Homecoming 2007

Here's my "baby" Alex (15-1/2) in our driveway before we headed over to his date's house:



And here's the beautiful couple:



Everything was going well, time-wise, until we pulled into Samantha's driveway and Alex said, "Uh, mom. I think I forgot something." Before the words were even out of his mouth, I realized we had left Samantha's wristlet corsage at home in our refrigerator. Oops. I dropped him and made a mad dash back to our house to pick it up. We basically live on the same road (different names as it continues through 3 zip codes), but it's a long road and about a 15-minute drive between our house and hers. I made it back before the deadline for leaving for the restaurant so all was well.

Alex, Samantha, two other couples and Samantha's parents took off for Outback Steakhouse and then Samantha's parents dropped off the teenagers at the dance venue, which is a brand new media and theater center that's part of a local community college campus. Alex says it was very nice and much better than last year's venue, which was one of the big buildings at the Florida State Fairgrounds. In previous years, the school has also used Raymond James Stadium, the place where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team plays. One of the other girl's parents picked up the group and dropped them off at their individual houses so my participation was easy-peasy and I had a nice peaceful night to myself.

In response to a comment, yes, the Homecoming dances in our area are formal. I think it's great because it gives all the high schoolers one opportunity per year to go all out and have some good, clean fun. Prom is for Seniors only here, but Homecoming is open to all the grades. With both sons in high school, last year was a doozy for the budget because we had to rent two tuxedos for Homecoming and another for Prom, plus shell out the money for corsages, dinners, etc., but this year we're back to only one high-schooler and one tux/one event until Alex is a Senior.

And for non-U.S. readers asking what Homecoming actually is, I'll refer you to last year's Homecoming post, here. Yes, Alex is trying out different hairstyles. ;-) Last year, was a 5-inch Mohawk. This year, he's shaggy and curly, with hair much too pretty for a boy. I wish mine was still that red on its own. But there's no denying he's my son — he looks just like me, except for his blue eyes.

Oh, and the football team won Friday night 32-13. A perfect Homecoming week all around.

Out the door

What's the quickest way to make the steamy Florida temperatures drop? Why, sew a pair of capris in October, of course! It was a frigid 67 degrees when I took the dogs out at 6:15 a.m. Brrrr! I know, you're all laughing but after nearly 20 years of being a Floridian, anything below 70 is cold to me.

The capris are done and the temps are rising to be back over 80 by midday so all is going as planned so far. But that brief cold snap this morning gives me hope that lower humidity levels are just around the corner and soon we'll be enjoying that perfect Florida weather up until next May.

I went a little topstitching crazy on these but I wanted them to look more like "real" jeans than a quickie sew of pull-on denim pants. From way before summer started, I had really wanted to sew true jeans from this fabric but I never seemed to have the time. I finally decided *something* was better than wishing the flat fabric was pants. At least now I can wear them, and I will. A lot. I may still topstitch a fake fly onto the front but I'm out of time this morning and need to get out and about to start the day. A day which won't end until close to midnight, when I'm back home again after Team Mom and Game Day duties. Tonight is Homecoming, so halftime will run long and the game will end later than usual.

This is the side pocket. I *need* this pocket every Friday when I'm looking for an easy place to stash the receipt from the restaurant that provides the team meal. It's also good for dog treats during our daily walks. The back pockets are slighty bigger versions of this same shape, with the same topstitching. I wasn't imaginative this time as this is the exact same pocket and topstitching used for my khaki capris earlier in the year. I've been wearing those on some Fridays, but inevitably when I do is when I slosh BBQ sauce down my leg. If you haven't guessed yet, Mr. Murphy seems to follow me around a lot.



The bottom hem is vented, and I bartacked just above the opening with navy thread for a little invisible security. Nothing exciting there, just a detail that will be useful for me when I'm sitting funny and go to get up with my pants leg still stuck under my butt or something. ;-)



Now, to the shower and then out for a quick dog walk. Then off to the school to pick up checks for the restaurant, to the restaurant by noon for lunch for me and DS and then to load the food, return back to school to unload the food, set up the tables and drinks, serve the team, clean-up, return home around 4 p.m. for another quick dog walk, grab dinner, and off to the game at 6:45 p.m. Sounds like fun, eh? ;-) Actually, it is as long as you don't list it all out like that. Go Cougars!

Questions and Capris

OK, I have to admit that I never thought I'd get so many comments about the little thread rack and my "floating" basket. But thank you. It's nice to know I'm not the only one touched by OCD in the sewing room. ;-) There were a few questions/comments, so I'll address those here.

1. Will bobbin spools fit on those spindles?

Not directly. The spindles are on the thick side. And, as a side note, they are also spaced too close together to put C&C spools side-by-side. (Yes, I use C&C a lot because of the better color selection and my machines never balk at it.) But the spacing doesn't matter to me because I'm not intending to actually fill up the rack. If I do, it means I have too many spools sitting out. OK, back to bobbins …

To get around the spindle size, I use plastic drinking straws. I cut a straw so it's about 4" long and then I slit it along the length so it can wrap around itself to become narrower. I slide the straw over a spindle, pop on a spool of thread and then slide the matching bobbin thread down the straw on top of the thread, like this:



I use the straws on my big thread racks too, to stack multiple spools of the same thread.

2. How do you store your bobbins?

I use these Bobbin Saver thingies. I think I purchased them at Joann's with coupons, but they're available at many places that sell other notions. I like these a lot. My bobbins stay put and are handy, and the thread tails don't unwind. Well, if I actually take the time to rewind the tail around the bobbin. Ahem. But the tails don't unwind any further than however long they are when I stick the bobbin into the Saver.



