Do Rhomboids Dance?

Crazy.  Busy.  I can't believe I haven't posted since February - I'm sure my absence sent the blogosphere into a frantic tizzy. Just kidding! - but my disappearance was mostly due to MY being in a frantic tizzy for about 4 months.  Let's just say that my Sanity-Meter was tipping precariously toward "In-" and leave it at that.

I may have mentioned this before, but this is my younger son's senior year of high school.  Originally, he was planning to participate in the marching band in the fall, and then instead of doing percussion in the spring, he wanted to take a break from the constant rehearsals and competitions and move over into the Wind Ensemble instead. Things didn't work out that way, though, so we just got finished grinding through another spring competition season, which culminated in an incredibly jam-packed trip to Dayton, Ohio for the WGI Percussion World Championships.  Which meant mom was plenty busy measuring for drumline uniforms & measuring for custom drum covers, followed by plenty of pattern drafting, manufacture, and repair work thrown in for good measure.  Add in driving to competitions (some of them were nearly 100 miles away, one way), providing meals on the run, a sudden (and most welcome) upswing in client orders, one custom wedding anniversary dress, another VW bus refashion, sewing for charitable needs, and one of the most unusual costume requests I've gotten in awhile, and you have one very busy seamstress.  (Disclaimer:  You are not permitted to ask about housework.  Just sayin'...)

Obvs, I can't write about all of it at once (or you'll fall asleep at your desk or wherever you happen to be picking up my sudden reappearance in BlogLand), so I'll keep it to one topic for this post - and bring you up to speed a bit at a time.

Because I know all 9 of you have been fretting worriedly about my sudden drop off the edge of the Web map.  (Here there be monsters - right?)

The percussion ensemble up at the high school was bumped up into the World Class category recently, which is saying a LOT - these are very talented, very dedicated kids that take their percussion work very, very seriously.  And their spring show provided an insight into just how dedicated these students are - the theme was derived from the last 10 miles of railroad track that was hand laid in preparation for setting the Golden Spike at Promontory Point, UT in 1869 (an amazing and - to date - unparalleled track-laying feat that you can read about here), creating the first transcontinental railroad.  The indoor percussion show required a costume that would be reminiscent of the "coolie" type clothing that a lot of the chinamen wore during the track laying - but something ephemeral and slightly ghost-like as well.

Front Ensemble members with their instructor, after World Championships.

The drummers and the cymbal players out on the floor mat were required to hit the floor - literally, as well as figuratively - and often on their knees with a bit of a twisting motion.  You can probably guess what was coming down the pike, since these uniforms were made of a cotton muslin that was thinner than Osnaberg.  Most of the time at a competition is spent NOT competing, but rehearsing parts of the show, over and over, usually in an outside lot.  Without the floor mat.  Loosely translated, this means that these kids are now on their knees, twisting & grinding the fabric into asphalt.

And yes, they were all wearing knee pads under the costumes.  That helped to keep them from getting injured, but didn't keep the fabric of the pants from shredding.  It would have been nice to have ordered the costumes with that in mind (reinforced knees, anyone?), but sometimes at the beginning of a season you don't always know what all is going to get thrown into the show at a later date.  

By the end of the season, nearly the entire drumline had patched up knees that looked like this:

Dude, this knee isn't going ANYWHERE now.  Well, unless you count the one bass drum player whose knee ripped RIGHT NEXT TO all the stitching you see here.  The day after I had just repaired it.  Sigh.

Luckily, the thread immediately picked up the dirt & grime from the asphalt they were practicing on, resulting in a patch job that more or less resembled the spray paint that had been applied to the costumes in the first place - even with the newer "color," it all still blended in with the overall aesthetic.  Works for me.

