10 YEARS IN THE MAKING

 

Continued from previous post

Eagerly I rushed to verify if my revelation was correct or not.  Removing the pile of clothes from the top shelf of the cabinet, I could tell it definitely contained  some pattern pieces but as I withdrew the pieces I realized they were pinned to fabric and were not of the pattern that I had been looking for.  This pattern had been pinned to a kitschy, cute pineapple print, fabric and had even been carefully cut out.  But then, in the flurry of getting our home ready to put on the market, I had tossed it in with a bunch of  clothing that I was going to repair "someday", and for the last 10 years or so it had sat around,  forgotten and with pins and tissue pattern still attached, waiting for me to "someday" put it together. 

 

To my surprise, as I extracted this unfinished garment from the pile, there, buried with it, was the pattern package that I had spent hours searching for. 

 

Of course now my priorities had changed.  After all, this unfinished garment had been waiting far longer and deserved to be moved to the top of my to do list. 

 

 

 

Yes I finally completed the dress with the sweet pineapple print . . .

 

 

 

 

 and the first time I wore it, my daughter asked if it was new and if I had made it.  I replied; "Yes. Yes I did make it and it only took me 10 years."

Misplaced in the Move

Searching for a lost pattern

 

In my last post I explained how  had I ruined a favorite dress, so it was only natural for me to decide to make another dress like it.  Somewhere there was a pattern but exactly where?  

Back in 2005 we had put our home up for sale and, trying to make my home real estate perfect, I gathered up all clutter and anything I felt was extraneous; furniture, books, cookbooks,  brick-a-brack.  This included all  (yes ALL) of my craft supplies, even my sewing and sewing machine. 

Our home sold quickly, too quickly really, we had to rent a tiny villa while we searched for a place to live full time.  We ended up buying close to 3 acres of land and building a modest ranch style house.  This took about 18 months, more or less. Meanwhile most of our belongs remained in storage.

We finally moved into our new home in July of 2007.  Even though that was 8 years ago much of my craft supplies are still stashed in miscellaneous boxes that are scattered about in various closets.  It was like an Easter Egg Hunt, trying to locate this particular pattern.  I looked in box after box, searched through drawers, plowed through every cabinet that I knew I had stashed crafting supplies within and . . . Nothing !  The pattern could not be found.  Then I remembered that in my personal closet, within a cabinet that I use to store hats and sweaters, I had seen a piece of pattern tissue sticking out from under a pile of clothes that needed repair.  Could this be my missing pattern ?

To Be Continued . . .

A Skirt Tail

My favorite skirt - no the ruffle doesn't really hang lopsided, it is just the way I attached it to the hanger.

In my zeal to finish some long standing projects, I deviated frequently from jewelry revamps to revamping my wardrobe. 

We all have favorite garments, something we tend to wear over and over again.  For me it's a mid-calf length, blue denim skirt that I truly adore because it looks good on me and is very comfortable.  Unfortunately a greasy stain marred the front of the skirt.  Before laundering  I tried to remove the stain with a stain stick and a great deal of  scrubbing.  Once the garment had gone through the wash and dry cycle, I was dismayed to see the stain was gone but in its place was a very light, almost white patch of fabric.  Perhaps the stain would have been better?

The skirt was put aside as I decided to "someday" try dying it with Rit fabric dye.   Finally that "Day" actually came.  Having bought a package of Rit, powder dye, in a dark denim blue, I proceeded to follow the instructions very carefully.  Naturally, like the idiot that I can often be, I failed to don an apron or change into the grubbiest of my grubby, "Never to be worn outside of the house" clothes.  Instead I was wearing a comfortably old, yet relatively nice, A-line dress.  It was one that I had made from a Simplicity pattern, using a soft, comfy, cotton interlock knit, in a pastel, apple green.  The dress, much like the skirt, was a favorite of mine and was worn often.



I had made the sleeveless, short version (shown in white on pattern).

 

Honestly I was trying to be very cautious but as I lifted the wet, freshly dyed skirt from its steaming hot, dye bath, it slipped and flopped back into the basin with a mighty splash.  Naturally the splash of indigo dyed water targeted my apple green dress.  At the moment there was little I could do except remove the dress and toss it into the basin along with the skirt.  Anyway, the skirt turned out beautifully . . . the apple-green, A-line dress however looked like c_ _ p ! 
Since I hadn't  time to prewash it (as the dye bath was still nice and hot and would be cold had I taken time to properly launder the dress)  the dye took unevenly, also my dress came out a shade of drab, charcoal gray rather than a clean denim blue.  :(

Okay, so now I had yet another project on my list . . .  make a new A-line dress like the one I had just ruined.  Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed !

