New Slacks and New Shower Faucet!

October 28, 2016October 28, 2016 Sewtropolis2 Comments

This week I spent a LOT of time fixing up Athena! After our “storm” last week I discovered that moisture has been making its way into the trailer though a side hatch door. The storage area accessible by the hatch door is under one of the twin beds in the back Well, moisture had no where to go except up – into the mattress. (I discovered it looking for one of the dogs toys).

One of the renovations I’ve been wanting to do is pulling out one of the beds and adding in more storage – so that is what I did. I pulled that sucker right out of there and put in a portable closet so I have more room to hang my clothes and one of these days I’ll make it to Ikea or Target to see if I can find a dresser or some other storage unit that is tall enough (counter height) so I can cut out fabric. Right now if I want to cut out anything I either do it on the floor or go to the ‘TV room’.

Anyway, once I pulled everything out, I had enough energy left over to put in a new shower faucet. What a FIASCO!!!!! It took me forever to pull the old faucet out – I swear that thing was welded in! I ended up having to cut the plastic pipes and reassemble the whole thing with ‘up-to-date’ fixings. But, four hours and three trips to Home Depot later – I have a new shower faucet and shower head! BOOM!

So remember when I was telling you how I have been working on using up my fabric stash. Well, I had this knit fabric that was kinda heavy that I can’t remember what project I had in mind when I bought in. After weeks of thinking about it I decided to make slacks since I can always use work and weekend slacks. I used Kwik Sew pattern 3115 which I’ve made plenty of times before – so much so that I’ve already added length and widened the band. All I had to do was cut and sew.

Turns out that for years I thought this fabric was black when actually it’s a deep dark blue! Ha!! I normally wear either black or gray pants (minimalism technique) so adding blue gives me one more option – and it’s a deep enough blue that I won’t have to try and mix and match tops.

I am really happy with the way these slacks turned out. I widened the waist band so it sits a little higher on the waist… and work appropriate. I’m tempted now to find more of this fabric and make another pair… but I have so many OTHER projects I want to get to. More next week!!!

Nikol

Athena · Projects · RV Living

Showers and Sharks

August 19, 2016August 19, 2016 Sewtropolis1 Comment

The temps last weekend reached into the 90s – which is hot by Seattle standards, so I planned on staying out of the heat as much as possible! In fact, that was my plan all along after being on the go for the last few weeks, but it was nice that the weather cooperated with my plan.

Athena has a A/C unit which is 35+ years old – but still works! Once it awhile it would trip the circuit so I’d have to go to the back and flip the switch. Honestly thought I was counting my blessing that I was flipping a switch in my 35+ year old trailer than going without A/C in my “high efficiency” apartment!

This past weekend I also put sealant on the cracks in my tub so that I can take a shower in my trailer and not worry about water seeping down to the sub-floor. (Not something you want at all)

The shower is a little small, but it works and beats hiking over to the KOA showers! I have one of those shower heads where you can switch the water on or off. My water heater does not hold a lot of hot water – so being able to switch it off is important if I want hot water for the full shower! On my list of upgrades is to replace it with a tankless water heater. Then I can shower without turning the water on & off OR going outside to light the water heater! Ahhhh the luxuries!

So now that the shower is up and running I started working on a shower curtain to match the rest of the curtains in the trailer – and was promptly side tracked with starting a Fusion quilt! This is just the first block – I only have 48 moe to go.

I had seen these on Pinterest and thought they were so pretty. Then, when I was out in Minneapolis my friends mom mentioned she had started one – and really that’s all it took to get me motivated. The fact that I just so happened to be cutting 5″ squares for the curtain also helped.
I have been on a roll with crocheting lately – that super secret project I mentioned here, are these Shark Slippers!

I get a kick out of these things!

I have to admit there was a lot of frustration in making these – mainly because I am not a proficient crocheter. I have to look up the abbreviations over and over, but I got it and if they fit my hella big foot they are sure to fit the recipients size 7 foot! The pattern is from Penelope vt on Ravelry. If you make them follow the directions no matter how crazy they seem and save yourself a lot of frustration at the end!

Till next week!