Twelve Hour Days

Last night, after a long day at work, I came home to find hubby doing his biennial checkride in the plane. To keep your pilot's license current, one must perform several activities: Medical check up, touch and go's, annual maintenance on the plane.

I grabbed some potato chips and zuniga's salsa, turned on the misters, and sat outside on the patio to watch him practice his take-offs and landings (touch and go).

My poor hanging baskets are back on flower after some serious chemical spraying for cutworms.  They do love the misters, as do I.
I have discovered that not only will the misters cool off the patio to 'comfortable' on a hot day, they also keep away the yellow jackets and flies as we eat.

No sewing here. One of my co-workers is off getting her daughter married and another had a car accident which has created even more hours for my paycheck. She was mostly shook up but has taken the rest of the week off and we aren't sure about next week.

I was able to see (mostly by accident) the Perseid meteor showers as I headed off to work in the dark.

I have a couple of posts planned about what I did while my sis was visiting. The videos finished uploading today and now I just need to do some cutting and pasting into a blog post with maybe some words. Too tired tonight, so I will skip a few days over and leave you with my very pleasant evening last night.

 

Wonder Pockets

 This is my practice buttonhole. #34 on my pfaff. 
Notes for next time. There's a hinged place on my pfaff for the IDT buttonholer which also has room for some sample buttonholes. This one is rounded at one end which reminds me of the Singer buttonhole cams that I grew up with.

 I love the buttonholes on this machine. So easy and quick plus they look nice. I can get up to a 9mm width with this machine - reason #5 for buying this machine.  I went around twice for durability.

 These are work shorts, very utilitarian.
Elastic knit waist band for comfort with repeated bending.

I definitely will not be entering these into my county fair (two weeks!).
Nice sewing but I'm not going to waste time with my seam ripper getting it perfect.

 Pocket flaps. 

I serge the top edge. I sew them to the shorts upside down with that serged edge just above the pocket. Flip the flap down and give it a quick press, then top-stitch down - which conveniently hides the serged edge. Not couture sewing - just down and dirty quick sewing.

What did we do before WONDER CLIPS and Sewline Chalk pencils?
That's my top-stitching lines above, done with the Sewline Chalk Pencil. Pencil Girl made me buy one - hence her screen name. One of my favorite notions.

All the seams have double top-stitching as well as down the middle of the pockets which are then sewn on with double top stitching.

Note the use of the mini-clapper, aka Wonder Clip. This 45' angle on the pocket has more bulk and it's difficult to make it stay flat after ironing. I remember the last time I sewed these shorts, I had to use more pins to make the edges lie flat ('cuz wonder clips weren't invented yet). This time - right after ironing, I used a wonder clip and it eliminated the fiddly nature on this angled pocket.

I've finished the first pair except for sewing on the buttons. Cutting out the second pair is next on my sewing agenda. Possibly someone can snap some photos tomorrow.

 I had my son over yesterday for baby back ribs. We sat out on the patio in 100+ degree weather with the clematis shading the top of the pergola and the misters on. It was very comfortable with those misters on. Probably in the 80's under the pergola??   And - oddly enough - the fine mist kept the flies and yellow jackets away from the baby back ribs and fresh corn on the cob and Hermiston Watermelon.

Daughter is home from Ketchikan for a quick wedding weekend. I'll try to grab her to take pretty photos.  Still gonna be hot tomorrow.

Blessed am I to see  both my kids in one weekend.