I am delighted to announce that Silverfox has joined us here as a Moderator, and the Tech Expert of the Terran Empire LOTGD game, which is in the midst of being set up. We want to add some modules to spice things up before the official opening, but I just wanted to let you know it’s being done, and should be ready to go soon. Though I must caution you things will keep changing as we find good modules, and it morphs into a version based on my Terran Empire universe.
And most of the day it was, too. We went out as soon as the fog lifted — call it about 9 AM — to find a few people out there ahead of us. While Mr. E started unloading the two biplanes he’d brought, I discovered my only bad point of the day (I already knew I couldn’t fly any of my planes, due to lack of batteries): I’d managed to forget my little hand-work pouch, so I had nothing to do.
I’m usually pretty good at amusing myself, though, so I mostly wandered around chatting with the guys, making notes on a new (and extremely well-designed/built) plane stand one of them had made to carry in his VW Beetle. We’re thinking very seriously of building a similar one for ourselves, which the originator was in favor of.
Then came the best thing for me. Dedstikbil asked if I’d been losing weight! Whee! Someone noticed! (I hadn’t mentioned trying, just so I’d know when or if I made enough progress for it to show without previous knowledge.) I think he must’ve mentioned it in the couple of hours we took to chase back to the house, feed the mutts, grab some lunch, and get back in time for the Fun Fly, which sounded like it’d be more interesting than usual; I got a couple of other comments about the weight loss, which didn’t hurt my feelings a bit, as I’m sure you can imagine!
The Fun Fly had the same-named events as usual, but they were done differently. The taxi event had simpler maneuvers, with a catch: the pilot faced away from the plane, and had to give control inputs by what a spotter told him to do. The "carrier landing deck" was half as wide and twice as long as usual — astonishing how many folks seemed to need that other 10 feet of width!
Spot landing was judged on initial touchdown instead of stopping spot, which was harder to spot, so the contest officials called on me and one other person to act as auxiliaries, which was kinda fun, as well as giving me a much better view of the event than usual.
Last was the loop-and-roll … usually that’s three of each, timed from takeoff, but this time, the twist was that the timing started when the contestant was given a cracker to eat, then had to produce a whistle, then do the maneuver. I was told the crackers were awful, as well as dry, but I’d have had a problem anyway: I can’t whistle!
Afterward, when it came time to announce the standings and give the winner his prize, we all got a nice surprise. One of the guys had contributed a bunch of Dremel accessories to the club, and each of the competitors, helpers, and officials got a nice little baggie of them. I don’t use the Dremel, due to severe lack of skill, so Mr. E ended up with my share, but it was still nice. 
With that, it was time to head home again to take the dogs for their promised runs, given the good weather.
For the first time today, since I worked out the number of repeats I’d need on all my T-shirt trim patterns, I got one with the correct number, but too short — as it worked out, by two repeats. Naturally, it was on the very last piece; I believe that’s a law of nature, darn it.
But I’ve almost got it finished (for the third time, but at least this time I left plenty-long ends!), so gods willing, I’ll be able to get it pinned on the shirt yet tonight, and start sewing it on tomorrow. It’s been a long haul getting all 8 shirts done, but at least the end is in sight, and I must say I think the results are worth all the work. I wish I had the knowledge and some place to post pictures; I’d really like to show these off.
Just finished the first tunic, and it came out surprisingly well, as even Mr. E says! Not perfect, but considering my lack of practice and the do-it-yourself pattern, I’m pretty happy with it. I may make the next one open down the front instead of a pullover (may decide to change this one, too), since it’s not stretch material. I really prefer pullovers, but maybe if I use Velcro instead of buttons, I won’t get that embarrassing gape over the breasts when I move.
On other things, we went out to the field, but I couldn’t fly, since all my battery packs are shot. Mr. E got a few flights in, though, and I tatted up a new (well, modified, anyway) bookmark pattern. Other than that, it’s been a rather quiet Sunday, except for dodging 9/11 specials on TV.
Now don’t get me wrong; I’m quite aware of what 9/11 meant, and still means, to the country, and I plan to watch a movie tomorrow that Mr. E taped about a week ago just to stoke my ire back up. But — I have no intention of watching a week or more of retrospectives, specials, politicians, and whatever else the networks and cable channels decide to put on just because it’s the fifth anniversary. I’ve been through that entirely too many times, for various other anniversaries, to go through it if I can find an alternative. Ah, well, I’ll survive another one, I suppose.
As usual on a weekend, it started with a trip to Dover for breakfast with a friend of ours, then yard-sale-ing (is there a really good spelling for that, I wonder) and a trip to Wal-Mart for dog biscuits and fabric for a couple of tunics.
The fabrics I got, with advice from Mr. E, are a small dark-blue-and green, and a dark wine plaid. I’m not normally that fond of plaids, but these should look okay, and it is hard to get flannel in anything else, darn it.
As for the yard sales, Mr. E found several items, though I’m not too sure all of the ones that should work actually do. I didn’t find as much, but I did get a couple of pairs of slacks (medium blue light corduroy, and light blue I’m-not-sure) that actually fit when I got them home. I took the length on them and got them pinned ready to hem, then impatience took over, so I cut out the dark-wine tunic, and have it almost ready for the hand-work part of the job. I haven’t made any garments in a long time — not since Home Ec class, if I recall correctly. Oh, except for a very full cloak I made for my SF costume(s) at assorted conventions. (Basic black is quite versatile, thank heavens!)
Went next door to beg Audrey’s advice and, if she had time, help with the tunic pattern, since I wasn’t too sure about the extra fabric Mr. E had me add on the sides. She said to leave that, on the knowledge that if it’s too big when I make the actual tunic(s), which will drape better than the muslin pattern, I can always whack the excess out. She also suggested an improvement to the neckline (I’d tried it and liked it, but wasn’t sure if anyone else would, so it was nice confirmation).
