Building a Better Bag

Back at the end of May, I got a new bag for the Disney World trip upcoming in October. (Is it time to panic, yet? How about now?) I settled on a very steampunk-ish looking bag I found on Etsy.

I felt everything I would want to carry on a trip to a park would fit inside the bag. I loved the look and how a Dungeons and Dragons pin a friend sent me fit wonderfully on the cross-body strap.

I took the bag to the June Highland Festival I attended and, quickly, it became obvious this was NOT a bag which would be useful for Disney. I lost 2 of the 3 bottles on the front. I thought they were in their straps tightly. They weren't. I couldn't get a bottle of water in the bag, along with the phone charger. There are other things which need to be in the bag while I roam. I was rather disappointed.

So, I started looking around for another bag, a bigger bag. I'm inclined to think Disney has a listening device in my house because, at the end of June, they had a sale and, viola, there was a bigger bag.

Well, of course I'd buy one with the Cheshire cat on it.

How could I resist this? It's "leather", although I think it's the imitation kind. It's deep with interior pockets.

The pocket on the right doesn't close while the pocket on the left zips shut. Anything I might want to carry should easily fit in this bag. The only issue is that the straps are not cross-body. They are short enough to make the bag sit right under the armpit, but long enough that I could access the bag reasonably quickly. But, I really wanted cross-body functionality. My RA can make my shoulder muscles tense and even paring down what I need/want to carry, was going to mean the bag would weigh on my shoulders by the end of the day. The ability to keep my hands and arms free would make the vacation better. What to do?

A trip to JoAnn Fabrics provided a solution. The inside is lined with a heavy silk material. I bought a length of pink canvas trim. It's an inch wide. I got a little more than I needed because, at the time, I didn't have the bag to measure. Once I figured out the proper length for the bag to hang where I wanted it to, I pinned the edges to the liner and cut the trim.

Then, I hand stitched the trim to the liner.

The trim is attached at the liner side seams. I could feel the fabric of the seams and tried to stitch the trim into that seam for added support. It was the perfect day to sit on the deck and stitch. When finished this is the result.

I'll be able to sling this across my body, keeping my hands and arms free, but having access to the bag. The handles are kind of stiff and I'm going to have an issue with them popping out of the bag at first. But I think, with use, and being anchored by things inside the purse, they will stay down when I want to use this cross-body. Plus, the trim goes neatly into the bag if I don't want to mess with it.

I moved the D&D pin to this strap and added a couple more.

I'll be able to add more pins to the strap, although I'm not a pin collector as such. My friend, Liz, sent me a link to all the exclusive souvenirs offered during the Food and Wine Festival and the Halloween party. There are pins. I will need to get pins for the strap.

After Disney, I can see this being a shopping tote for me. I'm going to keep the steampunk bag and try to find replacement bottles for the front. In some situations, the steampunk bag will be nice. It just doesn't work as I thought it would, for the Disney vacation.

Beverage:  Coca-Cola

Deb

Costuming

I don't get invited to parties. That's not an "Oh woe is me" statement. I'm always uncomfortable at a party, anyway, unless I know people willing to let me hang around with them. I don't do the wander up and commence speaking very well. I can hold my own in a conversation, but initiating it is not something I'm remotely comfortable doing. Plus, as I've aged, the idea of a party where the entertainment is standing around talking while eating and drinking, is not appealing. I far prefer parties where we play games. And, I don't have friends in the area who do parties where I feel comfortable.

So, I read of others' Halloween parties and am happy for them it was well attended and happy for me that I stayed home. But, I'm going to Disney World in October and part of the trip is to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. I'm looking forward to it.

