http://www.urbanthreads.com/Blog/?p=64
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| Combination of machine embroidery and hand-painted, inked, stitched, dyed, woven and framed artwork. |
Simply stunning. Now, where are my art supplies?
Musings on sewing, embroidering, knitting, crocheting, and general crafting. Not necessarily in that order.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Can It Get Any Better Than This?
Wow. Just.......WOW.
http://www.urbanthreads.com/Blog/?p=64
Simply stunning. Now, where are my art supplies?
http://www.urbanthreads.com/Blog/?p=64
Simply stunning. Now, where are my art supplies?
Another Jacket - and More Delays
I must have an invisible sign around my neck. One that can only be read by desperate people wanting information just when I'm in my biggest hurry. Yesterday I was laughing because I went to two (two!) fabric stores, and yet forgot to get the drawstring I needed to put in the top of my backpack-in-progress. So this morning I decided that since I needed to get up early to take Son #2 to his progress meeting with the independent study teacher, I would use my time wisely and start sewing early, after stopping on the way home to get the drawstring.
Today had other plans for me, though.
The morning went something like this:
The Sewing Assistant figured since I was getting an early start, that he would get an even EARLIER start. Just so, you know, he wouldn't starve to death somewhere along the line. Which meant pouncing around the room and grumbling and complaining and crying and jumping and scratching and OK, I'M GETTING UP TO FEED YOU NOW. Then back to bed, since it was still o'dark-thirty. Then Son #2 surprised me by getting up before I did (the second time, anyway) - and he had another headache. Sigh. He hadn't gotten any sleep last night at all, which almost always is a recipe for a migraine. Only we'll be traveling to Ohio next week, then the week after will be spring break, so he couldn't miss his appointment with his teacher this morning. I felt lousy making him go through the motions, knowing he wasn't really in good enough shape should he need to take a test or something, but I had to make him go. I dropped him off, figuring that he'd be taking at least two tests since he is working on two subjects now - so I headed toward home and the fabric store. Halfway to the house I get a phone call from Son #2, saying he was ready to come home now and could I come pick him up?
Sigh.
U-Turn. Back to the high school. Pick him up. He's still feeling lousy so I need to get him settled and let him sleep at least a little bit before his rehearsal at 2 pm. Son #1 comes in from walking Girlfriend to school and asks for a wake-up call at around 10:30 or 11:00. (Do I LOOK like an alarm clock?) Husband announces that we can't go to Home Depot to get vegetables to put into the garden before I leave for Ohio, since he needs to tear out all the sprinklers he just installed in said garden, as the water pressure isn't working right and he needs to re-pipe everything.
Sigh.
Then husband announces that we need to go to Ikea to get something he wants to put together while I'm gone. He can't face that warehouse alone, and I don't want the hassle of having to return confused parts, so I go with him. We get the Ikea stuff, then head home. I go give Son #1 his first wake-up call and check on Son #2. He's still miserable so I get him something to drink and let him go back to sleep. Then give Son #1 another wake-up call. Then I go to the fabric store. I wander through the aisles and pick up a trim that I think will look perfect on the pocket of my backpack and am about to look for the cording, when suddenly a woman standing next to me asks me if she can ask me a question about some fabric she's looking at. She was Asian with a strong accent, so the conversation was a bit like a ping-pong match. We look at the fabric and I tell her my opinion about whether it matches the trim she's picked out, yada-yada-yada...then she's showing me photos on her phone of the qipao/ (cheongsam) / ao dai dresses she wants to make - similar to these:
Now, what the heck do I know about traditional Buddhist Temple wear? Nothing. She explains that she makes her own and wears them to the temple, and other women want to know if she can make something similar to it for them, but she's overwhelmed trying to make decisions about fabric & trims for someone else. I'm impressed, so I walk through the store with her while she is showing me fabrics and trims that she has already gotten, and is asking would this go with this? Or this? Or should I do this instead? And asking me what types of clothing that I make (which makes me want to crawl into a hole, really). As we're making our way through the aisles, she gets her cart stuck and we have to back out of that one aisle and take the next one. After about 10 more minutes of fabric comparison, she suddenly realizes that the 5 yards of white brocade she was showing me is now missing from her cart. We're in a discount fabric store, where piles of fabric tend to wander about while people are trying to make up their minds (they have a lot of flat-fold fabrics) - so she starts to panic and thinks maybe someone found it and might want to try to buy it from the store. After some frantic searching (and what would have been a humorous and confusing verbal exchange between the Vietnamese customer and the Czech women who work in the store, had 5 yards of expensive brocade not been the subject in question) and several retracings of our paths through the store, a few other customers start looking around as well. Everyone there is feeling her distress, since she'd already purchased the fabric and it seemingly went "poof." Some of us are on our hands and knees at this point, looking underneath the fabric bolt tables, and hunting between bolts in case it had slipped behind a few of them. Searching, searching, searching, and she's getting more distressed by the minute. Suddenly I got a mental image of her getting stuck in that aisle, and had an "a-ha" moment. I went to the aisle where she'd had to do the five-point turn with her cart, and sure enough, there was the fabric - the wall of velvet had yanked it out of her bag and it was in a heap on the floor under the bolts. I return it to her, everyone is happy, I pay for my trim and give her my business card (she wanted to take me to her favorite garment district store next time she goes), she pays for her buttons & notions, and we leave.
