This Is All I Got

Yep. That's my most recent sewing. Pathetic, isn't it?

DS#2 is the Center for the high school football team. When he plays wearing the hot game day jersey, he gets sweaty hands. (When I watch from the stands, I have hot flashes but I think that's something different!) He had cut up a school towel to make what we've … er … affectionately dubbed "crotch towels." In other words, small towels he can stick down the front of his pants so a flap hangs out over his crotch and he can wipe his hands dry before he snaps the ball. That worked OK for Week 1. Until they went through the school laundry and, well, you know what happened to a bunch of rough-cut, unfinished towel pieces. I'm just glad it wasn't MY washer. Although in a way, as taxpayers, I guess it was.

So last night, he took himself up to Walmart and bought a pack of cheap white terry face cloths, 18 to the pack. Tonight I rotary cut them in half to make 36 "crotch towels," and then serge-finished the 36 raw edges. Voila. The extent of my sewing. You can't stand the excitement, can you? ;-) But at least it was useful sewing and it made DS happy.

In other sewing room news …

The Vogue Betzina jeans made it muslin #2 during the week. And that's as far as I'm taking them. This thinner leg View just is not cut for my shape, which I really knew before I started. But I wanted to try them just to try them, and I did that so I'm OK with them not working out. I've got other jeans patterns that are TNT and I'm not going to waste any more time on these. Instead, I'll morph the features of the pattern that I like onto a tracing of the TNT. But that won't be my next project.

Here's the modified pattern for those wanting a peek.



I slashed down the middle of each leg and across the upper thigh and spread the tissue very much like you'd do a full-bicep alteration. I did this because I just wanted to add thigh room without changing the pattern too much. But instead of moving the tissue evenly, I moved the inner halves toward the inseams, since I always need more fabric toward the inner thighs anyway. For the front piece, I slashed all the way up through the waist so I wouldn't have to skew the CF/fly area. For the back, I left a hinge at the waist, and I also added a wedge to the CB because (a) I needed more crotch length and (b) my rear isn't as flat as this pattern is drafted for so the increase in that angle would probably work.

In general, those alterations were OK. But the pattern still needs work. If I were to continue with it, I'd need to take in about 2 inches at CB waist and at least 1" per sideseam at hip level as a result of slashing/spreading the front piece all the way up and the sideseams beings too curvy for me. (I always think it's strange that I have to de-curve most pants patterns to fit my curvy self.) I'd also have to shorten the leg length about 3 inches.

Between working, football, and football tee shirts, I've been SO busy the last few weeks that I can barely breathe. I know that I owe some emails, and they're coming, but I haven't even called my own mother in 2 weeks so don't take it personally. It's great working from home but the one major drawback is you don't leave the office every day. I sit down to check on one thing and before I know it, 2 more hours have disappeared. That's 2 SEWING HOURS! I haven't really read PatternReview in weeks, and I'm falling so behind on blogs. Sigh. But I'm promising myself lots of sewing time this weekend. Even if I resort to fast tee shirts.

My boss is promising relief (and a raise!). We really need to hire another person but none of us has been able to slow down enough to be able to train that person. Typical Catch-22.

But I do have my priorities and *did* keep up with Project Runway Australia (thanks Belinda!) and while I'm happy with its outcome, I'm sad it's over. I really liked the Aussie version so much better than the whiners on the current US run. I'm about ready to toss Kenley and her obnoxious nasal tone out a window. Anyody want to help push? ;-)