Sewing Sunsets

Denton Regional Medical Center continues to play “pass the buck”.  Yesterday, I finally got the name of the Risk Management person and when I called, that person claims to have no knowledge of the situation with my mom’s lost hearing aids.  This person informs me that the CNO has the final say, but I find that rather odd since it seems to me that the CEO should have the decision making power, but the CEO is also choosing to ignore me, hoping I will go away.  I won’t!!  My elderly mother’s well being is at stake and I will continue to battle this as publicly as I can. 

This morning, I contacted someone at AARP in my area and he gave me some very good advice.  For those of you with elderly loved ones, please fight for them because many of them can’t advocate for themselves adequately–especially if they are in any stage of dementia as my mother is  now.   Sometimes when just one person stands up and fights for what is right, others have the courage to do the same thing, and change occurs.  I am hoping that Denton Regional Medical Center in Denton, Texas will soon learn that they should always opt to do the right thing instead of trying to ignore complaints, pass the buck, and show a lack of compassion for humanity. 

www.sewseamless.com

Most of the time, I write about sewing, but lately, “Real Life” has been quite hectic and has often interfered with my sewing.  Of course, I have tricked real life lately and I have actually done quite a bit of sewing.   I’ll show you some of my projects at another time.  Right now, I have a few other things on my mind.

As you know my 83 year old mother was hospitalized for three weeks recently.  During the course of her hospitalization, it seems that a hospital employee may have thrown the hearing aids away.  Of course, the hospital administration doesn’t want to admit that it is possible that an employee may have made a mistake.  However, they can’t prove that this employee did NOT make a mistake, and I can’t prove that the the employee MADE a mistake. ( What can be proven, however, is that my 83 year old low income income mother has been forced to face each day without her hearing aids for almost two months.)  However, when I walked out of the of  hospital that night, January 19, 2010, the hearing aids were in my mother’s ears and nowhere to be found the next morning.  I am 100% certain of this fact! My mother was bedridden and very ill that night so she definitely could not have lost those hearing aids.  I have asked repeatedly for the hospital to do the right thing and pay to replace the hearing aids, which I contend are medically necessary devices that allow someone to function on a daily basis,  but the hospital has continued to refuse to do the right thing.  Of course,  they did the standard Public Relations move of offering to pay  half of the cost, but my husband and I said no to that offer because both hearing aids were lost and that would only replace one.  Plus, my mother is low income and does not  have the financial means to replace hearing aids, which she did not lose. I, however, refuse to take “No” for an answer, so I will continue to fight on behalf of my poor low income elderly mother, who is the one who is paying the highest price in this situation.

My main reason for writing my thoughts here is to encourage consumers to fight back when it becomes necessary.  In situations like mine, too many people throw up their hands and deal with it on their own, rather than fight for what is right.  My particular case involves advocating for an elderly person because in all of this mess, as I said earlier in this post, my poor mother is the one who is paying the high price and is suffering because a hospital administration lacks compassion  for a low income elderly woman.   In fact,  Denton Regional Medical Center and their parent company,  Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) seems to lack compassion, esepcially in this particular case.  However, they seem to have one thing in common, and that is passion–passion for the bottom line, that is, their profit margin and the almighty dollar. 

Another passion that Denton Regional Medical Center and HCA seem to share is the passion for ignoring complaints such as this one.  I have written letters both to the CEO of Denton Regional, and also to the CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of HCA, but they apparently continue to ignore my complaint.  I’m sure that the hope is that I will go away and stop fighting for the hospital to pay to replace my  mother’s hearing aids, but I can assure them that the fight has just begun.  This whole issue could be resolved quickly and easily if Denton Regional would simply fax back the contract that Beltone sent them at the beginning of this whole mess.  Sometimes, you should just do the right thing, and in this case, Denton Regional Medical Center should do the right thing and pay to replace my mother’s hearing aids.

