Classics Of A Sort

Every once in a while Seth posts a picture on his blog - Advanced Style - of someone nearer to my age or of someone whose style I can see myself wearing like this picture of Isabel or the one of Beatrix below. I have no idea how old Isabel is. I do know that Beatrix is in her seventies. The love of - and the wearing of - fashion spans decades. It's wonderful.

You can see the similarities between Isabel and Beatrix's styles. I can see my own similarities and somewhere in there is the direction in which I'm heading as I become more adventurous. It occurred to me recently that unique and individualized clothing is as unlikely to date itself as a Channel jacket or a pencil skirt. Both are classics of a sort.

After a longer than I anticipated but quite wonderful coffee date with someone I met only a few months ago, I eventually made it into the studio mid afternoon only to try this and try that and then try something else with limited success. That's the nature of both refashioning and of draping.

The starting point is this grey t-shirt made in January and then never worn. Even on skinny days, it made me feel frumpy especially with the way the sides and hem flipped out and how it hugged every bump on the way down.

My T & T pattern requires easing through the bustline. Apparently, I'm a slow learner because more than once I've chosen a fabric with enough crosswise but not enough lengthwise stretch. It's happened so often that I'm considering a new pattern. The gathers don't flatter.

I didn't want to take out the side seams so I pinned the fullest gathers into tucks from the side seam toward - and stopping about 1 1/2" from - the bust point and then stitched 1/8" from the fold.

Above is a before pressing picture. The tucks are even nicer pressed and the dimples at the end have disappeared. They make me giggle. They look a bit like fingers coming around from the back to fondle. Subtly s-x-e perhaps!

To get rid of some of the side flip, I tapered the seam allowance taking out 2" per side or 4" in total. It helped in part. There's still too much fullness through the back but that's a different problem.

One of the things Diane talked about at the workshop was the need to plan your path. When you're making fabric from fabric intending to make it into a garment or as you're refashioning an existing garment, you need to determine the order of things. My first step was to split the front changing the garment from a t-shirt to a cardigan. Then I eliminated the gathers that were bothering me and began to remove excess ease through the hips. When I reached a point where I thought the resulting garment might actually be flattering, I started spending more time evaluating options. This way of working can make refashioning a t-shirt take five times longer than sewing a new one. And it's fun.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

This quote is one of my favourites. It is often - and I have made the mistake of - attributed to Goethe when in fact they are the words of W. H. Murray. I only learned that recently so it's going to take me a while to make the shift but no matter who said them, they are words I find to be true and words that have caused me to ponder what being truly committed looks like.

I can know that a course of action would be good for me and I can want to take it in a should kind of way and I might even make a start but far more often than I wish to admit I slip back into my old ways. When I am truly committed, it'll be accompanied by surprising things coming my way - like yesterday when my friend asked if I wanted this white cabinet above that didn't seem to fit anywhere in her new house. Yes. It's the exact white cabinet that was in the bathroom of my previous home and held my toiletries perfectly - which my new bathroom does not - so I've been missing it. Not only did she give me one, she gave me two. We'll put the second one downstairs.

I realize the degree to which I'm committed (to no extra spending or unnecessary purchases) when  all manner of unforeseen incidents start coming my way. Not only is it encouraging, it's way too fun to see how God blesses and it opens my eyes to the everyday blessings I have overlooked.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - the exact cabinet I've been wanting without spending any money

The Marcy Pants

Howard is working six days a week for the rest of the summer while the other supervisors are on holidays. That means I'm spending most of the weekends alone which is good for studio time and not so great for husband time. Things will change in the fall. Until then - ideally - I'll get lots of stuff accomplished starting with...

... the Marcy pants. These are Vogue 8712 redrafted to ankle length. Normally with pants I shorten the crotch depth by an inch to adjust for my petite frame however, based on the reviews, I didn't do that and the results were fine. I did taper out one inch from the side seam to center front to adjust for my tipped waist and eliminated the zipper and added two inches in length.

These shoes were bought - and worn only once - a year ago for my son's high school graduation. They're glittery gold and so is the fabric. Seemed like a good combo.

Here's the back view that most people would see since we are typically people in motion. I've noticed on a few of the blogs that I read regularly that we never see the standing stock still for fitting images so my impression of the fit of those blogger's clothing is fabulous - whether it is or not. Perhaps I should be a person in motion from now on only....

