More Summer Fun - Sorry No Sewing!

I just can’t get over how pretty the sunrise was a few mornings ago. This is at about 5:30am when I went out for a run. First is was purple/pink and then it turned purple/orange. All in the matter of minutes, people. Nature is pretty awesome if you pay attention.

 

Speaking of nature. I thought everyone knew these mushrooms really existed. I posted a picture on Facebook and some people were blown away that this type of mushroom is real. This is a super poisonous mushroom. It’s called an Amanita (Genus) and they are beautiful. They are all over this time of year. The one with my hand may be the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Usually, the caps are about the size of a large golf ball.

 

I found the Amanita jackpot the other day.

 

 

I just got back from running a race. It was in Seward and it was 16 miles. In the Chugach National Forest. Over a mountain pass. Whew. I’m a tired puppy today. Basically, you run uphill for about 9 miles, you run flat for a few miles (the ridge of the mountain pass), and then straight down for about five miles. The scenery was breathtaking. I didn’t get any pictures except this one since I was running my ass off. My time was 2:30 and I think that’s pretty good. It’s my first time running this. The female first place finisher was done in 1:58. These other two people are a husband/wife that I’ve known for a very long time. I run almost all of my long training runs with her. We had our first kids about 10 days apart and we both have identical twins that were born a few months apart. Strange world.

 

After the epic run, we hiked to Exit Glacier. It was a short hike and our legs were still tired.

 

The glacier is to my left. It’s really pretty down in Seward.Yes, I’m still wearing my sweaty running clothes. Ewww!

 

Then we went on a dinner cruise with a tour company. They take you to an island where you eat dinner and play around on the beach. We mostly played with the jellyfish. This is one is partially desiccated so we could actually pick it up.

 

These are moon jellies. They don’t sting. There were some other ones and they do sting. We stayed away from them!

 

I promise I have sewing to show you! I enjoy people’s pictures so I figured you guys would like to peek at some beautiful Alaskan scenery.

Birthday Fun

Sorry, no sewing happening here but we had a fun birthday bash. The girls invited a ton of other girls over and we had fun-o-rama. Boring for those of you that aren’t my family, sorry!

 

Little people turned seven today. Can you believe it? SEVEN. I gained 70 pounds when I was carrying these too. Damn.

 

She has The Eyes.

 

Chillin’ after eating his cake. And doesn’t everyone have Cape Buffalo skulls on their porch?

 

We had a little oopsie that involved the chin. BAM!

 

We have a lot of these around the house. Lillies and hymenopteras.

 

The raspberry batch went bonkers this year.

 

My mom. Aaaawwwwwww.

 

The Boy haz mad skillz. My students love it when I talk or write like this. You can hear their eyes hitting the tops of their head as they roll them.

 

We work damn hard at having fun.

 

That is all.

 

I have sewing planned, it just hasn’t happened yet.

Laminate Tablecloth–Boring but PRETTY!

This is nothing exciting about the sewing aspect of these, but I love the fabric. We have a casual dining table in the kitchen for our normal dinners and a more “formal” dining room. This is what I call the Kid Table. There is always food being dropped on it, water being spilled on it, etc. I made a couple of new laminated tablecloths and thought I would show them to you. I’ve never used this type of fabric before but I love it and it’s perfect for this!
 

 

I used some pretty crazy patterns because I kind of like having the bright and colorful table and the more sedate, formal table. Isn’t the pattern fun? This is from Fabric.com. (Remember they are a sponsor! That means if you click the link and buy, I get a cut! FYI!)

 

This is Amy Butler Cameo Laminated Cotton Harriet's Kitchen Sugar. They had this in other colorways too.

 

We also use those heavy duty plastic mats. Kids are damn hard on furniture. This is what every meal in my house starts like. Salad. Luckily, the four kids are good eaters and love them some salad.

 

We also have a giant bulletin board that hangs over the table. This is where we hang all the great kid art. There isn’t really much on it right now because it’s summer. Once school starts, we have oodles of stuff. Last week, this whole board was full of tiger-striped pink balloons because it was our littlest ones birthday. She turned four!!! You can still barely see one of the balloons in the upper right corner. It’s a rotating art piece and I love it. The fabric on the bulletin board is from IKEA and I love that too.

 

Laminate is not bad to sew. All I did here was sew around the four corners. Really, my only advise is to use a leather foot. If you don’t have one of these, you need one. That makes it a breeze to sew. I used a large gauge needle (a 90?) and regular thread.

