This morning I woke with a sense of purpose.
Oh, all right, it had nothing to do with purpose. It had to do with not being able to find jack shit in the fridge and knowing there were things there which were undoubtedly well on their way to becoming science experiments. I pulled everything from the main shelves and out of the bins. (I was not up to the task of clearing the stuff in the door too, but most of the stuff there is recent enough I know it’s good.) Then, after tossing the slimy produce (ick) and the outdated yogurt and such, I wiped and rearranged and you can actually see what we have. Crazy thought, eh?
I also got around to hemming one of my two new pair of pants bought over the course of the last few days. The ones I hemmed this morning are on the outer fringe of fitting. I can get away with them if I lose another 5 pounds, maybe, but definitely not ten. They were dirt cheap and they’re name brand, good quality dress slacks. After yesterday’s shopping spree I am up to four pair which more or less fit now, two casual and two a bit more dressy.
Next project I intend to tackle is the closet. Once I clear out the things I don’t wear and don’t fit, it’ll be damned close to nekkid. Which explains why I tend to wear and re-wear the same things again and again lately. Fortunately I do have several elastic-waisted A-line skirts and now that it’s getting a bit warmer I can trade off with the slim trouser pickin’s.
Older daughter came over last night because their printer died and she had to print some forms for her son’s medical care. (He’s the one born with a deformed foot.) Daughter and I were talking about the fact that I would really love to begin sewing again. My mom sewed professionally and I learned to sew starting when I was about 6 or 7 years old, and to do it right. Since someone recently gave me a couple of nice big pillow forms, this week I bought the fabric to cover them. I had planned to do so by hand, which I can certainly do; but hand sewing takes forever to do the job that takes ten minutes, tops, with a machine. Hand sewing is also less sturdy except in short patches. I want to make removable envelope-style covers for the pillows and a 1-inch flange around the outside. Doable, for sure; just not practical when sewing by hand.
I have my grandmother’s sewing machine and my mom’s serger and know how to use both. Unfortunately both have been sitting in storage since 2004. The sewing machine lost a key piece and while I found a replacement on eBay, I’ve never gotten around to doing the repair. It also desperately needs to be professionally cleaned, oiled and adjusted, which costs more than buying a new sewing machine from Wally World. I checked. (It’s kind of like printers: it’s cheaper to buy a new printer than to replace the ink.) The serger is fantabulous as an accompaniment. As a primary sewing instrument it sucks.
As it turns out, older daughter’s got two sewing machines, both brand new. I agreed to help her with a sewing project in exchange for her giving me the sewing machine that scares the shit out of her, the fancy-schmancy one that does intricate embroidery and such. It comes with its own GameBoy external tie-in that manages the fancy embroidery settings. I’ll probably never use the fancy-shmancy embroidery stitches either but it will be frigging AWESOME to have a working machine again. I also need a new pair of scissors because the daughter and spousal units are both convinced one pair of scissors works perfectly for sewing, trimming hair, and opening those God-awful plastic turtleshell packages that surround virtually everything you buy these days. Unfortunately the turtleshell crap just trashes the cutting edge of whatever touches it, rendering scissors useless for anything else.
My grandmother’s sewing machine won’t be going away any time soon. It WILL, however, be going in for the needed repairs. I need to see if the place is still open where my mom took her machine. Very few places still service sewing machines at all, and the ones that do tend to muck it up more than they help.
Who knows? If I get the thing going I might actually start quilting again. I’ve wanted a quilt for our bed for eons but G’s fusty when it comes to that and while yes, I do make the money in the house (and the quilt, too), I also take his tastes into account. I just have to take a good look and decide if I can buy the materials for a quilt for less than I’d pay for a pre-made one of respectable quality. Having just discovered countrydoor.com, I’m no longer sure that’s possible! The quilt above is the one I’m considering (the white one with the gray botanical interpretation.) If it were just me alone I’d look more at something like this:
Or this:
Of course my personal favorites also tend to be a wee bit more expensive. Even at $150 for a king-size reversible quilt, though, they’re priced pretty well. Some places ask a heck of a lot more for things I like a heck of a lot less. (Click on the pictures to go see the pages with more info.)