I MADE PANTS!!!!

I bought a men's pant pattern when Josephine's Dry Goods was closing in Downtown Portland. When I bought the pattern I looked at the size it said 34-36-38-40...I thought that meant waist. No it did not. When I finally pulled out the pattern the waist size only went to 34". My husband said he was a 36. So I took an on-line Craftsy class on how to enlarge and reduce ready made patterns, it was called Create Any Size: Grading for Sewers. I found this to be very helpful. I had asked my husband over and over about his waist size and he kept repeating that he was a 36...that's what his Levi's said & they fit!! So I enlarged the pattern to a 36" waist. Well guess what...they were too small. I had completed the body of the pants and put on the waist band, had my husband try them on and he immediately stated they were too small. I said they were a 36", I said that I needed to measure his waist...my measurement came to 42". He then asked me if I was saying he's fat...what? NO...I'm saying you're not a 36". An argument occurred and he stated again that the Levi's were a 36". So when he left the house I measured the Levi's that he claimed fit him...the tag did say 36...but in fact the waist measurement was 39"!!! So I removed the waist band and the darts in the back of the pants. I did not want to give up on these pants because it was only the second time I have put in a front zipper and I was quite proud that it worked and looked decent. I had him try on the pants again, I ended up putting smaller darts in the back of the pants & I made a new waist band that was 40".  Today I had him try on the pants with the new waist band and he loved the fit. They are snug but not tight. He can wear the pants with out a belt and they will stay up. The fabric I used was from a couple years ago, I bought 4 bolts of fabric from a woman on craigslist for $60. At that price it's as cheap as muslin fabric. I don't like to make simple muslins...I like to make wearable muslins. These pants are quite loud and they are a nice medium weight cotton. Now that I understand the pattern, I can make him a pair of Jeans or some nice wool pants. The pattern is Vogue 8719, and it's a fairly simple pattern. This project took me about 10 hours total, the next pair should only take about 5 hours to make. Or maybe I will make a pair of pants for me!! 

As a reward for completing the pants I made a couple more triangle bags. These are heading to a friend that requested one...and today is her birthday. Some cute Melody Miller fabric with a crushed penny from Portland.... Happy Birthday!! 

We finally repaired out front stairs!!! I do not have a before photo but believe me they were awful, moss had grown in the cracks and the treads were rotting out. We painted the stairs several years ago in an effort to make them last and it worked. But now it was time to really fix the stairs, mostly I wanted a clean look when you came up the front stairs. I mean it's the first thing people see when they approach your house..so make a good first impression. Rotting stairs are not a good first impression. 

Yea!!! I saw my tote bags in the store again. This time it's the illustration my niece did for me of a hedgehog wearing glasses reading a book. They started selling over the spring break and they ordered 25 more hedgehogs.  I was delivering 125 bags of the skeleton carrying books, that bag is doing great. 

PDX Carpet, Howard Finster & some 

new bags

It's been a very busy week for us. We attended a meeting to discuss the prospects to get some of the PDX carpet that is being removed from the Airport. They are giving away 4 lots of 1000 sq yards (yes that is sq yards which is about 9000 sq feet). We need to write a 3 page letter detailing what we plan to do with the carpet, how we intend to distribute the rug to the community and how we plan on storing the carpet. The prospects will be read by a committee and the person or company that the committee feels will do the best job will get their choice of lots, you can bid on the however many lots you think you can use or distribute. We hope to use the carpet to raise money for the Pittman Addition HydroPark and the North Portland Tool Library. We also want to carpet one of our apartments up on 45th. How cool would that be to live in an apartment that has PDX carpet? 

Last saturday a friend called and asked me if I wanted to go to a Howard Finster show. I could not believe it, I love Howard Finster and was surprised that there is a show up for the next couple of months at the Portland Museum of Modern Art. This museum is in the basement of Mississippi Records. They have about 10 Finster pieced on display including a couple of shadow boxes. I understand the shadow boxes are rare pieces as he did not make very many. I have always loved folk environments and fell in love with Finster when I first read about him & his Paradise Garden back in the mid 80's. 

I also received my new bags this week. I upgraded my book bags to a heavy canvas that looks and feels like a much stronger bag. I have a couple of new designs that I'm shopping around. The fish are actual fish that I inked and printed several years ago. I want to print the inside of the fish in different colors. I used the yellow and blue because I was wanted the blend of the yellow and blue for a third color of green on the fish. I'm still testing this image, but so far the reaction has been positive. The hedgehog is an illustration I asked my niece to draw for me. I asked for a hedgehog wearing glasses reading a book in the tub. I think she did a really good job, but when I blew it up I lost some detail. I'm working on cleaning up the image, but I like it...it's really cute. I hope to get some of the hedgehog bags printed this week, just a couple more tweaks to the image (I think the water ripples need to be a little more recognizable). I also start a new job this week, it's just a part time job that will get me out of the house for about 10-12 hours a week.