I go home. I pull up in my driveway, and realize that in all the commotion, I forgot to get the drawstring cord I went to the store to get in the first place.
Sigh.
The rest of the day: I wake up Son #2 at about 12:30. He eats lunch (a little). I drop him off around 2 pm at percussion rehearsal. I go in to pick up the four uniforms that have sewing issues and run into another percussion mom. We get to chatting. An hour later, I get home. And realize that I forgot to stop by the fabric store to get the cord again.
Sigh.
Back I go. This time, I get the cord and the clerk is looking very strangely at me, knowing I'd just been there a couple of hours earlier and in the middle of the fabric search. I figure it's more trouble to explain it all than to just smile and buy the cord.
4 pm. Back home. Son #2 really, really wants his new jacket embroidered before we go to Dayton, so I decide to set that up first, then start the backpack after that. I hoop the jacket. I send the embroidery file to the machine. I wind the bobbin and thread the machine with the grey he picked out. I insert the hoop and oddly enough, the needle isn't centered where the design template shows it should be. URGH. I realize that I've hooped the jacket incorrectly and take it apart again. Hoop it again. Bring it to the machine. FINALLY sit down to sew and the phone rings. Practice is done early, can I come get him?
Sigh.
6:00 pm, I'm on my way back to the school. I get a text that says someone brought pizza, so Son #2 will be out after awhile. I'm sitting in the car in the parking lot, cleaning the inside of the windows, because I'll be darned if I'm going to go home again. 6:30, he finally shows up and we go home. He's already eaten, so I stuff something in my mouth and get started working on the project again. Only it's another hour and a half before I actually get it started, and I have NO idea where all the time went. It finally starts stitching out at 9 pm. Finishes at about 10 pm. I take it out and clip the basting stitches, cut the excess stabilizer, shake it out, and realize that I'd. Hooped. It. Too. Low.
URGH.
He says it's okay for now, but maybe we can fill in at the top with some more embroidery when we get back from Dayton.
At this point, I may just hide somewhere while I'm there, and start a new identity.
Today had other plans for me, though.
The morning went something like this:
The Sewing Assistant figured since I was getting an early start, that he would get an even EARLIER start. Just so, you know, he wouldn't starve to death somewhere along the line. Which meant pouncing around the room and grumbling and complaining and crying and jumping and scratching and OK, I'M GETTING UP TO FEED YOU NOW. Then back to bed, since it was still o'dark-thirty. Then Son #2 surprised me by getting up before I did (the second time, anyway) - and he had another headache. Sigh. He hadn't gotten any sleep last night at all, which almost always is a recipe for a migraine. Only we'll be traveling to Ohio next week, then the week after will be spring break, so he couldn't miss his appointment with his teacher this morning. I felt lousy making him go through the motions, knowing he wasn't really in good enough shape should he need to take a test or something, but I had to make him go. I dropped him off, figuring that he'd be taking at least two tests since he is working on two subjects now - so I headed toward home and the fabric store. Halfway to the house I get a phone call from Son #2, saying he was ready to come home now and could I come pick him up?
Sigh.
U-Turn. Back to the high school. Pick him up. He's still feeling lousy so I need to get him settled and let him sleep at least a little bit before his rehearsal at 2 pm. Son #1 comes in from walking Girlfriend to school and asks for a wake-up call at around 10:30 or 11:00. (Do I LOOK like an alarm clock?) Husband announces that we can't go to Home Depot to get vegetables to put into the garden before I leave for Ohio, since he needs to tear out all the sprinklers he just installed in said garden, as the water pressure isn't working right and he needs to re-pipe everything.
Sigh.
