Tag: sewing

Monthly Review
Gardening · Monthly Review · Sewing

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

Hello again! This month has been a strange month with getting sick, a blown tire, and many, many social events. We sometimes look at each other and say “did we really plan this much?!” It’s nice to see friends and do fun things, but I am grateful for the chance to just relax tomorrow. I do have some sewing and maybe even some canning plans.

Fancy was with the dogsitter this weekend, as we went to the Toledo Zoo with some friends. We got periodic dog pictures and she looked very content. This was the look I got all week from Fancy when I tried to go sew in the basement.

I made sure to walk her a bunch this week and tried to get some longer walks in. We went for two walks a mile or more and this was her face then.

Then, of course, this was her when we got home.

Silly dog. 🙂

I wore new shorts to the Toledo Zoo this weekend and since we had gone with my sewing friend, she was wearing shorts, a tank top, and a hat she had made herself! The shorts and tank had jungle animals and the hat had sea creatures, so she matched the environment very well. Here is a picture of my shorts fabric. They are very wrinkled from wearing them and are in the wash, so I don’t have a better one yet. (This was taken before we dropped Fancy off on Friday, hence the tiny dog paw in the corner.)

They are Bermuda length and a very light cotton I got at the fabulous discount store. I have about a yard left and need to decide if I want a tank top out of it, or a little cotton skirt. They have a blue cotton lycra yoga style waistband and were extremely comfortable for walking around all day in the 80-90 degree heat.

Here are a couple of other pictures from the zoo. Notice that there don’t appear to be any penguins or flamingos missing… 😉

It was a very fun day and I’m glad we could go. I have never been to that zoo and the Husband had been when he was small, but not recently.

Now for the review part of the post.

I did finish two things from the UFO box; a bag for my friend and the blue floral shirt.

The owl cardigan is done too and I wear it a lot, but it’s hard to take a picture of it, since the owl is on the back. I didn’t finish the blue striped skirt and don’t quite have enough material for the star tank top, but am working on what to do. I think I’ll pair it with a plain black back and go with that.

When I pulled out the blue stripes, I wasn’t sure that I wanted it to be a skirt. I realized I didn’t have a lot of colors to pair with it and now am conflicted. The picture makes it look like a darker blue, but it’s actually very bright. It is also more see through than I realized, so I might have to line it.

I’m still thinking about what else I could make with it if it’s not going to be a skirt.

I did make 8 pairs of the Linen Loungers, plugging a huge hole in my wardrobe. I have consistently worn a pair of them at some point during the day every day this week. There were two that I didn’t blog about, both sleep shorts. One has sharks, made at the beginning of Shark Week, and the other pair has yoga frogs. 🙂

So overall from this one pattern, I made two pairs of shark shorts, the yoga frogs, the plaid Bermudas, purple linen shorts with fancy pockets, the grey/teal/purple with lace, Minion sleep shorts, and flamingos. Whew. That’s a lot of shorts! It’s been so hot lately though that if I’m at home, they are all I want to wear. I had no sleep shorts too, just had been wearing my normal bike shorts, which then caused problems when I had no clean shorts to wear under skirts or dresses. It’s nice to have fun sleep shorts! The Husband can shake his head all he wants, but he also likes his Minion shorts I made him last month, so he really doesn’t mind.

I made two other items specifically for Shark Week this year, a shirt and a pair of every day shorts. Here is my shark week wardrobe! I enjoyed wearing them all and surprisingly, no one really commented! My fashion sense must be either pretty cool, or pretty weird, so no one really wants to say anything. 🙂

I kept thinking I had made more things this month, but I think I was remembering mending some things and doing some organization. Only 11 things got made. My brain seems to want to make 20 every month, but I had to tell it to chill out. 11 is fine. 🙂

The garden is growing well, although I did have some blossom end rot again. We’re trying to be very consistent with watering and it’s been rainy the last little while, so I’m hoping that helps. Here’s some garden pictures. These tomatoes are still orange on the bottom.

There was a bee in the zucchini blossom.

The peppers look about the same still. I’m going to harvest some peppers to use for salsa for our Big Summer Blowout Party. Hopefully I’ll have a few tomatoes to throw in it too!

