Laundry Day Tee. Or Not.

Yes, I'm actually posting twice in the same month. I'll wait while you get off the floor.

So apparently one of the best ways to kickstart a missing sewjo is to write a blog post about how little desire you have to sew. And in a similar vein, when in that same blogpost you lament about not liking any fabric choices you've seen lately … well, you know where that's going. Yep. A few yards may have jumped into my shopping cart during Fabricmart's latest Pyramid sale. And then possibly a few more a week later during the Knits sale.

That's all good news. But I am not without hiccups and speed bumps in this story.

Let's begin.

First, last year I had bought a crap-ton of patterns during one of the BMV all-brands sales. My order arrived. I ooohed. I ahhed. I made plans. I bought fabric. I dreamed. I put the patterns … well, that's just it. I have NO IDEA where I put those patterns (or a few others) and I've been looking for them on/off for MONTHS. My house is not big. I'm fairly organized. I cannot solve this mystery. I give up. I've decided I'll repurchase some of them during the next BMV all-brand sale. (And then I'll find the missing stack.)

So I moved on for the time being. While I may not have been sewing myself these past months, I still have been reading sewing blogs and websites and checking into Facebook sewing/pattern groups regularly. I've seen more than a few Love Notions Laundry Day Tees made up and modeled, with lots of raving about the pattern. Being the lemming that I am, or maybe because it was free when you join the LN Facebook group, I downloaded the PDF and printed it last week, with plans to use some of the newly acquired Fabricmart yardage.

Yesterday, I got the pattern out to tape the sheets together, which I did. I know it's free and all, but I wasn't extremely impressed, starting with the fact the PDF is supposed to be "trimless." This means you don't need to slice off unprinted page margins to accurately join the pages into one cohesive layout. I found I still needed to trim. Not a big deal. I'm used to it. I'm not ready to blame Love Notions on this yet because I haven't double-checked my printer settings (and I'm not sure I will spend time to do so), but do be warned in case it's a legit problem.

What really bugged me was the pattern itself. See below.

First, the front and back aren't separate pieces. If you're away from your printer when you realize this and can't print a quick duplicate, it means you have to trace or tape the jigsaw puzzle back together. It also means you're going to be ticked off. I absolutely do not see the point in this (the print layout, not the being ticked off). Well, OK, there is a slight point if you're printing to a commercial print house's large format printer and paying by the sheet, but even then, give us the option of more sheets with the other half of the damn pattern so we can decide for ourselves which pages to print.

Next, it should be obvious that if the front and back pieces are identical,  except for necklines, there's a good chance it won't fit a curvy body. Pretty sure my front and back aren't anywhere close to identical. I won't even talk about the sleeve being cut on the fold. Guess it's a good thing after all that I didn't do all that "extra" printing. ;-) I'm not truly knocking this pattern because (1) I haven't actually sewn it and (2) it does get lots of love and I have seen some very nice finished tees. But I did conclude it wasn't for me and the symmetrical drafting makes me hesitant to try a paid-for LN pattern.

Side note on the LDT - Does anyone understand what the heck is meant by this? It totally does not make sense.

I decided what I was really after was the overall trapeze shape of the LDT and looked for my Cashmerette Concord pattern to just do that simple hack. Apparently my paper version of the Concord is with the other missing patterns mentioned above. Grrr, that MIA list just keeps getting longer. But I knew I also had a PDF version (from testing) that was already trimmed and ready to tape, and I was able to locate that one. Except … I was missing at least 6 of the pages. Six pages that would fall right across the bodice. I have no idea how that happened. Apparently, I'm getting old and senile. Missing patterns. Missing pattern pages. Missing brain.

Instead of giving up, I reached for my so very trusty TNT, the Ottobre Woman tee from the 02/2007 issue (cover below) and added the flare and length of the LDT.

And then I cut it out of this, with enough left for a matching skirt cuz I love me some 2-piece dresses. Yes, I know it's only a skirt and a top. I just like saying 2-piece dress. It sounds fancier. Humor me. :-)

And then I was done "sewing" for the day.

I've made a deal with myself to spend at least 15 minutes a weekday on this until it's done. I think I'll stick with it because I'm excited about the print placement for this one and want to see it finished. If I had started with the Ottobre, I'd be done by now. I hope I learned that lesson.

Quick Update

It's pretty sad that I've now got to start any blog post with "Yes, I'm alive" but when 6+ months go by, I guess it's to be expected. (Yes, I'm alive.)

Sewing has taken a back burner for a while. I've had limited sewing time and when I did manage to eek out something, I ended up with wadders. Very frustrating. And the "best" way to instantly kill the sewjo. I'm still dreaming/thinking about sewing and will get back to it, but I'm also having trouble finding inspirational fabric. In other words, I'm not seeing very much lately that is ME. I keep looking, but I keep deciding that what's in the cart isn't really doing it for me and just close the check-out window. I'm pretty sure it's not my sewing ennui that is creating my "problem." I'm just not loving what's available at the moment (this "moment has been going on for months!). And while I still have a substantial stash, even it is pretty depleted of favorites (what I want to sew/wear), so that's not much of a help either. Ahh. First-world problems. If you'd like to share any online fabric stores with great prints I may have missed, please feel free to enable me in the comments. :-)

So, if not sewing, what have I been doing? Well for starters, I've been working at my job during the weekdays. I've been here 3 years now . On weekends, I've been 50% of the "rehab crew" for Alex's real estate investment adventures. He's just finished fixing-up and renting out his third property. It's been a lot of fun to work with him and I'm beaming with pride at his success but I'm definitely too old and out of shape to do this more than part-time! A couple of months just on weekends kicks my butt.

Here are the Before/During/After pics of the kitchen we just completed.

Last month, my stepson Michael got married. Here he is below with his beautiful bride Hannah. (Do you see the peacock behind them?)

The goofball groomsmen brothers. For any of you long-time readers, can you believe Alex is my "baby" and he's already 25. The years just fly!

Tyler is still in the Marine Corps (a Sergeant now) … for about 4 more months. Then he will leave the Corps, marry his fiancée Angela (below) in October, and start new adventures. 

Overall, life is good. There just hasn't been much sewing going on and my intentions to check in are on that infamous road. Hopefully, I'll be revving up the machines soon. I need things!