A blog give-away!

No, sadly I'm not giving anything away. That would be cool.

But maybe this is better because Jessica over at one of my favorite blogs is!

I've only recently discovered the world of blogging but already I have favorites and Chronically Vintage is one of them. And right now she's running a give-away for a set of the cutest vintage Jessie Willcox Smith cards. They are too cute for words. Honestly!

So go take a look at her blog at http://www.chronicallyvintage.com/2009/11/chronically-vintage-is-giving-away.html
For the give-away and then treat yourself - hang around and read some more. Her site is wonderful.

ta!

Finally! Some sewing and the dog's coat

So I finally had some quiet time yesterday between kids and errands and got some sewing done!

Well, no actual sewing yesterday but I got C's pyjamas totally cut out and ready for the serger. What a relief to actually get this started. I so don't want to be sewing the day of Christmas Eve. Not that I've ever done that! oh no, never! ;-)

So first, here's a pic of the pattern. I used it last year too and it still fits. That will help it go together quickly.

The pants are long but C says she likes them that way so I didn't shorten them.
Here's the material we picked out a while ago. It was long before the Christmas season so I think it was from last year. I like it anyway though. Especially since it was on sale! LOL

Yesterday Fabricland had one of their usual sales on so I went to get some stuff and see if I could find buttons. Here's what I found.
C really liked them. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture but they're very "warm" feeling with a bit of sparkle. Nice.

 Of course I"m not just working on one set of pj's but two so here's a pic of the material for number 2.

 Also bought at Fabricland and of course on sale. What can I say? I'm a single mom and I'm Scottish. Not "on sale" is very rare around our house!

It's not a very nice day weather wise today but being the weekend and blah leads to another picture; Scooby in his coat.

Isn't he cute?!?!?

I can see by looking at in the picture that part of the problem is that his thick neck has made the belly band sit a bit farther back than it should. I shall have to re-draft the pattern a bit to fix that. It's also not quite long enough in the body. It looks like it should be in the picture, but it's not trust me.

Well that's it for today. I have to make dinner soon and then maybe some more work on pj's? Let's hope so!

Belated Thanksgiving Wishes

I cannot believe that I forgot yesterday was T'day in the US!!!

I'm so sorry. Can I plead temporary insanity brought on by pending vacation? LOL

You see, yesterday was my last day at work before taking off for (hopefully) 5 weeks! Yes, if all works out I will not be back at work until January 2010. And that takes a lot of work to get ready for.

So, my apologies to all. I hope you had a great, safe holiday and you had lots to be thankful for.

TTFN !

Wednesday Already?

Well, my plan with blogging although vague, I'm pretty sure included posting once a week, probably on the weekends.

As you can see this weekend.....it didn't happen.

Probably because I got no real sewing done. :-(

I did get some mindless prep work done though so that's good. Both sets of flannel for Christmas pj's are ironed and ready.

Christmas pj's are a tradition I started when C was .....maybe 2? So 11 years or so now. I actually got the idea from a book. The girls each get a set of new pj's (or nightgown or whatever) and they get to open them on Christmas Eve.

It's silly really as they pick out the material and now the patterns and yet, somehow, it satisfies the need for something to open early. Go figure.

I did get *something* done though which was good. I finished spinning up the Mulled Wine I got in September. I got it plied up too. Amazingly enough that means that I have spun and plied everything I've bought this year! And stuff from last year too. Isn't that amazing?!?!? Trust me, it is. Especially since I've gotten stuff at 3 events this year.

Here's a pic of the spun and plied Mulled Wine.

I don't know if you can really see the colours but it's gorgeous. Mostly a deep red with the odd bit of purple and then some hints or orange (which really kinda spun out).

As usually I have no idea what I will do with it. Maybe mittens? Anyone have any ideas?

Well, time to sign off, I have to get a good nights rest as tomorrow is my last day before vacation. I'm home for the first bit and then it's off to Disney! Just over a week away. I'm finally getting excited. Wheeeeeeee

Wednesday Scenery

Today started with some new scenery and the kind I don't like.
SNOW! This was my yard this morning when I got up. SNOW!!!

We're not supposed to get snow this early in the year. I still have roses blooming for goodness sake! See?

They're small (and blurry) but they're there.

Poor confused little roses.

You know the reason I never moved back to Ontario (or NS or NB or Quebec either for that matter!) is because snow and I don't really get along. I love it....on the mountains! LOL. Not on my driveway or the road or while I'm driving!

On the other hand today I also saw a bear heading up the road on the way to work and a deer on the way home.

Almost makes up for that .....snow

Sometimes I love my drive to work

Today was one of those days!

Why? Because as I came over the bridge I had my first swan sighting of the season. I live and work in a fairly rural area and every year we have swans come. I'm not sure where there are the rest of the year, but they're lovely to see every fall for the first time.

