I think it was Sunday that I started to put on YD#10 and found that the elastic had come untied. Tonight, the computer being down, I pulled the elastic out, put it back, and tied it very carefully. There were plenty of gaps in the stitching of the casing.
&& 2025SEW1.HTM — copy to Pictures of Tools
&& [pictures] A frightfully-clever case that I improvised out of a greeting card to protect a needle threader. The two flaps fold in to keep the threader from falling out: roll it up, secure with a paper clip. Every few months I'd find it in the arm of the futon and wonder "what is this?"
Today I was darning a sock at the kitchen table, and had a terrible time re-threading the needle after weaving it into the sock. Don't I have a needle threader in the arm of the futon?" Yes, but I still had a terrible time persuading the short end to enter the loop of the threader. Finally I managed to rake it through with the point of my SuperSnips, being too lazy to get up and fetch a more suitable tool.
A long time after I made this case, my dentist prescribed fuzzy toothpicks. Every hundred days, I get a beautiful little case meant for ten toothpicks and just right for carrying a few needles and pins. All my other threaders were in plastic cases, and now this one is too. But it's not back in the arm of the futon; I put it into the snack bag of darning wool. Perhaps I'll add it to the go bag of hand-sewing tools when the darning is done.
The home-made case will be sent to the land fill as soon as I photograph it.
The computer is still down. Makes me nervous that I don't know how to back up this file.
Began inserting Notepad notes.
4:47 PM 1/13/2025
Well, that was easy. With a half hour to kill I picked up one of two shirts that have been flopping around the sewing room for weeks, intending to withdraw the stretched-out elastic in the neck and install new.
Before cutting a stitch to get the old elastic out and put the new in, I put on magnifying glasses and inspected the stitching. After a bit I came to a place where an end of stout elastic thread was sticking out through a gap. I pulled on it to bring the square knot outside, discovered that the elastic was still springy, untied half the square knot, pulled the elastic tighter by an inch or two, retied the knot, and tried the shirt on. It still slips over my head easily, and my bra no longer shows. Shirt back in closet. I left the ends long, intending to cut them after I've worn the shirt a couple of times.
11:25 AM 1/14/2025
I couldn't find where the elastic had been inserted into the other shirt, so I undid the overlap of the beginning and end of the stitching — and found that there was no elastic inside the binding. I wrapped the coarse elastic thread/fine elastic cord around my head and marked the minimum length with my wash-out marker, then measured the elastic against the neck, cut it one eyeballed inch shorter than the neck, and used up another inch tying the knot. Tried it on, pulls on easily, bra doesn't show, hung it in the closet. Both shirts have stuff in the pockets, so I put both on the worn-since-washed bar.
3:40 PM 1/15/2025 I didn't mend either gap, pending proof that I don't want to change anything.
3:41 PM 1/15/2025
I've been picking at the seam holding the bottom tier of my orange shirt. I've found proof that I'm picking at the correct end, but can't get it to unzip.
6:41 PM 1/19/2025
The bra I'm wearing, yellow linen #3orange, is worn beyond repair. The others can't be far behind — so if I'm ever allowed to sew, it will be making bras, not a summer jersey. I still intend to send for fabric samples.
11:34 AM 1/24/2025
Attempted to find the fabric inventory; Web site still in a mess I'm too frustrated to risk correcting. I was hoping to find out why both ends of the pink linen-cotton are zig-zagged for washing when I have cut strips off it. Appears to have been ironed since it was washed; I wonder whether I should run it through a rinse-and spin before cutting.
Baffled as to how to mark bias lines on it now that I can't borrow four huge tables from the church. And wondering whether Grace trashed the tables; since WLCC was moving into a fully-furnished building, it is not likely that they took the tables with them. But someone said that Habitat for Humanity would haul off stuff before they started trashing things.
I think I'll make today's accomplishment ordering fabric swatches from Dharma. That's been on my to-do list for months.
1:14 PM 1/24/2025
Dharma was out of stock on the three fabrics I was particularly interested in, and no swatches available.
Ah, well, I needed that hat. One of the merely-curious fabrics was also out of stock, but they will send a swatch; that works out.