Then husband announces that we need to go to Ikea to get something he wants to put together while I'm gone. He can't face that warehouse alone, and I don't want the hassle of having to return confused parts, so I go with him. We get the Ikea stuff, then head home. I go give Son #1 his first wake-up call and check on Son #2. He's still miserable so I get him something to drink and let him go back to sleep. Then give Son #1 another wake-up call. Then I go to the fabric store. I wander through the aisles and pick up a trim that I think will look perfect on the pocket of my backpack and am about to look for the cording, when suddenly a woman standing next to me asks me if she can ask me a question about some fabric she's looking at. She was Asian with a strong accent, so the conversation was a bit like a ping-pong match. We look at the fabric and I tell her my opinion about whether it matches the trim she's picked out, yada-yada-yada...then she's showing me photos on her phone of the qipao/ (cheongsam) / ao dai dresses she wants to make - similar to these:
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| A little more "wow" than what she sews, but you get the picture. |
Now, what the heck do I know about traditional Buddhist Temple wear? Nothing. She explains that she makes her own and wears them to the temple, and other women want to know if she can make something similar to it for them, but she's overwhelmed trying to make decisions about fabric & trims for someone else. I'm impressed, so I walk through the store with her while she is showing me fabrics and trims that she has already gotten, and is asking would this go with this? Or this? Or should I do this instead? And asking me what types of clothing that I make (which makes me want to crawl into a hole, really). As we're making our way through the aisles, she gets her cart stuck and we have to back out of that one aisle and take the next one. After about 10 more minutes of fabric comparison, she suddenly realizes that the 5 yards of white brocade she was showing me is now missing from her cart. We're in a discount fabric store, where piles of fabric tend to wander about while people are trying to make up their minds (they have a lot of flat-fold fabrics) - so she starts to panic and thinks maybe someone found it and might want to try to buy it from the store. After some frantic searching (and what would have been a humorous and confusing verbal exchange between the Vietnamese customer and the Czech women who work in the store, had 5 yards of expensive brocade not been the subject in question) and several retracings of our paths through the store, a few other customers start looking around as well. Everyone there is feeling her distress, since she'd already purchased the fabric and it seemingly went "poof." Some of us are on our hands and knees at this point, looking underneath the fabric bolt tables, and hunting between bolts in case it had slipped behind a few of them. Searching, searching, searching, and she's getting more distressed by the minute. Suddenly I got a mental image of her getting stuck in that aisle, and had an "a-ha" moment. I went to the aisle where she'd had to do the five-point turn with her cart, and sure enough, there was the fabric - the wall of velvet had yanked it out of her bag and it was in a heap on the floor under the bolts. I return it to her, everyone is happy, I pay for my trim and give her my business card (she wanted to take me to her favorite garment district store next time she goes), she pays for her buttons & notions, and we leave.
I go home. I pull up in my driveway, and realize that in all the commotion, I forgot to get the drawstring cord I went to the store to get in the first place.
Sigh.
The rest of the day: I wake up Son #2 at about 12:30. He eats lunch (a little). I drop him off around 2 pm at percussion rehearsal. I go in to pick up the four uniforms that have sewing issues and run into another percussion mom. We get to chatting. An hour later, I get home. And realize that I forgot to stop by the fabric store to get the cord again.
Sigh.
Back I go. This time, I get the cord and the clerk is looking very strangely at me, knowing I'd just been there a couple of hours earlier and in the middle of the fabric search. I figure it's more trouble to explain it all than to just smile and buy the cord.
4 pm. Back home. Son #2 really, really wants his new jacket embroidered before we go to Dayton, so I decide to set that up first, then start the backpack after that. I hoop the jacket. I send the embroidery file to the machine. I wind the bobbin and thread the machine with the grey he picked out. I insert the hoop and oddly enough, the needle isn't centered where the design template shows it should be. URGH. I realize that I've hooped the jacket incorrectly and take it apart again. Hoop it again. Bring it to the machine. FINALLY sit down to sew and the phone rings. Practice is done early, can I come get him?
Sigh.
6:00 pm, I'm on my way back to the school. I get a text that says someone brought pizza, so Son #2 will be out after awhile. I'm sitting in the car in the parking lot, cleaning the inside of the windows, because I'll be darned if I'm going to go home again. 6:30, he finally shows up and we go home. He's already eaten, so I stuff something in my mouth and get started working on the project again. Only it's another hour and a half before I actually get it started, and I have NO idea where all the time went. It finally starts stitching out at 9 pm. Finishes at about 10 pm. I take it out and clip the basting stitches, cut the excess stabilizer, shake it out, and realize that I'd. Hooped. It. Too. Low.
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| Looks great in this shot. Once he put it on, though, the hood rises up and the embroidery looks really misplaced. |
URGH.
He says it's okay for now, but maybe we can fill in at the top with some more embroidery when we get back from Dayton.
At this point, I may just hide somewhere while I'm there, and start a new identity.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Backpack Bee - Part 2
Someone needs to stop me before I go to the fabric store, go through my fabric stash, and go through my reference books & magazines. I think I must have changed my design for my backpack at least four or five times during the day. Sometimes I asked son #2 for his input (which he is really reluctant to give, probably for fear of my design defensiveness, LOL); sometimes the Sewing Assistant put his two cents (and paws) in, whether I asked him to or not. My biggest problem was that last night I had set aside the fabrics that I had planned to use, and started embroidering the flap.
I finished up the embroidery last night and packed everything together to work on cutting out the backpack parts in the morning. Only when I picked up where I left off.....I realized I needed the little sliders for the straps so I headed to Joanns Fabrics. In the daylight I had decided that I didn't like the fabric I'd picked for the main body, so while I was at Joanns, I poked my way through the red tag clearance stuff, looking for home dec weight fabric that would go with the colors of the embroidery a bit better. (Note to self: in the future, choose the fabric FIRST. Then choose the embroidery thread to match the fabric. Duh.) Not seeing any that would fit the bill, I bought the sliders, some cord stops, and Stampington's Haute Handbags:
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| The lurvely tattoo embroidery from Urban Threads, up on my machine's onboard computer screen. Yes, that's right. My sewing machine is smarter than me. |
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| The embroidery starting to stitch out. At Warp Speed. |
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| The Sewing Assistant decided he didn't particularly like having the embroidery thread lined up in stitching order and set about stuffing it underneath the machine bed and launching some off the worktable. Also at Warp Speed. |
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| After removing the Sewing Assistant and hunting down all the spools of thread, the embroidering could resume. |
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| Too many ideas! Too little time! AAAUUUUGGGHHHHHH! |
I then came home and decided to go through my fabric stash - again - to see if I had something that would pick up the embroidery colors better.
Three hours later......
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| This is about the fourteenth incarnation! |
So now I have cut out all the parts except for the interfacing and the lining. I have to do a bit of finessing on the upper flap portion; that embroidery is so small in comparison to the rest of the bag it would have gotten lost. I'm planning to frame it up with that home dec trim you can see in the upper part of the photo - that will all have to be done prior to working on the rest of the bag.
Good thing I took a photo of how I wanted to put this all together, because - no big surprise -
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| But I kan helpz! I kan press out all the wrinklees! See? |
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| Kitteh don' like dis trimz! You shud pick anudder one! |
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| Is too long? I iz helping cutz off this end! |
At this rate, I should get the backpack done by about the year 2014.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Current Bee in My Bonnet
Every once in awhile, I get the proverbial bee in my bonnet. There's something I need. There's something I broke or lost. There's something I want to try.
I've been shlepping around for the last five years while doing various band projects and assisting at games & competitions (you'd be amazed at how many sewing issues come up at these things), and the entire time I've wished I had a small-ish backpack to take during games, comps and night rehearsals. You see, I end up pushing around a lot of equipment while I'm there, since son #2 is in the percussion section - the front ensemble, to be exact. He plays mallet instruments and has been known to play as many as five of them during a show: xylophone, glock (they call them "bells"), crotales, djembe drum and the sampler. Which means that when he pushes onto the field or floor during a timed competition, he needs some "handlers" - parents who are designated to get some of his instruments there in a timely, orderly fashion.
Well, we usually get it right. They've only been given one penalty so far this spring season for taking too long to set up.
What I really hate is pushing in something large, like the crotales. Not because it's large, not because it's unwieldy. Because my stupid purse keeps sliding off my shoulder and dangling off my wrist and banging around when I'm supposed to be concentrating on getting his instrument to the right spot in the right order ON TIME. We often have to traverse parking lots, football fields, sidewalks, streets, gymnasiums and arenas, and sometimes have to do it in an awful hurry.
So ask me why I haven't corrected this problem sooner. I kept meaning to, but I couldn't bring myself to buy one when I knew I could make one, and there was always something more important to worry about so I figured I'd get to it "later." Only "later" never got here. Until now.
We're gearing up for SCPA championships this Saturday in San Bernardino, CA and will be leaving shortly afterwards (Tuesday) to go to WGI World Championships in Dayton, Ohio. Which means two things: I will have to fly with a more compact set of carry-ons (we're loading the semi on Saturday with any suitcases we might need for the trip), and I really need a small backpack type bag so that it goes over both shoulders AND STOPS SLIPPING OFF MY SHOULDER AND BANGING AROUND MY KNEES while I'm pushing an instrument. Not to mention one that gets me through airport security.
So with that in mind, here we go- I went hunting around the internet for easy instructions on making a simple, small sized backpack and I found this: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=9475
Looks simple enough. Lord knows I have enough spare material around. I could make it in a snap, I'm sure. But, no - I have to have a discussion with my creative muse and decide that I need to make it a bit more outstanding.
Personal.
CRAFTY!
I've been shlepping around for the last five years while doing various band projects and assisting at games & competitions (you'd be amazed at how many sewing issues come up at these things), and the entire time I've wished I had a small-ish backpack to take during games, comps and night rehearsals. You see, I end up pushing around a lot of equipment while I'm there, since son #2 is in the percussion section - the front ensemble, to be exact. He plays mallet instruments and has been known to play as many as five of them during a show: xylophone, glock (they call them "bells"), crotales, djembe drum and the sampler. Which means that when he pushes onto the field or floor during a timed competition, he needs some "handlers" - parents who are designated to get some of his instruments there in a timely, orderly fashion.
Well, we usually get it right. They've only been given one penalty so far this spring season for taking too long to set up.
What I really hate is pushing in something large, like the crotales. Not because it's large, not because it's unwieldy. Because my stupid purse keeps sliding off my shoulder and dangling off my wrist and banging around when I'm supposed to be concentrating on getting his instrument to the right spot in the right order ON TIME. We often have to traverse parking lots, football fields, sidewalks, streets, gymnasiums and arenas, and sometimes have to do it in an awful hurry.
So ask me why I haven't corrected this problem sooner. I kept meaning to, but I couldn't bring myself to buy one when I knew I could make one, and there was always something more important to worry about so I figured I'd get to it "later." Only "later" never got here. Until now.
