Coping

Poor Howdy, turning to 1920s fruit liquors to ease the pain. The Howdy Doody toy is the only one of a set that belonged to my Dad when he was a kid. There's a little lever in the back to make his mouth move up and down so that he can say things like, "Boy, I could really go for a drink right about now." The liquor bottle was my mother in law's. She got it as a gift from a neighbor years ago. The label is pretty neat, don't you think? Both of these things are only about 4 inches tall.

While we're on the subject of easing the pain...




I made a deep-dish apple pie today, to Sophie's apparant delight. She doesn't like apple pie, but she appreciates the smell of spicy baked apples as much as the next person. We had this after dinner along with vanilla ice cream. I think I can manage whatever life throws my way as long as I have homemade apple pie.



These are a work-in-progress for my sister in law, Cheri: the placemats I mentioned a few posts back. They don't look all that impressive ('cause they aren't). The skeletons and rick-rack are the front, and the BOOOOOO is the back. Everything should be done and shipped tomorrow. The mustard yellow print on the bottom there is for a special person who also has an October birthday, but I can't tell you this person's name, or I will spoil the surprise.

Fall Is in the Air

And this means that my allergies are in assault mode. I spent much of the day feeling like crap and trying to get the boys to sleep so that maybe the veins in my temples would stop pulsating for two seconds. Yeah, no dice.

Fall is actually my favorite season. It's my favorite for baking yummy pies and drinking mugs of tea. The air smells crisp and fresh and spicy. There's a latent energy outside, even though the growing things are winding down and preparing for a long winter. Fall invigorates me.

Today, however, I felt anything but. In my stubbornness, I insisted on working on the apron and regretted it. The bit that I worked on today required edging everything in 1/4" double fold bias tape. Being a big fan of bias tape in general, I was eager to jump in and bias my little heart out.

The truth is, 1/4" double fold bias tape SUCKS. It is impossible to pin because it's so small, and so the edges of the fabric slip right out. I sewed quite slowly, shoving the fabric in the fold of the tape as I went, and still I had gaps where I had missed the fabric. Ugh. Total nightmare. When I next do this pattern, I am sticking with my trusty 1/2" bias, naysayers be damned!Wow. I really need to press those pockets again.

It's (Not) So Easy!

I have come to learn that patterns marked "Easy" rarely are. Some pattern designer has a really twisted idea of "easy." My idea of "easy" includes none of the following: zippers, darts, and pleats.

Take the apron pattern I mentioned earlier; I started it this evening and it was pretty slow going. Want to know why? It might have had something to so with the 12 flipping darts the pattern called for. Actually, it was six double darts or diamond darts or whatever they are called. Essentially 12 darts. I actually didn't mind sewing them so much, but I intensely disliked pressing the little buggers.

The apron is coming along quite nicely now, though. Tomorrow it gets the life bias-taped out of it! Happy happy joy joy.

Work Space

My sewing space consists of a really small table backed into the corner of the computer/junk/place where the dog sleeps room. The whole room is messy, so my table blends in just fine.

One of my favorite things on my little table, besides my machine, is this old ad from Dritz inviting us to shirr ourselves, our husband, our children, and our whole damn house:

Someday I will have a room of my own. Until then, my corner works just fine. It could be so much worse; it could look like my computer desk:

Not pictured: numerous Diet Coke rings, bits of Nestle Crunch wrapper, defaced book on Hillary Rodham Clinton, tissues.

Maybe a little shirring would make a big difference here.

Sewing for the Masses

My sister in law recently asked me to make her some Halloween placemats. "Aha!" I thought. Perfect. Her birthday is during that month anyway, and now I don't have to figure out what to give her. Throw in a matching table runner, and I am set...

...Until I saw this awesome brand-new Simplicity apron design for fall. Cheri is not the frilly foo-foo type, which is precisely why I am going to torture her with a vintage looking apron of my own creation. I've decided to make her the yoke apron on the right. Give most women an apron and they'd look at you as if you had handed them a steaming pile of poo. This is my opportunity to force aprons on the women of America! It all begins with you, Cher. It all begins with you.

In Through the Out Door

Whew. What a crazy day. Runny noses all 'round, church (for the two of us who did not suffer from runny noses), then a one hour drive with all four kiddos to Pittsburgh to visit my mother in law and my parents. Luckily our parents live about ten minutes away from each other. Like an idiot, I left Henry's diaper bag and bottles sitting on the kitchen table. We had to leave and head for home after an hour and a half of visiting, but it was all good because I couldn't stop yawning anyway. Rush rush rush.

Oh! The dishes that I got at the Goodwill the other day that are featured in my first post are Harkerware, for all you curious types. This company no longer exists, but it was an Ohio-based china company that manufactured form the 1840s until the early 1970s. My pattern was produced in the late 50s-early 60s. I will be returning to the shop today to get the rest of the cake plates and cups and saucers.