One of the things you can do is come in costume. That's something of a conundrum for me. I did a minion costume years ago because I had a rheumatology appointment on Halloween, but I haven't dressed up since. I still have all the pieces to do that costume. Then, my friend, Meredith sent me to JoAnn Fabrics by showing me pajamas in minion designs at Wal*Mart. Remember, I came home with two fabrics and a pattern for a shirt. I could wear the minion hat and one of the two shirts I intend to make, maybe get some white gloves. I could keep a crib sheet with me which has "minion speak" on it and reply to comments with minion-ese. All it would cost is the money and time to make the shirts.

In order to get to the shirts, I needed to finish the jacket I cut out last year but never sewed. I'm notorious for grand ideas which never get finished, but I've simply told myself no minion shirt until the jacket is done. I've actually made steady progress on the jacket. I have help.

Every outfit must have cat hair on it.

It goes together fairly quickly, with long seams joining front to back.

The hard part is the trim. It's a wide band which can be in the same color, but is shown with a different color. I decided on black satin. I'm very pleased with the result.

The trim has to be lined. I am used to fusible interfacing; which is easy to apply. But I worried satin wouldn't take very well to the heat and steam needed to properly fuse the interfacing to the stain. I worried that I'd wind up with very distinct iron imprints in the satin. A friend who actually makes costumes said that wouldn't be the main problem. Satin would pucker as the interfacing cooled. So, it was sew-in interfacing.

This brought up another issue. Did I have any? I pulled out the box marked "Interfacing and sewing assists". There was a bit on top in the box, but not nearly enough to put interfacing in all the trim you see. Then, I spied a bag on the floor of the closet. Inside was more interfacing than I needed for a dozen jackets, including sew-in. I'd purchased interfacing to go with the minion shirts, but that's going at the bottom of the pile. I need to use up some of the other pieces I have. Oh the problem of accumulation in the life of a sewer. Do I or don't have have enough interfacing or the right color of thread. Better buy some just in case. I have to stop "just in casing".

I encountered an issue at the neck. I don't know if I didn't cut the right pattern piece or what, but the trim band at the neck was not large enough to go around the neck without making pleats in the jacket neckline. I dug out the pattern and I seem to have cut out the right piece. I tried pinning several different ways, but none of them worked. I decided I needed to cut a rectangle piece to pin across the back of the neck. Digging out the leftover satin, I discovered someone had peed on it. I have no idea when, but the odor was unmistakable. I cut two squares, tossed the rest in the wash, and hand washed the pieces I needed. I sliced the neck piece in half, sewed this extension into the trim and finished pinning the trim to the jacket. The other piece went into the facing of the trim since you use the same pieces for the facing. It fit fine with an additional 3 inches of fabric. With this being black satin, you won't suspect this piece wasn't supposed to be there to begin with.

The next step was to prepare the facing. I did the same thing with the facing as I did with the trim; added the additional 3 inches. I'm sitting in the recliner, Mija purring next to me, and I'm having problems getting the facing to match around the bottom of the jacket. Something is off. I unpin the facing and lay it flat on the table.

When I was pinning the facing pieces together, I twisted one side of the bottom facing when sewing the pieces together. I was quite frustrated and had to set the project aside. How could I have missed this? Taking a seam apart is a problem, but doing it on satin was double trouble. It's easy to make the satin look awful when you have to remove seams. I couldn't cut another piece because the fabric was in the middle of the laundry chute and I really don't know if I can adequately remove the smell. I'm hopeful because there's enough satin to do something else with if I can salvage it. What to do. What to do.

I finally decided to use fusible interfacing to save the piece. This is the facing. It won't be primarily visible. This is also along the bottom inside of the jacket. I'm not going for a prize here. I'm going for having it done. So, I cut the facing apart, took a hunk of fusible interfacing and "fused" the two pieces together, after making sure I had them untwisted. The fused pieces didn't pucker as much as I was expecting, thankfully, so they pinned nicely onto the trim.

Once the facing and the trim were sewn together, you need to understitch the facing to make sure it doesn't roll forward. I remember, from my high school sewing days, that understitching was recommended for all facings but you rarely see it in the instructions. This jacket has that step. I clipped the curves and decided the best thing to do would be to pin the facing to the seam to make understitching easier.