Folded in half, the pink linen-cotton is three yards and twenty-nine inches. That makes it seven yards and twenty-two inches. It's fifty-seven inches wide — probably fifty-eight before washing.
4:48 PM 1/25/2025
A doctor told Dave to pull on his feet with a belt or towel. The longest belt we have is too short, and too hard to grip, so I found a piece of webbing (didididit didit: I wanted to capitalize "web".) in the shoebox marked webbing that was (pauses to measure) two yards seven and a half inches long, and just now I folded, at each end, a five-and-a-half inch loop and sewed three rows of zig-zag to secure it.
Spent most of the day on a three-hour shopping trip. skipped my nap and feel groggy.
I wrote that bra yellow-linen #2red was beyond repair. Make that beyond *sensible* repair. I balked at making a half dozen pink bras, and Dharma is out of stock on the linen I probably want, and the samples of what they do have won't get here until the day after tomorrow, and if I could start cutting right now, it would be summer before I had new bras, so I'm darning #2.
I'm trying not to put too much work into the mending. Just enough to keep the holes from getting bigger.
Too groggy to darn more, and I can't sleep with the home helper here.
End insertion.
The fabric samples arrived today. The mid-weight hemp looks as though it would do for the bras, and the hemp summercloth might do for the jersey, but of course I have to wash the samples to be sure. The summercloth will do only if it shrinks a bit.
Seems to me that "summercloth" used to be coarser.
I have decided to iron a brakerchief and zig-zag the samples to it before washing. That will keep track of them, and also measure how much they shrink. Pity the linens are out of stock.
I found time today to clear off the ironing board, iron my muslin cap, iron my white collar T-shirt, and press an interfacing patch on a torn pattern and hang it back up. I don't know just where it fell from.
Oops. Forgot to iron a brakerchief while the iron was hot.
No church on account of ice. I plan to take all the patterns off the wall and put them back in order, fileting out those required for the linen jersey.
I have carefully considered the swatches and selected #HWM, Hemp Woven Medium. Essex doesn't wick as vigorously, and Summercloth is an ounce heavier. All of them make round spots like cotton instead of wicking along the threads as linen is supposed to do. Perhaps that is the result of spinning it on cotton machines.
But I'm going to check for linen before sending in the order. Changing the entries from "out of stock" to missing entirely doen't look as though they expected to find more soon.
I checked that I have all the pieces of the woven-jersey pattern and looked around for a good place to lay them out to see how much 53" fabric I need when I remembered:
In the notes for the cotten jersey: "fabric: 42" x 4 yd yellow cotton (25" left over, three and a half feet long on the side where I cut away a front yoke.)"
So four yards of white hemp should be worlds aplenty. And I think I have some pre-made calculations for the bras.
[checks Web page]
Says that I can get up to three bras from a bias strip that is 57" along the selvage.
A bias line that begins at one corner of a piece of fabric would end the width of the fabric from the other corner. 53" + 57" = 110" = two inches more than three yards.
But that calculation assumes that the straps don't interlock, and there will be some fabric left over from the jersey — perhaps conveniently near bias.
Let's check the yellow-linen jersey notes.
They are spread out all through 2019, but I did find this entry:
30 March 2019
[snip]
But I have established that I do, indeed, have worlds of fabric. I think I could get this shirt out of three yards, and I have four.
No mention of buying the fabric. No mention of how wide it was. I got three bras out of the scraps. I think I took notes while making the bras — perhaps even pictures.
Wakeful in the night, I found this entry:
23 May 2018
I hauled down the tulip-print scraps with an eye to making timer pockets for T shirts.
After Dave went through much fuss and feathers to get me a virtual credit-card number, I ordered four yards of Fashion Fabric's yellow linen to make a new summer jersey. It says it's suitable for pants, so I have hope that it's not sheer and flimsy. Dithering about buying it paid off — it's on sale at three dollars off until Memorial Day. A tad over ten dollars a yard, with shipping, and the original price was twelve something. (Sale price nine something.)
end quote
Still no mention of the width — but I probably still have the invoice!
Yep, in the box with the scraps. Together with a note saying that it was 52" x 4 yards 8". That's probably after washing.