We're gearing up for SCPA championships this Saturday in San Bernardino, CA and will be leaving shortly afterwards (Tuesday) to go to WGI World Championships in Dayton, Ohio. Which means two things: I will have to fly with a more compact set of carry-ons (we're loading the semi on Saturday with any suitcases we might need for the trip), and I really need a small backpack type bag so that it goes over both shoulders AND STOPS SLIPPING OFF MY SHOULDER AND BANGING AROUND MY KNEES while I'm pushing an instrument. Not to mention one that gets me through airport security.
So with that in mind, here we go- I went hunting around the internet for easy instructions on making a simple, small sized backpack and I found this: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=9475
Looks simple enough. Lord knows I have enough spare material around. I could make it in a snap, I'm sure. But, no - I have to have a discussion with my creative muse and decide that I need to make it a bit more outstanding.
Personal.
CRAFTY!
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| Craft-a-licious embroidery from urbanthreads.com |
Half the kids in the band call me "mom" anyway. Might as well brand myself.
So today's part of the backpack? The embroidery, and selecting and combining interesting fabrics from my stash to coordinate.
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh......
Let the crafting begin!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Ever-Growing Pile
It happens to the best of us. You have 15+ projects going on at the same time, all of them at different levels of completion. Some are aaaalllllllmost done. Some you just started. Some are still in the planning stages. But they are all sitting out, demanding your attention. And you have good intentions - just far too little time. In my case, that happens when my younger son is sick or has a migraine, or has weekend after weekend of competitions (with tons of rehearsal time thrown in), when I have a busy week on-call at work, and when he has multiple doctor appointments and medical tests to get done. Since I last posted, I've had all of the above.
And the Sewing Assistant was trying to help, honest.
I had to bring home some work from my on-call job today, so I had to clear off my worktable in order to pin the hems. I was pretty frustrated looking at the HUGE pile of UFOs, and figured that after this job went back to work (which it did, about three hours ago) I'd leave that table clear for the time being. When I started pulling the paper backing off the fabric banners, the Sewing Assistant heard the crinkling and figured he was being paged.
I had stacked three of the banners on the piano while pinning this one - but Neko figured this meant he needed to be a pattern weight again and sat on top of them. I kept lifting him off and setting him on the floor, because I didn't want him to tear or puncture the delicate fabric. He was not happy, and ended up moping around for quite awhile.
And the Sewing Assistant was trying to help, honest.
I had to bring home some work from my on-call job today, so I had to clear off my worktable in order to pin the hems. I was pretty frustrated looking at the HUGE pile of UFOs, and figured that after this job went back to work (which it did, about three hours ago) I'd leave that table clear for the time being. When I started pulling the paper backing off the fabric banners, the Sewing Assistant heard the crinkling and figured he was being paged.
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| This is the back of the fabric banner with some of the hem pinned in place. You can see how thin this material is, since you can see the photo from the other side! |
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| "Hmmmph! I kin not haz ANY fun." |
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| Sad Face. I poutz. |
I had to laugh, the pouting was that funny - then I had to get the camera because suddenly he started resembling a stranded seal. I need to teach this guy how to jog. Or how to eat salad. Maybe both.
Neko will be one year old on April 10th - I'm considering throwing him a party and inviting everyone he's ever made laugh - and that's a lot of people. He's a funny cat. A rotten Assistant, but good company.
Here's another banner I got to work on this past week (so can I say I helped in some small measure?):
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| My minor contribution - the hemming - is not done yet in this shot. |
Don't forget to make a contribution somehow, some way.
I repaired two band jackets after finishing up the girlfriend's tiger. No photos, but two very happy customers. Son #2 also requested a new jacket after seeing the dragon and the tiger, and would like his to have the matching wolf embroidery from the set.
That UFO pile just keeps getting bigger. I don't understand it.
The newest sock is progressing nicely - I'm just about to finish up the heel flap and turn the heel - I love that part; like Stephanie Pearl-McPhee says - it makes me feel really, really smart every time I do it! I was hoping to have the pair done by the end of March. Doesn't look like it's going to happen, though.
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| This color-changing yarn makes me look wicked genius. |
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| Ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille! |
I'm learning how to strand two colors two-handed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmiwk-qL3Ro) - so my tension isn't even and you can see where the carried strands pull and make sort of a raised effect right down the middle there - that actually happens across each pair of double-pointed needles, so four times total around the sock. Bummer. I'm hoping it won't show much once it's on. I'm actually hoping it FITS once it's on - in spite of downsizing the needles to make it smaller, it still looks like it should fit my calf and part of someone else's. Maybe I'll stuff Neko into it. Nah, that'll just stretch it out until it looks like a Christmas stocking.
More projects (hopefully finished) next time. If I can move the Assistant, that is.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Whoops, I Did It Again
But not Britney Spears style. And I wasn't singing at the time, either.