In doing this, I encountered another problem, my RA. July was a tough month for me. There were bouts of achy joints. I haven't had it cause problems with my cross-stitch or sewing until now. I would hold the facing to the left, smooth it, and with the right hand, pin it in the direction I was going to sew. The holding and smoothing put more stress on my left wrist than I was expecting. After pinning half of the facing, I couldn't do anymore. The pain was too great. I wound up pinning the rest of the facing over two days and understitching last night.

This is where the jacket is today.

I need to press the facing to the inside. I'm going to add gold braid at the junction of the trim and the jacket, because, why not. That will pick up the gold in the bow ties of the cats. I should be able to stitch down the facing at the same time I attach the braid. The hem on the sleeves is just a simple 5/8 inch hem, but I'm thinking of looking through my trim box to see if I have any black seam binding. I think that would look great. I need to sew a "Made by" label on the neck facing, too.

There's hard pinning upcoming with attaching the braid so I have to be mindful of how my wrists and fingers feel. I really wanted gold piping but that's not made anymore, at least JoAnn Fabrics didn't have gold piping. I didn't want to spend $20 in gas searching for something which didn't exist. I probably could have found it on the Internet, and given how long it's taken me to get this far, I wouldn't have been waiting on something to complete the jacket, but what I got is distinctive.

So now my costume for Mickey's party has changed. I was going to bring this jacket to Disney anyway. I could put a pink shirt under it and wear it with black jeans, which I was planning on packing anyway. Then, I could get black cat ears on a headband. The Halloween costume stores which spring up around the holiday should be opening soon and I'm positive I can get black cat ears.

I don't know what to do. Minion or black cat. Minion or black cat. I guess I see how quickly the minion shirt goes together and how it looks.

Almost done.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

Sewing

I'm "blaming" my friend, Meredith Carney, for a spur-of-the moment purchase at the beginning of the month. In case you don't know, the movie "Despicable Me 3" is now in movie theaters. The minions are back and with them, product tie-ins, of course. She was shopping at Wal*Mart, a place I won't go, and sent me photos of some minion clothing. "Hmmmm," thinks I. "Is there minion fabric?" Well duh.

JoAnn Fabrics might have just a few choices. There are also some prints available online only, but I need to see the fabric to decide what print to get and then, what to make of said print.

Yes, yes. I know what's going through your head. We will not talk about the boxes of fabric in the closet. We will agree to just nod in that general direction. Look! Minions! I did not have to go to JoAnn Fabrics for anything. I went because of minions and Meredith showing me clothing at Wal*Mart. What's the aphorism? "I can resist anything except temptation"?

I came home with these.

The Disney World trip is less than 100 days away now. I was going to do something crazy and make capes for all the guild members, and family members, attending the event. But, about April, I realized I'd bitten off way more than I could chew so I abandoned that before I spent $$$ on fabric I won't get fashioned into things. But I could get a shirt done before October.

I opted to buy a new pattern. I usually don't buy Vogue patterns because they assume you are more than an intermediate sewer, but I like this one and it's fairly simple. I'm going to make the shirt at the lower right corner. It's two fabrics. I will make a mostly yellow with a white block and then a mostly white with a yellow block. The shirt has a 9 inch zipper in the front to facilitate putting it on. It's stitched in the "invisible zipper" style, something I haven't done in a very long time. We'll see. Since this is a strictly humorous shirt, I don't, necessarily, care if it's visible or invisible. The zipper is not the point of the shirt.

I get these home and feel the desire to sew rising. In order to do that, I had to clear a path to the ironing board and deal with the stuff I had stacked on the ironing board. Then, I've spent the last week clearing off the kitchen table. I'm so bad about just dropping stuff there in the "I'll deal with it later" mode, and there it sits. The urge to just move stuff to another pile was strong, but I resisted and actually cleared off the table, putting things away, dealing with them.