On my drive to work I have also seen; wild rabbits, hoards of frogs, deer (one so close to the road that if I had been in the passengers seat and rolled down the window I could have touched it!), bears (singly and Mamma with cubs) and a fearless coyote.

We are also blessed with eagles regularly. I get to see them in trees at the side of the road and soaring high above. Sometimes so high you can barely see them.

Wildlife; it's one of the perks of the job.

No Sewing Sunday

Lot's of sewing planned for yesterday and not a bit of it done :-(

But I did get more spinning done, so the day wasn't a total loss. I bought some pretty pencil roving at my last Spin-In in September and I'm almost done spinning it. Which is pretty amazing since it's a 1/2 lb (I think that's the biggest lot I've ever bought) and I only bought it in September. I have no idea of the breed of sheep this came off, it's from Louet and says 100% wool top. Not very helpful huh?

Oh well, doesn't matter, it's still a nice roving to spin and that's what counts. It's a lovely colour too. It's called Mulled Wine. It's a deep red with some purple and bits of yellow. The yellow is pretty bright in the roving but muted in the spun yarn. I like it like that personally but I might have been disappointed if I wanted that bright contrast.

If I get a couple of quiet evenings this week I might even get this done and then wonders of wonders, I will have spun up BOTH batches of wool I bought in September. Spun up in the same year?!?!?! That's a bloody miracle! Now if only I could actually get something made with it. LOL But I guess for me, the fun is in the spinning. Hmmmmm

A Busy Saturday

It's feeling like it's been a long day today. I'm not sure why, but as I reflect...yeah, I've gotten a fair bit done today
First yesterday; while watching Ghost Whisperer I finished up the spinning and the plying of the lilac BFL. This is a pic of it spun up and waiting on my big wheel. I say big not because of it's footprint but the orifice and bobbin size. Huge compared to my other wheel. My spinwell has a really small orifice and that can be a problem for me as I like to spin thick a lot.

I'm not sure what I'm going to make with this but it's destined to be something to cuddle in! This wool is sooooooo soft.

This morning I started working on the hood for S's coat. Here's a pic of the finished coat from this morning.

This was part of S's Hallowe'en costume (she was a police officer) but I have to admit it didn't have all the buttons on for trick or treating. Which is pretty typical of me! LOL

It's made from Kwik Sew 2749 which is an older pattern that I bought from Shiela at Out of the Ashes

http://www.risingfeenix.com/

I had known that I wanted a pea coat style for S for her costume but couldn't find one. Lucky for me I stumbled upon Out of the Ashes. Not only did she have what I needed, she was wonderful to order from, she shipped to Canada and the pattern when it came was wrapped so wonderfully it was like getting a gift in the mail!

But the pattern had no hood and here that's a necessity. So I started mucking about with ideas in my head this week. Some things I decided are; it needs to be removable so I need to figure out how to attach it after the fact - buttons and elastic are what I've decided upon,  2nd I want to make it warm but not heavy so wool outer and polar fleece inner, 3rd,  I have no pattern so I'm going to have to figure something out. Yikes!

I started with a pattern from a Hallowe'en costume with a "head" but a trial of that led to the discovery that it really wasn't deep enough for a hood. Thought #1 down the drain.

Then I decided to let my brain work a little longer while I did some web surfing and some reading and then shopping. The surfing led to - you need a curved bottom edge, but no patterns. The reading led to - I don't like the hood designs in any of my sewing books that I can find. The shopping led me to 2 Burda patterns; one with a hood. hmmmmm, let's see what I can do with that.

So I did. I traced out the smallest size, reshaped the front edge (it wrapped about the front of the coat more than I needed), trimmed some off the top, and then some more before I was happy with.

Turns out that it was a good thing I trimmed - the pattern I ended up with *just* fit in the piece of black polar fleece I found. And people say keeping the left-over material is silly. hmpf! I'll have them know that material was left over from C's FIRST Hallowe'en costume.....12 years ago!

I basted that up and it looks okay so the wool is now cut and everything is basted together. Tomorrow I hope to see where the elastic loops need to go for the buttons and then get it finished in time for Monday and walking to school. It's Monday so it will probably rain and hoods are nice when it rains.

That's it for tonight. The dog is walked the dishes are put away and it's time for bed.

TTFN

A Quiet day off

Nothing special got accomplished today although I did get a couple of little jobs off the to-do list.

