A little cosmetic surgery

We're going to a Rock Cats (minor league) baseball game on Saturday w/ people from Hubby's work, and they gave us two t-shirts to wear.... in size XL. Not wanting to be swallowed alive by my clothing, I performed a little bit of cosmetic surgery on it. Knowing how to sew, and the basics of garment construction, really comes in handy! I also altered Hubby's tee, since he is also far from an XL.

It was pretty easy to do! Take a t-shirt that fits you well, and lay it on top of the big one as a template. Cut around the body of the shirt (approximating where the armholes go) giving about half an inch extra on each side for seams, and an extra inch at the bottom hem. Take the newly cut off huge sleeves and cut the seams to open them flat. You'll want to make the sleeve about the same size/ length as the sleeves on your template tee, so do a measurement (plus half inch) to see how much you'll cut off the top (at the shoulder seam). Lay the opened up giant tee sort of on top of the opened up sleeve, the shoulder seam of the shirt where the shoulder seam of the sleeve will be. Trace the shape of the armhole onto the sleeve, cutting the rounded top to match the shirt armhole's shape, and cutting off whatever is required from each side of the sleeve. Sew the sleeve to each armhole, right sides together. Sew the sides together, right sides together. Trim extra fabric at the seams. While still inside-out, sew the hem up about one inch. Done! Easy! Sure, it would look a bit more professional on the inside if I had a serger, but so what? Who's going to be looking at my inside seams?

Before:

After:

My first sweater... FINISHED!

Huzzah! It is finished! My very first sweater! And it fits! Success! For some reason the color in the photos looks a little gray-ish, but in person it is a lovely plum.

 

Gardening is "sow" fun!

The plants and seeds are in the ground! First some compost was added to the soil, and then worked in with a pitchfork. We had a nice rain last night, so hopefully it was beneficial!

Garden Planning

Yesterday Hubby and I stopped at our local Home Depot and picked up a few planters to get our garden started. We got chives, parsley, zucchini squash (which we'll return... it'll just end up taking up way to much room in our little plot), Tabasco peppers, sweet basil, oregano, cilantro seeds, and a marigold to help keep away some bugs. I found a neat website called plangarden.com that helps you create a garden plan and track your garden activities (planting, harvesting, etc.) and it offers a 45 day free trial, with no need to provide any credit card info that you'd have to cancel after the 45 days... you decide at the end whether you want to subscribe or not. If you don't, you can still see the garden you created, you just can't make changes. Here is the garden plan I've created:

Planting starts this evening! :-)

If only I could have chickens, too...

I am very happy to announce we have just acquired a garden! Huzzah! Right across the road from our apartment complex there is a community garden I've had my eye on ever since I moved here. I found out some info about it online and emailed to see if there were any plots available. Well, there weren't. Until now! A spot opened up, and they wrote back to me and asked if I wanted it. I'm excited! I know almost nothing about gardening, so it'll be a fun thing to learn. There are already two little tomato plants growing in my plot, and I plan on adding some lettuce and who knows what else! I want to be able to pick fresh veggies all summer long! Maybe that's ambitious, but so what? It's worth a shot! Anyone out there with a green thumb have any suggestions or tips?

My plot: