Take the Plastic Bag Pledge

Image by zen♫♪ on Flickr

I've taken the pledge. Won't you?

From Conservation International:

Save Sea Turtles from Extinction - Take the Plastic Bag Pledge

Each year, thousands of sea turtles choke on plastic bags after mistaking them for jellyfish, a favorite food.

Leatherback turtles have been around for 100 million years, but if changes are not made for these turtles, they could be wiped out from the Pacific Ocean in just ten more years.

Did you know that between 4 trillion and 5 trillion plastic bags are used each year globally, and each one can take between 500 to 1,000 years to decompose?

Other sea creatures like sea lions and dolphins have also been found with their stomachs filled with plastic bags!

By reducing plastic bag use and recycling or reusing plastic bags, everyone can help these ancient creatures.

Venturing Forth in Tank-Top Land

Much thanks for your input, ladies!

I am thoroughly intrigued by Mindy's suggestion of making a duct tape dress form. That would be awesome! I might have to give that some serious thought. (Unless, of course, Santa wants to bring me a dress form for Christmas. Ahem.)

My mom had suggested basting the top together to make sure it fit before actually sewing in all the seams. But when I started reading the pattern instructions, there is all sorts of facing and armhole stuff that has to be done before the major pieces get put together, so that didn't really seem practical. Because it would all have to get torn out, no matter whether it fit or not.

So in the end, I took Eilis' suggestion of pinning all the pieces together. I wasn't looking forward to this because there were four sets of three pleats each that I would need to pin in place in order to get the four major pieces of the shirt to fit together properly.

Have a mentioned patience is not a virtue of mine?

Anyway, I sucked it up and took one for the team (Team Make Your Own Clothes?) and pinned the darn thing together. Then I oh-so-gingerly slipped it over my head.

And did I mention there were 12 pleats pinned in place? And four pieces pinned together? And lo there was much jabbing of boobs and armpits.

I know, whine, whine, whine. But I knew there would be much bitching (on my part) if I finished the whole thing and then discovered that it didn't fit.

So I didn't get it to lay exactly flat, on account of the fact that so many pins at the empire waist seam got stuck in my bra that I eventually gave up.

But the point is, it fit relatively well. Crose enough, as Labatt Blue says. I think that once it is done it will fit, but I think I'd still like to give it a little leeway. I think I'm going to convert all the 5/8" seams to 1/2" seams. It seems like that ought to work well as long as I do the conversion across the board. Has anyone ever tried this trick before?

So here is the top pinned together:



Here is the pattern. The one I'm doing is the hip-length pink one in the bottom left corner.



Now the other risk here? It's quite possible this shirt might make me look pregnant when I'm done. I'm hoping that the softer cotton fabric I have (as compared to what the model's wearing in the photo) will be a little more floaty and soft. Because if it's not, I might need to find a pregnant lady and make a gift of a blue tank top. 'Cause we can't be having any of that over here.

The Pattern Sizing Dilemma

Last spring, with a lovely gift card from my boyfriend, I took a sewing class at the then-local Joann's with the intention of honing my sewing-with-a-pattern skills. It worked well and, with a little extra practice, I'm far more confident now in my pattern usage abilities.

I chose to take a pattern I already owned to the class and make a simple drawstring waist skirt. (Simplicity 7229, as seen at right.) No big deal, right? Well in class we measured ourselves and, according to the pattern package, I needed to make the skirt in a size 16. Now, I'm not one to get myself worked up over a size number—even though this size was twice my regular size. Whatever. I made the skirt in a size 16.

I got about 75% of the way done with it in the class. I stopped there because it was at that point that I realized that the skirt was WAY too big. So I got irritated and put the skirt away. For over a year.





Well, Friday night I decided to dig it out and salvage it. As you can see in the photos above, the skirt was about 3 inches too big all the way around, and was a bit long (though it is unhemmed in those pics).

So I ripped out the seams, took it in 3 inches all the way around, and hemmed it up 1 1/4 inches (5/8 inch, folded over twice). It was easier than I'd anticipated and came out pretty good.





I even happened to have a shirt that matched it perfectly. Keep in mind I made this skirt over a year ago. But I found this shirt on the clearance rack at Target just a month or so ago for about $4. Gotta love that.



