At Her Leisure

This year was disrupted by an unexpected job change and relocation back to the area that I grew up in. Up until June I was working on needlework as usual, and I started a cross-stitched picture in July, but it didn’t move very quickly as we got the house ready to sell, moved to DFW, and started dealing with all the issues that you’re bound to find moving into a new house. I didn’t end up making my new favorite thing this year, but I enjoyed most of what I made.

It was still a sparse year for events. There was an outing in Phoenix, a whirlwind trip to San Jose, and Costume College. I had intended to go to two DFWCG events, but I had a houseguest for the Georgian picnic and the Christmas event was canceled due to rain. Here’s hoping next year I can start attending their events.

( This year’s projects behind the cut )

One of my goals for this year was to work from my stash. I was very successful. I bought the buckram and flannel for my 17th century petticoat, the marine vinyl for my husband’s welder cover, the “Cardinal Joy” cross-stitch kit, and the fabrics for my son’s Hallowe’en costume. My mother-in-law bought the fabrics for her blouse. Everything else came from the stash. Since I didn’t do a lot of sewing, my fabric stash didn’t decrease very much, but at least I didn’t add anything to it. I did decrease my yarn stash a little more significantly, though I’m trying not to even have a yarn stash. It’s mostly leftovers from projects where I had too much and some things that I bought in 2021 with specific projects in mind and just got a little too optimistic about what I could finish in a year.

I turned the heel on my stocking last night. That always feels like a big accomplishment. I finished my son's Hallowe'en costume Sunday night so that's another accomplishment.

I got some time to sew this week, and I made good progress on my son's Hallowe'en costume. The pant are finished. The shirt is finished except for buttons and buttonholes. The jacket/kimono/whatever-it-is is finished except for trimming threads and a final pressing. The last piece is a pair of gaiters.

This weekend will be back to my husband's car project.

Since there weren’t a lot of events in 2021, I tried to spend time on more time-consuming projects. I still made some quick stuff, but I didn’t feel that I churned things out.

( This year’s projects behind the cut )

One of my daughters wanted to be a character she made up named Red Raven. I can't tell you much about the character except that she's evidently had a bad time of it since she's all scraped up and her clothes are all torn and badly mended.



This project was a joint effort.

I made the brown shirt and gray knit cap. I shortened a storebought sweatshirt and added a hood to it. I cut the fingers off the storebought gloves. I spray-dyed the wig and loaned her the belt and shoes. I wrapped the bandage around her wrist.

She cut the sleeves of the sweatshirt and did the "mending" on both the sweatshirt and the jeans. (The jeans were already ripped since they were her favorites for a couple of years.) She painted the knife and textured and painted the mask. She made the knife sheath from a kit, including dying the leather. She did all the makeup.





The pictures were taken after she and her friends ran around the neighborhood for awhile, and the makeup had run.

She put a lot of time into this project, and I think she did an amazing job.

Hallowe'en costumes are finished except that I may end up trying to make some kind of a knife sheath for one of the costumes. Since they all want to do some level of makeup or spray hair color for their costumes, I'm going to wait until Hallowe'en to post pictures.

I even finished my mantle so I have something new for Hallowe'en too. I guess I could post pictures of that if I actually take some. We'll see whether I manage that or just plop down with my knitting all week.

Having finished the mantle, I decided to spend a week on my wrought iron wrap. I think I can finish the second pattern repeat tonight.

I finished knitting the fourth piece of my 17th century waistcoat last night and modified the pattern for the back to match the front.

This afternoon we got Hallowe'en costume materials so I finished the waistcoat piece just in time to start those. The costumes don't seem like they'll be too intensive this year, but there is a knit cap so I'll start that shortly. It will make good car knitting.

Now that we've actually had Hallowe'en, here are the pictures of the clown costumes I made for my girls. I held off taking them because they were going to do makeup and spray hair color, but in the end, they didn't do the hair color and the makeup didn't work out so well.

It’s funny how milestones in projects can coincide. I finished a bonnet and joined in new balls of yarn on two different knitting projects yesterday. I wonder if I’ll hit another milestone today - the beginning of shaping on the back piece of the bathing suit.

Then tomorrow back to Halloween costumes.

I did astonishingly well on my goal list for the weekend. Apparently if you don't actually try to accomplish anything around the house for three solid days, you can do a lot of needlework. I not only finished everything on my list of goals for the weekend except for ordering the yarn since it wasn't available, but I also did all the stretch goals. I even finished a third book that wasn't on my stretch goals.

In sum, I finished reading three books that I was partway through reading, I put the straps on a pair of stays, I finished my cross-stitched Christmas stocking, I started the next piece of each of two knitting projects, I bought and prewashed Hallowe'en costume fabrics, I cut the fashion fabric for one of the costumes, and I assembled the pattern pieces for the other costumes since they've got oversized pieces that had to be taped together. I even blocked or pressed the two knitting projects that I finished.



Officially, I could give one more cross-stitching update, but it's just to say that at the end of week 11, the embroidery was finished. Week 12 assembled the stocking on Monday. I enjoyed doing it, but I'm ready for something else.

I've still got an hour before bed, but I'm not going to do any more laying out or cutting. There's enough time before Hallowe'en that I don't have to cut more than one fabric a day for a bit. I might knit. Or I might start a new book since now I only have one in progress, and it's in my desk at work so I can't read it right now.