Uck.

So, crappy sewing week here. I made a pair of pants. It's a pattern that I've used before. It turns out, with all this running, my butt has rearranged itself and gotten bigger. Lovely. I made these Jalie pants before and they fit fine. The first version was a bit tight and the second version was a bit loose. This time I cut an in-between size and it's too small. Not like, "Whoa, I can't sit down in these" but instead "Holy shit, these pants are an inch and a half from zipping!" So. I've been pondering this the last couple of days and doing a lot of rear-end examining. First off, by no means do I think I'm fat. I don't want you to get that impression. My weight hasn't changed but I think it has rearranged itself. I've really been doing a lot of speed work this summer and I've increased my time by about a two minutes a mile. Yes, it sounds impressive but it's not really. Last year when I was doing this training, I was running with a friend who was decidedly a non-runner. It was her first year running and I was more interested in being supportive than being fast. Because I was being supportive, I was running at her pace which is much slower than mine. She has picked up a different running buddy because she moved a ways away and I am now running with a different, much more competitive, friend. We have really cranked up the intensity and I feel really strong right now. But, my butt is apparently feeling strong too. The pants are not finished but I think I'll hold on to them for a while and see if things rearrange themselves this winter when I'm not doing intervals training. We'll see. The half-marathon is Sunday so wish me luck. I want to do it under two hours.

On another front, my Vogue couture jacket has really been bothering me. I hate having unfinished things hanging over my head. After I posted the almost-finished jacket on my blog, my instructor called and said that I need to unpick the arms and lower the armhole a little bit. I thought about it. A lot. I agree but (1) I've already sewn the sleeves in permanently (two lines of stitches), (2) cut the seam allowances for the under arm, and (3) don't want to damage the fabric any more than I have already. Right now I'm trying to decide what to do. I think I'm just going to leave the arms alone. Yes, I know it's not perfect but I see more jackets in my future. But, having this jacket in my sewing room is just bringing me down every time I see it. I would rather have it finished even if it's not perfect. I still learned a lot from this class whether my arms are perfect or not. Now that it's decided, I already feel better. Whew.

I'm currently working on a shirtdress and it's giving me fits too. I can't seen to apply the collar and the points look like crap. Maybe I just need to take a sewing break for a couple of days. I have the will but the way is eluding me right now. I love the fabric so I will keep working on this to the bitter end but it's killing me a little inside to be having all these problems. Okay, too dramatic but you get the idea.

I have not forgotten that I owe you guys a waistband tutorial from this skirt. It's coming but school started yesterday so I haven't had much time to think it out and write it down. To prove it to you, here's a picture.

More Kid Stuff

I work in a middle school. We have teams. My team consists of three women and one man. He's a man-man. And a MAN-MAN at that. I equate him to a rutting bull moose. He's dirty, profane, and amusing. His life just changed in a very big way with the arrival of his first born child in July. Seeing as I go back to school Thursday, I've made him some baby gifts. He'll be gruff and uncomfortable and say something like, "Uh, thanks, hmmmmm, I'll give these to L (his wife). She'll really like them. Uh, thanks, really." Then it will be back to business as usual and we'll talk about hunting (I know some) or engine parts (I know nothing).

My daughter is modeling the bibs I made him. I'm not sure what is up with the hands-in-the-air-weird-pose. All the embroidery is from UrbanThreads.com.

They all all backed with laminated crab microfiber that Paulette gave me. She has the most interesting fabric scraps. She got them from Chez Ami & Chez Belle. If you sew for children you have got to check out this site. They have knits and wovens and the prices are really good (like $3.50/yard in the clearance section). And, they have matching ribknit!!!!! I figure the microfiber will keep the clothes a little bit dry. And it's so damn cute!!!

This is my favorite design of the bunch. I wish there was more contrast between the background and the dandelion puffs.

I found this free pattern by googling, "free baby bibs." I added a link on the right under the Favorite Sewing Tutorials link. Ok, now some me sewing . . . damn kids.

Kid Sewing

This is size 6 of the That*Darn*Kat underwear pattern I used before. This, obviously, is the boy version. They have a functional two-layer fly and everything. I finished them last night and put them in my son's dresser. This morning I asked my son if he saw the new underwear and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Did you see the new underwear I made for you yesterday. I put them in your dresser.

Boy: I have to be cautious when they have no number.

Me: **blink, blink**

Boy: They were missing my number.

Me: What the heck are you talking about?

Boy: The butt number!!!!!

Me: What number? There's a number on your butt??!!? We should get that checked by the doctor.

Boy: **big sigh** Mom, there's no size label so I don't know if they are mine or The Sisters'. I don't want to get The Lines* you know.

Me: Righty-o. Well, they are yours and I don't have the equipment to put the butt number on.

I love this pattern because they are totally functional and they use up teeny, tiny pieces of scrap knit. I used material from this dress, this shirt, this dress, and this top.

*He gets lines on his hips when he wears The Sisters' underwear. He doesn't like The Lines so he checks all of his underwear for size labels. He's sort of a crazy-ass type-A person already and he's only five.