... fit fascinates me and I'm always intrigued with ways to make the fit of my garments even better. Along with pressing and well executed technique, I think that fit is one of the key ingredients that makes our garments custom-made as opposed to Becky-Homecky. Until I saw the image above, I thought the crotch curve was pretty darn good and now see that it could have been scooped a bit more.

In this photo, the pants were inside out so I could pin out the excess more easily. Since I don't have one hip higher, this trick works well for me only it might have been a good idea to actually look at this blurry photo - that my son took earlier - that I ignored until writing this posting - because if I had I would have known that the crotch needed more work. I didn't and now the seam is stitched, trimmed, and stabilized. The fabric has a percentage of Lycra so it'll relax somewhat and I'm a person in motion so good and enough for now.

This is the first time I've sewn a pair of pants with a French seam. They reminded me of the workshop I took with Sandra Betzina a few years ago. I was complaining about my forward thighs and flat derriere and protruding calves and the resulting wrinkles and how hard my figure was to fit in pants and Sandra told me to consider patterns with seams like OOP V2948 to which I replied that I wanted them to fit without seams. She told me to get over it. LOL - yes.

I was going to say that I sold another purse on the weekend but that would be incorrect. I've been making purses for years and no one has asked to buy one before and now they're walking out the door before I can even get a good picture. This is obviously a God thing so it'd be more correct to say that GOD sold another purse on the weekend bringing my savings to 50% of next year's workshop. I'm intrigued to see how He provides the rest. I'll let you know.

I have no desire to revert to being a workaholic nor to having a house full of unsold pieces AND... were I to focus solely on purses and not on clothes... I'd be n-k-d in no time so my plan is to alternate things for sale with things for me. On Friday, when I finished the purses, I should have started on a garment except that I had a friend coming to sew that evening and I'm not yet comfortable enough with draping to have someone in the studio while I'm trying to figure out a garment so I pulled out the next pile of remnants to be pursed and cut out five shapes complete with sides and handles where applicable and then I packaged them into the purses in waiting basket and now it's my turn.

I've started to restructure the t-shirt Millicent's been wearing for the past few weeks and once that is done I'll finish the skirt I started at the workshop and then - depending on how long that takes - I may or may not sew a top to go with.

Lorrie wrote - Are you cooking gluten-free stuff for everyone, or just for yourself? What do you eat when you make lasagna and rhubarb crisp for your family?

Acupuncture has made a huge difference. It hasn't cured my sensitivities but it has made them more tolerable in small doses. Because I knew what was for dinner, I ate non-sensitive foods for the rest of the day. The lasagna was made with rice noodles. There were no issues with the tomato sauce. I used cottage cheese and skim mozzarella because these are on the more tolerable end of dairy products. The crisp was made with a butter substitute and half brown rice and amaranth flours and half wheat flour. While I'm not feeling as good as I was eating a totally devoid of sensitive foods diet, it's much easier to exist with limited amounts of the "bad" stuff so I'm settling for slightly off and hoping exercise, acupuncture, and time will take care of the rest. I can hardly wait for the end of menopause to see if it's also the end of these allergies. Thanks for asking.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - another purse sold

Overlap & Eyeball

Except to clean, it was well after dinner when I finally made it into the studio and then only to sew on two buttons. Before cleaning, I cut the rug - which I would much rather referred to vigorous dancing as the term was slang for in the 1920s but I mean I literally cut the rug.

Our kitchen has a corner sink and with the island in place, there's not much room for carpets. Most kitchen carpets are IMHO rather ugly but they do protect the floor from chips and water damage. I'd much prefer to have a custom woven rug but this $14.99 special from WalMart is more within my budget range and it was already here and paid for. The cut above was made by overlap and eyeball. That's not real accurate.

The original carpet was a rectangle that I folded and cut in half and then laid both pieces separately on the cutting mat and used the forty-five degree angle to miter from the finished to the raw edges which were then serge finished with the non-slip side up otherwise they wouldn't go through the machine. This worked well on the straight edges and less so on the bias. A zigzag would be better next time.

After serging, the edges were butted and zigzagged together with a heavy thread. I started at the finished edge and worked toward the serged one. When I got there...