It made a jersey and three bras, and a lot of scraps big enough to be worth saving, so five yards of 53" hemp should do me even if it shrinks ten percent. That's 47.7" and the yellow cotton was 42".
I intend to cut all the pieces, put them into a box, and make bras. I'll probably need to concentrate on finishing one bra once I get them all cut out. I'm taking the old ones off and putting them on very, very carefully.
Time to start a file for the project blog, but I'm still trying to piece the Web site together.
57" one end
56 1/2" 'tother end (surprisingly stretchy)
four yards and forty-one inches drawn thread to drawn thread.
Too tired to write tonight. Fabric is in washer, hot with Tide pod. Will wash again, hot with a glug of ammonia, then dryer dry.
58" measured along drawn thread — and it's still wrinkled from washing. This does not compute.
Other end 58 1/2", but I think I pulled a little more.
Four yards and thirty-one inches from drawn thread to drawn thread. This, at least, makes sense.
I got a bit garden-pathed when I found a copy of Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back while looking for linen scraps. There appears to be no black at all in the linen box, but the pant-weight linen box is mostly black, and it's not all coarse.
I think I'll leave cutting the black parts until I've made at least one bra.
Past time to make a diary file for this project. I haven't finished straightening out this file yet.
12:32
It took the whole morning to finish ironing the five yards. (But I did have a delay starting because DH was working on my computer and I couldn't get to the outlet to switch the ceiling outlet from dimmer switch to surge suppressor.)
The fabric is a tad wider than the ironing board, which left me with no place to put the iron. The cord wouldn't reach to a stool placed at the end of the board. I coped by advancing the end opposite the current location of the iron, ironing a spot large enough to set the plywood and iron on, then advancing the rest. This moved all the extra fabric to the former iron location; I folded and unfolded a wide cuff for dampening and ironing.
Like linen, hemp must be not just damp, but downright wet to iron well. When I draped it over the board to air, I found that some of the first bit I ironed wasn't ironed at all. I shall deal with this by starting to cut at the other end. Once the jersey is off the piece, the remainder should be much easier to iron.
Cut the back out and put it in a folder made from a large corrugated cardboard box and put it under the bed. Must take it out before the home helper vacuums tomorrow.
I started a blog, but don't feel smart enough to update it.
The front pattern is a tad higher than the front-yoke pattern and the fabric is just wide enough to cut one of each.
I've been making entries in 066, but it's still a disorganized mess. I drew a second thread from the straightening line I haven't cut along yet because washing made the mark harder to see. I cut a scrap to be the top of my new do-rag. The rectangle I intend to cut the back pocket from was just enough wider than the back pocket to make that reasonable.
066, is still a disorganized mess, but some progress is recorded.
Some sewing today: when dressing this morning I found that the elastic in both of the remaining pairs of yellow briefs had come untied.
I repaired them in the evening. #12 was easy, because I'd been forethoughtful enough to mark the stitches to be taken out by darning a bit of embroidery thread into the wrong side of the hem, and my needle stash inclluded one with yellow thread already in it.
On #11, I had to hunt for the spot with magnifying glasses, and it wasn't easy to find the thread to be taken out, but both are back in the drawer. I used square knots again because weavers knots are bigger, but I pulled and wiggled thoroughly to make sure they were tight.
I secured the thread only by hiding the end inside the zig-zag stitches, and beginning before and ending after the gap.
Is there a word for overcasting when it's not done over an edge? Well, it does hold the edge of the hem flat, so I guess it was overcasting.
All hemp pieces of the jersey are in the folder and under the bed. I cut out the side of the front yoke to be cut from the main body, but only labeled the scrap from which I intend to cut the other side.
I made holes for marking the dots aligning the seam with the front and the dots marking the corners of the pockets. I poked holes with a brass knitting needle, shaved off the turned-up paper, poked again, shaved again, then enlarged the holes by repeating the entire sequence with a #0 knitting needle. Came out just the right size to twist a wash-out pen in.
I shaved by holding the
razor blade Also
took some pictures of the
remaining fabric, showing which way the bias lines
for the bras should slant.