Scheduled: work on the jacket for the girlfriend today, planning to get it done before my son went out to dinner with her family for her birthday. Most of the day was taken up by errands, though, including one to get more embroidery thread. I learned yesterday that these designs need at least a spool and a half of whatever color I'm using (it's a one-color design), so I figured I'd get an extra spool before I even started. Only that necessitated finding out exactly what color the girlfriend would want on the jacket, without telling her what she was selecting it for. HA! I left that conundrum up to my son - which meant I couldn't go to the fabric store until he came back from walking her to school.
Round One: before I could get the thread - chiropractor appointment for me and for my younger son (whom the chiropractor has nicknamed "Gumby," since he is so incredibly flexible), and then a quick trip to Ikea to eat breakfast and browse entertainment center ideas (a recon mission - my husband HATES to shop, so I have to do all the legwork in advance and present him with a couple of options). Stopped at Joanns on the way back and bought the extra thread the girlfriend liked, then headed home to start work. Only I didn't have much time - younger son needed to be up to the high school for an impromptu sectional rehearsal. Knowing how long the design would take, I decided not to start it yet so I wouldn't have to leave it - and just worked on my sock until it was time to go. I dropped my son off, then came back home to eat lunch and start sewing. I had just hooped up the girlfriend's jacket and sat down to sew when I got another call - apparently, my son didn't need to be there for another hour and I needed to pick him up again. So, back I go. Got home, checked my email while he was doing some studying & eating lunch, and got a message from a client that she wanted a different length of zipper. Darn. Should have checked my email sooner.
Round Two: Dropped younger son off again at the high school, swung by the gas station to turn over most of my last paycheck, went to Joanns again to exchange the zipper (and no, they were not surprised to see me again - they are quite used to my erratic ways now), came home, rehooped the hoodie three times (my brain was temporarily out of order), and sat down to sew when the phone rang again. It's the younger son; sectional rehearsal is done and he needs a ride home. And now it's raining cats & dogs.
Round Three: pick up the younger son, then back home again. I set up the embroidery and get the machine started. This time, I decide to sit down and supervise the embroidery all the way through so that I don't end up with another embroidery hoop/bobbin/throat plate cluster-explosion on my hands.
Older son finally gets home (soaking wet - he rode his 250cc scooter to college and didn't realize it was supposed to rain) and I tell him to clean up while the embroidery is finishing up. About ten minutes, I say.
I should have known - I opened my mouth and THAT was all it took - with ten minutes to go before I needed to wrap the gift, and only the head left of the tiger to do - BAM! That familiar clanking sound starts up again and I can tell by the upper thread that there is a problem - it is looking a bit wonky, skipping stitches, and there is that suspicious clankity clankity sound. I stop the embroidery, thanking myself for not hooping it the same way as yesterday (this time I did NOT hoop the jacket, just the stabilizer), check the upper thread, the bobbin thread (thinking maybe I ran out, but no...), and setting everything back into place I started the machine again. CLANKITY CLANKITY CLANKITY CLANKITY CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK!!!!!!! Whoa, Nelly! This time I stopped the machine, cut the threads, pulled the hoop off the assembly (without unhooping the jacket), turned it over, and Oh. My. Gawd.
Ugh. One. More. Time. Had to send my apologies with my son to his girlfriend, since her gift wasn't going to be there until tomorrow morning. Then I spent the next half hour very carefully clipping little, tiny, shiny threads. Snip, snip, snip. From the bottom. Snip, snip, snip. From the top. Yank. Pull. Snip. Yank. And repeat. My work room trash can looks like I gave a crew cut to a couple of Troll Dolls.
I get all the thread out. I rethreaded the machine, rethreaded the bobbin, put the bobbin case & the throat plate back into place, put the hoop back in, backed up the stitch count to where it first started "nesting," and started up the machine again.
Clank clank clank clank clank STOP - OH NO YOU DON'T, NOT AGAIN!
< pause >
When all else fails, change the stupid needle. It probably got ruined clunking around the throat plate.
Bada bing, bada boom! That was the ticket! The rest of the embroidery buzzed along with no further interruptions. Sometimes what seems like the biggest problem often has the simplest solution.
Said tiger is now wrapped up, waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting birthday girl.
Scheduled: work on the jacket for the girlfriend today, planning to get it done before my son went out to dinner with her family for her birthday. Most of the day was taken up by errands, though, including one to get more embroidery thread. I learned yesterday that these designs need at least a spool and a half of whatever color I'm using (it's a one-color design), so I figured I'd get an extra spool before I even started. Only that necessitated finding out exactly what color the girlfriend would want on the jacket, without telling her what she was selecting it for. HA! I left that conundrum up to my son - which meant I couldn't go to the fabric store until he came back from walking her to school.
