As Good as it Gets

Well, for what it's worth, here's the coat 99.9% finished. Just have to sew up the opening for turning the belt and maybe do a little handstitching to finish it here and there. I could wear it just like this, too.

It isn't perfect by any means, and my old college professors at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC would probably give it a C- if I was lucky. But hey, it fits and it looks pretty good. I know a few things I'd do differently so it was truly a learning experience. In the long run, the hardest part wasn't the lining, but the hems.

But at least I have a coat for the rest of the fall and any milder winter days!

Not so sure about this

The bad news is that I'm not really sure I can finish the coat by tomorrow.

The good news is that it's supposed to be in the high 70s, making it far too warm for the coat, anyway. So I think I will concentrate on the blazer, since that is part of the outfit I'm wearing.

I'm having trouble with the coat's hem. I've made hems before, but never involving a lining. I finally decided I'm going to let both hang independent of each other. (In other words, the lining and coat will each have its own hem.) I just have to be sure the lining is short enough that it doesn't show.

Still haven't decided on a belt or a button. I think this coat would look great with a wide leather belt in dark brown, but of course I'd never find such a thing.

I will be sooooo glad when this is done! I want to get working on my Christmas projects!

(PS--let my daughter try on the wrist warmers. Did I post that already? They fit just fine and I'm up to the thumbhole round. I think it will be a breeze from here. Hopefully, those are not 'famous last words.'

Works for Me Wednesday and Coat

I'm pretty late to the Works for Me Wednesday party (better than 200 people ahead of me with great ideas), which is linked here:

http://wearethatfamily.com/2010/10/wfmw-entertaining-even-when-youre-reluctant/

but I just came up with an idea worth sharing over there. I have been lucky to find Southern Living Annual Cookbooks for really cheap at either garage sales or the thrift store. Today, I was going over some recipes trying to find ones that are good for freezing. What do you know? In the index of the SLA books they have both "Freezeable" and "Make Ahead" categories! Hooray, all I had to do was go down the lists and check off what looks good.

Having things categorized works for me!

And on the coat front...I sewed in the sleeve hems today. I'm happy to say they aren't too short (I shortened the pattern before cutting it out) but fall just about at my wrists.

I'm seriously considering, if I have enough leftover fabric, making a belt and forgetting the button. We'll see.

Be sure to visit "We Are That Family" for "Works for me Wednesday" and lots of great tips!

The lining is in

I'm happy to say the coat lining went in without a hitch. As you can see from the top photo, I've just started topstitching it, and it needs ironing big time. But I think I might actually finish this puppy before Saturday. That's assuming the button doesn't throw me off. (It only has 1 button. I might think of doing more if it works out right.

I know, not a very exciting picture. As you can see, I've ironed in the interfacing and pinned in the under collar.

I'm taking a break from the coat for a few days to work on the blouse. Since I had the iron out already I ironed in the interfacing for it. I have the princess seams, back tie and shoulder seams done. The facing is pinned in place. I'll sew that today. Next post I'll find a picture of it on line so you can see what I'm working on, but it's only a simple sleeveless top with buttons down the front.

On the knitting front, I actually finished a sock I started ages ago. I'm encouraged to start on the second one now that I know it came out pretty good. It fits my foot, anyway! I'm always working on the knit scarf since it's easy to do a few rows while watching TV.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Can you believe there was a tornado watch in Brooklyn yesterday? Brooklyn, of all places. It never touched down but the heavy rain did reach us out here in Suffolk County. There was a clap of thunder so loud while I was at work that it actually made me scream. And I loooove thunderstorms. But this was ridiculous. I actually had to shut windows 'cause rain was coming in and getting the paper on the exam table wet!

PS--ignore the 'no smoking' sign behind Sunny the Mannequin. Okay, don't ignore it as no one is allowed to smoke in my house. But this used to be my daughter's bedroom and she was always hanging nutty things on the wall. One of her friends wrote "WAKE UP" in chalk on the ceiling and it's still there.

Fall Doily

I haven't quite finished the fall doily, but wanted to post about it anyway. I'm making this using a much larger hook (J, as a matter of fact) than the original pattern. I think it will look nice with a pumpkin sitting on top!

Didn't do much on the coat. I have the lining cut out and the back pieces pinned. I'll sew them today. If I'm really ambitious I might pin the summer blouse pattern.

As usual, I'll keep working on the blue scarf. I think it's going to be a gift for my mother, who likes the color blue!