In the process of cleaning, I found the pieces to a lightweight jacket I was going to make last year, to wear to Carole's for my birthday.

(There's the cape pattern I bought. Not sure what I'll do with it now, but you never know when a pattern will come in handy.)

The jacket is not complicated.

I cut out the pattern back in early October of last year.

And then it sat. I got busy and just lost the desire to work on it, even with a self-imposed deadline. When the table was cleared and all the pieces liberated, I felt like I couldn't sew the two shirts without finishing this jacket. I didn't have, handy, thread matching the pink. I have, instead, a dark mauve-ish color which actually works better. One day's worth of sewing and viola.

The next step is to prepare the trim. I'm using a black satin for the trim around the jacket and sleeves. I bought more interfacing for the shirts, which was a good thing because it appears I never cut interfacing for the trim. But I got to thinking. I haven't sewn satin in years and I have concerns about fusing interfacing to satin. Would the iron leave marks as I was fusing? Asking my seamstress friends, they said to use sew-in interfacing because satin will pucker with fusible. Hadn't thought about puckering. The next issue is, do I have enough non-fusible interfacing? I haven't a clue, so I will have to find the box with the interfacing, and, tonight, take a look. At least there is still a sale at JoAnn's so if I need interfacing, it will be on sale. I don't use non-fusible if I can help it, but I know I have a stash, just how much is the question.

So, here we go. Once the interfacing issue is resolved, this will go together very quickly. Then I can work on the minion shirts. Sewing makes me feel good. Finishing projects makes me feel double good. It's win/win. And, my "helper" likes to supervise when I sit in the recliner as I pin seams.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Can't Go Alone

I had to go to JoAnn Fabrics in early October for some craft thing. I don't remember why I had them on my errand list. It's dangerous for me to walk in there. It ranks with bookstores as places I shouldn't go unaccompanied because the allure of things other than what I came for is so strong.

Of course I came out with more than I went in.

It was Halloween and so much was on sale. I bought the superhero pattern because I have this great idea, assuming I have the time to pull it off. At least I have the pattern. As I walked through the store, the cat print caught my eye. I had to have it. Yes, yes, I know. I have 6 boxes in the office closet which contain fabric. Couldn't I use those if I wanted to sew? But...but...black cats!

It took awhile to find just the right pattern to utilize the fabric. I've settled on a kimono-style jacket. It will be trimmed with black satin. It should go together fairly quickly.

Step one was to clear off the kitchen table and get the cutting board out of the closet. When I pulled out the board, which is little more than heavy cardboard, I noticed a stinkbug. It was a nice day, so I took the board outside to flick the bug into the yard. I opened up the board and, oh lordy.

There are 6 bugs plus a spider egg nest. Ultimately, I flicked a dozen bugs into the back yard. Since fixing the humidifier and fan on the furnace, I've had stink bugs all over the living room. I've sort of come to accept they are in the walls and crevices of the house. I'm always going to find them. The best I can do is flush 'em when I see them. The cats play with them on occasion, but they have learned, very quickly, these things are not for snacks.

I haven't sewn much around these cats, but I remember the previous ones.

Tissue paper patterns were "the cat's meow". You could almost see them salivating about jumping onto the pattern and playing. These kids aren't that interested in the pattern paper. I'm very okay with that.

Usually, I wash a fabric hunk before cutting, to remove any sizing and make the fabric shrink, if it's going to. But I wanted to cut this out right away so I skipped that step. This is so awesome. I just love the pattern of the cats.

I opened the back door to let in the sunshine and the warm October breeze and started cutting. I've said before, if I could get someone to do this step; pin and cut out; I'd probably go through all my fabric in those boxes. It would all be used. I really dislike this stage.