Another adjustment was made to the dog's coat. Hopefully this will be the last one as, honestly, fixing stuff is my least favorite type of sewing. I have already put a buckle across the front as the velcro just wasn't cutting it and now a buckle and some elastic is in the belly band. I hope that will help until such time as I can find the pattern and make Scooby a new bigger coat. Although it's a large this one just doesn't seem to be big enough; especially around the neck.
Do dogs get the thick neck that horses get if they're not neutered? We got Scooby when he was (supposedly) 2 and he wasn't neutered so ....would that make his neck thicker than normal? Thicker than the pattern would have expected?
If anyone knows, feel free to enlighten me!

I also got the dress cover done for C's dress that we found. It's a gorgeous wedding dress we found at a local store. It's in great shape and they only wanted $50 for it!
Compare that to an older dress with stains and damaged beading at another thrift store in town - $125!!!!!
We got a steal and we know it!
Because of that I wanted to protect it so it now has a zippered cover that used to be a sheet. LOL It's nothing fancy, just a sheet sewed up the side with a zipper in the bottocm and a fitted top to go down over the hanger. I'm not sure what we're going to use the dress for; Hallowe'en maybe? But we want it to be nice when we decide.

No other sewing done today but I did get some spinning done. I haven't spun in a while so it was nice to sit down, watch the rest of NCIS and NCIS: LA and have a quiet spin. The girls were downstairs so it was the perfect relaxing moment. The wool is a lovely lilac and mauve BFL that I bought in April at a local event. We went looking for some fibre for S's rug that I was making and I couldn't resist the colour and softness of this bundle. I bought the one she had all weighed out and the rest of it before she even had it ready for sale. LOL
I'm spinning it rather thick and I have no idea what it's going to end up being, but here's a look at it on the wheel.

It's just about time to walk the dog, we'll see if I can get a picture of his fixed coat. TTFN

Rememberence Day

To the Soldiers that fought,

To the soldiers that still fight,

To their families that have one of the hardest jobs ever;

Thank You!

A sewing weekend

I actually managed to get some sewing done this weekend. Yay me!
I was worried that after the big rush of sewing I did before Hallowe’en finishing things up, I would be burnt out (I’ll post about that later, to catch up). And with the list of stuff I have to do…that would be bad! That would be very bad! LOL

But not so and I’m very happy about that. Friday (I only work a 4 day week so Friday counts as part of my weekend) I started sewing C’s (DD1's) pajama pants that she was supposed to get last year for Christmas. I love sewing pj pants! They go together so quickly and are so gratifying. Don’t ask me why they didn’t get done for Christmas, I honestly can’t remember except that maybe I was burnt out from Hallowe’en then too?

Ah, doesn’t matter why, just matters that they’re done now and out of my “Sewing To Do” book. They got finished (just the elastic needed to be fitted) on Saturday and have been worn ever since.

They are about a foot too long but C says “they cover my feet and keep them warm so I don’t have to wear socks”. Teen logic – gotta love it (or go crazy!).

Sunday the girls and I took off with a couple of their friends to the Fun Park. I have to take something to do when we go because not a lot of the games excite me. Usually I take something to read and something to do with my hands when my brain gets tired of reading or I can’t concentrate because of the noise and music. (The Fun Park is never a quiet place!) This time I took along my newest spindle and some fibre I had bought at the last Spin-In I attended. I didn’t get anything spun though; the chairs in the seating area weren’t conducive to such a large spindle. I will remember that and bring along a smaller one next time.

I also brought along S’s (DD2) pea coat from Hallowe’en. It is now her fall coat for real life (what can I say? I like to make things with more than one use.) I sat and sewed on the last 4 buttons so now the coat is officially a double breasted coat. I didn’t have time to get the buttons on for Hallowe’en but that’s typical of me; there’s always *something* that isn’t quite done when it comes to trick-or-treating. This year it was buttons (for S) and a covering (shawl or whatever you want to call it) for C, usually it’s hems LOL.

That's it for today, more about Hallowe'en sewing later.

Welcome to my first blog post

• Welcome one and all that have found my little blog. This is my first blog and my first post but I hope you bear with me and have as much fun with my blog as I have had with others that I have found.
  
• First a little bit about me; I'm a 40+ single Mom of 2 girls whom I adore, one 10, one 13. I'm lucky enough to be Canadian (hey, I love my country, what can I say?) and even luckier these days, to be working in a small library. I'm trained as a Library technician (I hear it's Technologist now, but...whatever!) and I've worked in the same system for almost 20 years now. I love it. Being a Librarian in a small library means I get to do it all; from cataloguing to cleaning out the paper jams.
  
• In my spare time I do many things including read (haha) sew and spin. I know how to knit and crochet, but don't do either well so you won't see much of that here. Rather, my purpose her is to talk about my sewing.
  
• I sew all sorts of things and love them all. Craft stuff, clothes (mostly for my kids), costumes (a lot of which go on to be regular clothes) and historical clothing. Recently I've become interested in two new areas; Steampunk and Vintage.