On to crafty-type things:




I have been head over heels for Sew What! Skirts, a fabulous book all about sewing, well, skirts. The nice thing about it is that it tells you how to draft your own patterns for two basic skirt styles that are tailored to your specific measurements. From those patterns you can create a lot of different looks.

It is very well-written; sometimes I suffer from Mom Brain (MB) and can't wrap my head around certain pattern instructions. This book is so simple that even I could figure it out the first time! All of you crafty sewing ladies have probably already bought this book, but for those of you who haven't I can't recommend it enough. I only wish the authors had continued the series to include shirts, pants, and so on. It was published last year, so maybe they will notice how much all of us love it and make some more.


So far I have created two variations of the A-line skirt: one for myself, and one for Sophie. For mine I used a funky retro-ish print from my beloved Hancock Fabrics (may you RIP) and a side zip; for Sophie's I used a really soft flannel and an elastic waist. The pockets on Sophie's skirt look really tiny, but actually it's just the goofy perspective I used when taking the picture. Lesson learned.

I also have a short straight skirt with a side slit in the works, but due to MB I farked it up and have been taking my time getting up the willpower to fix it properly. Being the curvy person I am, I should have recognized that a back zipper would work better than a side one for a straight skirt. There is so much discrepancy between my waist and hip measurement (ahem, we shall not give numbers), that the curve from waist to hip on the side seam turned out to be huge. It caused a lovely bunchy, popped out zipper instead of a flat-lying zipper. Durr. Yet another lesson learned. Sigh. Any suggestions on how to remedy this?


All of my lessons learned reminds me of something that Any Karol says in her new book, Bend the Rules Sewing. She asks the reader in the first chapter what kind of sewer she is, and lists some sewing "character types." I am definitely the perfectionist. Everything she said was so dead on; I know I was blushing in the Craft aisle at Barnes and Noble while reading it. Sewing takes me forever because I am so dang cautious. I measure a million times, cut sooooo slowly, etc. And yet I still make mistakes, of course. Just the other day I was making a placemat (hello, easiest thing in the world, right?) and sewed the side with the interfacing on backwards so that it showed...

Anyway, she suggests for the perfectionist sewer to make something as a gift and give it anyway, even if it isn't perfect. Talk about taking cajones. I don't know if I am there yet. I preface every sewn gift I give with, "The seams aren't perfect, and I forgot to finish the seam allowance, blah blah blah..." She gave me lots to think about, though.


Check out the awesome Amy at her inspirational, envy-inducing blog, Angry Chicken. http://angrychicken.typepad.com/

Mother In-Law Goodies

My mother in-law is an amazing woman for many reasons. First, she raised five kids, the oldest of whom was 18 when the youngest was born (!). She managed to raise most of these kids while her incredibly hard-working husband fought lymphoma. She's razor-sharp at cards and will kick your butt in sidewise at 500, leaving you cowering in a ball on the ground wondering what in the world just happened.

I could go on. I am blessed to have such a fantastic MIL. BUT, this isn't a blog about MIL's, is it? So why am I even bringing her up? It's because she LIVED kitsch for years and never realized it. Well, she didn't realize it because it was the 50s, and heck! Everyone was living that way! In honor of my MIL and the many amazing kitschy items she has handed down to me over the years, I have christened a posting category after her.

Let's begin. Last summer, MIL decided that she had to move out of her cute little home of 50 years into a place that better suited her needs as a single lady with grown kids. The kitsch did overfloweth during the moving process. I think I could post a hundred items at least right here (believe me, I'd love to do it! So fun!), but since this is going to be an ongoing feature, I shall post in moderation.

The first item for today:
These glasses were bought on her honeymoon in 1956 to Niagra Falls. Originally they were a set of four, but misfortune befell one and it was broken some time ago. They must have sat around in the dark recesses of her liquor cabinet forever, because I never, ever saw them until moving day (and I have known my husband's family closely since I was six). The third one I use to hold my marking pens/pencils and my seam ripper. It declined to be photographed.




The second item is a box of (originally) 36 Dennis the Menace cocktail napkins from 1951. I hate Dennis the Menace. I always wanted to rip his little face off when I watched the show on Nick at Nite as a kid. Although I harbor this deep- seated animosity, I totally dig the box. 27 napkins have managed to survive until present day. The really cool thing about this box is that these were inside...





"The hurrier I go, the behinder I get." Sorry the pics are so cruddy. I haven't had my coffee this morning and don't feel like fighting with the camera. 2nd post and already I am hopelessly lazy! Woo! Ok, back to the goodies. Cocktail napkins and matching paper coasters. I love the colors and the style. I love the ticked off farmer woman. Who knew cocktail napkins could be so fun?