Sewing Still Life, Series 2

Freshly mended jeans belonging to Hubster. One pair had begun the day sporting a single patch and by breakfast's end, had 3 new ones. We never seem to find time to head to the thrift store together so these will have to do a while longer. With spring around the corner, these will be his around the yard and tinkering with cars jeans. Stains won't hurt them in the least.

Happy now, Lynn? LOL.

And Emily, who gets queasy at the thought of buttonholes, really they aren't any worse than kitchenering a sock once you learn how. The first buttonholes I ever made were done on Kenmore machine that had a special attachment with templates for the buttonholes in darn near every shape and size one could dream of. It made beautiful buttonholes and is honestly the mark for all machines I've owned since when it comes to buttonholes. The worst part of buttonholes for me is getting them all lined up exactly the same on the button band. Athena and I haven't quite come to an understanding about that. Largely my fault for not paying enough attention while sewing and not doing them more often. As long as they aren't cut in the middle yet, a seam ripper, good light and time will correct the errors. Learning to put in zippers was much harder for me but that too just takes practice.

No, the shirt is not done yet. In fact, it is exactly how it was the last time: awaiting sleeves, a collar and neckband along with the buttons and buttonholes. I had intentions of working on it this morning but then the family started moving about, making noises about breakfast and whining about school so my attention was diverted. Maybe tomorrow. There are many things I want to sew, spring clothes for E, some dress-up play clothes for a pair of princesses I know (Hi, Princess G!), new curtains for the bathroom. There is mending to be done yet but it's kept this long so more time in the basket won't hurt it at all.

Knitting is slow going right now. I have startitis, like many other knitters right now. As if 7 projects on needles were not enough, the urge is overwhelming. This multiple WIPs at once is a relatively new thing for me. Used to be when it came to knitting, I was a one project gal all the way. Even when it seemingly never-ending like the sweater I knit my kid sister in jr high or high school. I drug that thing everywhere with me to knit: the bus, school, choir practice, anywhere in the car. I swear it still took me most of the winter to finish. She wore it for years, then we passed it back and forth for a few more years until we were all sick to death of the pale blue, boxy thing. The temptation now is seeing what so many other uber talented knitters are doing, the yarns they choose and the changes they make to the patterns. Often I knit things because I cannot picture how the directions work out to form xxx or because I want to try something new. You bloggers are feeding my sickness here. As long as I can fight the temptation to buy yarn, it will be ok.