How to find a lost tool

Doesn't it always seem to be that the best way to find an old tool is to buy a new one? When I was gathering supplies for my return to sewing some months ago, I thought about the tracing wheel that I've had since junior high home ec. It has traveled with me since 1963 and I have NEVER used it since that class. So of course when I needed it, I couldn't find it. Often I've tossed things that I never use thinking I'll never need them again, and then sure enough, as soon as I do that, I find a need for it, and it becomes a good excuse to buy something new. So I bought a Dritz tracing paper and wheel kit.

Even though I barely remembered ever using a tracing wheel, this new one seemed kind of wobbly, like a cheap pizza cutting wheel I have. It was disappointing. So I bought an old tracing wheel off Ebay and it was MUCH less wobbly than the new one.

You know what happened next. Of course. Looking for something else, I found the old tracing wheel! It felt so weird actually holding it with purpose after more than 40 years! I tried it, and like the Ebay wheel, it was not wobbly at all.




The interesting thing is that it was also a Dritz and was made in the same shape as the new Dritz. What could be the difference? In this photo the new one is on the right in dark blue. Notice how much bigger the slot is for the metal wheel to wiggle around in. I wonder why they did that? They can't save THAT much money on the plastic saved, can they? Anyway, it feels like good getting the old one back and putting it to use again. Does anyone have a suggestion for a better tracing paper than Dritz?

It's good to be humbled. Isn't it?

I am trying to put my best foot forward here, to make a good first impression and all that. But it's good for me to eat a piece of humble pie, once in a while, and last weekend I got two pieces served up hot. On Saturday I did a load of wash as usual, including a new t-shirt I'd finished days before. When it came out of the dryer, the shirt, which I might add was in my favorite, hard-to-find dark teal blue color cotton interlock, had some kind of crud dried on the front. I have NO idea what it was, but it was kind of like baked on styrofoam or something. I frantically tried to pick it off and all that happened is that it tore an L-shaped hole right where you really can't hide a patch on a new shirt. So I took it with me to a meeting and showed some friends. No one there could identify it either. Later at home I thought maybe it was the spray stain-remover I'd used; could it have been a defective bottle? So I sprayed the back of the shirt, washed and dried it, and lo and behold! When it came out of the dryer it was perfectly clean back AND front! Well the tear was still there of course. Very annoying!!

Then I went on to work on a blouse I'd started. This one was a small floral print rayon challis that I've had in my stash forever and which had been free to start with. I'm sailing away on my neckline facing; had finished sewing and trimming the seam, pressed it , pinned it and started doing the top-stitching when...this is so embarrassing to admit...I discovered I'd sewn it to the wrong side of the fabric! My excuse was it was difficult to tell the right side from the wrong side of this print. But the seam allowances were in the wrong place. That should have been a clue. I had to laugh. I figured it was time to get out of the sewing room and do some knitting.

A quick intro

One of the great things about having been a weaver for 30+ years is that I have a closet full of beautiful fabrics that are just ripe for cutting up and sewing. A lot of weavers have a fear of doing that and that's why so many handwoven garments are rectangles: scarves, shawls, ruanas. I have spent some time in the last few years working on improving my sewing skills so that I have actually cut curved necklines in my ruanas and have started applying some couturier techniques such as lining to handwoven textiles. But I have a long way to go!

I've been enjoying the sewing blogs so much and have been amazed how much I'm learning! Here I'll probably be posting a lot of questions and hope that some of you will have some answers for me.