Tag Archives: sewing

Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2023, The Adventure

Sewing Room Shenanigans

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Over the years, I’ve loved the chance to be a Sewing SOWER! I’ve made curtains, gym shorts,  and chair covers.  And more curtains. This is the first time (at least that I can remember) that there was an actual Sewing Room and a wide variety of sewing activities to do.
It started with sewing on ALERT patches and rank stripes on shirts.
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Then I moved to those grill bags –
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Those were fun to work on!
Then I moved back to the shirts. This time I was “flagging” them!
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And there were a lot to ‘flag’!
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After the shirts were done (and ready for the next batch of students), there was a steady stream of mending jobs that kept us busy. Then came the quilts!
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We were either mending the rod pockets (for hanging) or adding new rod pockets so it wasn’t actually quilting. But I was still handling quilts. and it was great to see the different quilts from their Family Camp over the years.
Our final project was to make a stage skirt for this platform in Recruit Hall.
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Each section was 17 feet long. That’s two 17 ft. hems, side hems, and 17 ft. of Velcro sewn on (times 2).
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Job done!
Our final, final job was sewing a new “D” ring on the most ginormous American flag I have ever seen up close and personal!
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And then we had to fold it!
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Now that was a Big job! I didn’t measure it, but I was told it was 12 ft. tall. Ginormous!

So “Shenanigans” might be a little strong for my time in the sewing room, but I liked the way the words sounded together! And I think it sounded better than Sewing Room Potpourri!

I’m not sure I’ll be in the Sewing Room next month, but I certainly have enjoyed all my time stitching away these past two months!
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RV Life, Sewing/Quilting Projects, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2023, The Adventure

Work Report

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Let’s face it – January has been a pretty unusual month for us. We started it at the beach, took a 2400 mile road trip mid-month to meet family members that we didn’t know existed until a few months ago, and still had a good three weeks of work here at ALERT Academy!
And when I say a  Good Three Weeks I mean  a Good Three Weeks in the Sewing Room!
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I’ve done some sewing off and on over my years as a SOWER, but this was the first time I got to work in a designated Sewing Room! And while I wasn’t piecing quilts or making bags, I was sitting in front of a Bernina sewing machine with my foot on the pedal and my eye on the needle! What a delight!
I started off sewing on stripes and patches for the young men who had moved from Basic Training to 1st Responders.
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(Fancy nails courtesy of our mani-pedi day in Destin with the girls!)
Once we had all the shirts caught up, I was moved to Grill Bags.
Grill Bags? It’s actually pretty straight forward – the guys need these grill bags to carry their grills when they do their overnight hikes and the ones they had were in pretty bad shape.
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I finished up the grill bags today, and tomorrow it’s back to sewing on patches! This time it’s flags on a batch of new shirts!
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And the good news is – when the February project starts next week, I’ll still be right there in the Sewing Room. Ahhh…..
Meanwhile – Gary has been busy too! He’s been working over in a set of dorms (used primarily for Basic Training) repairing some tile work. Our schedule is different enough that I haven’t actually seen him at work, but there is this one picture of him that verifies that he is indeed working.
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I never doubted it – did you?

So January has been a very full – and very different month! Since we took our week off in the middle of the month (with our Find the Family Road Trip), we start right back up next Monday. But before we head back to work, we’re looking forward to a sweet Waco Weekend, visiting with our kids and their cowboys! I understand there will be chicks hatching on Saturday AND they have a couple dozen eggs they’ll be sending back with us! Now that’s a win-win!
Thanks for stopping by  and Happy February!
Steph

Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, Sewing/Quilting Projects, The Adventure

Tweaking the Mask

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Do you ever find a recipe that sounds good but you don’t have all the ingredients? And then you look for several more recipes for the same dish and mish-mash them together to get something that works for you? Not that I’m doing much follow-the-recipe cooking these days, but when I did, this was a fairly common procedure for me. I’ve found that I’m doing the same thing with my mask ‘production’.
When Dr. Mike, my doctor nephew, first asked for masks, his preferred style was the fitted type. He sent a link to a pattern, and I did (mostly) follow those directions. There was a brief pause after that batch, and then a couple of weeks ago he let me know that once again they were in need of masks. But this time, he sent a link for the pleated type with a pocket for a filter to be inserted. Inside I was saying “yippee” because they had to be less fiddly than those fitted ones. There were lots of things I liked about that pattern, but after I Continue reading Tweaking the Mask →

RV Life, Sewing/Quilting Projects, The Adventure

My latest bag obsession

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I haven’t done a “Craft-y” post in a while, have I?
I know in the past I’ve written about how much I love to make bags. Especially those cute Tag-Along Totes!
But lately I’ve been perfecting a Game Bag. OK, “Perfecting” might be a bit of a stretch, but still, I’ve made some modification to an existing pattern.
We’re big Rummikub fans, but not such a big fan of laying out all the tiles . (I know, I know – it’s a very small thing, but when you live in a very small space these things need to be considered.)
I started out making a simple drawstring bag –
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which worked well for storing the tiles, but it was not so great for grabbing the tiles during play.
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It was just kind of floppy.

I found a “Box Pouch” tutorial over on YouTube that looked like it would work just fine.

I really liked my first attempt
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and it worked great for passing around to draw tiles. BUT – it wasn’t big enough to hold the trays too.  Back to the Tiny space thing, right?
Hmmmm….
So I adjusted the size and added some additional interfacing and quilting to give it more stability, and voila – the perfect (OK – modified!) solution!
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And because I just can’t seem to stop once I’ve figured out – here are a couple more renditions-
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This little bag would work great for a quick game of Dominoes too!

Most of these have already found homes, and I’m pretty sure the ones that are left will be put to good use. 🙂

Now let’s go play some Rummicub!
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PS – Along with that video – here’s a link to actual written tutorial.