Big Brody day !

 

Current Mood : Stomachache. Ooogh. 

 

Well, last night was interesting. I didn't want to start on DMIL's bag front, even though I got the newest designs installed into Brody's memory, and deleted the ones I've already done. One of the new designs was a wall clock that'd be great in a doll background, but it had several elements I didn't like - a ‘wall' behind it, permanently set hands (I wanted to use real watch hands I could adjust), and some odd ‘motion lines', for some reason. It was on of my ‘Schedule of Efforts' list... could I skip a step (also known as a ‘stop') of stitching ? It was still early enough, and I had time to  play a bit...

 

And I was also kinda proud that I'd never really had a total disaster embroidering, not since the very first initials I tried with Brody. Everything else, even my ‘trial' stitch-outs were good enough to be used for something. Mostly because I got good at salvaging the errors and problems !

 

Well, that fell last night. And my hand still hurts. This is why - that blasted hoop gave me fits. A simple hooping took over a half hour. Just as it got the right tension, and the fabric was nice and flat and taut, sproing ! The nut would spring back about a half inch and there went whatever tension I had. Ya can't embroider on anything that loose. So I'd tighten it again, and... after about twenty minutes of that, I'd about had enough. But I also had it juuuuust right. You know where this is going, don'tcha ?

 

You guessed it. Zxsproing !! I pounded the poor sewing desk hard in frustration. And that's why my right hand is still a bit tender today. I swear, Saturday, if it takes me all day long, I am replacing that blasted nut ! If I can't, I'm calling Brother and let them deal. After about ten more minutes of swearing and clawing the air, I got it secure.

 

And it was nice and tight...for about thirty seconds. Then it sproinged again on me, while it was in the machine. The fabric buckled and puckered. And it did so with such unbelievable strength, it somehow frayed the thread and broke it. Aaarrrgh. I re-threaded, but there really wasn't any point in trying to salvage the design. Which was good, because then the bobbin thread wasn't picking up either. (colossal sigh)

 

Ended up stuffing a bit of tape into the side of the tunnel where the nut goes. This time the bloody thing held. Beloved Hubby says he sometimes has to do that, and it's not gonna damage anything. Well, by hook and by crook, I finally got the first step/stop done. And the second one, the ‘wall' part, was the one I didn't want. It was then I noticed something right above the ‘+ / - needle' icons that control adding or subtracting stitches, so you can back up or fast forward after a problem's been resolved. It's just that these were ‘+ / -‘ spools of thread ! Could it be that simple ?

 

Yup. If I just wanted the clock face and numbers, and nothing else, it was doable. And simple. And I read the manual ! I have no idea why that didn't register then. Possibly because I didn't have enough experience to understand then. Despite the stitched-out disaster, this was great news ! I could further customize some designs I have, easily.

 

Of course, it was then that I realized, I probably could have used the ‘+ needle' button to fast-forward past that first step without sewing a stitch, and still gotten an answer to my query. D'oh !

 

Anyway... with all that behind me, I sat down today with a bit of trepidation to sew DMIL's bag front design, a happy kitty with flowers. A simple ‘country' type design, not real complicated, but I was still nervous. And this time, that *&^% hoop, paper wad notwithstanding, still refused to tighten. So I chucked it over my shoulder, vowing to go out tomorrow or Saturday to end its little reign of terror, and grabbed the new hoop.

 

(blissful sigh) It's nice... took me about 35 seconds to hoop the fabric and stabilizer, and be on my merry little way. And it came out well, too. I used two of the new spools of thread - and I need to correct m'self. When I bought ‘em, I got a pretty lavender, not another grey. I already have four shades of grey, no reason to buy a fifth. I didn't have lavender, though, and it's also on my DMIL's favorite colors list, so I snagged that, figuring I could always use it. You'll see that one tomorrow.

 

I know why I hadn't yet used the big hoop. After having so many problems with the little one, I was half-convinced I'd wreck it, too. But I'm glad I put aside the fear and went with it before I seriously damaged my hand. It occurred to me that I could use the ‘big hoop' nut to test my theory on the ‘little hoop' screws, but I don't want to. I'll get the little hoop problem fixed in the next day or two, and I don't wanna risk my good one.

 

So tomorrow, unless I work on ‘em tonight after Dearest Son beds down, I just have to assemble the bags, run a drawstring through ‘em, and they're done. Since I'll see DFIL first, when he picks up Dearest, I'll probably store DMIL's inside his, and hand it to him. I can't wait to see his reaction. He has no idea I can do Betty Boop designs ! He's gonna go into orbit if I show him that site that has about 60 BB designs for sale. Too bad several repeat, and it's about $60. for the whole set. You know me, I'd rather spend $3. each for the six I like than spend $20. for 30, most of which I'll never use !

 

Since the made-for-bobbins thread is working so much better for Brody and me, I rewound the cone thread onto bobbins for my KJ machine, which freed up the Brody bobbins. So I now have three white bobbins for KJ, and three good ones for Brody. I swear, though, if I ever find black bobbin thread, I'm gonna buy a parsec of it !