... they didn't line up exactly right and the finished results are slightly rippled. It turns out my mistake was right at the beginning. I presumed the finished edges were straight. When I folded the carpet up, the wobble illustrated that they weren't. Next time, I'll overlap the ends right sides together, align the length of the sides carefully, and make the cut through both layers at the same time.

Cutting the rug leaves fluff balls everywhere and after spending the day cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping, I wasn't doing that again and taking it outside wasn't a possibility yesterday afternoon. We had torrential downpours. I've never, in the forty-two years I've lived here, seen that much rain - except on TV. Amazing. And wet. The carpet is folded up in the closet and I'll try again later. The theory is good.

Just to show that I was somewhat creative and successful, I made enough spaghetti sauce to give one container to my oldest son and his roommate and freeze one for later after making lasagna for dinner. Interesting how mozzarella cheese (at the back) and rhubarb crisp crumbles (at the front) look relatively the same uncooked. Dinner was yummy. Leftovers went home with the boys. All is well.

Today, other than coffee with a friend this afternoon, I have no commitments. Once I get the handle on the fourth bag, those are done except for photography and it's time to finish the Marcy pants. YEAH.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - no flooding and a clean house

On Creative Flow & Balance

Creativity is manic with high highs and low lows. It's like balance. With both, there are times when you're closer to the Utopian of perfect balance or perfect creative flow and then, with no work necessary on your part, you're suddenly further away again, sometimes so far away that you can't even remember what it felt or looked or smelled like. You just know you want it back. Life seems to be a dance of working toward balance. The artistic life seems to be a dance of working toward creative flow.

I've received numerous emails over the past few weeks celebrating the creative energy and output currently going on in my studio. Yes. I'm certainly celebrating too and even as I am, I know that it will not remain forever. It's something to enjoy, to embrace, to be grateful for while it flows and something to work back toward when it ebbs. With all my years of creativity, this is something I know for sure just as...

... I know that I am the most creatively energized when I have a goal or when I'm learning something new and right now - with incorporating the learning from the workshop into creative everyday wear and the goal of making purses for the two upcoming shows - I have both. When things aren't going well, new learning and a significant goal are the two touchstones I'll come back to.

Yesterday was one of those days when things took forever. Simple statements like all it needs is a handle and a closure equate to hours of trial and error and experimentation. Above I spray painted a button copper and then rubbed it with purple and then painted it with glaze. Below...

... I painted the handle. Again. In the copper color, it was too garish. Rubbing it with purple and then gloss helped significantly. The actual color is less pink than this picture looks and these wooden...

... beads are less blue and more of a deep purple like the picture below which shows the true color of the purple fabric as well. The beads were painted and glazed and then used to cover...

... the fold of the handle around the D ring. Underneath the ends are stitched together. In the picture above, the glaze is drying because I put it on after the handle was finished - naturally - because that's when you'll think of it on a day that's not going as smoothly as you'd like it to be.

Binding is a lot faster than satin stitch around the edge of a purse BUT... I didn't have the right color of binding and I did have the right color of thread and so thread was the answer. This purse will have the painted handle and a strap. It has a schoolbag satchel-ish shape. I'm debating if the braided cording is too narrow and if so, what will work. Perhaps the answer will appear while I'm cleaning house today.

The island is still not finished. We put the base together Tuesday night and the drawers last night and it's sitting in place with the larger countertop unsecured while we debate how much to trim it down. At first, it looked massive - so massive that I wasn't sure I even wanted it - but after two days of seeing it in that space, we've adjusted. Once the top is trimmed to size, it needs a light stain and finishing with a two part resin for a glossy, easy clean, surface. Bare wood doesn't appeal to me and my son hates the feel of it and if there's ever to be a hope of him wiping the counter - LOL - it needs finishing.

I did arrange a lesson yesterday for the cover stitch machine. Unfortunately, it wasn't hugely informative. What was covered I'd already learned from online videos and what I wanted to know - like how to use the binding foot - she didn't know. It's not really a lesson when we're both reading the instructions and can't make it work BUT... I did learn enough to put together the t-shirt scraps in the way I was thinking. That may be tomorrow if cleaning and then sewing the handles works out - although I have four men expecting lasagna for dinner so cooking needs to happen - and if not, it'll definitely be the first task - after the crotch curve on the Marcy pants- of next week. Interesting how I'd intended to spend four days on these purses and now it's been seven. Yes, that is exactly how the flow of creativity changes.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - that I am mature enough to be patient with tasks I want done and realize that other things can actually be more important than what I want right now.

