a little hand-sewing
About 22 years ago, give-or-take, I took a sweatshirt, cut off the cuffs and the neck ribbing, opened up the sleeve seams, and zig-zagged the edges of a bunch of fabrics onto the surface. This workhorse sweatshirt jacket is still my go-to when I need a light jacket. (ha - not too often in Florida).
Here is Minnie, modeling it. Not exactly fashion-forward, but it works for me.
You can probably see that it needs a little TLC. Some of the fabrics have fallen off and others are coming loose in spots.
For a change of pace, I scoured my scraps for some blue and white fragments and decided to do a little boro. So I ran to JoAnn's, bought some blue embroidery thread and embroidery needles and went to work. Ha - it's nothing more than hand-quilting.
By the time I finished this one little scrap I decided that I would not live long enough to repair every smidgen. So I put the rest of the peeling edges under the zig-zag foot.
But alas, I am not in the mood to unpick the sleeve seams so I can put them under the machine. So on the sleeves, I will do the handwork. Little-by-little. It is pretty zen to hand-stitch, so I think it will be a nice change. Every day a half-hour of low blood pressure work and I should get done eventually. In fact, I think I will take on the plane to Newark next week...unless they take away my scissors.
I have not really left the house all week, except to go to dinner with my cousin Maci last night at Avocado Grill -- possibly my favorite restaurant in West Palm Beach. It was a nice break from doing my taxes, which I have now been working on for two whole days. Another two to go and I should be ready to send them off to my accountant.
Because I am leaving for New Jersey and because I have not been to the supermarket -- tonight was the perfect time for no-cooking cooking: using what you have and making it work as a meal. I had eggs, pasta, and half a bag of fresh spinach. Oh - and a hunk of pecorino romano.
Mark Bittman's recipe for spaghetti and eggs seemed just the thing; I added the spinach. For one person: 2 oz of pasta, 2 eggs, a couple of sliced garlic cloves, and a bit of scallion that had seen better days.
I cooked the linguini and sautéd the garlic, and scallions in olive oil for about 3 minutes and threw in the spinach for another 2 or 3.
When the spinach was wilted I pushed it aside and threw in the eggs.
When the whites were almost done, I threw the hot cooked pasta into the frying pan and mixed it together. The eggs cooked completely in the hot pasta.
Into a bowl, grated cheese, salt and fresh pepper and -- and IMPROV DINNER!!
The whole thing took 10 minutes. You could sauté mushrooms, add crisp bacon or anchovies and red pepper flakes, artichoke hearts, black olives, or whatever else you have sitting around. It was good, quick, and is open to variation.
Improvising in the kitchen is no different from improvising in the sewing room with scraps. Right??
