Peace and Pieces and Piecing

It's been so blasted COLD for the last month, that I got the idea I needed some decent turtlenecks.  Last year, or maybe it was 2 years ago, I bought some cheap turtlenecks, and the sleeves shortened when I washed them.  I *hate* too-short sleeves, so planned a self-treat day of shopping for my birthday, Dec 30th, to look for some quality turtlenecks. (Yeah, what was I thinking.)


I stopped at LL Bean where I saw these - any size you want as long as it's Extra Small and any color you want as long as it's something garish (apologies to anyone who loves these colors, but they're too bright for me.)  I tried another store or two, but quickly lost interest in shopping.  After years of only shopping at the Salvation Army, anything that costs more than a few dollars feels too expensive.

I also bought some pieces parts for my current sewing project - a carrying bag for my spinning wheel.  It's pretty easy to buy a boughten bag, but they run $120+, which is too rich for my blood.  I had a great time picking out upholstery fabric for the bag, and a semi-clashing fabric for the handles/straps.  My current house has me in a midcentury mood, and it looks like I'm going through an orange phase, colorwise.

There aren't any patterns for these things and the wheel is irregularly shaped, so I used dimensions from a blog post.  And then proceeded to cut a bigger bag, meaning I had to add pieces to the long, side part that I had cut too short, then cut a piece of woven plastic to be a bottom cover piece to cover up my ... seamy indiscretions.  First, I sewed batting to the side piece, then added the long outer piece.  And then remembered I had to put in the zipper (cue the sound of doom soundtrack).

Good lord, but it's been years since I put a zipper in anything, I'd forgotten how, and I've NEVER put a zipper in upholstery fabric this thick, after it'd been sewn to something thick and big.  It wasn't pretty as I worked out how to use a walker foot and the zipper foot alternately, depending on what worked best.  Don't tell anyone I broke a needle and the top half of the bag is an inch narrower than it's supposed to be, but the finished product will look just fine!  Piecing this thing together is kinda fun, but hard work using rusty brain circuits. Ninety percent of sewing is half mental ... or maybe that was something else.

And the last piece is "peace."  In the single digit temperatures of the last month, I've been worrying about pipes freezing at the country house - and running out of oil, hastening said freezing of pipes. A friend with a truck came to the house with me yesterday.  We took a load of stuff from the shed and drained the water pipes. No more chance of frozen pipes!  Whee!  Peace of mind! (If only it were that easy...)