We almost decided to just leave the holes in the pants, figuring that the students would look more and more like the original coolies that had worked almost non-stop on that historical day.  You know, they wouldn't have had a seamstress standing by back then to repair their workclothes....so it would have made historical sense NOT to repair the knees.  The only problem with doing so would have been that all of their kneepads would have shown through the huge holes in the knees - and they weren't all wearing the same color pads.  Black or buff would have posed no problem, but some of them had bright blue ones - that would have been a distracting jolt of color out there.  When you're in World Class, sometimes competition scores come down to the hundredths of a point difference (yeah, sort of like Olympics scores), and that's when the visual effects scores can make or break your ranking.

To make the repair job blend in and last as long as possible, I ended up fusing two layers of tight-weave muslin fabric together.  Then I applied more fusible web to the outer edges of the resulting patches (or used fabric glue - it depended on the shape and size of the original tear) and adhered it to the wrong side of the pants material.  After turning it right-side out again, I used the darning/mending stitch on my Viking machine - a thing of beauty, once you get the hang of it.  For some reason, the programmers opted to have the darning stitch sew a continual 14-row darning patch, after which you can reset the machine to start where the last group of stitches left off. Only each row in that 14-row group moved diagonally up and over a few stitches.  Which meant that you ended up with a rhomboid of stitches (yeah, sorry - hopefully that term's not dredging up nightmares of high school Geometry tests - you can look it up here) - and that makes it a little hard to match up the next group of stitches, especially if your tear isn't as symmetrical as the programmers seemed to think it should be.  If you look closely at that repair photo, you can see about a dozen rhomboids dancing across the knee.

Do rhomboids dance?

The Sewing Assistant SO does not care if rhomboids dance. 

Patchwork on the knees held up through World Championships - thankfully - because it would have been a bit difficult to get my sewing machine through TSA...although I will admit to packing a patchwork repair kit, complete with a travel iron, on board the semi before it drove off to Dayton.  Just in case.

Next Post:  How many calculations go into making a whole set of custom drum covers?  Or, Why I Suddenly Needed To Renew My Painkiller Prescription.  (Hint: it has something to do with headaches.)

Time To Get Cracking!

Dear whomever is in charge of determining how many viruses a person gets in the space of about 6 weeks:

STOP.

Thank you.

So where did we leave off?  Oh, yeah.  Neko (AKA The Sewing Assistant) was about to launch into my dog blanket project...literally.

Operation Blankets of Love is an organization that collects blankets, towels, pet beds, collars, leashes, clothes (for dogs), food dishes, grooming supplies, etc for shelters, rescue groups, wildlife & farm sanctuaries.  They are also a partner service provider for The American Red Cross.  The amount of items that they collect and distribute for animals in need is pretty impressive.  If you'd like more info, their website is:  www.OperationBlanketsofLove.org.

Last year I helped a Girl Scout with her service project for her gold award.  After she was done, she donated the rest of the fleece material to me (since she was going to the Czech Republic for a year)...I cut it up into lots and lots and lots of little squares, thinking I'd piece them together to make patchwork blankets.

What was I thinking?

Well, things slowed down over the holidays and for the past 6 weeks or so (other than catching all these darn viruses, anyway), so I decided it was time to start finishing my stock of UFOs.  The blanket project is the largest and most obvious UFO in my stash - it is literally taking over about half of my living room.  (Remember this?)  I've sent the smallest ones over to the young lady's mom to work on, but I still have the medium pieced ones here, as well as a huge lawn & leaf bag full of larger sized cuts.  I tried piecing the first one together but the seams from the combined fleece parts were too bulky for my taste.  I still wanted more than just the one layer for protection (some of these dogs have nothing but cement to sleep on).  So I decided that just zig-zagging them down to the base piece would be better - especially since it meant that the overall blanket would be flatter and have less bulk, but still have a couple of layers.

That was going amazingly well, unless you count how slow it is to get multiple layers of fleece through your feed dogs.  Once I started the zigzag (using my walking foot) it went faster, but it was still slow going.  It didn't help that Neko decided that he had to do Quality Control on each and every blanket.

Sometimes while I was still working on them.

