Monday, November 26, 2012

To Infinity and Beyond

Pin It Hello all!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  I (Major Moma) sure did.

We spent time with our Chapel Family, decorated for Christmas, whatched Christmas movies, and had friends over.  It was a very busy weekend, but really quite fun.

I also got a little bit of sewing in.

First, I made my project for this month's Inspiration Point.  Since it was mainly a black and white inspiration image, I went searching through my black and white fabric.  I had a hard time deciding what to do, but then finally I settled on making an infinity scarf.  I have been wanting to make one ever since I saw this post at Alida Makes.

So, I took some zebra sweater knit fabric that I only had a half a yard of and some left over white satin fabric from last year's Christmas sewing and cut them into long strips.  I followed the tutorial from Alida, so I don't have anything really to add about the construction.



I like the way it turned out.  It will be warm and a bit dressy for those holiday parties I will be attending.

On other news, I finished my Wiggle dress so you will be seeing a post on that soon.  I just need to take the pictures.

And finally, I have one more important thing to talk about.  This Christmas, my family is thinking of different ways we can be giving.  We want to make sure that our money is not going to buy things we, and others don't really need.  Instead, we want to be more creative and support various charities. 

We have been doing this for a while with the adult gifts.  We usually buy livestock for third world families through World Vision or Heifer (two great organizations).  But my husband and I want to increase our focus on those who are less fortunate than us and provide and example to our children of generousity instead of entitlement.

If your family is considering doing the same, may I suggest an organization that is pretty fabulous?

My mother is very much involved with an NGO called Days for Girls.  They sew up washable feminine hygine products and distribute them to girls that live in areas where disposable products are either too expensive, or impractical considering the lack of waste removal infrastucture.  This organization is as grass roots as it gets and has negligible overhead costs.  If you are interested in sewing up some of these products or want to give money to support their shipment overseas, I have provided two great links for more information.


 Global Giving Girl Effect Challenge

Days for Girls Official site

Thursday, November 22, 2012

slow progress

Pin It  Well, with work, travel, work, kids, work, and Thanksgiving, I (Major Moma) am having a hard time finishing my Wiggle Dress.



But, I am making progress.  I finished the major construction and tried it on.


There are some fitting issues in the hips that I need to adjust but all in all, I am pleased.  So I will make my adjustments and then hem it and I should be done!

I am just unsure as to what length I want to go with on the hem ... above the knee, below?

Any suggestions?

And since today is Thanksgiving, I think it is a good idea to say what I am thankful for.
 
I am thankful for:
my husband
Abi
Eli
Isa
my house
living in Germany
a challenging career
...
and so much more
 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

Monday, November 12, 2012

upgrading my skills

Pin It 
the book

(Major Moma here)  Next up from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing is the Wiggle Dress.  What is a Wiggle Dress?  Well, I am not exactly sure and the title is not exactly appealing to this mother of three.  But, look at that picture.
Who would not want such a sleek and classy dress?

One of the reasons I bought this book was that it has techniques I have never used before.  I really wanted to try something new and add skills to my repertoire.  So, in this post, I will show some of the 'new' things I have done in the process of sewing this dress.

my patterns
The book contains pattern sheet,s so what you do is trace the pattern (in the size you want) and transfer all the markings and labels.  I usually use a heavy duty sew-in interfacing to trace patterns like this.  I like using the interfacing because it is fairly transparent (so it is easy to trace) it does not tear, and it sort of sticks to the fabric so it does not shift and I can use less pins and weights when cutting.
However, I ran out of my interfacing.  So I tried something I saw on Sewaholic's blog.  I traced the pattern on tissue paper but then ironed cheep iron-on interfacing to the tissue.  I have a lot of this stuff from a JoAnn Thanksgiving sale years past so I figured it would be worth a shot.  It worked quite well, but not as good as the thicker interfacing.





