Tag: harry potter

Sewing fail (but who cares?)

Back in June, when I went to Portland, I bought this beautiful knit fabric from Bolt Fabric Boutique. I got a yard – just enough to make a t-shirt out of because it was pretty pricey – somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 a yard! According to the Sinclair Cachet knit tee pattern, that’s all I needed.

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So, fast forward a couple of weeks, and I washed and dried the fabric and got brave enough to make my t-shirt. I was super nervous about cutting this beautiful stuff. What if I messed up? But I’d made a shirt out of this pattern already, and I liked the fit, so I was pretty confident it would work out. I laid out the back piece of the pattern on the fabric and cut it out. Then laid out the front piece and…HOLY CRAP IT DOESN’T FIT.

So I sadly piled it on my dresser and tried to figure out what to do. It sat there for months. Since the pattern had a color-blocking option, I thought about finding a coordinating solid and using that for part of it, but that made me sad. I even went as far as buying a pale pink remnant but I could never bring myself to use it. I just didn’t want to have to break up this lovely fabric.

Finally, one day, I decided I was just going to make the shirt. I was going to piece it together and use all the fabric and it would be fine. Okay, there would be some seams across it, but it would be okay. Better than wasting the fabric altogether!

So I laid the remaining pattern pieces out, and yeah, I had to make a few cuts, but I squeezed them all onto the fabric and it was fine. It was gonna be fine.

Took them up to my sewing machine to put them together and…wait, why was the top front piece not lining up with the rest of the pieces? This is very strange. I cut it on the fold as directed. I mean, sure, I’d had to put the pattern piece upside down to make it fit but…oh no…I cut it on THE WRONG FOLD.

Cue banging of head onto desk. This pattern has short dolman sleeves, so the neckline curve looks suspiciously like the curve under the arm.

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Soooooo another place I had to piece it together. Right down the middle. And then right under my bust. And then a band at the bottom. Lovely.

I call it…Frankenshirt!

Fortunately:

  • the floral pattern hides it reasonably well.
  • I don’t care.
  • my beloved York pinafores hide the seams and coordinate perfectly with the print.

Behold:

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Check out all doze seams! Oh, and the cute lil’ pocket!

(Photo credit: Ellie)

I’m also going to sneak in a picture of the Blank Slate Blanc tee I made out of Harry Potter knit fabric because it’s so beyond dorky I can barely stand myself. Well, the picture even more than the shirt. I went and dug out the wand Oliver got at Universal a couple of summers ago as a prop, for goodness’ sake.

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This shirt also sat on my “unfinished” pile for ages and ages for no good reason, and I still haven’t hemmed the sleeves and I probably never will. I wonder if there’s a spell for that?

Number 117

Why yes, I AM a big dork!

I just couldn’t help myself when I realized the boys were going to be 9 years and 9 months old. Yeah, 9 and three quarters.

I know, I know. But I can’t help it, I love Harry Potter, OKAY!?

UK2016: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts One and Two)

I’m taking a break from the straight recap posts to write about the Harry Potter play. Since it took place over the course of two nights, I’d have to break up the recap, and I’d rather not. Read the rest of my posts about our trip here.

As I mentioned before, the boys and I went to the theater box office to pick up my tickets on Wednesday afternoon.

The doors opened at 6:30 with the show starting an hour later, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get from our flat on Holloway Rd to the theater. It only ended up taking about 20 minutes, so I was just a tad early. But I got in the line that was forming outside the theater anyway and just played Two Dots for a while. Read More

Beyond giddy!

Ever since I read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, I’ve been obsessed with seeing the play while we’re in London. Considering the entire run through 2017 sold out in like four seconds, I wasn’t super optimistic about getting a ticket. Also, it meant asking George to entertain the boys while I spent six hours over the course of two evenings seeing this play. (All I can say is, the boys are going to be very familiar with pubs by the time the play is over.)

I’ve basically been checking the ticketing websites constantly for the past few months. You’d see tickets come available for other dates, but never the week we’ll be there. But today, while on a call at work (TOTALLY PAYING ATTENTION), I idly checked the site and THERE IT WAS! There was an available ticket! And it wasn’t even at the £200 level (which I was perfectly happy to pay for this experience) but at the £40 level! Yes, it means I’ll be sitting in the second to last row, way up in the balcony but WHO CARES?

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So I click on it, hand shaking, a bit hysterical (and by now my coworkers know what’s going on, mostly due to the ear-splitting shriek I let out) and it’s suddenly NOT AVAILABLE.

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So I click back and try again AND THERE IT IS!

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But then my browser just freezes. Nothing will click. I close all the other tabs and somehow it starts working again and I’m able to get my ticket and pay for it and now it’s MINE ALL MINE!

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EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

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(And a special thanks to my husband for letting me take this much time away from everyone to see the play.)

Goings on

Haven’t blogged about just stuff lately.

The boys are almost done with their second week of second grade. Time is flying, and I’m having a bit of a tricky time getting everything done. New schedule always takes some getting used to.

IMG_4515Last weekend we went swimming for the last time. That was sad.

I bought some new headphones for work. Nice Bose ones on sale at Target, but they hurt the top of my head. I really want a replacement pair of my old headphones, but the earpiece snaps off if you so much as look at it wrong (I’ve already been through two pairs.) But they cradle my noggin much better. So I’ll probably return the Bose headphones and keep looking for new ones.

I’m trying Dukan again. It worked so well last time, crossing my fingers it will work again. So far so good. (Almost 72 hours without sugar!) Meat meat meat meat meat.

DSCF6935My Achilles tendon is still bugging me a bit (it’s been six months) but I got some heel cups from Amazon which seem to actually be helping. My friend Steph and I meet at 6 every morning to walk/run about 3.5 miles. Some days are better than others. Nevertheless, I’m signed up for the Jazz half marathon on Halloween.

Tonight we finished watching the last Harry Potter movie with the boys. I almost forgot how great the last one is. My cold hearted children didn’t even flinch when the Weasley twin (Fred?) died, but that part just really gets me every time.

Took Miles to the doctor one day last week because of a weird blister thingy on his arm. I was paranoid it was mrsa or something, but turns out it’s just molluscum. And it could take a year to go away. But at least it’s not something really awful. What I am not going to do is google either of those terms because both will bring up vile photos. No thank you.

I hope this doesn’t affect Miles’s acting career. Oh, well, I mean, it doesn’t exist yet, but when he said he wants to be an actor when he grows up, I put him in an extras database, and signed him (and Oliver) up for the Drama and Improv after school activity. YES. That means there will be extensive documentation of a play in a few months. I think I’m going to be an awesome stage mom, I really do.

Until next time!

 

 

 

Felix, the Chosen Minion

The boys are currently running around the house playing in a knockoff Harry Potter world, complete with bad British accents and made up spells.

I’m writing this from beyond the grave because it has killed me.