Ummm....Neko?  I can't turn the corner with you on the blanket.

Neko?  NEKO?  Hello?  

"You can't move the WHAT?"

"Wut?"

Okay, now he's scaring me.  (LOL)

Quality Control on Soft Substances.  It's what he lives for.

Hmm, maybe it was time to switch gears and let him have that blanket (pins and all - did you notice that? - he's really dedicated to his job) and do something else for awhile...

My younger son is in his first relationship, and Valentine's Day was looming with no idea what to do for or give to his girlfriend.  I made a few suggestions but he still wasn't sure.  With only hours to go, I finally recommended just giving her flowers (plus a vase that she could use again) and calling it a day.  We bought the flowers at Trader Joe's - they usually have a pretty decent selection without the ridiculous prices - and bought the vase at the nearby Dollar Tree, along with some plain M&Ms to tuck into the arrangement.

Oh, yeah - the glittery hearts were part of a bunch of "silk" flowers we bought at the Dollar Tree.
The flowers went immediately into the Goodwill pile.  

Mmmm....M&Ms.....

Thumbs up!  Must be an okay gift!

These roses were just amazing.  They looked like they'd been
set on fire.  Appropriate, since his girlfriend is in percussion with him
and the band's fall show (if you've been following the blog) was FIRE.

She was very pleased with it, and the entire thing probably cost around $15 to make, not including the Oasis that I already had stashed away (for last minute panic-gifts such as this).  I saw on one of the local channels that you could order a dozen roses ON SPECIAL! for "only" $75.

Valentine's Day is such a racket.

My older son knew exactly what to do for his girlfriend.  He "borrowed" my colored pencils, found a picture online of a couple of baby ducklings and drew a picture of them on a small chalkboard thing that my husband had saved from an illustration job he worked on years ago.  It came out really nicely - and she loved it.

I did have to go down the hall to get my pencils back, though.

Now things are picking up again work-wise, and I have several really interesting jobs coming up:  an anniversary/wedding vow renewal custom dress; drum covers for the Percussion unit (they are two competitions into their season already); costuming for next year's fall show (shh, shh.....you didn't hear that and I can't tell you anything more about it until closer to the season, darn it); another VW revamp (I am STILL waiting for the last guy to send me photos of his!); and - hopefully - some of my "own thing" and maybe even some refashioning.  I miss doing that.

'Tis The Season To Be Crafty.....

.....Fa La La La Laaaaa,  La, La, La, LA!

Skidding in just under the wire, here.  And there are still some presents waiting to be made, but the recipients will have to be okay with a temporary I.O.U., as I have officially run out of time.  Not because tomorrow is Christmas Day, but because I leave at o'dark thirty the day AFTER Christmas for a long overdue visit with my parents in Tennessee.

But here are some of the gifts I managed to finish before I had to stop and pick up some groceries and bake a pumpkin pie for my son, who just had his wisdom teeth pulled on Friday and is still pretty sore, swollen, & miserable.  At least he could nom his way through most of the two pieces he cut for himself (yay!) - made it totally worth baking up this afternoon.  Also picked up a lot of stuff for him to eat/drink while I'm gone, like Carnation instant breakfast drinks, yogurt, jello, ginger ale (the pain pills were making him pretty queasy, too), oyster crackers, cottage cheese, etc.  Bless the people at my local Smart & Final - they were all making suggestions because I was literally out of ideas and worried that after I left, he wouldn't be eating much.  One gal suggested buying Cocoa Puffs and Kix, and telling him to let them dissolve a bit in his mouth before chewing them.  Strangely enough, it worked.

Also, kudos to his cousin's wife, who baked him a cheesecake for my husband to bring back home to him today.  I bet that'll be breakfast tomorrow.....    :)

By the way, if you are son #1's girlfriend, you can stop reading right here.  You don't get to peek at your presents early.  You still have to wait for Santa, muah-ha-ha-ha!

