A day of recovering old skills and finding cool new inventions

 I did sewing stuff today. Altered some favorite pants where the waist had stretched out and I had got smaller since I got them anyway. 

I studied Sonya thinking I'd need to do a complex bit of cutting and stitching. Then I realized I could just turn over the waistband and stitch it, which tightened it just enough and lifted the body part to a better fit. So much easier than expected.

You see why I was puzzling -- it's a waist band with rows of stitched-in elastic you can't just replace.

And you can't just turn it over and stitch, willynilly, because you'd lose the stretch you need to put them on. 

Soooooo I stretched as I stitched and could have used a third hand to do it. That way the fabric relaxed after I stitched, so I can put the pants on without snapping the hemming thread.

Since I always wear a top over the waistband it didn't have to be poifect. And it works lovely. I tried sitting in them, just fine.

I lost a bit of pocket but they were so huge anyway they're still big enough for anything I carry. So this was a good start to the day. 

I've been wanting to do something about them for ages, and finally did. Now I'll wear them again. They were a favorite till they stretched out.

Then on to the Trouser Caper. Sonya's book comes with a packet of patterns in the back cover. 

It's brilliantly designed, and it took me an amazingly long time, so many years since I used patterns other than my own improv ones, to find my way about. 

But eventually I realized how the legs are each two pattern pieces you tape together, two parts fronts and backs, space saving on the master sheet, and managed that. 

Then I tracked down the waistband pattern pieces which were on another sheet with other small pieces. Everything is very well labeled, but there was a certain amount of user error on my part. All fixed eventually.

You trace the patterns even if you own the book because the master sheets are two sided, with skirt and top and shirt and pants sharing space on both sides, plus all their pockets and waistbands.

I used parchment paper, sturdier than tracing paper, taped together. I had technical hitches with the tape. Scotch tape hardly any left, masking tape old and not tearing straight, painter's tape old and so low tack it kept losing its grip. As did the seamstress. Not exactly prepared as well as I thought I was. 

But it's set now, and awaiting better taping with scotch tape which I must buy. Also fabric, I'll need some of that too, I guess.

I also finally remembered the function of the long arrows on the pattern --they show you how the grain of the fabric goes. 

And see this totally great sizing guide. I'm going for medium which is a bit bigger than I am, but will literally leave me room for error. 

My sizing line is dot dot dash. This is Morse code for U.  For uniform! Seems appropriate. All you do is find your size line and follow it. 

And Sonya's a big woman who loves clothes and thinks you should simply make what fits and what you love. She's experienced the misery of her large size being stuck at the back of the store in frumpy colors and styles. So here's where you please yourself. Fun is not reserved for the tiny folk. I love her for this.

There's a whole way of life behind this book, The Act of Sewing, and a great philosophy.

Yay Sonya! And all of us who please ourselves! 

Misfits box arrived today, smaller order than usual until I get caught up with vegetables. This time the flour did arrive, not sugar.

And excellent plums also a treat of maple syrup.

And new insulation material. Delivered in the 90sf and left in the sun on my step, it was perfectly cold inside the box. 

One frozen gel pack, food grade, I opened it and thawed it as usual into the ground outside. Insulation blankets which dissolve in water and can be composted. 

Just frothy water after the blanket dissolved, which I dumped, out back. I kept the plastic coverings to use as bags.

Pretty good day, though I was tired after all the bending and stretching and crawling around in the service of the pattern.

Very glad I can do it, so there's that.