Amanda Takes Off...

Banana Yeast Bread

Sugar Snap Peas

Baby Blue Eyes

Last October, when I was cleaning out my pots, I found two acorns. I assume the squirrel seen slinking between the pepper plants several weeks earlier left them there.

I did some research and discovered that you could sprout acorns in the fridge. Apparently acorns often sprout in the fall when they fall, but then need about 1000 hours of cold weather to grow in the spring. So you're supposed to keep the acorns in the fridge all winter.

OK, that was just not happening. We have cold enough winters here, so I simply buried the two acorns in a pot of soil and left them on my porch all winter.

Not content to trust plants to do their thing, I checked on the acorns about a month ago. One acorn was completely gone. It was nowhere in the pot. The other acorn had grown a slightly longer root, which later turned pinkish at the end. It appeared dead and I figure it was, but then two roots grew. I left it in the pot and watered it with the rest of my plants.

And finally...

Oak

I'm so excited spring is here. This year my container garden is getting even bigger. I'm not sure how I'm actually going to fit everything I want to grow in, but I'll make it work. (Good Man said, as we were leaving Home Depot with $100 worth of soil, manure, and seedlings, "It is a damn good thing we don't own a house.")

Indoors, I've started three varieties of Korean peppers, Korean sesame leaves, and basil from the seeds leftover from last year. I also started some Thai basil from seeds I collected from the plant I had last year. I started the seeds 3/13 and need to restart some more sesame and Thai basils. I'll probably do that this weekend.

Indoor Garden Starting (20 March 2011)

Outdoors I've got sugar snap peas I started from seed 3/12. The peas sat around for two weeks or so before even peeking out. When they finally did sprout, they sat around for a bit more, as if they needed to decide to grow.

The "trellis" is actually dried up stalks from last season's Korean peppers! I'm not sure if it'll work, but I thought it was worth a shot.

If all goes according to plan, the peas should be done just about the time I need the pot for my Korean peppers.

Sugar Snap Peas (5 April 2011)

I also bought strawberries and romaine lettuce transplants. I bought two varieties of strawberries, one ever-bearing and one June-bearing. I know strawberries are generally slow the first year, good crops the second, and one more crop during the third year. So these pots will be used during the whole season.

Strawberries and Romaine (5 April 2011)

My mint is also trucking along. The more I ignore it, the better is grows. I might dump it out and loosen up the soil and roots, but I also might just continue to practice my method of doing nothing with it.

Peppermint (5 April 2011)

I've also go Baby Blue Eyes flowers going, but there isn't much to see yet. When I can put things outside, I'm also going to grow some more dill from seeds I collected from last year's dill.

As an experiment, I'm also going to try growing a pineapple plant from the crown of a pineapple. Good Man doesn't know it yet, but I was given an indoor growing kit from a coworker. I was expecting something small for herbs, but it's actually much larger. So in the winter, I should be able to keep the pineapple going. Just don't ask me where it's going to go in our house.

Today I made up McCall's 6038 (Quick and Easy, three women's skirts) in 6 oz denim I bought at Joann's on sale for $4/yard.

Skirted

Working on this project I learned how to insert an invisible zipper, do a blind hem stitch, and blend a curve (I needed one waist size and a different hip size).

I modified this pattern a lot. I took off the hook and eye, blended sizes, stitched in the ditch to get the facing to stay down, and did a blind hem stitch.

But the biggest change was the removal of all of the darts. I have a very short waist and I don't usually like skirts that sit right at my natural waist. When I try to wear them lower, they ride up. Also, darts tend to highlight the area they're darting, and I don't need that! So I removed all of the darts in this pattern in order to get the skirt to sit lower. And it worked!

I only made one "duh" mistake, which was sewing the interfacing on the wrong side of the skirt so that it faced...the right side. Whoops.

Learning to blind hem (well) is going to take some practice. I ended up losing the first battle with the machine, which is why I had to hem it higher than I originally intended. (I was doing version B with the slit up the back, but it ended up more like view A.)

I did the entire pattern in a day (from cutting the tissue to tacking down the facing) with lots of down time included. That makes me happy because something this easy to sew can surely become a staple of my wardrobe and a template for new patterns. Furthermore, since it only took 1 yard of 56" fabric, I can experiment with fabrics or prints or trends easily, without investing too much time or money.

I need some skirts for work, and I think this one fits the bill. It's not too tight or too loose. It's a great length and can easily be made higher or lower. It doesn't bind or ride up when I stand, sit, or move. I can crouch in it, I can cross my legs in a chair without showing my students too much thigh, and I can tuck shirt into it and it still feels great.

I plan on making several more skirts using this pattern.

And the best part? It took one yard of fabric, which I bought on sale for $4/yd. The fabric, zipper, thread, and facing probably came to all of $8 at the most. I'm sure I bought the pattern when it was on sale for ~$2 (I never pay full price for the common pattern companies since they're constantly on sale on Joann's). I could not buy a skirt that fits me like this in the store for $10, lined or unlined!

After battling the epic sleeve cap on my shirtdress, it was smooth sailing until I got to the collar.

I just could not understand McCall's 4769's collar directions. Good Man—always a good sport—actually let me drape the dress over one shoulder so I could figure out how to make the collar work. I finally mostly figured it out after consulting several books, even more websites, and a few other patterns.

When Good Man took these pictures, he giggled and said I looked North Korean in the olive color.

North Korean Me

Stuff I learned in this project:
How to do pockets (pockets!).
How to make a faced front band.
How to attach a collar (I did the best I could with terrible directions in the envelope).
How to ease in a set-in sleeve.
Hand hemming.
How to do notched (?) fold back cuffs.
How to adjust tension on my sewing machine.
How to baste.

And hey, I have great calves. I had no idea.

Pockets!

I did it up in weaver's cloth (55/45 poly/cotton and made in USA, amazingly) and finished with a purchased belt. I used pearl snaps instead of buttons. Otherwise, I didn't bother with any alterations. Total cost of the project was abut $25.

Matched Seams

My seams matched beautifully, too!

Next time I'd widen the bicep, shorten the sleeve cap a bit, do a full-bust-adjustment and move the darts a bit, and possibly change the collar into something easier to deal with.

Still, considering I've never sewn anything with sleeves and my entry-level sewing skills, I'm really happy with the dress. Heck, it fits as well as anything store-bought would! In fact, it fits better because I positioned the snaps so it wouldn't put open or gape at the bust!

So, I'm not very good at sewing. I made a few things more than five years ago but I want to get into this. This weekend I planned to make some simple, hard-to-screw-up Thai fisherman pants.

Instead, in typical Amanda-fashion, I cut out a dress pattern.

It was going OK, until I got to the sleeve. I had been battling the sleeve cap (the round part that covers your upper arm and is sewn into the armhole) for a couple of days. The pattern's sleeve cap appears to be too tall and the pattern told me to ease (squeeze) a heck of a lot of fabric into a small space. I was getting puckers, tucks, pleats.

After the sixth time of trying to follow the directions, I wanted to cry. I was tired of ripping my work out, the fabric was looking worn and it was just a mess. I considered adding an inverted box pleat to get rid of the excess fabric, but that looked weird. I considered leaving it sleeveless.

I researched options online and in my sewing books. After a lot of conflicting advice I finally eased the cap in last night. It looked beautiful, see? (That's not ironed or pressed.)

Beautiful Sleeve

And then I stretched my arms to test the fit.

Whaaaat?