Summer Excess

The Summer of Excess.
Bumper crops on  both the Raspberries and Blueberries and the Fabric.

I may have had a moment at Fabric Depot last night.
I had seen a new line of airplane fabrics when I was there a few weeks ago and I lusted after them.

I already had to go to the fabric store for some thumb hooks to attach a strap to a bag.
The sheer 40% Off All Fabrics overwhelmed me.
There was no contemplation at all of what I will make with these fabrics.

Not exactly what I was looking for but the cheapest. $1.89 each. This is why I cut hardware off bags I find at garage sales.

This is my favorite -- the biplanes and the postmarked letters. Done in my favorite color combo of aqua and orange.

This is a line by Riley Blake in the same color combo featuring old comic book advertising.
----Just because I had a dog named Rocket - which I will never repeat because that dog zoomed off like a rocket.
---just because I like airplanes and other things that fly....

 I covered my blueberry bushes last week and did the first picking this morning.

It's been cool and wet and humid this week. They will reach their peak in the next week or two.

I need to go to the store this morning and buy plain yogurt to make my Blueberry yogurt muffins. I can't eat them but everyone else loves them.
Someday, I might try to make it a gluten-free, no dairy, no weirdness recipe.
For covering, I look for bridal netting at garage sales or buy some at Joanns/Walmart. Secured with clothespins.

 We still have some straggling strawberries to pick.

My final piece of fabric was found at the cutting counter. From wide stripes to thin stripes - she was making a maxi-skirt for her daughter. Having no control at all last night, I bought some too.
It will look good for the 4th of July party.

Sophea's New Hat and Lunch Bag

 

 

 

Sophea wanted baby chicks on her bucket hat and lunch bag.

 Fabric Depot  had about 30 choices so it was difficult to decide what a 5 year old would want.
I went with the quiet blue with the words, "peep, peep, peep"

 I love these Stearman biplane patches. The hats are reversible.

I thought about adding a chin strap and decided not to. Someone in blogland added straps that attached via  a buttonhole just above the brim on the side of the hats. I thought about it for all of 20 minutes but decided not to. Those straps would get taken off and put somewhere special or flop around when not attached and......one more thing.

I did attach a cross body strap. Re-purposed from some belts with d-rings, I saved these striped beltings for this very day! haha.
Still - you never see striped beltings at the fabric store so being thrifty is useful.

Still coming up with stuffing.
I'll ship them to Battleground tomorrow.

Ella's hat is here:

Formula 1  bag is here:

First bucket hat - too small for Sophea was here:

My niece still wants a bucket hat for gardening. I like the oval tops and most of the free adult bucket hats have round tops. I'll have to get out my thinking cap and do some circular maths and come up with something that will fit my head, thus, fitting her head. We run to big heads in our family.

Ella's Hat & Lunchbag

I managed to get Ella's Bucket hat and Lunch bag done today.
I'll finish her sister's Lunchbag tonight.

 Ella wanted Ladybugs of which there were only three different cotton fabrics at Fabric Depot.

I found a small airplane logo fabric while I was there and I added a patch to the gingham side so they remember their airplane auntie.

 Sophea's choice of little chicks was more difficult with about 30 choices.
I'll post her hat and bag tomorrow.
Got to finish her bag first.

My First Lobster

What can I say?

I'm a born and bred Oregonian.

We are home to the famed Dungeness Crabs.

I've travelled all over, seen lobsters on restaurant menus and I've never eaten lobster.

Around here, they offer steak & lobster. Besides being out of my restaurant budget, it's always seemed like too much food.

My local Thriftway had them on sale yesterday for the father's day weekend and I decided to give Mr. Lobster a chance.

On sale, they cost as much as a dungeness crab, however, the crab has more meat.

Because I've grown up cracking crab claws, I'd say, it's easier to crack open a crab leg than the hard shell of the lobster.

I served myself with homemade cocktail sauce and clarified butter. It was supremely tasty.

