Window Seat, Phase 1 Finished

I've officially lost track of how many window seat posts I've subjected y'all too, and I do apologize. This has been kind of a boring summer, sewing-wise.

Things are coming together in the kitchen, though, and we've made decisions regarding the rug, chairs and table (at least we had last night).

And the covering of the window seat foam padding with muslin is complete. The poor "texturized" foam got itself wrapped in some super thin quilt batting that I think I paid $1 for at a yard sale because I felt sorry for the poor woman that had been standing there all alone most of the morning. It was perfect. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but I did not stitch the openings closed. Frankly, it just won't matter, and I'm kind of over it.

The big rectangle metal thing at the top of the picture is the modern, industrial-type light fixture under which the table will be. Once we order it.

And just think... once the fabric is ordered/arrives I get to sew it up all over again.

In the meantime, it's past time for me to finish a dress that I started in May. Seriously, it's not like it's a wadder or an official UFO. I just needed to try it on to check the hem, and it was hot outside, and there were always people in my house, and, and, and...

A New Project

A new project, but not a sewing project. Well, sewing will be involved, but mostly indirectly. Well, not exactly indirectly, but...

OK, that's getting too confusing. I'm starting a new blog. I'm keeping this one going too, but the new one is going to be less "all about sewing" and more "all about me". Yeah, that sounds a bit, oh, what's the word, self-indulgent. But that's the truth.

Let's review. Blog "A" (It's a Sewing Life) will continue to be active, and will continue to awe and amaze you with awesome and amazing sewing projects. Wait. What window seat covers? There will also be more actual sewing with the vintage patterns I'm selling over there on etsy. Gratuitous plug for Etsy shop. I've joined Sew Weekly, and will attempt to connect at least some of the weekly challenges with vintage patterns. I mean, what's the point of having hundreds of amazing (and ok, some less than amazing) vintage patterns if you don't actually use a few before selling them. Exactly.

Blog "B" (Project:Uninvisible) will definitely be more personal in that I'll be exploring ways to change my family role as angst and anxiety ridden "lost child" that I have brought with me from my original family to my current family. It seems that the empty nest has left me a bit more unmoored than is really comfortable, and if I am going to really explore my identity and role presently and going forward, I'm going to have to put it all out there. Warning: I'm going to try really, really, really hard not to censor myself, and I'll be putting some opinions out there that I suspect even my closest friends and family members (immediate family excluded) don't even know about.

So why am I bringing this up here, in this nice family friendly little sewing blog? Well, if I'm going to put myself out there and become truly "visible", then I'm going to need some friends, and I'm inviting y'all to drop by and see what's going on in this little ol' head of mine. Sort of a worldwide group therapy, if you will.

It's definitely a Work in Progress, true of blogs as well as sewing projects and Life! The first post is up, so if you want to follow along, you'll be with me from the start.

How about some art? Well, if you want to see it, you'll have to click on over to the new blog.

1970s Awesomeness?

Wow, where did the week go? So, my window seat still sort of looks like it did on Monday, though I have starting sewing its muslin. In the meantime, I go upstairs and unload boxes into the kitchen, then I go downstairs and work on my Etsy shop. And then sometimes, I just lay on the couch in a state of overwhelm-i-ness. I know this shouldn't be that hard, but it seems to be. Maybe I should decide to host a dinner party over Labor Day and that would give me some sort of motivation to get it all done.

Or not.

Yeah, what does all that have to do with the title of this post? Well. Sometimes I come across patterns for my shop that trigger memories. Sometimes they're patterns I've actually made before, and sometimes they are just patterns for types of clothing that I actually might have worn.

So, back when I was in junior high school (yes, this was what it was called before it was called middle school) in Dallas, Texas, in 9th grade (you didn't go to high school until 10th grade), I was on the drill team. Not the kind of drill team that flipped rifles around, but the kind that danced on the football field during halftime. The drill teams in Texas (maybe other states) in the 60s, 70s and maybe the 80s and 90s were patterned after the Kilgore Rangerettes (clicking on "source" will give you some more info about them).

source

I was in 9th grade in 1974 and there was a drill team for both the junior highs and high schools. My junior high was T.C. Marsh and we were the Matadors. And the drill team was the Cuadrilla. I just did a Spanish-English translation and it means group or gang. Hmmm, what a clever name. For the record, I was on drill team in high school too, but I'll save that story because this is getting kind of wordy, and you are probably wondering about what the heck pattern I could possibly be talking about.

