Sew Dreaming

This morning's in-box contained notification that McCall's Fall 2010 Collection is now available. Fall? My wish list of summer sewing is a mile high and I'm waiting for hot weather to motivate me. Apparently, it has arrived only the hospital is air conditioned. I see sunshine out the window but don't feel the heat. Go figure. Summer would arrive on the only few days that I'm inside and busy. Life is SO like that.

As you know, this was supposed to be the week of the outfit. Not. So far, I've read a novel and done a lot of knitting - up to the sleeve caps. Those, the neckband, four seams, and some buttons and I'll be finished. Nice bonus. While knitting, I am sew dreaming.




The shell from Simplicity 2938 is made with pleats and princess seams. I want to sew both it and the short sleeved top from Simplicity 2369 below for the top and as a test for the dresses. They both look comfortable for summer like the black and white skirt I just made. I wore it to the hospital yesterday and that bit of stretch in the denim was perfect. It was as comfortable as I'd imagined.




The day before I wore some jeans that I bought a few weeks ago. They fit surprisingly well. I'll show you pictures some time soon. Before I wore them, I measured a whole lot of things to transfer to my pattern. They didn't bag out in two hours of sitting like the ones I sewed however, by the end of the day, they were feeling too big. Before I buy/sew another pair, I'm going to compare notes on fabric content. I once bought a pair of jeans with a percentage of nylon in them and they didn't stretch out at all. I'll be a lot pickier about denim fabric content in the future.

I've been reading The Bra Maker's Manual. Actually, a better way to phrase it might be that I'm attempting to read it. The information is EXCELLENT; the writing is not. It's all I can do to not grab a red pen and start editing. If you have difficulty with fragmented and run on sentences, horrendous punctuation, failed attempts at humor, too much personal interjection, and the occasional lack of clarity, think twice. Delivered to my door, this book was just under $100.00. For a price like that, from a recognized expert, I expected professional editing although, as I said, the information is excellent. I have learned a lot... in small bits... with my red pen placed WAY across the room.

Howard is still in hospital. This is his fourth day of pain and pain killers. He's mostly resting. I'll be down there again this afternoon and evening. The current diagnosis is a herniated disc between the L4 and L5 vertebrae only the symptoms are presenting abnormally on the right instead of the left side of the body. As he says, of course. Sometime this morning, a nerve blocker and a cortisone shot will be injected. If that deals with the problem, it's a treatment. If the pain doesn't go away completely, it's a diagnostic test. They're talking about a possible MRI. Personally, I'm all for that. It'd be nice to have a complete picture of what's going on for him. Either way, we're looking at a slow and easy summer.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - knitting

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Personal Growth - Last week when I edited my son's report, it took four and a half hours and was a lot of fun. Not reading about battles but editing and organizing his text. The time flew. I love to write and I love good writing. One of my goals is to continue improving my skills. That's one of the reasons I write this blog.

I'm intrigued by the skills we gather as we go through life and how they mix and blend together to form new facets of our whole. I have many abilities in numerous areas. For instance, I can read, research, write, edit, publish, develop lessons plans, and teach on many subjects. That said, I'm the most successful if that subject is one I'm fascinated by like creativity or sewing or knitting. Creativity is my primary area of expertise. It's my language. It's what makes me excited and bubbling and enthused. I get it.

Reading while resisting editing The Bra Maker's Manual reminded me of skills acquired. It's realistic to note that I could have written it better or helped tremendously with the organization and editing. That makes me curious. God has brought these skills into my life for a purpose. I wonder what's going to happen with them next.