 

I still had the stitch bug, so I took Brody's USB and General manuals outside to wait for the bus. No answers on my latest questions - can you ‘mirror' any design in memory, or just the built-in ones, and is it possible to even upload designs bigger than your stitching area  ?- but it was still time well spent. Re-reading the ‘skip a color' directions made more sense now. Back when Brody still had packing tape on him, I thought ‘skip a color' meant you wanted to use green when the pattern "required" blue ! No joke, I briefly believed that the design called for the colors used, and good luck changing ‘em. You had to change a setting or something. And, since most embroiderers call those ‘steps' or ‘stops', not ‘colors', I can see where I lost the thread. (ha-ha). 

 

So I came back in, had an ice cream sandwich with Dearest, and pulled up the Barbie Silhouette appliqué design. If there was ever one I wanted to mirror, it was this one. And - yes ! It flips, mirrors, rotates, you name it. Today's faces right, and I even made it a bit bigger, but only by about a couple millimeters. I used the pale pink still in Brody from DMIL's bag design, and a beautiful starry fabric. I taped it nice and flat, and it looks pretty darn good. You'll get to see it day after tomorrow !

 

Lunch today was odd, but tasty ! We had spaghetti last night, and I combined the leftover noodles with leftover Monday dinner, chili. Add a bit of water, and chili noodle soup ! I know, that sounds weird, but even Campbell's used to make Chili Beef soup. When it got discontinued, I bought out the one store that carried it before Beloved Hubby gently pointed out that, if I really wanted chili soup, I'd just need to add some water to any can of chili. (facepalm) And adding pasta isn't too weird, at least for me. When I was in college and had friends over, we often dined on ‘hash' - a can of Hormel chili with a cup or so of cooked rice mixed in, garnished with cheese or hot sauce, your choice ! Honors students got to live in honor houses, complete with kitchens, and sometimes even my hash was better than what the dining halls were dishing up.

Earth day today - here's a shoe.

 

Current Mood : Anticipation ! 

Current Image Notes : Please enjoy Dearest Son's most recent art form, flower arranging. He prefers employing found items with natural lines for presentations that guarantee a second look. 

 

Happy Earth Day ! To both native Earthers and those originating elsewhere.

 

I sorta did my part, sorta didn't. Gathered up some trash from the living room I'm sure I should feel guilty about, but didn't drive anywhere today. Took lots of photos for the blog this morning, and I use rechargeable batteries in the camera. Loaded up a new bobbin with the specialty thread that came with Brody, and stitched out DMIL and DFIL's names on some more of cut up Dearest Son-damaged pants. Much better - the bottom bobbin thread didn't show up top at all. And the bags I'm making them should use up all of the useable pants scraps, leaving only a few rags made from the damaged parts.

 

And I even used one of those rags today. When you buy thread like I do - lots of it cheap and second-hand, housed in old sewing baskets and in bulk mystery bags - you get a lot of mystery spools. There's no telling how old, what size, who made, anything about it. I had an odd skinny cardboard tube spool with a bundle of thread professionally wound on it, for forever, and I'd never used it, but it was absolutely DMIL's favorite color. So I really wanted to use it, but there wasn't a lot of ‘good' fabric out of those sad pants if it didn't work. I can buy more thread, but not more wrecked pants ! 

 

So I grabbed the best of the rag selection and loaded up the deep majestic purple mystery spool. It seemed rather silly to embroider her name twice, so I did my initial again, from the built-in library Brody came with. Came out nice. Just for kicks, I decided to use one of the shapes that were also included - the heart this time, in a sort of eyelet stitch. Since I hadn't moved the fabric in between designs, the ‘D' was exactly in the center, and it all came out good. I really like it. So I'll keep it, I'm just not sure if it'll become another fridge magnet, or a changepurse, or maybe even a patch on my jacket. Hmmm... You'll see it tomorrow.

 

Learned two more keys on Brody while stitching out DMIL's name. One changes the ‘start' of a design from the center to the furthest point left, something I didn't know could be changed. Another can join two pieces of embroidery together. Not sure it that's just for what came with Brody or if it can work with whatever's in his memory, but it's pretty cool either way. I can sort of do that with that free download program, Embroidery Fonts Plus, but one of the two images has to be a word using one of the fonts included or one of the proprietary purchased ones.

 

Anyway. When I'm downloading the design for DMIL's bag front - a dancing cat with flowers -  later today, I'm gonna add the clock one I snagged during last weekend's Sweet Embroidery site sweep. There's two parts to it I'd like to skip over if I can, and I don't yet know if Brody will let me do that. Stitching it out's the perfect way to find out.