Round One: before I could get the thread - chiropractor appointment for me and for my younger son (whom the chiropractor has nicknamed "Gumby," since he is so incredibly flexible), and then a quick trip to Ikea to eat breakfast and browse entertainment center ideas (a recon mission - my husband HATES to shop, so I have to do all the legwork in advance and present him with a couple of options). Stopped at Joanns on the way back and bought the extra thread the girlfriend liked, then headed home to start work. Only I didn't have much time - younger son needed to be up to the high school for an impromptu sectional rehearsal. Knowing how long the design would take, I decided not to start it yet so I wouldn't have to leave it - and just worked on my sock until it was time to go. I dropped my son off, then came back home to eat lunch and start sewing. I had just hooped up the girlfriend's jacket and sat down to sew when I got another call - apparently, my son didn't need to be there for another hour and I needed to pick him up again. So, back I go. Got home, checked my email while he was doing some studying & eating lunch, and got a message from a client that she wanted a different length of zipper. Darn. Should have checked my email sooner.
Round Two: Dropped younger son off again at the high school, swung by the gas station to turn over most of my last paycheck, went to Joanns again to exchange the zipper (and no, they were not surprised to see me again - they are quite used to my erratic ways now), came home, rehooped the hoodie three times (my brain was temporarily out of order), and sat down to sew when the phone rang again. It's the younger son; sectional rehearsal is done and he needs a ride home. And now it's raining cats & dogs.
Round Three: pick up the younger son, then back home again. I set up the embroidery and get the machine started. This time, I decide to sit down and supervise the embroidery all the way through so that I don't end up with another embroidery hoop/bobbin/throat plate cluster-explosion on my hands.
 |
| So far, so good! |
Older son finally gets home (soaking wet - he rode his 250cc scooter to college and didn't realize it was supposed to rain) and I tell him to clean up while the embroidery is finishing up. About ten minutes, I say.
I should have known - I opened my mouth and THAT was all it took - with ten minutes to go before I needed to wrap the gift, and only the head left of the tiger to do - BAM! That familiar clanking sound starts up again and I can tell by the upper thread that there is a problem - it is looking a bit wonky, skipping stitches, and there is that suspicious clankity clankity sound. I stop the embroidery, thanking myself for not hooping it the same way as yesterday (this time I did NOT hoop the jacket, just the stabilizer), check the upper thread, the bobbin thread (thinking maybe I ran out, but no...), and setting everything back into place I started the machine again. CLANKITY CLANKITY CLANKITY CLANKITY CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK!!!!!!! Whoa, Nelly! This time I stopped the machine, cut the threads, pulled the hoop off the assembly (without unhooping the jacket), turned it over, and Oh. My. Gawd.
 |
| The underside of the embroidery. That is NOT fuzzy yarn. That is yards, and yards, and yards of rats' nest cluster-clucked RUINED THREAD AND THROAT PLATE TRAPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL. |
I get all the thread out. I rethreaded the machine, rethreaded the bobbin, put the bobbin case & the throat plate back into place, put the hoop back in, backed up the stitch count to where it first started "nesting," and started up the machine again.
Clank clank clank clank clank STOP - OH NO YOU DON'T, NOT AGAIN!
< pause >
When all else fails, change the stupid needle. It probably got ruined clunking around the throat plate.
Bada bing, bada boom! That was the ticket! The rest of the embroidery buzzed along with no further interruptions. Sometimes what seems like the biggest problem often has the simplest solution.
 |
| One Daring Damask Tiger, sneaking out of the jungle foliage! |
Next up: finally - a photo of the faux fair isle sock, and then....younger son has requested the wolf design in this same design pack for the back of his favorite jacket.
I'm gonna keep extra needles handy. Just sayin'.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A Birthday Gift Gone Wrong
Been a Hella Week, what with the slew of medical testing and another new specialist (cardiologist) for my son. In the middle of that somewhere, he had a drumline competition that he managed to get through - right before he got slammed with another migraine. It's been three days now and he's still fighting it, but he went to rehearsal today. I figured I'd take advantage of the free time to help my older son prepare birthday gifts for his girlfriend (she turns sweet 16 tomorrow). I asked him what he thought she would want or could use, and he mentioned that she could use a new hoodie type jacket. Having just gotten a birthday email from one of my favorite online embroidery design companies (Embroidery Library) that offered me a coupon for either $10 off or 50% off embroideries of my choice, the proverbial lightbulb went on - here was a chance to order some designs I'd been looking at, get them at a pretty substantial discount, and make a custom jacket for her birthday gift! See, turning 50 does have its advantages. My son chose which design to use, then we went out to get a hoodie jacket from the local 5 For $10 T-Shirt store ($13 for a pretty nice one - not bad).
After he took off for his college class, I went to Joanns Fabrics to get the embroidery thread color he requested - they just happen to have all Guttermann thread at 40% off right now - BONUS! When I came home I ordered the design packs (and a couple of designs for me, like a SOCK MONKEY!), downloaded them, then unzipped the files & saved them in the right format for my embroidery machine. It would be cool if all embroidery machines used similar platforms, but no - each company is so proprietary that they make the PC vs Mac war look like a backyard squirt-gun fight. I'm not even going to tell you how much the software costs to be able to convert these files to use in my machine - you're just going to have to trust me when I tell you it's embarrassingly obscene. It is pretty nifty software, though, and it also allows me to take any kind of design, from a gif to a jpeg to a hand-drawn picture, and digitize it so my machine can sew it out. I've had it for a couple of years and still haven't learned everything about it. It's the gift that keeps on giving, LOL!
