Project, Project on the Wall

Who is the most urgent of them all?

One of the things that I struggle with is keeping track of projects that I've either started or want to do.

I created an inspiration/project board in my craft room and divided it into sections for various types of projects.

For my purposes, I created a section for knitting/crochet, a section for sewing, and a section for other things that don't fall into one of those categories. (Although now that I look at it, it appears some of the projects have wandered out of their categories.  Bad projects.)

I also have room for clippings from magazines or drawings that I want to use for inspiration as well as a place to temporarily put receipts for craft projects in case I need to calculate the cost of a project, make a return, or contact a store about inventory.

It's easy to move the cards around in any order you want and once the project is completed, just remove the card permanently.

Unfortunately, I've been adding more cards than I've been removing lately.  I see a few things on my board that need some time and attention.

Now I no longer forget about projects I want to do.  But I do apparently still ignore them.

Two Wrongs Make a Right

Who doesn't have t-shirts in their closet that they don't wear for one reason or another? This one has a stain, that one is too short, there's a hole in the front of the other one. You know the drill, I'm sure.

I have a few of those shirts, and it occurred to me that I could make one good thing out of two not so good things.

Enter Exhibit A (too short) (By the way, the necklace that JoAnn is wearing isn't my taste, but it was one that I gave my mom when I was much younger. She always thought it was the coolest thing - she was a professional seamstress - so JoAnn wears it proudly in her memory.)



And Exhibit B (what was I thinking - every time I wore this I had to answer questions about what it meant and besides, I don't scrapbook anymore so it was rather irrelevant to my current life.)


I usually layered the two shirts, but the constant pulling and tugging just wasn't working for me since the white t-shirt is REALLY short.

Enter my unlimited imagination and limited sewing skills.

I cut five inches off of the bottom of the black shirt and stitched it to the bottom of the white shirt. There were a couple of ways that I could have done this, but since I am essentially lazy (just keeping it real here), I simply stitched over the double stitching at the hem of the white shirt, catching the top of the cut off section of the black shirt.



Hmmm. Good, but still not quite right. Now it just looks like I added a band of knit fabric around the bottom of a white t-shirt (imagine that!)

On to the neck. I really didn't need any extra neckline since this is actually one of the few shirts I own that don't expose my boobs to the entire world. However, I thought it would add a little bit of continuity to the layered look. I removed the tags on both necklines to reduce the bulk before stitching (again, right over the double stitching of the neckline on the white t-shirt).


Yes, much better.

But it still could be improved.

Wash, rinse, and repeat the above steps with the sleeves. That served two purposes because the sleeves on the white t-shirt were just a little too short to cover up my flabby arms for my taste anyway.

Much, much better.

There you have it - the no cost, low effort way to expanding your wardrobe and making more room in your closet.

Lazy and cheap. It fits me to a tee.

Sew and Grow

First the sew.

I whipped up a couple of summer tunics from Simplicity 3624. (I made the 4th view - View D - but lengthened it by about 5".) (You can click on any of the photos for a larger view)

Other than being a little bit fussy at the shoulder seams, they were a fast and simple sew. I had the black and white fabric, which was a dream to sew with, and I picked up the stretch brown knit for $1.00 per yard at Walmart. I don't like to spend too much on fabric unless I'm making something special since I tend to wear something for one or two seasons and then pass it on. I'll be making this pattern again (maybe one of the other versions with a less fussy shoulder seam construction) because it's a flattering shape and fit.

Although can I just ask "what the heck is up with all of these super low cut shirts?" I thought it was just ready to wear, but every pattern I pick up lately definitely wants to display some serious boobage.

(JoAnn, as usual, is looking a little rounder than I would prefer. She really needs to go on a diet sometime soon.)

Now for the grow.

A big "screw you!" to all of you who had doubts in my gardening abilities or in my homemade topsy turvy planters. It was only a matter of a day or two and all of the leaves on my plants turned upwards and now they are growing happily upside down.

In fact, I have a few green peppers already getting large enough to start dreaming about how I am going to use them and tomatoes on each of my three different tomato varieties.