 

Beloved Hubby scared #ell out of me while I was working on DFIL's name stitch-out. I didn't know he was home until he banged on the open Lab door ! All was forgiven, though - he'd gone to Target just for me, for the rice crackers I love so !  And to think, I just started using the empty plastic jar from the last cracker binge to hold various labels and points that Dearest's school collects. Two more hold buttons in the Lab, and another holds the rice sock we microwave as a mini heating pad. Can't help it, they get empty so fast...

 

OK, confession time. There's a reason I went from barely touching Brody for nearly two weeks to playing with him almost every day. The hoop that had the stripped screw ? It's not really fixed. Even the new screw skips, and I have to play with it to get it to tighten the hoop enough to stitch with. It's probably the nut that's busted, since it does that with both the original and new screws. I was rather upset about it, so I avoided it and him, and embroidery. Part of the housework frenzy last two weeks was to give me plenty to do, so I didn't have time to be upset about it. Yeah, I'm nuts.

 

Rather than go back to Brother and have them ship another huge box containing a tiny bit of metal, I'll just play with it - I figured out how - until I'm frustrated with it enough to seek a replacement or solution at a hardware store. I mostly went with Brother last time because 1) everything's still new, and 2)I was worried that non-Brother parts might damage something. I've since heard from several other embroidery folks who had similar problems solved at Lowe's.

 

But even I have to get over me sometimes, and I guess I did, if I'm planning out what's getting stitched out a week in advance !

Last of the big time craft spenders...

 

Current Mood : Slight buyer's remorse

Spent on thread, cut-away stabilizer, fabric, and a doll-size Ariel crown : $34.46

 

The reuse, repair, redistribute train is still chuggin'. It's almost a form of Spring Cleaning lately !

 

While going through some laundry last week, I found an old apron we'd obtained when I bought a box of yard sale fabric, oh, about four years ago. It's a nice one, emblazoned with the name of a regional fast-food restaurant and eyelets for a name badge. It's been around ever since, but we're not apron-type folks. I've idly thought about removing the embroidered restaurant's logo, but it's tight in there. Removing it would pretty much reduce the apron to a pile of strings at the top.

 

But, the other side has a bit of a flap to cover the back side of the embroidery. I could add a bit of lace to the slightly frayed edge, and sew an initial on it, too. I think I found my weekend project !

 

Another pair of Dearest Son's khakis are too badly stained up one leg to be of any further use - it's too far up to even cut ‘em off for shorts. So, about 25% of it is now reusable fabric and a reclaimable zipper, 70% is rags, and the rest is trash - belt loops, waistband, and such. I can't think of a way to reuse them ! If I had a doll who'd fit that size, I'd think of attaching a fluffy skirt to the waistband, but that won't work for even the MSBs.

 

It's nice that I can do all this repurposing - ‘cause I spent like a madwoman today ! Since we don't really use the Sam's Club membership now that we're not eating mostly snacks, we're letting it lapse next month. Figured I might as well get the last bits we can use from there today - boxes of good tissues, restaurant-quality spoons, a big brick of cheese, etc. Ended up spending $75. there, but $25. of that was the 2000 season of Red Green on DVD. Can't wait ‘til Beloved Hubby sees it ! We only caught bits and pieces of Red and the Possum Lodge on PBS here and there, so having a whole 19-episode season is great ! They also had the 1999 and 1997 seasons, but I chose '00, because the back of the box said they run out of duct tape and I wanna see how that plays out !

 

I'd hoped to snag some black bobbin thread during the usual grocery run afterwards at Mal-Wart - what I didn't plan was that all their thread, including the embroidery stuff, was on markdown. I wonder if that means we're about to lose the fabric section there, too. (sigh) Anyway, I gleefully loaded the cart with one of nearly every color before I thought it through. These are the ‘mini king' spools, over a thousand yards each, so they'll last a bit. There's no real reason for me to have another spool of red when I have the same color already, and ditto for the three shades of blue. In the end, I bought eight spools - $28., but I saved over a buck per spool, and neither Hancock Fabrics nor Hobby Lobby has these. So I wouldn't save more with a coupon or sale, this was about as cheap as these threads get ! Traded the blues for browns, since I have antique radio, Victrola, and jukebox designs, and got a halfway between yellow and gold color, a misty grey, two springy greens, and a cream.

 

Ironically, I didn't get bobbin thread because it was only a 50c markdown, and all they had was white, which I already have. Plus, the eight spools I'd already chosen, while on sale, still weren't exactly cheap ! They also had some glow in the dark spools that are embroidery-quality and size, but these weren't marked down much either. I'll just have to keep my eyes open in case prices fall further.

 

And I made a great discovery. I haven't been able to find cut away stabilizer - only tear-away or wash away around here, even at HLobby and Hancock's. Guess what I found for $1.57/yd there ? Yup, I got a yard off the bolt. Now that I think about it, if they are closing that section, I should probably go back for some more... The reason I wanted cut-away was because it's preferred when sewing on clothes. Tear-away tends to tear while it's being sewn, and works better on woven fabrics in any case. Wash away is markedly more expensive, and doesn't really help keep stretchy knits from moving around.