I got two bias lines drawn yesterday. Today
I tried the bra pattern on the bias line nearer
the cut end. Lining the hemlines on the
bias line wastes some fabric, but lining the dart
seamlines doesn't quite fit. I think I
just designate the "wasted" fabric as where I cut
my bias tape.
I may cut the band of the do rag there too; I don't
thing the rag cares which grain its on as long as
it's on one.
Yesterday, I finally sewed the snap of the flannel
nightgown, then ran the nightgown through a
delicate cycle and hoped it would dry before I
wanted to put it on at nine. Turned out
that at nine I was in Lutheran's emergency room
trying to nap in a straight-back chair, and I
don't feel like sewing today.
I can get three bras from one bias strip, and
since I hand wash a bra every other night, three
will suffice, so I think I will put the rest of
the fabric away for future projects. There
will probably be less than a yard on the shorter
side. The edge of the scrap will be on the
true bias, so it will be easy to cut more binding
if the wasted fabric isn't enough.
Long time me no write. There have been
some entries in the bra/jersey blog, but that has
also been neglected — I threaded the sewing
machine yesterday, but didn't find time to say
so. I've realized that I have to grok the
openings for the elastic in the bra bands before
sewing the darts, so that I'll know which side of
the seam allowance to trim. I think I'll
put the openings on the "public" side, as && puts
it, to maximise the linen between the elastic and
my skin.
I spent considerable time yesterday picking at
the very low-priority job of ravelling off the
bottom tier my orange dress to make it into a
slopping-around shirt.
While dressing for a ride, I discovered that my
"fleece lined" tights are indeed two layers, and
there was a hole in the saddle area of the outer
layer. I baseball-stitched the edges of the
hole together in hope that it would keep the hole
from getting bigger.
One end of the hole was a slit, and the mend is
holding that part well. The end closest to
the seam pulled away into a roundish hole, and
will need some buttonhole darning. I could
use a water-soluble darning egg for that
operation!
I've been darning the white socks in my go
bag. Good project for random occupation
— white on white allows merely good light,
complex enough to keep my mind off what I'm
waiting for, but doesn't require any bran
power. One sock is ready to wear, the other
is one needlefull away. (I'm hoping I don't
finish it soon!)
I unvented a couple of tricks while working.
The wool is too fat to go through the eye after
folding it over the needle to make a sharp bight
in the usual way, but if I wet the end of the yarn
and roll it between my fingers for a while, it
usually felts stiff enough to go through
straight. A few times I have resorted to
pulling the thin end of the yarn through with a
loop of sewing thread.
The sewing thread found another use. I like
to weave in the frayed end instead of cutting
after weaving and leaving a blunt end to poke
out. It is difficult to thread a needle
after weaving it into the cloth even when the end
is long enough to take hold of. I've
probably thought of this before, and it's
certainly known to the world at large: I
fold a piece of sewing thread in half, thread it
into the needle, weave it in where I want the yarn
to go, and pull the yarn through with with the
loop.
The loop wants to snag the yarn at its base.
I let it until I've pulled it small enough to
resist the motion of the yarn a little, then put
the needle between the loop and the yarn and
gradually pull the yarn until only the end is
caught, tightening the loop at intervals.
Though this darn is coarser than previous darns,
it was difficult to catch enough fabric when
making a buttonhole stitch. Before sticking
it in, I pushed the needle back against the top of
the stich below the stitch I was working
into. Sometimes I slanted it backward a
little to catch more fabric, which felt like the
way one sweeps a hairpin from backward to the
direction it's to be pushed.
Finally resumed work on the bra. Tried
sewing with the bobbin thread.
Continued at the
Jersey Blog
C:\RUFFTEXT\ROUGH066.HTM/e
A few days ago I started to put on my black
briefs, noted that they were too loose, laid them
on the ironing board, and forgot about them.
The evening I found them on the floor, took them
to the window, found a gap in the stitching of the
casing, pulled on the elastic, the knot prompty
appeared, I cut it out, retied the elastic, and
put the briefs back into the drawer without
mending the gap.
Hmmm.... is that my drawers drawer?
