sew many stitches

I have been stitchin' and stichin' this past week!

And loving almost every minute of  it.

Friday, I put off nap-time as long as I possibly could,

waiting for the UPS man to bring my book.

About 1:52, I decided I'd just have to do something else while sitting in with Lexi,

I couldn't wait any longer to get her to bed.

I turned on the stove to start my coffee.

(in the little espresso maker Nate bought me in France years ago :-)

I put a spoon of xylitol, a few shakes of creamer, and some coconut milk in my cup.

Just as I was adding the coffee, I heard the truck rumbling up the drive.

I was so happy!!

As with the other two Natalie Chanin books, I read it cover to cover in one sitting.

(setting?)

~

Ya'll,

I have so many projects going on  right now!

I still need to cut away the top layer on the two little half daisies

Another muslin.

(This time from the 2nd book - I call it the 'princess seam' shirt. 

 I'm having a hard time remembering which style shirt / dress / skirt is in which book!

I need to make a chart. I'm only half-kidding.)

It was kind of silly of me to embellish a muslin, but here's the thing.

One.

I made some adjustments to the pattern based on the fit of the second muslin I made from the camisole pattern,
so I was pretty sure it'd fit across the bust. (it does - bottom is fuller than I prefer, but oh well. 

I adjusted the pattern for next time.)

Two.

I need something else to wear with my sassy shoes.

I only have one corral shirt. 

Which meant I wasn't wearing my sweet sandals as often as I should have been.

I saw Katy's book cover, and decided,

"Yes! I have tons of my blue sheet left. I have a $ .25 corral tank top in my repurposing stash.

I'll just put 'em together!"

I bought the daisy pattern from Hobby Lobby

and used watered down acrylic paint mixed with textile medium to stencil the fabric.

This is the back :-)  A certain little 3 yr old got up from dinner and touched my fabric before the paint was even dry.
So, yes, that is food that you see on it. grilled chicken, perhaps.   : /

I don't want to do a ton of hand sewing on it, since the quality of the fabric is horrible,

so I'm waiting to hem it and bind the neck and arms until I get some matching machine thread.

I know ~ you don't hem Alabama Chanin garments, but this fabric just rolls up too much.

the back side of the front panel

~

I decided (hopefully, not foolishly!) to not make a 3rd muslin of the 8-panel shirt.

I made the changes to the pattern, and just went with it.

I had planned on machine sewing the seams, and doing the rest by hand,

but I hadn't managed to get the first two seams sewn by naptime,

(have you gathered that I get to sit with my feet up while I wait for Lex' to fall asleep?

I either read or sew. Sometimes I visit my favorite blogs...)

Since I couldn't get started on beading, 

and I'd already finished the one book I checked out for myself,

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (good, but not fabulous)

I figured I may as well grab my white thread and sew the seams by hand.

I don't imagine this will surprise you, but I loved making every tiny little stitch!

I felt like all those hours hand-quilting totally prepared me for the task.

Which didn't feel one bit like a task!

(And was sooo much easier than quilting!)

The double stick tape was not my ingenious invention; I stole that.

Once I got a few things figured out and developed a rhythm, I started enjoying the beading some,

but I don't enjoy the beading nearly as much as the 'seaming'. 

~  

I didn't have quite enough purple, so we did some color blocking. I was pretty tickled how nicely things lined up!

Kacy asked me Sunday if I could make her a swim suit;

thanks to Crossfit, she now has a bootie

and her current suit doesn't cover it decently.

I used some crappy swimsuit fabric and some FOE that I had a lot of 

to make a muslin of the panties bottoms.

(crappy swimsuit fabric seems to happen a lot around here. hmm)

She laughed when I called her to try them on (red with silver legs and waist, they look like underoos ;-)

but then told me she was keeping them 'cause they were comfy :-)

They were not made well ~ they were made quickly.

I told her, under no circumstances, was she to show them to her mother

and tell her that I could make her a wedding dress if she didn't find one she loved.

~

On Monday, I squeezed in reading Sheet Music.

Tony and Kacy were given it as part of their pre-marital counseling.

He told Kacy to go ahead and read it now, but said Ton' should wait 'til right before the wedding.

I thought that I remembered it being recommended 

to save a good portion of the book for honeymoon and beyond, so I gave it a quick run-through.

I agreed whole-heartedly with the author 

who suggested only reading the 1st four chapters before marriage.

I think the book goes a long way towards a healthy view of Christian sex,

and I agree with him in many (but definitely not all) ways

but I don't think I'm really a Leman fan.

And I really could have done without quite so much talking to and about 'Mr Happy'.

And I'm not entirely convinced he's as imaginative as he thinks he is ;-)

Yesterday 

I started reading Captivating, because the speaker at the retreat that Eva made me go to

highly, highly recommended it. 

I have no feelings one way or the other about the book so far...

~

I've got fabric on order, and a bunch of windows open on my computer for more fabric,

so I don't know if much reading will be happening in the next few weeks,

but I am fairly certain there will be lots of happy stitching.

Of course ~ if you want to see what others are sewing and reading this week, visit