Twenty-Three before Twenty-Four: SIX.

This sixth 'significant thing' was quite significant (...like mega). For some reason, I made this project over-complicated at times, and I had to set it aside more than once for the sake of my sanity. However, with coffee and the Fleet Foxes as my constant companions, I finally completed my sixth significant thing...

Barley's Knickers!!!

These knickers started out as a pair of Dickies' from a Goodwill in Langhorne, PA and a twinkle in Barley's eye. When I visited in February, I brought them home with me to start the transformation.

T-Diddy helped me out a couple times (thank you!) with measurements, because these were mostly a surprise. I also had just a few random measurements from Barley to work with. From those, I decided to cut off about 8" from the bottom of each pant leg. I deconstructed those legs and used the fabric from them to make cuffs.

After taking the front and back panels apart from the cut-off pant legs, I ironed the pieces and seamed them together to make a longer piece for the cuffs.

Hosh agreed to try on the knickers probably twice during the process. He's closer to Barley's size than I am, but let me tell you...he is NOT a fan of straight pins. I begged and begged him though a couple times and got him to help a sista out! After he tried them on the first time, I marked the inseams and slimmed the legs up a bit.

From the time I started these knickers, I knew I wanted to include a couple things, and some hand-stitching was one of them. Something about embroidery is really fun for me (I say as I look longingly at a current project featuring just that). I don't like patterns (I HATE patterns), so I don't use them when I stitch things. This first part ("Barle") took all of about 10 minutes.

The "Y", as you can see, posed more of a problem. I just wasn't happy with it the first two times I stitched it. (Yes, I tore out the "Y" twice before I decided I liked it.)

After I finished the cuffs and made (sort of) slits in the outsides of the legs, I pinned the cuffs onto the bottom. This was difficult...flat cuffs, curved pant leg. Ha.

This picture was taken in my car on one of my lunch breaks at work. By the middle of this project, I had a kit all put together to take back and forth with me wherever I was headed so I could work on it during my spare time. During this particular time, I was sewing on buttons. I didn't leave any of the original buttons on the pants.

The night before I sent the knickers on their way to Perkasie to find Barley at home, I put them on and took a few pictures, just in case this was the last time I saw them. =)

This is Nessie and he is way cooler than the Dickies' label that was there before I ripped it off. Also, this was copied from one of Barley's tattoos.

Finally, after over a month and a half of having these pants in my possession, the knickers are successfully complete and with their rightful owner.

Barley wore the knickers today (!) and sent me the following pictures as well as the following texties throughout the day. =)
Barley (10:24 am): THEY FIT GREAT

Jecca (10:28 am): Woot woot! I'm so happy.

Barley (10:30 am) Im so freakin sexy today. Holy crow.

Barley (11:41 am): These are so comfy!!! :]

Jecca (11:46 am): I slimmed the legs a bit. :)

Barley (11:47 am): Delicious

Barley (1:02 pm): IT SAYS BARLEY ON THE LEG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jecca (1:03 pm): You just now saw that. You're amazing.

Barley (1:05 pm): I just rolled up the cuffs to show the stripes on the inside and i saw it- lerrv lerrvv leerrrrrrrvv!
Soooo, there you have it--Barley's Knickers!!! They (ultimately) made me happy (even though they drove me insane a few times).

Lots of lerv to you, bloggy buds! Thanks for reading and following.

And lots of lerv to you especially, Barley. This Bud's for you. =)

*P.S.- I'm still taking suggestions for my list of significant things. There are at least 17 more things to do!*

Also, don't forget to submit your entry for my coffee contest! All entries must be submitted by Saturday and the winner will be announced on Sunday. Woot woot!!!

Twenty-Three before Twenty-Four: FIVE.

The fifth thing on my list of Twenty-Three before Twenty-Four was to compete in a 5k. Some of you may already know that Regs and I have been training for this 5k since January. We were doing really well there at the beginning...and then I took a trip to Philly, Regs worked weird hours, I started working in Chesapoop... etc, etc. We didn't get to run together as much as we wanted to towards the end. Since the beginning, our goal has been to finish the race in 30 minutes. (We changed that goal later to 45 minutes...lack of confidence, surplus of doubt.)

Sooooo.....Today was RACE DAY!!!

*Ma and Nini came along and were both geared with a camera to adequately document such a momentous occasion. Thank you, thank you, thank you both!

Before the race: Regs, Rachel (holding an enema plush...eww), Mr. Polyp and Me. We ran Mutt & Jeff's 5k for Colorectal Cancer...

Listening to the extremely confusing pre-race instructions. "Walkers, you must have one foot on the ground at all times. If you're walking then you're not jogging, and if you're not walking then you're running or jogging." (??- I guess you had to be there.)

Woah, baby! Rachel finished in 22 minutes, so she backtracked and found me and Regs just before the 3 mile marker. When Rachel found us, I asked her what time it was. She said 9:02. I was dumbfounded. I knew we started the race at 8:30 and I did the math real quick. "It's only been 32 minutes, Regs!"

Regs and I "sprinted" the last tenth of a mile. I say "sprinted" because our "sprint" was faster than the jog we had been doing, but I don't know that you could call it a full-on sprint. We were SO happy to see the finish line. So extremely happy.

Hot and sweaty. Walking it out and catching my breath.

