Little Remnants of Wood

DH had some fellow woodworking enthusiasts and newbies over to make a fun project, a perfume or oil holder, turned on the lathe. He ordered some kits ahead of time with the 10K gold fittings, from Craft Supplies USA. I think he cut some pen blanks from cocobolo wood, but one can easily use little remnants of wood leftover from another project, or chunks of acrylic or various other hard substances that can be chucked up and turned on the lathe. Here’s a little gallery of the process:

cocobolo blanks being drilled out

drilling out the blank

cocobolo blanks

sand the drilled blank

turning tools

lathes

tool for burning a groove into the wood for decoration

pressing the turned vial into the fittings

finished project

we had to put a sign out because people kept stopping

Hope this format is understandable! Altogether a fun couple of hours.

Be-Laboring a Long-Sleeved Swimsuit

Almost Labor Day with a semi-remnant project for the beach or pool.

Semi-remnant because although I bought a big length of what they call “fashion fabric” to experiment with, I did snag a remnant for the swim suit lining:

Power mesh remnant from JoAnn’s

Sunburn is not the happy-go-lucky inconvenience it was in our childhoods; now it’s being recognized as a precursor of deadly, disfiguring skin cancer. My dermatologist says that you need to wear sunblock if you’re going from the house to the car in your driveway. Rash guard shirts or other cover-ups are becoming required swimwear, as you can see on several sites: Lands End, Orange Blossom Brand

My DD, who’s endured many punishing sunburns in her lifetime, expressed a desire to have a swim suit with some serious coverage. Not sure if she likes the loud flashy fabric I chose, but this is what I came up with:

long-sleeve swimsuit

At first, I had planned to incorporate a bra into the long-sleeved swimsuit, because (by amazing coincidence) I found just a bra top on sale at the Lands End web site for a cheap deal. Her size is not one you find every day, so I snapped it up.

bargain top

At some point in the project, I decided not to sew the bra into the shirt, in case she didn’t like the fabric, or in case she wanted to wear the swim suit top as just a shirt. For now, if she wants, she can wear it under the shirt and we’ll see if any adjustments to the fit need to be made.

Here’s a <a href=”http://Written_8_27_15%2C_7_36_AM“>breakdown of where the pattern pieces came from. Not sure if that link is going to work; I tried using Penultimate and it’s all different than it used to be 😦 Major learning curve and still didn’t get it to do what it used to do so easily: save a sketch into your photos.

But if the link doesn’t work, I used part of 3 different Jalie patterns for this project; the top and sleeves from a leotard pattern, the midriff from a tankini pattern, and the bottom from a swim suit pattern.

Have a great rest-of-the-summer and save your skin!

Today was a Good Day

For WordPress’s Weekly Photo Challenge, a day in the life…

Early start: cats were on high alert

It was raining but the sun struggled to shine

the air was steamy at the gym

Was the first day of the fall semester

Drove DH to work

Got there in the nick of time

Students like to give him Ganesh items

Tebow is with the Philly Eagles now

TYT for short

Just did a regular gallery rather than the Mesh.

Finishing up the Last Remnants of Summer

What has happened?

I was thinking of summer outfits that might be fun to sew out of remnants, and all of a sudden things changed.

Not the temperature; it’s still hot. Not the weather; we’ve still got rain every afternoon and tropical storms are waxing and waning. But it’s something…

August sky

The sky is a brilliant blue (when it’s not raining, that is). It has a different feeling, more purposeful somehow. As if to say, “live it up, because soon it will be school time again, back to the grind, your Saturdays will be taken up with football, summer is going away…”

A couple of remnant projects went by fast. This set was made with 2-way stretch remnants. The top is a small piece of Frozen fabric. The leggings are solid-color fabric that complements the top. For a three-year old, you just need a fraction of a yard to make a cute little play outfit. This is a worthwhile pattern, as it includes several variations.

Kwik Sew K4011 pattern

Simplicity 1435: child’s tunic and leggings

The leotard is from a pattern I’ve used before. Thought it might go with a pair of red shorts from a while back…

Jalie yoga shorts

We’ve got several pattern makers represented here, so why not look at this Moneta I just finished, by Collette. Although not a remnant, and I didn’t even get a cheap deal on the pattern, it was an easy and worthwhile project.

Collette Moneta

I’ve had the fabric stashed for a few years, from fabric.com — a soft, velvety t-shirt knit. The pattern was easy to follow and has a large size range, so you can make an XS version as well as a 3X size, and all sizes in-between. I wanted to get the paper copy in the mail, but they didn’t have any paper ones around, so I had to download it and print it and tape all the pages together, but it worked out. Having read several blog posts from others who sewed the Moneta (it’s very popular!) I followed their leads and lengthened the bodice a couple of inches. If you buy the Moneta pattern from the web site, you can get an additional pattern with collar variations free.

And so the remnants of summer are getting finished up, out of the way, to make room for the new, the busy, the purposeful…

What’s in your agenda for the end of August 2015?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Closeup

Close up photo of a tiny mushroom growing in a piece of wood

Better late than never! WPC, from this post here, where you might also find more close-ups or contribute one of your own!