Carrie Underwood has a great song on her new album.  It is entitled Play On  and has a great message.  The lyrics encourage us all to “play on” and keep going even when we are facing difficult times in life.  Here are the lyrics to this great song:

Whatcha gonna do when the show is over?
Whatcha gonna sing when the song ends, yeah?
How you gonna cope when there is no closure?
Where you gonna reach when the goal gets higher?
How you gonna make it through when you think you lost your chance?

Play on when you’re losing the game
Play on ’cause you’re gonna make mistakes
It’s always worth the sacrifice
Even when you think you’re wrong
So play on, play on

Even when the floodgates swing wide open
Never let the current take you down, no
Even when you’re not sure where you’re going
Swimming through a mess and you can’t get out
Just going through the motions and trying not to drown

Play on when you’re losing the game
Play on ’cause you’re gonna make mistakes
It’s always worth the sacrifice
Even when you think you’re wrong
So play on, play on

Even through a storm on the darkest night
Don’t you ever give up the fight
Even when you feel you’re all alone
Play on, play on

Play on when you’re losing the game
Play on ’cause you’re gonna make mistakes
It’s always worth the sacrifice
Even when you think you’re wrong
So play on, play on

Play on
Ooh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Na, na, na, na, na, na
Na, na, na, na, na, na

It may look like I’m “losing the game” at this point, but I can assure you that my mother’s well being and ability to function well every day is well worth the sacrifice.  And I will also assure Denton Regional Medical Center here in Texas and HCA that I will indeed continue to “Play On”.

www.sewseamless.com

My last post involved telling you about my mom’s illness and hospitalization, and how that affected my sewing.  My poor mother was hospitalized for three weeks, initally for pneumonia, and then for an intestinal infection that the antibiotics caused.  Of course, this could have been prevented, but conventional medicine seems to be unaware of nutritional therapies.  As a result of the intestinal infection, my mom received even more IV antibiotics, and endured many, many days of frustration, pain, and weakness.  During the course of this particular infection, my mother’s hearing aids disappeared. 

My mom was admitted to this hospital during the wee hours the morning of January 15. 2010.  She did not have her glasses or hearing aids that time, but I told the night nurse that I would bring them later. This night nurse was wonderful, and she did her job and documented that I had taken home two rings, but that I would bring the glasses and hearing aids that morning.  Basically, it was later that morning, and after giving my mom her eye glasses and hearing aids, I went in search of the day shift nurse.  Unfortunately, this nurse wasn’t as friendly as the night shift nurse, so when I told her that I had brought these items to my mom, she just said ok and walked away. Evidentally, it was her job and responsibility to document that those items had been brought into the hospital, but she didn’t do that. As a family member of an ill patient, it is not my duty to know, or to make sure, that the nurses follow proper procedure.   Both the hearing aids and eye glasses remained in my mom’s possession for the next several days.  Also, I was staying at the hospital all day every day, and often going back at night to check on my mom.   I told every person who took care of my mother that she wore hearing aids, so everyone was well aware of this fact.  The night that the hearing aids were lost, my mom had a nurse and a tech (the person responsible for taking vital signs) that she had never had before.  Several times that evening, I told this tech that my mom had hearing aids, and went as far as to point to my ears and also point to my mom’s ears.  This particular tech was so involved in moving an IV pole (that didn’t need to be moved) that she apparently didn’t pay attention to what I was telling her, or maybe she didn’t hear me, but I am positive that I told her about the hearing aid three times that night.  This particular employee was very hasty and speedy with her work; perhaps she should have slowed down and paid more attention to what she was throwing away.  (We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare.) When I walked into the hospital room the following morning, those hearing aids were nowhere to be found.  I gave the hospital ample time to find the hearing aids, although I had made it clear from the beginning that I expected the hospital to pay to replace the hearing aids if they were not found. 

