Duvet Cover

Does it count as a UFO if you forgot about it?  Today's project was unearthed in last month's Master Bedroom declutter: two sheets and a coordinating taffeta that were meant to make a summer-weight duvet cover for my son's bed (his regular duvet cover is flannel, a definite eww for summer slumber).  In declutter mode, I was all set to send the sheets to Goodwill and the taffeta back to the fabric stash, when I discovered I had already sliced things up into appropriately-sized pieces.  Sure, I've got a free day or two on my hands--why not finish it?

 And there you have it: a UFO that I had totally forgotten about.  It's only just July (the beginning of our true summer weather here in Oregon), so Dear Son will soon have something light and airy to sleep under.

I am in love with giant piping.  I have put it on the edge of every duvet cover I've ever sewn (hmm, how many is that, I wonder? 5-ish?)  You can buy the innards at any well-appointed fabric store.  For durability and feel, I love to use taffeta or other tightly-woven shiny fabric.  I generally cut it on the bias, but I guess you don't have to, since there are not really curves to navigate, only corners.  For this project, 2-1/2" strips were my width.  I basted the bias strip around the piping filling using a long stitch and 3/8" seam.  Then I just pinned the piping between the right-sides-together sandwich of front and back of the duvet cover, and sewed using a 1/2" seam.  It's like a pillow-case: flip right-side out and voila!  Lovely piped edges.  Especially nice to set off the edge when the two sides of the duvet are different fabrics. 

Declutter: how organized people do it?

"Seventy percent of life is maintenance."  - Robert Downey, Jr.

I have spent my hour a day in the Kitchen Zone this week, decluttering bit-by-bit.  This has had its ups and downs, and has yielded very little for the garage sale pile.  Sad face.  But I felt success in the plasticware drawer!  The drawer had become unmanageable, to the point of not being able to close for the past week.  (And, as you can imagine, not being able to find an appropriate container *and* lid when needed.)

Took out every plastic container and matched them all up with lids.  Any container without a lid went into a grocery bag.  Ditto any lid (and there were legion of these) without a container.  Remaining containers were nested when possible, or at least put near similarly-sized containers.  Behold!  A drawer that is only half as full as it was.  Dare I say spacious?

My organized friend applauded my progress, and added a challenge for the next time I do this.  (Next time?  Is that how organized people do it--they come back a month later and go thru it all again?)  In order to keep the plasticware truly organized, as much as possible simplify to just ONE type of product: the Rubbermaid, or the Ziploc, or the Tupperware, or the Snapware, or WalMart whatever.

Wow.  Who'd a thunk it?

Good Enough (rainbow edition)

When I was a first year teacher, one of my many mentors that year kept my spirits up by saying to me, "Aim for mediocrity!" every time he saw me in the halls.  What he meant was not truly to set my standards lower, but to accept "good enough" as a strategy that would allow me to stick around in the teaching profession, rather than burn out quickly by continually looking to perfect things.

Perfection is impossible.  Good enough has saved my butt, time and time again.

I wore this shirt today, as part of team "Rainbow Connection" for a 4th of July 10K run/walk.  The shirt embodies the idea of Good Enough.  It was handmade by me over the past two days, out of a rainbow of t-shirts.  It is far from finished--in the sense that I think it should be.

But it was Good Enough for today.




Changes I'd like to make to this shirt: the neckline is completely unfinished.  It also rides a little high on my neck, so I'll be cutting a deeper V before I finish it somehow.  The sleeves fit a little funny, so I'd like to adjust them in the front (although I was very happy with the amount of puffy gathers at the sleeve cap).  The bottom hem, which I left staggered on purpose, just annoys me; so I'll be finishing it all one length.  It needs a little elastic under the bust for some shaping near the white ruffle.  And, if I get in a bedazzling mood, I'd like to add some colored beads or buttons to the ruffle.

I had some other ideas of things to do to the shirt, involving taking the whole bottom apart and redoing it, but I'm not going there.  The shirt has a purpose: give me team cohesiveness when I do fun runs.  It is a fun shirt.  Just needs to fit a bit better so that I enjoy the run/walk experience more and don't tug at my clothes.  It was Good Enough to actually wear today, so that makes it a success.

Making more work for myself

Yesterday was 50% off sale at Value Village.  Would have said no to going, since I have been buying too much clothing lately.  But my roommate was really excited, so I only went in looking for a pair of black pants I could wear at work.  And maybe Dansko clogs (you never know).

Damn, I hate that store.  Or maybe it's just my willpower.  I tried on black pants.  Oh, wait.  Shoes first.  Found a pair of Dansko sandals!!  Also a comfy pair of Clark's sandals, and a low-heeled pump that would be perfect for trying on black pants with.  Back to trying on black pants.  In addition to the great-for-work basic black pants, I tried on a pair of OMG-I-look-hot-in-these black pants from Charlotte Russe.  What was I thinking?!  Well, they were just in the pile of black pants, who knew how fabulously un-work-wardrobe they truly were.

Well, fabulous black pants stayed on my body while I went back to the clothing racks to find a shirt to wear with them.  And here's the part I hate:  I'm a person who sews.  I can mend things.  I can restyle things.  Therefore, thrift store clothing with little "problems" can become my newest project.  I'm so bad: at least 50% of the clothes I buy at thrift stores need some form of alteration before I can wear them.

Among my $30 (after the half off) worth of purchases were two blouses with unwearable sleeve issues.  Here are the "before" pictures:

 Cute green tunic.  Sleeve looks kinda OK, but is completely non-functional: can't raise your arms in the least.