Foodwise, it was a very blah month. I didn’t make a lot of new recipes. I was better about getting pictures, even if I though it wasn’t a new or exciting recipe. We did eat a lot of garden lettuce and still have some to eat up this week. When I went through my blog posts, I think I must have missed a recipe post, because I didn’t have much going on. Both the Husband and I seem to be in a food funk. Normally it’s only one or the other, so it’s enough tougher when it’s both. We’ve also been out with friends for a lot of the weekends, which tends to be when I do a lot more new cooking.

I made 14 recipes total… That’s so low! Out of those recipes, 6 were new recipes. Luckily, all of the new ones were hits. I only had one miss, the manacotti which didn’t cook.

The Husband’s favorite was the Turkey Parm.

I did use a new recipe from Voracious by Cara Nicolleti- The Olive Oil and Yogurt Cake.

It was pretty good and I ate it for breakfast. It had less sugar and was almost on the edge of savory rather than sweet. It had citrus in it, but you could definitely taste the olive oil. The Husband didn’t eat any. The olive oil weirded him out. I ate it with cream when I wanted sweet and yogurt when I wanted breakfast. It was pretty dense, with a crispy outside and tender inside. The citrus didn’t come through very much.

This post is getting super long, so I won’t type out the whole recipe, but if you want it, I can do it at a later time, or you could visit your local library! 🙂

Overall, I think my sewing is growing by leaps and bounds, but my cooking has fallen by the wayside. I think I’m a little burned out and don’t really want to plan things. It’s very confusing. I think I might go through my cookbooks and see which ones I haven’t used yet and decide if they should really be on my shelf if I don’t get excited to use them. This coming week is fully booked and I think I have mostly late evenings, so I’m going to see when and what I can prep ahead.

Goals for the month:

Food:

  • Go through cookbooks and weed them out.
  • Meal Plan consistently.
  • Try 1-2 new dishes (main, side, dessert). I keep getting stuck on just having dinner new and I can do other things to count towards this goal.
  • Use garden produce and herbs.

Sewing: 

  • Work on October Bellydance costume.
  • Sew/Finish one UFO.
  • Catalog fabric.
  • Go through craft books and weed them out.

Garden:

  • Keep things alive.
  • Use produce and herbs.
  • Develop canning list and plan.

Wow! That post got a lot longer than I thought it would. Thanks for sticking with me! I hope you enjoyed the pictures from the zoo!

Shorts Extravaganza
Sewing

Shorts Extravaganza

LSiehLeave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I have been too hot lately. My shorts pattern has been put to very good use. I made 8 pairs over the past month or so. I might be slowing down now, but it was so exciting to have a pattern I could actually use and feel good in.

Fancy is also excited about my shorts… Well, not really, she’s excited that I’ve been walking her. Here’s a picture for proof.

Such a good dog!

Here are the latest shorts I have made. Both have pockets. Both are a little wrinkly from being worn or washed.

These are a lighter cotton. Lace edges on pockets and legs. White cotton lycra band because it’s so comfy!

The next pair was made from a remnant of purple linen that I’ve had for a while. This is also the only pair that is actually made from the called for fabric of linen. 🙂

Back pockets:

Black accent fabric with sewing notions and a black double brushed polyester for a waistband.

They are super comfy. I got the wrong color thread by a lot. It was a bright purple instead of the dark purple, so I used black. It blends in surprisingly well. 🙂

I completed one of the projects I set out to finish this month. This blue shirt gave me so many problems.

You may remember seeing this before… Maybe with a sleeve protruding from the neckline?

That’s the one. You may have noticed that it now has no sleeves. Well.. Here’s a funny story. I cut off the sleeve, merrily thinking about how to get it all pretty again, held it up to realize that I had actually cut off the sleeve that was attached to the correct place! The one at the neck was just taunting me… So I chopped it off and decided it needed to be sleeveless. Take that shirt!

I used bands to finish it off and then added gold stretch lace to the bottom. Now I can wear it with pride. I did discover that I need to make the sleeves a little less wide at the shoulder and raise the armscythe.

I used the pattern, which is the Perfect T by Pamela’s Patterns, to make a shirt with a woven front and a knit back, sleeves, and bands.

It’s so cute and I made the modifications to make it fit me perfectly. I like being able to make things work the way I want.

Although it wasn’t one of the two projects I named to finish, this bag was in my UFO bin. I owed it to a friend for cutting my hair last summer and finally was able to finish it for her.

Here’s a close up.

