Bi-Polar Weather

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the weather in this neck of the woods.  But to give you an idea we have a saying here in Atlanta  "If you don't like the weather, wait an hour".

Last week we had our first major frost. Due to the nature of the wonderful building codes of the '80s, my house has a permanent draft. Kinda like a castle but not nearly as defensible. However, thanks to the trees that fell on my house a couple years ago (and gave me a new roof and septic system), I now have an over abundance of firewood. Only half of which is in fireplace sizes because the huge pile is half buried under a pile of dirt thanks to the flooding of 2009. (My personal favorite photo of that here)  I'd like to add that the trees and the flood happened in the same year.  The year before I had a tree randomly fall on my car. In my driveway.

Seriously, I can't make this shit up.

More photos here

So anyway, for about a week my fireplace was like this:

But then another weather front came through and it warmed up. And guess what we got? FOG!  In fact, it was such a grand fog that after I got home from work yesterday morning I ran out in a t-shirt and underwear to take pictures.  My neighbors LOVE me.

My land actually ends at that yellow tree. The rest is "overflow control" for lake Allatoona.

Poor abandoned club house. Soon, its on the long list of "things to fix".

So after my somewhat indecent exposure I decided to go to bed.  But in sewing news, I think my mojo is starting to return.  The kids have been complaining about lack of sleep wear. Felicity has been sleeping in her  jeans and I'm like NO!  So I'm probably going to do some stash busting of old knits and make the kids several pairs.  In the meantime I pulled a UFO out of the "box of shame".  I cut this robe out with the intention of making it LAST Christmas. Its a size eight and  its HUGE. Turns out Felicity is inbetween a six and seven and I have to lengthen it just a bit.  This is the robe off of McCall's 4646.

I love this fabric.

Simon has this irritating habit (which I think he got from his father) to run around the house in his underwear and then complain about being cold.  I went looking for robe patterns, asked him if he wanted one and he said "A warlock robe? That would be cool!".  I said no, like the one you have and he gave me a disappointed "Oh.".  So I asked if he would actually wear the robe around the house if I made one like that and got a resounding YES!

*sighs*  Maybe I'll make myself a Morticia like dress/robe and my husband a smoking jacket. My roommate could be the butler and then all I need is "Thing".

I Successfully Made Granny Panties (and other reasons I'm not perfect)

Inspired by Gertie's "Defense Of..." post I decided to splurge on the Nutmeg pattern and make my own dainties. Instead of cutting it out of fine silk FIRST I did the sane thing and made it some out of the 8 yards of white cotton batiste I recently bought (ya know, 'to have on hand'). This turned out to be a GOOD thing as it seems that even with knickers I'm going to have crotch fitting problems. Good to know, considering I'm working on fitting a pair of shorts from a 1950's pattern. I thought I was going to have them done in time for going to the Renaissance Festival this weekend, but that was a pipe dream. Both on getting the shorts done and actually going to festival.

I can probably make some adjustments for a slightly more form fitting fit and less 'smile' in the crotch area (that's where you get those wrinkles that look like smiles... you know?). But I do not think THIS PARTICULAR pair can be rescued in any way to make them not look like glorified white boxers. At most they'll look like boxers with too much lace. Maybe I'll tie-dye them and turn them into hideous lounging shorts for my husband. "Look honey, JUST FOR YOU!!" (No, I don't think he'll buy that either)

Which leads me to UFO box. For the uninitiated this means, in sewing land, 'unfinished objects'. I do not keep a box of small alien ships in my sewing room. Though if I did I could probably make MILLIONS MUAHAHAHAHAAA !! *ahem* So yes, on to The Box.

(For a split second I thought that black thing on top was my cat. She has a habit of looking like a pile of cloth. This makes for scratches in odd places when you reach for/sit on whatever she's on)

This box includes, but its not limited to;

1. Flannel nightgown for my daughter
2. Steampunk vest for my husband (from like, 3 years ago)
3. A organizer thingie as a present to Jennifer (also 3 years ago)
4. A badly fitted pair of trousers that I'll probably just throw away (The pile confirmed not to be my cat).
   
5. A purse
6. and a first attempt at a blouse before I knew how to fit things properly

And NOT in the box is the muslin for my Lady Grey sew-a-long that became more than overwhelming. Then there are the "planned projects". One day I might even post some of my early attempts at making clothes before I knew ANYTHING about fitting, pattern modification or what have you.

But in more recent attempts I'm not entirely happy with, I tried making my TNT cowl neck out of some leftover cotton lawn from my Chantilly. I'm... meh about it. And my lace blouse? The neckline just isn't all that. I could not figure out how I wanted to finish it and I tried sewing on ribbon but its just doesn't feel right. I did wear it out with my black pencil skirt and my husband said it was lovely and no one but me was going to notice.

(wonky neckline...)

But that's not the point, right? Photo evidence of MEH, complete with no makeup and unglamorous backgrounds.

(yes, I used lace to tie my hair back)

The hem is not finished and the purple surging around the neck and sleeves is intentional. Upon seeing it in photos I might like it a smidgen more. Its suppose to go with a cami and the shorts (which will be made from a purple linen blend).

I might give up and just make something for my daughter. Her birthday is rapidly speeding this way.

And I still have my Ready-to-Wear tailoring thingie to do, of which I want the end product just not the journey to get there.