Now I Can Sing in the Rain.

It's done!!! And, it didn't even take that long. Or at least taking it one step at a time made it seem all very manageable. It fits and it's so girly and pretty and I am really really pleased with how it turned out. I was going for something in my childhood memory and it must have worked because, I was babysitting a three year old little girl one day, and when I tried part of it on she lay her hand over her heart and gasped!

As soon as I finished it the weather turned unseasonably warm and very sunny and clear. Oh well, I'm wearing it any way.

I used a pattern from the Indy company "Favorite Little Things." I loved how there weren't a million pattern pieces and it went together really well, but I thought the directions were kind of sparse. I didn't really have any problems but if you were new to sewing I think it may have been a bit mystifying.

I ordered these rain boots online. They're Sperry and were super on sale. Even after shipping and handling they were cheaper then any I'd found in stores. Brian thinks their ridiculously pink and bright but I think that's really smart because I'll be easier to spot on a gloomy rainy day.

Singing is the sun dappled shade.
Just singing in the shade.

Do you see the tiny bird sitting on the
bike seat?

I'm so happy with it. It's such a wonderful thing to finish a bigger project and to be happy with it. Sewing isn't always like that, makes me super grateful when it does all work the way I pictured it in my head. Ranger seems to like it as well. I think he knows that it makes our walks a priority, even in rainy weather.

Closeup of the super soft flannel lining.

Here she is being displayed
on Ol' Gertie.

The rain jacket part III

I find I don't sew properly if Pandora isn't playing.

I also need tea and a square of chocolate.
Or a few squares...

It's coming along. Not even slowly sort of at a surprising clip. I've taken my own advice and just look at one step of the directions at a time. Broken down it doesn't seem so bad. Make a pocket, I can make a pocket. There are a couple things coming in the near future that make me scratch my head, but I will get to that, maybe by then it will make more sense... Or maybe not. There is this one spot where I think I'll have to go off "the reservation" and that makes me a bit nervous. I've always been a "follow the rules" kind of gal especially when it's something I'm unsure of.

The mess.

I am so thankful for my sewing room. With it I have all this floor space to lay out fabric and pattern pieces and cut. My pattern instructions are laying in the middle of the floor completely spread out so I can look at them whenever I need to without unfolding it and finding my place.

This fabric is so long it takes up the entire length of the room.
I almost cut out the pieces upside down!!!

Because I'm sewing with plastic (basically) I'm sealing the seams with this really stinky glue stuff. Hopefully it will prevent water from seeping in behind the holes.

A Pocket!!

One thing that is super weird about sewing with this stuff is that you can't iron it. If you sew you know you iron a lot. This stuff will melt right to your ironing plate (thankfully I read about that before I did it myself. That is totally something I would do). Instead I stack books on top of whatever needs a crease, It doesn't work very well but it's what I've got.

I am really hoping to have this jacket done by October. For one thing if it takes much longer then that I won't be able to use it until the following spring and that would be a bummer! Secondly I'm going to a writer's conference then and I really want to wear it there. Why do I want to wear it there? I have friends that will be attending and who doesn't want their friends to ooh and aah over something they made? Really it's good for me to have an actual deadline or some things never get done.

Honestly this picture is for my sister Heather
and all other dog squishers out there.

I suppose that's why I'm going to this conference in the first place. I love writing (and I do consider blogging to be a big part of this) and I would love to put some of my fiction out there for other's to read. To be able to help my family financially would just be amazing. BUT I have the worst time being consistent at it.  The best luck I've had is when I'm around other writers; being inspired by them and pushed by them. I'm hoping that this conference (which my husband encouraged me to attend b/c I couldn't get past the cost of it. He's so good isn't he?) will inspire me to really get to it! To "Just Do It!" as the Nike saying goes. And, I have a big looming question I'm hoping this conference can help answer: when do you give up on an idea and move on to a different one? When do you accept that a story isn't very good at all? When is it truly bad and when is it just getting over the hump? I don't know how to answer those questions and their on my mind a lot. Almost constantly right now.  Well, anyway, I'm hoping to attend the Breath Writer's Conference with a smart new rain jacket and a quirky new skirt and find some answers. If your interested in what other local writers are hoping to get out of the conference check click here.