You can buy it here!

Have you ever heard of a hop-in? Views 3 and 4 are sized for wovens, so our moms might have used this pattern, but without the collar, sleeves and pockets, and maybe a modest scoop neck. We voluntarily wore these outfits (without a skirt or shorts) to practice in during our early morning practices. Our colors were gold and white, so we made one side gold and the other white in an awesomely comfortable broadcloth type fabric, a la:

CUTE! Right? So we wore these to practice in before school, and if you were super cool and had long enough hair, you pulled your hair into a ponytail on TOP of your head, and then divided it into 2 or 3 sections and wound those sections around orange juice cans. Anybody? Did anybody else do this? My hair was too short, and I was never one of the super cool, so I had to settle for just wearing my hop-in. (I don't need to explain why we called them hop-ins, do I?)

Since I have already stunned you with the awesomeness, how about a picture of me in my performance uniform? A stunningly hot satin type outfit. Remember, this was in Texas. In September and October.

Oh, and do you see those little pom-poms on the hats? They would get tangled with the hat of the girl sitting next to you, or even worse, when we were marching in a line and got too close. Not pretty.

Doesn't that picture look instagram-y? Nope. Authentic 1970s!

Have a great weekend!

Window Seat, Part 5

Have your dog texturize the foam.

Or not.

Go Big or Go Home

Well, I have been a temporarily MIA blogger, but it hasn't really been that long. There just is so much swirling around in my head lately, that I seemingly have been incapable of putting words together in a line. I'll even let you in on some of the swirliness soon, but in little bits as they come to the surface in a reportable way.

One thing that I CAN share though, is the kitchen! It's done!! And while it was roughly 4 times more expensive than we had originally budgeted, we decided that, well, putting pretty over a crappy kitchen design just did not seem very appealing. So, we "went big". The finishing touches (i.e., kitchen table, chairs, rug) are still at their respective stores, waiting to be found and purchased, but the intrusive, strange people constantly in my house part, is done. And I'm ready to share! Roland has even done a video of stills, and set it to music, and so, sit back... and enjoy...

Window Seat, Part 4

Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh, yes, fabric choice. No choices have been made yet. That's how we roll here. Well, that's not entirely true. We've decided that probably, for the rug under the table, we'll just get a solid color remnant and have it bound. I think Georgia is the carpet capital of the USA and there are lots of places with remnants (or so I assume). We have purchased from one place in particular, so we just need to get our little selves down there. Rug? Well, the rug needs to go with the window seat.

In the meantime, there is work to be done anyway. If you've ever worked with this kind of foam, you know it is very grabby, so putting the covers on can be frustrating at best. To solve that, I'm making a muslin cover for each cushion that will more or less be permanent. The outer decorative cover will have a zipper so that it can be removed for washing. The muslin cover will not. It also won't be all that pretty. But it is easy to make.

I abandoned the newpaper "patterns" and just took each actual cushion to use as a template of sorts. I traced around the perimeter, added a 1/2" seam allowance and cut it out. Oh, doubled of course, since there are 2 sides.

Rinse and repeat, 3 more times for the 3 additional cushions. There are also "sides" which are 4" wide. I added up each perimeter length, and then cut strips that are 5" wide. Well, mostly I ripped, though I did cut random lengths from the scraps produced from cutting out the tops and bottoms. And that's it.

In other kitchen news, I'm still getting the odd (and by odd, I mean random) comment about the single/double sink poll, and I suppose I should let you in on the decision.

We went double. With a low saddle (which is the technical term for the middle divider). That's our actual sink. It's made from sil-granite which is 90% granite dust and 10% some kind of polymer. And that's our actual granite countertop. The faucet, etc has been installed, but I don't have a picture of that yet, because they quickly wrapped it in plastic for protection. We're to the painting stage now, so it won't be long now!!

How Do You Pinterest?

Is Pinterest even a verb? Anyway, I'm curious about your pinterest habits, and have concocted a quick poll about pinterest. No prizes, I'm just curious. I'll tell you how I Pinterest in another post.


Answer all that apply! And feel free to elaborate in the comments.