I at least thought about the bra today, but moved
a volunteer fern instead.
I did some sewing on a day when I was too busy to
write about it: I stuck a safety pin into
my garden pants.
I put it where I thought I'd need a bar tack to
keep my cell phone in a too-shallow pocket, and it
works. I'll probably work a woven bar to
replace it sometime today. I have the kakhi
thread out to shorten Dave's new cotton-linen
pants.
4:37 p.m.
Finished Dave's new pants before leaving for eye
exam. Tried them on this evening; I may buy
a pair for me when I wear my current garden pants
out — plenty of room for a cell phone, and
wouldn't need to pin my garden knife to the
pocket. Loose fit means plenty of room in
the hips. I'm not crazy about the
drawstring, but could replace it with elastic.
Still too dilated to work on bra. Could
change the thread on the Necchi back to white.
I was weaving in the end of the last needle of
thread on the socks I'm darning when called to get
my skin examined. I've put them in my
attaché case for today's trip to Dave's
oncologist.
The dime dropped when I was preparing for my
eye exam on Wednesday: I transferred
what I would need for this appointment into
my attaché case and left the
grab-when-there-is-no-time-to-think stuff in the
car.
Oddly, the attaché case is quite heavy, but
the go bag doesn't feel lighter.
A bit of sewing: I'm washing sweat pants to
put them away for the summer, and they have two
tapes to tie below my knees, attached by two brass
safety pins for securing the ankles. I want
to wash the tapes too, but there are no pillow
cases in this load — ah, the house shirt has
a large pocket, and there is a needle with basting
thread on a strip of wool hanging from one of the
spare shelf brackets. Messy knot at the
beginning, a few short stitches at the end, some
well past the hem of the pocket, in the single
layer of the shirt.
It looks as though I might get to put a stitch
into the desperately-needed new bra today.
18:18
Too many Must Be Done Right Nows, and I didn't
even pick the asparagus.
Still light, brief hiatus
One of the hills is done producing, and must be
allowed to grow leaves. Still more than we
can eat.
I forgot the tape in the pocket, and it twists a
bit. I straightened it in the middle by
dragging it over the chair back I dried it on, but
the ends twisted up again.
I did make the buttonholed bar to secure my phone
in the pocket of my linen-cotton garden
pants. There was a threaded needle in the
khaki bag, but when I sat down to use it, I
thought the thread too feeble, and switched to
100/6. There was also a threaded needle in
the 100/6 bobbin box. I hope Thursday's eye
shot makes pre-threaded needles less important!
'Taint the eyes; at one point I could quite
clearly see the thread dodging around the
eye. Finally took my own advice, pinched
the thread between thumb and forefinger with the
end barely showing, and lowered the eye of the
needle over it. Pushing the needle down
between the fingers left the fingers gripping the
thread to pull it on through — no trying to
tweeze a millimeter of thread with my nails.
Found a note reminding me that I'd re-darned my
fuzzy tights on 7 May. On 10 May, I tucked
in an end that had worked loose. No longer
remember the enlightening details, save that
sweeping the needle back and forth obviated the
need for a darning egg between the layers.
This morning, I put a recently-emptied pill
bottle into the non-metal box box, and threw five
push-and-turn bottles into the recycle bin.
It seemed to me that all of my yellow briefs
wanted mending, but when I put briefs into my go
bag to work on in the hospital, I discovered only
one hole and one broken seam. The seam was
worn enough to require skill and patience, but the
hole responded to baseball stitch. I
secured the thread only with small running
stitches before and after, to reduce the odds of
tearing the fabric.
On a previous occasion, I put a freshly washed
slopping-around shirt into my go bag intending
to mend a hole in the pocket, but by mistake
took a shirt that had been on the to-do hook
waiting for me to add a timer pocket to make
it into a sloppiing-around shirt. So I
hand-hemmed the sleeves, when zapping them with
machine zig-zag would have been more
appropriate. On the next excursion, I took
the slopping-around shirt.
I'm out of portable hand sewing.
And there is always some reason that I can't
resume work on my new bra. The one I wore
yesterday has disintegrated; perhaps I'll have to
work on it in the evening, when I'm stupid.
