Branded.

Last night the girls and I worked at one of the buildings at the County fair.  The one without air conditioning...  It was well over 100 degrees outside and inside the building, it was, as one person put it, like walking into a blow dryer.  Pretty descriptive!  Fans blowing all over the place, but in front of each one, it was like sitting next to a furnace vent.  I wanted to look at some of the projects while we worked so I stuck it out.  Our main job was to make sure no one took off or damaged any of the 4H projects.

No sweat... 

But actually there was! 

Only 2 people came in to see the exhibits, so that was no big deal, but it was so blooming hot in there that sweat rolled down my back.  Meri lay her arms and face onto the table and after a few minutes had left a puddle of sweat there.  She enjoyed watching it evaporate, then did it again. 

She also sang Christmas songs to get her mind off the weather.

After our tour of duty in sauna hall, we went down to the horse arena where our 4H club was enjoying s'mores around our fire pit that I'd delivered earlier. 

Yeah...  100 degree weather and we're building fires!

You're probably wondering where the Branded title comes from.  This isn't it. I know... you're disappointed. 

I had to leave then and make it to a sewing meeting that usually coincides with this s'mores evening every year.  But I love those meetings and the building where it's held is air conditioned.  So I am SEW there!  I left Meri with Maddy and took off.  Maddy had her car at the fairgrounds.

The meeting was a lot of fun.  I showed a sweatshirt type thing I was making.  Yeah.  I got inspired and am making a sweater type thing with bat sleeves in the middle of summer.  It's a stash buster...  I'll show it to you when I get it done.  I promise!  But it had better fit better first.

The other night Maddy made a pillow to give to a friend with the same fabric.  Then she wrote little notes all over the pillow with fabric markers and left the rest of the fabric sitting there.  As I made supper and did the dishes that night, the dining room table and the remnant fabric beckoned me.   And I developed a creative thought...  Surprising?  I think so. 

So I pulled out a roll of wrapping paper and a tape measure and started measuring myself.  a lot.  Got it all drawn out on the wrapping paper.  It was very well thought out and I added seam allowances as I saw fit. 

Caution - sleeves may appear dis-proportionate in this rough sketch, but on the actual pattern piece that I made, it was symmetrical...

I was confident that this sweater was going to fit me hot off the sewing machine, so I whipped it up. 

Do you ever feel that you need to get your creativity out there before the feeling goes away?!  That's the state of mind I was in.  I didn't even iron the seams as I went.  A big taboo for most of my projects.  But not this one.

Got it done except for some hemming and decided to try it on.

Oh my goodness!  I barely got my arms in and the back pulled down before I realized I was NOT going to be able to extend my arms at all in this thing... 

Then I realized my mistake.  I had forgotten to add a seam allowance at the shoulders. 

Oh dear...

So I pulled out that shoulder seam that went down to the wrists and contemplated what I should do.  I decided that if I added a strip of fabric going down the length of my arms, that would look kind of cool.  Especially if I changed the direction of the stripe in the fabric.  I also had a thought that I'd add more at the hem, like a band around my bottom.  So those were the ideas that I presented to my group of sewing buddies.

They liked my idea of the shoulder strip, but someone suggested that if I just leave it a little cropped, that would be better than drawing everyone's attention to my butt.  VERY good suggestion!  I had forgotten that is you do extra junk around the bottom of a jacket or shirt, it will draw peoples attention there.  I really don't want anyone to look at my bottom...  Well... unless I lose 10 lbs or so...  :)  or more.... ;)

So I sat back down in my black folding chair and enjoyed everyone else as they shared their projects they're working on for the State Fair.  The entries need to be submitted next week already!  Yikes!

After the meeting was over, I got up to put away my chair and I noticed a VERY sweaty butt imprint on the chair seat.  I immediately felt the back of my shirt and pants and realized that my entire back was still pretty drenched with sweat!  Oh man!!!  But with the colors and patterned LONG shirt I was wearing, it wasn't as noticeable as I was fearing.

I hope.