Thanks for sticking with me faithful readers. So many times I feel discouraged and even with this blog I want to throw in the towel. I'll start down the dark path that "no one reads this drivel!" and almost always I'll get an encouraging comment here, on Facebook or even in person, and it will bring me so much encouragement and hope. Thanks for that.

I Did Some Old Fashioned Tracing.

I finally got out my rain jacket pattern and started tracing the pieces. Tracing and cutting out the pattern pieces is my least favorite part of sewing. Some of my friends love it but to me it's messy and overwhelming and it's just the step getting in the way of me getting on with it! I used to never trace my patterns and just cut them to size (still hated it) but since I started investing in indy patterns I've made myself trace (the difference in price being very motivational to use the pattern again).

This is how I trace my pattern pieces.
I tape them to the window and then trace them onto
freezer paper. I often wonder if my neighbors think I nuts.

Sometimes I feel that life is like tracing a sewing pattern. I know what my big goals are (sew a rain jacket) but I have to wait and trace and when I pull out that giant tissue paper of pattern pieces I become quickly overwhelmed. In life I feel the same way a lot. I have goals: open an etsy shop, write a novel, raise two children, but I can't jump to the finished product and so many times I can't even get started because I'm overwhelmed with the first step. Finding time to make the product for the shop (to say nothing of photographing it and setting up the internet space), making myself sit and write when the story feels so flat and silly, eighteen years of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.... You get the idea.

But here's what happened when I finally started tracing the pattern today. I noticed that half the pieces were in a different size group, I could fold those up and put them back. Then I started tracing. One piece at a time I felt the puzzle coming together. One chomp of the scissors after one chomp, Pandora playing in the background. I stopped for lunch, I stopped to read a story to the kids, then I went back to it and before I knew it I had traced and cut all the pieces. Life is like that too, isn't it? Instead of focusing on all the millions of imagined steps from here to there we just need to focus on the one right in front of us. For me being overwhelmed can be paralyzing but today I think God showed me that I don't need to be overwhelmed I can take it one step at a time. Decide what I really need to worry about (is any one going to buy my novel doesn't really matter at this point since there isn't one) Start off the shop with a few pincushions and a few aprons, love the kids as much as possible, and for Heaven's sake sit down and right a page already!!

One step at a time sweet Jesus. One step at a time. (I'm not really sure if that's how the hymn goes I'm terrible with lyrics).

Sewing Stuff.

I'm excited and nervous because I finally took the plunge and bought me some laminate fabric.  Was that weird sounding (I am weird and do get nervous over things like laminate and silk organza)? Let me start over. Last spring I decided I really needed a rain jacket. I walk the dog even when it's drizzly and trying to wrangle him and an umbrella is difficult. So I started looking at rain jackets and they are expensive and they are NOT cute. I wanted a cute jacket, like when I was a little girl, with cute rain boots. If I'm going to be walking the dog in the rain I definitely need cute rain boots, don't you think?

Just a peek at some new patterns I may or may not ever make.

I just couldn't help myself. It was on sale for $1!!

Any way I started looking at laminate fabrics. Those are the types of fabrics they use to make picnic table clothes and toddler craft aprons. There are lots of nice ones but they are not cheap. In fact the fabric I wanted was almost twenty dollars a yard! So I was nervous to take make the commitment. What if I mess up? What if making a jacket is too hard? I finally found a pattern I think will work and not be too beyond my skills and I got a gift certificate to my favorite fabric shop to make the financial cost a little less so I went ahead and bought the shiny cute fabric.

The laminate has birds on it and the lining is the cute bicycle
flannel. The picture you see is the pattern I'm using.
The laminate has birds and french writing and I thought
the bikes sort of looked french too.

I'm excited! I'm nervous! I'm excited nervous! I thought since it will be a longer project you might like a couple of posts about it along the way. I am going to a writer's conference and have that date as my tentative goal to have it finished (so I can wear it of course). I also thought blogging about it might keep me motivated when it get's to be too long. Let me know what you think.