Vogue 1247 still in progress; Hurricane Irene

Ah yes, the Rachel Comey skirt with the cute front pockets, known as Vogue 1247.  When I last left you, I was up to the step for inserting the invisible zipper. I used a combination of my Singer Complete Photo Guide to Sewing 2009 edition, Amanda's invisible zipper tutorial, and the instructions that came with the zipper.  My first ever invisible zip!

Shocker:  I didn't know I'd need an invisible zipper foot (I didn't know such things existed) so I used my regular zipper foot and improvised.  Also I wound up sewing the side seams down from a 14 down to a 12.  It was just too big as a 14.  Also my fabric has stretch.


Amanda's instructions were great for getting the horizontal seam in the back to match up.  But you can tell I had some difficulty with the bottom of the zipper.  I plan on fixing that tomorrow.

But I also had difficulty with the top of the zipper and the waist band.  I haven't installed the waistband hook and eye closure yet, but you can see the white of my shirt peeking out there between the waistband and the zipper top.  I have to play with that.

Here's the side view:



I still need to hem it too.


I was also thinking of ripping out the waistband entirely and just folding the top edge over and finishing it with ribbon or elastic or something.

band folded under


That would take care of the back zipper / waistband problem.


But I think it's cuter with the waistband.

So, Hurricane Irene.   My sleep was interrupted often last night by rain, wind, or a combo of the two. It was a pretty fierce storm and I am glad the trees behind my house withstood the weather and stood tall and did NOT fall onto my bedroom!  I wound up taking a 3 hour nap at lunchtime to compensate for loss of sleep.

I feel really lucky.  I have had power throughout the storm, my newspaper was delivered this morning, I don't have a basement, so no flooding in my house.   However, looking at twitter there is a lot of flooding in the Princeton area. Princeton University is closed tmw. The roads to my work and gym are flooded.

My parents live down the shore (~3 miles inland) and haven't had power since 11:30pm last night.  I read the electric company's twitter feed to my mom over the phone. They have a gas stove so she can cook, but she needed a way to light the stove and didn't have matches or a lighter.  So she went to Quik Check this morning and bought 4 lighters, whereas everyone else was buying coffee.  The clerk wanted to know if she was planning on starting a forest fire.

So I hope you are all safe and not flooded, and that you are well and healthy-healthy-healthy.  Good night!

Not a good weekend to be an evergreen

I'm standing in between two huge fallen evergreens for taking this picture

There was another nor'easter this weekend. I took a walk yesterday afternoon. The sheer number of fallen trees is beyond my scope of comprehension. They are everywhere. On my way to the chiropractor tonight, I saw one house with three trees on it. Three. There is also flooding and wind damage. There are downed wires and tree debris. I saw storm doors were completely ripped off their hinges. The fake shutters are everywhere, some of them shattered.

My normal 30 or 40 min trip to work was 60. My normal 15 or 20 min drive to the chiropractor was 75 min. So many roads are closed. I have a 13 year old map of Mercer County in my car. My chiropractor's office wasn't even on it. The map says "don't drive with yesterday's map". I was driving with yesterdecade's map.

My coworkers talked about power outages, no heat, no hot water, water in their basements, a tree in their brand new bathroom. Amazing.

I was so lucky. I had electricity the whole time, even when it flickered. No trees are on my house. I think the chimney might be leaking, but that's all. I do have a really flared up back. Like Jan 2009 pain, when it was just starting out. Len thinks my back is strained from putting the table together on Saturday night. He did his active release technique. We actually got to talk for a while since there were no-shows around my visit. It was a really good discussion about pain, life, control. Look at how far I've come...look at how much I've done in the last three weeks. He thinks what I have right now is temporary.

I took pix of some damage from the storm in my neighborhood, if you want to check out the whole album. Otherwise a few selected images are below.

I like the shadows here




Below is one of my neighbors trees. She has that obsessive cleaning disorder which I don't have. This must be driving her crazy. I'm surprised she hasn't purchased a chainsaw yet. When it snows, she removes every flake of snow from her parking spaces. Her car looks freshly waxed after new fallen snow. She has removed every plant in her side yard that the previous owner lovingly tended and nurtured. When a plant dares to come back, she rips out or cuts it down.


Those shutters are plastic!


Oh, and here's a pj top I'm in the middle of making, another one for the SPR stash contest. It has a kangaroo pocket.

I swear, my next blog posting will be Q&A. Because y'all have asked some questions lately, and you deserve answers.