Sewing for the sun

If you are like me you didn't take sun care of your skin when you were younger. Anyone else remember those home-made sun reflectors made of cardboard and tin foil? 


Well this year I had about five spots taken off my face by a dermatologist, those early change things. So in Florida I wore hats and swam with a made-by-me rash guard and tried to be sensible. With hair like mine too a hat is not a bad idea.


Anyway I was interested in this article this morning and made me think that this was something worth thinking about. Definitely something sewers can do so much more easily than other folks.

Strange and interesting times in the sewing room

OK.


What would you say if your husband announced that you could do fun things together tonight and that meant that he had installed the Wii in your sewing room (because it has most space and a good TV) so you could play competitive Wii Golf in your sewing room together on the condition he gets to be Tiger Woods?


You see my situation.


I happen to have a nice pair of hopefully fitting pants laid out next to my machine with all the seams pinned up. Pretend swings at pretend water traps was not on this sewer's particular agenda for this evening. I will be a good sport. 


Briefly.


On another note today Miss Scarlett and I enjoyed an afternoon without cold and rain and went down to the swimming club we belong to, The Waegwoltic, Waeg for short. It has sailing, tennis and three salt water pools and a great big sand pile. I went there all the time in the summer with my kids and it is nice to be taking her down there now. Here is what it looks like in the summer:

I should add that this is Nova Scotia, so although the facilities are nice and it is minutes away from where I live, it really isn't an exclusive type place. I suspect it costs more to belong to the Y in most places. There are some advantages in being off the beaten track.

Anyway Miss Scarlett had a great time and mastered the art of turning on the taps at the sand pile and of course got really wet and cold and I had to change her.

This got me thinking that I really should make her some kind of terry towel coverup with a hood to keep her warm when she gets out of the water.

Then I remembered these strange things we made when we were teenagers. You used a large bath towel one for the front and one for the back and two hand towels for the sleeves, meeting at centre front. Sort of a giant kimono that went to the ground.

These things were all the rage, everyone made them and felt very clever. Of course you looked just like a person wearing two bath towels and two hand towels and I remember they weighed a ton. You sort of staggered around under the weight of it with your giant rollers on your head.

I picked up two nice towels (I don't think I need much more she isn't even two until September) and am going to think about the pattern.

Remembering this and my teenage years reminds me to thank those of you who said my hair looks nice recently.

I have what is generally considered the worst hair in the world. It is thin, thin, thin since I had half my thryroid out, kinky and frizzy. I have in my life gone to a hairdresser once and sat in the chair and had him say "I wish there was something I could do for you" and send me home as is. Last time I got my hair done in Florida they tried to interest me in a wig.

I think you get the picture.

My current hairdresser who has unfortunately done all the thick beautiful hair of my sisters has had me on a regime of products and straighteners and flat irons etc. to try to fight the hair I have been given.

Anyway recently I decided to go natural, frizzy, thin and just what it is. I actually like it better myself.

The way I figure it every single person has something about their outward appearance that is not what they wish it was. 

Well the way I figure it forget about that one thing.

Just forget about it.

I make lots of nice clothes and actually think what I am making I like more and more. I am tall so I actually look thinner than I really am. A lot. I have nice hands and I am cheerful. And I always wear lipstick.

You can't have everything, but actually you weren't supposed to have everything. If you did might stop bothering and that would be no good.

Now off to practice my swing. I can't decide if I should be Anika Sorrenson or Sara Brown.

McCalls 6241 in last iteration, plus life shots

Here is my version of 6241 with a faced neckline, sorry that the red is so red, I really did try to tone it down. In the end I think the clear elastic was the best idea - although it is fine I think that the facing drags the drape down a bit. I think I have done enough with this one pattern now, but it has been a learning experience and I think I am better prepared for the next draped neckline - I like them.

Last night also I went out to the local sewing guild's end of season meeting. Folks showed off interesting projects and I took a few shots - they give you a good idea I think of the diversity of the group.

Here is the guild's new president Cindy in a corset she made (she had a T shirt on for most of the meeting in case you are wondering):

A truly unbelievably complicated undertaking IMO.


