Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I'm doing my part...



...for the economy.

Just ask the handy man who replaced two of my outside doors and a porch railing.

Or the electrician who installed a new ceiling fan, overhead kitchen light, and an outdoor lamp.

And don't forget the plumber who was at my house ALL DAY LONG TODAY!
I've lived here going on twelve years and my bathtub decides it needs to start leaking now.

Mr. Plumber showed up first thing this morning (after I got dressed but before I could go to the store because I just ran out of toilet paper!) and promptly buried his van in my driveway. When he finally shoveled himself free he came in and immediately disemboweled my tub. I could hear the God awful sawing and hammering and when he went downstairs I took a peek and could see my family room hallway through the tub access. This means he had to remove, impossible to replace neatly, tongue in groove ceiling tiles!

I know they're impossible to replace properly because I've tried it on two different occasions. Both times when Chlorox, my timid kitty, in an attempt to hide from the boogey man, hid in the ceiling and astonished herself as well as me by falling through to the floor below. If you cut off some of the tongues and some of the grooves, force the tiles together, and then nail them to the wooden support strips, you can get them back up.

It just isn't pretty.

And remember I'm trying to sell this place.

It's bad enough that I have a harvest gold stove and refrigerator.






The overflow cover used to be here (the top hole). The drain is the lower hole and it was replaced too.
















This is the access from inside a closet floor in my upstairs.











This is the ceiling in my family room. I get to try to replace the tiles tomorrow.

It's not like I have anything else to do.







Still, in my one woman attempt to keep the economy going, I went to my sewing machine dealer and bought these two feet. One is for sewing on buttons. Normally I just lower a 'footless' presser foot and try to trap the button in place while zig-zagging. It's a bit nerve wracking and I'm always afraid the button's going to wildly zing into my face.

The other is a Teflon foot. If I ever want to sew leather I'm going to need it and I have a huge hideous leather coat that I bought for about $6.00 at a thrift shop, and it's screaming to be made into a purse.


I haven't bought a dress pattern in a long time but I had to have this. Trena from the Slapdash Sewist made one of the cutest dresses I've ever seen from this. Then I realized that my mother made the same dress for my niece and it was beautiful!

However, I want to make this out of the silk that I bought in Paris last year so I will have to make a muslin for sure! Since my silk is so lightweight I'll really need to stabilize the top and I don't know if the skirt will drape properly either. I guess I'll have to think about what to line it with.

And last but not least is, what size to cut out! My measurements are a perfect size 12 but we all know if I cut out a 12 I'll end up swimming in it.



Tomorrow it's back to packing and cleaning and I hope to have a bath or shower as I haven't had one going on two days now!!!


Be glad you're not here.

3 comments:

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

It really is a gorgeous pattern! While I normally don't trust the sizing on Big 3 patterns as far as I can throw them, I actually didn't have trouble with this one having too much ease. Your muslin will help you out but hopefully you won't have to adjust the pattern too much.

Mary Witzl said...

We're doing our part for the Turkish economy! A mechanic has done very well out of us here, and so have the guys who keep trying to figure out what's wrong with our plumbing. Every little bit helps, and who needs to keep more than one-fourth of their salary anyway? (Sigh)

Wish I could sew; I've got an ugly leather coat myself and I'd love a new bag.

laura said...

Mary, unfortunately if you haven't sewn very much you probably shouldn't start with leather! And how you would find the time anyway; I have no idea! Now that I think of it, Hans bought a leather jacket in Turkey about 15 years ago and he still wears it!