On to the gifts:  first up, a shop apron commissioned by my neighbor for her husband, for their upcoming holiday anniversary.  (Who gets married on New Year's Eve?  I guess it would make it completely inexcusable if he ever forgot their anniversary, though....crafty thinking.)

Shop apron to replace a well-worn  one.
This one was made drafting a pattern from the old one, so it is
almost the same - with the exception of a larger pocket up top
to accommodate the custom embroidery.  

Mr. Fix It courtesy of Embroidery Library dot com.  :)

Parachute cord for the ties & neckstrap, leather ones being unavailable in my area.
A distinct improvement over the shoelaces that were on the last one, LOL!
When you work with this stuff, you have to burn/melt the ends or it will
fray like mad.  A chance to let out my inner pyromaniac, hee hee hee.....

Trying to make my (female) dress form look more butch.
(Hey, I don't have a male form.  Had to run with what I had.  Does
this make her transgender?  A cross-dresser?) 

Son #1's girlfriend - if you are still reading, you are going to be in big trouble tomorrow.  I'll be able to tell.

On to the next project: a custom hat made for son #2's girlfriend.  He picked out and paid for the yarn, I did the labor.

Unpaid model.  Goes by the name of Flappy.  He's usually
very cooperative, but for some reason he kept trying to drop the hat.

Yarn from Lion Brand Yarns (Tweed Stripes in Athena ).  Very chameleon-y in
nature, as every time I shot a photo it seemed to change colorways.
Now it's pink/purple.  Hit the link.  You'll be amazed at what it really looks like.

Now it's blue/purple.  The yarn is actually quite dark, and has dark charcoal grey in it.
 Flappy was getting a bit peevish at this point, so I had to stop.
There is a scarf in progress to match this hat (about a half hour away
from being finished) - pattern was on the Tweed Stripes label and was
super fast to make up.  Only not fast enough to suit Flappy, and he
refused to model an unfinished product.
I'll have to post a photo after I get back from TN,
as the pattern isn't available online.

Son #1's girlfriend - if you've made it this far, you blew it.  You were warned.  (LOL)

Next up:  Super Secret Cozy Kitten Pillow for son #1's girlfriend.

This was a free pattern offered by Amy Butler (Birdy the Cat Pillow).
Was actually meant to be made from her fabulous printed cottons,
but I wanted it to look like the Sewing Assistant (somewhat) so I made
it up in soft, squooshy fleece/fur.
(Squooshy is an acceptable design term.)
Son #1 figured it would be difficult to see the face unless we used
something contrasting, thus the white.

She's totally into anime type characters, so I customized the face quite a bit.
Much larger, glistening eyes.  Pink cat-shaped nose.  Somewhat pensive moue.
Doesn't he look like he needs a hug?

Not to be outdone, my son wanted to make his girlfriend something himself.  (Cue scary music and note the drastic shift in theme.)

Custom "blood" spattered shoes.  

He freehanded the logo.  And the blood.   And drove to about three
stores looking for the right length of blood-red laces.

LOVE the spattering on the toes.   He repaired the paint pen afterwards.

She is going to be the envy of her classmates.
Those that watch the show, anyway.  

Guess who helped with the shoe project?  I think he was miffed
that Flappy got to model the crocheted hat, and not him.

Not last or least, something for the church for the Christmas season:  the 27 purificators, all finished, pressed, and ready to go.

Embroidery design, again from Embroidery Library.  This is the only design
I have ever purchased or downloaded from their site that gave me grief.  Usually
 I can count on their designs to stitch out perfectly - I think maybe this one just
had too many thread stops and trims in the same spot.  Looks great from the front
but every single one made a rat's nest on the back.
Yay for super sharp Ginger scissors.
And good reading glasses.

Stacks after pressing, on their way to be delivered for Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day masses.  

And that ain't all - but you'll have to wait for more photos until I get back from Tennessee (unless I can post from my folks' place - his wi-fi is always acting up, though).  