And this is as far as I've gotten. October got really busy and I wound up tabling this project. It sits on top of the sewing box on the kitchen table. It's been surrounded by boxes for recycling and mailing. I'm working on my current cross-stitch project, which I need to post here so you can see that progress. This is typical Sagittarius. Our lives are filled with started projects. When we actually get something done, we are as amazed as our friends and family are. Must clean off kitchen table.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Got Me

I'm working on a long-term project. I won't start in earnest until the after-Christmas sales, but we'll say it involves a Halloween costume pattern and fabric. As Halloween patterns are on sale right now PLUS I had coupons, I entered JoAnn Fabrics last Sunday with the blinders on to get one pattern and one pattern only.

Yeah, that didn't go so well.

The cat print was on the end of a row of splashy Halloween fabric. The way this particular store is laid out, you're going to see brightly colored, distinctive fabrics when you walk in. In the store where I take my stuff to be framed, I would not have seen this, but I wasn't going all the way up there for a pattern, when I knew my local JoAnn's would have it.

I resisted for about 10 minutes. I actually had to pull up the costume pattern and look at it, to make sure it will do what I need to have done. And then I started paging through the Simplicity book, looking at shirts. I have an ancient camp shirt pattern which I've used for a wide variety of shirts, but I had no idea how much material it took and there was nothing like it in any of the books. There was one shirt I liked mainly because of the location of the pockets. But the variation I really wanted, long torso and elbow-length sleeves, did not have a fabric amount on the back. I'm no good at estimating the amount of fabric needed. Here was this kimono-themed jacket. It's not lined and it's reasonably simple to assemble. There was a variation for contrasting trim. I liked the look of the pattern.

Now, Pam was not around to talk me out of this purchase. I was running errands on this date; groceries, Target, JoAnn, cat food. Probably, both the pattern and the fabric will be around at the end of December, but I could make this and have it for my trip to Virginia at the end of November. I'm going to do the contrasting trim in black satin. I almost bought blanket edging, instead of the satin, but I wasn't sure how it would work around the neck. The pattern piece is curved to accommodate the neck line. Blanket satin is not.

So, I am testament to the power of putting eye-catching items on the end of a row. The gal helping me liked this material as much as I did. I could see this as a vest with a quilted lining, since you can buy quilted fabric now. Add a gold shirt and a bow tie, topping the look off with a top hat and a cane, and you have a Halloween costume. I'd probably wear the vest year-round.

I need to make room on the table in the living room to cut this out and get it made. We won't talk about the boxes of fabric in the closet.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Finished

I finished the last shirt on Sunday.

It was helpful that the Iowa Northwestern football game was on TV. I could finish seams with my feet up while watching the game. The next step is to wash and dry the shirts.

Officially today, two weeks from right now, I will be in an airplane heading to California. It hardly seems possible that it's just 14 days away. Things have come together nicely in spite of some set backs. I'm trying not to be anxious, but it's a struggle. What have I forgotten to do? The shirts are done. That is a load off my mind. I've started to set clothing aside so it doesn't get worn. This isn't like going to Carole's. This is a pack 'em up vacation. Breathe. Breathe. We'll be the best looking people at BlizzCon.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Last Shirt

I cut out and started stitching the last of the three shirts for BlizzCon.

It's hard to believe that it's T-23 days and counting. I'm starting to think of the clothes I want to bring along and are they clean, particularly the shirts. As I don't do wash but once a week now, I have to actually plan for things instead of just what happens to be next in the closet.

I had purchased all the fabric on the bolt, when I was at JoAnn's. This was to give me a cushion, in case I screwed something up. As it turns out, I needed the cushion just to cut the pattern. Not exactly sure how I miscalculated, but I wound up needing all of the length. I do have a chunk near the end which wasn't big enough for anything. I just set it aside in the scrap box. Some day...

It was intriguing to see how the cardboard bolts are fashioned now.

After determining that I'd take the whole thing, the gal at JoAnn's simply rolled the fabric back on the bolt and gave me the whole thing. I unrolled the rest of the fabric and discovered the bolt is just folded cardboard. I remember when this was a fairly sturdy rectangle. Maybe that's still true for some fabrics, but, for this one, it wasn't. This is, actually, easier to add to the recycling bin.