I met with the appropriate people, followed all instructions that the hospital requested (forms, documents, etc), wrote letters to the CEO,  and remained patient for quite some time–until my patience ran out. I marched into the hospital a few days ago, and an artifically calm woman (this only served to make me angrier on the inside) met with me, and when she realized that I wasn’t going away quite so easily, she made the offer for the hospital to pay half of the cost of replacing the hearing aids.  However, those that I consulted, and I, think that is not acceptable because my mother wears two hearing aids and basically, they were only offering to pay to replace one hearing aid.  The bottom line is that those hearing aids disappeared on their watch and they should pay to replace them!

 I simply want the low end basic hearing aids that my mom had replaced, and this hospital should do the right thing, but of course, they can’t prove anything so they are refusing.   And the one suffering the most is my mother.  She moved into a rehab facility a couple of weeks ago, and not having her hearing aids is hindering her and definitely lessening her quality of life.  Not only do I hold this hospital responsible for the loss of the hearing aids, I also hold them personally responsible for reducing quality of life for my mother.

I am now begininng to fight this hospital to do the right thing and pay for the hearing aids.  Today I will not name the facility, but if you keep watching this blog in the days to come, I will be filling in details about this ongoing ordeal and saga.  I say “shame on them” for causing a poor elderly woman to continue to suffer because they (the hospital) can’t admit that maybe one of their employees made a huge, and costly mistake!

And believe it or not, I have actually volunteered to sew for this hospital, and I will honor that commitment, in spite of their unwillingness to do the right thing and pay to replace my mother’s hearing aids.

During this whole process, I have actually managed to do a little sewing, and that is probably the only thing that has continued to keep me sane.   More about my sewing in future blogs.

Stay tuned for the rest of this hospital/hearing aid saga. And…

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Unfortunately, real life has decided to throw another curve ball.  I had hoped and planned to sew, but about nine days ago, my mom was sent to the hospital with pneumonia.   She is still there and still on IV antibiotics.  Unfortunately, she will seem to get better for a day or two and then have another major set back.  She is extremely weak and tired and just hasn’t recovered enough to get up and move enough to regain some strength.  My mom is 83 years old so this is very hard on her, and of course, I’m exhausted as well.  It’s hard to watch your parent decline and it’s especially hard when they are ill.

A few days ago, I did manage to get some hand sewing done, but this past week has been a difficult one.  My mom will be fever free for a few days and then she’ll have fever for another day or two.  It doesn’t help that she is getting very little sleep.  Not sleeping well is going to make it harder for her to heal.

I’ll update as I can and when Real Life settles down again, I’ll try to get back to blogging about sewing–and do some sewing as well.

Happy Sewing to you all!

www.sewseamless.com

Apparently, I have offically lost my sewing mind!    I knew that the project that I have been showing you recently looked very short to be a nightgown, but for some reason, that’s what I thought I was making.  When I just now checked, it was a previous project that was a nightgown, which was quite a bit longer. 

Sew….the black fabric with the mutli-colored music notes on it was sewn into a very nice pajama top.  My,my……see what happens when my pictures don’t cooperate?!

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Yesterday, I managed to upload a few pictures before my card reader decided to misbehave again.  At least, I think it’s my card reader.  I lost a few pictures, but hubby was able to retrieve most of them, thank goodness! 

Yesterday, I showed you the sleeve and started the process of pinning it to the garment.  The side seams haven’t been sewn yet, so this is really quite easy.

I’m not sure you can see this picture much better, but the sleeve has been pinned to the garment. It’s quite easy to sew the sleeve to the garment this way.  I sew with the sleeve side up because you can also use your finger so help prevent any puckers when you’re sewing. 

When I finish sewing the sleeve, I serge finish the raw edge of the seam, after I have checked to make sure there are no puckers and that I don’t need to do any un-stitching, of course. Then, the seam is pressed toward the sleeve.  I usually press this seam over a tailor’s ham because it is easier to press this way.

The next step is to pin the side seam and the sleeve seam and sew these in one long seam.  You have to slightly pivot when you come to the underarm seam, but that’s easy.

