Vogue 2532: Basic Pants

In the never ending attempt to make enough wardrobe pieces so that I can always have a “made by me” outfit to wear to work, I added these simple black linen cropped pants to the line up. The linen is also from work so I’m adding to the challenge to use as many fabrics from work as possible so I can be a walking, talking promotion for our fashion fabrics.

I made this pattern before and wasn’t pleased at all with the results. There were a number of reasons why it didn’t work before. For one I made a size too big and used stretchy fabric, the combination made them saggy and unflattering. The pockets added to the weird fit in the front and I eliminated them this time.

 

I almost used McCall’s 5239 for these because I like the fit on those and the pockets go in nicely without sagging and gapping at the side seams. But they have a narrower leg than I wanted for these so I went with the Vogue pattern. I could’ve combined the two patterns but I was being lazy.

Overall I am happy with the results. The fit is better than the shorts I made previously, I went down a size. I did have to taper off to a 3/8” seam allowance at the sides just to be sure they wouldn’t be too small. Next time I will add a bit to the sides unless I’m using something with some stretch. I’m hoping these will soften with wear and laundering. I don’t intend to iron and starch them to keep them crisp, I want soft linen pants.

The best part about these two pieces is that I made them both in ONE day. I even took my daughters to doctor’s appointments today and still had time to make an outfit. Add in my usual internet distractions and that I got caught up on last week’s “So You Think You Can Dance?” and I’d say this outfit was low on the time commitment scale. WINNING!

McCall’s 6120: Knit Top & Tunic

Same shirt, different day.

I made the navy polyester tunic version last week, I just hadn’t switched my machine back over to coverstitch to finish the hems so it sat waiting to be finished. Today I made the black Tencel short-sleeved version (and the linen pants but that is another post!)

I put up a complete review on Sewing Pattern Review of both versions. Needless to say, I love this pattern! It sews up so fast, especially since I can use the serger for almost all of it. The slowest thing about it is converting my machine back and forth from over-lock to cover-stitch.

We finally received the fashion fabrics at the store last week. I was so excited! There is a collection of the soft Tencel knits in a nice selection of colors. I’m planning to buy some of every color (Except the orange!) the make shirts. This pattern may get pulled out a few more times for them. There is also a ITY print that is pretty wild and fun that would make a cute tunic in this pattern.

McCalls 5591: Pleated Skirt

I finished this skirt this afternoon. It should’ve been done a week ago but we lost power for two days last week and I just didn’t have time to get back to it when the power was finally restored.

I really wanted to love this pattern. I really did. But I don’t. I’m not even sure that a different view, different fabric or slightly larger size would help. I just have to accept that this silhouette isn’t right for me. I wanted something summery and comfortable for work and casual. You know, my usual search for an alternative to shorts in the summer. I do love this fabric. I found it at Joann on sale a few weeks ago. It has a very “Liberty of London” look to it. The colors are fun.

I had no issues with the pattern overall. The way the instructions for the box pleats was written was a little weird but I managed. I also had a bit of a problem with the zipper but that was user error and not the fault of the pattern. I ended up having to take the first zip out and put in a new one because I broke the first one. My second attempt was rushed, annoyed and less than perfect. Oh well.

I will probably still wear this skirt, but maybe not as much as I had thought. When it is 90+ degrees outside with 100% humidity, sometimes you just want cool and as cute as possible and you don’t care if it is the most sophisticated and polished look in the universe. It is seriously more flattering on me than the shorts I made last month! That’s not saying much I know but I’ll take what I can get.

Camping without the tent

Or any of the fun. You may or may not of heard about the fast but wide spread storm that hit the Chicago land area Monday morning. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t, seems like a lot of people missed it. Unless of course you were like us, one of the 800,000+ ComEd customers in the area that lost power and didn’t (or haven’t as the case may be) get it back for over 48 hours. As luck would have it, and it seems this is my lot in life, Steve is once again out of town during the “big one”. I’ve learned to handle emergencies and the bullshit that accompanies them pretty well. He’s missed so many of them I’m not sure that I probably don’t do better alone at this point. I can’t imagine him rolling with no internet, no phones, no air conditioning in 90 degree heat, no water, no tv and no inside cooking for two days and smelly, spoiling food and defrosting freezers. On the other hand we may have been living the Life of Riley at a hotel by 8pm Monday if he’d been here. Who knows.