The most critical thing she did, though, was take the length on it. I don’t have a full-length mirror (usually a good thing!), so while I knew the pattern length was excessive, I had no way of telling where it should go. With her help, I’m now confident the pattern will translate into a decent-looking tunic when I find a nice (warm) fabric.
She also suggested that instead of working from the muslin, I trace it onto freezer paper and use that for the "working" pattern. It was an added step, but I’ve learned to value her advice on a number of subjects, so I went ahead and did it. Now I’m itchin’ for Saturday, when we hit Wal-Mart and I can get some fabric to actually work on the real thing instead of just a pattern.
Much as I liked sweatshirts until I made the first trim for my T-shirts and saw the difference it made, I’m hoping the tunics work out well enough I can replace the sweats. It’s kinda like when we stopped in Milford and I found women’s slacks with pockets, so I don’t have to get men’s slacks just so I can have the pockets I’m no longer willing to do without.
First off, Sable seems to be pretty much recovered — or at least as much as his age will permit. He’s eating his dog biscuits (can’t catch them very well any more, though), and has actually gone out for a run. That by itself seems to have worked wonders for his morale!
Otherwise, I spent most of the day working on my tunic pattern, with critiques from Mr. E, mostly regarding sizing. He’s a lot more concerned about shrinkage than I am, so he wants the pattern to be quite a bit oversized, where I want it closer to a normal fit since almost all fabrics these days are pre-shrunk, and I plan to wash whatever I get before cutting out the tunic in any case. So I guess it’s mostly an annoyance, if a time-consuming one; I think I had to re-do the body about twice, and I’m on version 4 or 5 on the sleeves — though I can’t blame all of that on him.
What happened was that I couldn’t remember how to do set-in sleeves, except that in Home Ec class it’d been absolutely miserable. After my first couple of tries (not counting the one where I asked for his help, which resulted in lots of work and a total mess), I resorted to the Modern Wonder, and found a simple way to do it on the ‘Net. That method worked marvelously well, so I finally got the entire muslin pattern assembled and on. As I thought, it’s pretty oversized, but I keep telling myself it’s easier to cut fabric off than to add it …
Oh, yes, one more thing. Back shortly after I was put on the wound vac, I persuaded Mr. E to let me get a haircut, because the long hair I disliked kept getting caught in the strap. I went to the first "beauty" shop I could find (strike while the iron is hot, y’know), but the results were … um … less than satisfactory. So I let it grow out for a few months, so the next person who tried would have something to work with, and hit the DAFB barber/beauty shop yesterday, since we were up there anyway.
This time, the results were everything I could’ve hoped for, and I’m extremely grateful, as you can probably imagine! I also learned the modern name for what was called a "duck-tail" when I was much younger (and, according to the beautician, was a "duck-ass" for a while, which gave me a bad case of the giggles). These days, it seems, it’s known as a "wedge", a name I shall have to remember! I also think I’m going to see if Mr. E has film for his camera, and get him to take a couple of reference pictures in case the name changes on me again.
On that note, I think I shall call it quits for the evening and go get some supper. Rest well, all!
I’ve been thinking for a few days that I’m so pleased with the way my tatted-trim T-shirts have come out, I want something better than ordinary ol’ sweatshirts for winter — something I can fancy up a little, though maybe not with tatting; given the timing, I’d settle for store-bought trim till I could make something.
And I’ve always liked tunics, so when we went to Wal-Mart today, I looked through a couple of pattern books, and found one I liked a lot. Then I noticed the price! Great good gods, $15.95 for a few pieces of tissue paper that I could only use once or twice? I’m not that much of a spendthrift! Maybe I’ll be able to find one at a yard sale for a quarter, later.
In the meantime, I’m trying to make my own pattern, using an old shirt that fits okay to the waist, and modifying the measurements below that. Plus it’d be nice to have sleeves the right length, and if I get brave, maybe even making the sleeve seams match where my shoulders really are!
I’m not much of a seamstress — at least I wasn’t back when I had to take Home Ec in high school — but I’m hoping some of the skills I picked up from quilting will transfer enough to let me do this.
If any of you out there are familiar with making your own patterns and sewing from them, I’d love to be able to ask you for advice!
We went out to the field today on the chance that Ernesto had blown down the wing from Mr. E’s Senior, and were pleasantly surprised to find that indeed it had! The 4 servos survived, even though he had to replace a couple of wires and dry one of the servos out, plus get rid of a colony of ants that’d already (!) established itself inside. Oh, yeah, he had to empty some water out of it, too.
Even more of a pleasant surprise was that it was in far better shape than he’d expected from what it looked like up in the tree. If it dries un-warped, it’ll be repairable, along with the fuse, so he’ll have gotten the whole plane back and (with a lot of work) flyable again!
I spent a pretty fair amount of time yesterday, and most of today, working on a project for the Senior Center’s fundraising craft sale (for next year, which is fortunate, all things considered!). I did very careful (I thought) calculations, wanting to do a batch of potholders 6 1/2" square, using the square-in-a-square quilting pattern, with a 9-patch scrap block as the center, 45* square — a good way to use up a bunch of my scraps.
Well, ol’ genius here miscalculated the size of the nine-patch blocks by 1/4", which means all the inner blocks I cut and sewed together are unusable for that project and I get to start over. ::sigh:: Oh, well, at least I have over a year to make sure I get it right and make enough to be worthwhile. Sometimes being a fallible human stinks, ĉu ne?
Other than that, it’s been a rather slow and boring day, so I won’t inflict it on the rest of y’all.
Get free blog up and running in minutes with Blogsome
Theme designed by Viewfinder Design
