A Slice of Life

Hi everyone.  It seems there's quite a bit going on in Katza Land these days.  Some of it good, some of it not so good. And some sewing, but that I'm saving for last, so if you aren't in the mood for personal updates skip to the bottom half.

 The not so good first?  Well,  our main car is currently in the shop getting an engine overhaul that hit us in the wallet pretty hard.  And one of my best friends had a miscarriage, and what really sucked is I was at work with no backup and couldn't drop everything and be there physically. She was barely eight weeks, so small blessings, I guess.  And its mother's day, which means I'm feeling sad.

But Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms that read my blog!

His shirt says "geek".  He's proud of it, too.

Good news! Well, I was able to go to my son's presentation for his advanced class. They had teams of three build and program a robot. They did really well! Felicity was quite envious so used Simon's physics kit to build one at home.   Then they had their blue belt tests this weekend.  I managed to make it to the test and get photos, though I was running on sheer willpower having been up for almost 22 hours by that point. PHEW.

goofy faces!

Don't mess with my daughter. 

"So bored with these splits" says my son.

Sewing!! I finally got around to it the last night of my weekend.  I spent the other nights cleaning and doing food prep.  Our CSA is keeping me in vegetables, that's for sure!  I'm making another Vogue 8470, but its a sleeveless maxi version.  Nine yards of ruffle to the bottom of a circle skirt! That's a lot of pinning and fussing, let me tell you. The dress itself is from a very light weight flannel in a blue/white gingham. Its deliciously soft and airy, but the loose weave makes it 'grow' so to speak.  What started out as matching patterns often ended up going wonky on me.  Below is photo evidence of the dodgy pattern matching.  I did try, I swear.

Oh yeah, and a hand picked zipper.

I decided the easiest way to get the zipper in was by hand.  I never thought I'd say this, but the sewing details by hand are calming.

Armholes

There was suppose to be a bias facing for this, but I decided to just fold and iron the seam allowance and do a tiny top-stitch.

More zipper and dubious pattern matching

And now for the ones that DID come out just right. The center front!  Everyone stares at that spot anyway.

Center!

And the right side seam. Hello gorgeous!

That's it for  now. All I have to do is sew the ruffle on the bottom and I'll be done!  But first, a long work week. Leh Sigh.

Spoonflower Fabrics; Something for Everyone

  I was poking around Spoonflower trying to find fabric that my husband might actually like. Something kinda dressy that I could make for him.  He likes dragons. Ok, so I found this:

He kinda liked it, thought it wasn't bad.  But then he came across this:

FOR THE HORDE!

Oh yeah, that's way more his style.  There was a time he practically lived World of Warcraft.  So I've bookmarked it.  Then I went looking for something I could make a tablecloth and napkins out of.  I was pleased to find there was an entire range of Cthulhu fabrics.

Please to be making a sanity check.

Even Christmas Cthulhu!

Christmas decorations my husband won't complain about!

Something on my "to do" list for a while has been to make curtains for the kids' rooms. For sure they have very unique personalities.  Simon was all about this galaxy print.

Hubble!

I asked Felicity and she was like "No, I want horses!"  So I did a search on "horses" and this came up. I said 'Skeleton Horses?!' and she goes "YEAH! That's what I want!".

Horsies.

I think there's something wrong with this family.

Inspired by Pinterest - A How Not To

So I decided to take a stroll through Pinterest on my lunch break.  Apparently the Met Gala is all the rage under the fashion section but my brain came to a screeching halt at this Wonderful Couture Garment from Versace on January Jones.

Photo Source Here

For the life of me it looked so bloody familiar I couldn't stand it.  Then it came to me:

The Venture Brothers! (photo credit)

I can't be the only one that sees the similarities, right? RIGHT?  This is perfectly normal, isn't it?

Like A Boss

Bernina 1300DC

So I'm on a mailing list that tells me all the different estate sales and auctions going on in the Metro Atlanta area.  Lately I've been ignoring them, but for whatever reason I opened this one up and decided to poke around.  Low and behold one of them said "lots of sewing stuff" including a "really nice sewing machine".  So I looked through the photos and for the life of me didn't see a sewing machine. But they did have this serger.  Then it dawned on me that whomever was running the estate sale had absolutely no idea what they were selling.  So I spied the model number from the photo, did some research, and discovered its a really nice serger that retails at $1400-$1700 AND HAS A COVERSTITCH!!

Oh hell yeah.  Now, we're cash poor cause we just paid bills but I had a bit of 'mad money' left in my personal savings.  I decided to check it out since it was super close to me, too.  I don't know what I was expecting them to have it priced at, but when I saw they had it for $99 that baby was out the door with me in a heartbeat. That's less than half what I was willing to pay for it.  Now, it has some parts missing, like the blade cover and the standard serger foot, but those are only going to cost me another $50 or so.  And I did try to get the cover stitch to work and was having a great deal of difficulty.  I figure if i need service and the parts I'm STILL coming out more than a thousand dollars ahead! HELL YEAH!  Eat my deal finding dust, suckas!

Still, this thing is going to take some learnin'. Its a  bloody complicated machine, yo.

And I was doing so well!

So, I had put myself on a voluntary fabric (and shoe) moratorium, telling myself that I NEEDED to use up much more of my stash before purchasing more fabric. And I was, until I realized that I didn't have any basic black in bottom weight fabric, which I need for my Business Wardrobe (more on that later). So, utilitarian purchase. But THEN... THEN... This happened:

Liberty of London

That's right. Liberty of London Tana Lawn with HELLO KITTY. OMG SQUEE!  I love it. I have at least four different things I can pair it with and at first glance it looks way more mature. I can totally see myself rocking this in a blouse at work with a smirk on my face. So I just dug into my "mad money" for two yards. Plenty for a blouse.

So where do you get this fabric? Well, its on pre-order at Fabric.com.  So run over and put your order in now cause who knows if it will be in stock after the pre-sale.

Don't say I never did you any favors.

Seven Yards of Ruffle

Gingham Ruffle

When all is said and done, the two dresses I've worked on back to back will have used up fifteen yards of fabric and seven yards of lace.  I really haven't gotten too much done other than  cut out the fashion fabric.  The pattern matching required was holding me up. I _think_ I've got it right.   I've gotten the darts sewn, the lining bust and midriff together, and of course,  I'm using the zigzag-over-dental-floss method to gather the bottom ruffle.  

Oh yeah, and Friday was my first farm share pick up of the year.  No, the brussell sprouts were not part of it, but I though I'd share the ONLY way that I'll eat them.  Cut into quarters, lay in a single layer on a pan with a light coating of olive or grape seed oil and kosher salt to taste.  Roast in the oven at 375F until crispy around the edges. 

Eat, Enjoy

That's all for now.  I have to work tonight. *sighs*

P.S.  The fact that Gertie's New Book is being released on the anniversary of my mother's death put a damper on my enthusiasm. *sighs*

How To Win "Cool Mom" Points

The Cake is not a lie.

If you are confused, click here.