More about the mask construction

Hello, everyone.

As mentioned yesterday, I'm using Leah Day's pattern to make simple masks. After posting that, I remembered to take a photo of some of them.

These aren't all, of course. But these are in the sewing studio at the moment.

The project went along pretty smoothly until the end of the 6 inch long twisty ties was reached. An order for chenille stems (that's the fancy word for pipe cleaners) was placed with Hobby Lobby online, which presumably will arrive before the whole mask project becomes moot.

In the meantime, the imagination got to work. A chance suggestion from DD2 about using beading wire led to cutting 12 inch pieces of blue 22-ga. wire, crimping the center around the rosary plier to make a double thickness, and then curling the loose ends into a little spiral that wouldn't poke out through the fabric. That was where matters stood at the end of the day yesterday.

During the night, the imagination must have kept working, because it occurred that really the thin paper or plastic around the wire in twisty ties is pretty much tape. So the shipping tape roll was rounded up for an experiment.

Here are some possible home-made twisty ties. They're not cute, but then they're supposed to be encased inside the cotton fabric anyway. I used shipping tape because it's less likely to do something weird in laundry than duct tape. I just laid a piece of tape a bit longer than the wire piece with the sticky side up, put two wire pieces onto the stickum, somewhat separated, and folded the other half of the tape over onto the wire bits. A little pressing and squishing, then trimmed with the scissors. (By the way, those are the paper scissors, not the fabric scissors.)

It might work. Or I might amble out to the store for a tide-me-over bag of pipe cleaners, which would be less fussy to work with. And each 12 inch pipe cleaner gives shaping wire for two masks.

Decisions, decisions.

March in South Texas, 2020

Hello, everyone.

I have been busy sewing fabric face masks. I'm using the Leah Day pattern with 2 layers of fabric. (It may be a little bit stiffer to fold around at the cheek bones, but having 4 layers of cotton is bound to intercept more flying spit-bits than only 2. And you can and should drop them into a hot wash load and dryer load to clean them. This particular virus is said to be very sensitive to hot temperatures, like the temperatures when your hand says the water is too hot (my sink can put out 120F sometimes) and the washer with its detergent and water and agitation just gets them off and flushes them down the pipe.) No pics, unfortunately, but I sent some to DM and gave some to DS1.

And I'm using up stash, too. Found pipe cleaners at Hobby Lobby online for moldable wire inside the mask so it will fit the nose. Though when I went to the link for the ones I ordered it now says "out of stock"--probably there are more coming soon! I used the 6 inch long twisty ties for the first masks, they were stash also as they came with trash bags a while back. Am hoping my order--or at least part of it!--comes soon so I can resume sewing the masks.

In other, more cheerful news, it's flower season!

The avocado tree that came with the house is blooming.

We've had this pot of cactus for decades. Every spring it makes beautiful flowers.

The kalanchoe pot, which also came with the house, is beautiful again this year.

Another project from the embroidery machine

Hello, everyone.

Yesterday the embroidery machine got to do some more work: an in-the-hoop pouch with a zipper. The regular sewing machine got to rest this time.

The pouch closed up. The project includes the quilting stitches on the front.

The pouch with zipper open to show the lining. This was a stash buster project all the way: fabric, batting, and zipper.

One thing learned from this, though, it's really important to pay careful attention to the photos and the words of the instructions. I had to redo some things because they were stitched incorrectly. Also learned the hard way that when restarting after a birds nest or similar mess up, it's a good idea to take the hoop bar back to home position and re-position it after doing the "backspace through the messed up stitches" trick.  I have officially broken my first needle on the new machine.

The solid green corner is a piece of linen, which I backed with iron on interfacing before putting into the project. The iron on interfacing has been working well as the first stabilizing bit in the black linen coasters. It worked well here, too. (It's one of the knit ones on that page.) I used the regular sewing thread (50 wt) instead of embroidery thread as there really isn't any thread visible other than the quilting stitches. The project called for cutaway stabilizer, and I now know that it's maybe a good plan to trim that layer a little more than the others at the end when removing the project from the hoop. Final closing stitches: ladder stitch, by hand.

The small pouch as shown will hold a cell phone, at least some sizes, but I suspect my Otterbox cover doesn't go through the opening very well. YMMV. If, like me, you've abandoned your fat, heavy wallet for a little pouch to hold money and cards, this would work very nicely.

A summery sort of fidget mat

Hello, everyone.

This fidget is more summer-oriented. Or, at least, water-oriented.

The large buttons are in functional buttonholes. Under the side fin is a concealed heart-shaped bead. And behind the little zipper is a backing piece, so none of the fur can get stuck in the zipper when it's in operation.

All components from stash. The background landscape was an off-cut from the embroidery-hoop holder we did in last month's Sewing Club meeting.

The fish fabric was also extra fabric from that project. It was free-motion quilted before the hoop holder was made and the flame-like (or succulent plant-like) stitching made me think of water.

The "seaweed" bundles are also functional; they hold the backing against the front of the fidget.

Friday night, Spanish food style

Hello, everyone!

