Mossy’s RobinHood Top

Last weekend I took a break from Martha Julia Agnes Adele to begin sewing a top from some old cloth napkins, a favorite pair of 20+ year old pants and an old apron. Time for a break from Martha Julia Agnes Adele for a few days, and to finish sewing my top! Here it is with only a few hand stitches left! Alex’s comment was….”it makes me think of Robinhood!” Seems like an apt name for my ‘leftovers shirt’.

Old Cloth Napkins, Aprons and Pants That Don’t Fit

Renewed my ENERGY with a weekend writing break!

This weekend I’ve taken a break to deal with leftover projects and things around the house. My closet had become an untended pile since returning from China in October! After having lived out of my suitcase for a month in China, using the two small drawers in the chest outside my closet door was all I was accustomed to needing! This weekend I decided to tackle my closet, at least going as far as finding the floor, discarding some clothes, and hanging the rest. There’s definitely more to do but I at least tended to the pile! In the process I found some pants I’ve held onto for at least 20 years, not because they fit,! That certainly was NOT the case. I just LOVED the linen material, the color combinations of all the greens like there are in mosses and trees, plus a deep burgundy red, and some soft black. It was covered with blotches of these colors and had words like fun, energy, play randomly peaking through the weave of colors.

I remembered that a few weeks before I had found my favorite black, knitted cotton top. It was loved and aged to shreds and hard to give up, but not wearable. So I had cut it up at the seams and traced it on pattern paper before I threw it away. NOW was the time to transform my favorite pants that never fit, INTO my favorite shirt, renewed with new material, using the pattern of the poor soul that had turned into holes and shreds. I found some old cloth napkins and an old black apron, that had similar texture and colors and was ready to begin! Seemed simple, really! Had the pattern, had the vision, had the favorite material. I would just cut up my pants, match material to the pattern pieces, pin, cut, sew, and I should be done! I cut as much of the pants as I could for the main body of the shirt, and decided to turn the leg bottoms into three-quarter sleeves! Here’s a picture of the leg bottoms. and of MOST of the material pinned to the pattern pieces. Surely I’d finished the hard part!

The pants were not full length so I needed
to find ways to use every scrap of my favorite material.
I decided to use the already made pants pockets as the pockets for the shirt. This is a picture of the front piece before I sewed it.
When began piecing the back, I realized I was running out of big pieces, so putting the puzzle together became gradually harder.

The first day of the project became one of creating the tiny puzzle pieces and finding a way to end up with enough cloth altogether.

Day two, the sewing began! Hmmm… red thread is already on the bobbin! Hence, RED I would use! I pulled out my 2nd generation Singer Sewing Machine no fancy attachments, no digital crutches! (I LOVE this little black sewing machine and how it purrs with a simple stitch that I can understand and almost navigate pretty well! )

After three LONG days of sitting on the floor criss-cross-applesauce, using my knee on the foot pedal, I’d finally sewn all the crazy pieces together! …except, for adding the sleeves from the pant legs and the neck facing from the waistband and buttons of the pants.

Here’s how far I got on my weekend break project!

In between sewing spells, I would take a break to either jump on the tractor and mow or practice drawing Martha Julia Agnes Adele’s delighted face for her next page tomorrow. Oh, and happily took time out Saturday night to go with Alex to ‘The Snowman Party’!

Whew! I’m ready to get back to you Martha! See you tomorrow!

From Fine Motor and Mental to Gross Motor Mania!

Needed a weekend breather from fine motor work…though gross motor was a bit more challenging at age 70 than writing and ink n watercolor! Grateful for my cheerleader in the background! And her wises advice to my question of “what should I do next?” Her answer, “maybe it’s time to stop!” Good move! Back to Martha Julia Agnes Adele’s shoe hunt tomorrow!