Kwik Sew 3347

This Kwik Sew pattern contains a lab coat and a scrub or nursing top.  I failed to get a picture of the pattern to include in this blog post.

My son wanted to be Jack Hodgins from Bones for Halloween.  I used the lab coat pattern and switched the buttons and the buttonholes to the way guys wear them.  I embroidered Hodgins on the coat, and my son found this patch on the internet.  I moved it over slightly because there is a pen/pencil pocket area.  I ironed on the patch and it stuck like glue but latter fell off and the pocket was on, so I had to carefully slip stitch it to the pocket.  Next time I will use a good fabric glue.

 The vent on the lab coat.  I used a poly twill in a royal blue color.  I could not find a good match to the show's, so I went with this next best color.

 For the belt,  I went with the pattern instead of trying to copy and draft something that looked like what was on the show.  I did not make buttonholes.  I just sewed the buttons through to the other side.

 One side.  There is currently no light spot in my house.

The other side.

The little valance is new too.  I use a clearance fabric from JoAnns for that.  We have a high fence and yard in back and it's hard for neighbors to see in through the blinds open or closed.  This window is also next to the back door and long curtains can get dirty.    I only had 10 yards and made 2 valances and in the process of making a curtain for the window closest to our next door neighbor.  We have a yard and fence on that side also, but decided to go ahead with the curtain.

The piano we got also on clearance many years ago when the boys were taking piano lessons and the teacher said these types of pianos were good when you didn't know if you were going to keep taking piano lesson for the first few years.  They only took for a few years, but the piano sounds really nice still.

The cushion was leftover foam from my  pillow cushion sewing festival that's going on now.

Cushions

What I did on my summer vacation.  Not that much sewing and what I did was not very good.  It felt like a vacation where we had to get a lot done before going back to work.  We did some vacation type eating and I gained some weight.  I went through my closet and tried on a lot of things and put back a pretty good small collection of things I'm going to start the fall on.  My husband has decided he is not ready for retirement and went looking for a job.  I've picked back up on my walking.  

Look how big these guys are!  

I had some upholstery fabric I bought a long time ago when Walmart began closing out their fabric section, but I never found the chair I wanted and didn't have enough to recover anything anyway.  So I began to turn it into cushions.  I made one for the fireplace.  We have DVD's and dog things so I only made this one.  I made 2 for a bedroom window seat.  I'm now going to make some big sofa cushions and slowly use it up.  It is definitely upholstery fabric, stiff and doesn't feel very good for any other projects.   So I'm currently in pillow/cushion making mode.  

Linen napkins

I've been going through my stash for fabrics.  JoAnns is way over by the mall, and I haven't had the time alone to spend looking online for fabrics, but I do have a fabric stash.  I pulled this linen out and played around with the yardage for quite awhile.  From skirts, to dresses, to shorts, to some sort of a jacket, but I just wasn't happy.  The linen seemed to stretch a bit when hung on a dress dummy, the weave felt a bit coarse..

 so I opted for napkins.  I did want some linen napkins though.  I made daily napkins, cocktail napkins and hor dourve napkins.  I picked these sizes because they fit the amount of fabric that I had.

 The cocktail napkins.  I made a pattern measuring 7 by 7 inches.  This included a 1/2 inch hem all around.  The finished napkins were 6 by 6 inches.  This fit the scraps that I had left over from the daily napkins.  These are great for icy drinks on a glass top table.

 The daily napkins are a great everyday size.  I made a pattern again measuring 21 by 21 inches with a 1/2 hem allowance.  The finished napkins are 20 by 20 inches.  I have been able to successfully spot treat these and get the stains out from spaghetti sauce.

 The hor dourves size again was based on what was left over and what size napkin I could get from that size.  The Internet told me a hor dourve napkin was 12 by 12 finished, but I had to go down  an inch.  The pattern I created was 12 by 12, and the finished size is 11 by 11 inches with 1/2 inch seam allowance all around.

These last few were a shortened hor dourve, for lunches or what not.  So far I've been extremely happy with these napkins.  They are beautiful to see in the drawer, and the kids seem to really like using them.

I'm taking a brief (hopefully) break from sewing.  The ironing board I brought down from the attic is broken.  A plastic piece that holds the ironing board up is broken.  Since I had to recently buy a new refrigerator, I've decided to sand the rusty part of the old one and repaint it with a metal paint.  My husband is trying to get the fence protected, but we are having a heat wave and the painting is going slowly.  He's got the rusty part sanded, but I wanted to use a much stronger white paint (he had green, black and white in the garage)  and he needs a paint filter to breathe through for that paint.  I plan to paint the whole thing all the way white at a later date.  

Swimwear and a car update

 The pattern above is from Kwik Sew 3567, which is a sport top.  I made mine in swimwear fabric and 3/4 sleeves.  I want this to go over my one piece tank and my one piece racer back, also from a Kwik Sew pattern.  I can get in and out of the pool and not get cold, stay protected from the sun, and not offend neighbors or children.

 These bottoms were made from Kwik Sew 3239 in the same swimwear fabric.  My butt can get a little big, being a pear shape, and I also wanted some extra modesty butt coverings at times.  I wear these over my tank like a pair of swim shorts if I feel the need too.  Besides the 2 KS tanks, the sport top and the swim bottoms, I also have a bottom tie skirt from KS 3330.

 I forget to reorder my pictures.  I'm showing the inside construction of the sport top.  I used a sew and finish technique on my sewing machine.

My toes, and my Arizona Birkenstocks.