As you can see, I have a few bobbins. But I do actually use them up. Either on the next sewing project if the color is right or when I'm basting something. I like to use different color threads top and bottom when basting so it's easy to tell which is which when I'm removing the stitches or pulling up gathers, so I pop in a "used" bobbin and baste away. I'm not always so thrifty, but this is too easy not to be.

3. OK, Debbie, you had such a brilliant idea that now Nancy's Notions is backordered 2 weeks out for the mini thread rack!

Nah, it wasn't me. NN's was backordered when I ordered mine too. But it was worth the wait. But I'm *still* waiting for the rest of my order and I'm getting ticked off. It's been over a month now and apparently NN's uses a new FedEx slow-boat-to-China service and on top of that sent one part of my order to my previous (as in 2 years ago!) address and has now had to reship it, again on the slow boat. Grrrr. My orders from NN's used to arrive very promptly. I am not liking their new, not-improved, shipping service. Oops. Rant over.

4. Simplicity 9076 has a can caddy pattern that I used, it has pockets. You can be quite creative with it, you need an empty coffee can.

I couldn't find that exact pattern on the Simplicity website, but I'm pretty sure I know the type of caddy. Unfortunately, I never seem to find time to sew those sorts of things for myself. Cheap plastic baskets from Walmart are more my speed. ;-)

* * * * *

My next project up is a quickie pair of denim capris. Yes, I know it's October. But it's still over 90 degrees here during the day and I need a new pair for the rest of high school football season, and probably beyond. The pair I usually wear to the games is looking too faded these days and they are on the verge of becoming embarrassing. Plus, the school colors are navy & gold and a new darker denim is closer to the navy and will look better with the gold tee shirt I wear every Friday to the games.

I'm using my TNT Simplicity 4605 (OOP, I think). I cut them out last night and will finish them this morning. I'll be adding two back and one side pocket, because the other thing that bugs me about my old denim capris is that they have NO POCKETS. Arghhh.

The rest of the day will be filled with errands. To the post office, to DMV to pay a ticket for DS (not speeding, thankfully, but driving with an expired tag which was sort of my fault too for not paying attention to it), and hopefully to the dog park. Poor poochies haven't been in so long. It's been so hot that going in the middle of the day is useless because no one else is there and with football practice pick-up, the timing has been wrong to go before or after dinner. Tonight is a big pep rally at school since this is Homecoming Week. I'm thinking if I skip the Pep Rally, I can take the dogs and then go pick up DS. DS#2 has an actual date for the dance on Saturday. I'm hoping I'll have some pics to share. Which reminds me, I need to pick up his tux too. Time to scoot …

It's The Little Things

You probably already know that this is a thread rack. But what you may not know is that it's a tiny thread rack, costing about $3.50 from Nancy's Notions. When I saw it, I was in love and I bought it pronto!

This is where I sew.



My machines are spaced along a 6-ft counter. Generally, it's more than enough room. Except, as I sew I tend to accumulate "clutter" to the right of the sewing machine. Things like the 2-3 presser feet I'm switching between during a project, my thread snippers, different spools of thread for different parts of a project, and more. And then, if I have to move to the coverstitch machine on the far right, my garment gets laid over the top of that pile of clutter and invariably something slips to the floor or I have to hunt underneath for my snips. This drives me NUTS as I'm usually a very organized person. A place for everything and everything in its place.

The little thread rack arrived yesterday. This morning, I couldn't wait to get to the sewing room to get things in order. Now the space between the sewing machine and coverstitch machine looks like this:



The white basket to the left of the thread rack isn't a new addition, It's always been there. It holds my most-often used notions. Things like tweezers, my "stick", bodkins, seam ripper, buttonhole cutter, screwdriver, lint brush, etc. But now the mini thread rack is also in place and it's currently holding the spools of thread for a project in process, a spool of white thread that's almost used up but has too much thread left to toss, same for a cone of serger thread, topstitching thread for a pair of DS's jeans that need repair, and a couple of straws holding matching bobbins that I don't want to "file" away with the rest of the bobbins yet, lest I forget which one matches which.

Also added today was another little white basket that will "float" between the two machines. I'll toss the in-use presser feet and needle cases** in there, along with my pin cushion. Then, when I need to move to the coverstitch machine, all I'll have to do is move that little basket aside instead of gathering up each piece of clutter individually.

**I leave the whole needle case out so that I can tell at a glance what needle is in my machine. When I switch needle types, I put the previous case away and put the new case out.

Yeah, I'm probably a bit OCD about all of this, but for now, I'm feeling very pleased with the results.

Sometimes Things Just Work Out

DH finished with his 3-week class this past Friday, but he's only home for this week before he takes off on Sunday. It's gonna be me and the boys (and poochies) manning the home fires for a while. We decided to have a real lunch date together today before his trip.

Of course I wanted to wear my new top but I didn't think it would be a go because I didn't think I had anything to wear with it yet. Hah! When one has been buying and sewing (and receiving wonderful fabric gifts from Aussie friends) in the same color families, one should know better. A trip through the long pants section in my closet revealed a winner. Last year's pants from the wonderful bengaline fabric that Belinda sent from Australia. Belinda knows my colors as well as I do. Lucky me, eh? These pants match my new top perfectly. I love it when that kind of stuff happens.

So, here I am. New top, last year's pants. The top feels great. I love this fabric. But it's a looser style than I'm used to so I need to stop thinking it's going to fall off my shoulders because it really isn't. It fits fine and doesn't move. I just don't have a seam at my armpit so I'm getting more of a breeze in there. ;-) I could see living in these tunics all summer long. Why did I wait until October?

But I'm now long out of that outfit and back to my flips flops and capris. Mom uniform. Plus my toes were about to suffocate being covered over and all. ;-) Here's what I'm wearing as I type this, apologies for the blurries. And no, still no carpeting in my bedroom. Sigh.