Now that I'm on the third shirt, it's going together rather quickly. The hard part is the collar and front facing. Once that is done, it's a piece of cake to finish. BlizzCon, here we come.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

Happy Season

Part of the sewing experience is there are times when I have to sit and pin or sit and hand sew. In those times, I like to pop in a movie or have the TV on to be glanced at. I consider my crafting ancestors and realize this is an anomaly. They would not have had TV, radio, DvDs or Blu-Ray movies to occupy their time when they were darning socks or stitching up a dress or two. Yet there is something about that "background noise" which makes projects go a bit faster than a house with no artificial sounds.

As I was pinning sleeves onto the latest shirt to be completed, I popped in the quintessential Halloween movie. You'll recognize it.

That's right, it's "Nightmare Before Christmas". This is my second favorite line in the movie. "And since I am dead, I can take off my head and recite Shakespearean quotations." I have to chuckle at this since a great number of ghosts permeate Shakespeare's plays and deliver important lines to further on the plot.

My absolute favorite lines are spoken by this character at this time in the movie.

If you don't know the movie, the mayor shows up at Jack Skellington's house to go over the plans for next Halloween. Jack, having a crisis of identity, is out wandering about and is not home. After ringing the bell twice, the mayor goes from happy to this pleading face.

"Jack, I'm only an elected official. I can't make decision by myself." When I see the current crop of presidential candidates, of either party, trot themselves out and start brandishing whatever policy they think can get them elected, I think of this character and simply laugh.

The only other thing I need to watch is "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and Halloween will be in full force. Time to change the fall wreath on the door to the one with ghosts on it.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

T Minus 28 Days and Two Shirts

Shirt number two was finished last night.

It's hanging up in my closet. This weekend, I will cut and start work on shirt number 3. That one should be finished next week and then I can give these a washing before packing them for BlizzCon. Speaking of which, there are 28 days before I'm on a plane flying to California and 30 days, exactly, until the convention starts. I'll be going to Disneyland on Thursday for a few hours, with Elizabeth, while we await Ashley's arrival. It doesn't seem possible that I'm less than a month away from this trip I've been planning for 6 months. Everything seems to be in order but I am worried there will be something unplanned come up and make me overstressed. I have to remember to breathe when things get hairy.

I had help on this shirt.

When I have to pin stuff, I'll pop in a movie and recline. Mija usually sits next to me. She's not a lap cat but loves just being next to me, where she can demand ear scratches. Pilchard, on the other hand...

When she wants my lap, she wants me lap, regardless of what I happen to be doing. Here, I was attaching buttons to the front of shirt number 2. She demands my attention.

She has to smell my fingers, sometimes lick them.

Once I've been sufficiently smelled, I'm allowed the opportunity to scratch. Of course, this stops all work on the shirt, and that is, possibly, the reason for the leap into the lap.

So, here we go, down to the wire. I would have had these done earlier if I hadn't gotten sick. Oh well. What's that aphorism? If it wasn't for the last minute, a lot of things wouldn't get done.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

And So It Begins

Ah fall. My absolute favorite season. The crisp air. The wonderful scents. The bugs. Wait...what?

The Farmer's Almanac has said we're going to have a warmer and dryer winter. The Weather Channel said October is supposed to be warmer with average rainfall. But when I'm finding these nasty things all over the house, I have to wonder if they are moving inside because they know the weather is about to change and not for good. I found 4 of them over the weekend. For some reason, they love the iron so I have to check it every time I pick up the iron for use. That's where this one and 2 others were.

I can't remember if these are merely soldier bugs or the dreaded stink bug. Neither is welcome in my house, actually, so they were scooped up and flushed away. I discovered if you didn't flush after tossing them into the toilet, the buggers figured out how to escape the toilet paper, swam to the side of the bowl and started to climb out. Yeah...that's not happening.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

One of Three

Shirt number 1 is finished.

