It’s Something

Today is my day off from my day job. I have 3 tasks ahead of me today.

1. A friend of mine is paying me to hem a pair of his scrub pants. It’s a quick and simple job. So I should get those done.
2. The same friend also needs me to affix a couple of patches to the shoulders of his scrub tops.
3. Another gentleman I know has asked me to med a pair of jeans for him. I’ve got plenty of scrap fabric, I’m just gonna patch them.

I suppose the first thing I should do is get dressed. That’s a bit problematic for me, because I’m laying in bed with 2 blankets on me. Well, they’re not really blankets as much as they are body heat insulators that protect me from the cold of the rest of the room. My body has a natural disinclination to the cold.

——- Editorial Time Jump ——-

Patches done. I use wonder under  and an iron to affix patches.

One way to hem a pair of pants, the way I frequently use:

Get the inseam measurement you need – that’s the length along the seam from. Measuring a pair of pants that are a good length for you already works well enough, though it’s not as fine tune accurate as having someone measure your inseam while you stand in your underoo’s. But we’re talking maybe a half inch room for error here.

If you do not know the outseam measurement – that’s the outside seam from waist to ankle, or the measurement you’re given (if they’re not your pants) is wrong or off, simply measure the distance from the bottom of the original hem to the hash-mark where your desired inseam hem is. In this case, it’s 6 inches. (6 3/16 inches, but I’m not that precise.) So, I measure 6 inches from the bottom on the outside seam and make a mark.

Fold the leg inward so that the hash-marks are both are even and centered. Pin.

Sew.

   
I like to tuck in the inside too. So,  from here, I turn the pants inside out, cut off some excess leg…Fold inward…Pin and sew

And here’s one way of patching holes (there are several):

These are the jeans before I did anything to them. This is the downside of those expensive pre-torn jeans – they tear in ways you don’t intend for them to much easier because they’ve had a head start.

Turn the clothing inside out. Pin scrap fabric to cover the hole.

Sew. Be careful though, when you’re sewing far into a pant leg or a sleeve – you have to really bunch the rest of the leg or the sleeve to avoid sewing through layers of folded over material (i.e. sewing the pant leg/ sleeve to itself).

This is how they look after the scrap had been sewn in. I still need to go in and hand sew that long tear, and I will probably do so decoratively. Like this:

Come What May

So, welcome to 2014. New year, new chances to lie to myself about blogging more regularly and finishing unfinished projects. This will not be a polished entry, this may even get personal. Maybe. Right now I’m just typing words as they escape my brain between shoving unhealthy snacks in my face.

I’ve got my laptop next to me, with my camera, my sewing machine is out, and I have bits of fabric on the table. What follows is an insight into my creative and thought processes, raw, unedited – chaotic and probably going nowhere. But why am I still typing crap? Here – look at some pictures.

This is some sexy lingerie I bought several years ago. I only wore them once. They don’t even fit me anymore. I’m going to chop them up. Why not?

Chop CHOP! Choppy Chop! Lace is pretty.

Oh, remember these? Yeah, I’m still not sure what to do with them, but, they’re sitting in a pile on the table.

This looks kind of neat.

CRAP! I need pink thread! The stores are closed! All I have is embroidery and hand quilting thread! Grrr…

Do I want to just sew it with a contrasting thread color? Or use embroidery thread? I don’t want to wait until morning. I’m pushing through, making do, not putting it off. Embroidery thread it is. Such is life. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be messy, it can be chaotic, and it will be ok. It will. I promise. Screw the fairy tales and the picture perfect notions of what should be. The harder you push it, the less idyllic/idealistic it will be. Ideallic. Is that a word? Screw it. It is now. #Ideallic. Go trend that crap.

Idyllic -1:  pleasing or picturesque in natural simplicity; 2:  of, relating to, or being an idyll

Idealistic – 1: of or relating to the philosophical doctrine of the reality of ideas; 2: of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style; “an exalted ideal”; “argue in terms of high-flown ideals”- Oliver Franks; “a noble and lofty concept”; “a grand purpose”

Yeah, neither of those quite do it for me quite the way it feels in my mind standing by themselves. Oh, so, here’s a thing I’ve been working on off and on that I don’t think I’ve posted about:

I got the pattern from Urban Threads. It’s going to take me eons. Ok. I’m getting kind of sleepy. I think I’m going to post this and come back to this in the morning. Maybe I’ll get a stock of posts done to schedule over the next few weeks. Maybe I can be more regular. Maybe I can convince myself that I don’t actually NEED to have a point or well-formed idea. Maybe I can stop avoiding the blog and the facebook page when I haven’t finished any of my many unfinished projects. Maybe.