Some Projects

No, these aren't ones I finished this weekend. The Joy Coat I finished just before the remodeling started, and the other one, the Bryn Walker, I finished last week--I got it started before everything had to be crammed into other rooms and just carried it around with me all week. Right now I'm mending the original Journal Skirt--it's so old that it's more patches than it is original skirt, and every once in a while I have to go in and work on it some more. Since I can't get to any of my stuff (grrrrrr--going into Week 2 here), this is about all I can work on. Grumble, grumble. But it needs it, so~~

The Joy Coat--remember: I have four of these and am shortening them and removing the hoods. This is the second one I've finished:

Again, I cut off the hem and moved it up and held it in place with more hand-stitching. This fabric is easy to stitch through, so it's not a total pain--but I really do hate having to pin it in place: I stick myself over and over and pins fall out wherever I'm working. I have to check the chair cushion when we leave Starbucks lest I leave pins for someone to sit on. Yikes! Two down, two more to go.

Then this Bryn Walker jacket. I got it for 40% off on January 2nd. If I'd gone a day earlier, on New Year's Day, I could have gotten it for 50% off of that. But I didn't, and I wanted it anyway. It's a boring color, but the floss helped a lot. I love the way it feels and moves, so it was worth the 1) extra cost and 2) miles of stitching.

 I added two rows of stitching all the way around. I used some muted-for-me colors of orange, purple, and pink, and I got to entertain my little brain by making the two rows never match. So I alternated the three colors in the first row. Then, on the second row, I started in between two of those. So let's say I started where the first row is orange and will change to purple; on the second row I started with pink and went through the change and ended up halfway through the purple. Then I switched to orange and went through the first-row purple and into the first-row pink. So the colors on the two rows never matched. This is the kind of thing my brain latches onto. The trick is to keep from going exactly halfway--to make it look more random. I have REAL trouble doing random, as you might imagine, and so try to devise projects where I'm forced to give it a go. It is, after all, All About The Brain.

The buttonholes were loose, so it wouldn't stay buttoned. I probably won't *wear* it buttoned, but I hate it when things don't work the way they should, so I tightened up the buttonholes with more stitching. I really like the floss tails on this; they keep it from taking itself too seriously.

OK. Got to go put on some socks and try to warm up my feet. The contractor finally arrived, so now the house is freezing. OK, so it's not actually freezing--it's still over 70--but it feels icy cold to me, just knowing the door's open. Brrrrrrr. I'm such a weather weenie.