Sometimes I just feel like quitting.....

 I never knew what Yosemite Sam was saying when he got frustrated but whatever it was I sure felt like saying it on today! LOL! Yeah, you read the post title right! Sometimes I just get SO frustrated with my sewing/sewing related decisions that I feel like throwing in the towel. Ugh... Seems like an odd thing to say just 2 days after celebrating my 3rd Blogoversary (BTW, a thousand thanks to you guys for all of your kind words! Don't forget to visit the post HERE for details about my Giveaway). Ok, let me get back to my ranting.....

Seriously, my day just took a few frustrating twists. For some odd reason I got the notion that the dress I picked for my Dec 5th upcoming Holiday dinner was TOO Fancy. Let's just say I got overly self conscious! In truth I don't like to Then I decided to do all sorts of research about what constitutes a semi-formal dress---BTW there are NOOOOO clear answers. It's so subjective. Some websites suggest understated 2 piece ensembles, shunning any satin dresses, etc. I was in a tizzy over what to do. Then I consulted an attendant from a previous year and she said that I was safe anyway I decided. Then I tried to figure out what shoes would go well with a hunter green dress if you DON'T have hunter green shoes. That took some research. The answers were nudes, metallics (provided you use them as accessories too) and black.

So I finally got the info I needed to proceed with the project. Great! After all of that worrying I discovered upon closer examination that my fabric was a little too heavy for the project.  What?!?!?!?!?!? All that worry and headache for nothing!!!!! So that put me back at square one!!! Scrapping this project and needing to find another one. I decided to find another pattern and fabric from my stash.

I dug and dug and was able to turn up something while simultaneously  On days like this I'm happy to have a fabric stash and decent pattern collection. After much digging around I turned up what I consider to be a lovely dress pattern and I pulled out a fancy piece of jacquard (gray, black, and bronze) that I'd bought this Summer while visiting family in TN.

So here's my new sewing plan for the Holiday dinner and I'm happy with it. Now I've got to get to work!

Whew! Glad all of the raucous has come to an end. It's kinda like the old song goes..."Mama, said there'd be days like this". Oh I wish sewing was all rainbows and unicorns. But as you know it comes with it's share of frustrations. In my world, it's ok to feel and accept the frustrations but by NO MEANS will I ever succumb to them. There's no giving up as far as I'm concerned. I've got 10,000 hours to get under my belt. Hey if you gave up anytime anything got frustrating you'd never get anywhere in life. Heck, I think all parents would've stopped after just having one kid! LOL!

As always I'll keep pressing on! Besides, I'm a firm believe that opposition makes you sharper and will reveal your focus. I'm excited about my new sewing plan and am working on the muslin now. So my question for you is how do you handle sewing frustrations?

UPDATE: Stinky Olfa Cutting Mat Issue Resolved!

You may recall my post Is your Self Healing Cutting Mat Smelly?"  from about a week ago. At that time I had just bought an 35" X 70" (3-24"X36" mats that clip together) Olfa cutting mat which was giving off a strong chemical odor. 

After reading reviews about this and seeing it mentioned on the Olfa website I was concerned about whether or not I would be able to get rid of the strong odor. Well I decided to forgo the vinegar/water bath tub soak suggestion that was recommended by others and the Olfa website and instead directly called Olfa to inquire about a remedy to the problem.

Well I talked to a nice lady who gave me a couple of suggestions to try. Now at first I must admit that I wasn't sure if any of these treatments would work. But after 2 separate times of soaking my mats in a bathtub of cool water and lemon dishwashing liquid overnight, rinsing them and allowing them to air dry (both outside in the evening air and in the garage) for a couple of days--- I'm proud to announce that the horribly strong smell has dissipated and I'm LOVIN' MY NEW CUTTING MATS! I've always loved using my rotary cutter and am happy I have a large enough cutting mat surface to do so!!!! Cutting fabric is my least favorite part of sewing so using my rotary cutter helps to speed things along.

So I have to strongly recommend the Olfa 35"X 70"cutting mat, especially if you're looking for a large cutting mat for your sewing table. If your mat has a strong chemical smell, try soaking it and air drying it as suggested to see if you can remedy the issue:)

Singing the Sewing Machine Blues.....

 (That's my lil' girl on the left---the Brother Project Runway edition)

I think my sewing machine is sick! I was right in the middle of sewing a cute top when part of my shirt was sucked below the throat plate and my thread entangled. No big deal, right? This happens every once in and the remedy is to clear everything out and go back to sewing, right?  Well, I managed to clear everything out but now my sewing machine won't sew without jamming.  I took it the throat plate and removed any thread or lint that I could see, took out my bobbin holder, etc. But it still won't run properly. Guess it's off to the "doctor" for my baby. I can't help but feel heavy-hearted and mope a little bit. My baby's sick......boo-hoo!!! It's a computerized machine my only one aside from my Serger (the other 3 machines I have are manual). Besides it's fairly new since I bought it in the Summer 09'.  I'm not completely familiar with some of the issue that are common to these machines. I hope it's not too serious or expensive. In the meantime......time to pull out the back-up machine. Sigh----

Uggghh---Defective Fabric!!!

I'm sure I'm at the point where I'm just shy of blowing smoke out my ears. For the last half hour I've been in a tug-of-war match with my cotton knit fabric. Just look at it. See it there on the right hand side. See all of those pesky ripples. The fabric somehow is off grain, irregular, and will not lay flat. I'm guessing it's a production defect.  Has this happened to you? What did you end up doing? I have a few ideas but it will involve me losing some fabric width which would make it hard for me do to my dress. This is such a rare occurence and I probably shouldn't be upset. That would be true if I didn't LOVE the fabric so much.
   I've had the spontaneous notion to throw a cute dress together just in time for church on Sunday. I know it's a knit AGAIN but I've already explained my addiction to you so I was hoping you'd let me off the hook. Besides, Sunday will be 75 degrees (yes, Spring temps in the middle of winter---I love it!!!), so a cute Spring like dress is only fitting. Plus I will have my trousers finished and reviewed by next week with my corduroy jacket to follow after that. So no knits for the next 2 weeks (wink)!
  But wrestling with this fabric is making me think that this is a sign to skip the knit dress. But do you know what I say to that? To that I say NEVER!!!! I'm not giving up without a fight!!! Not that easily. We'll just see if I'll be able to make it happen by Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Missing Followers on your Google Blog???

My fellow Google "Blogger's" you might have noticed that your list of followers have disappeared. I made some changes to my blog and noticed this. I thought I did it but I checked some of your sights and noticed the same thing. Don't panic!!! If you go to your dashboard you'll still see the number of followers you have, just no display on your blog.

I'm guessing this is a Blogger issue. When I looked it up under "help" I noticed it had happened back in September and the good people at Google Blogger mentioned they would fix it. I'm guessing that will be the case again. If not then I'll drop them a line. We can't be without the power to "follow" new blogs that we discover, now can we??? LOL! It's not that serious but you get my drift.