Venturing into the unknown: Water/wind-proof coat

It's time to replace my 16-year-old Gortex jacket. Not only is it faded, it left me wet during a rainstorm at Disneyland in February. Fortunately, it's still 'winter' here so I've a bit of time before I need the new one (we just got 48 cm of snow on the weekend) But time is running out. I'd purchased 2 metres of red Gortex at Textile Outfitters' closing sale last summer. Thought that would be plenty but it's not for the BWOF coat (01-2008-126). So I ordered another 1.5 yards of royal blue Gortex and navy blue nylon lining from Peak Fabrics. I telephoned to work out what would be the best combination. They were a great help. The red will be the main colour for the body with the royal blue on the lower sleeves, pocket edge, zipper flap and hood. I've never sewn with Gortex nor tried a three-dot Burda so this will be a challenge! Apparently Gortex is slippery so I've my Sewing machine walking foot ready. Although I think I'll look up how one can cheaply transform a regular foot into a teflon one. I cut out the various pieces last night and learned the Royal blue is particularly tough on pins -- and tried to remember to keep pin marks within seam allowances.

What $14 can buy

What helped me get out of my sewing dry spell was getting ready for the Unused Fabric Sale by Purses and Projects for Africa. I tidied my sewing space while figuring out what stash items I wasn't like to use and could donate. Last Thursday helped sort donations with other volunteers and then Saturday attended the sale. The prices were amazing and in spite of that, more than $13,000 was raised. In addition to one large room full of fabric and yarn, other smaller rooms held notions, crafts, etc. I paid $14 for all that's at the left. I spent the most time in notions and found good lace, ribbons, zippers, good thread, a sturdy tracing wheel, seam gauge (made by Bernina -- not flimsy like the one I have) and the Dritz Ezy Hem. The woman looking after notions was going to only charge me $1 for all the notions and I said, 'You need to charge me more," holding up the Ezy Hem, "this is expensive new." This one is an older version without metric but still great. I found several yards of lining fabric on the $1 fabric table which I 'burn-tested when I got home. The tan, purple and ivory turned out to be polyester but the blue was acrylic. Now that one was scary. Acrylic burns very quickly, I learned Don't think I'll be making anything with that!
My earlier tidying reduced the stash so I could buy some new additions but at least -- I donated a larger pile than I came home with (although can't gloat too much since a small box arrived in the mail last week from Fabric Mart with more stash additions!)

Purple things

Have finally pulled through a 'dry' time in sewing and finished these two purple items: BWOF 12-2008-127 House Jacket and a nightgown for J's doll that she requested. Also a purple wool skirt that I'll post later when I get a chance to wear it. The doll nightgown is in the same fabric as my daughter's and she requested it have the same sheep applique. The Burda item was in knit fabric but I wanted a warm short jacket to wear in the house during the winter and used a five-year old fleece from my stash. It was actually quite simple to sew up -- once I got to it!
Also repaired J's doll -- it's soft body seems to need darning every few months.

The Art of Paying Attention

This is my car on Tuesday afternoon. Yep, I went into the ditch. I was heading along a country road, turned south on a curve and was struck by the beauty of snow on a hill ahead. So thought I'd stop to take a photo. Slowed down using the brake -- not hard -- but the car decided to slide right instead. So there I was in the ditch and I had to laugh -- ending up in a ditch because of a photo (that I never did take)! Since it was about - 22 Celcius, I was lucky folks came along about 30 seconds later.

As I recounted my story, one wise friend pointed out...'if you'd been paying attention..." Well, I was going relatively slow and it was hard to see that ice was below the snow cover but still, her words have come back to me over the course of the week

On Wednesday, I misplaced my keys in the am and then found them, left my purse at a restaurant at lunch time and had to make arrangements to retreive it. Then lost my cell phone and that's definitely gone (but fortunately wasn't too expensive to replace).

The thing is I've been busy and distracted. And things get misplaced. There is the spirituality of paying attention and perhaps needs to be part of my Lenten journey.