cocontom

We did Secret Harbor in the early morning and Sapphire later in the afternoon. It was amazingly beautiful, and the snorkeling was definitely better at Sapphire, but there were under 50 people at Secret Harbor versus crowds at Sapphire. I did see one turtle at Sapphire.

The lady on the far left hand side makes a phenomenal rum punch and Painkiller (and she does it right, with freshly grated nutmeg- the Banana Cabana uses jarred). The food was good at Banana Cabana though.

One warning- do not feed the iguanas. I decided if one of them would eat out of my hand, it could have a potato chip. My hand dropped and that sucker rushed me so fast, there was no way I wanted my hand near it! And another one apparently jumped onto a guy's chair, knocked over his plate, and carried off his sandwich (or just tried to, we were snorkeling when it happened). They definitely are not more afraid of you than you are of them.

And of course, I turn my head for 5 minutes and my wife has already found a stray animal that she is trying to take home.

 

If it's any consolation to your wife, that cat more or less has a home- the notch in the ear indicates it's part of a managed feral colony.

I still maintain that the solo cruise is of very little value to a cruiseline. We're a waste of space that could be put to use for two, three, or four cruisers, each of which offers additional selling opportunities.

 

My conversations with other solo cruisers seem to indicate that as a group we are somewhat more frugal than others, more independent and likely to book our own excursions, and less inclined to party hard (that is, blow money on booze and gambling).

 

Not sure how scientific that is, but if I were managing a cruiseline, I wouldn't necessarily welcome solos with open arms. I'd tolerate them just to avoid empty cabins, and hoping that they would occasionally invite others on their vacations.

They also book hoping to find a roommate and then cancel right before final payment, if they don't actually intend to be solo cruisers.

We sort of got caught in this a few weeks ago- Tom and I were the first ones in our group to get tagged, then the TA got the letter for everybody else, and the travel agent sent it up the flagpole. Our TA said they got it fixed with Carnival- you might want to have yours give them a call.

I am a beginner/new sewer and I found some fun and easy patterns at Youcanmakethis.com. You buy the pattern online and just print it on your printer in the size you need. You cut it out and the authors give you step by step instructions. I made several items this way and they all turned out really good. I even bought a serger and I made a tunic that looks almost like I bought it.

sail7seas,

 

Once you get started you will back into the swing of sewing. You can wear what you make on your next cruise.

 

CruisinEars,

I will check out that web site. How do you get the pattern to be large when the printer papper is 8.5 by 11 inches?

 

Alrana Eris,

Finding time is hard for me too. While I don't work, the day just flys by. For me I am saying to myself that I need to sew to relax.

 

cocontom,

I tried the tape too. I just don't like making pinch pleats any more.

You are right about needing to push myself. I never take the next step if I don't try.

I have an embroidery machine but don't do much embroidery. My fabrics are to busy to add that to them.

I can believe that- I've made long drapes that are flat for the living room (which worked a lot better once I used Steam a Seam before sewing), and window quilts for four windows, and I hated every minute of it.

As for the printed patterns- you have to tape the pages together. I've used a few Lekala patterns, and while the drafting and design is excellent, especially for around $1, it's just not worth it to me unless it's something tiny. Same with the free HotPatterns on Fabric.com. Although my least favorite part of the process is cutting the fabric out, so that may factor in.

I sew constantly, because I enjoy it and plus it allows me to customize styles to my tastes rather than buying off the rack. I mostly sew dresses, skirts, tops, and jackets -- I find pants trickier to fit, and since I mostly just wear jeans, it's easier to buy those. For my mom's panama cruise, I made her a few silky shells and coordinating fancy overshirts to wear with a black skirt on formal nights. Handbags and shopping bags are fun to make too.

 

I really prefer to touch fabric before buying it, so I get a lot during the annual local sewing expo, where a lot of vendors from all over bring their fabrics. I've also had good luck with fabric.com -- if you add yourself to their mailing list, you'll get notice of good sales (and they have a lot of them). Buying online, though, I stick to fabric types where I'm pretty confident what the drape and texture will be.

 

What are you going to make for your next cruise?