It has five pockets on the outside and a recessed zipper. It has yellow stripes on the inside to make it nice and light. I was super proud of my topstitching, but was really rushed for time and didn’t actually get pictures. 🙂

I have a couple of sweaters planned to make for fall and have decided I need to sew a lot faster to keep up with my stash. I also need to go through all my clothes and continue to be fairly ruthless with what I am not currently wearing or want to replace. Wish me luck!

Where Did My Sewing Go?
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Where Did My Sewing Go?

LSiehLeave a comment

I’m so confused. I swear I made more things than I seem to be able to find. I’ve been late all this week and our weekend was pretty busy, so it feels like I’m missing projects!

Fancy may have a part in this. I’ve gotten this sad, neglected look multiple times in the past week when I’ve tried to get up to sew.

Now how am I supposed to resist that face? 🙂 Of course, it’s also been hard to be in the basement when my lungs are having fits.

I have been doing some mending, which might explain why I’ve sewn a bunch, but don’t have many new projects. Both the bird and the dog leggings popped stitches, so I had to repair some curves. I also had to cut off the band for the owl tunic and redo it, so it is now done, but it did take a lot of time.

Ha! i just figured it out. Two of the three projects had major mistakes that I had to redo before I could be done. My seam ripper and I are buddies.

For example:

Adorable, right? So this would be what happens when you put a purple fabric in and it leaks all over.

Separate your colors, kids! I’m going to get a color catcher and re-wash. Luckily, it’s not completely over the whole thing, just patches. The Husband doesn’t need purple Christmas pjs…

I also repeated my new trick of sewing a sleeve to the neck area on my shark shirt.

I was almost late to work because I had to unpick it and lost track of time. It’s now fixed. This is the Perfect T pattern. When I make this again, I’ll grade out the front or do a Full Bust Adjustment. It pulls a little. The pattern is meant for knits, so it is a little strange with woven. It has a blue cotton lycra back. I enjoy it. 🙂 I’m determined to use all this fabric.

I have a dark blue dress planned with a bow on the back made out of this, but need to figure out the skirt as I have not quite enough fabric. 🙂 Everyone needs shark clothing for Shark Week, right? (On a side note, I’m pretty sure the Husband really does love me. He’s actively encouraging me in my quest for all the sharks!)

I also made yet another pair of Linen Loungers. The main mistake on this one was to sew the pockets in backwards, so that the curve went towards quite the wrong direction…

It would have been very inappropriate… 😳 I, of course, didn’t realize it until I had sewn the sides together and put them on to try the fit. I had to unpick everything and redo the pockets and the sides. Then while sewing the waistband, I ran out of bobbin thread and didn’t realize it until halfway around. 🙄

There’s a good chance I shouldn’t try to sew while sick…

Luckily, something worked out at least. I made these workout pegs yesterday and wore them today while at the mall with Fancy.

I plan to wear them tomorrow for a Zumba class too. We’ll see how they hold up. They are quite thick material wise and didn’t shift today at all.

Speaking of Fancy, we got her a sprinkler on Sunday, one of those ring ones. She was all excited at first and then freaked put and huddled away from it. She normally loves flowing water and will chase the hose for hours, but this one she didn’t like.

It’s been super hot, so we thought that she might enjoy a sprinkler. We might get her a little pool instead.

Well, I am going to not attempt to sew tonight. This week might have taught me a lesson about late night sewing. I hope your night is relaxing and refreshing. Feel free to tell me any mistakes you’ve made this week, so I can feel like I’m not alone. 🙂

Why I Sew- Shark Shorts Edition
Life Posts · Sewing

Why I Sew- Shark Shorts Edition

LSieh2 Comments

I’ve been running around for the past half hour making up songs about shark shorts. I don’t know how the Husband puts up with me…

To back up a little, I saw this fabric a while ago and said to myself “I neeeeeeeeed this to make shorts for Shark Week.” Then I texted the Husband and my sewing buddy and said the same thing. Much to my surprise, they both enthusiastically agreed. Then I waited for payday, the fabric sold out on all my websites and I finally found it online at a Michigan store. It cost a little more, but these shorts and I needed to be together. Lesson learned, buy the fabric! So here are the shorts:

They are a lighter quilting cotton with a navy blue cotton trim that I bought a few weeks ago, originally to use for something else. It matched perfectly though. It’s little round shapes with a band on each edge. They have back pockets, a fold over yoga waistband, and are just the right length. Next time I’ll move the pockets closer into the center line, but they fit very nicely.

