Month: June 2016

Suddenly It’s Summer

From dreary, endless winter to high summer within a week! Suddenly I’m unpacking summer clothes and stashing the warm winter clothes. Around here though, there’s a good chance I’ll be pulling a few warm sweaters out.

We’ve spent a little time getting the backyard ready too. The gazebo screens are on so we’re ready to dodge the mosquitoes. And I’ve done a tiny bit of gardening–plopping a few petunias, herbs and morning glories in the small patch of sunny garden and a few planters I grow flowers in. We started geraniums early in the spring, and they’ve been put out now too. All my houseplants live outdoors in the summer, with some care to harden them off to the sun and wind.

Vegetable gardening is almost impossible in our yard. We have an area where a pool used to sit that we’ve been filling in with leaves, Here we can grow potatoes, and zucchini and cucumbers seem to be able to survive around the edges. Tomatoes are a loss, as they succumb to blight no matter what we do. The season is too short for nice peppers, and the only thing that grows reasonably well in the shade are leafy greens.

We absolutely ache for a backyard we can have a real garden in! To that end, and because a multi-level house with three sets of stairs and one partial set is not suitable for someone with Parkinson’s Disease we are slowly getting our house ready to sell. We plan to buy before we sell and get exactly what we want.

But first, there’s a wedding! I’ve been making a few things, my own dress included. It’s almost finished. I used the Butterick B5710. I’ll write a short post about my ‘adventures’ with this pattern in case anyone else still wants to sew with it. It’s an easy pattern–but setting that zipper–if you look closely, even the picture on the website shows a big bulge in it! There’s an easy fix though and a way to save some struggle.

With the dress somewhat out of the way (hand sewing the hems–yuck), my next task is photo-booth props. And that knit dress–the front and back are knitted and I’m sitting down to the sleeves. I’ve wanted this dress for ages, bought the knitting machine a year ago, and am finally getting it done. I’ve learned so much in the year, and there is an incredible amount still to learn, but I’m starting to make wearable garments, rather than sample swatches. Sewing on its own seems so much simpler now that I’m learning to make fabric from scratch! Buying a few yards off the bolt almost feels like cheating!

 

The "Pippa" dress--now a mother-of-the-bride dress.
The “Pippa” dress–now a mother-of-the-bride dress.