This one is mine. This way, I can remember how to do buttonholes; the bane of my sewing existence; and could try out what I thought, in my mind's eye, I wanted to do. I put the label not square in the back and, as it's hanging up outside the closet, I can see exactly where it should have gone. That wasn't apparent at 2:45 yesterday afternoon.

See? It looked square here. Oh well. I'll be better in the next two shirts.

I like the piping and the buttons. As this is a novelty shirt, I don't expect Ashley or Liz to wear it more than once, but I'm fulfilling my bargain that if we went to BlizzCon, I'd get us shirts. I'll wear the heck out of mine as I love this kind of shirt.

Liz's is cut.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Sunday Stitching

Nothing like a beautiful Sunday to put me in the mood for stitching. The sunshine was glorious and a light breeze made the temperature lovely. I popped on the TV. Hey, it's football. Perfect background noise. The last day of sewing left me with the collar trim stitched onto the collar, the two pieces of the collar sewn together and the whole thing pinned onto the shirt. Today, I sewed the collar and the collar facing onto the shirt.

Once the collar and facing were hand sewn to the shoulder seams and the collar and facing have been pressed. The shirt instructions call for top stitching, but I'm not going to do that. I had considered topstitching in cream, but I prefer the cream piping.

After getting the collar attached, it was time to attach the sleeves. I got them done and then it was time to move on to household chores.

The next step is to sew the side seams, hem the sleeves and the bottom and do the buttonholes. This shirt is nearly done.

Beverage:  Blueberry pomegranate juice

Deb

Want a Little Star Wars?

I missed the point, I think, of Force Friday on September 4th. It seems a lot of Star Wars merchandise was released to the public. Other than obtaining for gifts, the whole hype of the day was lost on me. I did have to go back to JoAnn to pick up some supplies for the shirts and what I saw interests me. Look at the fabric.

The above and below is cotton material.

If you'd like something else, they had fleece in all sorts of prints.

Camelot Fabrics, whose link to their blog you can find to the right, is the designer of all of this.

In my mind's eye, as I perused the bolts, I could see pjs and robes and curtains and quilts and shirts, lots and lots of shirts.

No, I did not come home with a bunch of fabric. I have way more than I can use at any given time, but the sheer amount of Star Wars-themed fabric set my heart aflutter with possibilities. I'm sensing there will be a lot of Star Wars clothing coming at Christmas.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Stitching

I didn't get as much done this weekend as I thought I would. The problem was PBS doing a marathon showing of Ken Burns' The Civil War on Saturday. I'd watched episode 1 online, but you had to watch the rest on TV. It started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 6:15 p.m. Then, it started up again at 6:30 p.m. and I have no idea when it ended. I spent all day reacquainting myself with history. Thanks to one event in South Carolina in the summer, I heard many of the things said by people during that war with a new understanding. Although I lost a whole day, I am very glad I made time to watch. The remastering made the program an incredible viewing experience.

So, today was grocery shopping and sewing. I spent a great amount of time dealing with pockets. I wanted the pockets on the shirts to look a certain way and they just wouldn't. I ripped out so many stitches and wound up cutting more pockets. Thankfully, I bought extra fabric for just such an occurrence. After 90 minutes, I finally got something I liked.

Shoulder seams have been sewn and I started working with the collar. I was going to do something interesting but realized I sewed the idea wrong. It was late afternoon by the time I ripped out that stitching and I needed supper so I set it aside for now. It's energizing to craft, even when it doesn't go exactly as I think it will.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

Pieces

One shirt is cut.

I'm going to be doing some special stitching on the pockets and then I had a brilliant idea but that required a trip to JoAnn. This will be so cool when it's done, at least, in my mind's eye, I think it will look cool.

Beverage:  Dunkin' Donuts tea

Deb