Chairs In Waiting

Apparently yesterday's appointment is actually next Tuesday - which I discovered after waiting 45 minutes for the workmen to show up to replace the garage door before finally phoning. And then they called me Linda. When they phoned to book - last Thursday - they said on Tuesday. Hmm...

Doors and windows are the strata's responsibility as in repairing and replacing them. So far, we've made four strata payments that total less than a thousand dollars and we have had our living room window replaced, two doors and one window repaired, half of the cost of the upcoming roof replacement, and now the new garage door and there are more windows to be replaced. We will catch up eventually but right now, this is definitely in our favour. I can wait another week.

3" high is definitely not 30" high but I walked around my simulated island all day yesterday to adjust to having something in that space. It should work out fine. The boxes show the maximum length and width. We have room to adjust both by several inches.

Chairs in waiting. If they weren't inanimate and could be happy, I'm sure they'd be ecstatic to be out of storage and into the daylight. 

Sewing happened in spurts yesterday in-between other things. And stuff still got finished. This is good. When I took the original bag apart, I cut off the ends of the side - just in case - and yesterday I picked even that little bit apart to make tabs for the handles of purse four.

The flap on the third purse is made from left over bits of the side and the binding. I had to un-layer the side but luckily it was only channel quilted and that was relatively easy. The flap is seamed in the picture above. The fused bits and beading help to blend the lines.

I have used every little piece of the original except for two layered bits, two short and narrow strips of lining, and the two original tabs. See what I mean by almost absolute zero waste? Upcycling wasn't even a word in my vocabulary up until the fall of 2004 when The Year of Play happened. Limiting myself to what was in the studio extended to limiting myself to what was in the house and that stretched my ability to problem solve and once a muscle is exercised - and if you keep on exercising it - things just get better and better. It's worth trying.

Part of the original bag was sewn in Victoria, BC while I was there teaching. I stayed in a bed & breakfast and the gentleman who owned it loved woodwork and made the handle from a piece of driftwood. In the picture above, I touched up the paint as well as patted the edges of the sides of the fourth bag with purple paint because there was no fabric in stash that matched and the paint did and with a zigzag stitch over top, it'll finish the edges just wonderful.

I sewed the button on the flap on the second purse in the morning and sold it in the afternoon. Not bad! With that sale, I'm a quarter of the way to paying for next year's workshop. Oh wait, I've also paid the deposit so I'm 40% of the way - YES YES! I'm practicing saying no to say yes which translates to saying no more often to small things. It's good for me. I'm also squirreling away spending money.

Goals like planning to attend the workshop when I don't have the money are highly motivating and tend to promote positive changes in other areas of my life like the Year of Play did. One of the things I'm saying no to more often is eating out which means I'm cooking more which means we're eating healthier. Hopefully that lasts. My take on cooking more than before is it's like having a job I don't like and oh well, suck it up princess cause lots of people have jobs they don't like and if you'd prefer to be in the studio instead of out at a job and you want to go to the workshop - COOK!

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - another sale

More Pain Than Gain

We were gone twelve hours. It poured like crazy all the way down and then mellowed to a constant drizzle for the rest of the day. Ikea is in Coquitlam. With coffee and breakfast, it took us four and a half hours to get there. With gas and dinner, the way back was similar. The waterfalls along the highway were gorgeous and full and the river was unseasonally high. In contrast to so many places, we've had a lot of rain this year. Wish we could lend it out.

The boxes are heavy. These three are over 200 pounds. We had more. By tipping them on end and then over the open tailgate we were able to load them into Sharon's truck. At home, we called for two strong men. Now they're sitting in a pile on the kitchen floor - in anticipation - and will eventually...

...  look something like this except I wanted an eating bar so I bought a bigger countertop that will overhang. We have two stools already. They've been stored from the house before the last house because I love islands and knew I'd have another one eventually. We've gotten used to such a big open kitchen. Once it's all screwed together, it'll take an adjustment to walk around the island. We'll adjust. The extra working space will be worth it. I'm not sure...

