The battle against slobdom

I'm tired of feeling like a slob. It feels like I only have poor-fitting trousers and t-shirts that are too tight. Truth be told, if I get up in the morning I want nothing more than to put on a simple trouser and t-shirt combo that needs no thought. But then I catch a glimpse in the mirror and I feel tired and sad.

There was a sudden onset of retail therapy yesterday. I jumped in the car with some money (from selling my recumbent, I was paid in cash so it's not in my saving's account because I can't deposit it anywhere as my bank has no offices) and drove first to the optometrist. They measured my eyes and got me a wonderful pair of glasses that are so comfortable! I use them mostly for driving, but I never splurged on matching sunglasses. So every time I put on my old pair of prescription sunglasses I felt a sort of dissociation, like I wasn't really seeing what I was seeing, or there was a distance between me and what was happening on the road. Not an optimal experience when you're driving a car, I can tell you.
Having new glasses made for the sunglasses I had will cost 130 euro, and next week I will have the best and comfiest pair of prescription sunglasses. Yay!

Then I drove to Bergeijk, a small village on the road to Belgium. I was once told there's a good shoe store there and on a whim I drove 20 minutes to go and see. They happened to have a sale: 50% off on all shoes. And the range! I could choose from more than 20 pairs of shoes in my large size feet, all of them with a loose sole you can take out so your support soles can go in, and a lot of them with odd widths for people with very narrow or very wide feet. I am not accustomed to having so much choice, but I was looking specifically for a pair of pumps I can wear with skirts, so I can sew some nice skirts and feel prettier.
I found a pair of lovely denim blue pumps with a low heel that fit me really well. Apparantly, I'm a 7½ K. I never knew. These shoes are from Verhulst shoes, and were originally 175 euro but were now discounted to 84. And at those prices, I am expecting these to last!
I managed to wear them the whole afternoon at the atelier, but then it was time to take them off. Easy does it.

Thus far the battle against slobdom is going well. I had my hair cut, bought some new hair accessories to keep my locks tied away from my face, I bought new shoes and I've made some new t-shirts that aren't too tight. Now I really need a new pair of jeans but the pattern is confuddling me, so I guess I'll make some more skirts to rock those new pumps I bought. And I'm exercising again, which will make me feel like a million bucks.

...Or not

Having fun with a ruffler foot is one thing, but when the clock caught my eye it was already half past seven. In all fairness, it was about time I got around to using the serger's extra feet. I have a blind hem foot and a ruffler foot and I can count on one hand how often I've used them. I could even lose a few fingers and still make do.
The ruffler foot is very promising, but it was so hard to get my chiffon (torn on the straight grain, even) to behave, I decided to ruffle one layer and then use the sewing machine to stitch it to the other layer. My Bernina is still the champion with difficult fabrics, especially with the normal presser foot because that doesn't bounce around as much as the walking foot.

So it was half past seven, time to get home and do something about dinner. But first I wanted to see how my chiffon skirt would look with the final layer attached. It was already so promising when I made a little video for Instagram one ruffle earlier....
I pinned the chiffon skirt over the lining that was already on the mannequin and pinned the excess fabric at the side seams down. It looked great on the mannequin, and I twirled it around a couple of times. But I realised I wouldn't be back until Monday, so it probably wasn't wise to pin the un-interfaced, un-stay-stitched chiffon skirt and lining on the mannequin. Chances are it would sag and droop and I'd end up with a very wide waistline. So I took both the lining and the chiffon skirt off the mannequin.
And then, why not, I pinned the chiffon skirt to the lining. With 7,5 meter of chiffon you can get lost in all the ruffles, and fresh off the mannequin it was really easy to find the waistline. So I pinned the waistline of the chiffon to the waistline of the lining. Ready for the blind zip that will go in the side seam.

Hm, do I have a blind zip?
No, wait a minute! I was going to go home and make dinner!

Such is life with a muse. *sighs dramatically*