Jalie 2911 - Sweater

I love this sweater. Ever since I got back from my Crow Pass trip the weather has been chilly. It probably doesn't help that I was wet and chilled for two whole days. I just want to curl up in a thick wool sweater and drink tea. I actually really like this time of the year. This is another Jalie 2911. The last one I made was a black wool jersey. This one is made out of an odd, but fantastic, fabric. I buy bolts of fabric. Some of you think your stash is huge but I doubt you've got anything on me. I am outfitted like a fabric store. I kid you not. I have between 20-30 bolts of fabric (15 yds each) plus the usual stash fabrics. Most of the bolts are for my business but I have a lot of fleece too. When I see something that I can't resist, I buy a bolt of it because I know we will use it and I can get it at wholesale prices if I buy a whole bolt. This is a roll-end fabric from Patagonia. You can see it in use here at the Patagonia website.

 

 

Here's one of my crazy girls. She is excited to wear dad's hunting hat because it is raining.

 

 

Here's a snip of the Patagonia website. They have several colors but I liked this one the best.

 

 

It's a double layer polyester/wool. You can see the polyester side here. When you wash it, the wool shrinks a bit and pulls the poly layer up forming ribs.

Here you can see the two layers. The wool is the lighter one.

 

 

On my sweater I made the wool on the inside. It's not itchy but, then again, I love the feel of wool. Wool = warm. I've been toying with the idea of putting some of it up on my Etsy site in two yard chunks. I'm still debating.

 

 

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In other news: It's canning season!!!! I did a bunch of canning yesterday. Rhubarb, jams, and soups. Yum!!

 

Isn't it pretty?

Where was this during the Jeans Sew Along?

Remember the Jeans Sew Along when we couldn't find stretch denim?!?!? Well, I was just perusing Fabric.com and they have a whole load of stretch denim fabrics right now. I'll be getting 2 yard sections of several of them because when you want to make jeans, you want to make jeans. A few of these have pretty limited yardage.

This one is called Asphalt. I want it. There are only 19 yards available.

I'll probably get a blue one too.

I can't go buck wild though because my husband is on the plane right now headed to Houston and High Fashion Fabric. Yea!!!

Crow Pass

Here we are at the beginning. I'm on the right and my college roommate, K, is in the middle. The girl on the left, M, went to high school with K and we met on my first day of college too. We've done a lot together and have very fond memories of our last 15 years together. K is a nurse in the Air Force and lives in California but M lives in Anchorage with me. M also has a set of twins and a five year old.

We found huge salmon berries on the first mile of the trail.

Here's the actual Crow Pass. It was really, really windy up here. We've climbed about 2000 feet at this point.

K and I with the Raven Glacier behind us.

There are several of these photos because we used to do this in college all the time. On this trip, we did it at strategic points. This is in front of the glacier.

K has no kids but M and I both have three. We are all very excited to be together again and to be without kids. Can you tell?

We started at the bottom of this valley down where the two mountains meet.

We camped next to a gorge. It was noisy but soothing. We only made it four miles in the first night because M didn't get off work until 4pm. After this point, it's a very long haul to a place where you can set up a camp. And yes, we only went four miles the first day. That means I went 22 miles the second day. Yea. Twenty-two miles. Ouch.

Requisite tent photo. K used to have horrible vision but got Lasik surgery courtesy of the Air Force. Now, she rubs it in.

K had a way of flushing out the wildlife. This was the first moose we saw. I had a chance to take a photo. The second one was close enough I could have tossed a stone underhand and hit it. He was not happy we were so close so we moved fast. He was lowering his ears at us which is a big warning sign. I did end up packing the gun and I'm glad I did. At one point K was in front and was less than 10 feet from a grizzly bear that was standing on its hind legs. She couldn't see it because she was too close to the bushes. The bear was right behind the bushes and stood up over her basically. I saw it because she was about 10 feet in front of me. I yelled and pulled my gun. She said she wasn't scared until she looked back and saw I had the gun out. Then she knew something bad was about to happen. She ran back and stood behind me. She never did see the thing because once it figured out we were humans, it took off. Of course, the next section of trail was grass and alders over our heads and dense. We couldn't see the ground and we had to crawl under some of the trees. I kept the gun out during that part because there was bear sign everywhere and it was perfect bear habitat. That was right before the river crossing.

This is the river crossing we had to do. The river was a brisk 32 degrees because it comes from the glacier. We disrobed on the beach and put on shorts. It was buttock deep and faaaaaast moving. It's a good thing we've all done things like this before.

You actually had to cross several channels. So, you froze your legs off, got on land, marched back to the water, got on land, and marched back into the water. They have put up white poles to show people where to cross.

Our legs were red when we got out. These two are wincing and dancing around.

There were several rope/log bridges to cross too. Because the water level is so high right now, many of the smaller bridges were under water too. We forged those creeks too.

This is the end. We all had blisters from wet feet but we are happy and exhausted.

My other college roommate, J, picked us up and gave us wine. She didn't have a corkscrew because someone had borrowed it so she was using a drill. Strangely enough, J also has twins. M, J, and I all had twins within nine months of each other. If we go somewhere together it's three moms and eight kids. My son, who is five is the oldest. So, eight kids five and under. Yikes.

I'm off to get some sleep. Whew.