Butterick B5044 Polka Dot Pajama Shorts

ワニ柄の布で作った短パンの型紙で、またしてもパジャマ短パンを作りました。
ま、パジャマって言ってもこれ着て犬の散歩とかするけどね。
型紙はバタリックの5044番。
ちなみにTシャツの裾がナミナミしてるのは、このTシャツが私作ではなく、オット用に買った安物の既製品だからです。

ポケットもついてるんだけど、見えないね。

I made another shorts from Butterick B5044. Still shorts weather inside the house.

Last time, I made a size Small and it still felt baggy. This time, I tried size XS and I can tell that it is tighter. I should stick with size S if I am to make another pair or sew the seam with less seam allowance.

I made a View C with flap pocket. But the pocket is pretty much buried in the polka dot pattern and almost invisible on the pants.

By the way, the reason why my T-shirt hem is so twisted is because it was not made by me.
This is what happens when we buy cheap T shirts for the Man of the House from JC Penny. Something that is intolerable now that I have learned to sew. (Plus the T shirt shrunk after 1 wash and thus it is now mine.)

McCall's 7014 Red Dress

赤いワンピースを作ってみたくて、作ってみた。
型紙は以前も使ったマッコールの７０１４番という奴で、前作ったのはストレートスカートバージョンだったけど、今回はフレアバージョンで。
あまりにも赤すぎて、クリスマスかバレンタインしか着れないかも。

I wanted a red dress, so I made one.
But maybe the red was too red that I'm afraid I can only wear it for Christmas and Valentine's Day, or a Chinese wedding.

The pattern I used is McCall's M7014. My previous version was a straight skirt and this time I tried the flare skirt version.

I made a View C, a sleeveless with flare skirt version. As the photo below shows, I actually tried to make a View D with 3/4 sleeves. However, I encountered issues with armhole and I had to ditch the sleeves.

Like my previous version, I used knit fabric instead of woven. I used poly/lycra scuba knit with embossed pattern. 

This was my first experience with scuba knit, so here are some of my thoughts of the fabric:

- Beefy! Very substantial. 

- I had to test various combination of thread tension and presser foot pressure. 

- Used longer stitch length.

- Ripped seams show. I don't know if it's the scuba knit or the embossing, but once the needle poked a hole, it stayed visible.

- Good for cold weather. I guess I do not want to wear this in summer time.

- Surprisingly, pressed very well. The below photo shows pressed seam on left and unpressed seam on right. 

Last time, I cut a size 12 and went through a lot of alteration. This time, because the scuba knit has very good stretch and recovery, I went down to a whopping size 6 to fit my upper back. The back fits well and no pool of fabric for my sway back. Love the back contouring.

Changes I made:
- Let out side seams at waist 3/8" to accommodate my rectangular body.
- Pinched out about 5/8" from back neck for gaping neck and blended in to CB seam at about 4" down.
- Trimmed off a bit of the flare from the skirt's side panels.
- Changed the front neck slit to a V neck.
- Bound the arm holes with purchased double fold bias binding.

As I mentioned earlier, I originally wanted sleeves, I did put one sleeve in. However, it turned out not wearable. Because this pattern is made for woven fabric and I made it a more form fitting than the pattern's intention, the arm hole was too low, the sleeve was very uncomfortable when I moved my arm up. The arm hole did not have enough fabric to even attach a bias tape as a facing and that's why I had to use bias tape to bind the arm hole. I'm glad that the color of the pre-made bias tape matched the dress very well.

Things I should do differently next time:
- Don't use ivory color lining for a very red dress.
- Raise the arm hole.
- I could pinch a bit at back princess seam at the arm hole.
- I should probably stabilize the neck line. I don't know if the V shape will hold in this dress since I did not apply any stabilizer (The V neck was totally an afterthought).
- Trim the bust darts. I did not even think of trimming (I had never sewed fashion fabric this beefy), and I had some sub-par pressing, and one of the darts looks pretty bad.

Comment from the Man of the House: "the neck line is too floppy." He is even more critical than I am.

I had fun sewing and I think the dress looks rather fancy for a poly knit dress.