... about this chair for the studio. It's the right size and it's quite comfortable but perhaps it's more pain than gain. It's certainly nothing like the dearly missed curl-up chair. I'll try it for a while and if it doesn't work out, it'll be fine in numerous other places around the house. The color is similar to but not quite the same as the living room couches.

Today - acupuncture, an appointment, and hopefully finishing those purses. I'm hoping to book a coverstitch lesson for tomorrow and start piecing together the bleached t-shirt bits. I want to alternate some purses with something for me.  The crotch curve on the Marcy pants is still waiting to be done. Soon. Before the t-shirts.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a fun, successful, safe trip

Eccentric Piecing

My plan for Saturday was to sleep in, have breakfast downtown, journal in the sunlight, and meander along main street checking out the dress and second hand shops - for details - just looking - no buying. Plans change. Instead,  I woke up wanting to sew and there was no reason not to so I spent a very productive twelve hours in the studio in part because...

... on Friday I started taking apart The Portfolio Bag and by Friday night had cut out the main sections of four new bags. Any thing that is sitting around my home unused and doesn't have strong sentimental value to an unsentimental person is subject to recycling. This bag had been used twice and was awkward to store. The original was made forever ago. I don't even remember exactly when although I do remember it was for my appearance on Alex Anderson's show Simply Quilts to talk about my book Setting Up Your Sewing Space (oop). The bag was designed to hold a cutting mat, pressing board, and other quilting supplies.

There was extensive thread work over the surface and the flap was completely beaded. Both made great starting points for new bags. Since I cleaned out all my remnants a few years ago, there were no bits of the original fabrics left in the studio but I still have the same thread and beads. It's amazing what a treasure trove my studio is. I was celebrating that awareness as I moved about with ease finding everything I needed and having the opportunity - finally - to use some of those stashed supplies. VERY fun.

The thread above is Poly Neon color 1600. It's a fabulous color combo that I would LOVE to have more of only suppliers are hard to find and the last one didn't have this color. If you come across it, I'm interested. 

Recycling involves a lot of thread bits. A lint roller works particularly well for cleaning up the surfaces otherwise those bits end up stitched into seams and it's a lot more work getting them out.

With this recycling project, there is absolute zero waste except for literal garbage scraps. It's as close to using everything as I'm likely to come. Two of the bags have pockets and linings made from the original mottled pink lining. For the third one, I cut up a prissy raw silk blouse that went straight from the sewing machine into recycling because it totally didn't suit me but works great for this. I haven't started on the lining for the fourth bag yet however there's some pink silk left and we'll see what happens. I'll be sure to include in my bio that eccentric piecing is part of the charm of these bags.

Two of the bags have a rounded, wide at the bottom, narrow at the top shape. The bottoms are too narrow for four feet - two at each end - so I put three with one in the middle. One bag is complete, one needs some beading on the flap, and one needs a handle which I'll make along with the handle for the fourth one that I'm working on now. They should be finished soon but not today because I'm off on a road trip to Ikea hopefully returning with an island for my kitchen. I say hopefully because Ikea absolutely refuses to hold anything for pick-up even though you're coming from out of town and are willing to pay in advance by credit card. FRUSTRATING. They had six in stock last week so...

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a fabulous sewcation and safe return of the family

Gasp & Grasp

When I pulled the purses out of my bag and up on to the table, she gasped and then reached with that grasping let me see now movement. A lovely reaction. This gallery is one of my favourites and I have a huge level of respect for the woman who owns it - Carolina. She knows what she's doing and when she likes my work, I know I'm on the right track.

I took a selection of pieces that I've made over the past five years and explained how I'm improving, what changes I've made, and showed her the kinds of supplies I'm using. She said my early work was fabulous and the current work was just getting more interesting. She thanked me for thinking of her! My ego had a great day.

We also talked about my plan. I'm only willing to work so many hours at making purses and I want to be careful to balance those hours with other interests. I'm extremely aware of getting caught up in workaholicism again especially as there's no guarantee that any of the purses will sell and because to start with they'll be priced much lower than what they're worth. We'll see what happens. If they are loved greatly, the price will go up and if they are not loved enough, I'll sew something else. Right now, I have two shows to get ready for this fall and I intend to start as I mean to go on so what's ready on time is what's ready. Carolina agreed.