Did some work on the bra Tuesday, and also ironed
a shirt and ironed squares of sleazy-thin woven
interfacing to two patterns that had fallen off
the wall. One hanging hole had torn
through, and the other was thinking about it.
It was very hard to make hanging holes with a
paper punch. I used to have a die that one
hit with a hammer, but spoiled it half a century
ago. I imaagine that they are still being
made — if only I knew what they are called.
I picked the basting and bad stitches out of the
bra during stupid time yesterday, as reported in
the
Jersey Blog.
I hung up the two patterns today, one probably in
the wrong place, and did some work on the bra.
Used my SortKwik to fold the bias facing to the
right side (which was the wrong side) of the
bra. It doesn't work as well as glycerin,
but it's much more convenient.
⁂
I need to nail a pincushion to the wall that's
high enough for very long press cloths.
I'm using my newly-acquired SortQuik to ease the
neck of the bra onto the binding. It
doesn't work as well as glycerine, but it's *much*
more convenient.
Sewing came to a screeching halt on Tuesday, 10
June.
I found a stash of socks that need darning,
started to sort out some that would be good to
work on in a hospital room, then realized that
sorting could also be done while waiting.
They are in a canvas Grossnickle hanging on a hook
in room 3119 of Parkview Warsaw, together, I hope,
with assorted darning tools. I did darn a
small hole in a black crew sock, and wear it
— the pair is now waiting for me to be at
home long enough to wash it.
I believe that I also continued a darn on another
black pair.
Also found that my bra (see ROUGH066,HTM) could be
finished by hand sewing.
Noticed that my garden pants were on the handwork
pile to get some baseball stitch before machine
darning and put them and a spool of brown thread
into the go bag.
I've got one more pair of yellow pants to darn,
and a Grossnickle bag of hand-knit socks.
Feeling tired and fuzzy in the head.
I've been too stupid to sew, but today I mended
broken stitches in the tape holding up my
veil. It got quite wet with sweat
afterward, so I hand washed it as soon as I got
home and hung it on the drying rack.
Sewed a few name tapes on his clothes, but most
days I was too stupid to do even that. Did
get an hour off on Monday for a knitting class,
and helped two people.
He's coming home next Wednesday; no more name-tag
sewing. I left a pair of my underpants with
untied elastic in his bed-table drawer; might get
time to re-tie that. I've been resting as
much as possible so I'd be smart enough to drive
home.
Come Thursday, I can resume work on my new
bras. I hope I remember what I'm doing.
I tore up an old pillowcase and got two sweat
rags, neither of which will last very long.
Note taken Sunday, 22 June 2025: "Anchor
thread in turn-under of name tag".
That keeps nothing but running stitches where it
shows.
Another note: "smaller KwikSort".
The KwikSort final-straws my snack bag of
hand-sewing tools, but I don't think that any
smaller container would be useful to the primary
customers for this product. I have a tin
lip-balm box I could scrape some into, but at the
moment I'm also carrying a sandwich bag of thread,
which has plenty of room for KwikSort.
I usually don't carry the handwork kit, so
stashing one of the two spares in the arm of the
futon would suffice.
About to stick a pin into the pencil pocket of my
jersey so a golf pencil wouldn't slide down too
far, I noticed the remains of a bar tack in that
exact spot, and remembered that there was a
needle threaded with matching thread in my go bag.
Quicky-quick with no thimble, but it's sewing.
Alas, this doesn't mean I rode my bike. I
had a check to deposit and needed a pocket to put
it in. I rode my pedal-powered wheelchair
(Trek Pure), as that was quicker than walking or
driving.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
I moved a box and found the tweezers I dropped a
few weeks ago, and in putting the substitute back
into the spares arm of the futon, I found a better
knife for my car-key chain. Also found a
loose knife and put it into the spare-knives
plastic bag.
Moving the box also revealed three large Milward
sharps, but the part of the card that tells sizes,
type, and number is missing. A coil-less
safety pin suggested that it fell off one of the
strips of wool hanging from a spare shelf bracket
under the thread shelf.