And here is my friend Sheila in Vogue 8634 which I am now going to be making because it looked so nice on her (she also made the pants):

And finally here is Anita in a hat she threw together for a tea party on the Royal Wedding day - she was working at her cottage and was supply short - I thought her use of spray insulation foam was quite creative:

We are a small province here in Nova Scotia, but quite an original one.


Finally when I got home my husband, much maligned in the last post, had this waiting for me, ham and scalloped potatoes, proving once a again that yes he is a very good cook.

Now off to work on some pant fitting.

McCalls 6241, Canada post and scenes of marital discord

First off I finished my mother's skirts and boxed them up for the mail.

Of course Canada Post is on a rotating strike, mail is only being delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and not all cities are in operation at all times which means the mail is sort of getting through sometimes, maybe. 


As a tactic of industrial action I am not sure if this is as effective as it is confusing but being a natural optimist and near a post office today, and knowing too that as late as these skirts arrive it will probably still be ahead of summer, I mailed them anyway. 


When I showed up at the post office though the postal lady had a good old laugh so maybe my optimism is not entirely warranted.


The other sewing thing I did today was to revisit McCalls 6241, reviewed earlier. I like Dinah's suggestion, left in a comment, to apply some clear elastic to the front of the neckline to keep the neckline hem from rolling out. I wanted to try that on one version. Thank you Dinah it worked very well.


These photos show I think a much nicer neck on this top than on my earlier, hand-stitched rescue version.


I still need to work on my photographer a bit though. 


Here is me giving a lecture on the fact that most of my shots, IMO, are focused way too much on my belly and that I did not want a fat-stomach-small-head shot in this nice new top:

This is the next shot where I actually, and rarely, closed my mouth. My last words to the photographer was "How does my hair look?" To which he answered "Your hair looks just great."

You know he is a very good cook.


Tomorrow, if I manage to shirk all responsibilities, I am going to try this top once more with faced neckline.

Worry and coats

OK these two things are unrelated but both on my mind tonight. My mind is particularly skilled at holding unrelated thoughts.


Worry.


Tomorrow we are going out to see my mother-in-law to talk and visit. Part of that discussion will be about things like selling her house in the country and moving in town near us by the winter. My MIL's grace and strength and serenity after my father-in-law's death is amazing to me. She just takes things in stride. I am not sure how much of that is her quiet but solid faith, and how much of it is the family attitude of "there is no sense in worrying." They don't just say it, they actually mean it. Can you believe it?


This attitude to life is something I can only aspire to some days. My own background was more of the if you worry you are creating some kind of insurance of preparedness. Suffice too to say that my father's nickname for my mother when we were growing up was "the voice of doom." She always said that it was better to think of the worst and get ready for that and all the rest was a nice surprise. Well, maybe not so nice because you had pretty much worried yourself to a frazzle by the time the good news came in. But I think you get the picture.


Recently however in our last visit I have noticed how often my mother says things like "well I just can't worry about that." I can actually say that after heart attacks, becoming a widow, and a whole series of other challenges, my mother seems pretty carefree these days. I think it comes with aging, least for her.


I have noticed this in myself, a tendency, after a lifetime of some fairly world class episodes of catastrophic thinking, to start to draw the line and say, well I can't be worrying about that. Maybe when you realize that you don't have decades and decades of time wasting ahead you just get to a point where some things are in and some things are out. 


So lately I have looked at some of my relationships or work situations or people (every one of us has a few of what my dad called "the big stupid" folks visited upon us) and said to myself "well I am just going to have to put all of that, and you, in the can't worry about it box - even if you or it are worry worthy, I'm just not able to do it. Sorry."


Sometimes you just have to do this. Some things you are just going to have to let go undone. You don't always get the big fix-up, the last word, the second chance, the resolution or the result you want. 


I am still working on this. There are a couple of things I know I worry about too much and that the worry isn't advancing anything at all. But at least now I have started to label somethings as things I can't worry about is a real good start. After all the only response to some situations is "oh hell"  and there is no amount of getting ready that is going to make it any different or better. And the only response to other situations is just plain gratitude and your job to be able to fully do that when that happens is enough of an assignment for anyone.