The V8712 pants are finished except for perfecting the crotch curve. I need someone to take a picture of my behind - LOL. Sharon is coming over to sew again today so I'll get her help. In the meantime, I had a pile of faded black t-shirts that I wanted to do something with so yesterday afternoon, I took them...

... out on the driveway, cut them up into pieces, spritzed them with a watered bleach solution, immersed them in water, then in soapy water, then in a rinse bucket, and then washed and dried them.

These are the sleeves. I got a few looks from people driving by. I'm quite sure my neighbourhood is not used to someone like me. If they were, that would be a change because usually I'm unusual... which is just fine with me.

One of the shirts was slow to discharge and turned a tan color. The others all discharged to this pretty raspberry. The spray bottle had a fine mist so it's more a raspberry glow with some splotching. I wish there were more splotches and I may assist a few into being... or not. I might also do some screen printing as I bought two from Marcy that I'd like to try. Discharging and screen printing are new to me. I'm debating which direction I'm going in and whether I should sew first and then print or print first and then sew. It'll end up some sort of tunic or dress although as I type that I'm thinking it could also be a skirt. Hmmm...

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - that after three days, I'm missing my family and that's way better than the opposite!

Every Click Of The Clock

Last night was one of those every click of the clock nights. It's probably something I ate... or drank... but who knows what. Not me. It was hard work just to sleep til six. Since I'm driving today, I decided to not get up at four, stay in bed, and get whatever sleep I could get. Naturally, I was asleep when the alarm went off - LOL.

Sharon came over to sew a new bra yesterday. While we were having lunch, the doorbell rang and four Danglez bra patterns were delivered from Europe. Great timing. One was for her as part of her birthday present. The one missing from the picture. DB4. I had a bit of trouble with the order and unfortunately we got the Dutch versions... with no pictures... and that does make it difficult to learn their secrets. With Howard's last name, they might have assumed I could actually read Dutch. I can't. Hopefully the English versions can be sent my way too.

I worked on the Marcy Tilton V8712 pants. The facings are cut out single layer. I cut them out upside down. There's a fly front. I put the zipper in twice and took it out twice. The first time, it was 5/8" too high even though I'd read the instructions. Apparently, I decided to ignore them. The second time...

... it was because I was wearing a skirt with a faced front and an elastic back and I was thinking about Marcy's V8499 skirt which I love, have two versions of, and wear often and decided I'd rather have the zipper at the back.

It's this pattern. I haven't made the pants yet but want to try them sometime soon.

When I went to bed last night, the front had two darts and a smooth faced edge and all that was left to do was the center back and the crotch seam. I pinned center back and could step in and out of the pants so I'll decide today if I'm going to put the zipper in or not. If yesterday's sewing had gone smoother, they'd have been done. On well. There's no rush. Hopefully tonight.

The pattern reviews talked a lot about sizing, about Vogue's sizing being way off, and about Marcy's sizing being quite big. Because of that, I left off the top stitching. The fabric is so busy that it would have been barely visible anyway and without it, I could alter the seams as necessary. It doesn't look like it'll be necessary. I chose my size based on the finished garment measurements and remain convinced that a lot of people are not measuring correctly or they're not consulting the finished measurements to determine how much ease they want in their garment because I don't find the sizing way off on the big four but maybe it's just me.

Yesterday's date was my fault Carrie. I inadvertently published with Tuesday's date instead of Wednesdays which mean that Blogger thought I had two Tuesday postings. That might also account for the low readership yesterday. I had wondered if there was something spam-ish about the title. I changed the dates.

Today is gorgeous. Blue sky. Bright sunshine. I'm looking forward to the drive. I'm meandering but only between here and the gallery. I am NOT going in to the Fabricland. I am NOT buying any fabric. From anyone. I wanted some of Marcy's t-shirt fabric and even went as far as writing her with some questions and then it occurred to me that I have black t-shirt fabric in my stash, quite a bit of it, and I should sew that first to a) save money for my trip next year and b) sew down the stash so I can shop for more fabric next year and c) avoid buying some yummy delicious fabric that I'll want more of which will make everything in my stash seem yucky and unsewable. Sounds like good reasoning to me.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - that I've become so comfortable putting zippers in that the thought of taking them out and putting them in again and moving them to a new location is completely doable. I used to pay someone to put zippers in for me.