I placed the garment at an angle so you could see the seam better.  I chose to serge finish the raw edges before sewing this time, so after this seam was sewn, I pressed the seams open.  I also clipped just under the arm so that I could press the seam open a bit easier.  Sometimes, I like to sew this seam and then serge the seam and press it to one side, but I thought it might put too much bulk under the arms. 

At this point, the only thing left to do is hem the garment and this hem was easy.  The bottom was turned up twice, enclosing the raw edge and then I sewed it on the sewing machine.  I place my needle all the way to the left to sew this type of rolled hems.  Some seamstresses like to press the hem up, then press it up again, which makes it quite easy to sew, but I tend to “eyeball” it.

This pattern is the same pattern that I will use to sew pajama tops; you just cut them a little shorter.  Otherwise, the sewing techniques are exactly the same.

Sewing sleeves in flat (tutorial and pictures):  www.sewseamless.com/Page28.html , www.sewseamless.com/Page29.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page30.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

Today is the day we are finally going to warm up!  I don’t like winter at all anyway, and it’s been far too cold for my taste for waaayyy too long.  I’m really ready for summer and 90 degree temps with lots and lots of sunshine.   Of course, there is one good thing about winter—those cold icky days make great sewing days.

I have really enjoyed sewing this flannel nightgown.  It is a very easy pattern and because it is a pull over style, there are no buttons or buttoholes to sew, plus the hem is machine sewn, so this is a fairly quick project.   I sewed the shoulder seams together, interfaced the neckline facings and sewed them together, then sewed the facings to the garment neckline, and then understitched.  That was the hardest part of the whole garment.  The next step was to sew the sleeves in and that was quite easy.

These sleeves are sewn to the garment before the side seams are sewn.  This is one time when it is important to mark the dot on the sleeve cap; it should be placed at the shoulder seam of the garment. 

The picture above shows the sleeve cap that will be sewn to the garment.  I found that I needed to run an ease line on the sleeve caps to make sure that they fit correctly.  I also slightly clipped the curve on the garment to help it spread out to fit the sleeve cap, so that the notches would match.  (The single notch indicates the front of the sleeve, and the double notch indicates the back of the sleeve.)  then I pinned the sleeve cap to the garment.

I don’t think you can really see much from the above picture, but I was pinning the sleeve to the garment.  I have more pictures to show you, but I’ll have to see if my camera, card reader, and computer are speaking to each other again. Uploading pictures has been a real challenge recently.  Hopefully, I’ll have some more, and better, pictures to show you in my next post.

Sewing sleeves (the easy way): www.sewseamless.com/Page28.html , www.sewseamless.com/Page29.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page30.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

This is a picture of the finished facing.  In the past, I’ve sewn the facings that are sewn on to a dress or blouse that has buttons and buttonholes, but this nightgown is a pull over style, so the facing is one piece, after the shoulder seams have been sewn and pressed open.  I serge finished the raw edges and then pinned and sewed the facing to the neckline of the garment.  The nightgown shoulder seams were sewn and and pressed open first. 

I know it’s a little hard to see, but the picture above shows the right side of the garment after I sewed the facing to the neckline.  At the slight “V”, I clipped to the stitching and because these were curved seams, I clipped the curves.  Even though the pattern didn’t tell me to do so, I chose to understitch the facing.  This was very easy since it was one piece.  I placed the seam allowance toward the facing, and sewed close to the seam, right on the facing.  After the neckline was pressed, this kept the neckline facing from rolling to the outside.

In the picture above, you can see the seam allowance under the facing.  I chose to use the free arm of my sewing machine to make sewing the neckline facings easier and also to make the understitching easier as well.

The rest of the nightgown was very easy to sew, and believe it or not, after sewing the facings, this garment was almost finished.