Funny thing is, if you are sitting in the hot dark with a dwindling smart phone battery, it is everything. But just blocks away the world is going on as if nothing ever happened. When we got news that our power would take days instead of hours to restore I figured the rest of the world was out too. By Tuesday late morning we were given Thursday at midnight as our restore time. That was then that I contacted my boss to see if they had power, yep, they never lost it and didn’t realize that I had been sitting in the dark for over a day. Steve said there was nothing on the national news. I then put the call out over Facebook for help. A friend stepped forward to offer freezer space, another friend invited us over to use his wifi, cook us dinner and let us enjoy a few hours of air conditioned comfort and flushable toilets. Oh and I finally took advantage of that gym membership I pay for every month but never use by going in and showering there Tuesday afternoon.

But we made it through and it wasn’t that bad. It was inconvenient and annoying but survivable. Last night when we returned from my friends’ house and we saw some houses along the way with lights our hopes lifted. But then we turned down our street and they were dashed, the only lights were the little, weak, pitiful solar lights lining flower beds and driveways. Emma and I found our flashlights and headlamps and made our way to bed. I sat up reading my newly recharged Kindle by book light. Then all of a sudden the unmistakable sound of refrigerators clicking on and lights flickering to life! Emma let out a whoop from upstairs and I jumped up to start turning off lights and appliances that had inadvertently gotten turned on over the past two days. Then I went and rinsed out the sink and ran the dishwasher before heading to sleep under a much appreciated ceiling fan.

Today was spent cleaning, vacuuming, doing laundry and running errands, all the things I had planned to do Monday and Tuesday. The weather turned beautiful at about 10:00 last night so today the windows and drapes have been open to let in the cooler, fresher air.  I always think that I can’t appreciate my Dyson vacuum and washer/dryer any more until I can’t use it.  It’s funny how dependent we’ve gotten on modern conveniences. Back during the Y2K brouhaha I smugly thought that with my farm background and camping experience that I’d be able to weather anything that may come. Maybe if I was prepared, but when it literally slams you out of nowhere it is a different story. In all honesty, I’m really not all that prepared to go all Amish. First and foremost, I need a treadle sewing machine.

Let them eat Red Velvet Cake

I confess I am not much of a cook. It’s just not my thing. But I do enjoy baking on occasion. I used to do it a lot more than I have lately. There was a time when my rhubarb pies brought all the boys to the bake sale.

Yesterday was Emma’s 14th birthday and she was having a party. We took her out for breakfast and stopped at one of those hipster cupcake shops and they had a display full of red velvet cupcakes (at $3 each! Ouch.) She decided she’d really just like a nice Red Velvet cake instead. While at the grocery store picking up other party food I quickly used my phone to  Google a recipe and picked up the few ingredients I needed. Steve thought I should just grab a box mix and call it good. But I wanted to do something special. And really making a cake from scratch isn’t all that more difficult than using a mix and the results are so much better. I did have to make a second trip to the store because I didn’t have red food coloring at home like I thought I did and I decided that a nice cake deserved better cake pans than the old rusty ones we were giving over 20 years ago for wedding gifts so I picked up 3 new heavy duty non-stick 9” pans.

I used a recipe from the Food Network website: Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake I can’t praise this recipe enough. It is moist, delicious and really, really RED! Some RVC I’ve seen turn out more reddish brown than a true red. I made a modified cream cheese frosting using 1/3 low fat cream cheese because that is what I had on hand. It was tasty and delicious and not too soft. All of Emma’s guests loved it and I was positive I would find an empty cake stand this morning when I got up but they did leave a few pieces. I had one for breakfast and it was just as good 12 hours later as it was fresh.