I slept at Parkview Hospital that night, and every
night since. Yesterday I finished darning
the black socks. It was tiring because I
had to hold the work up into the light from the
window to see what I was doing. The light
in my lap was equally bright, but somehow I
couldn't see details.
It worked! I have access to both LETTERS
and PAGESEW.
The pile of bedding fell off the treadle sewing
machine (which I *must* get repaired now that it
almost impossible to get away for outdoor
exercise) and knocked all the day-of-the-week tags
for my bras … not to the floor? One
of the thread drawers was partly open, and had
caught them. So I put the one that hadn't
fallen in there too. Won't need them until
I find time to make two more bras.
4:41 AM 7/28/2025
Middle-of-the-night insight: running
backstitch can be worked as running combination
stitch — and I'm not sure I haven't been
working it that way.
I touched a needle!
I put bar tacks in the toes of five socks so that
I wouldn't confuse them with Dave's socks.
The resistor-code kit was in the pattern trunk
exactly where I looked for it.
While the home helper is washing four of those
socks tomorrow, I hope I find time to remember
what I'm doing with the two bras. Sewing
the darts is next, I think.
And when dressing the following day, I realized
that the toe is the worst possible place to put a
laundry mark on a stocking to be worn with
sandals, and picked two of them out.
Still reading in waiting rooms. A book is
so much easier to put down when I'm called.
At least I'm waiting to be called now, for a
routine appointment, and not staying all night!
All false marks out — and I'll never wash
those socks with Dave's socks anyhow. I put
brown bar tacks inside the knee band of one of my
three pairs of Sunday socks. I started to
mark it at the back of the knee, as always,
realized that the knee band was double, turned to
the inside — and noticed for the first time
that the shoe size is knitted into the band.
Well, one pair is still in the package, so I
haven't been wearing them all that much.
I had hopes of sewing the darts in my bras in the
morning, so I could tuck the ends of the threads
in while waiting for Dave at the dentist tomorrow,
but we are getting a visit from a nurse at nine or
ten. Though this job wouldn't take very
many minutes, I need to be calm and unhurried to
remember what I'm doing.
I intend to replace the folder I'm keeping the
jersey parts in with one made from the box a
wheelchair ramp came in.
Yesterday I flattened the ramp box and put it
under the bed. Today Dave washed the sweat
pants that he'd bought just before his ambulance
ride, and I measured them to be re-hemmed.
Then I familarized myself with what I'd been doing
with the bra. And now it's time to print
out a shopping list and the check-up list for
tomorrow and take a nap.
Today, while waiting for a blood draw, I put
orange bartacks in the unworn stockings. I
think it was at the dentist that I put red marks
in the other pair. I had to thread a needle
for the orange one, which was much more work than
actually making the mark. I slide the
needle between layers for at least half an inch,
come up at the top of the bar tack, pull just
until the end is inside, put the needle in at the
bottom of the bar tack and come up at the top, put
it in at the bottom of the tack a second time,
slide between laykers to the edge of the band,
snip the thread under tension.
I must have done the red one at the skin doctor on
Thursday, as I was surprised that there were no
scissors on my key chain today. (I cut the
thread with nail clippers.) I had my
bicycle key chain, which does have scissors, at
the skin doctor, but carried my car-key chain
today.
Ah, yes, I remember putting the socks with the
insulation over my frozen food when I went to Aldi
after the appointment.
I re-tied the elastic in the knee of my loose bike
knickers today.
I had thought of using the stiffness of the
elastic cord to sneak it toward a place where I
could catch it with a crochet hook. I was
much surprised that there was no opening in the
seam — I had put tweezers and other tools
through the opening in an effort to snag the end
of the elastic on a previous occasion. The
other seam is even more secure.
Eventually I pushed a #8 crochet hook in until the
label tore the seam open. Much fishing
later, I had the elastic out and set it aside to
deal with later. I think that that was
yesterday.
This afternoon I threaded it through a large blunt
needle I keep for use as a bodkin, put the elastic
in, discovered that the opening was one-way.
Pushed the needle all the way past the opening,
lost the elastic while trying to back it through
eye first, pulled it out, started over.
