amaranthatierra

As in, dangerously close to completing my project list! Yay!!!

Maybe I'll do the stockings and stuffed tree tomorrow, so we can enjoy them over the next week...

I have the headache from hell at the moment, and I'm not sure whether that comes from a lack of caffeine or from another round of math and pattern drafting today. Wait. Maybe it's from doing a 300 piece puzzle with Emilie today - Hannah Montana. :shudder: That's what I get for letting her pick a puzzle at the dollar store...

The Christmas Project List

( Ze List )

Whoops! Sorry to those who had to scroll through that. Forgot to hide it. Clearly, my mind is wandering today...

Today: took Lizzie to the doctor, drove to Moscow for groceries (Idaho), spent four hours working out a trouser pattern for Emilie from scratch. I have probably four or five patterns I could have used for her Pajamas, but I wanted to practice drafting trousers before I attempt to make a Me-sized pattern. Then, drafted a fitted yoke for Emilie's berry skirt.

Things I learned today: There's an actual equation for figuring out the inseam seams. [1/2 front hip width x .33] + 1/2 front hip width = hip extension.

But, unfortunately, not all of the pesky curved seams have handy dandy equations to make them a mere series of dots on a curve. As Emilie would say... Pants are very easy to sew, but they're "a real macaroni" to draft.

That's right. Macaroni. She's been using the word macaroni in odd contexts, lately. "I don't know, I feel a little macaroni about that." and... "Wow, Mom! That shirt is SO MACARONI!" Anyhow. Seriously. MACARONI! But, I think I did it. And if I can get a decent, base pattern for myself, my trouser fitting issues will be forever solved!

STILL not done sewing the quilt binding, but the time crunch is gone. I decided to drive north with the girls on boxing day so we can see my brother and his wife before they fly home to CA. Which means, there's plenty of time for everything! Well, ten days until Christmas, but the truly time consuming tasks are behind me. Otherwise, well, I wouldn't have spent 4 hours drafting a redundant pattern - I could have finished two sets of pjs in that time. Speaking of which...time to sew some mermaid jammies! I've been itching to use this print for over a year. Heather Ross's fabrics have such a nice hand to them. Yum.

The Christmas Project List

1. Emilie's Christmas dress (December 18th)
2. Paul's polka-dot scarf
3. Sew binding on quilt
4. Sew binding on dollhouse quilts (x2)
5. Curtain panels for dollhouse (X6)
6. Emilie's berry skirt
7. Alter Christmas play costumes
8. Put up Dining Room tree
9. Sew, stuff, stitch closed dollhouse pillows (x4)
10. Sew pillowslips for dollhouse bed pillows (X2)
11. Sew sheets for dh beds (X2)
12. Bottom sheets for dh beds (x2) (This one might be a bit overboard crazy....)
13. Sew armchair cover for dh
14. Sew ottoman cover for dh
15. Christmas Stockings (X4)
16. Stuffed tree
17. Emilie's Mermaid PJs
18. Lizzie's Mermaid PJs
19. Sew my dress
20. Mend Lizzie's strawberry dress (Might be beyond repair this time.)
21. New outfit for Snowy
22. new outfit for Zoe
23. Lizzie's skirt
24. Oven mitts (X6)
25. Possibly finish my fancy coat...? (Not likely)
26. Wrap presents for Giving Tree
27. Wrap bulk of other presents.
28. Deliver packages to Ditzy's
29. Elizabeth's Christmas Dress

Progress! I should finish the quilt by tonight as well...

Still chipping away at the list...

( Doll quilts and I can't remember what else. That's right. A scarf. A Fozzie scarf. )

Tomorrow is a church day, but I'm not going. Too sick. Lizzie's too sick. I'll probably let Lizzie bring a dollhouse into my room, turn the heater on, and write the morning away. Skipped writing today to design Em's dress - I needed my brain charged up for that one. Sometimes, the sewing and the writing work well together. It's easy to work through plot points while stitching the binding onto a quilt, for instance, or while knitting. Certainly, my work is heavily influenced and informed by the things my hands do when I'm not writing. But, you know, MATH. Math and stories do not go well together. When I need to find the slope of a shoulder and the radius of the armhole curve...hells. I'm done with character motivation and inventing a new dance and the history behind it for tomorrow's scene. No, in those moments, my other brain engages, searches for that dusty old equation one uses to determine angles when the triangle's sides are all known variables. And, oh yeah. I remember words like "Equation" and "Variable."

It makes me think, for some reason, about Girl Genius - the Steampunk webcomic (It's really THE thing to love about steampunk). Somehow, Agatha can think both mathematically and creatively, all at once. This is not the same as being mathematically creative. I would love to have that ability. I might draft more patterns that way. If I attempted it now, I'd end up with something as out of proportion as, oh, say...a McCall's pattern...

And, yup. It's 1:00. If I can interpret any of this post in the morning, I just might shock myself.

After talking with E over dinner and the long drive to and from Spokane, I've decided to stop making boy shirts. I'll make them when commissioned, but my heart is really with girlie prints, designs, and themes. So, I'm changing the focus of the store. I'll put out clothing lines designed around my girls and myself. If things don't sell, no problem, because the prototypes will be in our wardrobes and not hanging in my closet, lonely, and unloved.

Also, failure is okay. It hurts a bit, I'll be honest, but Lizzie thinks that something absolutely fantastic has happened. The blue velveteen overalls are her favorite thing in the world, and she's laid claim to half the shirts I brought home from Spokane last week. I'm thinking of turning some of them into shirt-dresses and seeing how that goes over with her. She's particularly enamored with the sock monkey shirt...

The Christmas Project List

1. Emilie's Christmas dress (December 18th)
2. Paul's polka-dot scarf
3. Sew binding on quilt
4. Sew binding on dollhouse quilts (x2)
5. Curtain panels for dollhouse (X12)
6. Emilie's berry skirt
7. Alter Christmas play costumes
8. Put up Dining Room tree
9. Sew, stuff, stitch closed dollhouse pillows (x4)
10. Sew pillowslips for dollhouse bed pillows (X2)
11. Sew sheets for dh beds (X2)
12. Bottom sheets for dh beds (x2) (This one might be a bit overboard crazy....)
13. Sew armchair cover for dh
14. Sew ottoman cover for dh
15. Christmas Stockings (X4)
16. Stuffed tree
17. Emilie's Mermaid PJs
18. Lizzie's Mermaid PJs
19. Sew my dress
20. Mend Lizzie's strawberry dress (Might be beyond repair this time.)
21. New outfit for Snowy
22. new outfit for Zoe
23. Lizzie's skirt
24. Oven mitts (X6)
25. Possibly finish my fancy coat...? (Not likely)
26. Wrap presents for Giving Tree
27. Wrap bulk of other presents.
28. Deliver packages to Ditzy's

That's not too impossible, right? In 15 days? :sobs: Time to prioritize... Top three first for sure.

Note to self: next year, do not let anyone volunteer you for ANYTHING at church. Not a single thing. Also, do not volunteer. Even if you think you aren't handmaking something for Christmas, inevitably, you WILL. Then you will be stressed out.

Then you will wake up one morning, sick, with fifteen days left and two dozen projects still to finish on the normal Christmas list, the one you made when you decided not to make presents for extended family this year, and let us not forget the need to master songs you've never heard and to hem the half dozen costumes needed for Sunday's dress rehearsal of the Christmas play.

Friends, I'm an idiot.

But I did finish a few things before this particular idiocy began:
( Two new favorites.... )