Wanted: Spare Ark

You think I'm joking don't you? Well, yes, I am but not because we haven't had enough rain. Maybe just a roomy barge.

Southern Oregon and Northern California has seen some record rain over the last week.
Saturday night into Sunday brought a long steady 12 hour slog of over 3 inches, more yesterday. We're all beginning to grow webbed feet and waddle. There is a reason Oregon picked Ducks for their team name. ;)

But lousy weather aside, it was a fun productive weekend. New furniture requires new throws! Why I like making throws and not curtains is possibly a job for a psychoanalyst, but I do. Two were cranked out Saturday morning in about as many hours. OF COURSE Friday was spent choosing fabric which is half the fun. The other half was spending time snuggled under them for the Sunday games. Try doing that with curtains! The fabric is a new Alexander Henry light decorator weight cotton canvas, Keely is the pattern name.



Throw one reverses to a cut corduroy with narrow pin stripe



and  throw 2, a deep rust cotton velveteen.



 These were so easy. Two yards long by the width of the fabric wide sewn with right sides together. In this case 45 inches. Don't forget to leave about 5 inches for turning right side out!  Instead of trying to get sharp corners, I took Sandi's tip to round the corners. So much easier. Ironed then top stitched all around. A second line of top stitching at whatever depth my sewing machine harp would allow, about 7 inches, to stabilize. That's it. All fabrics are wash and wear.

Also under "home decorating" (which in our house usually means furniture preservation), arm covers for the light grey chair.



The arms just called out for protection against muddy paws and sloppy chins, not to mention our sometimes less than clean and pristine selves. I had a beautiful piece of leftover hemp/linen/cotton fabric in just the right color.

This is such nice stuff. It is all recycled fibers, so like a Melton wool, there are bits of other colors in the nubs and slubs.  Fabric of Vision almost always has a roll of this in stock, but due to the nature of the fibers, the color varies from roll to roll. It's always a grey though. This piece happens to be darker than what is in stock now. I took an old tablecloth and cut it up for pattern pieces and set to work on these. For a quick project they came out well. Once washed and dried the first time, the fit will become a tad snugger which is good.

I finished up a blouse I had been working on. This one in the beautiful soft wool and rayon blend recently procured. Good thing it was beautiful, because it was a bugger to work with.



 The rayon gives it softness and drape and also a certain amount of stretch and weight. Keeping it from fraying and stretching out while working to keep the plaids matched was challenging.



 For things like collar and collar stand, button plackets and cuffs, I couldn't/wouldn't use iron on interfacing, but I had some left over (deep hem for my Dad's monogrammed pillow case), linen in the right weight, drape and color. It mimics the drape of this wool while providing much needed stability. I may toss a lot of my cotton scraps, but nice pieces of linen I always save. On the collar and cuffs the linen was hand basted inside the two layers. I liked the way it looked and felt on my neck so decided to leave it as complimentary fabric collar band.



 The shirt is a joy to wear and the extended time it took to sew this loved and used C. Crawford pattern was well worth the effort.

The oven issue is still in flux, but it looks like our out of pocket costs will be minimal if anything.  The killer is that no one stocks wall ovens so it will have to be ordered and we're talking 10-15 days out for a new oven.

Parting shot: Who knew? The perfect camo for Peter.