random thoughts – Day 2,230 (Saturday) – saying goodbye

random thoughts – Day 2,230 (Saturday) – saying goodbye

Today Aunt Jennie was celebrated and laid to rest after a lovely funeral at St John the Evangelist Church that was crowded with family and friends. Aunt Jennie married her husband (Albert) and lived in Townsend for most of her 88 years. She and Uncle Albert were married for 55 years when he passed away in 2011.

Aunt Jennie was one of six children in Dad's family. With Uncle Albert she raised seven feisty children of their own. She was a grandmother to seven and great-grandmother to six. She was the glue that kept the family connected and the cookout she hosted each August in her backyard was a summer highlight attended by her kids, their kids and grandkids, and her many nieces and nephews.

Aunt Jennie was talented and practiced the art of calligraphy. Cards from her were easy to spot in the mail and always felt special. 

Remembering Aunt Jennie.

She enjoyed crocheting and made countless blankets for homeless communities, nursing homes, family members, and friends. During the funeral service, Fr. Sean Maher asked who had a blanket from Jennie and nearly every person in attendance raised their hand, including him. Mine is striped in shades of aqua and white. My sister’s is purple. Mom’s is in neutral creams and tans. A basket containing the project in green, gray, and white that Aunt Jennie was working on was at the front of the church and later in the parish hall for the gathering.

Aunt Jennie was feisty, quick-witted, and had a wicked sense of humor. My cousin Missy, my sister, and I each hope we can have half our Aunt’s fire and pep as we age and her sudden departure leaves a hole. May she rest in peace.

random thoughts – Day 2,229 (Friday) – sweatshop saga – skirt done-ish

The production schedule held, for the most part. There was a lot of re-pinning the fourth and final tier this morning to fix some issues. There was a 10:00 leftover pizza breakfast. When the sewing was underway, the thread broke twice, and both times it was because it had somehow come off the spool and wound itself around the post the spool sits on. This is a new glitch that isn’t in the machine manual troubleshooting guide.

Anyway. The skirt got finished around 2:00, which is a relief, and technically by the hoped for deadline of “by lunchtime” based on 10:00 breakfast and what turned out to be my 4:00 lunch/supper. I eat when I want and not when the clock suggests it.

All four tiers assembled.

It took about five minutes for me to start critiquing the thing and I already see things that I wish were different. The purple is too dominant, which was not the vision in my head, but that is a factor of the quantity of black and gold fabric that was available. Now I’m cooking up a plan to do some sort of ruffle or overlay at the seam below the first patterned tier to minimize the lower purple one. A hip scarf will cover part of the top tier because that's how we usually roll. 

For now, the entire sweat shop has been temporarily disbanded. Every indication the dining table was a sewing center worksite has been removed. The table is needed tomorrow for guests. Friends and I are going to a comedy show at Gardner’s finest entertainment venue (The Polish American Citizens Club) and they are coming here for appetizers first. I had thrown out the invitation in late January when we got the tickets, and suddenly, here we are in late April and I’m hosting guests in less than 24 hours.

I’m very out of practice in the entertaining arena. I hosted Christmas Eve, but that’s been it for years. I barely remember what serving pieces I own or how to plan food. Tomorrow’s food plan started in one direction a few weeks ago then spun into another because I changed my mind.

Temporarily not a sewing center.

As soon as I put away the sewing, I went through cabinets and pulled dishes to hold queso, salsa, veggies, crackers, and cheese. Now the table is full of salsa and queso jars and bowls, boxes of crackers, and serving plates. I keep second guessing and thinking maybe all the food should go on the kitchen counter instead, but I’ll need the space tomorrow to assemble food. 

Vegetables and cheeses were cut and arranged on plates and set in the fridge. The empanada filling was made and is in the fridge. Tomorrow morning my family and I will be at a funeral, and I’m glad I got all this stuff done today. 

There was a run to WalMart for a refund on a clearance item bought yesterday (fruit cake diced fruits for $1.73) that rang up as full price ($6.94). I would never have bought it for the full price, I don’t even know that I’ll actually use it, but I like fruitcake, so maybe I’ll make one. 

The trip yielded rolls of black and gold tulle for possible purple-minimizing ruffles on the skirt, and also frozen burritos because I panicked that I didn’t plan on enough food for tomorrow. Note: there will be six of us and we have 1.5 hours before we’ll need to head to the show, so it’s doubtful there won’t be enough food and I am just neurotic (always) and nervous about being out of practice with social things.

random thoughts – Day 2,228 (Thursday) – sweatshop saga – the final fourth tier

Preparation of the final tier.

 I woke up early. The pinned big skirt beckoned. After a couple cups of coffee the third tier was stitched, I was pleased, and it was time to start on the fourth and final tier. It’s the home stretch. 