darts pinned and ready to be sewed

darts completed
I marked and pinned the darts in the front and back pieces.  And one thing I managed to not know sewing all these years is that I am supposed to start at the center when making these long darts in the middle of the fabric.  Thanks to Gertie, I have changed my erroneous dart sewing ways! 
The major thing that I have learned so far on this dress is how to make under-arm gussets.  Yep, gussets.  Gertie explains how they used to be common but are not so much anymore.  Gertie has full paragraph instructions and line drawing instructions so if you are more visual, you can just follow the pictures.  She also has a blog post on under-arm gussets that was very clear with step by step pictures and explanations.

diagram of gusset instructions

my gussets in progress
I really like how this dress is coming along, but I have to do some traveling for work and progress will have to be paused until I come back.  I can assure you though, I will have a post with the finished product and let you know what those gussets look and feel like.  I am excited that I get to learn all these new techniques!

What new and challenging things are you up to?

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Writing a book Gangnam Style

Pin It Morning everyone this is McH.  I know it has been a while since I have blogged... but I have a good excuse.
I am writing a book. It will be the second complete novel I have written.  I have written gaggles of short stories, a couple novellas and even had a short story published.
But novels are different chickens.  Novels are hard.  Novels are like climbing a Mt. Rainier of words hard.
 I never thought I could complete a publishable sized novel.  I have a tendency to finish things to the 60 percentile.  Then I find the next shiny object and work on that until 60% and the vicious cycle of incompletism circles around.

Then I found NaNoWriMo.  50,000 words in 30 days. That beautiful National Novel Writers Month has found the key, for me, to write and finish.
No editing allowed. NONE.

I sit down with my barely plotted out novel.  My quirky characters based off of family and write. Then I write some more, and more. My novel is chock full of fragments, run on sentences, weird emotional pre-coffee conflicts and is a rainbow of red and green squiggly lines that tell the world I can’t spell without electronic assistance. 
But chapter 5 is done.  Then 6.

My word count climbs exponentially with coffee consumption.  I start reaching those word count goals. I realize 1667 words a day is, well not that crazy. 

I start thinking in my characters points of view and laugh at odd moments of the day when a good scene blips in my brain. I run downstairs to the computer during dinner because the way my son ate his pot roast gave me inspiration on the dining room scene in chapter 7. 

I lay in bed with my husband and ask him what his opinion is on including additional external conflict.  He looks into my eyes, pats me on the head and sighs in resignation because it is only day 8.
I am a much better writer than I was a year ago when I finished my first novel.  I have learned about editing, the publishing business, and keys that work for me and my brain process.  I know for example that the genre this book is in will need to be 80,000-90,000 words to be publishable.  But I am not worried about that final word count right now.

I have learned that the first thing I need to do is get the story written out.  Then after I have let it sit for about a month, I can come back and flesh it out and world build.

I know that dialogue is my kryptonite.  I have to work extra hard to allow conversation to flow in my story.  But work I will, because I love to write.  And now I know I can finish.

To my family who love me and my writy self.  I love you and your patience. Hang on in there I only have plans to write for the rest of my life. 

Monday, November 5, 2012

Practicing what I preach

Pin It Well, my (Major Moma) first project from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing is done!

front view of finished skirt
You know there are times when we are teaching our children and realize that we need to learn the same lessons.

A few years back, at a frighteningly young age, my eldest started saying things about not wanting "too many pounds" and how she "looked cute skinny".  It only made things more worrying when she was not eating much and had virtually no body fat.  So my husband and I talked to a counselor to find out if our concerns were well based, and what to do about it.

Thankfully, the counselor was not overly concerned, YET.  She said that this was a warning sign that our daughter is likely to turn to controlling food during times of stress and that we need to build a healthy understanding of nutrition and body image. 

My husband and I then started a concerted effort to regularly talk to Abi about how food and exercise are important to make us strong and healthy.  And that being strong and healthy is way more important than any weight, size, or shape of our bodies.  That seemed to work but I have had to be careful about what I say about my body in order to not send a double message.

Essentially, I need to practice what I preach.

