Don't Give up on Me!

I realized today that its been A LONG time since I've written. Don't give up on me. I am trying to improve on my correspondence as my new years resolution. This includes blogging, letters, and phone calls.

We had a wonderful holiday with visitors and now we are settling back into our normal boring life. I will fill in the highlights....We went to the Big Island for Thanksgiving and loved it. We plan to visit again. Last Thursday (jan 7th?) Brian was trying to apprehend a loose gecko in the house. It was near the ceiling. We have 11ft ceilings so Brian was on our bar stool trying to grab it with a plastic bag (this is our tested method of getting the gecko and releasing it without harming it). Somehow, the chair tipped over and he fell. As he fell, his right shin/knee slid down the edge of the chair. At first we thought it was just a scrape. But when he woke up the next morning his leg was all swollen. That's when we realized that he doesn't feel much on that leg due to his knee surgery when he was in high school. The swelling was quite severe. He has been icing everyday for the past week. A lot of bruising has come to the surface from his knee to his heel. He has not gone to the doctor yet, but is considering getting it checked out this week. He can walk and the swelling is nearly gone. But I think he should get the pin checked. We will see if he decides to go...

So, that was relevant because you won't be seeing any blogs about hiking for a little while. Now, I will be playing with my new Christmas toys! I received a new sewing machine from Brian's parents. It came in the mail and I have been marveling over the improvements. My old machine served me for 8 years, but it was more problematic since the move (a lot of our mechanical things didn't work the same after 3 weeks at sea...corrosion, and such). My new machine has 99 stitches, a top loading bobbin and an automatic needle threader. It is also very quiet compared to my old machine.

With the help of the amazing internet I have been playing with my machine most days after work. First I made a pillow...simple item that I would have made on my old machine. I broke 2 needles, but otherwise it went well. Good thing my machine came with 6 extra needles. I also played with the different stitches. It even makes little doggies. Then I found a website for making a simple shirred dress. I was super excited! I love shirred dresses. They always fit and it would be perfect for hawaii...little sundresses. I picked up my elastic thread and started on some practice fabric. The stitches went well so I switched to my real fabric. I nice red 100% kona cotton (local fabric). But when I started, the stitching didn't go right. So back to my practice fabric..now everything was messed up. Something was really wrong. I tried adjusting all the settings and spent 2 hours trying to figure it out. Finally gave up. Then I went to work and talked to one of my coworkers who sewed. She had some suggestions for me. I went back home and worked on it some more. I finally got the stitch length, width and tension right. Of course by then, I was out of elastic thread. I went through 30 yards of elastic thread! Oh well, it's only $2. The next day, I went back to the store to get more thread, they were out. It won't come in for one week.

Then I found a website for an easy a line skirt. Its was called "a skirt in an hour". HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I had a nice dark denim fabric $4 for my one yard and a zipper. First I cut out the pattern. These are the basic directions.
1. sew side seams
2. install side zipper
3. attach waistband, add button
4. hem

I sewed the sides leaving room for the zipper. Then the zipper...this can't be that hard...I'm a doctor, I should be able to figure this out! Right! I found an online tutorial for installing a zipper on you tube. It took awhile but it was done. I attached my waistband. I sewed the hem. I tried it on and it was terrible! All lumpy! That's when I realized I had an invisible zipper, which is apparently completely different than a regular zipper. Plus, I didn't have enough fabric at the waist to add a button. Plus the hem was all weird with points at the sides. So I ripped the whole thing apart to try again. I will fast forward through how many times I tried something and then ripped it apart again. I'm glad I used a sturdy fabric like denim so it could take it. I finally found a website that showed me how to install an invisible zipper without needing the special invisible zipper foot. I extended the zipper to the waist, rehemmed and such. Finally done...took about 5 hours. Only cost about $8 though. My elastic thread may be in tomorrow. I will check. If it is in then I can start on my two dresses. One red, one green.
Here's me in my new skirt! Its more a line than it looks here because I'm leaning on the railing. Looks cute with my red belt.