Errands and Odd Jobs

I spent a lot of time in the sewing room yesterday but I have nothing to show for it. At least nothing wearable. As planned, I did trace my TNT pants pattern onto STP (Swedish Tracing Paper) and also made pieces for the modifications I've been wanting to do. Things like different pocket opening shapes, a back yoke for jeans, and tracing off different hem widths so I can mix-n-match without dragging out the pattern tissue. I didn't hang the pattern tracings as I was initially thinking; instead I rolled them and put them into the empty bottom drawer of my pattern cabinet. My TNT Ottobre tees tracings are also rolled and I'll store them in the same place after I've made a few more over the next couple of weeks. For now, they're sitting on top of the cabinet, gently calling to me. (Soon, my pretties, very soon.)

I really wanted to put the newly traced/created yoked jeans pattern to work, but I don't have any decent denim. Really. I'm all out. Well, not all out, but the few pieces/colors I have aren't what I want to sew. So I ordered two cuts (one solid brown and the other dark denim blue) from Fashion Fabrics Club. Since I'm dealing with FFC, it will take a while before it gets here so I'll just have to be patient. I hope I love the brown because that's a color that is still going to figure prominently in my wardrobe as we move into Autumn, if not in temperature at least by calendar.

I've also decided that with or without DH (he'll be mostly out of town for the foreseeable future), I've *got* to do something about the lack of flat surfaces in my sewing room. The only places to put things that need a temporary resting area are on my cutting table and on the ironing board. I don't like things piled up on my cutting table, especially when I want it clear for cutting or tracing and it's a right pain to not have a clear ironing board when I need it, so I want to convert my sewing table to have shelves under the cutting surface, very much like Melody did. I'm really, really tired of moving my Stacks of Important Stuff from cutting table to ironing board to floor to table to board to table to floor … well, you get the picture. I long for two shelves under the cutting table. I dream of two shelves under the cutting table. I covet two shelves under the cutting table. I'd sell my firstborn for two shelves … OK, that's a little extreme, but I just can't stand it anymore. I have a $50 Home Depot birthday gift card in my wallet from my mom and I know how to use it! Now I have to come up with plans and a materials list and psych myself up to actually tear apart my sewing room even more while it gets done.

But before that, I need to clear out the mending jobs. First up will be the 4 throw pillows that belong on our family room sofas. Dani, sweet poochie that she is, has a puppy penchant for chewing zippers on throw pillows. Sigh. She's gotten all but one of them, so far. I'm going to take the easy way out and remove the remainder of those zippers and just sew the darn pillows permanently shut.

After that, I need to re-attach four beltloops to two pairs of DS' jeans. I'll have to sew in a reinforcement patch inside the jeans first since there's now only holes where the beltloops used to be. Don't ask.

And in about an hour, I'll be shuttling with DS to take his Jeep into the shop so his A/C can be worked on.

It's going to be a another busy day, so I'd better get moving.