You all know about Murphy's Law, right? I figured I'd test sew one of the designs using my own jacket, just in case....
and sure enough, right in the middle of the embroidery (you know, the one with 34,795 stitches) the hoop popped apart, the embroidery arm had nothing to move around, the design started sewing a HUGE rats' nest where it was stuck in the fabric, which then resulted in such a buildup of thread that it literally blew out the bobbin case cover & the throat plate before I could stop the machine. Sigh. I was lucky I didn't permanently damage everything. About an hour's worth of clipping stitches and hand-picking out all the thread later....I had a devil of a time getting the jacket hooped up in exactly the same spot so I was sweating bullets when I started up the machine again. Only it wouldn't start. It kept giving me an error message about not having the right size hoop installed. I tried everything, but it kept giving me the same message. Bummer. When all else fails, reboot. And cross your fingers. After rebooting the machine, I reloaded the design, forwarded the stitching to where I thought it first started screwing up, and pressed START - and realized that when the hoop had popped open, the design had started stitching out of the path it was supposed to have taken, and there was no way on God's green earth I was going to get it to line up right. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some. At around the 32,000 stitch mark, I realized I was running out of the embroidery thread. Sigh. I paused the machine again, looked everywhere for a matching thread, found one that was matte instead of shiny (but about the same color), loaded that up (SIGH), pressed START and let it run until it was done.
Amazingly enough, it looks okay. Not perfect, but okay. And I learned a lot. Only problem is, I know for sure now that I won't have enough thread to do the birthday design, it's 11:30 pm, and I can't get to the store to get more thread until tomorrow morning. Which turns out to be okay anyway, as older son came in about an hour ago and changed his mind about what color he thought she would like for her design anyway. (SIGH.)
And where was the sewing assistant all this time, you are wondering? Dude bailed on me. No wonder I couldn't keep it all under control - he decided to moonlight as a plumbing assistant.
After he took off for his college class, I went to Joanns Fabrics to get the embroidery thread color he requested - they just happen to have all Guttermann thread at 40% off right now - BONUS! When I came home I ordered the design packs (and a couple of designs for me, like a SOCK MONKEY!), downloaded them, then unzipped the files & saved them in the right format for my embroidery machine. It would be cool if all embroidery machines used similar platforms, but no - each company is so proprietary that they make the PC vs Mac war look like a backyard squirt-gun fight. I'm not even going to tell you how much the software costs to be able to convert these files to use in my machine - you're just going to have to trust me when I tell you it's embarrassingly obscene. It is pretty nifty software, though, and it also allows me to take any kind of design, from a gif to a jpeg to a hand-drawn picture, and digitize it so my machine can sew it out. I've had it for a couple of years and still haven't learned everything about it. It's the gift that keeps on giving, LOL!
You all know about Murphy's Law, right? I figured I'd test sew one of the designs using my own jacket, just in case....
 |
| Onwards and Dragon-wards! |
and sure enough, right in the middle of the embroidery (you know, the one with 34,795 stitches) the hoop popped apart, the embroidery arm had nothing to move around, the design started sewing a HUGE rats' nest where it was stuck in the fabric, which then resulted in such a buildup of thread that it literally blew out the bobbin case cover & the throat plate before I could stop the machine. Sigh. I was lucky I didn't permanently damage everything. About an hour's worth of clipping stitches and hand-picking out all the thread later....I had a devil of a time getting the jacket hooped up in exactly the same spot so I was sweating bullets when I started up the machine again. Only it wouldn't start. It kept giving me an error message about not having the right size hoop installed. I tried everything, but it kept giving me the same message. Bummer. When all else fails, reboot. And cross your fingers. After rebooting the machine, I reloaded the design, forwarded the stitching to where I thought it first started screwing up, and pressed START - and realized that when the hoop had popped open, the design had started stitching out of the path it was supposed to have taken, and there was no way on God's green earth I was going to get it to line up right. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some. At around the 32,000 stitch mark, I realized I was running out of the embroidery thread. Sigh. I paused the machine again, looked everywhere for a matching thread, found one that was matte instead of shiny (but about the same color), loaded that up (SIGH), pressed START and let it run until it was done.
 |
| The finished Damask Dragon in all its awesomeness! Wonky colors and misplaced stitching notwithstanding. |
Amazingly enough, it looks okay. Not perfect, but okay. And I learned a lot. Only problem is, I know for sure now that I won't have enough thread to do the birthday design, it's 11:30 pm, and I can't get to the store to get more thread until tomorrow morning. Which turns out to be okay anyway, as older son came in about an hour ago and changed his mind about what color he thought she would like for her design anyway. (SIGH.)
And where was the sewing assistant all this time, you are wondering? Dude bailed on me. No wonder I couldn't keep it all under control - he decided to moonlight as a plumbing assistant.
 |
| It may look like he's getting his head sawn off, but I can assure you that wasn't the case. Not intentionally, anyway. |
He is SO fired.
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