Stay Home Order: Staying engaged with the moment.

Subtitle: How I ended up making a bird feeder.

There is so much uncertainty right now and only so much within our control at the moment. Something that has helped me is taking a step back and away from the different ways scenarios, time lines, politics, etc. might play out and looking at what is in front of me now. That being said, I have been trying to find little ways to make the current moment a little more enjoyable.

While Jeffery was reorganizing the carport I came across our bird seed. I bought a feeder 2 years ago from Target. My parents have a couple of feeders at their house and they draw in some of the prettiest birds. The first go around with the seed I wasn't consistent enough with keeping the feeder stocked and sadly, my feeder did not bring all the birds to the yard.

Since I was home I figured it was worth another try and filled our feeder. It would be nice to look out and see the birds doing their thing.

Fast forward about two weeks later, and I hadn't had any birds come by. When face timing a friend she mentioned that her husband was getting some really cool birds to come to their feeders. So I shared how I hadn't been so lucky with the birds. The next day a pigeon? or dove? Sat on my feeder, little kitty was hanging with me and she really enjoyed seeing it. I snapped a pic and sent it to my friend. She then sent me some really great tips from her husband and sent over a pic of a simple feeder. It was cool seeing the bird, my cat loved it, and seeing my cat love it was so enjoyable. Later that afternoon I deceided to try and make the feeder.

What is to follow is my experience making said feeder:

See pic sent to friend:

lol

The feeder pic showed a board with an orange sliced in half and nailed to it. Below each slice was a perch. Literally the most approachable bird feeder for a newbie to make.

Here is what I used:

.::.Drill.::.Drill Bits.::.Board.::.Orange.::.Knife.::.Perch.::.String.::.2 Nails.::.Hammer.::.

There are a few random things in our yard that came with the house. I found a board while cleaning the side of the house and threw it in a wood pile. Its a good size so I figured it was perfect for this project. It's kinda rustic so It goes with our fence lol. While raking and cleaning our dirt area, we found two large nails nailed into the ground under a plant. We pulled them out s the dogs wouldn't run over them and put them to side. They are long enough and fit well with the wear on the board.

Here is the nail.

Here is the board near the nails.

The wood was pretty weather worn so I needed to pre-drill holes. Jeffery gave me a quick run down on using the drills.

I then proceeded to nail in my perch nails.

Next it was time for the orange fasters aka the best nails we had in stock at the house. I grabbed an orange to size up where a bird might like to feast and noted where the nail would be about centered.

At first I nailed the orange fastening nails in perpendicular to the board. But the orange did not look secure. If a bird pecked it might fall on his face! Please note the questionably secure orange below.

So I pulled out the nails and put them back in at an angle.

As of right now it seems to do the trick. I think there is a possibility I may need longer nails eventually though.

I drilled one final hole at the top and used my string to fasten it to a hook beside our feeder.

Will the birds come? I don't know, but this was a fun little project and it gives me something to look at. This morning I read orioles like oranges, but I may have already missed them.

See that small stack of tiles? I also found them buried in the back yard.

(all images by me)

I tried a free pattern for a mask, here is what I think.

This is Brutus. Gosh, my windows need a cleaning.

Here is the pattern and tutorial I used for the mask. I thought the instructions for the mask were easy to follow. I kinda took a break from sewing for a bit; I'll probably expand on this later in a another post. This was an easy and quick sew. It would say it is very approachable. I chose this pattern because it was cute, covered the nose and mouth, and I like that there is a pocket to insert a filter. I am also thinking I could sew a couple of layers of heavy quilting cotton (recommended fabric in the tutorial). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I pulled out the extra material from an old project. I used this nice heavy natural denim for the shell and an olive linen for the the lining. Yeah. It's cute.

Here is the set up:

I don't have a printer so I pulled the pattern up on my iPad scaled it with the line on the screen, zoomed in and out to get it to scale, and took a screen shot. lol. From there I opened it in picture and traced over the screen.

Got all my little pieces cut and ready.

Brutus was napping near by.

I ended up folding it over another time after here. I did that so there would be little extra room for the channel my ribbon was going through.

Here the shell and lining are pinned right sides together.

Lining below:

Here is the shell:

Something is going on with my surge machine's, I think, upper loppers.

Fancy:

After I turned it right side out and pressed it.

Here is my channel for my ribbon:

Little Luna came to hang out at the end:

I told Jeffery I look buff in this pic:

My little buddies joined in the pic.

I definitely recommend giving this sew a go. It is really quick, only four pieces and comes out looking professional. Brutus gave me two paws up on style if that says anything.

julien chore coat v2

I am writing this looking back at my journey through this project.

I started by washing my fabric. This is a step I forgot to do when I made my all blue denim v1. This forgotten step caused me a bit of a headache later on.

Listening to: The Talisman by Stephen King

Time frame: It took me most of a Saturday and about half a Sunday

Pattern: Julien Chore Jacket by Ready to Sew

When I picked out the two fabrics I didn't really consider the weight of the denim. It's a little funny that I mentioned in my post about v1 how the blue denim version was intended to be a test run; turns out, the first version was sewn with a thicker denim. Ha, this inherently made it a bit more challenging than v2, but since this natural denim isn't as thick, it will be great for a light jacket.