(Hey Regs, Can we call ourselves "runners" now? =])

Oh yea! When Regs and I rounded the first corner of the course I felt something hitting my ankle. I looked down and wouldn't you know it, my shoe was untied. I didn't dare stop though. No, sir. I ran the entire race (minus about 2/10 mile walk in the middle) with my shoe untied. Thank goodness I was wearing my Nike Free 5.0's or else they would've fallen off. They fit like a glove and feel like a sock so they stayed on and snug without a problem. (Thanks to Barley for suggesting a great running shoe.)

After the race, I think it's safe to say that we were all at least a bit tired. We had to wait around for what seemed like forever for the awards ceremony. I don't know that we would've stayed except for the fact that Rachel's superwoman. (No kidding. She's really great. I forgot she was running until this morning and it was like a special treat to see her there in the parking lot when we pulled in.)

She won "First Woman Overall". Yay, Rachel!!!

I am very happy with the results of the race. Thirty three minutes for my first 5k is a-ok with me. I never thought I'd be able to compete (or even participate) in any type of running event a few years ago, so this was a big accomplishment. I am thankful and proud.

So, there you have it. After the awards, Regs, Ma, Nini and I set off for Cracker Barrel for some delicious breakfast. I was beat by the time me and Ma got home and took a bit of a nap. I took Jonah to see a specialist when I got up. He's feeling much better (...his tension was all off). I'm working on two projects now back-and-forth. One is giving me a headache, and I can't let it get me down.

Lerv to you, bloggy buds. Thanks for the support.

**Happy 2 Years Clean, Barley!**

(You can check out significant things number ONE, TWO, THREE and FOUR too if you've missed them.)

Twenty-Three before Twenty-Four: FOUR.

Woot woot!!! Number Fourrrrrrr!!! I didn't set out to start or complete a "significant thing" this weekend, but it happened.

On Friday night, I got a little inspired. I was all tired and ready for bed around 8pm (Old lady, I know.)...but thennn.... I saw a pile of fabric in the corner of my room, and BabyGirl was just staring me down. So, I just started turning her dials and making her my size. I cranked her wide open (without taking one measurement) and thought that I'd just go from there, but then I got a tinge of doubt. What if this won't really fit me? How can I tell...Oh! There's a "piece of my clothing" on the floor of my room that I could try on BabyGirl and see for sure. Whoa. It didn't fit. I cranked her back down to the base size and...bada-boom...we were set to go.

(Then I went to bed. Yep. That was it for Friday.)

The picture above and the picture below are the only ones I took during the process. I was in the zone. There were no expectations, no patterns, no measurements, and no deadlines. Just me, my music (Fleet Foxes and Lightspeed Champion--my constant companions), coffee and what felt like 3 million pins. I just kept pinning (and re-pinning) and chopping and singing and stitching. *Jonah's not feeling very well. His tension is all off...so we had a bit of a go every once in a while. Poor thing. I need to get him some help.*
That was my Saturday. As you can see, I ended up with this top...I'd like to call it a tunic, because I don't think that "shirt" accurately describes what it is. I'm not sure that it's actually a tunic though, either. Call it what you will. (It doesn't really matter.=] )



This creative expression needed to happen. The process was very cathartic and made me extremely happy. It felt really good to make something from my own hands, out of my own head and to wear it with pride. Instant mood-booster.
So there you have it. Significant Thing Number Four.

As usual, I'm taking all suggestions into consideration for the remaining 19 things on my list. (I guess it's more like 15 or 16 things... I already have a few in the works.)

Lerv, lerv.

P.S.- I really loved this picture taken this afternoon. (The subject of the photo has asked to remain nameless. Fair enough.)

Twenty-Three before Twenty-Four: ONE.

The first "significant thing" on my list of Twenty-Three before Twenty-Four was a super secret crafty that I started several weeks ago.

My crafty inspirations come from random places and at random times. This crafty was inspired solely by my dear friend Ham and my absence from him for what seemed to be so long (read about a month and a half).

Behold the Michael Jackson pillow cover!

I started by making a pattern out of quilter's grid. Let me just tell you...that stuff is a dream! It's marked with a grid (duh) of 1" square blocks, which makes measuring and cutting extremely easy for square or rectangle pieces.

After I got the panels measured and cut out, I went to my closet to find some sort of black fabric I could use for a silhouette of the King of Pop. An old, over-sized shirt from H&M did the trick. Cutting out the silhouette seemed to take FOR-EV-ERRR. The black fabric was so thin that it kept slipping, so I pinned it to a layer of batting and that helped to stabilize things a bit.
Once Michael was cut out, I pinned him and the batting to the front panel of the cover and whip-stitched all along the outline.
Since this super secret crafty was for Hammie (and I love him so), I stitched his name on the bottom of one of the back panels.
I also stitched/signed my initial on the top of the same panel. You would only see it if you know it's there, because the second panel on the back overlaps it.
I pinned all the panels together then used Jonah to sew them all up... and Voila!

This might've been blogged sooner, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise for Hammie. I am also quite happy to say that I personally delivered this "significant thing"...which made it all the more sweeter. =)

Jonah's Maiden Voyage.

I made this video of the first real project (fixing the pockets on my dad's work shirts) with my sewing machine, Jonah the Janome. Enjoy!

(song credit: "Smoke Detector" by Rilo Kiley)