 

Hit the thrift, and spent a quick $2.50 there, too. Got another bag of fabric and a small crown with an Ariel sticker on it. It looks so cute on my MLP Ariel !

 

So, I doubt I'll make my rice cracker run to Target Thursday as planned. I kinda spent that money already ! Oh, and I lucked out for the third year running and got a $10. free card from Kohl's. I'm not sure why I get them, but they've always shown up in the mail about this time each year. The first one went to star-shaped candles that I gave Dearest's busdriver and monitor on the last day of school. Last year's took $10. off four markdown blouses for me, so I only spent $15. on all four. This year... well, I'm making candy jars for the bus people, and I don't need much in new clothes. I'll look through the sales racks, but I pretty much already know that if they have a Wall-E shirt in Dearest's size, I'll probably get that for him. Beloved Hubby says that's fine with him. I have a month to use it or lose it, so I'll probably put that off ‘til next week.

 

Things were a bit quiet this afternoon, so I stitched out the Betty Boop design I bought when I got the Barbie appliqué and Batman logos. Used the salvaged pants for material, too. Came out OK, but the bobbin thread still shows. Tomorrow, I'm gonna wind a bobbin from the designated thread for it, that came with Brody, see if that does a better job. What I've been using is the cone thread, and it may be that it's not good for that. Anyway, DFIL is a huge Boop fan, so I'll make a bag out of the fabric, once I put his name on the other side. There's enough to make one for DMIL, and I've already picked out the kitty design and the deep purple thread she loves. Should be able to get to those tomorrow.

 

And I know that those designs work out really well, since I've now done two out of the three I bought. I'll definitely go back for more there - at $1.25 each, they're a steal ! Let's see, there's the Barbie logo, and the one that's clearly a coloring page, but it's Barbie on skates, and...

Phone fun - had any lately ?

 

Current Mood : Snarky

Spent on Embroidery : $8.99 for six Disney fonts

 

My fun with telemarketers continues. Answered the phone with our business name, caller repeated it, said he wanted to discuss our Yellow Pages ad renewal. I told him we didn't have a Yellow Pages ad and we couldn't afford one at this time. He hung up on me without another word. Scam. A real salesperson wouldn't take ‘we're busted' as an answer, and perhaps may have extended a tad of courtesy to a potential new client. Strikes me as the same ‘this is not a bill, but if you pay it, you agree to pay us eleven more monthly installments for an ad you don't get until next year' crap we used to get in the mail. I wonder if I'd agreed to ‘renew' our non-existent ad what kind of BS I would have committed us to ?

 

When postal rates go up, everyone complains. Not me. I maybe use a book of stamps all year, and if it keeps this kind of misleading garbage from confusing people, it's fine with me ! One of the reasons we let the non-Yellow Pages ad we did have lapse is 1) we didn't get much of a response, and what we did get was looking for us to paint an entire house interior for $250., supplies included, and 2) we got so many solicits from other classified ad companies, it was difficult to figure out which one we actually owed money to - and how to cancel when our contract was up. Every bit of mail from all five (yes, five !) companies looked the same, so if I wasn't paying attention, it would have been easy to obligate us to all five phone books at around $100./month for a year each. It's ridiculous.

 

In better news, I finally got a set of Disney-style embroidery fonts for what I wanted to pay. I'd have much rather gotten them as instant downloads rather than a mailed CD, but it was $9. for the CD set and $13. for the download - and the CD set came in six sizes, with capitals, lower case, and some punctuation in five. The quarter-inch size is capitals and punctuation only - it's too small for lower case. Download was only good for two. I have no idea why I'm getting more for less money, and in a fashion that costs the seller money, but I got what I wanted, I just have to wait a week or so for it to arrive.

 

And, after washing and line-drying Dearest Son's bedding - the whole Cars set, bedspread and all - and sewing a missing button off Beloved Hubby's pants, I decided to sew a bit for fun. So I did the Barbie appliqué shown today. The white bobbin thread showed a lot, so next time I'm out, I'm gonna snag some black bobbin thread and use them both accordingly. I think the fabric I used for this one was simply too thin.

 

Touched it up a bit with one of the fine-point Sharpies Beloved got for me, then cut it close to the stitches. This one was gonna be a fridge magnet ! Broke out the iron and used  Stitch Witchery to attach it to some Peltex - a stiff yet washable backing often used for fabric bowls - and Super-Glued a magnet to the back. Our fridge is gonna get pretty crowded at this rate ! I'll probably sew it again on a t-shirt, as my little 50^th Anniversary nod. Maybe center the ‘Barbie' signature a bit better on the next one. The masking tape to hold the appliqué fabric worked, but I didn't have it very tight. It's all part of the learning process...

