Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is my 2-year wedding anniversary to my dear husband. We actually celebrated our anniversary on Saturday since I have school tonight, but he took me out to a very nice anniversary lunch today. Although he doesn't read this - Happy Anniversary Nate!!

Back to sewing-related topics, I'm throwing in the towel on my JCC. I have had no time to devote to it AT ALL since the 10th and while I have the shirts for Drew cut out and ready to go, I don't anticipate having enough time in the next 5 days to get them finished. Part of the problem (although not a problem at all, really) is the fact that my in-laws were staying with us for the past few days. I actually had quite a bit of sewing mojo and time, but the sewing room doubles as the guest room so it was occupied. I really enjoy spending time with my in-laws and the lack of sewing room gave me some time to figure out what was bothering me about the muslin for my husband's coat. I already posted it for all of the readers of the Coat Sew Along blog, but I'll probably repost it here tonight after school or tomorrow.

In addition to just a lack of time for finishing my JCC, I realized that I do not have the proper mindset to focus on a SWAP-style plan and not stray from it. While I have no intention of straying from the plans that I put together for both my husband and our son, the timeframe made me take all focus away from summer clothes that I desperately need. I am more of a "make a list and complete it in whatever order suits me at the time". A SWAP-style plan is too rigid for how my mind works and I find myself spending more time planning and daydreaming about what I'll start after I'm done with my current plan than actually working on the plan! Sooooo, from now on I'm not going to take on any more SWAP/wardrobe type of challenges. I might start participating in some of the single-item contests on PR though, they look like a lot of fun and are really more up my alley in the contest realm.

I'm also thinking about getting more involved in other sewing endeavors in my community and that will take up quite a bit of time as well - I haven't quite found anything that speaks to me, but I know that when the time is right something will.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

another baby capsule item finished!

Here is item #2 in baby Drew's capsule:


This is the first of several father/son bowling-style shirts. The pattern is Simplicity 3852


I took the baby romper pattern and cut off the shorts part, leaving the perfect baby button-down shirt pattern! After I made the buttonholes I realized that the bottom buttonhole is really too low. I'll fix this for the other shirts, probably only using 3 buttons instead of 4. I also couldn't find any 3/8" buttons, so I used 1/2" - fortunately they don't look too big.

Friday, June 6, 2008

I'm IRRITATED!

TWO weeks ago I ordered several yards of the Burberry raincoat fabric in RED. TODAY I get an email from Denver Fabrics indicating that they have since sold out and cannot process my order. Now, I know that if the website isn't set up to keep track of inventory as purchases get made it's easy to place an order and have it sell out before you get your cut. I understand this; however, this fabric was still listed as in-stock on the website for a solid FIVE days after I placed my order. If it was sold out before they could process my order, it should have been marked as sold out much sooner, in my opinion. Maybe I'm wrong. In any event, I was stoked to think that I actually managed to get my hands on some of the red before it sold out. That's what I get for counting my chickens...

To top things off, my credit card had ALREADY BEEN CHARGED for the fabric!! I'll have to give a few days and see if they bother refunding my money. Generally, my credit card gets charged when an order is ready to be shipped. I know there are also exceptions to this, but I've ordered from both Denver (since they switched owners) and FFC before and it has always been my experience that the card was charged just before shipping.

Thanks for letting me rant. On a brighter note, the UPS man and the mailman have both been spending an awful lot of time at my house. This weekend I'll share all of the goodies that have come my way...