Exactly on your first paragraph, but I absolutely hate Fabric.com. I'm definitely in the minority there, but literally half of every order I've placed has been crap, and I've never felt like I got a great deal on any of it. Service has been good for me though, while others have had problems.

I have a love/hate relationship with Fabricmartfabrics.com. They have great fabrics for the prices, and accurate descriptions, but the customer service is abysmal, and they ship Smartpost and charge $8 for it, and for a $100 order that would have fit into a flat rate box, that was pretty much a bridge too far for me.

GorgeousFabrics.com has a good reputation, nice stuff and they have decent sales. EmmaOneSock is pretty much a rock star customer service wise, but the fabrics are expensive (but still great QPR) though. But I have entirely too much fabric, so I have to get a screaming deal or really love a fabric to buy it, which I haven't seen at either store.

I just placed my first order with http://www.michaelsfabrics.com. He mostly does tailoring/men's dress fabrics from Italy, and is known for quality. They just started an online ordering system within two years, and it's a little noticeable in the pictures (more than half have the "pictures do not do this fabric justice" warning, mostly with the browns, which I think could be a photography issue). I paid less than $8 per yard for Zegna (Loro Piana is one of their mills, and they make Tom Ford's stuff) fabrics, because he's having a 75% off sale. He does at least 50% off once or twice a year, and occasionally has bundles of either shirting or suiting. I hadn't ordered because it doesn't generally fit our lifestyle, but for $4 a yard for Italian cotton pants fabric, I'll buy. I haven't tried a suitcoat, but I have made Tom a camelhair overcoat, and while it took forever, the hand tailoring was interesting.

Elliot Berman is also really good. They have a 50% off sale in April and 25% off at least one or two other times per year. Great quality, great service, annoying website.

Wow, You do lots of sewing. I still do easy things. I am going to branch out this summer and do some formal cruise wear. All my sewing is for warm weather. I started to sew about 10 years ago. The first 6 or 7 yeays were doing home stuff. I will not do another pinch pleat drape--never! I had my full of window treatments, bed spreads and pillows. So now I am trying to do easy skirts, pants and dresses.

They make tape to sew on and pull that will do the pinch pleats for you. Even with that, I hate every part of doing home dec sewing. HATE it. I would rather use a poly cotton duvet cover from Ikea that I have to wash once a week (cats/cat hair) than make one myself.

Water•Baby,

Like you, I prefer skirts to shorts. I will wear a skirt that I made during the day on the island. I have some skirt patterns that I use over and over again. Elastic is my friend. I do most pants and skirts with an elastic waist. When I get better at sewing I will try harder patterns.

If you don't push yourself, you'll never get better. My eyes start to cross when I read sewing instructions that are more than one simple sentence, but I've found tutorials for everything with simple, manageable steps and clear photos (or video) for everything I've wanted to do.

I've only been sewing clothes for two and a half years (sort of- my grandmother sewed a lot so I watched when I was a kid, so I've always known my way around a machine), but a lot of the reason my skills progressed so quickly was because I didn't know enough to realize what I was doing should have been really hard (also, I have the time to do it). Now, a pair of pants with an elastic waist, drawstring, mock fly and no belt loops will get done in like two days rather than a week, but the harder projects aren't insurmountable.

Honestly, the thing that improved my "abilities" was a better machine. I had a EuroPro from Target that was junk to begin with, and getting worse, so I bought a Juki F600. It took sewing from "kind of an interesting, if a little frustrating, hobby" territory, to "Oooh, now what can I make??!!??".

If you had told me three years ago that I would spend that much on a sewing machine, I would have told you you were insane, but it was worth every penny to me.

I sew most of my own clothes, and about half of Tom's. I'm not cruising until January though, so I'm not sure what, if anything, I'll make just for the cruise. I have like five ideas for two formal nights, but I'm not sure yet. I'm so tempted by the LiaLia column dress (Vogue 1305) in a glittery sheer knit, but the stretch runs the same direction as the stripes, and I'm short, so I'm not sure. I also have some hand painted silk chiffon from Thai Silks that I am utterly in love with, but torn on using it as an overlay for Vogue 1302 or keeping it for something that I'll actually wear more than once.

