Sewing Meditation

I'm not going to be writing much (stories or novel) for the next couple months. It's because I'm up against a big sewing project, in which I make costumes for two people with the intent of wearing them at Costume Con with some other friends in a few months' time. (We're going to enter them in the Fantasy & Sci-fi Masquerade.) stitchy, who is my partner-in-crime in this endeavor, came over last weekend and we picked out what she wanted, and she came over this weekend and I did a rough pattern draping for her outfit, and over this week I'm going to do a full toile/mock-up for her to try on on Friday.

I think this will be good for me because I haven't sewn much of anything since we moved into Greenwood (our house). Wonderful Husband thinks that the lack of tactile craft stuff like this is part of why I've sometimes felt out of balance. There's a certain soothing meditation to cutting and sewing, or at least there is for me.

But since I haven't sewn in rather a while, I took the opportunity/excuse and pulled out my 1930s butterfly blouse pattern and some blue drapey fabric with roses woven in, and have been using it to get my mind into the right groove. So here I sit at my desk on a holiday morning, going over the sleeve hems with a needle and thread, sewing up a couple of places where the thread slips off the hem, leaving a gap. I only need to sew on the ties and some bias tape to bind the edges and it'll be done. Hoping to finish it today to wear this week.

If I can get everything done in time, who knows, maybe I'll try sewing something for the Single Pattern Contest as well. But that's a distant second thought....

And, there, done with sleeve hems. Time to make breakfast.

A Day of Mostly Garden Stuff

After brekky (buttermilk pancakes and bacon), Wonderful Husband and I went to Lowe's where we picked up a few pieces to eventually make into a gate to our backyard, a shower curtain rod to replace the one I broke while trying to adjust it, a Valencia orange tree, a Mandarin tangerine tree, and two rosebushes (Double Delight and Scentimental) for the front of the house. Came home, went through the David Austin catalogue, and ordered the rest of the roses to go in that bed. Plus one for the backyard because I could not resist that color. Wonderful Husband sprayed the still-not-dead devil grass in that bed, so planting the two roses I got today will wait until next weekend.

He also chopped down the massive has-never-flowered geranium by the front door and, in the back of the house, I pulled up dead tomato, aubergine, and pepper plants, so the compost bin fed well today. I also gave the single extant flowering rosebush its annual pruning and saved its few flowers for the table. The two beds along the back of the house have been prepped for the hostas and aquilegias by having finished compost dug in, as well as a preliminary watering. I didn't actually get around to making the clay pot waterers until today, so planting stuff in those beds is going to wait until tomorrow.

Have cut the self-fabric bias strips for the blouse, and bacon-mushroom quiche has just come out of the oven. My evening? It has plans.