 

There's a site that has fridge magnets, all ‘in the hoop'. And it is pretty complicated. Adhesive sprays, several different stabilizers, on and on. I kinda prefer my iron-on Peltex, even if it does mean using the iron. Added bonus - with my simple technique, a little bit of a few cheap supplies go a long way, it's probably faster since you're not hooping five or six different fabrics and stabilizers, cheaper ‘cause you're not cutting away a lot of scrap too small to save or reuse, and darn near anything can be a fridge magnet. Or a brooch. Or can be attached to a card or enclosed in a letter. Or...

 

And, if you decide later that you want a magnet, that's fine. You don't have to sit down and say ‘make a magnet this time', you can always decide later. I like flexibility, and the ability to defer how to use what you made until you're ready. Or at least until it's done and ‘speaks' to you.

 

I can has chair cover !

 

Current Mood : Happy, when I can breathe !

 

The cool, humid weather continues, so my wheezing at every small activity does, as well. So I kept things small today. Repaired a pair of Dearest Son's khakis with the patch I reclaimed from his wrecked shirt Friday, and washed, dried, and put away five loads of laundry. I figure, it won't be such a wrench to pick up ‘three hours' on Monday if I don't put it down over the weekend. And laundry is something I can do in short bursts. Even putting it all away took less than a half-hour.  I saved the dishes for Monday, when weather is supposed to improve. Here's hoping. It's starting to stack up. I also cut up all the socks with holes in ‘em - they make good disposable small rags, and this way, they won't get mixed up in the wash when I find ‘em around the house.

 

I also measured out the rest of the duvet cover for the computer chair cover remake. I had it pinned before, but not sewn, and it didn't stay very well. Today, I decided to go ahead and sew it, especially since the zippered pillow case seat cushion is doing very well. Folded it to the right size - with seam allowance - and measured from the chair top to the arms, since the arms are bolted to the chair back. Once sewn, I tucked in the top corners to fit the head of the chair better, and the side splits into the arm crevices, and so far, it's stayed put. And I'm happy with my curb-shopped, last-year's yard sale computer chair !

 

Went back to the Chinese machine embroidery site, and hit a link at random - even with Google Translation, the site remains a mystery, since Google can't translate kanji or other ideograms. Turned out to be a great link, and I got about 20 new, free designs, including two barrel-racing ones for our horse-boarder, that's what she does.

 

What makes it odd is that I've seen at least one of the designs elsewhere, but I didn't have $20. to shell for just that one at the time. Now I'm wondering if the site is a bootleg or it's another case of using the same art that the bigger-name site did. I'd say 99% of what I've seen and pretty much all of what I've downloaded is unique to that site. I bet I've snagged about 30 star and planet-type designs from there, and there's pages yet unexplored. It's kind of ‘labor intensive' to visit, since I have to edit images, and everything's so small and often difficult to see what the design really is.

 

Otherwise, I kind of took it easy today, played with Dearest Son a bit, watched two KTMA episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on DVD while sorting socks and such, petted the kitties who've forgiven me for squirting that medicine on their necks Thursday. They hate it, and it wrecks their fur for two or three days, but ticks are already bad this year, so we all have to tough it out. I finally hit on the idea of giving them treats after treating them, so I'm hoping next time, DC won't lead me on a merry chase through the whole house to get those last three drops administered.

 

And I've picked out my ‘personal project' for the week. When we first got Brody, I knew we'd need some sort of digitizing software, so we could make our own designs. But the most widely used ones were ridiculously proprietary and outrageously expensive, so we bagged that idea. Later, we found Sophie Sew, a free work in progress program, but I've not made the time to work the tutorials and learn how to use it. All I've done is download it. So, next week, we begin. I've even made a list of the designs I want to create, designs I've never seen anywhere else, for free or for sale. Of course, whatever I do manage to make will be free to whoever wants it. It's only fair.

All zipped up !

 

Current Mood : Happy with me, again. 

Current Image Notes : Not mine, but I got plenty of raw zipper material to work with ! Here's directions on how to make ‘em, including a video -

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/zipper-flower-pins?autonomy_kw=zipper&rsc=header_1

 Spent on Embroidery Designs today : $5.

 

I'm kinda proud of me today. After my week of volunteering and house-cleaning and returning library books before they're due, and self-denial, I broke free and bought a one-month membership to SweetEmbroidery.com, that embroidery site I've been wanting a page-length list of designs from. Yup, I spent  $5. on me, for my own selfish greed, and I'm glad about that, too. It only took me about four hours this morning to get the whole list - and a few extras - off the site, so I now have 30 days to leisurely look around some more, make sure there's nothing else there for me to grab. Of course, I've already gone through the whole site once, to prepare the list, but a second go-round while I still have membership never hurt. And it'll keep me off sites that I'd have to spend money on, at least for a little while.

 

Forgot to tell you that the SiCK site did the one thing that pretty much ensures I'm not there all day anymore - after 10 minutes of inactivity, ya get logged out ! Sheesh. I got tired of logging back in over and over, so now, I'm only there in the morning, for the daily freebie vote. Plus, the last three design sets have been really simple, like doodles you find in the margins of telephone directories. Stick figures and uber-basic flowers. While I don't demand opulence in stitchery, I do like something beyond line drawings, so there's been nothing new for me to want. And there's been a lot to take up the ‘slack' time !

