Just Sew It

This website has a long list of links to various wonderful sewing rooms that are a must see. Mine is not on there but I believe I have a post somewhere on my blog showing my sewing space. I don’t have a room as of yet. When my 8 year old moves to his room in the basement I’m taking over his room. Right now, his future room is full of clay projects that I’ve taught over the last couple of weeks.

So, if you need inspiration for making your own sewing room, check that link out.

Looky, looky at this blog. My blog made it on this list! I feel so honoured. In my last post I talked about sewing in school remembering the smell of the sewing room and all the sewing machines lined up. It would be fun to be a sewing teacher. May be one day I will be? Right now, I actually am a clay teacher. I teach elementary aged children to hand build projects out of clay only to be fired by me and painted by them. I do a demo on my mini-pottery wheel for their pleasure also. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and patience to do this. Honestly, I’m amazed that I have both as I’m not the most patient person in the world. I think the fact that I’m doing something artsy it takes away the stress and makes it just fun!

Anyways, back to sewing. It’s very nice to have made this list and I hope I can help at least one student in some way.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Having a child involved in any activity means some type of volunteering or hand over $100 in lieu. My daughter dances Ukrainian dancing and this year my offer to help has finally been accepted in the costume department. Nothing intense. Just helping the main lady take measurements, sort costumes, fittings and may…. be some altering. Sitting in the sewing room today brought back many memories from Home Ec class in Grade 8 and in my early 20′s when I took sewing classes through a college. I love the smell of fabric and the numerous sewing machines lined up like ducks in a row waiting for someone to stitch their first stitch.

So, today we measured 12 boys and 14 girls. My job is to match up the proper size and in a few weeks I’ll be sorting and then fitting. The boys costumes will be ordered from the Ukraine where most of the costumes are made.

I have a sewing “area” but no real sewing room to myself. Once my son moves downstairs, his old room becomes my sewing room (I hope). THEN I will be able to create my own oasis with the same smells and comfort of a sewing room.

Our old friend of 19 years old passed today. Our cat named Rocky. My husband hand picked him out 19 years ago at a farm. He was the most active kitten running around like a mad man and my husband knew right away that this kitten was for him. He named him Rocky as Rocky loved to play fight. Over the years he was a wonderful companion seeing Mark through his ups and downs through his adult life. At age ten, I came along and I became a part of Rocky’s life. He graciously accepted me into his life. Along with me was my then three year old daughter. He wasn’t too fond of her but he was polite. Then a short while later our son was born. Living with a toddler was not Rocky’s idea of fun. The next few years were filled with more children as I operated a day home for five years. Poor kitty. He had to hide from little hands trying to pull his tail. After all those children went away, we got a dog. Rocky had to adjust to living with a Cockapoo in his senior years.

Rocky was tough and the most lovable guy. Very intelligent and very particular. He loved soft food and napping on my back when I had my nap. In order to drink milk or water from our own glass, he would dip his paw in and then lick it. I have never seen a cat do this.

I will never forget my black and white friend as he was always their for me and my family. He will be painfully missed. The following is a poem dedicated to Rocky.

Through life’s journey we took a ride,
The times you spent by my side,
You always were there as my best friend,
But we knew one day, there would be an end.
Heavens doors are open, just walk through the gates,
In this Animal Kingdom sunshine awaits,
To a place you can run free, never grow old,
A world full of freedom, rivers of gold.
Towards the rainbow, you can play and run,
Or in the green fields, you relax in the sun,
Under the trees, just rest in the shade,
As this is the place where dreams are made.
No pain or suffering exists in this place,
Only fields of endless happiness, butterflies you chase.
Beyond the hills you lead your friends,
As my broken heart tries to mend.
When I light a candle and whisper your name,
This shall become forever, an endless flame.
When you look down from pet heaven, see tears on my cheek,
Make me strong please my baby, day by day, week by week.
When I look amongst the stars for you,
I can see you shining in heaven, it’s true,
Just wait for me, I’ll see you one day,
But now my friend, just relax or play…

Cutting your fabric is very easy but it must be done properly otherwise your fabric will twist. What I mean is it must be cut “on-grain”. The threads in fabric runs parallel to the selvage and perpendicular to the selvage.

The selvage is the edge of the fabric that runs length wise along the fabric edge.

Selvage

In most cases, you will fold the fabric with selvages meeting together. Ensure you smooth out the wrinkles. Your ends should not match as they have not been squared off. Once your fabric is laying flat with no wrinkles and it does not look twisted, you are ready to square your fabric off.

Lay a quilter’s ruler down. In the photo, you may be able to see that I’ve lined up the bottom edge (the fold) evenly. NEXT, using my rotary cutter or scissors, I will cut along the ruler. Now the fabric is squared.

Now you can cut your pieces as required or if you are using a pattern lay your pattern as per the pattern’s instructions.