The last month consisted of: Fly standby to Halifax (a day in the airport), drive to Cape Breton to see grandparents, drive back to Halifax, fly standby back to Montreal (another day in the airport), work like bonkers for a week to get some results before the High Throughput Centre closes for a month, fly to Vancouver, fly back to Montreal, work like bonkers to get as much organized as possible before my union voted to strike, AAAAAAND......then go on strike. Whew. I've been enjoying the luxury of being home during day while my kids are in school / daycare. Now I understand how people get all their shit done: one of them stays home. What a novel concept. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?!
So the first couple of days at home consisted of long overdue housework, but then I thought I would finally take advantage of the time to myself to do some actual sewing, so I skipped off to the local thrift store. I thought I'd scored when I found 5 metres of black cotton/lycra jersey for $5. (I never find cheap knit at my local stores and the thrift shops. Forget it.) So I took it home and threw it in the washer, and then............
WTF?
WTF?!
Have you ever had to vacuum the inside of your dryer? I have. It's not something I had on my Sewing Bucket List, that's for sure. It's like the cotton completely disintegrated and all that was left behind was the lycra skeleton. Oh yeah, and a fine layer of black sticky dust all over my freakin house.
So now the time and money wasted in running many loads of laundry over again has pretty much cancelled out the savings of that little thrift store adventure. Gah.
Anyway, I'm working on a few little things while I'm on my (unpaid) strike/vacation: I did a little tie dying with the offspring over the long, stormy Labour Day weekend, I'm working on a shift dress vaguely based on a pattern from 1970 using the cool linen from my first estate sale score, and I'm getting set up for my Gatsby dress.
Is it wrong of me to hope that this strike drags on a little longer? At least until I get some sewing done.
OH NO! What a disaster! I've never seen that happen before.
ReplyDeleteThe tie dyed clothes are super cute, and I'm curious to see more of your shift dress. That's some interesting fabric (that will hopefully hold together!). Hurrah for enjoying your sudden time off!
Hey there! New follower.
ReplyDeleteThat lyrca was a horror story! I think I would cry.
I agree -- really cute tie-dying in a lovely shade of yellow.
Heather: I'd never seen this before either. Of course, I've seen wool get eaten by critters and nylon melt under too much heat, but this one is still a mystery to me. The linen I'm using for the shift dress is really fray-able and shifty, so it's fully bias bound. Well, almost fully bound. I have to finish it off today!
ReplyDeleteColette: hello to you too! It's always nice to see who's out there reading.
I (and my man) are still trying to clean up this black dust. It's like it's multiplying around here!
I guess that Lycra was flocked like a cheap velvet and it melted in the dryer? I have bought mystery fabrics like that in downtown LA at our garment district in the one dollar a yard bins. If in doubt, wash by hand!
ReplyDeleteLove the tie dye.
Hi Justine - it actually fell apart when I washed it, but then I put it in the dryer too, like the overtired zombie-like mother I am ;) I always throw everything in the washer because I know at some point it will get in there by mistake, so I figure it's better to do the damage before I waste time on sewing with mystery fabric! Lesson learned, that's for sure.
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