A Work in Progress Project

I've got another project underway, but unfortunately won't be able to show it to you for another 7 months :)  Here's a sneak peak:

This might explain why my poor Etsy shop looks so pathetic and empty- I'm exhausted!  I can't wait until my energy comes back, I really miss my sewing time.  I just sit and stare at my fabric stacks, hoping to get motivated, but then I get tired and end up watching tv or catch up on blogs instead.  

Oh yeah, those jeans from last week that I made into capris- they were all maternity pants!  I won't be wearing long jeans for very much of this pregnancy and figured making them into capris would be a much better way to get a lot more use out of them :)  

And now I'm going to go take a nap!     

Before/After- Project #20 Jeans to capris using original hem

Ready for pants to capris #2?

Today's jeans are a bootcut, medium/dark even wash with a little bit of fading above the knees, they have a little bit of stretch, and they have a 1" hem.  Here's how they looked before:

I like the 1" hem, so I decided to keep it.  Here's how you do it.

1.  Decide what the finished inseam will be.  See yesterday's post for how to do this.  I'm going to use the same measurement, so mine will be 26".

2.  We want to save that original hem since we will be re-attaching it.  Cut both legs off at 1 1/2".   

I'm a pinner, so I pinned the bottoms closed so the two layers wouldn't shift as I sliced through it.

3.  Using your finished inseam length, subtract 1 1/2".  In my case that would be 26"- 1 1/2"= 24 1/2".

4.  Measure 24 1/2" (use your number, not mine!) from the crotch and cut again.  You won't be using that middle piece, so set aside for another project or toss away.

 

5.  With right sides facing, pin the original hems to the pant legs.  Line up both side seams first, and then stretch the pant leg as you pin.  Since the jeans were bootcut, the original hem is slightly wider than where you'll be attaching which is why you will need to stretch a little bit.

 

6.  Don't forget to use your denim needle!  Go ahead and sew as close to the original hem as possible.  

7.  Inorder to prevent fraying, I like to finish off the raw edges with a stitch that looks like this.  It looks similar to a serged edge, but without using a serger.  In this picture I turned my pants inside out to get a better picture of the seam, but you should sew this seam with the pants right side out as in the picture above.

8.  Press the seam towards the top of the pants (rather than towards the hem) and you're all set to go!  Here's the after:

 

You can hardly tell there's a seam there!

A little bootcut flare action!

Enjoy!

Before/After- Project #19 Jeans to capris with wide leg hem

It's definitely spring here in southern California, and summer is just around the corner.  The weather has been beautiful recently and it's made me want to dig out of the closet my capris and flip flops.  But instead, all I found was long pants, mostly jeans.  Last summer I was still working on my post baby body, so I didn't really buy any new clothes but rather made do with what I had.  So this summer was looking pretty bleak- until I decided to take matter into my own hands!

I confess, I didn't take any before pictures of these jeans.  I completely forgot and didn't really think it would be that interesting to blog about to be honest.  But then I started thinking that a little mini series of turning-pants-into-capris tutorials might be of interest to someone.  So I'll have to fumble my way through this first tutorial and the next one will be better.

This pair of jeans was originally slightly bootcut with a dark and even wash and had a bit of stretch.  The hem was like every other pair of jeans out there.  Here's the After:  

Want to try yourself?  Here we go!

1.  Start out by putting on the jeans and figuring out what finished length you would like them to be.  You could also do this by measuring the inseam of a pair of capris that you already have.  I'll use my measurements as an example:  I want my inseam length to be 26".  

2.    For this style, I wanted a 5" hem, so add 5" to the inseam length.  Now add 1/2" for the hem.  My total is now 26+5+1/2= 31 1/2".

3.  With your pants right side out, cut off the bottom of the legs at 31 1/2" from the crotch.

4.  Turn pants inside out and turn up 1/2" and press.  This is your new hem.

5.  Then turn up 5" and pin.

6.  With your pants still inside out, use a thread that matches your jeans closely (navy or black in my case).  Sew the new hem close to the edge of the fold.

7.  Turn your pants right side out.  Use a topstitching thread (yes, there is such a thing!) that closely matches the original topstitching thread color and follow/sew over the seam you just made.   

8.  Press your new hem flat and try them on and admire your new summer capris!

My Sewing Niche

Warning:  This isn't going to be some dramatic Before/After where you fall off your seats or anything.  Remember, we have a one year old- and it took us how long to do this? 

If you will remember, this is where I had been doing all my sewing previously.  I think my machine had been parked there since pretty much the day I brought it home some 10 months ago.  When I first picked up sewing again last year, all my sewing supplies fit into a shoebox, so the dining table was a perfect spot to work on my bags.

