happy bday dad!

i know, you're all anticipating pics of a completed shirt. sigh. didn't finish, but that's not shocking is it? however, i do have some good pics of the process! production of the shirt began last thursday, when i brought my gear to elizabeth's new apt and helped her move in while attempting to start dad's shirt. a couple glasses of wine were imbibed. it'd been a long week. things were going swimmingly well, until i sewed the shoulders without including the front panel in between. then i sewed the front panel on backwards TWICE (ie with the shoulder side facing the neck and vice versa). 4th time was a charm, whew. then friday morning, having sobered up, i tackled sewing the arms on, but i ended up sewing the left sleeve onto the right shoulder! sigh. luckily the fabric is reversible, so in the end, the new spiffy hidden seam that i designed is on the inside of the shirt while the double seam is on the outside. actually i find the double seam to be edgier and i did a darn good job sewing straight this time (no falling off of the edge of the hem!), so dad will just have to actually be hip this time. not bad, right? still need to work on lining up the shoulder stripes with the sleeve stripes though...jimmy picked us last friday and we kept miss mia (his small german shepherd) in the front seat with me while i drove, jimmy sat in the back seat, and bunks chilled in the trunk of our honda crv. we cleverly snuck bunks in, and since mia has such a horrible sense of smell, she never knew that dinner was lurking just behind her! here's bunks, curious as to why his cage was chilling by the front door before we left:once at home, i did the cuffs easily, with interfacing inside (the non iron-on kind) to make it stiffer. and yes, that is the italian ice i scrounged up in one of my frenzies to find dessert!then came my least favorite part of shirt-making: the neck! the collar is easy, but the neck is a nuisance because sewing those little strips involve edge to edge stitching (a pain because often when trying to keep the needle along one edge, it falls off on the back side's edge!). this time i decided to start smart: i folded, pinned, then ironed the hems on both the front and back of the neck, folding the interfacing at the same time as each striped piece. then, i pinned everything together, making sure all edges were lined up before i tackled sewing. of course, the bobbin ran out before the end, so i had to backstitch in the middle of edge-sewing (thus putting myself in danger of falling off the edge! but i didn't!).naturally i ran out of time, so i took the shirt back to dc with me to finish. still have to sew the cuffs on, hem the bottom, make 3 more button holes, and sew on the front pocket. it's so much better in quality than dad's christmas shirt! i'll be giving dad the finished project next weekend, when i stop by enroute to boston to spend spring break with sarah! (oh and did i mention bunkins' excitement to meet her?? yes he's coming too, even though sarah has a history of running over old bunny slippers!)

dad has poor circulation to his feet and gets frostbite a lot, so jimmy got dad military-issue combat cold and wet weather boots (keeps you warm in up to -14 degrees fahrenheit)! they looked so ridiculous on him. he wears a size 8, but with all the layers of rubber and air pockets, they were about a size 11!and finally, i end with a pic of bunks' tail. you'd think his tail was a puff ball, but it's more like a really furry and short mouse tail. when he misbehaves, i grab at his tail, which drives him nuts. hehe.