 Shiny goin'-out-to-dinner blouse with ruffle detail down the front and on the sleeve band.  Can you tell how much these ruffles stand straight out from the sleeve?  Downright silly.

And again, can't raise arms because of the tight gathering on the sleeve band.

So, as it stands, I have two more projects in my sewing basket.  Both shirts have had the offending sleeves dismantled and are awaiting inspiration.  Stay tuned for the "after" - at some future date.

T-shirt Peek-a-Boo

Finished embellishing a t-shirt, although not in the way I first envisioned.  I have been jonesing to alter t-shirts for at least two months, regardless of the facts: I already own too many t-shirts, I don't tend to wear t-shirts, I have too many WIP's that I should finish first, I'm supposed to be finishing my master's thesis (oh yeah, that), and most altered t-shirt projects are best for the twenty-something crowd (too slash-and-dash).

Well, I think mine is sleek and sophisticated.  Other projects be damned.

 The original idea came from the book "Tease: Inspired T-shirt Transformations" (checked out from my local library).  The shirt featured seven peek-a-boo holes embroidered down the front of a very cute t-shirt.  I had the very-cute-shirt, but didn't think seven holes would work for me.  At the most, four holes was the amount of skin that seemed proper for a woman of my advanced years.  I made a test swatch on a t-shirt rag, and discovered that I didn't like the recommended eyelet stitch shown in the book.  It was just looping the thread around and around to outline the interfacing-reinforced hole.  I made another test swatch and tried buttonhole stitch instead - a much nicer-looking result.  So, thus confidence-boosted, I made the top peek-a-boo hole on the actual shirt.  Hope you'll forgive the size of the image - I was trying to get a close-up of the stitching.

And, after only one hole, I feel like the shirt is complete.  No need for four holes in this one.  It's cute, it's finished, and I'm happy with it.
If I try this method again, I might think about holes on sleeves, or down the back of a t-shirt, or several around a neckline.  Yeah, very cute.

Declutter: Bathroom Reading Center

Since there was only one day this week in the Dining Room zone (I am following FlyLady's zone plan for my declutter fiesta this summer), I decided not to declutter there.  Instead, I stood in the dining room and thought about a spot I hadn't touched in over a year.  What overlooked drawer or shelf or cupboard could I tackle that would give me almost-instant satisfaction?

Aha! The Bathroom Reading Center.  There is a small three-drawer stand in the bathroom that holds various items.  One drawer had been reserved for reading materials.  How likely was it that this drawer had been emptied out when I moved out of that house?  Did I empty it?  Did anyone else think to look in it?  (See previous declutter post about how a drawer, once assigned a purpose, almost never gets the chance to see a new storage life.)  Nope.  Drawer was full-to-bursting with magazines, newspaper articles, and clippings.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.  Took the whole pile out of the drawer.  Yay, clean drawer!  Went through the pile in "ruthless purge" mode.  Most magazines were outdated recycle-bin fodder.  A couple magazines went to the garage sale pile.  And a couple articles I saved to read this summer.

An Unscheduled Afternoon

I had a very ADD afternoon yesterday.  At least, I think what I experienced was due to my ADD-ness.  I was very efficient with my morning chores and my hour of de-junking the house; even walked the dogs before lunch.  And then...

And then: an unscheduled afternoon.  I didn't have any appointments.  No errands I had to run.  Nothing pressing that *had* to get done that day.  Yikes!  I panicked.  Yes, truly, panic.  Where other people would have stretched their arms to the almost-sunny sky and rejoiced, I was at a complete loss for what to do.  Not because I didn't have things to do.  Au contraire, mes amis, my To Do list is always full.  It is a thing to behold.  Why, Superman himself couldn't accomplish in one day what I usually put on my To Do list for an average afternoon.  No, the problem is prioritizing: how do I decide what to tackle next on my task scroll?  I spent an entire half hour imagining myself spending the afternoon, or at least big chunks of time, on various things on the list.  I was paralyzed with indecision.  I auditioned and then rejected various options.  Too much choice is a bad, bad thing for little ADD-stricken me.

So here's how I understand the brain battle in Attention Deficit: either I can't focus enough to pay attention to one thing, my brain keeps derailing its train of thought, and I get little accomplished or feel overwhelmed/stressed/instantly tired.  OR (and this initially surprised me) I go into hyper-focus, where the one thing I am doing becomes the only thing that matters, and the world could crumble all around me and I wouldn't notice.  (Attention Deficit = hyper-focus?  Who knew?)

I think a little of both of those things happened to me in my unscheduled afternoon.  I got 3 things done in 3 hours. 
1. Went to WalMart to look for one item (too much stimulus, makes me very uncomfortable to have to look around; much better if I know the exact location and item ahead of time).  Didn't find the item (Easy-Bake Oven replacement pans), but found three other things to buy.  In an hour.
2. Went to Buffalo Exchange to look for a new pair of Dansko clogs.  (Have decided the old pair is just too big--tired of wearing them with two pairs of socks!)  Spent almost an hour.  Did not spend money.
3. Went to Goodwill to look for a t-shirt.  Found three t-shirts, two pairs of shoes (sadly, no replacement clogs, Dansko or otherwise), and lost way more than an hour.  Talk about hyper-focus: those t-shirts, man.  Don't know why a rack of t-shirts should make me go into a trance, but there you have it.

An unscheduled afternoon in the life of my ADD brain.