"Edge of Tomorrow"

トム・クルーズ主演の映画、「オール・ユー・ニード・イズ・キル」を最初に見たのはもうけっこう前なんだけど、原作が日本の小説だったってオットに言われるまで知らなかった。
オットが原作を読みたいというので図書館で借りて（英語翻訳版）、オットが読み終わった後で私も読んでみました。

感想は、ちなみに、イマイチ（爆）話が、ではなく、文章のテンポやスタイルが（翻訳だからか？）。めずらしく、原作より映画のほうが良かったです。
締めに映画版も見直してみました。やっぱりトム・クルーズ映画は、なんだかんだ言ってちゃんとどれもいい娯楽作品なのがすごい。

I had watched Tom Cruise's recent movie, Edge of Tomorrow, a while ago and I did not know that it was based on a Japanese light novel, "All You Need Is Kill."
The Man of the House wanted to read it so I got it from the library and I read it after he was done.

Well, this is one of the rare occasion that I say the movie was better than the book.
I did not like the writing style and tempo of the story. It was just not good writing and I had to force myself to finish it. Thank goodness it was a "light" novel.

As it has been the routine, we finished the book with the movie. The movie is quite different from the book actually, so nothing redundant.

I also watched The Bourne Identity right after Edge of Tomorrow, not knowing it was done by the same director. I really like The Bourne series. Maybe I should read the original novel... (if only I could read faster.)

Sewing Book Purchase

気になっていた裁縫の本を図書館で借りたら期待以上だったので、即刻購入。

I have borrowed Gertie's book Gertie Sews Vintage Casual from the library.
Well, as soon as flipped through, I knew I had to get it for myself, and I did.

I have been following Gertie's blog for a while now but the vintage style isn't really my thing, so I usually just enjoy reading the blog and that's it. I wasn't particularly drawn to her first book either as far as I can see from Amazon's "look inside" feature.

But I really liked the design of her underwear pattern from Butterick, and I recently bought her blouse pattern when Butterick patterns were on sale at Joann. So I decided to get this book from the library.

It's the great thing about the library system: I can just borrow it to see if I like it and if not, that's fine too.

Anyway, I really like this book. I have not read the first part (the "how-to" part) all the way, but I just like all the designs of the patterns included. There are 10 patterns of basic wardrobe building patterns included in the book, and what's more is that there are instructions to alter the patterns to make variety of different design variations. A fitted sweater pattern can be a cropped sweater top or cardigan, a knit pencil skirt pattern can be an A-line skirt or a gored skirt.

I really like all the patterns and variations (maybe except for a jumpsuit variation). This book is definitely worth the price.

Fall Outing

最近やっと秋らしくなってきました。
毎年行ってみたいと思いつつ、機会をのがしていたトウモロコシ畑迷路に行ってきました。
巨大なトウモロコシ畑が迷路になっているわけです。

この国に住んでもう10年以上たったけど、これやるの初めて。
迷路の中は、2メートル級のとうもろこしに囲まれて、自分がどこにいるのかさっぱりわかりません。
オットとお友達の男子二人が導いてくれたので、私はただただついていくだけ。
彼ら二人はよくただのとうもろこしの道を見て、「ここ1回通ったな」とかよくわかるな。
上級者向けは45分ぐらいかかる、ってガイドの人に言われたけど、そのとおりちょうど45分で出られたよ。

迷路のあとは、梨狩り。
えぇ、ここの農園にはなんと洋ナシではなく、日本の梨が育っているのです！
二十世紀！幸水！
それも自分でとってその場で食べる分は食べ放題。（持って帰る分は量り売り）
たわわに実る梨。梨狩りは男子にまかせて、私は一人、もいでは食う、もいでは食う。

梨狩りするのも初めてだけど、皮付きで梨を食べたのも、梨を丸かじりして食べたのも生まれて初めてでした。（アメリカ人、基本的に皮むかない）
とてもしやわせな一日でした。

Now that the weather has finally turn to fall, we went out to a orchard/farm for fall outing.

The purpose of this outing was a corn maze. This farm has a pretty big corn maze in October and I always wanted to go. Yes, it was my first time ever in the corn maze.
We got out in 45 minutes. It was fun.

