I know it must get easier....

...because otherwise my mom would charge more to put in zippers for people.


This zipper, the zipper in Darren's coat, is the second one I've ever replaced. (The first was in my coat, a couple weeks back.) Yup, I know it doesn't match, but it was what I had, and given the ice storm we got this weekend, I figured a functional zipper was more important than a matching zipper.



Honestly, it wasn't the sewing in that was a pain, it was figuring out how to take the darn thing out. Each side had 3 seams that needed to be undone. On the left side (in the picture), there's a placket behind the zipper. That had to first be sewn to the zipper before the zipper could be sewn in the coat. On the other side, there's the velcro placket. While that didn't necessarily need to be taken off, it made it a whole lot easier to get the zipper in. So on that size, I had to first sew in the zipper, then sew the velcro placket back on. It was a bit of a pain, but still much cheaper than buying a new coat.



Also this weekend I finished Sock #1 for a sock swap I'm participating in on Ravelry:


(It's from the book Knitting Vintage Socks. But don't ask me which pattern right now.)

It's not really that color at all, though it does show up as a pretty color. It's more greenish than that. (Not that it matters a whole lot.) I am a little concerned, though, about the sizing. My secret pal said that her foot, a size 11, is 10.25" long. Thus, when the pattern said to knit until it was 2.25" shorter than the desired length, I knit it 8", then started the toe. Unfortunately, I ended up with a sock that fits my size 8/9 foot. Sigh. So I emailed her (from my secret email address) and asked her to measure one of her socks from heel to toe and let me know how long it is. I fear I'm going to end up having to frog the toe.

Lunch today (for those of you who care), was Egg Noodles with Alfredo Sauce (from Tammy, so ya know it's good! oh, and it freezes well) and roasted squash. It was yummy (of course).

I'm thinking I'm going to participate in the Biblical Womanhood Making Your Home a Haven Challenge (two separate links, by the way). I do still live with my parents (that's to change, soon, hopefully!), but I still think I can benefit from the challenge. I'll be a bit behind, since it was supposed to start this morning (and it's now nearly 3:30), but I should be able to get caught up on most of it tonight. One of today's challenges is to create a morning routine of five items and post it. I'll try to get that done in a bit.

Oh, and we got our first snowfall here this weekend! (Sadly, it came with a great deal of ice, as well, but I'll take it where I can get it!)

Zippers

It's not going quickly, but it's a start. I've gotten the zipper sewn in as far as the needle, so about 4 inches or so. Only 10 to go! (Yeah, that was supposed to be laden with sarcasm.) It's not fun, but it's not difficult. Just tedius.

Hopefully I'll have a completely finished product the next time I post!

When I started this blog, I foolishly thought I'd have all the time in the world to post--ha! Here's what happend LAST week...

I made Chinese Orange Chicken. Even with a few modifications, it came out delicious. (Even my dad, and Ryan, enjoyed it!) I'll confess, when I first started making the sauce, I had my doubts. This is what I saw in my saucepan:

You've gotta admit: it looks a bit, well, strange at the very least. (The lumps floating in there are cubes of frozen lemon juice.) Fortunately, the appearance improved greatly as everything combined. Here's what I did differently:

1. I don't have rice vinegar; I just used regular old white vinegar.
2. I had no ginger; I just skipped it.
3. I had no green onions, and was too lazy to chop up some ordinary onions, so I just tossed in some dehydrated onions.
4. I had no red pepper flakes. I considered sprinkling in some paprika, but forgot to, so this ingredient was ultimately omitted all together.
5. Also, when it came time to thicken the sauce, I used a lot more cornstartch/water than what it called for. I didn't keep track, but it was at least 3 times more.

I'll admit, I was a little nervous making so many changes the first time I made a recipe. (The vinegar had me especially concerned, since there was so much of it.) I'm pleased to report, though, that it was delicious anyway. (Though I did buy some ginger to use next time around.)

I started the made the sauce and had the chicken marinating early in the morning, so while Darren was taking what turned out to be a 2 hour nap (!), I traced and made another pair of jeans for him. As you can see, I'm much more pleased with these:

(Let me just also mention how hard it is to get a picture of your very active 9 month old.) The main thing that makes these so much better is the denim I used. MUCH softer than the last pair. Of course, there's still room for improvement:

Mistake #1: The first pair I made was XL, and were WAY too big. The L didn't look much smaller, so I went down to a M. Not a good idea. These fit, but not for long. It's a struggle to get 'em over his tush.
Mistake #2: The pattern says to add 2". The first pair I added 4" (I allow for future growth), and it was just too much. I had a really hard time getting the hem to lay flat, with no puckers. So this pair I followed the pattern and added only 2". I really should have added 3".

So....third time's a charm, right?

And in randomness, can I just say how excited I am to have finally been invited to Ravelry? It's essentially an online database for your knitting: patterns, yarn, WIPs, items in queue, etc... but it's also so much more than that (as I'm just finding out). There are groups, forums, and more. My goal is to first get all my WIPs entered, then my needles. A lofty goal would to someday have all my yarn entered, but I have doubts that that will ever happen. If you're knitter, I strongly encourage you to sign up. There is a waiting list, but it's so worth it. My wait really wasn't that long. There were several thousand ahead of me in line, so I really expected it would be months before I got my invite. It was 6 weeks, tops. And well worth it.

Sewing

In some ways, I love the "title" feature, and in other ways, I just find it a burden. I feel obligated to come up with something catchy. And while I generally think of myself as a witty person, apparently when it comes to titles, I am not. Sigh.