Laid out across the floor, the flattened circle tier ran from the bedroom, through the living room, and ended in a heap outside the living room door. It looked like a fancy runway for a cat fashion show. Kiki was doing her day shift in the bedroom and had no interest in the metallic splendor laid out on the floor. 

The plan for the tier was to mark the center front and back, sides, and halfway between the centers and sides to help with setting the tier equally around the bottom of the skirt. During the marking, I realized the bottom edge wasn’t hemmed yet, which is easier when done as a detached flat panel instead of a gathered ruffle with the weight of the entire skirt to manage at the machine.

It took several hours to hem the 25 yards of fabric in the tier, and some if it was due to my planning. At first, I pressed the edge with the iron and then pinned the hem, which was time consuming. When my back hurt from hovering over the iron and hem edge, I decided to start the sewing. Several yards had been pinned and then stitched with complications. The thread tension dial on the machine kept changing from 4 to 0, resulting in the stitching on the underside being loose. Much thread was ripped out. I sew, therefore I rip. Then I resew. There was a lot of “for fox sake” being uttered.

I finally realized I was bumping the dial as I removed pins with my left hand and set them in the pin box to my right because there was no room to the left and the skirt would knock them all to the floor. That’s when I skipped pinning the rest of the tier and hand formed it as I sewed. It was slower sewing, but faster overall without the separate pinning step.

Pinned about 3/4 around.

The momentum of the hemming propelled me to the pinning of the tier. It was slightly easier than pinning the third tier yesterday, but still tricky. Despite trying to carefully space the tier, some sections ended up not quite matching and would run out of ruffle for the space (like the previous tier). Sections were reworked (some several times) to redistribute the fullness. After hours of labor, it’s pinned only about ¾ of the way around. The end is in sight.

A decent night of sleep, some morning coffee, and with luck, the rest of the tier will be pinned and the whole thing stitched by lunchtime Friday. Hopefully. Fingers are crossed.

random thoughts – Day 2,227 (Wednesday) – sweatshop saga - waist and third tier

And just like that, the week is half over in a blink. There was a trip to WalMart this morning for two-inch elastic for the big skirt and a few other things. There were challenges inserting the elastic into the casing, despite deliberately making the casing a half inch larger than the instructions said. It was tight feeding the elastic through the casing, then, after I stitched the elastic ends together, I discovered I had twisted it when I stitched it and it couldn’t lay flat. Got that fixed, tried it on, and the waist was too loose. After a few more missteps, it was finally done. I hope.

Third tier pleated and pinned in place.

Mid-afternoon (3:00), it seems I was possessed by Saint Tabitha, patron of seamstresses and tailors. Instead of organizing the donation that is scheduled for pickup Thursday morning, I decided to start the third ruffle tier. The 6.25 yard tier looked sweet and innocent but the 12.5 yard ruffle layer that needed to be pinned into it was intimidating. The 25 yard tier that will finish it might also finish me.

The instructional video I’ve been following features a very chipper sewist who makes it all seem very simple and easy but that must be some happy pills or white wine mixed with some editing magic because it isn’t quite that simple. 

I marked the front, back and sides of the waistband with colored clips – red for center front and back, blue for the sides, purple for the points halfway between. Then I marked the corresponding points on the ruffle, matched the clip colors, and started pleating. Easy-peasy. Nope. Not so fast, sister.

It started out well and then fell to crap. At first, it was easy setting the pleats, but it turned out to be like the false spring we enjoyed last week. The clips ran out and I started using pins. Very stabby pins. There was blood. Then, I kept running out of ruffle and had to backtrack and respace the pleats to fit into the smaller tier. In the end, it was finally pinned, and at 9:00 I called it done for the day, despite really wanting to get the seam stitched today. There were lessons learned that will carry over to the fourth and final tier. I hope. 

random thoughts – Day 2,226 (Tuesday) – sweatshop plans

Four seams available
for adjustments.

The sweatshop operated on the production operations management rule in grad school – do the quick jobs first to get them out of the queue. Psychologically, it means something got done and the daunting to-do list might not be so long and I needed the mental boost, so the afternoon was absorbed with a couple projects that are quicker than the laborious 25-yard skirt. 

Today’s successes were letting out the seams on an Indian choli top and working on the coin bra. Ideally, there would be a local warehouse selling thousands of belly dance costumes and I wouldn't need to do all this labor, but that is not the case, so I sit and I sew and I sew and I rip out stitches. (Or, if you prefer the tongue twister Mummu used to love, "She sits as she sews and she sews as she sits.")

The choli was bought with a companion saree over the weekend. The brilliant design of the tops is that there are multiple seams stitched in. If the top is too small, stitching from the seams can be removed. This particular top had been taken in smaller, so in addition to four machine stitched seam lines, there was an additional hand stitched seam. That was the easiest one to pick out. Two machine stitched seams were removed after that. It needs to be tried on again and reevaluated. It’s also a little too short, so I’ll need to add a band of fabric at the bottom, which I’ll cut from the saree. At least I have the comfort of a plan.

