"Should've Been A Cowboy"

"Should've been a cowboy;
Should've learned to rope and ride.
Wearin' my six-shooter
Ridin' my pony on a cattle drive." (Toby Keith)

Thanks to The Love of My Life I love western movies. My favorite movie channel is The Western Channel. (I also love old '40's & '50's movies, but that's for another time.) The Love of My Live grew up playing cowboys & indians while my brothers all played war games. So watching all the old westerns brings back happy, pleasant memories for The Love of My Life. While John Wayne can't be beat as an actor, my next favorite "cowboy" is Randolph Scott. There is just something about a Virginia man! I was thrilled that last Friday The Western Channel had a "6-Gun Salute" to Mr. Scott and played his movies all day. I was only able to watch a couple Friday evening, but they were fabulous!

So why am I talking about cowboy movies, you ask? Simply, too many westerns have kept me from sewing very much and blogging about my sewing. I finished my Christmas gifts and hope to post pictures of some of the clothes I made my Darling Youngest Grandchildren. But I also have managed to sew a couple of things for me (between the cowboy movies). I will get pictures and post those items also.

Love/Hate Relationships

I made my list. I checked it twice. But when I walked in the door to Jackman's Fabrics this morning the list (mostly) walked right back out the door. Right there, front & center, smacking me in the face were the two cutest little girl outfits! (And, I do have the cutest little princess for a granddaughter.) I have a love/hate relationship with this store. I love the fabric and the super-wide selection of books and independent patterns, but their fabrics are a little pricey. So I shop their judiciously, especially these days.

So here is what I got for my hard earned money today:

From The List: purple Minkee for a scarf for oldest DGD and the book Sew Easy Pajama Pants to make the same DGD a pair of pajama pants for Christmas.





The rest of The List consisted of 4 pieces of knit ribbing for some tops I planned to make for youngest DGS. Instead I was thrown off by these patterns from The Children's Corner: Robin's Little Jacket and Abbie. The Abbie outfit will be darling in pink & brown teeny-tiny polka dots for the top and brown pants. The Robin's Little Jacket is adorable with some red & black Scottie fabric for the jacket and black pants. The Store had a design sheet for adding a gathered peplum to the jacket with some really cute coordinating plaid fabric. And the pants are trimmed with Scottie fabric and red & black rick-rack. I'm pre-washing the fabric right now so I can get started on these projects tonight.





I also stopped at Hancock's to pick up some flannel for the pajama pants. I finally decided on a blue/pink big flowers print, but I think I am going to have to find a better source for flannel. I never did find the ribbing I was looking for. I have another Hancock's and a JoAnn's I can check out, but I may be looking for an online source that will ship quickly.

I Think These Are Great!

I was surfing around the 'net just now and found these great gift tags for handmade items. These are designed for hand knit/crochet items, but they would be super easy to create on my computer and adapt to any number of handmade/homemade gifts.

Catching Up

I'm importing Christmas music to iTunes right now so I thought this would be a good time to catch up.

First, I survived the 'dreaded sales meeting'! It was way too long, way too boring and mostly, unnecessary. The Love of My Life pointed out that the meeting wasn't actually a "sales meeting" but rather a "territory business planning meeting", but, hey, 'dreaded territory business planning meeting' just doesn't have the same ring to it as 'dreaded sales meeting'. Anyway it's over for this year. The final thought I have about it is this: I was reminded yet again that when you are well groomed, in stylish, well-fitting, occasion-appropriate clothing, it can make a tremendous difference in how you are perceived by others.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving with DS and our youngest DD and her SO. DD recently started a new job as an entry level chef in a kitchen at an upscale retirement community. She has warned us all through culinary school that chefs work hardest during holidays and this is proving to be true. We ate our family dinner at 11 a.m. because she had to be at work at 2 p.m. When I asked her about her schedule during the month of December she informed me she had very little free time due to extra baking, etc. at work. I am so very proud of her. She has worked long and hard to get to this point, but selfishly--I miss the time we used to spend together baking, shopping and just hanging out.

Last weekend I spent a couple of hours looking for a specific piece of fabric I wanted to use to make a vest I had in mind. I finally found the fabric, but along the way I found a couple UFO's I decided to finish before starting something new. The first garment is a red bolero from an old BWOF. It was all cut out. The fabric is this great red, soft knit with a shiny thread running through it. Very holiday-y. Also very easy. I can't imagine why I didn't complete it. Of course, I can't even remember when I started it. Yesterday I sat down for a couple of hours and worked on it. I am ready to sew in the lining. Then turn it right side out, due a little hand work and it will be finished. I think it will look very festive with black slacks.