We really miss the Camino. One of the ways we keep the memories fresh is to eat Spanish style foods. Tortilla de patata is one of them. Unlike Western hemisphere tortillas, it's not a bread. It's related to fritatta, the Italian egg scramble that is finished off in the oven.

Having many interesting things in the fridge that needed to be used, I rang a change on the standard tortilla last Friday: Tortilla with potato, shrimp, radish, and mushroom.

There is of course a little bit of onion in it. The parsley got thrown on because it looked a little dull in color when it came time to serve and eat the tortilla.

We really liked it a lot.

5 eggs, ready to scramble (no added milk or cream)
about 1/4 white onion, sliced thin
about a half pound of Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
a 12 ounce package of precooked salad shrimps, chunked up
a half package of radishes, trimmed and sliced
a red potato, trimmed of eyes and sliced

The slicing here is about what you get on a mouli with the #2 insert, not potato chip thin but fairly thin.

I refer you to the link for the recipe. You really, really need to have a plate that fits your skillet. One of the skillets with the rounded sides is easier to use. It also helps to say a quick prayer when it's time to flip the mostly cooked tortilla out onto a plate and slide it back into the pan!

Finished a project

Hello, everyone.

The old Aggie Bag that has been going with me on so many trips is getting a bit old. More to the point, I recently used it on a trip where my only luggage was a backpack, carried on. The Aggie Bag was a big to carry on as the pack, and so I proceeded gingerly down the aircraft aisle with a big round thing held in front, the bag, and a big round thing in back, the pack. It was doable but not really desirable, if y'all know what I mean.

I have been learning about my beautiful gift from Santa (I understand that there is now a newer, bigger version on offer instead) and found a project on Sew4Home to practice the embroidery on. It involved buying new thread...oh boy, more stuff that has to find a home!...and embroidering a design, then using the embroidered fabric in a tote bag. The tote is a good size to hold my tablet, DH's tablet, and some few odds and ends...assuming one also has a waist bag, it will work I think.

Yesterday it was finished.

This is the zipper added to the top, to keep the contents from spilling out all over my feet during a plane flight, and discourage strangers from exploring the bag. It is a purse zipper, from stash. I looked around and used one of the various tutorials to create the zipper facings and attach it. The bulk of the bag made things a bit difficult.

The print used for the sides and the zipper facings is from stash--it's left over from a set of half-circle gathered swags at the Former Abode. Or maybe it was a sample piece left from the decision making at that time? The white used is a fake-linen piece (poly) and I used Stay-Flex for the interfacing. The rest of the interfacing was iron on fleece. Maybe I should have gotten some of the Decor Bond that was recommended. Speaking of bulk under the needle of the sewing machine! But I didn't want to add yet another pile of half-used stuff to the sewing studio.

The embroidered side. It is an open pocket. I lined it with a white on white cotton print, so the lining wouldn't show through the white panel. As y'all can see, I didn't go with the suggested leather handles. (Really? Stiff leather handles for something that has to tuck in by my feet in those tiny airplane seats? Don't think so!) I made straps out of some solid cotton that matches one of the colors in the printed fabric, padded with some iron on fleece, and stitched into the seam between the top edge of the bag and the rest of it.

I also added a zippered pocket on the back side. With only a little bending and folding, boarding passes could fit here. Passport would go with no trouble at all. And of course! the credencial. When ever we get to return to the Camino path, that is! The zipper here is an invisible zipper from stash.

About that new thread: it's Auriful 80 weight cotton. It comes on a wooden spool. Of the three spools I got, one has a snag on the edge. It catches the thread while sewing. And, being very, very thin thread, I had to lower the top tension on the machine a lot to get the project to sew out reasonable well. There are 2 failed attempts now in stash, and DH says they're cute too and look like quilt blocks to him. We'll see what turns up. The stitching pulled in when it was done. And because of the snag and the tension issue, there were a lot of thread breaks. I'm not at all sure this thread is for me.

On the plus side, Fat Quarter Shop had really fast service. (Thread link above is to their site.) And lots of colors of thread, too!

Garlic Potato Rolls

Hello, everyone.

The other day I made a batch of Garlic Potato Rolls. (It's cute how capitalizing it makes it seem important, isn't it?) This started with the Potato Bread recipe in the old Beard on Bread book, a volume that we've had for years and years. The book is probably out of print by now.

His potato bread recipe included egg (used), mashed potato (used), sugar (not used), milk (used), butter (used) and the usual flour, yeast, salt, water things.

The only really difference this time was the potato was leftover garlic mash from an instant potato packet that had been prepared, and of course the skipping of the sugar. With all that potato, milk, and flour there really is no need at all for sugar to feed the yeast. It proofs nicely in the wrist-temperature water in the measuring cup or bowl without any accelerant.

Oh, and instead of making a pair of loaves the dough was formed into 24 medium-large rolls. They were baked in a muffin pan on a pizza stone at 400F for about 19 minutes.

The dozen that was baked right away.

The other rolls were frozen on a cookie sheet, covered with plastic wrap, until firm, then put into a zipper-closure bag to await their future glory.

It's so nice to have rolls almost ready to bake in the freezer.