Fixing ski pants

This morning there are 16 mph winds with 33 mph gusts. It sounds like a freight train! the temperature is 26, but with the wind chill it feels like 9. Burr!!! I spent much of my time last evening working on fixing this pair of ski pants for one of the guys at work. They belong to his wife and were expensive.

I had to open up the lining so I could get to the hole. The seam allowance was so narrow that the only way to fix them was to topstitch each seam. For extra security I put a piece of ultrasuede under the seam and sewed thru that.

It was a bit of a battle to get the lining out of the way and the ultrasuede lined up. Once the lining got caught so I had to rip that out and start again. Another time the ultrasuede folded back on itself so I had to rip that out and start again. In the end, I conquered the problem and it is fixed! I had to hand stitch the heavy knit lining back together. It took me an hour to get this done.

The other thing I accomplished was to get that jacket I fixed the cuffs into a box for mailing. I will run to the post office at lunch and that will be one more thing off the list!

Pouch patterns and cutting tips

I didn't get any pouch sandwiches assembled last evening. I had my monthly wellness doctor appointment and then I ran two errands since I was on that side of the county. For me, it takes so much longer to run errands in the cold. Dealing with gloves, a scarf that gets in the way, digging thru pockets for a Kleenex, credit cards or reward cards, having to put the backpack on and off (my work laptop can't be left in the car - it's a rule so I have to take it with me), it is just a plain battle! All of this takes so much time!  By the time I got home, it was almost dark. I put the cold groceries away and finally got to sit down about 6 and eat my sushi.

Ok, enough complaining! LOL!! Here are the measurements for the curved top pouches which Joyce asked for. They are fairly simple to draft. Let me know if you have any questions. I cut mine out of mat board to make the templates sturdy.

I had looked at my Jan. 10, 2025, tutorial on how to construct the pouches, but I didn't show how I cut them out after the fabric has been quilted. I couldn't find anything to cut that was quilted this morning, so we will be pretending that I am cutting a quilted sandwich. Place the pattern on the fold of the fabric. Notice that I have placed the fabric on a smaller cutting mat. This is so I can move the pattern and fabric around easier to trim it.

Lay a straight edge along one side and use it to help you cut the excess fabric.

Rotate the cutting mat and trim the other side

Rotate the mat again to trim the curve. I hold the pattern down with my left hand and trace the edge of the mat board curve free hand.

I use the rotary cutter to cut the fabric at the notches as far as I can.

I then use scissors to finish clipping the corner of the notches.

Your pouch will look like this when cut out

More progress on the pouch sandwiches

I worked last evening making more pouch sandwiches. Here is the newest stack of 31.

I did sort thru my orange pile, and my pink and lavender pile and found fabrics to let go of for pouches. I already cut and used a few of the fabrics before I took this picture. I still need to go thru the blues, blacks, grays, and b&w fabrics.  I have no idea why these pictures are blurry.  

Of course with all this cutting, scraps are generated! Here is my pile right now. I already sorted a few and placed them in the containers I had previously sorted. Yes, I have more scraps, but I figured that after I get the next 21 pouch sandwiches made I will have reduced my stash by at least 25 yards!

I was asked by anonymous where I got my pattern or did I design it myself. Well, I got the idea from someone who made a pouch out of a placemat. I took that design and changed it by adding a boxed bottom and quilting my own fabric. I also reduced the size to make a medium and small pouch as well as a large one. The way I installed the zipper was a bit different too. I used mat board to make templates so that I could cut the pouches out using a rotary cutter for the majority of it. I posted a tutorial of how I construct the pouch on Jan. 10, 2025. I didn't post the size of the templates. I never thought to do that. I will do that tomorrow.

Prepping for making small curved top pouches

My arms are still sore, but not just from shoveling. Friday after work I headed to the mall to pick up my order. I wanted to get a few more steps in so I parked at the opposite end of the mall from where I needed to pu my order. I didn't think two sets of twin sheets and one queen set would weigh almost 14 pounds. They were wrapped up tightly in one package. I did stop for a minute to rest my arms just before I headed out the door to the car.

On Saturday my arms got another workout from beating on my drum at the protest for two hours. The wind gusts kept wanting to blow my setup over so I had to wrestle it to keep it upright.

There were a couple hundred people there. I took this picture close to the end of the protest. See that sky? Well, I was walking to the car and a squall blew in of graupel. That's graupel on my pants.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and the roads were getting covered quickly. It did stop about 10 minutes after it started. After getting something to eat and falling asleep in my sewing room chair for a short nap, I decided to work on putting together the pieces for making curved top pouches. I already had 67 pieces of batting cut to size so it was time to use the scrap pieces I had found when I sorted my scraps. I also decided to go thru the piles in the fabric storage room and pull-out pieces that would work for pouches and/or fabric I didn't like. Here is what the shelves looked like before and after. I still have more to go thru, but I found a lot of good stuff for the pouches.

I started sandwiching the pieces together; a bottom piece face down and press,

a piece of batting

the outside piece of fabric, pressed all three layers

trim the excess fabric and repeat 66 more times!

I have all the little sandwiches sorted by color

I used all the batting pieces I had so I took this pile of batting scraps,

sewed them together, and ended up with 52 more!

I still have a bunch of fabric pieces that need paired up.

In case you are thinking I have lost my mind, I am making these for a retreat I am going to as little gifts. I first want to get the sandwiches made, then I will start quilting them. I got so wrapped up in this I didn't get any quilting done on the t-shirt quilt.

Quilting and shoveling

As soon as I got home from work I shoveled the driveway. There was only about 2 inches of snow. It was light and fluffy so it was easy to clear off. While I was at it, I decided to do my neighbor's driveway. He is always helping me with my tech issues so I thought it would be nice for him to come home from work to a cleared off driveway. That took about 45 minutes. I headed inside and eventually started to quilt another t-shirt. I picked this gray one because it would be easier to see. Those dark and black shirts will have to wait until I have good natural light. I am now 16% done with the quilting.

There was a lot of outlining on this shirt as you can see in this picture of the back.

I am so ready for the weekend! I plan on spending one day quilting and the other day working on curved top pouches. Have a great weekend!

T-shirt quilting progress and snow

The center row is quilted except for that one black piece. I will quilt that when I change over the thread to black. I am now 13% done with the quilting.

I started raining yesterday afternoon and eventually it turned into snow late last night. There is about 1 - 1 1/2 inches here on the ground. The roads were slick. One of the guys who lives about 20 miles north had 6"! The snow is still coming down. I am not sure if they called off school or not. The traffic was very light this morning. I just put the car in 4-wheel drive and took my time.  The temperature this morning is 14 degrees and the high is going to be 18.

A little quilting progress and "The heat is on"

I was so tired when I got home from work. I fixed some food, got my minutes in on the stationary bike, and that was about it. I did manage to get one more small piece of the t-shirt quilt quilted.

The HVAC serviceman arrived around 11:30 am yesterday and we now have heat! Woohoo! There was a loose belt and the filters were filthy.