Anyway, the subject of today's post is accurate, if boring. I finally got to sew, for the first time in ages. (And I mean, really sew, by the way. I've hemmed a few things in the last couple months, but that doesn't count as far as I'm concerned.) Ryan watched Darren this morning so I could get some things done at home. Of course, I left my camera in the diaper bag at Ryan's, so you'll have to take my word for it.

First, I blended up some baby food for Darren. Nothing fancy, just carrots, peas, green beans, oranges, and pears. Unfortunately, the oranges came out far soup-ier than I intended. Those will almost certainly be getting mixed with cereal!

Then, the fun started--I sewed a pair of pants for Darren. Actually, it was only mostly fun. The denim I used was SO stiff. I'm not exaggerating when I say the pants can stand alone. They will definately be getting washed before they are worn. I had one heck of a time cutting out the fabric (good thing I didn't try to cut out two pairs at once, as I had originally planned!), then, when I sewed the crotch seam, I really had to struggle to get the fabric arranged in a sewable way. That was nothing, though, compared to the time I had trying to thread the elastic thru the casing. The fabric did not want to gather. And after I did get the elastic in, I had a very difficult time spreading the gathers evenly.

Overall, I loved this pattern (if not the fabric). I haven't tied them on Darren, yet, but they look like they'll fit. Assuming they fit, I do still plan on doing a couple things differently:
1.) I'll add on to the top of the pattern and allow for a larger waistband casing. The pattern allows for a 5/8" casing, and 3/8" elastic, which, frankly, looks a bit silly. It also does not allow for the raw edge to be folded under in the casing; I just have to hope my zig-zagging is an effective fray deterent. I'd like to allow enough to roll under the raw edge and for 1" elastic.
2.) I don't think I'm going to have quite so much hem. I added on 4" to allow for growth. This made it problematic to get the hem to lay without puckers (this is hard to explain; I'll try to take a picture of it tomorrow). Since what was done was done (though why I didn't just cut off some of the hem is beyond me; clearly that didn't cross my mind), I just made sure the pucker on each leg was at the inside seam. It's barely noticeable, even to me, but it is there.

I also loved the immediate gratification of sewing baby clothes. From start to finish, even with the difficult fabric I was done in only little more than an hour.

Sorry for the lack of pictures (I hate blogs without pictures, so I really am a bit disappointed in myself!), but I'll attempt to make up for it tomorrow!

Baby Clothes

Or maybe this would be better titled: "In which I find I'm too cheap to buy (new) baby clothes."

Darren has a ton of baby clothes, very few of which I've bought new (those I have bought new were almost exclusively on sale). Most of his clothes have either been given to me, sold to me by a coworker very cheap (50 cents/item), bought at rummage sale, or bought at Goodwill. Yesterday, though, in trying to find something for him to wear, I discovered that he has very few pants. No problem, I thought, I'll run to Kmart and pick up a couple of pairs.

Apparently, I had no idea what baby clothes really costs! I bought three pairs. The pair you see above is the only pair I'm keeping. They were $4.99, which is what I expected to pay. The two other pairs are going back today. While they were on sale, for $7.49, they are normally $10.99/pair! I cannot be alone in thinking it's ridculous to spend $10+ on something he's going to wear two months. (The fact that I am currently pregnant and plan to have many more children is irrelevant, as far as I am concerned.)

I was content (though far from thrilled) with the $7.49 price, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how stupid I was being. Here I am, a girl with more sewing machines than I can shake a stick at (5, at last count). Here I am, a girl with more fabric than I know what to do with--and a good chunk of that fabric is denim! Here I am, a girl dozens of children's sewing patterns that I have yet to touch!

So today I dug out my trusty Kwik Sew's Sewing for Baby and traced out master pattern 16--a very basic pair of elastic waist pants. I'd love to say that I got 3 pairs sewed up today, but alas, tracing is as far as I got. The pattern is a very simple one, though, (as I knew it would be), and I hope to get at least one pair, if not two, sewn tomorrow.

What I like best about sewing my own is knowing that I can put an extra-long hem on them. (The pattern calls for 2"; I plan on doing 4".) Since my boy is already tall and seems to be growing far faster length-wise than width-wise (which is a good thing, I suppose!), this seems like a very practical plan.

In totally unrelated news, I recently discovered the world of "mommy" podcasts. I newly subscribed to a couple this morning, and while I haven't had time to listen to them, yet, I'm looking forward to hearing them on my many trips in the car.

In school, I was always lousy at writing conclusions to my papers. It looks like I'm still bad at writing conclusions. Some things never change.

Garage Sales

As a lover of all things old-fashioned, I'm especially enamoured of old patterns. A couple months ago, I hit a great bargain at a rummage sale: two large boxes of vintage patterns (some from the 30s!) for $5. I didn't think I could top that. Until this weekend. Click to see what I found.

(As well as a couple of pictures of a dress I sewed. I would have posted the pics on here, but I was too lazy to upload them again.)

And what do you suppose that bounty cost me? The worldly sum of: FREE!

I did buy a few other things there as well: some scraps of fabric that should work well for a baby quilt, some baby yarn (that I definately do not need!), and 3 sewing books. My grand total? $1. The yarn was the most expensive, at 50 cents. I sure broke the bank there, let me tell ya.

I'm sad to see rummage sale season winding down, but thrilled with some of the bargains I'm finding. I suspect poor Darren doesn't even know what it's like to wear new clothes .

I hope to get some baking (chocolate cake and bread) and cooking (fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy) done tomorrow, so I should have some delectable pics for ya then.