Coin bra in process.

The second project that got moving along is the coin bra. Digging through my swimwear, I found the black swim top I hoped I had not donated away before moving. Whew! To add stability, a bra that didn’t fit quite right was disassembled for parts. Some parts were set aside for potential future use and the cups were hand stitched into the swim top. This will provide a sturdy foundation for two triangular panels of coins to be stitched on. For now, those have been tentatively pinned in place. They need a little work, as some coins are missing and the panels could be a smidge smaller, but at least I have an idea of the look.

Then it was off to dance group. We ran through many of the dances in the June show, except the two large numbers which were impossible to run due to absences. It’s hard to rehearse dances with nine or ten people three or four are absent. Hopefully next week we can run them.

random thoughts – Day 2,225 (Monday) – sweatshop saga

Lightly frosted.

The day kicked off with a hint of frost on the lawns, hedges, and rooftops. The sun was out, but it still felt very disrespectful. The temperature hovered in the 40s today, which is not nearly as nice as last week when it was in the high 70s/low 80s. Spring is so fickle. Once again, I'm glad I didn't buy any plants for the yard yet.

The sweatshop was back in operation. The fullest tier was remeasured (twice) to confirm the volume and was trimmed to the correct length. The waistband received buttonholes for the drawstring and was attached to the top of the skirt, and that is where the progress hit a hiccup. The two-inch elastic in my supplies, left over from another project ages ago, is a couple inches too short and won't work. There was no interest in running out to fetch more elastic today, so the production line was paused and the laborer (me) was granted the afternoon off.  There is always tomorrow.

Another day, another bucket.

It was another day with a bucket truck in front of the house. This time, there was only one guy. He parked the truck, then got out of it to enter the bucket and raise it up to the top of the utility pole. This seemed unusual and also like a safety issue and I was worried for the guy. What if something happened when he was up at the pole? What if the bucket got stuck? While he was in front of my house, I watched, ready to call for help if needed and hoping it wouldn't be necessary. 

The evening saw the weekly meetup with the duet partner to run the choreography we’ve been working on and compare costume making notes for the dance group we’re both in. Last year’s costumes were easy and we didn’t need to buy or make much, but this year’s costumes don’t seem to include anything we can just pull from our closets and wear. We’re each going to need additions on our homes for dance costumes.

random thoughts – Day 2,224 (Sunday) – sweatshop day shift

The gray, drizzly day turned out to be perfect for a quiet day at home sewing in the makeshift sweatshop. The 25-yard skirt is coming together and the machine (and my back) are getting a semi-abusive workout. Sitting on the floor to deal with miles of fabric because the table isn’t large enough (even when empty), is tough on the lower back. I always seem to forgot this detail.

Sewing the strips to make the tiers.

This skirt is a textile engineering marvel with each tier double the size of the one above it. In today’s progress, the first tier, which measures 3.1 yards of fabric, was joined with the second tier, which measures 6.25 yards. The larger tier is tucked and gathered to fit the smaller. The smaller top tier will be gathered into the waistband and the bottom of the second tier will have the 12.50-yard third tier gathered into it. Then the 25-yard final tier will be gathered into the bottom of the third tier. And just like that, it will be done.

It was around 11:45 when things got started today, fortified by a late breakfast of leftover risotto, scalloped potatoes, and fried salami. The breakfast powered me through sewing the strips together to make the tiers and verifying the length of the tiers, and suddenly it was 2:00.

Gathering, clipping, and hand-basting.

Mom stopped over at some point in the afternoon and we had a quick visit, during which I showed her the sewing project that was consuming the dining table and hard to miss. She sewed a lot when I was young, and taught me how when I was kid.

Fabric clips were used for the gathering and it took 100 clips to go halfway around the tier done today. I may need to order more fabric clips because the tiers are only going to get larger. When the 100 clips were securing half the tier, I switched gears and hand basted the gathers in place so I could use the clips to gather the rest of the tier. It is tedious, and probably not the sort of drudgery endurance test some people would find appealing. I kind of wish I had started with joining the fourth and third tiers, because then the remaining tiers would have been the shorter tiers. Lesson learned for the next time, if there is another one.

Done for the day.

There was a supper break with some freshly prepared sauteed veggies and rice, and then it was back to the sewing. I finally stopped sewing around 8:45. The rug was covered in pieces of thread and metallic bits from the fabric, so vacuuming seemed necessary because I don’t want Kiki picking up metallic thread with her paws and ingesting them while grooming herself. In the sewing times before pets, vacuuming would have been delayed until the end of the project or guests were coming, whichever happened first.

I didn’t plan to work on a skirt for the equivalent of an entire sweatshop factory work shift, but sometimes that is what happens when things are on a roll. I would complain to management about the paltry (nonexistent) wages and harsh working conditions, but I talk to myself enough already.