I’m pleased to say that I’m almost finished the top I was making. The neckline ruffle has been trimmed and now I like how it looks. I do think I need to move up the shoulder seam a tiny bit. I’m also undecided it I should add a matching ruffle around the sleeves. But thankfully, I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Hooray!
Dehydrating adventures: Habañero and Ghost Peppers
About an hour ago, I placed a tray of freshly harvested habañero peppers into my dehydrator. Much earlier today, I ground up the habañero peppers, that I’d dried yesterday. I made sure I put something around my nose so I would not accidentally inhale the fumes. We should have plenty of hot pepper powder to last us well into 2015. I’ll be using my ground hot pepper in a variety of dishes including soups and other spices.
Sewing Adventures: Shirt making – adding the ruffle
I’m still designing/sewing that shirt and I must say, that’s it taken longer than I expected.
It has nothing to do with it being “hard,” I’ve just changed my direction as I started sewing. For example, since the shirt was so plain, I decided to make a few adjustments. I made it more fitted at the waist and I decided to add
a ruffled neckline
I measured, cut and sewed several yards of fabric. Afterwards I gathered and serged the ends.
The ruffle is the same fabric, I just reversed so the “wrong side” is actually the “right side”. While I like the contrast, the neckline isn’t right and it has everything to do with that ruffle. It’s much too big for my taste and so I’ll remove it from the neckline and make it smaller. This is a easy process to do since the ruffle is not permanently attached; I secured it to the neckline with a basting stitch. I’m actually thinking of adding some embroidery to this shirt also.
What started out as a “simple project” has become a bit more labor intensive and I’m perfectly happy with that. I’ll be sure to post pictures of my progress and me wearing the shirt once it’s complete.
Video: Raccoon stealing cat food
Like a boss…
This is hilarious! It’s cute how the raccoon is washing off the kibble before it eats the food. It also appears that she recently had babies. Check out her nipples. I’m crying over the cats reaction. It appears that the cats don’t know what to think.
A bit of camping…
In a few weeks, my daughter and I will be going on a camping trip. It’s with her Lutheran schools sixth grade class. I decided to come along as a parent volunteer. I’ve heard about this place since my daughter started attending in kindergarten. The students all have wonderful things to say about the experience so naturally my daughter is excited.
I’m excited, but I’m wondering how much sleep I’ll receive? I pray that it’s enough to keep up with the two sixth grade class. In total, it’s about 34 students. Checking the “what to bring list,” the only thing needed is hiking boots. I’ll be sure to purchase those soon, so my daughter has a chance to break them in a bit.
I’m happy to see that there is one bathroom per cabin. While I don’t mind roughing it at all. I don’t want to take my eyes off hormonal middle school girls for too long. 😉
Sewing Adventures: Shirt ; designing, sewing and modifications…
Yesterday afternoon, I started sewing this knit shirt. I worked on it for quite a few hours and still have some things to complete.
In the above picture I hadn’t even started to sew and you’re looking at the wrong side of the fabric. The actual shirt is quite colorful and bright. I just pinned the front and back together.
Of course yesterday afternoon, when I tried on the sewed shirt, I wasn’t pleased with what I’d made. However, the fixes needed are only minor. The original shirt pattern wasn’t fitted at the waist, just straight down. I decided that I did want to a slight fit and so I made the waist more pronounced instead of having the side seams go straight down without a hint of a curve. Also, I decided that it would be nice to add ruffle to the shirts neckline. I’ll use the rolled hem on my serger machine to expose and finish the edges. You usually see a rolled hem on delicate scarves.
Serger Machine
I’ve had my serger machine for well over a year and really like how it closes and finishes the raw seams of some of my garments. I don’t always want a french seam on some of my sewing seams and there are times when a french seam would not look nice either. In those instances, the serger does a wonderful job.
Coverstitch Machine
I must say that the coverstitch machine does a nice job with finished hems, take a look at the above picture. It’s my newest machine. I’ve had it for less than a month, but I’m already wishing I had purchased it much sooner. It does a wonderful job finishing hems on knitted garments. It can also be used on woven items also.