These are the same pattern as my flamingo and minion shorts from last week: Linen Loungers by Patterns for Pirates.

I had a bit of a revelation about shorts and myself while getting ready for the concert last night. Ready for it? Here it is! No one but me, cares what I wear! I was so hung up on the fact that the store shorts didn’t fit, and squeezed everything, and looked like I should be 80 while wearing them that I forgot I might just be wearing the wrong style. These have a built-in hip curve and make me look cute, rather than emphasizing the things I don’t like about my body. I seriously have not worn shorts in over 5 years because I just was so self-conscious.

The other thing I appreciate about this pattern is that although I can wear them for sleep shorts, with the right details and fabrics, they don’t actually look like sleep shorts. Minions, yes, sharks, no. Details matter.

I posted a picture of myself looking nervous, but wearing the flamingo shorts in one of my sewing groups and the response was affirming. I’m still working on accepting and changing the things I need to change, but I can’t let it stop me from trying new styles or from being comfortable.

It made me really think about how I need to change my thinking. How can I sit with clients, especially teen girls, and make all these statements about acceptance and self-esteem, if I am not willing to work on my own?

So I plan to make more cotton shorts and experiment with wearing them. For now, my sharks will definitely be my favorite!

In other sewing related news, my Mom challenged me a little on my UFO boxes and recommended that I start each month by pulling a project out and committing to finishing that project during the month. I think it’s an excellent plan. I’m cheating a little this month and fixing a couple of wonky new projects, like the shirt with the sleeve where the neck should be…

I’m also going to fix this sweet Cocoon Cardigan that I messed up the band on. It has an owl appliqué on the back and is made from black double brushed poly. It’s very lightweight. 😍

It’s going to be so sweet when it’s done!

Finishing this skirt is on my list. It’s a perfect, flowy cotton. It needs a waistband and a lining.

This star fabric used to be a faux wrap skirt that was too small. I need to see if I can line up the seams to make shorts or a tank top.

I found this skirt at the local thrift store and should probably be trying to find some more of my fabrics or materials from there. Now that I kind of know how to fit things, I can use those cheaper materials to try techniques out. A couple of the thrift stores have full sari sets and some of them carry fabric pieces. It’s all hit or miss, of course, but it never hurts to look.

You may have noticed a sudden influx of stars on my clothing. 🙂 For some reason, stars are making me quite happy right now. I’m alright with that, there are some adorable starry prints out there.

Speaking of stars, I should probably head to bed to dream under the stars. Have a good night!

Monthly Review
Gardening · Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup · Sewing

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

Well, hello! It’s hard to believe that it’s time for a review again, but I guess it is. My garden has exploded in the past month with all sorts of new growth. I had a salad made with lettuce from the garden just yesterday!

I picked some of both, buttercrunch and romaine. It was delicious! I’ve been picking the basil for caprese salads a lot too. I can’t wait to have homegrown tomatoes and basil for it.

My zucchini plant has taken over part of the garden. (Pictures withheld as to not frighten my father…)  I have five blossoms on it. I may be giving away zucchini shortly. 🙂 I think part of the plant ended up in every picture I took of the pepper box. Except the lettuce.

The tomatoes have absolutely taken over their box. I had to find some sticks to stake up the plants. The Early Girls are huge!

Mr. Stripey is holding his own in the corner.

I have some tomatoes started on the plants, but they are hard to get pictures of, as they are small and green. It’s exciting to see them growing though. So far, no sign of blossom end rot, which was the bane of my existence the last couple of years. I think the garden soil is keeping everything much more stable, moisture wise.

The peppers plants have a few flowers on them and seem to be holding up well, despite the encroaching zucchini. The herbs are also doing well. The strawberries never flowered, but that’s alright. I’ll keep them through the winter again and get some more plants for the berry boxes next spring. A friend has some raspberry plants that we can steal cuttings from too.

I’m pretty pleased with how it’s working out. I think we’ll get a lot of yield this year.

I’m also pretty pleased with my sewing this month. I have made lots of useful wardrobe items and am considering what of my ready to wear clothes I can replace or how to fix previously made items that don’t quite work.

My favorite things this month have been my harem pants, my Harry Potter table runner, the abstract floral dress, the blue lotus Agnes, and my Cocoon Cardigan.