One thing I do know is that the more activities you can enjoy the easier it is to let go of some of the worry. Sewing plays a big role in this for me.


I hope that the folks who don't sew have their own way.


The other thing on my mind is how I have to sew a totally great winter coat this year. I have been waiting for the right pattern now for several  seasons.


It seems that the coats we have been seeing have been nice and fitted, which is nice but doesn't fit my cold winters.


A person really needs a fashionable sharp coat that she can throw on over her at home clothes and look fabulous going to the grocery store at the last minute, to work, or downtown for a meeting. A real style item but also one that is warm.


The coat pattern I am waiting for has these features:


1. In addition to extreme style it has enough ease to fit over the other warm clothes I need to wear like sweaters.


2. It has non-drafty edges. A neckline that closes around your neck. Sleeves that close around the wrist or if the sleeves are wide, storm cuffs up inside to keep out the cold air. A hem that is not too full - ease but close to the body at the hem or some kind of waist shape, to keep you warm is important. 


3. Good secure closures. What's with the closureless coats BWF has been showing? Or coats fashioned with one button or with only a leather belt? I would like to meet those designers at the bottom of my hill some Nova Scotia February and we can walk up together, against the wind or heaven forbid the sleet.


It's only June and I am going to hold on to every sunny day I can but man do I need a new coat come winter. I need it, but I am not going to get too worried about it quite yet.

Following up on the pizza

Ha. You thought I was joking about the self-cleaning pizza cooking (BTW the oven has never been so clean) but now you can see it for yourself.


It has occurred to me that my dear, try anything husband, is morphing into his father - the hero of his youth who once removed a tumour from the head of a budgie bird with an uncle administering the ether to the beak and all kids in a circle attending. The bird apparently survived. For a while at least.


My husband took away from this and about a thousand other experiments, that a person can do anything themselves. 


And that has brought us to this place now in my kitchen. 


But a person who has spent most of her adult life planning wardrobes she has yet to sew is in no position to be disillusioning.


I had to take a day off sewing today. I had to get my upcoming work schedule straightened out at school and later in the afternoon I had Miss Scarlett come over for the day and over-night. My DD is working a night shift and my son-in-law is away.


Scarlett spent most of the afternoon sitting under bushes in the backyard with the dogs giving me a running commentary on life and some time with toilet training experiments in the house. My place is apparently an ideal toilet training venue. A nephew of mine once said "You can even poop on the floor at Thia (aunt) Barbara's and she will just say that's great." Whether or not you consider this a compliment depends on your age and your standards.


I am geared up for some serious sewing. I have mother skirts to finish and want to do another version of my slim fit (I am referring to the hem circumference not myself) pants and clear the decks for some tops over the weekend.


I then have some summer dresses to make before I haul out the White Shirts. Three in a row were enough in a row when I first had this idea but I have been away from that project long enough to want back in.


But all that is for another day. Right now I am going off to bed, I understand waking up time is 5:30 a.m.


I will sew in my sleep.

That crazy man

If you want to make an excellent artisanal pizza with a nice crisp crust and a nice soft top you can do it. In you home oven at the self-clean cycle.

If you are nuts. 

Here is how you do it as it is done at my house:

1. First get all your pizzas ready. If you don't have real pizza sliders (those long lifters they use in real pizza joints) then you can get all your pizzas ready on pieces of cardboard that you have coated with corn meal so nothing sticks. (I of course did none of this but I was only an observer/eater/witness).

2. Get the oven ready. This involves putting in a double layer of Home Depot 16" ceramic tiles in the oven (to replace usual pizza stones because these are large, square and provide superior even heat).

3. Remove two screws from the latch in the door so you can open it to insert the pizzas once the self-cleaning temperature is underway. Decide to not lose these screws (there are more than a few screws loose in this process let me tell you).

4. Turn on oven to self-clean. Wait 45 minutes for it to get all fired up.

5. Cook pizzas one at a time - Average time is 4 minutes each with some variables being 2.5 minutes for the first one and up to 6 minutes for the last one depending on how many times you open the door.

Resident chef suggests you watch your pizzas closely (no kidding) and wear oven mitts at all times.

BTW these pizzas are incredible.