In the middle Georgia or (The Heart of Georgia), we have started using our "Dog Day" vocabulary: heat advisory (stay in the house); heat index (the temperature is this, but it really feels like this).
Well, yesterday the heat index in Warner Robins was a sniffling 117 degrees! Can you imagine that! I really, really can't remember it EVER being as hot as it was yesterday. Wet hair, wet clothing, and forget trying to have a hairdo! Well, that's what happens during the dog days of our summer ya'll.
My summer traveling is all finished except one out of town- one day meeting on Monday; and the one day I've set aside to attend the Bronner Brothers Hair Show in Atlanta in August. Yesterday I started setting up my BRAND SPANKING NEW (totally renovated and expanded) high school classroom. Our entire school has been renovated; talk about BEAUTIFUL!!! I had to physically move my entire classroom twice before the end of the school year in order to facilitate the renovation. Needless to say stuff is all over the place and I can't find anything. It will probably take a week and a half to get it looking like a class room. But this is so exciting! Pre-planning is the first week of August with school starting on the 9th.
I still can't believe that it's been a full month since I've touched my baby:
I have not worried the least about my little sewing hiatus. I've had so much going on since the beginning of June that I just went with the flow as far as sewing was concerned. I was starting to think I needed a little something to jump start my enthusiasm when I read about this virtual sew-in.
I planned on choosing a pattern to get something started for this, but decided instead to refashion two to of my Lilly Pulitzer knock-off skirts that I made two years ago. Dropping 10 pounds and 7 inches seems like such a little accomplishment, but it has really made a difference in the way some of my clothes are fitting. These two skirts were a little too big in the waist, and a little too a-lineish and long for my taste right now, so I decided to make some changes.
I hope that refashioning these two skirts count for this Sew In. After all during Dog Days I still need to wear things that scream summer - like these prints (LOVE THEM). Let's see what else I can come up with today.....
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Lastly, but certainly not least, I have a new book! The author is someone that many of us are already very familiar with - Deepika Prakash, founder of Pattern Review.com.
I became interested in sewing again after a 13 year hiatus, and to me sewing was not "like riding a bicycle". I had lost or forgotten many of the useful techniques that I had once used on a regular basis. I was like a fish out of water floundering around trying to make garments that not only looked decent, but also fit well. That is when I started my Internet search for sewing information and help. It wasn't very long before I found Pattern Review.com with it's wealth of resources. The founder has now compiled "1000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips" from hundreds of the site's members under one convenient umbrella - this book.
What a neat, "I wish I had thought of doing that" idea. I really love reading books like this, and have often found many little nifty techniques that make my sewing easier. Why work hard when you can work easier? The book's nine chapters are neatly categorized so that sewing information is easy to find.
It includes chapters on:
- Sewing Gear
- Setting up Your Sewing Room
- Design & Pattern Prep
- Fabric, Thread & Notions
- Layout, Cutting & Marking
- Fitting
- Sewing
- Finishing, &
- Embellishments
I even recognize many of the members who contributed to the book, many are fellow bloggers. The book has not actually been released yet, but can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com. I am happy to add "1000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips" to my sewing resource library.