I also bought Brandon Mably Laminated Cotton Zig Zag Multi. OMG, right??!?!

 

I bought Heirloom Laminated Cotton Opal Blush too.

I also love these but did not buy.

Kaffe Fassett Laminated Cotton Flame Stripe Yellow

 

Logan Laminated Cotton Blossoms Pink

 

Riley Blake Laminate Medium Chevron Red/Black. This is like RAWR!

 

The dreaded SCH___________ starts tomorrow for me so I am turning in early. Uck!

August Burda Challenge–08/2012 #113

When I started doing the Burda Challenge, I thought to myself, “This is will be totally easy! I have five-ish years of Burda magazines to choose from. It’ll be super easy to find one pattern per month in five magazines!” Well, this month was hard for me. In my head, the August Burdas have always been chock full of great fall-ish type patterns. In reality, I had a really hard time finding something I wanted to make. First, I was all like, “I should sew a cool fall jacket!” Then, I was like, “Hmmmm, I don’t really love any of these jackets.” Then I did that with dresses, skirts, and vests. Nada. Then, I found this purple wool/cashmere and I knew it needed to be something flowy but with structure. I’m rather happy with how it turned out. And I guess I am also happy doing this Burda Challenge because it has forced me to make a pattern I may have skipped over before.

 

Here is the line drawing and the model photo. I thought about making a matching skirt and I still might do that. Although, I don’t want to be the Grape Lady either.

 

Here is probably how I will wear it. I love these boots and this pair of skinny jeans. I have the same jeans in black and wear them all the time. It would also be really cute over a skirt like in the model photo.

 

Here’s the peplum from the back. I should have shaken my bootie a bit so it would fall better. Burda recommends a 24” zipper. All I could find at my local JoAnn’s was a 20” zipper. I would really like to have those inches of zipper. As it is, it is hard to get over my shoulders.

 

Here’s the side view. You can tell the back is several inches longer than the front. Whoops, there is a dangly string back there!

 

I changed the single large dart to two small darts (Melissa recommended this and it seemed to work really well). The seam is about an inch above my belly button.

 

Here it is flat. It does not have much flat-appeal. I hand sewed that stupid round hem. I love to hand sew. Yea.

 

Here you can see the two darts. I do not have much experience manipulating darts so I just sort of winged it.

 

The bodice is fully lined a la Melissa. She wrote a whole post on how to line this top. I did mine slightly different than she did but it came out the same in the end. I have a fully lined bodice that stops where the peplum starts.

 

 

The dreaded sch___________ starts soon!

Jalie 2796–Running Skirt

I’ve made this skirt for my daughters twice but thought I might need my own version. I have my eyes on winter and I wanted something that would cut the wind to my chakras and still let me move. I made the front and back panel out of the Polartec Powerstretch Hardface and the sides and waistband are made out of the Nike Dri-Fit Brush-Back Knit. I love them and I think they will be super nice for running this fall.


This is me after a 3 mile run. I always were my hair like this so it doesn’t get so tangled.


This the high-waisted version of this pattern. The low-waisted waistband is about half this height.


The shorts are really comfortable. I didn’t get any cooch-crawl which I do sometimes get with other tight shorts. I love that they have no side seam.


The back has a bit of a flair which I like. In a drapier fabric, this would hang down instead of flare out.


On this pattern, you make the shorts, make the skirt, and then attach them together with the waistband. For the waistband, you want something really stretch because there are several inches of negative here. When you cut out your waistband, you may want to try in on your body first, before attaching everything.


This is the side view and my favorite part of this skirt. There are large pockets on both sides.


The pockets are large enough for me to stuff my hand in them. Jalie has you sew elastic on the top so things won’t bounce out. The way the skirt is constructed keeps the fabric there very taut so you won’t have your phone or Goo jiggling up and down. I hate that.


I used the sparkle FOE again because 1) it was sitting next to the sewing machine from this dress, 2) it’s perfect for this application, and 3) who doesn’t need some sparkle on their running stuff? What I really need to find is reflective FOE. 


My iPhone easily fits in the pocket. On one of my other (store bought) running skirts, they have a small pocket on the front of the thigh on the running shorts. I may have to add two more pockets to my running shorts. You can never have too many pockets!



These pockets are nice because you can listen to your iPhone and have your hands free.

Up next? I’m not sure. Sch_______ is looming so I’m running out of time!!!! Aaaauughghghghhhhhhh!