My Ugly Zipper

I would have pictures to go with this, but all of our rechargeable batteries have gone on strike-they aren't holding a charge-and I haven't gone to the store to buy more, so, just use your imagination until I add the pictures. I have a dress I'm "fixing" for someone. Not a big deal, the store bought dress fits just fine, she wants to change the skirt a bit and turn it into a halter style-all fairly easy. It's a denim dress, which just means using a heavy duty needle and going somewhat slowly-my machine is a very basic one and you have to take it easy or it'll eat your project. I'm sure I'll have an opportunity to vent about that sometime. So, I'm tearing out stitches, and I will admit, I'm trying to find the path of least resistance with this-ie, as little work as possible while still being well done. Then it hits me. I am going to have to mess with the zipper. Don't get me wrong, I love zippers. They are very important to the convenience of our clothes-can you imagine if we still tied all our clothes together?!-but, well, my zippers just don't usually look very pretty. And the zip on this dress isn't invisible-my preference, b/c then well, my ugly zip is invisible. So, I continued to seam rip and tear stitches, all the while, trying to find a way to avoid the *&%^$#@ zipper. But it's not going to happen. I won't have to take the entire zipper out, I don't think, and as long as I don't have to take it out and put it back in, we have hope. Hope that the dress will still be pretty, even with my rather lacking zipper skills. I can sew beautifully. Really, most everything I make is beautifully sewn-I make every effort to be sure that it's beautiful, but I just have artist's block when it comes to zippers. So, there's my pain, and my shame-I sew ugly zippers. Happy Thoughts anyway!

Still working...

Well, the ring stacker is not yet finished-I realised that those cool details of ribbons and such, need to be cut and ready before I sew each ring. I didn't actually sew a ring together before I realised this, but I came really close. Had the ring under the needle about to make the first stitch when I thought of the ribbon. So that's where that is. And, by my own doing, I've made this week just as busy as last week, so, I have to suck it up, and just keep working. Like Dory says, Just keep swimming, swimming. I'm going to go tie knots in ribbon, and pray the kids sleep just a little bit longer. Happy Thoughts!

A random moment of creativity won me a shirt! Woo-Hoo!

Not just any shirt. My favorite shirt from Layers!! Layers shirts are my favorite shirts, altho I don't shop often, I go to Layers first for shirts. I wore fitted Layers shirts to the day before I delivered my little guy; I wear that same shirt now-it's not even slightly stretched out. Layers just recently joined blogger, facebook, myspace and twitter. A couple of Friday's ago they started a Friday giveaway-comment on the giveaway post-twice if you're a facebook fan-and they choose someone at random to get the shirt. It's my personal feeling(they don't say anything about this)but once you win, you shouldn't enter any more-it's not fair to other people. So I didn't enter the first drawing, b/c I have a favorite shirt. And this past Friday, my favorite shirt, the Bianca, was the giveaway. As I went to post a comment, I had a song stuck in my head-"art"-I think I've mentioned it. Anyway, the line was "art, art I want you, art, art, you make it really hard not to" The song is about creativity, sharing the things you create, and a couple of rhymes about Layers came to mind, to the tune of the song. I started to type them in, and realised, these need to be arranged as a poem! It took maybe five minutes, and it was cute, so I posted it, then my facebook comment-"yay facebook fans!" I thought it would be funny if the random drawing choose my facebook comment, but, yesterday when I logged onto facebook, I saw an update from Layers-and there was my poem! I freaked. Yes, I turned into a screaming, jumping 13-year old. I logged onto layers blog, and sure enough, they had chosen my poem, and noted that from there on out, they would be using a website to choose the winner. But what a wonderful surprise! I feel slightly guilty, b/c I didn't do it to give myself an extra chance at winning, and it was really easy to write. But not so guilty that I will give up a new shirt. Oh, in case you were wondering about the poem, here it is-

Layers, Layers,
without you,what would I do?

From London to France
all would see my underpants,

You help me fudge about my pudge

From OMG BABY! to Delivery,
would you believe, you're all I need

Even better than a designer shoe,
Layers, Layers, I love you!

I don't know if I'll get to post again today, but if not, first thing tomorrow! Happy Thoughts!

I thought my expectations were reasonable...

Then I looked at the calendar. We have something time consuming happening everyday. And I'm so excited to get this sewn! I've got to sit down and set a time to sew everyday, because this is just driving me crazy! I've put all my projects in sewing order, a few easy ones to start, then harder and harder, and of course, the most exciting projects are at the end! So, it's really important to get started! I'm to anal to just jump ahead and sew something else, I've stated(at least to myself) a specific order, and now I feel obligated to stick to it. I am so OCD. Only someone as crazy about oganization as I am would care. Or write about it. What I'm trying to say is the stacker is still sitting on my sewing desk, waiting to be stiched together. So, my new date to have it finished, considering the things that are going on that unfortunately take presidence, is Monday. On a different creative note, I got outside after the rain stopped and kids were in bed, and took some pictures of my flowers. I'm still learning how to work with this camera, but here's a few shots. I tried out some different effects when I was editing them, I hope it comes out.

My beloved peony-lots of blooms on both plants, which is very exciting, since I didn't think they were going to bloom at all!



Here's my bearded iris-






Well, I'm exhausted. Happy Thoughts!

Cutting and sewing, sewing and cutting

Well, I found out that I only need 1 yard of fabric to make the ring stacker. So, I'll be able to make two with the same fabric, and that's nice. I used two different fabrics, one print, one solid, and I have ribbon to add some cute little details. Now I have to sew it together, and remember to add the cute little details-that's the hard part.


I picked the fabric thinking of Lex, and my favorite color combination is blue and brown, so this is what I came home with. I hope to post a picture of the completed stacker by Thursday-Eliz's cousin is coming over to play tomorrow, so I don't know how much I'll get done, but Wednesday we don't have anything going on, so I think Thursday is a reasonable goal. We'll see. Happy Thoughts!