Part 4 of 4: Weird Houses I Live In

At any given time, I have an awesome (and I mean that in the original sense of the word) list of things that I intend or would like to do. I’m not talking about the Sisyphus-like round of weekly and daily tasks that keep life running. No, I refer to the things I would do should I not have to wash dishes, make dinner, walk the dog, do laundry, clean the ______, etc.

Ssometimes I get to some extra thing. One task on the Extra Time List was to do some fabric prettifying of the bathroom. I have a shower stall (no bathtub) so my pretty shower curtain was way too wide. So I cut off the extra fabric from the curtain and made a little decorative curtain, trim for the rug, and a tissue box cover.

You may remember that the walls in my bathroom are concrete, so I couldn’t use a curtain rod. Instead I made buttonholes and used micro Command hooks. The tissue box cover I saw on Kirin Notebook and again on My Paper Crane (it would have worked better if I’d remembered to add a seam allowance). Just simple little things, but definitely a good impact.

While I’m on the subject, I’d like to make a note about this “house” I live in. I can’t remember if I told you guys, but this place was built around 1932 and was a garage that was added onto. As nearly as I can figure, whoever owned the house did all the work himself. He had pretty good intentions, but (a) no discernible sense of style or aesthetics, (b) no professional skills, just amateur ingenuity and a hardware store, (c) a whole lot of time on his hands.

You may note the “privacy glaze” on the bathroom window. That stuff is just weird and old. And you can see a bit of the tile there under the rug, but that’s the most normal tile in the house. I’m not kidding when I tell you we have a yellow brick road in the kitchen, a sun in front of the bathroom sink and a triangle in front of the toilet. It was clearly a custom tile job. It makes Jeff crazy to look at it.  And there is that spot in between the old garage and the addition that’s not quite sealed, where occasionally a vine from outdoors starts growing inside.  Not to mention the kitchen that still makes me think I’m camping half the time.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is more odd, one-off, inexplicable, uneven, painted over, hacked together, jerry-rigged, not-quite-functional crazy shit in this apartment than I can begin to tell you. I mean honestly, who else among you has a bedroom that’s like an underground bunker but with a vaulted ceiling? I have no idea what this guy was thinking while he did some of these things.

Ah well. I have a 10 minute walk to work, and I share no walls, and it’s not permanent. I keep telling myself that.

Part 3 of 4: Trying Again or Stubbornness

*AHEM* Never make plans. Plans never work out. I planned to post twice last week, but unfortunately evil shapeshifting soldiers from an alternate universe appeared and … wait. That was Fringe.

I ended up watching TV because I was hijacked by illness and despair last week. A nasty combination of migraine and stomach flu convinced me by late Wednesday that I must surely be dying. This was not true. I was, however, sicker than I’ve been since I was a teenager, and the only thing that interested me about the computer was reruns of Simon & Simon on Hulu.

Crafting did not interest me. For three days I lay prone, trying to pretend I was hot or cold because I was in the Bahamas or Iceland. Finally yesterday I picked up my crochet hook (it seemed like a low energy task) and started working again on the red sweater I started a year ago. I WILL FINISH IT THIS TIME. I just tried it on again this evening and the sleeves now fit and the decreases I forgot last time are going well. All these sweater struggles had better make my next crochet sweater much easier.

It seems I am in a mood to pick up tasks which previously frustrated me, all of them having to do with making clothing. If I am nothing else, I am persistent in getting things done which I feel must be done. I may get frustrated, but I don’t give up until I’ve figured things out.

Before the minions of hell loosed their plague upon me, I was working on my wardrobe sewing skills. I’ve been using my mending pile to figure how fitting clothing works. You may remember I was slightly miffed when trying to alter a dress pattern to fit me (we won’t go into that rant again) and gave it up as a bad job for a while. I’ve managed to alter several shirts and two skirts to fit me now, figuring out where the darts and whatever are supposed to go for things to fit me.

This is my example of my fitting work, complete with bad camera work and piles of mending. On the left is a shirt with an acre of extra room, and on the right the end product. I was excited that it worked. The project wasn’t all that spectacular, except for the fact that all the fitting was new to me …  I have to start somewhere, right?

In summation, I am determined that (a) I will feel like a human again, not a dishrag and (b) that I will make myself clothing that fits. Surely these are not too much to ask for.

Closet + Windows + Bathroom = Wrap

In my house, the only closet is exactly on the opposite side of the house from the only bathroom, and there are four windows and two doors in between them. Let me say that having a robe for the windows and slippers for the cold floors has become a necessity since I moved in.

However, I dislike robes. Mine always seem to untie themselves. In front of a window.

I found the solution in Simple Sewing with a French Twist by Celine Dupuy. A bath wrap is not a new idea, of course. I’ve seen them in my mom’s Lillian Vernon catalogs and the Hammacher Shl-whatever magazines you always see on airplanes.

This one, however, has several features that those did not. It (1) used up a stash of blue terry cloth I bought for another project that I didn’t know what to do with, (2) fits me really well, because I made it, (3) has straps and 2 buttons, because I wanted them, (4) has elastic sewn to the fabric in places so the fabric in the band never bunches up and (5) is the length I wanted, longer than one I could buy.

Excellent. I love it when a plan comes together.

P.S. I’m trying to make, or “complete” one project a week. Erk. It’s hard when you don’t have many hours to devote to it!