Red Lace

I'm working on my old unfinished sewing projects once again, this time finishing the sarong-style skirt, which just needed hemming.  First thing, I looked through my odds and ends to see if I had any red hem binding. Nope. Everything else but red. Well, I had a bag of my mom's sewing things that I'd brought home from the big garage sale we had. Maybe in there.

I couldn't have been more surprised. Not only did I find red seam binding, I found a length of really nice red lace. My mom? Red lace? I remember at one time she was into making lingerie - slips and things like that. But I certainly couldn't imagine she'd have made a bright red slip. It just didn't seem like my mom.

Well, moms are women too, and how much do you really know about your mom, personally? Not so much apparently. Woo-hoo! Mom!

I read that Jackie Kennedy had all the linings in her dresses made with lace at the bottom, like a slip. If it's good enough for Jackie, it's good enough for me!







Lace made a lovely hem binding for my skirt. Here's the hem, and now the skirt is all done. It's possible I might wear it after all, rather than give it away. It's really pretty fabulous.

On to the next thing, which is both a wearable "reward" for having finished another old project and an unfinished project in itself. I only started it about 4 months ago, so it doesn't really qualify as an Ancient. It's a white linen skirt, lined. I haven't been sure whether I will really like a white skirt, but I've decided to make a black and white lace overskirt/apron thingy to go over it and now I know I'll like it. Maybe I'm into lace all of a sudden!

Making progress

I'm better now - healing. After an incredibly short 2 1/2 weeks, I'm back on my feet. Thanks to an innovative Kaiser Permanente surgeon who believes you heal better if you start moving sooner rather than later, I'm in a walking cast . . . and walking.

Sweet joy, I have some of my life back.

Here's my leg in its new cast, actually standing on the floor. I can walk up stairs now, although I still slide down stairs on my butt because I'm afraid I'll fall. I can carry a glass of water. I can carry dishes from the dishwasher into the dining room. I can stand at the stove to cook. I can shower if I cover my cast with plastic.

It's definitely the little things you miss when you can't do them.

I still use crutches when I have to go a long way, but I'm not hopping anymore, I'm walking. I do get tired, but it's so much better.

Yay!!

Oopsie!

There I was, cute as a bug in my new outfit (pictured in the post below), bidding my friend Yvette "good night". We had met in San Francisco for dinner and wine at Frances, a trendy (and very good!) restaurant in the Castro District, and then cabbed back downtown - Yvette to her home and me to BART to train back to Oakland. I closed the cab door and headed for the stairs to go down into the Civic Center BART station.

Suddenly I was down on the steps, clinging to a railing and looking at my right foot, shoeless in its brown tights. The foot was pointed in a bad direction. And my ankle was swelling to twice its size. At first it didn't even hurt, but then.... ouch, ouch. I had tripped, my shoe had gone sailing, and I had hurt my foot. Even in the shock of the first few seconds, I knew. I had really hurt my foot.

Two women stood near me, one on each side, and I looked up at them. They were both looking down at me. One of them said, "Are you all right?" "I don't think I can stand on my foot," I said. Many people were passing by on the stairs. Some of them looked. One of the women said loudly, "Get the police, get the station manager." The other woman stood in front of me on the steps and looked around.

In a few minutes two BART policemen came running. "What happened? What's your name? Do you want us to call an ambulance?" The women stayed.

"Yes, I think I need an ambulance." I picked up my cell phone and dialed Wayne. He answered. "Wayne, I'm hurt." And we went from there. The women stayed.

Since the police were also there, I said to the woman nearest me, "You can go. Thank you so much for being here with me." And she left. The other woman said, "I'm going to stand here below you so no one can look up your skirt." Well, I hadn't thought of that. And anyway, I had tights on so what would they see? But it was very protective and sweet, and I smiled at her and said, "Thank you".

The ambulance came and whisked me off to Kaiser Hospital Emergency Room, where Wayne met me. We spent a long night with their very kind and professional staff getting me put together well enough to go home. The ankle was broken in two places. Then I went back the next day to have surgery and here I am, in a cast and pretty much couch, chair, and bed-bound. With my "toes above my nose". Drat.

In every story, there's some good news. In this story the good news is I just happened to get the best ankle surgeon in California, and maybe in the whole country. This is according to all the nurses at Kaiser. He is an innovator, who believes you heal better if you're on your feet by two weeks after surgery, unlike the 6 weeks that's traditional. That's very good news for me because I think I'd go crazy confined this way for 6 weeks, and two weeks is next week. I am optimistic.

The other good news is those wonderful women who rallied around a fallen sister and didn't move. They didn't know each other and they certainly didn't know me, but there's something about women that's pretty special. I'm celebrating a personal Women's Appreciation Day in my heart. Thank you, Ladies.

The new skirt reward

When I finished the corduroy jumper last week, I promised to make something current that I like and want to wear as a reward to myself before going on to the next unfinished project. Here I am wearing my reward, a fine-wale corduroy paisley skirt to go with the vintage aqua sweater Wayne's fashionista daughter, Marja, gave me for Christmas.

Pretty cool fabric, huh? Here's what it looks like up close.


 The light blue matches the sweater perfectly and I think the whole outfit has a 50s vibe to it. I like it quite a bit - very fun and comfortable too. I made it using an Amy Butler pattern called "barcelona skirts" that I've used several times before. In fact, my daughter-in-law Allie turned me on to it after she used it to make some skirts. It's lined, and is quite fast and easy, which is always nice - instant gratification!

Now I'm on to the next unfinished project. Here it is, a long wrapped skirt that only needs hemming. Kind of a pretty, tropical looking fabric, isn't it? I think I'll leave it ankle-length. Should be able to finish that tomorrow or the next day. I'll let you know.