July 5, 2011
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Following an extremely lazy weekend, I have top #7 of the Summer Top Project on the left, and the major seams of top #8 finished, as you can see below. Today I have to grade papers, calculate final grades, and turn all the stuff in. At some point soon I probably need to print them out and take the up to the Next County and sign my fall contract.
I enjoyed my summer class very much, but I am definitely ready not to teach for a bit. In fact, even though I just had a three day weekend complete with rodeo, farmers market, socializing, and Philly/sewing marathon, I am actually ready not to work for a bit. This won’t happen, but I seem for some reason to think that there should be hiking, water, and hammocks in my future.
In fact, there will be analytics reports, articles on public health issues, and possibly the launch of our latest website. Also lots of blogging.
These are all good things.
The Empress invited me to join her at her exercise class MWF mornings bright and early, and I will certainly do that.
Also, I am at my desk in blue jeans and bright summer top, so there is a sense of summerishness. Just a few years ago, summer was a mad time of very hard work in back to school retail, so I’m not sure where I’m getting this mental image of summer as a time to relax and commune with nature.
Possibly I’m going back in my mind to my youthful summers, or summers with my kids when we mostly went camping.
I’ll finish up top #8 this week. I was drawn to it by its complex pleats, which are lost in this batik quilting cotton I’ve made it from, and I made too large a size, so it ends up looking more like a smock than a blouse. A summer smock will be fine with me, though. I might make this one again in the right size, in a solid color so the complex pleats will show.
I still have my embroidered satin left, and I think that will be the end of the Summer Top Project. It has definitely been a success; I’ll have nine summer tops for just about the price of one RTW (okay, I know that it’s possible to buy summer tops for $10, but the ones I contemplated in catalogs were all in the $60+ range. Since it’s a hypothetical blouse, I might as well choose one I like). I used four different patterns, not counting the utter failure of the Hot Patterns Dolman, and they all went pretty well. I spent some time not working, and watched a whole bunch of lawyer shows via Netflix, thus becoming more knowledgeable about pop culture. I got better at pleats, darts, and gathers, too. All around, a successful project.