Tools used:

1. Rotary Cutter

2. Cutting Mat

3. Pins

4. Scissors

5. Tracer with tracing paper

6. Serger

7. Fabric pencil or marker

8. Seam Gauge

9. Seam ripper...always a seam ripper.

10. Snaps with setting tool

I don't have a dedicated sewing space. I kinda have to set up and tear down my sew zone each time. Below is a visual of my area:

After I took this picture I moved the dogs bowl but overlooked moving the cactus.

My pattern got a little crumpled in-between the time I sewed v1 and v2. An easy fix was ironing out the backside of the pattern.

One plus to using my dining room is that my table is glass and it's so easy to slide fabric around. Another plus is I can get around all sides of the table to cut out my pieces. There are a couple of tools that I especially appreciate. I know with certainty that a rotary cutter and cutting mat would both be in my top 5 favorite tools. I usually use a couple of pins to tack the pattern to the fabric. I then cut with the rotary cutter pushing away from me with the blade side up against the pattern. Check it out below:

On v1 I forgot to add a couple of the pattern markings on my fabric. This last Christmas my Mother-in-Law got me tracing paper and a tracer. These are awesome! I highly recommend getting these tools. Sewing is fun and having the right tools can make it all the more fun.

Woah. How have I lived without one?

At this point Everything was going pretty swell, pieces cut and marked, fabric washed, and cute little pocket.

So remember at the beginning when I mentioned I forgot to wash my fabric last time? Well... I hit a bump. I had already cut my pockets from the blue denim when I did all my cutting at the start of v1. I realized that these pre-cut pieces never went through the wash. So I threw my last substantial piece of blue denim along with the pre-cut pieces (serged sides) into the wash. The denim was pretty unraveled along the sides after. So I used the last of my scrap to cut all new pockets. Crisis averted.... so I thought. I moved on with sewing the pockets. Only after I went to attach my last pocket did I realize that I forgot to flip my pattern when cutting the second pocket. This mistake meant that I ended up with two pockets angled the exact same way. Ugh. Come on Sarah...

I looked at my options, I could go with the reverse side of the pocket, but it didn't feel right. My other option was to trim down and seam rip the surging on the original cut pieces. You can see the result of the trimmed pocket below. You aren't supposed to see the natural denim surrounding the pocket.

Luckily, the side is an enclosed seam so it won't be seen at all and the bottom is a pretty big

double fold.

I added this little patch on the inside.

Centered it on the back middle, and I am loving the stitched rectangle that will show on the back of it.

You know I think the most meticulous part of this project is the collar. Below, on the left, is the collar inside out before I attached in to my coat. The little triangles allow for when the collar is turned right side out the extra fabric doesn't bunch along the curve.

What would you grade this collar?

*sewing joke* -_-

This was an area from the first one I sewed that I wanted to improve upon. You may notice on v1 where the collar meets the torso there is a tiny bit of exposed cut denim which creates a little fluff. Here is where I referenced my conversions again because it deviated from primarily 5/8ths of an inch. I actually went a tiny bit off script and on the ends of the collars went with a seam slightly smaller than 5/8th so that I had a little extra to work with to make sure there wasn't that same exposed area that I had with v1.

The inside of the collar attaching to the jacket was where a little bit of hand stitching came into play. You kinda have to tuck it 1/4 inch under and "slip stitch" it in place to hold it, and then follow up with a machine stitch. I watched this video to help with the slip stitch.

Attaching the arms wasn't so bad. If you are considering taking up sewing, I highly suggest investing in a serger. My mother-in-law gave me her old one. IT IS LIFE CHANGING. Fully Finished Seams.

It was at this point I had the cactus casualty. While ironing, my fabric caught hold of the little guy and he went down (you can see him in my first photo right under the ironing board). smh.

I sewed a couple of french seams on the arms and torso. This is a cool seam because you sew the wrong sides together and then flip it inside out and sew the right sides together and like magic, there is no seam exposed because it's like you made a little pocket for it to live.

See below:

.:wrong sides together:.

.:right sides together:.

At this point everything was pretty smooth sailing, and it was time to move on to closures. On my first coat, I genuinely liked that there was no front buttons. But, on this one, I wanted to add snaps.

Here is the coat post first wash but pre-closures:

So for this coat I decided to add snaps. I bought black snaps and a setting tool on Amazon.

I tell ya, sometimes mistakes just happen. I followed the directions on the first arm snap so well, and my closure was beautiful.

The whole process on the first one made sense, and so I just continued to move onto the second sleeve. Well, I moved on a little too carelessly and attached the top part of my snap to the wrong side on my extended tab. Oops. I just have one cuff that now buttons on the inside of the cuff.

I don't mind the mistake, really it's just part of coat now.

After that snafu I stopped for a little tea to regroup and refocus.

After my break, the rest of the closures were done in a snap. -_-

Here are a couple of shots around my house of me wearing it.

Last fall we went to a friends 30th which was themed Dia de los Muertos. I made this flower crown for part of my costume. I love it but haven't had a lot of other appropriate occasions to wear it for.

If you made it this far, kudos to you! I definitely recommend this pattern. I love how both jackets came out. I think the Julien Chore Jacket is a really approachable project. Both of the ones I made are great for layering since the arms have a little room and I am excited to continue to wear them. I am considering doing a post with both jackets styled a couple of different ways...maybe after it warms up a bit.

(all images by me:)