Green Peppers

Cherry Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes

Beefsteak Tomatoes

So ha! I can do anything! I could probably even garden, sew, knit and balance a pizza on my head at the same time.

Overachiever

I don't know whether I'm an overachiever or just hopelessly out of touch with reality. But when it comes to projects, it's a classic case of "my eyes are bigger than my stomach." Or rather "my big ideas are greater than my time and talent."

Regardless, I've got a few things on my needles - both the knitting needles and the sewing machine needles.


First I should probably introduce you to JoAnn. She'll be my stand in for those bloated and bad hair days. You'll probably see a lot of her.



My first project is one that is from Interweave Knits magazine and is called the Bonsai Tunic.

This is what it should look like when it's done.



I have most of the back completed so far, and I'm hoping to finish this by the end of May.

(JoAnn looks like she needs to lose some weight - her butt looks a little big in this sweater.)

I love this little vest because it can be worn with a short or long sleeve shirt underneath it so it should span pretty well across the seasons. It is also my first attempt at charted knitting, so now I'm one step closer to being a "real Knitter." With a capital K. (I did take quite a bit of teasing from Vern for making it in almost the exact same color as the model in the magazine. What can I say? It looks good in that color. . . ).

A couple of knitting projects that I'm dying to start are the Waterlily Top (also from Interweave)

and the Soleil tank top from Knitty.com.

On the sewing side of things, I'm doing a Trash the Stash project and plan to use, sell, or otherwise eliminate all of my fabric stash. I have my fabrics divided into summer and winter fabrics, so I'm working on the summer fabrics right now. I figure if I use it all up, I can buy more of the new fabrics out there and actually have room for it! My goal is to use it with patterns that I already have or that I find online so that I don't have to buy more "stuff" in order to get rid of the old stuff.

The sewing projects are mostly quick projects, so I'm actually hoping to have all of them completed by the end of this month also.

The first project is to make an apron out of this vintage tablecloth. I'm planning to use a pattern from In Stitches by Amy Butler. I love wearing aprons - they make me feel all Holly Homemaker.

I'm also going to participate in a sew-along from Sew Mama Sew and make a vintage style smock.

This is a 3-week long sew along, so I'm going to try to do a little each week as it is presented. It's a pretty easy pattern, so I shouldn't have any problem keeping up with this one. I've got a couple of cute fabrics in my stash that I have in mind for this.

(Gee, with all the apron/smock talk, you would think that I cook and clean a lot. Not true. I just like to look like I do.)

Finally, I ran across a super easy tunic in the most recent issue of Threads. It's simply made from rectangles. I'm going to make it in a basic black stretch fabric so that I can wear it with all my t-shirts this summer. This one should whip up in no time.

Whew. I'm tired already and I haven't even cleaned up my sewing room so that I can get started.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, send help. Or Martha Stewart.

How Do I Hate Thee; Let Me Count the Ways

Since the very first day we moved into this house, we have found a 100 ways to curse the former owners, both under our breath and out loud. They left such a mess here that it has taken us literally four years to get through it. Every time we throw out something they left here or some mess that we have had to undo and deal with, we give them a little "f-you" as we put it in the trash.

We always knew that they fixed up this house just to sell it. And by "fixed up" I mean covered things up and got the hell out of here.

The latest find lies under the sparkly popcorn ceiling. I could have forgiven them their horrendously bad taste had the ceiling been done when the house was originally built or even into the 1970s. However, we determined pretty quickly as I scraped off mounds of wet "popcorn" (also known as Styrofoam balls) and found that it had most definitely been done only a few months before we purchased the house. Not only that, we also figured out the reason - to hide a bad patch job where they replaced part of the ceiling.

What we don't know is why that part of the ceiling was replaced. What we do know is that it was a very bad patch job and that they also didn't use any sort of primer or paint and applied the popcorn texture directly to the raw drywall.

It just made an already messy and labor intensive job that much harder and messier. And now we have to wonder if there is a deeper problem that we need to investigate before we go further into finishing this room.

Meanwhile, with Christmas fast approaching, I'm multi-tasking. Or at the very least, my sewing machine is helping me multi-task.

I'm working on a special project for my Scottish father. I should finish it tonight, so stay tuned for the final project.