I haven’t blogged about the cardi or the three pairs of shorts I have made in the last couple of days yet. 🙂

I finally found a pattern for pj shorts and pants that fits the Husband. He got his minion shorts a few days ago and I can catch up on Christmas pjs too. He has flannel pants with sweater bears on them that are not yet made. Here are the minions.

They were from the book Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. The failed slipper pattern was from this book, so I was glad to find a pattern that worked. 🙂

I realized that all of my recent patterns have been ones that I’ve traced! My friend slowly dragged me over to Team Trace when I wasn’t looking. She tempted me with PDF patterns that I couldn’t resist. I’m not very mad about it, for being firmly on Team Cut That Sh*t Out (terms coined by my favorite sewing group on Facebook- The Self Sewn Wardrobe by Mallory Donohue.) I will admit that it does make sense, but I still hate printing and taping PDF patterns.

I will admit, this Cocoon Cardigan by Patterns for Pirates, had a lot to do with it as well. It looked so snuggly and wonderful on everyone online who made it that I had to have it.

The shoulders look weird in this picture. I swear it doesn’t actually make me look like I’m a linebacker. 🙂  They are a dolman sleeve, so they start sloped and pick up the sleeve partway down your shoulder. It was a new technique for me and I was super nervous, but it came out so nice. I have plans to make a lighter weight black cardi with an owl appliqué on the back. It’s going to look so cool!

The stars are french terry, which is a new fabric for me too. Here’s a closeup of the stars. They are multi-colored.

There’s a grey colorway with pink stars on the website and I think I want it too. Next time I make this in a non-stretch fabric, I’ll add a tiny bit in width to the lower arms. They are a tiny bit tighter than I’d like.  I wore it to work and received several compliments.  A very stylish coworker said “I don’t even ask anymore, I figure if you’re wearing it and it’s cute, you probably made it.” 🙂 Also, it has pockets!!

The other PDF pattern I have tried and loved has been the Linen Loungers by Patterns For Pirates. I made two pairs for myself yesterday. I may have flamingo fabric ordered to make another pair…

They are both sleep shorts and have a yoga waistband. They are very comfy and didn’t make me feel fat and horrible, which most shorts do. I will be making more of these. The pattern comes with  curved hem option, pants, and bermudas as well.

I’ve done a bunch of organizing in the basement, so I’d like to keep it that way.

Foodwise, we did pretty well. We mostly planned pur meals and we used the InstantPot. We had 24 recipes, with 9 being completely new.

Hits were Korean Beef,

Chophouse Cheesy Burgers, Cinnamon Coffee Cake, and the chewy chocolate chip cookies. The Husband also tried searing pork and did an excellent job!

We only had one miss, the blueberry muffins that were very dense. I managed to make dinners even though I was horribly sick. Overall, a pretty good month.

We’re looking forward to trying to have more new recipes this month and also grilling some more.

Goals for the month:

Food Goals: 

– Try a new Instant Pot recipe

– Two canning recipes

– Battle Cheesecake

– Meal plan

– Pantry meals

 

Sewing/Craft goals:

– 1 or 2 new patterns

– 1 or 2 UFO projects

– Continue to organize

 

Garden Goals:

– Put together composter

– Keep everything alive

 

Well, I have to to get ready for a family wedding. I’m wearing a me made dress and my starry cardigan, so I will feel cute all day. 🙂 Plus, I get ice cream! Have a great weekend!

Threads Of Crazy… Or Creativity
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Threads Of Crazy… Or Creativity

LSiehLeave a comment

Fancy had to investigate every single bush on our walk today. She sniffed a squirrel’s butt, startling both herself and the squirrel. It was pretty funny.

Another funny thing that happened today was one of my more sarcastic teens telling me that I was “one of the older people, you know, another generation…” and then making me a cane. Because I’m old, you know. 😆

I love working with teens for things like this. You can really tell when you have good rapport with them.

I’ve had a couple of funny sewing mishaps, one easily fixed and one that got tossed in the projects box until I’m over it. Here’s the second one…

So this is a shirt… There’s one sleeve on the left… Then there’s the neck… With a sleeve attached… 😂

That’s when I thought I should stop for dinner. It will get fixed eventually.

I did make nice things too.

I made a pair of harem pants to test my pattern for my peacock bellydance costume. I was a little nervous at first. Before the gathering on the waistband I could fit into a single leg.

They turned out super fun though! I’ve been wearing them constantly in the evenings.