 

Today, I also tried something I hadn't done before - and it works ! Making the Wall-et for Dearest Son's Easter showed me that my zipper installation skills had atrophied shamefully. And at the same time, cutting up that duvet cover to fit my curb-shopped office chair hadn't gone well, either. Pillows kept coming out of the open-back pillowcase I made to sit on, and the draped material simply fell all over the place on the chair's back. Since it's not a visually pleasant chair (even after a good cleaning) from being out on the curb who knows how long before we snagged it, it needs a cover, no debate. And the hydraulics are shot, along with the seat itself, so it needs a cushion. Hmm...

 

Thursday, while waiting for Dearest's bus, I picked apart the pillowcase part, so it was once more a long strip of flannel-backed space fabric. The idea now was to put in a long zipper, then sew up the other three sides. That way, the case could be washed separately, and the pillows inside could also be removed, laundered, and/or replaced. I wasn't particularly worried about finding a zipper that'd be long enough - I knew I had at least two. I'd picked them off some storage bags that bedding had been sold in, that I rescued from a Dumpster a few years back. And that didn't even count the lot of various new and used zippers I'd scored for pennies about three or so years ago off eBay. Zipper availability was the least of my concerns.

 

Booting another zipper installation was. The first big mistake I made on the Wall-et was that I got tired towards the end, and forgot I was sewing a stretchy knit. It, of course, stretched, and caused the back to buckle a bit, not that Dearest noticed anything wrong - he just saw a Wall-E change pouch that he really liked ! And it kinda needed that bulge to fit the EVE egg in there. Lucky ! Second big mistake was using a 1/4" seam allowance to sew the zipper to. Of course it wasn't wide enough, and if the zipper shifted at all, it totally went off of the fold. Which it did, necessitating the second line of stitching which really made it look bad. I wasn't gonna make those mistakes again. Hopefully, I'd make all-new mistakes instead !

 

And I did. The procedure I use for zippers is to sew the place where it'll go closed, using a long stitch that's easy to rip out later. You then pin or spray-adhesive or baste the zipper down, centering the zipper teeth on the seam, and then sew the zipper to the seam allowance and the fabric together, for strength. Then you pick the seam open, and your zipper's centered, neat, and pretty well hidden. I forgot to change the stitch length on the ‘where the zipper goes' seam, so it was a real pain to pick out. But the zipper's in great, I used a 5/8" seam allowance that made it easy to center and pin. And I laid it out flat when I finished pinning, and caught a buckle early. Repinned the problem, and it sewed up great. Seam allowance covers the zipper over very well, too.

 

I know I don't explain my process very well, so here's where I learned it, with lots of photos and pretty dolls - Tiny Zippers, by Lisa's page.

https://www.angelfire.com/ab/lisasdolls/sewpage9.html

 

About the only thing I do differently is, I try to sew zippers not just to the seam allowance, but to the material in back, too. More sturdy that way. If the fabric's not flat, like it was for the Wall-et and the chair cushion, I'll sew the zipper to the seam allowance, then hand-sew the allowance to the fabric.

 

Now, all I have to do is figure out how to sew the chair's back cover so it'll stay on without slipping. I may do a partial seam, then add ribbon ties under the chair arms. I would have already sewn it into a fitted tube, but the chair arms don't allow it - they're bolted to the chair back.

 

So it was a busy day - I also made a snack run and did two loads of laundry. Yep, even on weekends, I do a bit of housework. Just to keep it going. Tomorrow, it gets put away, and I hope to sew those new Wall-e designs.

Current Mood : Smug in the victory...

Spent on yard sale blank shirts for Dearest Son : 50c

Spent on an 'I survived the week' lunch : $4.73

 

I did it, it's done. The mountain of clean laundry is gone. It's all stored in various closets and cabinets and drawers, finally, alleluia, Amen. Three Mal-Wart sacks of Dearest Son's outgrowns in good shape are going to his school next week, since the lovely nurse there occasionally needs them for accidents. Another bagload is getting cut up for rags and potential sewing experiments, since they're both outgrown and partially wrecked. A smaller pile is in a basket for ‘house use only' - stuff that still fits, but is too stained or damaged to wear to school. I did all that before tackling his clean-clothes mountain - and while I put away mine and Beloved Hubby's in 45 minutes, Dearest's clothes took over an hour to hang up and put away. The closet culling took an additional half-hour. Kid's got quite a wardrobe...

 

Did my last day of test proctoring. Wow, these kids are good. The test was scheduled for two hours, but they were all done in 45 minutes. It was so nice to meet them, and know what Dearest is facing next year at this time.

