McCall 7634 Sweatshirt in French terry

I’m so cold!! and have only a couple long sleeve tops. January and February are our chilly season, we went down to 43 degrees last night. Great excuse for a new top.

I started with M7634, followed with a few modifications, including the V-neck from Burda 06-2011-107B.

 

 

I love how this looks! the fabric is navy Telio Stewart French terry knit from Fabric.com, 38% cotton/32% polyester/30% rayon. It has about 25% mechanical stretch both ways, but no recovery at all.

Sewing notes:

• Sewed the size 12 in the McCall pattern.
• Used the short view with an additional 4.5″ in the length, and a 3″ (finished) bottom band. The unfinished band is about 7″ wide and a couple inches shorter than the bottom hem. Doubled and stretched it to fit.
• Recut the neckline using the Burda pattern. It has facings, which I used to stabilize the neckline, in cotton/poly broadcloth. Yes, there is fusible tape in side the shoulder seams to prevent stretch.

• Stiches and finishes: I sewed the top using a longish (3.0) straight stitch and serged the seam allowances together to finish.
• Finished the sleeve with a 1.5″ hem allowance plus a couple rows of topstitching.

It’s such a cozy and warm top, and I love the silhouette.

Parting shot: I was the woman out on the street in her robe last night, taking pictures of the lunar eclipse. Spectacular event! Moving clockwise from the top left photo:

Ciao! Coco

 

Installing Ring doorbell and other stuff!

 

Big project! My kids gifted me this year with an IPhone 8 Plus and a Ring Doorbell. So much to learn!

I’ve been working on my doorbell installation for about a week. The physical ‘how to’ install.

 

 

I want my new doorbell to be in the same location as my old one. It’s centered under my porch light and is perfect for motion detection and so on.

The journey:

• I explored mounting the phone bracket directly to the wall. However – it is more slim than the mounting gang for my doorbell, AND, my wall is metal. Ring doesn’t come with hardware for a mount to metal, and I’m not comfortable with drilling holes through the wall.

Off to Home Depot today, after a bunch of research on installation options for the Ring.

I decided to put a blank faceplate over my doorbell ‘hole’ and mount the bracket to the faceplate with tape. I watched a couple videos and read forums on the type of tape to use. What I chose:

And I found a faceplate to match the Ring. I found a ‘larger’ nylon faceplate in Home Depot that is the same length as the Ring. Below, my old doorbell plate and the new face plate I found ( ignore the dots, I didn’t use them for anything other than mounting references).

• So – a pic of the bracket taped to the new faceplate. This tape is strong! and even a touch secures it. I’m glad I had my readers on!

And the Ring mounted. Whew…I tested the motion detection and doorbell function, everything works!

It’s impossible to leave Home Depot with just tape and a faceplate. Other stuff without which I cannot be happy 🙂

Cherry tomato plant,

A new Silver Bullet 50″ garden hose (it’s flexible and wonderful to use, so lightweight),

And neat led bulbs on carabiners, great for hurricane season:

I hung one in my pantry as an example, but I really plan to save these for power outages during our Florida storms.

Bonus material – the gentleman at the checkout told me he loves my shoes. Be still my beating heart…

The woman is worn out from a full day of fun and so on. I’m retreating to the Loft!!

Ciao – Coco