Very, very careful not to lose the end of the
elastic, I tried and tried to back the needle out
of the opening, sometimes going back into the
channel on the other side, sometimes catching on
the seam allowance. I'd have given up, were
it not for the question of how I'd get the needle
out after losing the end.
Eventually the eye of the needle emerged into the
open air and I tied the ends together.
Then the knot refused to go into the casing.
Eventually I managed it by pushing with the eye of
the bodkin needle while pulling on the elastic
with the casing gathered up on it.
After all which, I noticed a hole worn through the
thigh of one leg of the pants. I plan to
wear them tomorrow anyway.
"Tomorrow" postponed. I put them on today,
noticed that the waist and the other knee need to
be tightened, put them away for the winter.
Must make a note on next April's diary that they
need work.
I cleared the ironing board yesterday, but didn't
get at sewing until I was too stupid to iron.
Hasty sewing: the waist of my garish "early
spring" tights was loose, I found the hole where
I'd put the elastic in, used one of DH's hooks to
pull a loop out, cut out an inch that included the
splice, fastened it with a safety pin.
After wearing them, I decided it was still too
loose, used the safety pin as a bodkin to get a
loop out, took it in, couldn't get the tail to
follow the safety pin back into the casing, cut it
off.
The hole is a round hole in the lining of the
casing.
&& asterism &&
My linen-cotton pants felt loose, the elastic was
pinned, so I tried to tighten it without taking
them off, lost one end of the elastic in the
casing, discovered that my favorite bodkin
wouldn't go through the grommet, did the job with
a tapestry needle — after extricating a
pointed needle I'd used by mistake. (Two
queries: what is a pointed needle doing on
my bodkin swatch, and what is the name of the
pointy version of a tapestry needle?
[Looked it up: chenile needle.]
And they are too tight. Dast I try to
loosen them without taking them off? If I
put a safety pin in the shorter end before
removing the pin that holds it … .
Worked, but I had a scare or two.
I think it was Tuesday I decided that one of our
last few pleasant days deserved some porch sitting
and sewed one of the hems on the sweat
pants. My light khaki was the best match
for the gray pants, but it's not a good
match. But you'd have to grovel at Dave's
feet to notice.
Today I resume work on the bras. But it's
already past noon. I did straighten up the
coherent account of how to do it.
Internet is down yet again. May be a while
before I can upload updates.
Awakened early by a false alarm. Sewed most
of the other leg of the sweat pants in the
emergency room. Got some stitching done on
the bra after an early breakfast, then neatend up
the coherent
account some and ate lunch. Sleepy
now.
&#
C:\ED.DIR/E C:\RUFFTEXT\ED.DIR/E
Thursday, 6 March 2025
Friday, 7 March 2025
4 April 2025
Saturday, 12 April 2025
Thursday, 17 April 2025
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Monday, 28 April 2025
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Friday, 2 May 2025
Monday, 5 May 2025
Monday, 12 May 2025
Friday, 23 May 2025
Monday, 26 May 2025
Thursday, 29 May 2025
Sunday, 1 June 2025
Friday, 6 June 2025
Sunday, 8 June 2025
Fridayi, 13 June 2025
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Thursday, 19 June 2025
Thursday, 26 June 2025
Friday, 27 June 2025
Monday, 30 June 2025
Friday, 4 July 2025
Monday, 7 July 2025
Sunday, 27 July 2025
Monday, 28 July 2025
Monday, 4 August 2025
Wednesday, 6 August 2025
Monday, 11 August 2025
Wednesday, 13 August 2025
Friday, 15 August 2025
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Thursday, 28 August 2025
Monday, 1 September 2025
Thursday, 4 September 2025
Friday, 5 September 2025
For raw content see:
http://wlweather.net/Pcw/2023SEW1.HTM sewing diary
http://wlweather.net/Pcw/2023SEW2.HTM sewing diary
http://wlweather.net/Pcw/WEBLOG2.HTM list of changes to site
For *really* raw content see:
http://wlweather.net/Pcw/blogsew.txt
sewbird.htm is missing some links
›
※
Raw Notes
Really-Raw
Notes
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Back to cover page, which has a list of my
other sites