Hats Off

Warmer weather is here. With the arrival of the warmer weather, the neighbor, Mike, put away his stocking caps and pulled out his summer hat, only to find that his summer hat died last year. He brought the hat to me and asked if there was any chance that I could make him a new hat. He said that new hats in the stores were too small, and really needed one the same size as his old one. The challenge of constructing Mike a hat sparked my interest, so I told him I would give it a try. Since mending the hat was out of the question, I tore it apart to use as a pattern. With just three pattern pieces, I made the first hat out of a scrap of denim I had in the closet. It was fun to make and worked up quite fast. I did not put a lot of detail into its construction (I did not line the hat and I surged the brim onto the cap) because I wanted a prototype for Mike to try. After he wore it for a little while, he could tell me if it needed any changes. After a couple of days, Mike said he had no changes for the hat, so I tried another hat. On the second hat, I took the time to look for fabric in my stash (Note: I did not buy any fabric), to embroider on the front and to stitch in the ditch around the brim so that it had a cleaner finish. I still did not line the second hat. The hats were fun and easy to make and I was surprised that they did not require more time to construct. As I sewed the second hat, I had lots of ideas for more hats. So, now, added to my list of projects to do someday is make more hats.

F.A. (Fabriholics Anonymous)

One yard too many? Can one really have too much fabric? I use to say no, absolutely not! But, as of today, I say YES, you bet! We spent last week in Idaho, visiting family and friends, and buying fabric. Mom gave me some great pieces of fabric and then we went fabric shopping. I boxed it up all nicely and brought it home. As I loaded it into the closet with the rest of my stash, it became very heavy. I have so much that I don't remember what all I have or even which box a specific piece is in even if I did remember it. I have started to say that my hobby is not sewing, but fabric collecting. So, as of today, I will not buy fabric for 1 year! (Except for Snoopy fabric.) Bear in mind that I made this same oath in September of last year after our last trip to Idaho. I did well until we went to M&L Fabrics in California in late October where I promptly fell off the wagon. But, I am back on the wagon now and ready to go. When we made the big move to Arizona, I thought about getting rid of my stash, but after seeing that the only source of fabric in this town is Wal-mart, I moved my entire stash and bought more. So, I truly do believe that I have too much fabric, and the only solution is to get creative, get sewing, and stop adding to the problem. Wish me luck.

My Shirt

Bright colors are in. At least, that is what I read in Sew News. I hope so, because this is a new shirt for me. I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it in the fabric store, but it has lived in my stash for a long time. I got the buttons from my mom and just decided the other day that it was time for this particular fabric to leave the stash. The shirt turned out pretty good. For some reason, it is a little shorter than I would like. I can not figure out why either. I cut it from my basic sloper pattern. I was also smart enough this time not to try the bad black interfacing that I am supposed to be throwing away, so I did not have that problem to contend with. Sewing on decorative buttons is an interesting job. They do not sit nicely in the button foot of my machine, so it took at little extra patience and time to get these buttons sewed on, but I like them on this shirt, so it was worth the extra effort.