A Cornucopia of Not-Quite-Right Pieces

My stash of Superduo mixed mettalics purchased many months ago for a project that I  have yet to make . . . perhaps mañana !

As mentioned in my last post, I've been busy catching up on many projects, most of which have been long overdue for my attention.

A drawer, filled with necklaces, bracelets and earrings all begging to be revamped, fixed or totally disassembled and re-fabricated.  Over the years I had stashed these pieces away with good intentions and the promise of  mañana, but as that old song goes; "Tomorrow  never comes".

Quite often the problem with the piece of jewelry was that the clasp was difficult to close.  Difficult enough that a customer would prefer not to purchase it.  These were the first pieces I decided to tackle, replacing obstinate  clasps with something more user friendly. 
 

 

Pretty toggle clasp on beaded rope necklace - pretty but a pain to close and to open.

 

 

I've removed the difficult clasp and made a sweet, beaded button clasp to replace it. Now it is much easier to  put the necklace on and take it off.

 

 

Then there were those pieces that were okay but just not note-worthy. They were the pieces that when  completed I hadn't felt that flush of joy at how they turned out.  In the back of my mind they were okay and sometimes "okay" just isn't good enough . . .  if you know what I mean?

This choker started out as a pair of hoop earrings.  The earrings were "okay" but not much else.  Granted I had to make up and add a whole lot more of those pearl embellished, turquoise blue, glass beads, but I think it was worth it. 

Matter-of-fact, I liked the choker design so much that I took a plain necklace of Unakite teardrops and remade it into a similar choker using different colored accent beads (below).

 

This piece was a simple beaded rope with a drab, silver glass, disc bead at its center.  Revamping entailed taking it completely apart as I decided upon an asymmetrical design.  The drab, silver focal bead was replaced with a Swarovski Crystal Pearl in a soft Jade blue-green, and sits in my hand beaded bezel (above).  Opposite the bezeled pearl are multi-strands of teal, seed beads held in cute, tulip shaped bead cones (below).

 

These are just a tiny portion of the remakes that I've been preoccupied with, and  no, I haven't cleaned out that "Fix-it or Remake it" drawer.  Probably I will never see the bottom of that drawer, but at least I've managed to make a dent in it . . .  albeit a small dent.  Have you experienced that sensation where you're not really disappointed in something that you've made but you're not ecstatic about it either ?

In 800 Words or Less

August is just about over and Autumn is just around the corner.  Soon children will be returning to school, but before school actually begins there will be that yearly, mad rush to purchase a mile long list of "needed" school supplies, along with new shoes and new school clothes.  It's a cycle that starts when a child enters kindergarten and doesn't cease until they either graduate from college or get married. 

Thinking about the start of the school year brings back memories.  Perhaps it was just a coincidence but it appeared to me that it was more like a tradition, the first thing that everyone of my elementary school teachers would request of her students was for us to write about "What You Did During Summer Vacation".  Does that sound familiar to any of you ?

Well my summer vacations were usually boring as we seldom went anywhere and I spent most of my days playing various outdoor games, such as hopscotch or jump-rope or, quite often,  just  goofing off with my friends.  This never made for interesting literature, unlike the kids who had been lucky enough to journey to other cities, states or far-away-places.

So this leads me to the question of "Just What the Heck HAVE I Done This Summer?"

I know that I've been away from blogging for quite some time and must confess it wasn't due to taking long trips to exciting or exotic places.  For me it was a summer of staying close to home and catching up on a lot of projects.

Over the course of 15 plus years, I've accumulated a lot of unfinished projects.  Pieces of jewelry that I had stashed away to remake and things I wanted to make but never began.  Unfortunately I plowed into these projects and never thought to take before or after photos.  Of course had I taken time to photograph the before and after of all the projects that I managed to tackle I would not have completed nearly as many as I did and I would probably still be editing photos.
Hopefully in my next post I can provide more details.  Meanwhile, in 800 words or less, let me know what you've all been up to this summer.  :)