Fast forward a year and I've completely outgrown the dining table.  I upgraded my shoebox to a toolbox but even that didn't last very long and I couldn't close it.  I knew I needed to move somewhere and the only place left in the house was in our spare bedroom/office/storage room, as seen here:

We moved some pieces of furniture around to empty out the space next to our filing cabinet.  Oh yeah, the filing cabinet must stay in that location because our printer/modem/internet is all hooked up along that wall.  And now it looks like this:

I love having a long table to spread things out on while I work.  Now I have a permanent spot for my cutting mat, and lots of drawer storage with room to spare.  And a swivel chair?  I don't know how I have sewed all this time without one!  It is so much easier on the back, I never realized how uncomfortable I was before.  And because I know you want a peak into the drawers, here you go.  The top drawer has all my essential tools that I use most frequently:

The second drawer has my bag hardware:

The third drawer has my packing/shipping/mailing stuff:

And the fourth and fifth drawer are virtually empty, so I even have room to grow.

Remember these frames?  One is in Avery's nursery, and the other I turned into a bulletin board as seen here.  I decided it needed a little facelift, so I bought one yard of linen looking material and covered the cork with it.  Now it looks so much better, and I love tacking up fabric swatches to keep me inspired or to play around with different fabric combinations.  I also love having my rulers hanging where I can find them quickly- so much better than having them buried at the bottom of the pile on the dining table. 

This shelf makes me smile everytime I walk into the room- I love all the "springy" and cheerful colors of the tins, boxes and my clear jar of zippers. 

So there you have it.  Nothing fancy, but it's perfect for me.  I've enjoyed working on a few projects this past week in my new niche.  And we LOVE having our dining table to actually sit at again for meals :)

Oh Happy Day!

I've been wanting to share this post for awhile now, but wanted to be sure I had my facts straight before I posted. 

A little background info for those of you new to my blog:  Two doors down is family with two big dogs.  One of their dogs is pretty aggressive, and he gets out frequently.  When he does get out, he likes to sneak up on people and snap at them- he's even bit the neighbor hard enough to make her have to go to the urgent care.  I am not fond of large, mean dogs, and this dog knows that I am scared of him.  There were a few times that I got home from work and because I parked my car on the street in front of our house, I would have to sit in the car and wait until Franz would get home from work because this dog would camp out on the ground next to my door just waiting for me to get out.

This dog has also come running towards me when I've gone out to get the mail.  This dog has gotten out in the middle of the night and has come into our backyard and started bothering another dog that our yard shares a fence with.  At 4:30am! 

We have been to court over this dog, we've pleaded with the neighbors to secure their fence, and it's like talking to a brick wall.  Their standard excuse has always been, "there's nothing we can do, he'll just find another way out."  Living with this horrible dog two doors down has been something I've just had to accept will not change.  Even with a colicky baby, I was stuck indoors for 4 months because it was not safe for me to take a walk with her in the stroller down our street.

This past week or so, I've noticed these neighbors have been pretty busy in the evenings after they get home from work.  My heart started beating a little faster when is saw their adult son (who is still living at home) loading some furniture into the back of his pick-up.  Not wanting to get my hopes up, I told myself he was probably just moving out finally.  The next day I saw more furniture being moved.  Then finally I saw the most exciting thing being moved- their refrigerator!  It was like the clouds had parted and the sunshine was beaming down with angelic music playing in the background! 

They have moved!!!!  The house now sits empty.  The dogs are gone!  There is no more drunken yelling on Saturdays as they play their stupid video games- all day long!  Seriously I am so excited about this I think I'm going to say some few extra thankful prayers this morning in church :)

Good Riddance mean dog!

Final Chance

Thank you to all of you who commented on my last post regarding the homeless.  Some of your stories blew my mind- a real eye opener, that's for sure.  The nerve of some people! 

I think you all caught on to what I was trying to say, but couldn't find the exact words for.  Taking advantage of someone's generosity by pretending to be homeless is what really gets my blood boiling.  And where does that leave those who truly are homeless and need our help?  If we all assume each homeless person is just faking it, then those truly in need will struggle even more.  It seems to be a neverending cycle.

On another note, my sewing niche is finished!  I am hoping to take some photos this weekend and post about it next week.  It's been nice to be able to sit at the dining table again for meals- and I'm fairly certain my hubby isn't missing the chugga, chugga, chugga of the sewing machine while he's trying to watch The O'Reily Factor!

Some thoughts

This subject is going to be a little different than what I normally blog about, but it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately so I hope you'll stick with me.  I would really like to hear everyone's opinions, whether you agree or not, so please feel free to share.

Now that I've been home for over a year, Avery and I do a lot of outings during the day to keep us busy.  Frequently, these outings include the boring and mundane tasks of grocery shopping, Target runs, Joann's, etc.  The Joann's here in town is like my own little Cheers Bar- they greet Avery and I by name whenever we walk in the door.  We go there a lot.  There is also a Homegoods in the same shopping plaza, so we will often go to both during the same outing.  Anyways, there is a homeless man that sits at the plaza exit stop light with his "homeless, need help" sign.  Across town at the Target, is another homeless man who sits at the main exit with his sign.  He has an old VW van that he parks in the Target parking lot.  Neither of these men look like the typical homeless person- they don't look particularly dirty, they don't wear the same clothes everyday, they have relatively new/nice looking backpacks/knapsacks and they don't show any signs of mental illness.   

