Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

From Tales told in Holland

 



The sun., May 04, 1913, SIXTH SECTION CHILDREN'S SECTION, Image 80

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1913-05-04/ed-1/seq-80/

Tacoma waterfront in fall

Where Minkie sleeps while SweetPea watches

 

Back porch in fall

 

Putting the garden to bed:

Doll Brown, step two

Every thing is cut out and marked, and I've started putting it all together.  Doesn't look like much yet.

Doll Brown

I can't believe I'm starting a new project so soon after Misery.  But then, Sis and I have an agreement that when this ensemble (jacket, skirt and blouse) is finished we are going to try out the new cocktail lounge at Nordstrom.  Now there's an incentive!

So a new jacket, using Marcy Tilton's Vogue 8620, which I made once before.  This time, however, I started by doing a double high round back alteration, something I should have done the first time.

The fabric is a heavy brown cotton with a narrow stripe, which I bought last month at Nancy's.

Striped Misery on Toast -- finished!

And I'm dead with Project Fatigue.  BTW, the stripes in picture look like they don't match.  Well, believe me they do.  And now would not be a good time to cross me.

Striped misery on toast

I'm working on a new blouse using Linda Kubik's wonderful pattern, which I picked up at Expo a couple of years ago.

 

I'm making the short sleeved version, without a collar, and using a striped fabric.  And that's where my miseries began.

 

First, although I was very, very careful laying out the pattern, when I went to sew the shoulder seams the stripes lined up on one shoulder, but not on the other.  Quelle misère!  I wept, I swore, I sat in the back of the closet sulking for hours, until I decided to live with it.  (And I don't want to hear any more helpful suggestions like covering it with epaulettes.  I mean it, both of you!)

 

 

 

So on to the facings.  I very carefully lined up the stripes along the edge so they matched, assuming (foolishly) that they would still match 5/8" of an inch in.  And they didn't.  And it matters, because it will show when the facing folds open at the top.

 

 

At least, unlike the shoulder problem, this could be fixed.  Here's what I did, after ripping the beastly thing out:

 

I pinned the bodice piece to the cutting board, lining the edge up straight, marked 5/8" inches several places, and then chalked a single line across.

 

 

Next, I creased the line with the hera.

 

 

Pressed it flat.

 

Now I was able to see exactly where the stripes were at 5/8" in, and I carefully pin basted it.

 

Next, I machine basted it, just to make sure, and finally I sewed it for real.  And it's perfect!  And I'm a perfect wreck.

 

Absolutely essential tools:  seam gauge, chalk wheel, hera and straight edge.

 

 

Happy Birthday to me!

Actually, it was yesterday.  Sis took me to lunch at the Lobster Shop -- lunch and cocktails!  Yum yum.

View of the bay from the Lobster Shop:

She gave me her puppy purse, which I have been admiring for years:

And some gorgeous, impossible to photograph fabric.  It's copper circles on a blue-gray background.

Thank you, everyone for the birthday wishes!  Except for the crematorium, offering me a birthday deal on cremation.

Finally, here's a completely gratuitous picture of our mother back in the 30s, just because I think it's a cool picture.

Goodby Minkie

Perle, pleasaunte to prynces paye

To clanly clos in golde so clere,

Oute of oryent, I hardyly saye,

Ne proued I neuer her precios pere.

So rounde, so reken in vche araye,

So smal, so smoþe her sydeȝ were,

Quere-so-euer I jugged gemmeȝ gaye,

I sette hyr sengeley in synglere.

Allas! I leste hyr in on erbere;

Þurȝ gresse to grounde hit fro me yot.

I dewyne, fordolked of luf-daungere

Of þat pryuy perle wythouten spot.

 

                             ~from Pearl 

Summer flowers

Minkie thinks I put them here for her.

It's Bee Day again!

They are swarming a month later than in the past, but they are noisier than ever.

 

They are all massing around a hole in the old maple.

Apple blossom time

One of David's newly planted espaliered apple trees has blossoms!  The tree has six kinds of apples on it and the Macintosh and the yellow transparent have put out buds.

Mcintosh

 

Yellow transparent

Tigers!

Here are some tiger pictures David took at Point Defiance Zoo last week.  The solitary tiger is 3 years old.  He was the subject of the daily tiger talk, which means nice hunks of beef.  The other pictures are of the 6 month old cubs playing a game of I'm Going to Rip Your Tail Off.  Be sure to click on the pictures to see them close up.

 

 

 

I only managed to take one good picture that day, of a piece of zoo art I had not seen before.