Sewing facings: www.sewseamless.com/Page6.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page16.html

Understitching: www.sewseamless.com/Page7.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page16.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

It is still way too cold today!  At least we don’t have ice today, but it’s still much too cold for my taste.  Of course, yesterday was a perfect sewing day and I made a huge mistake; I actually planned to sew.  Yep, you guessed it!  Real life interrupted again!   However, I can’t complain too much because this time, the interruptions were very pleasant ones.  And I did get to do a little sewing in spite of Real Life.

Yesterday, we talked about  applying fusible interfacing.  That’s actually a nice thing to do on a cold winter day. After the facings have been interfaced, it’s time to sew them together and then sew them to the neckline of the garment.  This particular facing is a bit different that what I’ve shown you in the past.  The pajama top that I’m sewing is a pull over top so this facing is one piece, which is very easy to sew.

The first step is to sew the shoulder seams of the facings together and press them open.

After I pressed the facing shoulder seams open, I serge finished the raw edges of the facing.  The next step is to sew the facing to the neckline of the pajama top, and even though the pattern didn’t tell me to do this, I chose to understitch the facing.  Because it’s one piece, it was really quite easy.

Sewing facings: www.sewseamless.com/Page6.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page16.html

Understitching: www.sewseamless.com/Page7.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page16.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

It is much too cold and icy here today!  Brrrr!!!  Of course, this type of winter day is a great day for staying home and sewing.  That’s what I hope to do today–sew.

As you know, I have completed several pairs of flannel pajama pants and moved on to sewing a couple of flannel nightgowns and pajama tops to go with those pj pants.  Flannel is one of my favorite fabrics because it is so easy to sew and the garments are warm and cozy.  You must pre-shrink flannel before sewing with it.  After I have washed and dried 100% cotton flannel fabric, I press it well so that all the wrinkles are removed before I pin a pattern on the flannel. 

Recently, I started sewing a flannel nightgown, which is a really easy pattern.  The pattern for the pj top is the same pattern, just shorter.

The first step is to sew the shoulder seams and press them open over a seam roll.  Then it’s time to prepare and sew the neckline facings.  The first thing to do is to  apply the fusible interfacing to the facing pieces.  Make sure that you have pre-shrunk your interfacing before fusing it to the flannel.  Because I use such small pieces, I place the interfacing pieces glue side up, spritz them with water, and hold the iron over the piece, not touching it.  Move the iron along the small piece of interfacing (sometimes, I give it a shot of steam, but I have to be careful not to shrink it too much!) and then lay the small pieces aside to dry.  Many seamstresses put the entire yardage of interfacing into a basin of hot water and let it sit for a few minutes, and then hang it over a shower rod to dry, or lay it flat to dry. 

When the interfacing has been pre-shrunk and is completely dry, it can be fused to the fabric.  I like to press the flannel facings before fusing the interfacing.  Place the fabric, wrong side up, and place the interfacing, glue side down on the  fabric.  It’s easy to tell the glue side of the the interfacing because it feels rougher. ( There are a lot of different types of interfacing on the market, but one of my favorites is Fusi-Knit, which is a knit type of interfacing.  I use it with cotton and cotton flannel and have had great results with it.)

Cover the piece with a press cloth, lightly spray with water, and then place the iron down firmly.  Use lots of steam and hold the iron down (applying some pressure), for about ten seconds.  Lift the iron, and slightly overlapping where you started, repeat the process until the entire piece has been fused.

The above picture shows the back facing (top) and the front facing, which is the “V” shaped piece.

When the entire facing piece has been fused, turn it over so the the right side of the fabric is facing you, and repeat the whole process.  This helps to ensure that the interfacing is fused well.  Make sure to use a lift and press motion, not an ironing (sliding) motion when fusing the interfacing.

I know it’s hard to see in the picture above, but that is the front facing that has had the fusible interfacing applied to it.   After the pieces have been interfaced,  allow them to cool before moving them.  The next step is to sew the front and back facings together and then sew them to the neckline. 

Tutorial (and pictures) for applying/fusing interfacing: www.sewseamless.com/Page4.html and www.sewseamless.com/Page15.html

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com