the side seams, because there’s pockets that I plan to use. Maybe I’ll think more clearly after I’ve had lunch and a bit more time to think it over. Wish me luck.

Guess I’ll be working on a new “sloper” for pants soon. I can’t decide whether I’m thrilled because there has been significant inches lost (I am) or whether I’m kinda freaked about making a new one (I’m that too).

My First Earthquake

And I pretty much missed it. Stupid wobbly sewing chair! I guess that Oklahoma had a 5.6 (or thereabouts) earthquake last night, and it was felt in Kansas and Texas too. My hubby said it felt like somebody shaking his chair, and it made the pull chains on the fan and some of my rulers on the pegboard swing. I wonder if there would have been any doubt if we’d have been upstairs instead of in the basement, since I’ve heard people talk about walls swaying and pictures moving from people north of us yet. I wonder if there will be aftershocks and how long it will be before they arrive?

Such a weird thing to happen here. Be safe everyone!

Hot dogs and other fun kid things

Last night for supper I needed one hot dog to complete the meal, since I was already started to cooking, I sent the menfolk downstairs to bring a package up from the freezer. I mean, surely they can handle that, right? Time passed, and I never saw the hot dogs. Naturally, I assumed that meant that my menfolk couldn’t find any hot dogs in the deep freeze, and proceeded to work the recipe around that. No biggie.

Fast forward to later in the evening when I’m getting ready for bed. I open the closet doors, which are, natch, shoved to my side because hubby always leaves his side open, and lo and behold! My previously frozen package of hot dogs! Sitting there, melting and sweating all over my carpeted closet floor. While some details are a bit fuzzy, apparently my son was sent to give me the package, but somehow got sidetracked and ended up in his favorite hiding spot…?? The world may never know. 🙄 😆

In other news, today I got the kiddo’s costume together. Originally, he was going to be the Archangel Gabriel, but he decided to be a cat. More specifically, he wants to be our cat. Which aside from being a gender impossibility, is probably a bit odd. However, I finally caved, and so he’s going to be a cat. With a pretty purple collar, just like our kitty. And he has to be an all black kitty too, because our kitty is solid black…

Here’s what I have so far:

It’ll be worn with a black hoodie (which I just happened to find on sale today!) and black pants. I still have to make the tail. I think it’s going to be cute. 🙂

Sometimes there is no explanation…

Sometimes sewing just defies logic. Case in point? The pantlegs on my son’s new jeans:

Now, if you look at those two pictures you’ll notice something. Well, several things probably, but focus on the fact that there appears to be a length discrepancy in the length discrepancies. The reason this defies logic is that the pants fronts are exactly the same size–I checked. The pants backs are also exactly the same size–again, I checked. Sometimes when I add significant amounts of length (5″ or more) to a pattern I get a little bit off between back/front (similar to the photo on the left), and that doesn’t matter too much, I fix it and go on. But how does it happen that two pieces of the EXACT SAME SIZE end up like this? And it happened on BOTH pairs of jeans I made using this pattern!

Oh well. Both pairs are ready to wear now, so I think I’m done making up jeans for the little man for a while. I can finally check something off my list. 🙂

Have a great weekend! 🙂

Now I understand….

…why underwear are so darn expensive! I mean, it seems like they shouldn’t cost much of anything to make…but they are so wasteful! I thought I would be smart and use some scraps to make a few pairs of cute underwear (and use up some of those pesky scraps while I was at it), but little did I know that it would be really hard to do that unless you were making underwear for either kids, or maybe for men with all the pattern pieces for men’s underwear. Since they use only two or three pieces for women’s (unless you want seams everywhere) they are a lot more wasteful than I would have imagined. 😦 Guess I’ll just stick to buying them from now on, especially now that I’ve found a kind that I like….Lord help me if they suddenly discontinue them though!

Funny things always happen to me…

…whenever I go out shopping. There’s always some sort of comical unexpected event that comes from my shopping excursions, and today was no exception. I was in need of some *ahem* undergarments for a dress that I’m making for a wedding, so I headed to the city in an effort to either buy supplies to make them myself or buy one that was already made. While I was at the mall, I saw the big “Dick’s Sporting Goods” logo, and thought to myself “Self, hubby has been needing some *ahem* undergarments for his swim trunks for a while now and you haven’t been able to find them elsewhere, perhaps this is the place to find that which you seek.” And the clouds parted and the sun shone brightly upon me as I made my way to the door, (yes, really!) and so I made my way towards the nearest clerk. Said clerk was probably all of about, oh, 15 years old, male, and a bit unsure of himself when I stopped to ask for help. I blurt out, “can you help me find the, uh, I think they’re called jock straps?” After turning an interesting shade of red, looking at me up and down (as though he had thoughts that the object in question was for me??), and finally deciding that I was indeed serious, he directed me where I needed to go. Talk about an awkward moment!