Last week I saw the man near the Homegoods get up from his corner and walk to the Carl's Jr. next door.  I watched him take out a HUGE wad of money and peel off a few dollars before he went inside.  After a few minutes, he was back at his corner with his sign.

Both of these men have been at their corners with their signs for at least a year now. 

On the other side of the coin, I have also noticed a lot of new employees at Target and Homegoods in the last year.  But these aren't your typical employees though.  They are elderly. 

And so I started thinking.  And then I started getting angry.  I'm making some huge assumptions, but I'm pretty sure I'm not that far off.  The elderly employees have had to come out of retirement because in this economy, their retirement portfolios have taken a nosedive.  They can't live off of their retirement income anymore.  So they have to go back to work- most of them are older than 75.  Very sad.

How is it that these two homeless men haven't been able to find some kind of job in over a year?  I guess the question really should be, why haven't they found a job?  I've got a few ideas, but the one that keeps jumping out at me is that they are probably making more money each day sitting on a corner for a few hours than they would if they worked at a fast food restaurant, Target, etc.  for an 8 hour shift.  Would they rather live this lazy lifestyle and depend on begging than have to have some kind of accountability when it comes to working a "real" job?  I would love to know how much these two guys have made this past year off of honest working individuals who have "felt sorry" for them and their circumstances. 

Don't get me wrong- I understand that there are some homeless who can't help their situation and I have nothing but compassion for them.  Our church frequently helps the homeless and I'm always willing to donate to help this cause whenever I can.  But it makes me mad to see these two guys sitting on their corners making apparently a "decent" living, while the elderly are not 100 yards away working an 8 hour shift on their feet at Homegoods or Target so they can pay their bills. 

Have any you noticed this type of thing in your towns?  How do you feel about this?  Are my feelings completely off base in this? 

Better late than never

Here are a few pictures of Easter Sunday.  Our church had an Easter egg hunt out on the front lawn for the kids between services.  Avery stopped at the first eggs she came to and then proceeded to sit there the rest of the time and watch everyone else gather up the eggs.  She still had a blast even though she didn't really know what all the excitement was about!

Thank You

Thank you to all of you who commented on my last post regarding mattresses.  I value all your comments and will definitely keep them in mind as we narrow down our search.

After talking with a friend last night who just recently purchased a new bed set, I feel much more informed about the options available these days.  She did a TON of research and I trust her 100%, so her opinion will greatly influence our ultimate choice.

For anyone else who's looking to buy a new mattress, I'll try and summarize what I've learned so far and maybe save you a load of time in the process!

In a nutshell, the four major types of mattresses are:  innerspring/coil, memory foam, latex/rubber, and air.  Since we've had such bad luck with our "new" Serta innerspring, I think we've decided to go a different route and try something new.  We're going to focus on either a memory foam or latex/rubber mattress.  The next part of our decision process will be how green/eco-friendly/organic we want to go. 

Memory foam mattresses are a petroleum based product.  This is not a bad thing, however, some manufacturers do a better job than others when it comes to removing/reducing the toxicity as a result of the petroleum.  Memory foam mattresses are not cheap by any means, but most manufacturers provide a 20 year warranty.

I still need to do some additional research on latex/rubber mattresses.  They are comparable in price to memory foam and most likely will have the same kind of issues to address when it comes to off-gassing/toxicity.   

Another thing to think about are the chemicals used to treat the mattresses to pass flammability ratings.  You'll be breathing in all these chemicals night after night, year after year.  You can't buy a mattress in the US unless it passes strict flammability standards, but the way in which the mattress is treated should be looked at.  I think we'll be looking at a more green option here as well.

The next step for us will be to see these mattresses in person and spend some time lying on them.  The more time the better.  You should go at the end of the day rather than the beginning because you're body will be more likely to notice how comfortable/uncomfortable it is at that time.  Now how long do you think a one year old will enjoy mattress shopping? 

I'll update again when I have more info and we've had a chance to check some of these out in person.  Thanks again and feel free to add anything in your comments that I have left out.   

Chime in please

Well, our new mattress set which we bought about 2 years ago has got to go.  I've been making excuses for why I feel so sore, stiff and achy every morning for too long now.  Franz has even finally admitted that it's not doing its job either.  To save any of you from making the same mistake we did, you might want to stay away from the innerspring mattresses by Serta.  This makes me sad because Serta is supposed to be one of the best out there.  But the springs are sagging in the middle and provide no support for our hips.  At least we didn't pay full retail since I purchased it through my work before I left to stay home with Avery.   

So, where do we begin?  How do you find the right mattress?  There are way too many choices these days- innerspring, sleep number, posturpedic, latex, organic, memory foam, etc, it's maddening!  That's where you can help me.  If you have a relatively new mattress that you absolutely love, please tell me what it is and how long you've had it.

Thanks in advance!