Category: All (-ish)

Provence Smock finally finished.

And I love it!
This was supposed to be done for the first day of school.  Unlike the other two aprons I made last year, this one has half-inch binding instead of quarter inch.  I wasn’t paying attention when I bought and I couldn’t get back to the fabric store, so I rolled with it.  I like the quarter-inch binding better, but this is okay.  I adore the material, which looks like Portland in the winter, with the grey background and the colorful buildings and the bridges.  I think the pink ties everything together nicely.
And look at the fun buttons I got, which were half-off at Fabric Depot.

I had some trouble with the corner where the yoke joined the apron bottom.

If you turn your head sideways you can see this pocket detail.
There were many expressions of glee when I wore this to school.  I like all three of my aprons for different reasons, and I’m very excited to welcome this one into the fold.

Some finds at Fabric Depot…

…that stayed at Fabric Depot.
You have no idea how much the matchy-matchy part of me wanted to buy every single color and make 14 of all the same thing.  Fourteen!

I adored this turquoise and purple print.  I think it would make a fantastic shirt. Julie and her friend Olwin found it revolting, which means it’s perfect for me.

All three of us adored this coat, which was on display.

It meets all of my coat requirements which are:  thigh length, hood, hourglass, easy, can do autumn and winter.
Julie bought the pattern.  Now I only have to speed through my oh-so-many-projects so I can make this twice:  Once in heavy material for winter, once in something light for fall/spring.  Don’t hold your breath.
We also bought material for my shrug. It’s boring, but warm.  And I got buttons for my apron as well as the bias tape I need to finish that project.

U-Lock Bag


I keep my bike secure by using two U-locks, which I store in my bike basket.  Unfortunately, the metal U-locks combined with the metal bike basket produces a metallic rattle that takes away from the calm and silent nature of biking.  For years (YEARS!) I’ve dreamed of putting together a simple bag for my U-locks. 
Thanks to HabitRPG’s Seamstress Guild I have!  The challenge this month is to Make Something Simple. (a.k.a. the MSS Challenge). The thing I loved about this project is we had to make a Project Log, which could be something as simple as a piece of paper.  Then, you just write down daily what you did, even if the answer is nothing.  I found this to be tremendously motivating.  I don’t sew on weekdays (unless on vacation) because I don’t like having the sewing stuff on the dining room table all the time.  But by logging that on a Tuesday I “thought about bike bag” it seemed like I was working on my project all week long, which motivated me to drag out all the sewing stuff on the weekend.  Genius.
Here is my pattern.

I had some scrap dress material which I serged to finish the edges.  There are two layers here.

Pinning up the middle.

A visual of how the bag will hold the locks.

Locks in completed bag.

Tucked away.
Flap folded over.

And bag folded once more.

So it can nestle quite nicely in my bike basket.  And my ride is quiet once again.

Shrug Pattern

It’s grown cold and my work dress is short sleeved.  What to do with my cold arms?  Make three more dresses in a long-sleeved pattern?  Possibly, if I had more money and more time.  Instead, I purchased a pattern for a shrug from Jalie Patterns.

This is the first pattern I’ve bought from this pattern company, which is Canadian and has a lot of active wear. I will likely buy more because I liked that the pattern paper was high quality and the shrug was easy to assemble.  Process photos coming soon.

Things have been happening at the City of Roses Motel site.

I haven’t been able to take any pictures because it’s become very dark in the morning, which is when I encounter this site.
But things have been happening!  First of all, they have removed a wall of shrubs that separated the house on the right from the motel site.  They also took out a tree in the back part of the lot and pulled down the ghetto palm growing on site.
Everything has been leveled (the kitty hangout depressions in the earth are gone) and gravel has been spread.
And the site has been wrapped in this.  I’m never sure if this is supposed to keep debris in, or keep prying eyes out.  Perhaps both.
My guess of what’s coming?  Row houses.  Maybe 12 of them, with underground garages. Although the rental market is tight, so it also might be more units than you thought possible with no parking.