Starting to Sew Again

Still pretty messy

The sewing room is slowly coming together, as you can see. All the boxes are removed and only a few remain to be unpacked.

Definitely much better organization than before

 I decided that function trumps form in organization, so instead of buying cute antique furniture to store my projects, I bought large plastic tubs and organized all of the projects in them. I labeled each one with a category and number, such as "Quilt", or "SEW", and inventoried each project that went into them. It was a scary proposition. I have so many projects I don't see how on earth I'll get them done in my lifetime. So I've started a donation bag, and have put some things into it. I have also come across some fabric that I'll never use, and brought that to my tatting group. Most of them sew, and were glad to get some free fabric. My daughter is learning to crochet, so she got all the yarn and hooks, and the knitting supplies went to the Loveland Library Knitting Group.

I love this old secretary/cabinet

I do have one antique piece, well, vintage really. This was in our family room in California, sitting in a nook once occupied by a wet bar long since torn out. I haven't quite decided just what to put in it, so it's mostly empty now as I figure out what to use it for. I still have to figure out pattern and thread storage, and what to put on the walls. There is a lot of space just waiting to be used.

Craftsy kit that I bought a year ago

 Last year I bought this Craftsy kit, and it went into storage. As I was going through all of my projects I decided to put it together right now as it is so hot. The fabric is a rayon challis which was a bear to sew as it is so slippery, like silk charmeuse. The sleeves are fairly wide, and I hemmed them with self bias strips that I cut myself. Next time I'll make cotton strips which should be easier to handle. I also will use maybe a cotton voile or lawn instead of rayon.

My new dress

But it looks fairly decent and is very comfortable to wear, except that as it is loose fitting, the shoulders tend to slip.  It looks huge on the form, but that is because I bought the form about 20 pounds ago. I don't have a photo of me in it, as we went walking this morning and I don't want to put the dress on my very nasty body right now.

Lingerie stays should help keep the shoulders in place

I went leafing through some of my sewing books and came across lingerie stays made with ribbon. I've seen them with crocheted thread, but this was pretty easy. I couldn't find snaps so I cut some from some baby snap tape that I had. I have since found the snaps that are not attached to fabric. 

He fits beautifully in the sink

I realized that since it was so long since I've posted, you might want to see what my little grandson looks like now. I just love those curls (and that big sink).

Can you believe he is 20 years old?

We got Oscar in mid August, 1996, and he was six weeks old at the time. So I figure his birthday is right about now, the first week in July. In human years he is 97! He has settled beautifully in the new home and goes out to sit by his catnip on the right.

My next project, before I sew anything else, is to get that dress form into shape. It's not doing me a bit of good being a size too small. I've just started a Craftsy class on this subject and can't wait to get going. I have some old drapery fabric purchased about 30 years ago, so all I needed was a long zipper and the pattern. Stay tuned, I'll post my progress on it.