Shirring, and April Musings

As I mentioned in my last post, this week's craft was the Shirt Skirt from the blog Sew Like My Mom...an opportunity for me to try out elastic thread and shirring.  I read a few tutorials first, so luckily I knew this was going to be a bit of a pain-- from winding the elastic thread on a bobbin by hand, to holding the material flat as I sewed so that it would come out right and not too bunched up.  It worked ok, but this was the first of the things that I've made this year that I've been unhappy about-- I don't know if I'll use this skirt.  Here are some mistakes I made, that made this a little unlikely to make it into the wardrobe rotation:
1.  the T-shirt I chose at Goodwill was new (leftovers from Target), soft, and a good color of grey...but not very thick, or well made.  I ripped a tiny hole in it when I started sewing and had to stop, cut off half an inch, and start again.  I should have been as much concerned with the quality of the T-shirt as the color.
2.  there is a ruffley bit at the top because I left a good 1/4 inch edge when I began, fearful of going any closer to the top.  The directions said 1/8 inch, but I forgot that until I sewed all the way around and saw the ruffle appear.
3.  the directions said to do 12-15 rows of shirring but I got bored/worried about running out of elastic thread and having to wind another bobbin (I was already on my second one, that was all I prepped ahead of time) and stopped at 11.  After steaming the elastic it shrunk down and got a little stretchy, but it doesn't grip me tightly and I'd be worried this skirt would fall down if I wore it in public.  Maybe it would have been more grippy if I had gone for a few more rows of shirring.






This one I *won't* be modeling for the blog!  Above you can barely see the dots of green and purple on this light heathered grey skirt, it's hard to see from this picture why the material of the t-shirt tempted me in the first place.




This close-up gives a better idea of the material and the shirring-- I'm glad I tried it anyway, and I would try another one with a better t-shirt (maybe extra long, but not men's XL?) and maybe better quality elastic thread too.  I had to buy Dritz as that was all they had at my local store, and only afterward read in the comments of a tutorial on shirring that Dritz is the worst for this use.  Oh well.

In other news, we're almost halfway through our month-long 'break' from homeschooling-- although it's not a complete break, as things like Debate class and piano lessons are still going on, as well as physics experiments with the 4-H club which the boys just joined and some lessons with our 'tiny co-op' on Fridays with our good friends. This month off has gotten me thinking again (this crops up every couple of years) about doing a home-based baking business, selling cookies through local stores.  I'm not sure if I can really manage it on top of the homeschooling (not just the lessons, but the driving all over for activities) and keeping up with a toddler.  This month I feel like it would be possible, but I might just be thinking so because right now we're on break and my days are not over-full.  Then again, I recently read an article in a magazine (maybe Redbook? I can't remember) about having a bunch of mini jobs, less than part time, instead of a full time job or even two part-time jobs.  It felt like a revelation when I read that, because I tend to do things "all or nothing' in some ways, and it never occurred to me before that I could work a little of this and a little of that, and make money and keep myself occupied without having to compromise what I'm doing with the boys.  So, instead of imagining that I could either have a huge, busy, thriving home-based business, or not do it at all-- what if I only sold to one or two outlets, and didn't have to spend too many hours a week on the business?  The big boys are five years older than they were when I started looking into having a food business (I took a class about it in 2009)...they could be genuinely helpful (not in the cooking, but advertising, delivering, accounting) rather than just cute little sidekicks.  They're actually really excited about me starting a baking business, it motivates me to try because I don't want to disappoint them.  My family is so touchingly invested in seeing me do something besides just be the mom, it's nice.  Or insulting, wait-- are they trying to get rid of me?