Then, since it was just me, and I had forgotten my phone in the car and couldn’t double check, there was another awkward moment when I queried as to the return policy on such items–the cashier (also male) was like–“uh, it’s a jock strap–there’s no way you can return it if it’s opened!” I assured him that my husband would know whether it would be the right size or not based on the waist measurement, and should the clerk be reading this, he can rest easy–I have no need of returning the item. 😉

All in all though, it was a successful day–I achieved undergarment success! 😛

Quien Sera, Quien Sera

**I can hear the sound of violins
Long before
It begins
Make me thrill as only you know how
Sway me smooth
Sway me now**

I’m seriously in the mood to go dancing. Anyone else? Perhaps next weekend I can convince the hubby to take me out–two-stepping is better than nothing I suppose…*sigh* I have a friend who does contests for ballroom dancing, maybe I should see if I can call in a favor to have him teach me. 🙂 I’ve been wanting to learn forever, but hubby isn’t terribly interested. 😦 Oh well, I guess.

Well, I cut out my jeans this evening…tomorrow if it’s kind of rainy I’ll probably start stitching them up. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they work out on the first try. Maybe by Monday I’ll have my very own custom made jeans. 🙂

I’m just not sure…

Yesterday I went to the public library here in town and was checking out some books, one of which was “Sewing Clothes Kids Love” (or something VERY similar) and the librarian made the comment of: “I notice that you seem to check out an awful lot of sewing books, are you by chance a seamstress?” I’ll tell you like I told her, I’m simply a wannabe. I don’t consider myself to be skilled, but I’m working my way towards that…I hope. So yeah, she asked me about helping the 4-H’ers with their projects…I want to say yes, but I also know that I have a lot of bad habits that may not be good to pass on to young impressionable minds. 😳

I think it would be so cool though! I mean, I LOVED 4-H when I was growing up. LOVED.IT. And it’s always cool to be mentored by someone who truly love what they were doing–you learn more that way and it spreads the enthusiasm about something worthwhile. Should I try it? I mean surely I can’t goof things up too badly, right?

I already volunteered to make a couple of projects from the books that I borrowed for the library to display, but helping show kids how to do stuff would be pretty cool too. The world needs more seamstresses–because the more there are, the more cool fabrics and such that are available to ME. *evil grin* I know, I know, the Selfish Seamstress is such a bad influence on me. 😛

Another question….if I did this, would that mean I’d have to keep my sewing room tidy? 😯 😉

Thursday thoughts

I’m completely at a loss for a good post, but I’ve got all sorts of things running through my mind right now. Do you ever have times like that? You have all sorts of ideas, worries, and other random thoughts running through your brain and you can’t seem to focus? I’m there.

Anyway, I’m stuck. I have a “sewing plan” written on my dry erase board, but I really am not motivated to work on them….regardless of the fact that I really NEED to be motivated to work on them. I’ve got shirts for my son, a couple for my husband, and a quilt to finish. But, typical me, by the time I get everything cut out, I’ve pretty much lost interest in the project. Maybe it’s because I hate cutting things out? Or, I suppose I could just have ADD or something.

House projects are kind of “on hold”. We can’t seem to decide on a trim color, so we can’t paint until we do…I’m scared I’m going to just “pick one” and then hate it. We’re also waiting on our new windows…..STILL. I did get to do some spraying tonight, no more spiders in the house! 😛 I don’t care if they are outside, but once they cross that threshold……they will DIE!!!

Wallpaper Win!

(To the tune of Another One Bites the Dust ~ Queen)

Another wall down

Another wall down

Wallpaper bites the dust!

Yeah, I’m gonna get you too (in regards to other rooms with wallpaper)

Another wall bites the dust! [/cheesiness]

OK, so that was kinda dumb…but it was fun while it lasted. In case you couldn’t tell, I took down the last of the wallpaper in the bathroom. Yea! I really hate wallpaper of any kind, and especially those horrible choices people make for bathrooms; generally, they have flowers or seashells…whatever it is, it’s generally awful, and my bathroom border was no exception to that rule. Nasty pink, with fugly flowers….it was like someone ate pink paint and some ugly flowers and then vomited on the wall all the way around my bathroom. *blech*

Actually, I’m thankful that it came off easily (and that it was just a border, could you imagine pink floral vomit on the ENTIRE wall?) and am kinda pumped about my next project…..removing those horrible pinkish-beige “iridescent-y” plastic wall tiles. Since some have come off by the tub, I’m going to at least do that wall right away and depending on how that goes I’ll decide whether to just rip out the drywall in the entire bathroom (after we’ve saved up to replace it) or attempt to scrape off the rest of them in the same manner. Mine appear to be different than any I’ve heard about on the internet, because they appear to have used some sort of grout on them instead of using the blobs of glue that I’ve seen/heard/read about on others; which I can’t decide if that is a good thing or a very bad one.

Eventually, I’d like to replace the flooring and the cheap plastic surround with nice tile, but that will have to wait until we get our other bathroom finished, so that we have a place to bathe while the grout dries in our main bathroom. The basement bath is going to be a pretty big project though, since there’s so much FUBAR going on down there….seriously, you don’t want to know, it’s pretty terrifying.