And, now a car update.  When we purchased our car, we bought it through a Honda dealer.  That dealer sold his dealership to a big multi used car dealership that has authorized Honda repair people.  After the last recall episode, I wanted to move away from that dealer and get fresh eyes on my situation.  Another recall notice came in and we moved up the road to a well thought of Honda only dealership.  The recall was sent out from Honda just to make sure everyone was sure to get their parts replaced.  This new guy took us over and sat into our car and explained to us that Honda did indeed replace the horn piece with the airbag attached because the other airbag was defective. * We thought this was the case, but the old multi car dealership was very confused and kept changing his story.
The next recall was for a gas cylinder.  So our car is perfect and if there is anything else he can do for us, let him know.  It felt like it was the first time we purchased our car.

I'm finishing up another project.  We think we may be losing our fridge.  Retire early and every major appliance goes.  In early retirement, there is no income, but that division of the company is closing forever.  We are also brushing off old sealer from our fence and putting on new sealer.  I'll try and remember to get a picture.  The brushed off fence looks great though.

Ironing Board Cover

My old ironing board is breaking through and rusting out.  I had 2 ironing boards, one I bought when I had my own sewing room.  I put one up in the attic and that's the one I brought back down.

 I used paper to mark the outline of the new ironing board and trimmed it.

 I cut 2 layers of quilting batting and serged around both layers.

 Then I took the old ironing board cover, pulled out the cord, flattened it, pinned it to fabric, cut around that.  I used some bias tape I had made for a quilt and sewed that on, ran the cording back through and put it back on the ironing board.

 I'm going to have to do some ironing and steaming and tighting to fit it.  This board had a sharp spot on it and I found it.  So I'm waiting for the bleeding to stop while changing band aids.

 Sweety Boo.

The box has finally arrived.  The Chemistry box came too.  He's got one of those count down to school starts on the computer.

I may wait till school begins to work on my valances.  I just don't want any mistakes and I'd like to think and plan a bit.

1 2 3 Pool

Pool area. The bush in the back is going.  I'm exploring bedding choices.  

The Pool. 

Travel pillow

This is the finished binding.  I used a beginner binding instruction from a Better Homes and Garden quilting book.  This fabric came from Fabric Mart and was only about 20 inches wide, so it was really hard to use it for anything clothing wise.

 I made a pillow case for a travel sized pillow.

 I made a pillow protector for the travel sized pillow.  This is for a boy's bed.  It's small and good for additional neck support.

Our dog.  I'm currently waiting for the new Jalie pant pattern.  I'm hoping I can get some great pants to wear through next winter.  I also have a door curtain and some curtains to make.  

Love at First Stitch and Kwik Sew 3364

 This scarf is from the book Love at First Stitch by Tilly Walness.  She has instructions for 2 different sizes and this is the smaller size.  I used a poly chiffon from JoAnns that I bought years ago.

 Some of the Kwik Sew patterns have sashes included in with the patterns and I used one of those patterns for this sash.

This is the poly chiffon and I waited years before I used it because I just didn't like the feel of it.  It seemed to ravel badly.  It did press reasonably well and sewed well.  I wanted to use all of this up, so I made 2 sashes of different lengths and 2 scarves.  They fold up nicely in my drawer and I have one less piece of fabric in my plastic container.  I used my Viking 960Q on these after letting it sit for several months and it acted wonderfully.  I love that machine,

My next patchwork quilt in progress and the weekend

I made another basic square scrappy quilt top.  

 I used a lightweight rayon/cotton batting from JoAnns and a muslin backing.

 I did a basic stitch around the squares for the quilting.  I just need to add some beginner binding and it's ready for the TV room.

 Some backyard snakes and some snails.

 We got the backyard beds weeded and mulched.  The other parsley.

 The garden so far.  We will add in stuff here and there.

My husband used up the last of the blackboard paint repainting my old blackboard  He also took my vacuum cleaner apart and cleaned it up for better suction.

Lamp redo

Years ago, my mother gave me an old Knob Creek lamp.  She said it was an expensive lamp.  I've google it, and it's an old upscale Ethan Allen lamp.  The bottom felt was going so I re did it,  I initially wanted it larger, but in the end, made it the same size.

 This felt came from JoAnns in the decorating dept.  I used basic Elmer's glue.

Finished bottom lamp.  Yesterday, my husband hung a big picture my mother gave me and I have set this lamp on an end table to help me decide what kind of lampshade I want.  I can't wait to get the lampshade now.  I think we are going to try an LED bulb for the lamp.

I have not gone near my sewing machines.  I apologize to any sewists looking for something sewing related.  I've been doing a lot of reading, thinking and researching, but I must be in a lull.

First week June

This summer is moving a little more slowly for us.  

 We planted a flat parsley and another curly parsley.  The other curly is in with some shrubbery.  We've since added a banana pepper.

 My husband did 2 oil changes.

 He's in the middle of a wheelbarrow overhaul.  He's had this wheelbarrow for ever and wanted to give it a make over.  We'd like to do a bunch of dirt, mulch, and landscaping this year.  I really wanted to do some trim work on our house before Halloween.

 Went to big school to visit the counselor.  I got to see the Fashion Department for the first time.  I am so excited to visit again.  Oh my Gosh!

 I used to look DOWN at the floating barges.

 The lake water has come all the way up the columns.

Guess what.  It's been raining again the last couple of days, and will continue most of the week.  

Concrete

 My husband is doing some patching.  This is the cover for our water meter.

 This is the top part of our driveway.  There is a high tension cable underneath.  They use the cable to help keep the concrete level or flat??

 He swept all the dirt out.  Painted the cable showing to help protect it.  Then he put in a separator to help with the concrete expanding.

This one will need the shingle trimmed a bit when it fully drys.

 Neat and clean.

He patched this with a concrete filler and then covered that with some leftover concrete.  Brushed the cover with a wire brush, and painted it black again.