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year - cheers from the Sewing Assistant!

Mitering Corners on Altar Linens

Ah.  Just completed serving on a jury here in Orange County.  Not the best of times, to be sure - but it could have been a whole lot worse.  It did take up a whole lot more time than I was expecting, though.  Just as I was getting called up for duty, my client had an order that needed to be finished up for that weekend - she is expecting her second child any day now, and didn't want to take any more orders after December 5th.  So I was working after going through the jury selection process, staying up until 11 pm to finish.  On the days off from jury, I cranked out what was left of the orders and delivered them to the client on Sunday, right before having to get up on Monday morning and head back to court.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree......

I was recently in a car accident, and my car was in the shop for more than 10 days getting repaired.  I also (ahem) got a traffic ticket about two weeks before that as well (if you are my insurance agent, can you please pretend you didn't see this post?  I opted for Traffic School so the ticket would remain "invisible".....whatever that means according to the new California laws), so we had to pay for that, plus the repair deductible.

In the middle of all of this, my firstborn turned 21 years old.  And it's edging toward Christmas, and I didn't have any decorations up or cards ready to send out.

Sigh.  It never rains, but it pours.  

The Sewing Assistant was happy I was home when the trial was over, though - he really did not understand why I kept leaving the house and staying away until dinner time for so many days.  He ended up snuggling all day with the throw blanket I have on the couch throughout my absence.

If I sits here in her lap, then Mom can't go anywheres.  It's da law.

Client's order done & delivered?  Check.  Deductible paid and car repaired?  Check.  Ticket paid?  Check.  Traffic School scheduled?  Ummm....you'll have to tune in later for that one.  21 year old celebrated?  Check.  Jury duty completed?  Check.  Final band potluck attended?  Check.  Rehearsals underway for the spring percussion competition season? Check and check.  Laundry caught up?  Check.  Christmas tree up?  Check.  Sewing Assistant mollified?  Check.  For now, anyway.

I do have some hemming/mending orders here at the house that I'll get started on after tomorrow, but I needed to do something a little more meditative to alleviate the pressure I've been feeling lately.  I have been sitting on an order for the church that I've been trying to get to in between client orders - and I'm totally NOT telling you how long it's been sitting here waiting to be taken care of.  They are incredibly patient - or maybe just a little forgetful - no one has mentioned it for awhile.  Since I don't have any orders coming in from my steady client until after the start of the New Year, I decided that the church project would be the perfect thing to do to set my head back on straight.  

The Catholic church uses small cloths during the Mass, for cleaning out the ceborium and the chalices used during communion.  This particular cloth is known as a purificator (purificatorium or more anciently emunctorium).  When not being used, it is draped over the chalice like this:

                                

I belong to a very busy church which holds about 8-10 Masses each weekend - so when you add in the two daily Masses they have every other day of the week, you can see that they go through a lot of altar linens.  These linens get washed frequently, and eventually they start showing a fair amount of wear and tear.  The head of our Altar Guild knew that I do sewing & embroidery, and so I was asked if I could produce a quantity of purificators & some finger towels with an updated look to replace a stack of the older ones.

I had to take the Liturgical Coordinator with me when I went to Joanns to get the fabric - we have a pastor who is a bit on the finicky side and we knew he would want high quality, absorbent, high thread count fabric.  100% linen is the ultimate choice - only at Joanns linen runs around $20 to $25 a yard, which was well out of the budget.  The head of the Altar Guild had chosen some fabric (and unfortunately had pre-cut it as well) that was far too thin and not white enough.  I had picked up some white Kona cotton at Joanns to show the Coordinator, but even though it was thicker and white enough, it wasn't sturdy enough.  While shopping, the Coordinator and I finally settled on some cotton blend fabric that has the look & feel of linen without being quite as coarse, and with a coupon I think we brought the entire 3.5 yards in under about $30.  Not too bad when you consider a set of three of these purificators (cotton) can run about $18 from some supply companies.  The pure linen ones cost about that much apiece!  And that's before embroidery!