 

Since I got out early, I hit a yard sale, GoodWill in our town and the Dollar General next to it. Scored two t-shirts for Dearest, a green one and a while one for 50c, perfect for embroidering on, but otherwise nothin'. Well, I promised m'self that, if there were no good finds, I'd take me out for fried chicken at the good chicken place - conveniently across the street from GWill - so I did. Yum. I like indulging me sometimes. And I'm thinking of adding two hours of volunteer work a week to the goals. I feel good when I do that. Keeps me from feeling too guilty when I tell the charity telemarketers we're broke.

 

Had a good one today. He asked for Beloved Hubby, who wasn't here. He then asked for someone who could make decisions in the office. Nope, no one here for that either. So he asked for an employee. None here ! This confused him - wasn't I an employee ? No, I said. It was hard to keep from laughing. He sarcastically apologized for taking up my time and hung up. Score ! I always feel like I've won if they given up first.

 

Went out with Beloved on a job bid, to keep him company after Dearest left with his Grandfather. I knew I'd be sitting around a while, so I brought one of Dearest's damaged t-shirts along. Figured there'd be time to remove the patch I'd put on it, to cover a couple holes made by a freebie toy Sherrif's badge pin, and I even had time to start taking the shirt apart. The front's really wrecked - paint, ink, and holes - but the back's near new and very soft, so I saved it for stitching. The front got cut up for rags, the collar webbing got saved for future projects, and the patch will be installed on a pair of khakis with a knee tear. It's so nice to have my laundry baskets back, I've filled them back up with dirty laundry (sigh), new fabric, and repairs !

And get rid of some of those blasted Happy Meal toys, ya never play with 'em anyway...

Current Mood : Falling over tired

 

Got all the new fabric cheap-serged, and it's in the wash. Last load. Whew. I swear, we generate a load a day, and sometimes, I recycle clothes if I haven't worn them all day. Also put in three hours in Dearest Son's room, generating two Mal-Wart sacks of small-toy donations and three bags of trash. And I'm still not done. This was mostly getting stuff off the floor, and enabling part of the carpet to be seen, and walked without risking an ankle or shin. I haven't gone through any of the toy boxes or touched the closet yet. I'm saving some of the fun for later !

 

So today was pretty busy. Didn't get to any sewing, and the rain made it kinda hard to do much besides sit and work from there. All the dampness makes it hard for me to breathe sometimes. Got the socks sorted and stored while waiting for the bus, and ran out of day before I got to the dishes. But at least the place is looking habitable. Still cluttery with cobwebs, but no longer a health hazard.

 

Sorry the entries have been more like a SqualorSurvivors.com recovery page and less like Yard Sale Doll Haven, but it's what's been going on, and maybe this helps someone else. It's kind of embarrassing how much just a bit of effort gets done, and how many times I've had to relearn that, but it's true. Fifteen minutes of doing dishes every other day is certainly better than two to three hours ! And the kitchen doesn't smell nearly as bad, and my attitude is much better, when I don't feel like I have to make sure no one sees how badly trashed the living room is.

 

Anyway, in an effort to bring at least some doll content in here, let me share a find from CraftBlog.com - this crafter made a dress from Barbie skirts ! Also some Barbie hair and a couple of heads. It's pretty cool, I think !

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizabethn/3433478690/in/pool-craft/

 

April is the cruelest month...

 

Current Mood : Tired

Spent on stuff : $1.08

Spent on Wall-E embroidery designs : $4.50

 

For those of us in the US, it's Tax Day - it's due if you haven't already sent it in. Ours went off today as part of this morning's Errand Run - got gas, dropped off recycling, returned the last library book, mailed off taxes, dropped off snacks and supplies to Dearest's teacher, drove the vacuum cleaner to the Approved Service Center for repairs in Nearby Town, and hit their GoodWill, for kicks. And was still home in time for lunch.

 

Found a nice craft frame for 50c, and a 50c heart-shaped coffee mug from a pharmaceutical company. I was hoping to remove the ad, but no go. Oh, well. To me, it's funny that a heart-failure patient is drinking from a heart-drug-rep mug, so I'll just wash it out and use it as-is. When it gets boring, I can always donate it back.

 

You may be sorta proud of me - the money I deposited in PayPal for a month's membership on an embroidery site so I could download another butt-load of designs cleared the account today... but I didn't buy the membership. Instead, I bought some nice designs - of the Wall-E logo, and of EVE and M-O. Cost about the same, but the reward should be quite nice, since I know Dearest Son will love what I plan to do to his hoodie with ‘em.

 

I lucked out, since his class earned a reward, and they chose a Pajama Day for tomorrow. I already found them and his robe, so his hoodie'll remain home, and I can get it washed and get the sewing started. M-O has about 20 stops, and I know the Wall-E I already have takes about an hour to stitch out. It probably won't be complete Friday morning, but I'll try. I hope to at least get our leading ‘bot and companion on there before he gets home.

 

(sigh) Well, I would have if he hadn't left the hoodie at school. Que sera. Guess I'll cheap-serge the new fabric, maybe do a test-sew tomorrow instead.

 

My vacuum used to suck...