Here's the link to the pattern for the doily. It's easy to follow and a nice, quick project!

http://www.crochetspot.com/crochet-pattern-hipster-doily/

Editing to link to a fall blog party over at "A Wise Woman Builds Her Home"--

http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/2010/09/its-all-about-fall.html

Check out all the awesome autumness over there!

Sunday Stuff

What I have done so far today (it's 12:55 EDT):

Row of Post Triples on the baby blanket
Untangled baby blanket yarn--what a pain.

Pinned my interfacing for the coat. (Yes, I finally bought it, the lining fabric and more thread!)

Made a new round on a Jack-O-Lantern potholder I'm making. It's about 5 inches across now.

Did a round on the socks I'm making. I'm almost done with the first sock!

Put new fabric in the wash for a blouse for next summer. If it fits nicely I will make it again with 3/4 sleeves for fall/winter.

Now I'm off to put the fabric in the dryer.

Hasn't my Sunday been exciting so far????? (Actually, this is JUST the way I like it.)

Afternoon, by about 2:30 p.m.:

2 more rounds on the pumpkin pot holder
Cut out the interfacing
Another round on the sock
Rolled up a ball of the black cashmere/merino wool yarn for Katherine's wrist warmers.
Pinned the coat lining.
Finished the round part of the pumpkin potholder!

I have made many potholders out of cotton yarn (Sugar N Cream, for the record) and I find that continuous use and washing means the ends tend to unravel. Now what I do is this: after weaving them in, I put a tiny drop of glue on the item and anchor down the 'tail.' Once the glue is bone-dry, I clip off any excess. Because the glue dries clear, it doesn't show and helps keep the project intact.

Did these while listening to a podcast over at CraftSanity, featuring an interview with Meagan Reardon of "Not Martha." A very funny and down-to-earth lady!

And between it all, I'm keeping up with the house and ate lunch. Dinner is already on the stove--my husband's Sunday pasta sauce!

Coat and chicken wings

The wings and egg rolls were a big hit. My daughter had her friend try the egg rolls, too, and both wondered why I didn't like them. Like I said, I'm not fond of the taste of water chestnuts. But I have a basic idea of what to do to make them so next time I will experiment a little.

Today I have Buttermilk Baked Chicken in the oven for Katherine. She can have it during the week or tonight. I rarely follow recipes to the letter and I thought this would look a little bland. So I mixed up a bit of ranch dressing mix with some Ritz crackers and sprinkled that on top to give it color. Yeah, it adds a few calories, but not too many. And I think it's important for food to look nice, don't you?

On the coat topic, I just pinned in the sleeves and will sew them either today or tomorrow. I have a really simple way of doing the basting to ease the sleeves into the armscye (or however you spell it). I got this from one of the Nancy Zieman books. Basically, you run a line of long stitches along the edge and when you get to the end of your stitching, you reduce the stitch size, pivot, make a few stitches then pivot to go back the other way. Then you increase the stitch size to basting again and make your second row. The little stitches are your anchor. It's much easier to do this than to do two separate rows of basting stitches.

The buzzer just went off and I took the chicken out of the oven. It smells really good. I did turn it halfway because I was afraid of the cracker crumbs getting too brown. So of course they got all mushy and fell off after all. But the chicken still looks nice. I'm going to make a broccoli salad and twice-baked potatoes to go with it. I have work in 3 hours so I will probably do that tomorrow. I see one or two other recipes from the WW book I might try later in the week. We'll see.

On the crochet front I did 2 more rows on the baby blanket. I'm about at the end of the skein. When it runs out I'm putting this aside to concentrate on Christmas gifts. I just have to remember to write out my instructions either on this blog or in a notebook: 1 row of singles, one row of doubles, one row of front post triples then a singles row that anchors down the back of the triples. I took a picture of that and showed it in an earlier post.

More on the Coat

I found a small spool of thread for the coat so was able to do some sewing on it. I have gotten it to the point where I could try it on for size, and I'm happy to say it will fit me. There's always that worry. I actually cut this a size smaller than I usually do because I'm tired of things being so big on me in most places (see yesterday's post).

It looks funny without sleeves so those will probably be my next step.

After finding out the knit blouse I wrote of yesterday is too big, I had a thought for next time. If I am using a lighter knit with a lot of stretch, I'm making the garment a size smaller! I have no qualms about giving things away to charity if they end up not fitting. Sometimes I wish I had a sewing guru of my own to walk me through fitting and tailoring. Even after almost 40 years of sewing I still have a lot to work on, LOL!