They are a navy jersey or rayon spandex from many years ago. Originally the fabric was going to be an infinity dress, but it stretched when I tried to cut it and I moved on.  They make me want to dance and fly out very well during twirls. I kind of want six more pairs. 🙂

While trying to decide what to make, the Husband suggested that I focus on the things I need, since my projects in the box held no appeal. I made two pairs of bike shorts to wear for pjs and under dresses.

They are both made from scraps, hence the different bands. I cut the left leg on the galaxy one wrong, but fixed it with a higher waistband. They are both comfy and fill a need. This next shirt was also made from scraps. It needs a neckline adjustment, as it tends to slip, but is cute. It’s the sewing machine print with black backing and bands. Both are double brushed polyester, so very soft.

I haven’t used this material for much other than leggings, so was fun to try. I have an Agnes dress with color blocking partially put together with DBP for the skirt.

Aren’t those spools adorable?

I needed to sew before work on Monday. Felt it in my bones, kind of need. So I made these heart leggings in 30 minutes and went to work slightly happier at least.

They are very comfy. My co-worker gave me a look and shook her head when I said I’d made them before work.

We have a family wedding to go to this weekend and I was thinking about making a dress for it, but hadn’t picked a pattern. I made this dress length Agnes.

It’s very soft and comfy. Hard to see, but there are little gold outlines on the flowers.

I think it’s fancy enough to attend a wedding. My arm and neckbands worked perfectly. I enjoy it greatly.

Well, we’re watching TV and keeping Fancy company while the fireworks start. The Husband is putting together the new entertainment center too. I may go sew downstairs, if Fancy gets too upset. She won’t even eat her chew.

I hope you all have a safe and Happy 4th!

Sewing Space and Garden Update- Wordy Wednesday
Life Posts · Sewing · Wordless Wednesdays

Sewing Space and Garden Update- Wordy Wednesday

LSiehLeave a comment

Well, hello Wednesday! I thought it was Tuesday, somehow missed that I have spent two days at work already. Man…

I’ll post some pictures tomorrow for a Thoughtful Thursday post, but in the meantime, here’s an update on the garden and my sewing space.

The garden is growing like crazy! I have to get out there and weed it, but it’s currently pouring rain, so it won’t be today.

Here’s a shot of the pepper and lettuce box:

I lost once lettuce, but the rest are going strong. We’re going to have a lot of lettuce though. More salads, I guess. Next year, maybe I will split lettuce with someone, or start from seed.

Here’s the tomato box:

Holy tomatoes, Batman!

Mr. Stripey is getting very big and my smaller tomato plants, the Early Girl’s have taken off! We’re going to have so many tomatoes!

My herbs are looking good. I used some lemon thyme in shortbread cookies and they were good.

I think being in the ground has really helped the garden. It’s much easier to control the consistent watering and everything seems to be thriving.

Now for the sewing part. I wasn’t up to crawling around on the floor to get patterns cut when sick, so I didn’t do a lot of sewing. I did make a table runner for Thanksgiving.

I also made this maxi skirt. Excuse the late night, silly face.

It’s super comfy and now has a slightly shorter hem. The skirt is a cotton rayon blend and I used black double brushed poly for the waistband. It’s lovely ans swishy, but I have to wait until it stops raining to wear it. It originally had a pocket, but it looked hideous, so I took it out.

I’ve done a lot of organizing to get my space ready to sew downstairs again.

The desk still has a few things on it, but now where near as bad as it was. The new lights the Husband hing are glorious, but I think I need one in front of my machine too. It’s a little backlit at the moment. It’s much brighter though, so that’s good.

I even cleaned the little messy area on top of my storage shelves.

That’s where I lost my serger pedal. 😳 Now I can’t lose things there anymore.

In Fancy news, that darn fireplace dog is still turning up trying to stealing her toys!

Shortly after this was taken, she started pawing at the door. Silly pup!

Well, that’s all my updates for now. I hope you’re having nice weather wherever you are!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

This has been a very busy month! We have had meetings, outings, rain, wind, trips up north, new things with Fancy, and garden progress. Whew… No wonder I’m tired.