So, here's the real dilemma. I then got ambitious and decided to pull out a pattern and some fabric I've had sitting around a while and I started to get to work. But again, I looked at the back of the package and determined that I was a 16 according to Simplicity. Whatever. So I prepared to cut out the pattern pieces for a cute empire-waisted tank top and, lo and behold, when I bought the pattern I didn't realize how crazy the sizing was and I bought a 6-8-10-12 figuring I'd be well within that range. Yikes. BUT apparently the size 16 is not all that accurate anyway, given my experience with the skirt.

So what's a girl to do?

I even figured maybe I'd ditch that project for the night and instead get to work on some Butterick gaucho pants. SAME PROBLEM! Package says I'm a size 16. BUT... will a size 16 come out too big?

After talking with Mom, she suggested I take a similarly cut garment, lay it over the pattern pieces and see if one of the size I have will fit. It looks like perhaps the size 12 will be close. I cut out the pieces for the tank top on Saturday, so... we shall see. Wish me luck.

HSBC's irresponsible TV commercial

If you care about the way domestic pets are treated and about your native wildlife, then most likely, you agree with the email below, which I just wrote and sent to HSCB's media relations office (and I also sent something similar to the Humane Society).

If you feel so moved, please copy and paste this letter and send to pressoffice@hsbc.com.

---

Dear HSBC PR/media personnel,

I was horrified to see your TV commercial today, which I saw aired twice during the Buffalo/Denver football game on national network TV. The commercial portrayed a family moving internationally and how HSBC helped them to settle their finances during the move.

However, when showing the family moving, you showed the dad dumping a pet snake out of an aquarium into the yard, while sad-faced kids watched from inside the house.

This is an incredibly irresponsible message to send. In no way should a pet-owner dump a pet into the wild to fend for itself. Not only is it a danger to the pet itself, but in a potential predator species of snake, it could pose a threat to native wildlife as well.

Please change this ad to remove this cruel and irresponsible act of pet-dumping. You are sending the message to millions of Americans that neither domesticated animals nor native wildlife deserve our care, protection, and respect.

Not to mention the fact that in the wake of the Michael Vick scandal, the fact that this ad aired during an NFL football game just adds insult to injury for animal-lovers.

Please reconsider this ad and the message that it sends. Thank you.

Sincerely,
___________

A Burst of Scrapbooking

As I mentioned the other day, last weekend I was coveting my sister's scrapbooking goods and the gorgeous pages she had made. So as soon as I got out of work Tuesday, I went straight to Michael's, picked up a few new things, and spent two evenings making some new pages.

Here are the fruits of my labor. All of these pages go in the album about my nephew.

This page was half-done, and I wasn't happy with it. I finished it, it's still not my favorite, but it'll do.

I made this page brand-new, to go opposite the one above.

Here's a before and after. The original pages were marred by some ugly attempted paint-stamping I did. Then I gave up. But with my burst of inspiration, I managed to salvage them. Ya think?

Before
After
And finally, a brand new spread in which I attempted the new technique of using ribbon. Fun!


PS—Congratulations to my oldest friend in the world, Matt, who is getting married today this week. We met in kindergarten class back in 1983. He's marrying a wonderful girl, and I couldn't be happier for him!!

Boats, sewing & scrapbooking: My Labor Day weekend

I spent my Labor Day Weekend running around like a mad-woman, visiting friends and family and generally having a fantastic time.

My mom has intrepidly agreed to alter my bridesmaid dress for Eilis & Ted's wedding. It only needs to be hemmed up about two inches, but it's a rather tricky hemline, with tissue taffeta, two lining layers, and two layers of tulle involved. So, wish her luck! She pinned it up on Saturday and plans to get it done in the next week or two.

I had made my nephew some pants for his birthday last month, but he has stubby little legs, so I came back home with the pants and instructions to hem them about 2 inches.

Also, while at my sister's house I was introduced to her scrapbooking cult club obsession, and now I want in, too! Did someone say Kool-aid? Anyway, I was inspired and came straight home and made some new pages, which I'll share later in the week.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from our lovely boat ride on Sunday. I spotted a couple of kingfishers on the river, I think, and an awesome blue jay.

With a mouthful of cookie
(him, not me)


Dance, dance, wherever you may be