Kathy's Cocktail Sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

5-6 drops Worcestershire

5-6 drops lemon juice

Full tsp of horseradish

There's no wrong way or right way to make this. I use whatever ketchup is in the fridge. Real Worcestershire sauce. Real lemon lemon juice ( i use this when canning tomatoes). Bubbie's horseradish.

Most horseradish comes in a cream base made of mayonnaise --made from soybeans --which I am highly intolerant of.

I look for one with vinegar or if i can't find a simple one -like Bubbies brand, there's a few that use canola or safflower oil instead of the soy.

A squirt of this, a dollup of that, a pinch of..... Easy recipe.

The lobster was good.

These are better.

 

Formula 1 Lunch Bag

The third and final piece of my Formula 1 gift set is done.
I blogged about the first two pieces; a key fob and an ID zippered purse here.

I really like the lunch bag with the vinyl. It will be easy to see what is inside, whether it be food items or a place to store yarn.
I'm making two of these for my great-nieces when they get back to me on which animal fabric they want.

I'm going to add a D-Ring to the side panels and attach a cross-body webbing strap.

The clear lunch bag tutorial had very good directions and it took as long to cut the pieces out as it did to sew all the bias tape on.

My good friend in Sweden - who loves Formula 1, bought herself a new sewing machine last Christmas. I  will stuff this bag with her other two Formula 1 fun things and add Clover Wonder Clips and a few other sewing notions. I have to get more Wonder Clips myself! This is the best way to hold your bias tape, short of hand-basting it, to sew up  easily and neatly.

Spoonflower - Free Swatch of Suede

Just received an email from Spoonflower that you can get a free swatch of their new Suede from noon today - June 5 to Noon tomorrow - June 6th.
Go For It.

Link to Spoonflower promotion and rules

Link to their Facebook page.

ONE guess as to what I ordered....

Bucket Hats

My reluctant model, Rusty  -- he's so humiliated. 
He would rather eat this creation than wear it.

But Rusty is old and arthritic and can't get up easily so I won.


I saw this Bucket Hat recently on one of my sewing blogs and thought it would be nice if my great-nieces each had one for summer. This is a free pattern from Oliver & S.


I added a loop on each side to hold secret notes, flowers, pen, whatever.



And --- like all good kid's hats, it's reversible.

This pattern is a PDF pattern and I could not for the life of me, manage to get the 2" square to be 2 inches. I did all my usual computer tricks to get the pattern to print at the designers scale but failed.
The pattern kept printing out at 1 7/8". I upped the sizing trying to get a 21" circumference but even with 3/8" seams, the hat came out at 20 1/4" circumference. The pattern calls for 1/2" seams when 1/4" seams would have worked fine.

There is a lot of easing to be done to fit the sides to the top which could be because I couldn't get the proper print size or because there really is a lot of easing to  be done to attach the sides to the top. Which means a beginner sew-er would probably, inadvertently, get some small tucks going to disrupt the smooth oval of the top piece.

It's a short pattern at only 6 pages so it's not as irritating to me to print out in the usual pdf pattern way of having 49 pages  -- to arrange, tape and cut out.

I also changed the sewing order as the instructions had you do hand-sewing to attach the 'cap' to the brim when finishing. :-(
I made each hat - outer & lining, and then sewed them RST together at the outer brim leaving a hole to turn. I closed the hole while sewing the endless circle top-stitching.

But it's cute.
Even if my reluctant model is embarrassed.

It's being mailed today to do a head check for fit and then I will sew up two real bucket hats for my favorite practice-grandkids.

I just found this video. 
It's not so much funny as it's by guys who  are self-taught sew-ers.
How to do extra steps to make a bucket hat....
I especially like the "Sew 1mm away from edge..."
I swear they are sewing with a buttonhole foot....

Since you're still with me - you  might as well read the comments under the video (Youtube) to get a languagelingo lesson. "...Thanks, it's pretty dope!"