After School Classes Back in Session

     Fall is here.  The leaves have started changing colors and the nights are cooler.  That means after school classes are back in session.

     On Monday I have Julia, Bella, Meghan and Katie.  Julia is working on a square neck blouse.  She started it last spring.  She has chosen a knit mesh for the fabric and is having some difficulty with pinning and sewing.  We have had to do a lot of 'unsewing' but it is coming along.  Bella just started and has mastered the machine and is now working on her sewing bag.  She chose a turquoise print from my fabric to make her bag.

    Meghan is working on a Kwik Sew pattern skirt that has in-seam pockets.  She chose a silky dark red abstract print.  So far the fabric has not been too much trouble for her.  Katie is making the ruffle skirt.  The main body is black and the ruffle is 3 dimensional roses on netting.  The machine has not liked the solid black fabric, she has been having problems with breaking thread and skipped stitches.  I am going to try a different needle next week to see if that helps.  The machine had just been serviced over the summer and works fine with everything else.

     On Wednesday I have Izzy, Ellen and Greta.  They are all making the back slit denim skirt.  Ellen started hers in the spring so she is almost done.  I will post a photo of all three wearing their skirts as soon as they finish.  Speaking of the skirt, Meghan had hers on on Monday.  She had worn it to school with gray leggings and it looked really cute.  I am happy to see that the girls are proudly wearing the things they have made.

     Well the marathon is now less than two weeks away.  My training has gone pretty good but I am still scared about the distance.  This morning I had a 7 mile run.  It was dark and quite chilly, so different from the runs this summer.

      The tomatoes are slowing down, just picked a handful yesterday.  I need to make some more sauce for the freezer.  The family is coming on Sunday and we are having spaghetti with homemade sauce.  Our son, JJ is hopefully coming in also.  My daughter, daughter-in-law and I are going to be putting together 10 freezer meals that will go in the crockpot.  This will be very helpful for my daughter who is on bedrest with her pregnancy and for my daughter-in-law that works in the city.  Makes having healthy meals so much easier.

Tomatoes Everywhere

     These are the first two tomatoes we got out of our garden.  I was so excited to pick and eat them.  Now we are overrun with tomatoes.

     This is what I picked yesterday.  During the hot dry days of summer I was at our two garden plots watering every other day.  The plants all grew like crazy and now I can't keep up with the picking.  I have been giving away bags of peppers and tomatoes.  I have six plum tomato plants and six large tomato plants.  I also have about six jalapeno pepper plants and 4 bell pepper plants.  

     The zucchini and green beans are done for the season and the cucumbers are almost done.  The celery and carrots are ready too.

     So what to do with all the tomatoes?  I have made three batches of crockpot tomato sauce.  The first was a traditional one with onions, garlic, green pepper and tomatoes.  We had it with ground beef one day.  It needs a bit more spice.  The next batch I tossed in a whole stalk of celery from the garden.  I served it over ravioli the other day.  A much sweeter taste.

    The third batch I made Mexican and used jalapeno peppers, onion, garlic and then added cumin and cilantro.   I haven't  tasted this one yet.  My freezer is full of containers of sauce and bags and bags of tomatoes.  Luckily my daughter has some room in her freezer and I will be taking tomatoes over to her house on Friday.  

     Tomorrow I want to try roasting some tomatoes before freezing them.  Any suggestions for other things to do with the over abundance of tomatoes?  I am not into canning so that option is out.

     These tomatoes are part of what we picked on Sunday.  

Carry-All Shoulder Bag

Carry-All Pattern

     I recently attended the ASG, American Sewing Guild, conference in Houston.  I took three days of classes.  On Sunday I took this class with Cheryl Kuczek.  On Thursday evening when I arrived in Houston I went to Cheryl's booth to buy my pattern and choose the faux leather that would be used for the straps and bottom of the bag.  I also bought some heavy-weight thread for top-stitching on the straps.

Fabric choices

     These are the fabrics I had, a tapestry for the outer bag, the wild print for the lining and the gold marble for the binding and tie.  Cheryl helped me pick the brown faux leather and then chose the blue thread for top-stitching.  I wasn't sure at first but when she pointed out the blue that was in the tapestry fabric I was sold.

     In class we first practiced the top-stitching.  It took quite a bit of tweaking to get the right tensions to achieve a balanced stitch with the faux leather.  We then created the straps by folding the piece and top-stitching.  Then we cut out the bag and started on the construction.  Cheryl had many helpful tips for us as we went along.  I did get the outer and inner bags all made in class and then brought everything home to finish it.

Binding with Wonder Clips

     I put the two parts together and zigzagged around the top to hold everything in place.  Then I stitched the binding to the wrong side and flipped in to the right side.  Using the Wonder Clips by Clover to hold it in place I was ready to sew.  These clips are great for holding things together that are too thick to pin.

Sewing with Wonder Clips

     These are really easy to use and the binding was sewn on in no time.  Then it was time to attach the straps.  Once again I used the Wonder Clips to hold the strap in place while I sewed it on.  

Adding the Strap

     I had many thread breaks while using the zigzag stitch to attach the straps.  I'm sure it was a combination of the heavy thread, the thick fabric and the three layers of the faux leather.  Finally got them sewn down but it doesn't look as nice as I wanted.  I do think though the blue thread made for some nice top-stiching on the seams of the bag and also the belt loops.

Completed bag

     Here is my completed bag.  I chose to tie the belt on the same side as the pocket on the outside.  It is a large tote and should be capable of carrying lots of stuff.

September is Here

     Next week my after-school classes start back up.  I originally had 9-10 girls signed up and then school started.  Several of the girls got into different programs at school and now can't start until October or November.  Unfortunately that leaves me with a full Monday class and only one girl in Tuesday and one girl in Wednesday.  Now at the last minute I am trying to juggle things around because it is not cost efficient to run the class with only one girl.  Also it is boring for them.  This has been quite stressful.

Mother of the Bride Dress

     Here is a photo of the mother of the bride dress that I just finished.  The dress did not have an overlay in the pattern.  I had to draft those pieces and then line up the scallops of the lace so that they met in the seam to give the illusion of it being one continual piece.  I think it turned out quite well.  The mom and daughter both loved it.

     I also did a non-tradtional dress for the bride.  It is a short dress on the bias with an open back where the beadwork piece the bride made will be featured.  It also has a short train of a sheer blue and gray.  The dress is a silver gray satin.  On Monday, Labor Day, we had the final fitting.  It was all fine except the back gapped above the waist.  The only way to fix it was to remove the zipper and cut down the top part of the back to have it lay smoother against the back.  That meant that all the snaps to hold the bead work and the thread loops to hold the train had to be removed and redone.  And they were leaving on Tuesday morning to go to the place where the wedding is going to be held.

     I had to cancel a private lesson scheduled for Tuesday morning to work on the dress.  It all got finished and the bride loved it.  I hope they send me a few photos from the wedding.

     I did my first 20 mile run on Sunday in preparation for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on October 7th.  I actually did okay until 19.5 miles when I just wanted to quit but I got through it.  Legs felt pretty good afterwards, much better than the 18 mile run 10 days before that.

     I am hoping I can get the after school situation settled and now that the dresses are done the stress will go down some.  I am nervous about the upcoming marathon, my first, but it is a different kind of stress.