Current Mood : Wiped out !

Spent on fabric, stars, and kaleidoscopes today : $2.90

 

Busy day - I'm about to fall over ! But I got a lot done.

 

‘Test proctoring' basically means I sit in a classroom for two hours, and sign a document stating that I saw nothing unusual. No teachers giving answers, no kids passing out, nothing of note. So it wasn't bad, but I really got bored. I can't do anything else but observe, so watching kids take tests isn't that thrilling, but I was glad I could help.

 

Turned in two of our last three library books, including the still-useless-to-me Digitizing. I was glad to dump that off ! Most of the designs I liked on the CD-Rom were too big for my Brody ! Of the 25 designs, only about ten were usable. And, of course, the only way to find the sizes is to download the whole set, and look at each file, one by one. You'd think ‘Mr. Digitizer Supreme' would know that most folk kinda need to know the pattern's size. Baka. This afternoon, I found our last checked-out book, and I'll return it tomorrow, nearly a full week before it's due. I am so good...

 

Got the groceries done, and picked up my prescriptions. Darn it. Next month, I have to see the Nurse Practitioners, so they'll renew my ‘scripts. I'm hoping we'll be a bit better off next month. I'm a little worried. Kept the groceries down and made up a menu before I left the house. When I ask what everyone wants for dinner, nobody knows what they want, just that everything I suggest is unappealing. When I make up a ‘we're eating this' menu, nobody whines. And it keeps us from going out to eat so much.

 

Even stopped in at GoodWill - and I did a sorta bad thing. Found a great kaleidoscope (50c) and a Lucite star (25c) that evidently once had perfume or panties inside, given the ‘Victoria's Secret' ribbon decorating the top. Replaced that with a silver cord I had lying around the sewing desk, and hung it on the Wall of Stars outside the Lab. Neither of these are bad things, even though I really didn't need either. What was bad was the $2. bag of fabric...

 

I was so proud of using most of the fabric I messed up trying to make the dining area curtains last year, on everything from doll clothes to Brody design stitch-outs. It was great fabric for what I was doing, too - that sort of oatmeal-colored unbleached muslin was so easy to work with. Still, I was glad I used nearly all of it. So why I went and bought more of it (admittedly, it was part of a big bag of similar material ) is odd, and kind of silly. But I'm glad I have more of it !

 

There's about eight different kinds of fabric in there, just about everything from what feels like soft bedsheets to some stiffer olive-drab scraps. No prints, mostly white and off-white colors. I'll probably empty a spool of thread cheap-serging it all !

 

Still got my three tasks done - but it wasn't easy. Still, having a clean living room, clean fridge, clean hallway, and vacuumed floors is really nice. Too bad I broke the vacuum. Seriously. The one Beloved Hubby just bought last year. It's a canister vac, a very nice one, but the hose that leads from the cleaning heads to the canister pulled out completely from the nozzle that joins them. With the vacuums I'm used to, you'd just pop it back in place, but this thing's electric all the way - there's wires coming out of the hose !

 

And I couldn't see how it'd go back together, even with the thin manual. So I called the long-distance Customer Service number, and yaaay ! According to the serial number, it's still under warranty. Wasn't made until June '08, and I don't think we bought it until the end of August last year. Tomorrow, I'll drive it up to the town where DM&FIL live, our nearest service center, and let them fix it. Bill goes to the manufacturer ! What a relief ! When I looked it up on their site, a new hose is $43. !

 

Also, Dearest Son's latest toy, the U-Repair Wall-E, arrived today. And he is in love. It's bigger than I thought, and the swap-around parts are magnetic. No exposed magnets - they're all well-buried in plastic, with maybe part of a silver orb showing on the arms - and there's a ‘trash' compartment, pre-loaded with garbage ! Here's the one we bought.

 

http://disneyshopping.go.com/disney/store/Product_10002_10051_1229983_-1_14039__Toys-WALL-E-Deluxe-Action-Figure%3A-U-Repair-WALL-E

 

So far, so sturdy - and much more detailed than the little action figure and the birthday cake figure were. About on par with the ‘iDance' Wall-E. The hand joint is really tiny, though, so I'm not sure how durable it will be. But it's so cute when Dearest joins Wall-E's hands together, tilts his head to one side, and says he's thinking of EVE.

 

For the interested, the packaging and sales info says 20 parts are included -  but I'm not sure where. In ours, there was the body ‘cube', a panel that covers where his head normally originates, two free-wheeling tire treads, four arms, and his head/neck assembly. It's well-articulated and delightfully poseable, but unless the hands detach (along with other parts), I still don't know how they got a count of 20, unless they include the box, the liner, the tray, and the tape pieces that held the box shut.

 

But, in the final analysis, who cares ? Dearest loves him, and that's what matters. The eyes on this one really melt me. The others were painted plastic, and it's obvious, but this one has such a deep gaze, it's hard to not look at him, and say, ‘Aaawwwww...'. Even out loud !