I prefer dresses in the summer because they're easier, both to sew and to accessorize. I'm debating another Vogue 1244. I already have two, and the rayon version is either what I'm wearing or it's in the laundry. I'm torn though- do I really need to wear the same dress three times in as many days? McCall's 6520 in a modified view A was my last disaster. I thought the view looked awkward because they used too heavy a knit- nope, it's just awkward. I'm also one of a very few people that hates Vogue 1250- it just makes me look like I have a gut, when I don't really.

I love Christine Jonson patterns for pants, but we're going Southern Caribbean, so I mostly just refuse to take them (besides, I have two pairs of nylon pants from two years ago if I decide I'm doing something that requires pants).

I am making the Burda saress knock off, but mostly to use up some nasty poly knits that I know I'll never wear as any kind of shirt.

I know I'll wear my Simplicity 2603 waterfall cardigan on the plane. I love that I can wear it normally if it's just normal-AC cold, with both sides wrapped around me if we're waiting on the shuttle, or just one side if I'm just a little cold. I've used it on a blanket for Tom and I both on a flight as well, and always wear it when we're driving to visit my folks (Tom is a human furnace- he'll be in a long sleeved t-shirt, not quite sweating and I'll be wrapped up!).

Fabric-wise, I love linen, and I am sooo tempted by the linen knits at Michael Levine, but haven't bought yet. I'm also concerned about the irons on the ship- I know my iron, I trust the temps to be what I expect, but theirs, not so much.

Are you on PatternReview? I know I've seen a few names I recognize from over there here.

Boozebabe, nope... Come to find out any liquor sold in the United States HAS to be aged in virgin barrels. All of the different types of Jameson (other than what they import into to US) are aged in "used" barrels, old port casks if I remember correctly. That is what gives the Jameson the smooth taste that I love. Since they can't use those barrels for the whiskey they import into the US, the whiskey doesn't get the benefit of the "flavored" casks. It defiantly has a different taste and I'm not a whiskey expert by any means.

 

So I need to find or find someone to bring back True Jameson, since Jameson cannot legally ship it to me here in the states.

Not liquor in general, just whisky/whiskey/bourbon.

I'm seeing a lot of comments about Sanger's- I'm almost positive I've seen it on one of the sites that doesn't ship to Michigan, probably BevMo, Hi-Time Wines or Bennies. Winechateau.com is another possibility, along with Spec's. I've had good luck with DrinkupNY.com. They don't have the exhaustive selection, but they do have generally good prices, and most importantly they ship here.

What trips me out is that this question has been asked before on JH's blog which only makes me wonder how many other questions are being recycled and "featured" on his blog and how many legit questions are going unanswered.

I've only been here for two months, and I rarely go beyond Page 3. I think I've read the answers to about half of the questions that have been asked, so the likelihood that JH is "recycling" questions is pretty small- people are just incapable of searching for it themselves.

I'm really torn. On one hand, I would love to go all out. I learned to sew a few years ago, so it would give me an excuse to do a couture technique cocktail dress, and that would be a fun challenge.

On the other hand, I really don't want to go through all of that work to then have to pack it, and there's no way in hell I'm trusting it to a strange iron. Also, packing my dress also means packing heels for me and a suit or sport coat, dress shirt and shoes for Tom- that's probably 10 pounds of extra stuff for five hours of our trip

If we were driving to port I would be so in- I would just toss either my iron or steamer in the car and not worry about it for the two hours it was in the bag. But with a flight- that 10 pounds means two checked bags instead of sharing one, and that, in turn, means less room for rum on the way home.

I have been searching hi and low for some pants in this fabric. If anyone knows where I can find some I'd be grateful!

I'm about 99% sure this is ITY (individual twist yarn) knit, if that helps your search. However, I sew, and I've never heard of anyone making pants out of it- it's just too thin and unforgiving. They do make pants out of slinky knit, which is a similar fabric with acetate instead of polyester.

For our sailing, they're priced $50 higher than a 6C.