Butterick 5451

Misses’ top, tunic and dress: Semi-fitted, wrapped sleeveless top A, tunic B, and A-lined dress C have collar, attached tie ends and narrow hems. I made View A, size 18.

Pattern Sizing:
FF (16-18-20-22) I made 18.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.
Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
Likes: The wide portrait collar adds a nice feature to a basic wrap pattern. I also like that the front is a full wrap and isn't too low cut. The straps are nice and long and leave enough for a nice bow.
Dislikes: None really.
Fabric Used:
Momo by Moda quilting cotton. I wanted to try the shirt length in this pattern before committing to the quantity of fabric needed for the dress length. Even at the short length it takes a lot of fabric because of the size of the collar. I had this fabric in my inventory and I liked the color.  (My daughter doesn't like it because I used this fabric to make her a pencil case last fall and now that is what she associates it with! LOL)
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
None. The only slight alteration I made was to pull the inside edge of the bodice up about a 1/2" at the shoulders to try to circumvent any gaposis.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Yes, I like the pattern and do want to make the dress. I just need to find the right fabric.
Conclusion:
Cute wrap pattern. Pretty easy to sew. Takes a lot more fabric than you think it will because of the size of the collar and the flair of the peplum. I had to piece my fabric for one of the front "skirt" pieces because I was just a bit shy of enough to cut it whole.

Bridge over troubled water

I don’t know what is going on around here but we seem to have the worst luck with water. We’ve put in a new well that has been nothing but a pain in the butt. Seems like just when we start taking indoor plumbing for granted something goes wrong. A month ago we realized that our water softener wasn’t working as intended. This led to getting part of our softener replaced.

Then on Saturday (mid holiday weekend!) I had friends over for pool time and food. I went to flush the good stuff and, nothing. Crap. (No pun intended) Steve was out of town visiting family. I called him. Then I called the well company. I got instructions for resetting the well pump. That worked for about 24 hours. Then it didn’t.

Monday, July 4th, the well guy comes over to try to fix it. It doesn’t work. More crap. He pulls the well. Looks like the pump was either hit by lightning (not out of the realm of possibility) or damaged by an earthquake. I choose to go with the earthquake, makes for a better story.

In order to pull and replace the pump we have to dig up or cut down half of my perennials. Most notably, the daisies and bee balm that just started blooming. The huge clump of pampas grass was also a victim. To top it all off, because we have no water and it has been hot and dry, the rest of the garden and potted plants are really suffering. Piss.

In order to make lemonade out of lemons when I had to cut all my beautiful summery daisies I decided to make a huge bouquet.

It’s not the most elegant bouquet but it is very summery. I love that the daisies and bee balm both bloom on the 4th of July. I think they look like fireworks.

Summer time and the living is easy

Summer is in full swing at the Land of the Shiny Island.

    We’ve had some weird weather here in the middle west. A very wet and mild spring and early summer. But we’ve been lucky the past few weeks. But Saturday was a typical July day. I woke up to all the doors and windows to the porch steamed up because of the humidity vs. air conditioning. Looking out my bedroom door to the pool I encountered this adorable wild child. She was just strolling along casual-like munching on weeds. She didn’t mind when I opened the door to take her picture. This explains why most mornings when I blurry-eyed open the door to let the dogs out they tear off barking their fool heads off.

 

 

Sunday was a beautiful morning. I love having fresh flowers in the house but I haven’t been as successful growing them as I used to be. The cool weather and lots of rain has been good for not only the mosquitos. So many of the flowers were finally reaching their peak.

Hydrangeas are some of my favorites.

 

 

 

The daisies and snapdragons are just getting going.

A bouquet next to the commode always screams “Klass”!

 

 

Who doesn’t love roses? These are from the two new rose bushes I planted around Mother’s Day in the new bed behind the new screened porch. They are David Austin English Roses.