UFO#2 I'm not going into detail about. It is something for a special person and I'm going to work to finish that up as a present for that person. After I finish UFO#2 I will be busy with some Christmas gifts. Maybe after Christmas I'll be able to get back to the vest.

The Final Piece

So here's the jacket that goes with the slacks that will be worn at the 'dreaded sales meeting' tomorrow. (Oh, I forgot to mention that because The Love of my Live was so sick last week, the meeting was postponed to this week.)

Pattern: V2919 (now out of print)

Size: 6-20 I cut my usual size 18, narrowed the shoulder as usual. The jacket fits great which is weird since the slacks were so darn oversized.

Fabric: Purple wool tweed from my stash. Originally purchased from Fashion Sewing Group back in 2003.

Description: (from pattern envelope): Lined jacket has princess seams, front and back darts, stand-up collar and hook and eye closure

Comments: This jacket is easy fitting and easy to make. No buttonholes, no sleeve vents, no attached collar make construction a breeze. It's a good basic jacket that leaves room for creativity with the closures or coordinating fabric on the foldback collar.

Hand Stitching = Couture, Right?

When I first pulled out these black slacks to finish for the 'dreaded sales meeting' I was thrilled out how far along I was. The lining was in, the zipper was in, the waistband was attached…all I needed to do to finish up was attach the waistband lining and hem the pants. Cool! But then as I took a more in-depth look, I realized why I had set these aside. Somehow when I originally attached the waistband facing I missed something in the directions and had sewed it on backwards—too short on end, way long on the other.





No problem I thought. I'll just take it off and switch the ends. Not so easy, I found out. The waistband pieces are shaped and because of the fly front, there is a definite left and right side. I had to cut new ends. Then I had to cut new interfacing and fuse it. OK, back to sewing. Carefully (I thought) I sewed the waistband facing together, then to the waistband. But now I ended up with some raw edges at the zipper front. Ergh! I took it apart again. Tried again, and still ended up with raw edges. So what to do?



I folded all the raw edges to the inside the way they should end up. At first I thought if I could see how it should look finished I would see how to do the construction. Wrong! I still couldn't figure out how not to end up exactly the same. So I spent about an hour hand stitching all the seams at both ends of the waistband, then attaching the waistband to the zipper, then tacking the waisting band on the inside. So I decided that with all that hand stitching—I'm choosing to looking at these slacks as 'couture'. A much better outlook than remembering how much work they were.

Pattern: V2919
Sizes: 6-20 (I cut an 18 (my usual size) but it was way too big. I very easily could have gone down 2 sizes.
Fabric: Mystery black fabric from stash. It is medium weight, tightly woven, with a slight shine, not wool. Great drape!
Description (from pattern envelope): Lined pants have straight legs, front pleats, side seam pockets, fly front and self-faced yoke with carriers.
Comments: I love these pants even though I had so much trouble with the waistband. I really like the soft style for a change of pace. The shaped waistband seems to accommodate the extra fabric I often end up with on so many slacks. These slacks just have a great fit. I want to make another pair so I can figure out the waistband construction.

Down(graded) But (Not) Out

While on my business trip about 10 days ago I received an urgent voice mail message from the sales manager spearheading the 'dreaded sales meeting'. Be still my beating heart! Could it be that he was cancelling the meeting? Or, at least changing it to a phone conference call? No, of course I wouldn't be that lucky. He was calling to tell me that the EVP of Sales/Marketing no longer felt he needed to attend our meeting and neither did the marketing manager. So the meeting would consist of just him (the sales manager), my DH aka The Love of my Life and me. The meeting was downgraded!

What? Obviously my sales manager didn't realize I had been sewing like the wind to create these two new outfits. What were these people thinking, cancelling like this? I quickly recovered realizing that I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. The 'dreaded sales meeting" would no longer be quite so dreaded—not so long, not so boring, not such a colossal waste of time.

So I arrived home from my trip ready to finish the slacks and jacket. Which I did while nursing a very sick Love of my Life. Poor guy was really sick last week. But he's better now and finally was able to take pictures of my jacket and slacks.