The other purpose was to do pear picking. This orchard has many varieties of Asian pears. Pears are my most favorite food in the world and they have 20th Century pears and Kosui pears.

The good thing about this orchard is that "tasting is encouraged." Yes, as long as you are in the orchard, it's basically all you can eat... I let the guys do the picking and I just ate pears. Ah, it was wonderful.

By the way, it was also my first time ever eating pears with skin still on, and eating pears whole for that matter. We civilized Japanese peel and cut pears.

DIY Tablet Cover

義母用にタブレットを買いました。義母はあまりコンピューター操作に詳しくないので、オットは送る前にメールのセッティングをしたり、ゲームや遠隔操作用のアプリなどをインストール。
私はタブレットを入れるスリーブを作ろうかと思ったんだけど、時間がなかったのでその辺にあったノートを利用してタブレットカバーを作りました。

作り方。
１．ノート確保。かなり硬い厚紙がついているので強度抜群。カバーはプラスチック。またこれがタブレットにちょうどいい大きさなんだわ。

A perfectly sized spiral bound notebook with thick cardboard at the bottom and plastic cover. (Mead notebook will work if the size is right)

２．タブレットの大きさに切った別の厚紙にかわいい布を張る。これはユザワで買ったビニールコーティングされてる布。

Cut another piece of cardboard a size of the tablet and cover it with fabric. This is a vinyl coated fabric I bought in Japan.

 ３．こんな感じ。ノートのカバーにも同じ布を張っておく。

Covered piece. Also cover the notebook cover with same fabric. Since the vinyl coated fabric does not fray, I just cut the fabric the same as as the cover page (less the spine side edge where binding holes are)

 ４．厚紙の角にゴムをつける。セロテープで張って長さを調節してるとこ。

Add pieces of elastic on the 4 corners of the cardboard. I used scotch tape temporarily then hot glued them down securely.

 ５．角こんな感じ。

The corner elastic on the cardboard piece.

 ６．この厚紙をノートの内側に貼り付ける。

Hot-glue the cardboard piece to the notebook.

 ７．タブレット装着。

Tablet inserted.

 ８．ノート閉じたらこんな感じ。このノート、もともと端にゴムが着いていたので、ノートのカバーを閉じてゴムでくくれて便利。

This is how it looks with the notebook closed. The notebook came with the side elastic so it can hold the front cover page securely closed.

 ９．立てても使えます。

Sturdy enough to use it standing too.

The Man of the House bought a tablet for his mother. While he was pre-installing apps for her, I made a tablet cover using a notebook.
To be honest, it looks rather a bit too "DYI" for my taste as a gift but if she does not like it, she can throw it away, it's only an empty notebook shell.

One Year Seizure Free

てんかんもちのライチですが、年取ってきたせいか、最近はすっかり症状が落ち着いて、なんと最後の発作からもう1年もたっていました。
12歳だけど、いまだにハイパーです。

Our little one has been on medication for epileptic seizure for the past 7 years. Maybe because her metabolism and brain activity is slowing down from aging, she has been doing pretty well and she is now 1 year seizure free.

For a while, she was taking 1.5 pills of 1/4 grain phenobarbital and 1 pill of 125mg potassium bromide twice a day. We went down the phenobarb to 1.25 pills twice a day, and now she gets 1 pill twice a day (plus K bromide).

She gets tired easily now that she's 12 years old (assuming she was about a year old when we took her in), but when she's up and running, she is still the same "forever puppy."
I try to prepare myself for her death that will come in the very near future. I just hope that I will be there when she crosses the rainbow and that she won't die while she is having a seizure.
Ah, dogs.

Dog Walking: Flower

めずらしく、2週続けてシェルターの散歩ボランティアに行ってきました。
今日は歩いたどの犬も歩きやすい犬ばかりで楽でした。
特にお行儀が良かったのは、7歳のメスのレッドヒーラーのフラワー。
ケージの中でも、外に出てからもとてもおとなしく静かで散歩も上手でした。

Went to dog walking volunteer two weeks in a row.
All the dogs I walked today were easy to walked so it was nice.
Flower is a 7-year-old red heeler. She was very calm in the cage and she walked very nicely outside too.