So today I decided that this would be my meditative project to clear my head and to do something for others.  It's kind of like a prayer shawl - I can pray while I'm are making them.  The purificators don't get blessed before use like some of the other types of altar linens, so this is typically the only prayer (if any) that would be said over these.

After washing and drying the fabric we chose, I cut them out to match the size of the existing purificators (finished size about 12" x 14" - but the size of these can vary quite a bit by manufacturer):

Stack!

The final approved embroidery, on a sample piece.  It's about 3/4 inch high.

I was able to cut about 27 cloths from the 3.5 yard length of fabric.  I did a little research on the interwebz, and came up with a hybrid way to miter the corners of the cloths so they would look nice & sharp & even.  This process can be used to hem cloth napkins for the home as well:

I started by pressing a scant 1/4" on each side.  I made the mistake on the first
one of pressing and sliding the iron - this can make the corners skew out, which
you don't want.  On the corners especially, just press with the iron and then lift
to move the iron across the cloth so the fabric doesn't warp.

Fold another 1/4" and press again.  Follow the same procedure as above (don't slide the iron).
Here you can see the resulting square (made of 4 smaller squares) in the corner. 

Carefully cut the square in half diagonally, leaving the one small square intact.

Fold the trimmed corner in towards the center at the innermost corner of the smaller square.
If you do this right, you should be able to match up the lines created by the pressed double folds.
(The corner lifted up a bit, which is why it doesn't look like it matches - but it does.)
Press this in place. 

Now fold the first 1/4" hems in toward the center again along the pressed lines.

And then fold the second 1/4" hems along the pressed lines.   Press the corner to secure the new
fold lines in the corners.  If you skip this step, by the time you get the cloth to
your machine the corner will have popped back out again, like bad origami.

Begin your stitching in the middle of a side - it's a lot easier to start and stop
there than it is to start in a corner - they have a tendency to get stuffed into
your machine's throat plate.  Stitch close to the inner foldline.

The fabric stays folded pretty nicely, which will allow you to stitch to the corner
and pivot, then stitch down the next side.

Stitch until you meet up with your starting point, then backstitch a couple of stitches
to secure, and cut your thread ends.  

Tomorrow:  finishing the hems of all 27 cloths, then on to the embroidery!

A Gift That Keeps on Giving

Have a little time on my hands this week between client orders, so I thought I'd put it to good use.

You may have seen this post, which had partly to do with one of our Marching Band friends (Color Guard, to be exact) earning her Gold Award for the Girl Scouts.  She recently left the country to live in the Czech Republic for a year in an educational exchange program.  Before she left, she donated several large sacks full of leftover fleece she had acquired while making her hats for the Children's Hospital (and also fabric she had used to make her own stylish hats that she wore during night rehearsals on the field).

I have a flyer that I had picked up at our local Summerfest, during the Dog Show that was a main event one day that weekend.  This is from Operation Blankets of Love (www.OperationBlanketsofLove.org), which collects blankets for homeless animals in shelters, rescue groups, wildlife & farm sanctuaries in the Southern California area.

Light bulb moment.

Starting with 4" square cuts

Overseeing the action

Pieces cut for backing medium (pieced) blankets, and smaller pads for carriers

4" cuts, ready to be pieced into colorful blankets

I'm overwhelmed with choices - this is going to be such a cheerful project!

More color!

The Sewing Assistant, giving approval to the largest blankets, ready  to go!

Alexis, this one's for you.  When I get the blankets started, I'll post more photos - if I can get Neko out of the pile of fabric long enough.  The blanket organization will be back at Mile Square Park for the Howling Halloween event on October 21st, and will be collecting blankets from the local community.  I'll make sure they know the back story & I'll post the final donation so you can see how many homeless animals you've helped to comfort and warm - your gift that keeps on giving!