I have been thinking about this as I have made this high-waisted pencil skirt.  As I blogged about altering the pattern to fit my body earlier, it became clear to me that I did not like that I needed to alter the pattern.  And, the shape of the pattern when altered was really kinda funny looking and part of me interpreted that as I must be funny looking.

but ...

I am strong .

I am healthy.

So why does it matter that I don't look like I did before I had three amazing babies?  Am I sending Abi mixed signals?  I am guessing that this will be a constant struggle for me to learn the lessons that I am trying to teach my kids.
And guess what, those adjustments really paid off!  The skirt fit wonderfully.  It was fitted but did not feel tight or pull and I could sit very comfortably in it.

lapped zipper before waist band is attached
One of the new techniques I learned was a lapped zipper.  My finished product was not perfect, but it is not too bad.  I usually do centered zippers, but according to Gertie, lapped zippers are very common in vintage sewing.
I hand sewed the waist band facing to the inside so that there was no stitching visible on the outside.  Gertie really emphasises using hand sewing in garment making, so I am playing along.




 
 The skirt had a curved waist band to highlight the high waist.  I debated on whether I would actually make it curved or just go for a standard narrow waist band.  But considering the print I chose, I figured it was time to go Big or go Home
The pattern called for boning to keep the shape of that large curve.  When I make this skirt again with a fancy fabric and do the underlining and all that fanciness, I will use boning. But, for this first try, I decided to interface both the outside piece and the facing piece.  And on the facing, I cut boning shape/size pieces of an extra thick interfacing that I use for baseball cap brims.  It seemed to work pretty well but I am sure in the long run, boning would be better.
So here I am.
In my fancy pencil skirt that was made for ME.  and MY shape.  And you know what? I felt great in it and though it started out looking funny when it was in pieces, when it is all put together, it looks (and fits) great.




PS.  Please consider joining us for Inspiration Point this month.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

November Inspiration Point

Pin It Hi all, Major Moma here.

Well, we started the Inspiration Point hoping that it would be a great catalyst for crafting together.  However, there has not yet been a single month where all of us have participated.

This month's excuses reasons:

  • adverse reaction to drugs
  • multiple sicknesses -- of us and kids--
  • emergency dental visits
  • weekends away

And it is funny, because we were all very excited about that picture and each had lots of plans and ideas on what to do.  In fact, some of us bought fabric and supplies and started projects.  But, October has now come and gone.

So, I was thinking .... Should we continue doing Inspiration point if only one or two people are participating?  Or, should I pause it for the holidays because we are all so busy?

Nope.

Ok, this is the way I see it.  IP takes virtually no effort to run because we each take turns picking a picture/image and I post it to the Flickr site.  So, if no one participates, it really has very little cost.  Second, if a couple people participate, well great.  We have accomplished the goal of inspiring creativity. 

But, this month is special.  November is NaNoWriMo!! What is that you ask?  It is the National Novel Writing Month where writers sign up and are cheered on to complete a 50,000 word novel.  That's right 50,000 words of literary abandon!

McH accepted that challenge last year and wrote a very exciting book for which she has been enduring the arduous process of finding a publisher.  And this year she has a story in her head that will pour into the computer to complete the challenge again.  To accomplish the lofty and exhausting goal of a 50,000 word novel, everyday she must write a minimum of 1667 words.   And of course, life does not pause while she is doing this.  She still has all her regular responsibilities and the Holidays to prepare for while writing a novel.

So, I have produced this image for November's IP in order to inspire her!

And what I ask of you is that you participate in our IP this month.  Normally, I am just fine with a lack of participation, but I want to have our entries spur on Mc H's efforts.  As usual, any creation is allowed and encouraged.  You can write stories, poems, or a novel yourself.  Or, you can take paper, fabric, or other materials and create some object.  Whatever works.

And if for some reason you can't participate, please leave a comment of encouragement for Mc H.  Just think.  She is writing 50,000 words in one month.  That is overwhelming for me to think about so I really want to get a show of support for her.

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