Back to school and the Redsuit

Well it’s back to uni for the boys, which is exciting for them and for me. The one son got accepted into the redsuits – an engineering group or fraturnity I guess you’d call it. The various faculties around campus have them and engineering’s colours are bright red. The symbol is the fireball lol, and the drink some type of fireball whisky etc, you get the picture. Part of Dan’s duties this saturday is to help welcome the new frosh to campus and help them move into residence so he left last night.

Part of the redsuit is to decorate it as the various members see fit so since his nickname given by the fraturnity or group (still not sure what it is) had something to do with pockets (not sure I’m supposed to put it out there what the whole name is) I thought it might be neat to come up with some extra pockets for the suit.

As it turned out I ran out of time since I didn’t realise I was going to end up doing this until a couple days before and I was bound and bent I was going to finish off the last of the beaded scarves and I underestimated the time needed to work on the suit. I did start the day before but that was tie-dyeing and fabric dyeing the materials for the suit. I didn’t end up taking pictures of all the stuff I did but here are pictures of the two fabrics I did end up using.

Redsuit with tie-dyed swirl.

There were so many pockets already on the suit I figured it would look too busy to put on additional pockets except for the arms and legs. I decided to start off with the red and white swirl because I noticed that it reflected the red and white swirl in the design on the back. There really wasn’t anywhere to put it except over the back pocket so that’s what I did.

By this time the last of my pieces had dried and where waiting to be ironed and as I’m coming up the stairs my son informs me that the one piece of fabric is “sick”. It took a second or two for this to register that that was a good thing.

Fire fabric

I created this piece of fabric by sewing it into a tube and placing it over a piece of plastic pvc pipe. The original white fabric was first dyed lemon yellow and then after scrunching the material tightly onto the tube the main area was overdyed red and the loose edges black.

Instead of making pockets I ended up sewing a piece down each leg. I’d run out of time at that point and this seemed the easiest solution – keeping in mind that I had to open up the seam on each leg and resew the seams after applying the fabric.

Dan's redsuit front view

Redsuit back view

Of course while I’m doing all of this and slowly realising that I’m not going to get as much done on the suit as I’d thought, I’m also informed that the students usually put their faculty letters on the legs. So I’m thinking “Oh yeah, black letters saying Mech Eng would be great – not a prayer”. I guess people who don’t sew don’t realise the time it takes. Anyhow I sent him off with a piece of black Kona that I’d fused to “Misty Fuse” and told him he could iron the letters on himself. I was also told that the suit looked a little barren but he’s going to have to come up with some stuff himself besides which there was only so much tie-dye you could put on the suit before over-whelming it. I did get a very nice “thanks mom” and hug so I guess “at the end of the day that’s all that counts”.

Karen (who is now done with crafty stuff on a deadline and can cook, clean and craft to her hearts content…or not)

Scarves done!

Finally the beaded scarves are all done. I must have been nuts to do them as I have a nasty suspicion that although they look nice the scarves won’t be appreciated for the amount of work that went into them, oh well.

I guess that’s the chance you take when you give a handmade item. Unless the receipient has specifically asked for what you’ve made then a person risks the possiblity that their gift won’t be appreciated. I found this out recently when I made my mother-in-law a bed jacket for a Christmas gift only to have it returned to me as she didn’t think she would wear it.

LOL, I could see exactly what was running through her mind. In her mind she pictured bed jackets as an item that elderly infirm women wore and she didn’t want to associate with that. In my mind I saw her as older (88 years) and easily chilled and pictured her wearing it as she sat doing whatever. It hurt that she didn’t want the gift but I appreciated her honesty. I’d rather the gift returned than have it sitting around collecting dust.

Then again there’s something to be said for the concept of receiving a gift, marvelling over it and then putting it away (perhaps to regift at some point in time?). It’s one reason why I tend not to give homemade gifts to my kids. I’ve spent most of my life as a mom doing crafty work yet none of them really appreciates anything I’ve made nor my husband. The possibility occurs that maybe I lack the talent of making the right item with the right colours but maybe its just a case of they figure its a hobby for me to do and another case of “Oh look what mom’s made now” while they’re thinking “Do I really have to take it?”. I have a feeling they might appreciate stuff for the grandkids more than they do for themselves.

Or at least I hope they will because I have a boatload of ideas in my head…

My grandkids “WILL” grow up loving tie-dye shirts and socks and whatever, lol.

Karen

Bridal shower and colour run

Well one event over and one left to go before life can get back to normal around here, not that it’s been much different just less pressure I guess to get things done.

After a massive house cleaning last week we had Jen’s bridal shower on Saturday and everything went smoothly thanks mostly to my other daughter Linda and her massive cooking efforts to feed the whole gang of people. Also the bridemaids stepped in to help out with all the other festivities and decorating, which was a good thing because by that time I was exhausted with all the cleaning I’d done.

Some pictures of the event:

Jen talking with some of the guests out in the backyard. Beautiful day with lots of sun and cool breezes.

Dessert in kitchen, unfortunately I was running around so much I forgot to take pictures of the main courses.

Linda and grandma Trudie dressed up in toilet paper made to look like brides in a game. Note grandma’s age appropriate flapper headdress for which she won the prize.

Jen and Linda my two beautiful girls.

Phil presenting Jen with some beautiful white roses after the shower.

It was the perfect day for the event, starting out in the living room/ dining room where we had the main course and then all moved out to the backyard for the games, gift openings and desert. People seemed to appreciate the gardens so I was pleased with my efforts and John had cut and bagged the grass so everything looked neat and trim.

Yesterday I dyed up the make green colour run and today I mailed off the swap. Just thought I’d post a picture so others can see what they’ll be getting in the mail.

Make green colour run from Dharma’s Lemon Yellow to ProChem’s Intense Blue.
Karen

Bathroom curtains

It’s been a while since the last post sorry but I haven’t really had my mind on anything other than trying to get the house into shipshape for the bridal shower (this Saturday) and getting things done for the wedding in September.

I do have something to post though, some bathroom curtains I finally got done last night. The old ones were really ratty and I threw them out when I cleaned the bathroom for my brother’s visit in July. The new ones were made with some hand-dyed material to match the shower curtain.

New patchwork curtains using hand dyed fabric to match shower curtain. Really hard to take a shot with light behind the curtains so hence the closed blind.

It took me a bit to work out the dimensions for the valence and sew the seams. Of course I sewed the wrong seams first and made the pocket to small for the curtain rod so it didn’t fit and that had to be ripped out but once I had done the upper curtain the bottom curtain whizzed along just fine. It kind of tickles my fancy that I now have the knowledge to take any colour in the house and make accessories that match.

I did some cleaning yesterday as well so things are slowly moving along, who knows maybe I’ll even get a decent amount of cleaning done before Saturday. On a different note, we now have a new record for rainfall during the summer in Toronto and greater area with rain falling at some point/place each day of the past two months and yes it looks like rain again today. Last few years have been drought conditions though and the Great Lakes had fallen several feet so this rain is needed. The days haven’t been to bad with lots of patches of sunshine inbetween the rain so I can’t complain. My daughter had her basement flood a couple of days ago with a heavy rainfall. One of the town’s pumps failed and the sewers backed up. Unfortunately they had just spent a lot of money, time and effort re-doing the basement to code so they could rent it out so I don’t know what this will set them back although their insurance should cover it, such is life.

Karen