The featured picture is one of the new flamingos I bought. I think it looks so pretty outside. So far the neighbors have been polite, no one has even suggested I think about other yard decorations… 🙂

We’re plotting (ha! Gardening puns!) to get the garden finished over the weekend, so I can get the plants in on Sunday. It’ll be a rush,  but I think we can do it. So far my list includes carrots, peppers- sweet and hot, tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, and possibly lettuce or bok choy. Also, more berries, but they will be not in the ground. Wish us luck for getting it all done. Hopefully I can grow a lot of our produce this summer.

We had some good meals this month. 22 recipes were used, with 7 being new recipes.

Hits were Crockpot Beef Stroganoff, Shrimp Pasta, and Chicken Bao.

I made Rhubarb Streusel Muffins for our trip up north from the February 2018 Food Network Magazine.

They were pretty good. I think I was the only one who ate them though. We had grilled steaks and baked potatoes for dinner at the camp. I put together foil packets of asparagus and asiago mushrooms.

It was a very good dinner. I didn’t like the mushrooms very much, but everyone else did.

We only had one miss for the month; the Crockpot Scalloped Potatoes and Ham. It wasn’t very good, kind of bland and too soupy.

My goals for last month went pretty well. I did meal plan pretty consistently this month. I didn’t try any new equipment, but grilling mushrooms was a new technique. I also made some freezer meals. We’ve eaten one so far and it tasted good. I’m still relying on fruit as a side dish and haven’t really been making many. It’s hard to make them before work and I’m normally too rushed if I’m cooking after work.

It’s been a bit of a switch lately, as I have excelled in my sewing projects, but not done so well on food. Maybe I can only do one at a time?

This past month, I made 20 items of clothing! Part of my productivity was due to Me Made May. I did complete my goal of wearing me made items 3x per week. I was not as successful in picture documentation as I wanted to be, but I kind of expected it. I’m so critical of myself in pictures. I did succeed in getting over my fear of posting of myself though, especially wearing things I’m proud of.

I also made six dresses, only one was a solid color. The rest were not neutral colors, but most of them can be worn with multiple colors.

My favorites were the green striped dress and the blue Agnes. I have rediscovered how much I like dresses. They make picking clothes really easy. I did make one dress that was a terrible fit. It was a long version of the blue clock dress. It doesn’t suit me at all. Back to fit and flare styles, I think!

I’ve also made 9 pairs of leggings or shorts from the Peg Leg Leggings pattern. I only have pictures of 8 of them.

Two pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of full length leggings, and two pairs of capri length ones. I love them. My favorites are probably my sewing machines and the dog ones I made today. I played with the fabric and used different colors as a test for my SIL’s swearing panda ones.

I think I’ll use a straight cut for hers though. I forgot it would look funny since they legs fold. I used a red band for the waist.

Skirts were also made, including two pencil skirts and a gathered maxi skirt that turned out exactly how I pictured it!

The maxi skirt has a pocket! I wore it yesterday and swanned around all proud of myself! 🙂 The heart skirt is made from a new fabric, Liverpool knit, which is the same fabric for the expensive pencil skirts I love so much. The maxi on the end is rayon spandex, also a new fabric.

I did bring my serger up north, but it keeps unthreading itself. I have to get a professional to teach me to thread it. My MIL is right, knits will be much easier with a serger.

The one thing I didn’t do much with this month, was to finish things that were already started. 😳I got too excited by knits and new patterns…

While doing some organizing, I ended up making some decisions on fabrics and patterns to try next. Most are with fabrics I’ve had for a while. Here’s pictures of 2 of them that I’m going to try to get done this month.

This one is the dress from my Joann’s birthday run.

This one has the most beautiful color changing ability, greenish-blue. This pattern will most likely be the dragon dress too.

I’m excited to keep sewing new things, but also am going to go back to trying to finish one older thing per week too.

I also need to start and finish a bellydance costume made with this fabric.

It’s “Fancy Month” for one of the sewing groups I’m in and I posted asking if this was fancy enough to qualify and several people asked for progress pictures. Now I actually have to make it! 🙂 I’m going to see if I can find any more of this at Joann’s.

I’m planning on remaking a bra and then using this fabric for a vest and belt/bustle. In my head, it has deep teal poofy pantaloons too. 🙂 I will definitely be making a test version of the vest, possibly not of the bustle. I’ve used that pattern a few times before.

So those are my plans for the month. Not really set goals, just some ideas. I think between getting the garden going and trying to get these done, that should be enough to keep me busy.

Here’s a cute picture of Fancy to close out this long winded review!

Have a good night!