Take today for example: arrive early at church, for choir practice, meeting after school for planning for senior youth group (my youngest is this age, and I have agreed to be one of the parent helpers; one of 5, I hope), ushering for a concert at church, and the final 'supper and shred search committee papers' party for hiring our new minister. It is a little more packed than normal (take out the last two, and it is a normal Sunday chez The Boppings), but you get the idea. Way too busy. There is only one thing in there I can really sneak out on early, and I probably will.
But it definitely begs the question: what is busy enough, and needs 'efficiency' and what is just too busy? I haven't figured this one out (as you can all see from the above schedule). But that is my goal for the year--cut to the jewels, and focus on that.
On the crafting front, I've finally cast on my OWL project (and nearly finished the first ball of yarn!) and I'm humming along on the squares front, too.
I also finally sat down at the sewing machine for the first time since the plum pants (which are getting too big!) and sewed a pettiskirt.
 | |
| What I thought I was sewing, from the Martha Stewart Living Instructions, |
I foolishly started with the instructions from Martha Stewart Living. Let me say that you should just not go there. I have a half finished tiny pettiskirt that is not able to be finished because I did not have enough stuff. It is maddening. What a useless and annoying tutorial! It leaves out many steps, doesn't refer to many things, and is plain wrong on the fabric count.
If you double check the math, however, you would have quickly realized that her numbers are wrong, and that she does not explain nearly enough of anything to actually accomplish the project. Had I read further, on other people's issues with the tutorial like this one, I would have quickly realized that I was going to have a problem.
I, of course, since I was in a hurry and the project is way over due for my friend, did not do the math. I thought--Martha Stewart. Should be ok. That seems, a, little, light for fabric, but ok. Um, yeah. Trust your gut. It was about 3 yards too light on fabric. I have one part of one ruffle finished, and half of the second on the back. It is just...aggravating. I am going to finish it, but I have to go back to the store and purchase about twice more stuff than I have currently in my spare time. Right. Notice the schedule above? There is no spare time. Has to be done, though. Just too annoying to get it this far and not finish it.
(I will insert a picture of the half finished skirt here, later).
When I ran out of ruffle on the first half of the skirt, I gave up, and went back to my instructions from You Can Make This for pettiskirts. I pulled a blue mystery fabric from the stash, and some white lace I have on a roll that cost me all of a dollar from a yard sale, and started again. Longer ruffle cut lengths. Flat construction (ever tried to put a full 8 yard tulle ruffle on an already constructed waist band? I did it with the Martha Stewart instructions and I can tell you it is Not Recommended). I changed a few things from the instructions--like using my ruffler set at the 2:1 ruffling ratio instead of trying to pull the ruffles by hand, but all in all, the whole thing works much much better than anything else. And, seriously? Their estimation for the amount of ruffle fabric is 2 1/2 yards just for the ruffle. Martha Stewart had you purchase 3 yards total for the project. Yeah, math. But, even half finished, you can see how much better this one is going to be. It isn't pink, but it is beautiful.
(Insert picture of the half finished pettiskirt in blue, here! )
I'm hoping that the princess twirl factor will over ride the 'not pink' factor. If it doesn't, I'm keeping it! It will work as a faeryfest skirt for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment