Blue Cardigan - BWOF 08-2011-117

It's been a long while, dear Readers, that I've actually sewn a BWOF pattern in the same month the magazine came out. But when I spotted this blue fabric in Toronto (out shopping with Connie, Claire and Sue), I knew exactly what I wanted to make - BWOF 08-2011-117.

And so I did. This is a really simple cardigan - 4 pieces, sews up in a couple hours, tops. I did make a muslin, only because I wanted to see what the style would look like on me, before I sacrificed this pretty blue fabric.

The result? I like but not love this cardigan. I'm not entirely convinced that this is my cardigan - I think I look both older and fatter than I'd like to believe I am. But - hey - did I mention it sews up in 2 hours? (I have 3 versions of Vogue 1250 - sewn for exactly the same reason. What can I say? Some mistakes - I like to make over, and over, and over again.)

The best kind of packing

I'm going away to Cleveland and the surrounding areas for Labour Day.

I didn't really intend to, but evidently, I'm taking a cat.

I am a wimp

It's Self-Stitched time, dear Readers, and I'm feeling a wee bit of regret about not participating.

A while back, randomly clicking on blog links, I found the uber-awesome Karen at Did You Make That. Her blog was interesting, her pictures were pretty, but the part that totally blew me away? That she took photos with random strangers during Me-Made-June. And she looked like she was having a ton of fun with it.

How cool was that? It seemed like a perfect way to get past the most painful part of the challenge - the taking of the photos.

Anyway. Yesterday, I wore my white shirt to work. As I put it on, I realized that I'd never taken a photo of the completed shirt for my blog. I was going to meet some friends in the evening, and I resolved to take my camera with me, and get one of them to take my picture. (Tuesday is trivia night, where a group of us gather at a local bar and do trivia. It's fun and I learn random things.)

Now, all/most of these friends know I sew. So, it totally would not have been weird for me to say - hey, would you take my picture? I want a picture of my shirt for my blog. Not weird at all.

And yet, I couldn't do it. These are friends I hang out with *every single week*, people. They would have been happy to take a photo. But it would have (a) felt strange asking someone to take your photo in the city you live in, (b) go through all the fuss about going outside, taking a photo, making sure it looked fine, etc and (c) ask someone to stop drinking/socializing long enough to take my photo.

And so, dear Readers, twinge of regret about Self-Stitched September or not, I know me. I'm a wimp. I really hate asking people to take my photo. (Family is the exception to this rule, I have no issues asking my mom/brother to take my photo.) No Self-Stitched-September* for me.

*Though I might still participate silently, with no photos at all. Maybe.

Simplicity 2594 - View E

Unexpectedly, I had a photographer this morning. My brother, me, my new shirt and my camera were all in the same location at the same time. Hence, photos not taken on my tripod. Nice! So much less effort!

Anyhoo, this is Simplicity 2594, View E. It isn't a complicated pattern, but I complicated it a bit by using French seams (the fabric looked like it would unravel.) The fabric is a synthetic, courtesy of my friend Anna, who was uber-thoughtful, and gave me a fabric gift certificate for my birthday. (How awesome!) I went a little overboard during the subsequent shopping trip, and bought a ton of fabric.

Up next, blue cardigan, I think.

Fall Travel Wardrobe - Planning

Thank you all most particularly for your very nice comments on my three Vogue dresses. Wouldn't it be great to carry some fellow sewing bloggers in your pocket, so you could pull them out when you had body issues, and they'd tell you how nice your dresses were? You guys are the sweetest, seriously.

Thanks as well for the comments on my musings on what to sew next. A couple of you suggested rolling the three - Fall PAC, travel & tops all into one set of clothes, which is a really good idea - I should do that!

As it happened, I ended up following Clio's (and others as well) advice to make a top while I was pondering. I cut a version of Simplicity 2594. I've made a different variation of this pattern before, but this time, I cut a simple v-neck (thankfully, not on the bias) in a drapey synthetic. I have a tiny bit of finishing work to do on it - hemming the sleeves and the top. Hopefully, by tomorrow night. (Narrow hems on slippery fabrics are a bit of a PIA, no?)

Also in the meanwhile, I wrote a list of what I called "Essential Wardrobe Pieces" that I needed to sew. Here's what I think I need for my fall wardrobe.

Bottoms:
- Grey flannel pants. I'm thinking straight legged and cuffed.
- Black woolen pants. I actually own the fabric - bought early this summer.
- Cream skirt. I'm thinking of BWOF 08-2010-127 for the pattern.
- Black woolen A-line skirt. I do own a RTW version, but it is unfortunately entirely too tight. I'm not going to magically lose 20 lb by the start of fall, so I might as well sew myself a replacement skirt.

Toppers:
- A navy blue cardigan. I'm envisioning the cardigan in BWOF's August issue - which I recently bought the fabric for, while shopping with Connie, Sue & Claire.
- A cream cardigan. I need to scout around for fabric for this...
- A biker jacket. I've wanted to make one similar to Christina's jacket forever. Perhaps this fall?

In addition to the above basics, I went over to ModCloth, and pinned a ton of tops (and a few dresses and other garments) onto my Fall Travel Wardrobe board.

So, that's a lot of ambition, and I know I won't get even a fraction of these done before I go on vacation. But it's good to have goals, and I'd find it incredibly useful if I even get one or two pieces done before I head off.

At an impasse - what should I sew next?

I'm in the rare position, dear Readers, of not having a project in the pipeline. Usually, when I'm posting about a garment, the next garment is already cut out, and I've started work on it. But right now, there's nothing on the sewing table. (Though, of course, there's no shortage of fabric in my closet.)

My problem is that I'm torn between several long projects:

- Make several tops. There's a serious lack of tops in my wardrobe. I've skirts I can't wear because there's no matching top. My oft-worn black t-shirt, bought way back in 2006 is finally too ratty to wear. I need tops!

- Do the Fall 6-PAC. I blame Carolyn for this, really. However, sewing with a plan, while difficult to stick to, always produces those wardrobe basics without which I could never get dressed in the morning.

- Early October, I head off to the south of France for 10 days. I'd dearly like to sew myself a proper travel wardrobe. The French are intimidating dressers, and I crave that Je-ne-sais-quoi! that the French do so well. Perhaps if I sewed a travel wardrobe?

- Or should I forget about all of this, and continue my current pattern of sewing whatever strikes my fancy? There's merits to this approach. Sewing is, after all, my hobby, and sewing randomly is quite fun. However, I tend to randomly sew dresses, not separates, and I do desperately need separates.

So, dear Readers, what should I do? Personally, I'm leaning towards the travel wardrobe, but we'll see.

Three versions of Vogue 1250

Am I perhaps the last person in the world to have made this dress? I guess I made up by making three versions of it.

Now, this is where you can call me stupid. I thought the first version emphasized my tummy in a way I definitely didn't like. What do I therefore do? Make 2 more versions. Call me stupid, people.

I guess I'll wear it when I've lost weight. In other words, when pigs fly. (Ok, I have worn the first dress out, but I ended up being self-conscious about my tummy the entire evening.)

Fabric - both the blue-green print and the red solid are from Fabricland - ~$3-4 a yard, part of the most recent Fabricland binge. The black & white narrow stripe was from Montreal, I paid ~$8? a yard for it.

Sewing updates...

Thanks for all the nice words about my easy jersey dresses. These have already become wardrobe staples - they look professional enough (especially the navy one), but are as comfortable to wear as PJs. I love them!

Other sewing updates:

Summer sewing: A few months ago, in a desperate attempt to clean my apartment, I took all my fabric and gave it to my parents to store in their basement. The stated goal was that I would keep with me only the next 2-3 projects. Of course, that just wasn't feasible. 2-3 projects turned to 20-ish, but it still helped organize my sewing.

Last week, in addition to the pink jersey dress, I also cut out a graphic black & white skirt, and a mustard t-shirt, 2 projects in the to-sew-this-summer pile. These are both pretty simple projects to sew (especially since I decided the skirt didn't need to be lined), and so in the bits and pieces of time I had available, I actually managed to sew them up.



The top is McCalls 5105 view C, the bottom is Simplicity 4047, which I've made before here and here.

Fabric buying: I haven't been to a Fabricland in ages. This is a good thing, since I have no restraint when it comes to buying fabric. Fabric is relatively cheap, and even if I go overboard on fabric, it seldom costs much more money than a night out in Toronto. The only way to control the fabric buying is to never enter the stores.
But alas! Fabricland was having a sale on Vogue patterns, and I really wanted to make the cowl-neck dress that everyone in Blogland has been making with fabulous results. I went to a Fabricland Friday evening, and I'm sad to say I lost my head a little bit. I bought 7(!) pieces of fabric. Bad Reethi! It was all on sale, and so very irresistible.

I cut one of them out last night though - I'm making the Vogue dress.

Upcoming fabric buying: Of course, it was tremendously stupid of me to buy a ton of fabric last week, since on Thursday, I'm meeting Connie, Sue and Claire for an afternoon of sewing talk and fabric shopping! I'm incredibly excited. I love talking about sewing!

Two versions of BWOF 11-2008-118

When in Montreal in early June, I bought a ton of fabric ($80 of damage, ouch.) But... I was at least a bit mindful to buy fabric that I would theoretically use this summer - mostly fabric to make easy knit dresses. It was some of this fabric I pulled out to make these two knit dresses.



This easy knit dress pattern has been on my radar since December 2008. (In fact, I've some other fabric sitting in my parents' basement that I bought specifically to make this dress. I should do that, no?) It is super easy - 4 pattern pieces (front, back, front sleeve & back sleeve). Goes together in less than a couple of hours... Love!

So, here are the two versions, made these last two weeks.

Back from vacation!

Usually, I don't blog or sew because I'm too busy. This time though, I was also on vacation (yay!), which is the best reason for blog silence, no?

I went to Copenhagen and Amsterdam. I loved Copenhagen. Amsterdam was filled with tourists and rainy, but I think I'd enjoy it a lot in spring or fall.

Of course, I bought fabric on vacation. Just one piece in each city though.

Copenhagen, Amsterdam (July 8-18, 2011)

So, I came back Monday afternoon from vacation, all refreshed and renewed, and almost immediately started on a dress. I've been slightly jet-lagged and waking up early, so I used the time well, traced out a BWOF dress from 2008(!), and made it up yesterday. I'm actually wearing it today, so will get a photo this evening. It is an easy jersey dress - 4 pieces, minimal fitting, and perfect in the heatwave that Toronto is going through.

The fiasco that is Me-Made-June

What can I say about Me-Made-June? Sigh. I haven't had time to take photos of myself, and I haven't had time to check the flickr group out at all.

About the only thing I've had time to do is wear me-made clothes, which I've been doing pretty faithfully. (Though, I've technically cheated a couple of times by wearing a store-bought tank top underneath super-low cut garments that require it. Whatever.)

But I think that my month's experience has perhaps indicated that the Me-Made-Months and me should part ways.

Don't get me wrong, I love the whole idea of it. I haven't bought any RTW clothes in over a year, maybe even two. (Don't see the point, have too much fabric.) Eventually, I'll shift to being all me-made, just because my store-bought stuff wears out, and I don't buy RTW any more. (In daily life, I'm already at ~30-35% me-made.)

It's the execution I find incredibly cumbersome - I hate taking photos. Since I live by myself, taking photos involves setting up the tripod, carrying it to the balcony, wondering if my neighbours think I'm an idiot, taking photos, uploading photos, editing photos - and so on, and so forth, until I'm at the point of utter madness.

So, no. Unfortunately, the time has come for the sun to set on this little relationship. I am sad, but without regret.

Failure

My plan on Sunday was to have lunch with my parents. I wore this red dress.



My mother took one look, and called me Santa Claus. And she proceeded to laugh the entire time we were at lunch. Even my normally-diplomatic dad looked and sounded a bit aghast at this dress. And at the end of lunch, my parents drove me back home, my mom made me change out of the dress, and she promptly and immediately took it to the thrift store. Where it will undoubtedly be used as a Santa Claus costume.

Ahem. That's failure, dear Readers. Dramatic, utter, total failure.

"Never been worn" is the fate of this Proenza-Shouler dress.




And this dress has also not left the closet to see daylight (although this is more about needing to lose weight.)


Now, I'm not an advanced sewer, I do fail quite a bit. But these three projects have one thing in common - trying to replicate an existing RTW look. Evidently, I don't know how to do this. I wonder why. Thoughts?

In the meanwhile, I'm soon re-opening myself up to failure. I want to make this ModCloth dress.

Colour me intimidated

I've been on the library waitlist for the Pattern Magic book forever. It finally came in yesterday, I spent some time flipping through it, and wow, colour me intimidated! Creating my own sloper. Making the pattern manipulations to it myself. Lots of marking, slashing, spreading.

Hmm. I've been avoiding buying this book, on the fear that it would just sit in my bookshelf, unused. (Burda magazines, anyone?) However, I do think this might be one of those books that I should buy, and then set myself a goal of creating one piece every 3 months or something like that. I would learn so much that way!

My white shirt is a f***ing disaster. Because of the subtle stripes, I cut the fabric in one layer. Yesterday, when I was going to set in the sleeves, I realized I cut two identical sleeves. And I don't have enough fabric to cut another one. So, I'm going to go ahead and set my sleeve in backwards. Can you say disaster? Sigh. I just gave up and went to sleep last night.

Yikes!

What a crazy couple of weeks it has been! I got back super-late Sunday night from Montreal, and have had social engagements every single day this week. A few nights, I've been getting back home past midnight. So, no time to sew. My white shirt is languishing, half-sewn.



Biscuit is super annoyed with me, due to all the neglect. When I was in Montreal, my mother took care of her, and she was doted on and treated like the little princess she is. Then she returns home, and I'm flying in and out of the house? Serious cat crankiness. Yesterday, when I was leaving for work in the morning, she bit my ankles every time I went near the front door. Poor little bear! I felt really bad for her (and also for my ankles, a little.) To make amends, I went home for lunch and sat with her for a half-hour.

Ah, little cranky cats, the things we do for you!

I did have time to sew yesterday evening, but I didn't. Hmm. Anyway, I hope to get back to my white shirt tonight. Sure, it's a bit boring to sew, but I really actually *need* a white shirt.

A Final Word on the Work Wardrobe

Adelaide B left a very thought-provoking comment on my last post...

It seems to me that a lot of things that you describe as being not appropriate for work (even though they do not violate HR guidelines) are things that could be considered "only for women." Girl colors, loud colors, prints, and full shapes are all things that read feminine. I'm not stating anything new by commenting that professional clothes for women must mimic menswear in order to be taken seriously. (Muted colors and shapes. This was especially exaggerated in the 80's. Ugh.) I get that you gotta do what you gotta do, but it's a shame. You've made some lovely things.

I thought about that for a bit, and while there's some truth to that, it isn't quite perfectly true. At my workplace, while the senior echelon is predominantly male (an unfortunate reality that persists to this day in corporate North America), at the low-level rung I sit, there are just as many women as there are men. And these women dress in a variety of colors and styles.

As do I. The pink dress is - well - pink. It doesn't get more feminine than hot pink, I don't think.

I think the dress that set me thinking about all this was more girly than feminine, and that's an important distinction. I'm entirely too old to look girly at work. And it is hard to be girly and to be taken seriously.

Additionally, what was important was my personal discomfort with the way I was dressed. At the heart of it, I prefer to dress in a relatively conformist manner. (Hopefully, with style as well.) And at the end of the day, it is all about being comfortable in my own skin.

And that's my final word on the wardrobe (not yours though! talk to me!). I leave for Montreal in 4 hours. I won't be back till late on Sunday night. I will try not to buy too much fabric, but I'm not entirely sure how much restraint will be displayed. Thankfully, I won't have too much time to shop for fabric, I'm going to Montreal's beer festival, and will be otherwise distracted.

More wardrobe ramblings - being taken seriously at work

Just as I predicted, no sewing last night. And not much sewing for the rest of the week either. I leave tomorrow night to Montreal for the rest of the week. A mini-vacation, just what the doctor ordered.

I've had a lot of really interesting comments on my thoughts on a work wardrobe. Thanks, everyone! Your thoughts have helped me think through what kind of clothing will help me be taken seriously at work.

Being taken seriously is a higher bar than "acceptable by the strict HR standards". I think it encompasses dressing in a relatively understated manner, so that your message is the focus, not your clothing. Hence, dressing as similarly as possible to your co-workers. If people are routinely complimenting my clothes, I'm actually a tiny bit concerned that the focus is on my clothing. (This is also why practically no one at my workplace knows I sew. I don't want the conversation at work to be about sewing.)

SewOm wrote:

I have to agree with you on shape. I read a lot of blogs where people create a lot of vintage dresses. Thing is, those shapes are typically from an era when women were rarer in the workforce than they are now. A very full, gathered skirt does not convey authority or power - it conveys "pretty", or, "50's housewife."

I do think a cardigan would have helped that dress. I also think that the colors in that dress are neutral enough that with a slimmer, sleeker skirt, you would have felt better.

I could not agree more with this comment - SewOm articulated exactly what I was feeling about my dress. And a cardigan would have toned it down. And both authority and power are synonyms for being taken seriously, I think.

Kid, MD wrote:

YES! That grey dress is fabulous!!
I need to comment on your blog more. I love all the dresses you've made lately, and your post about color has really had me thinking. And noticing! I wonder if it is color or prints that feel less work appropriate. Do you think a nice saturated purple or blue would feel professional and chic, but still satisfy the need for color?





Well, I wore the above pink shift dress to work yesterday - I think it is border-line acceptable.

On the shape/color thing - it is a very bright color, but the shift-dress shape is very professional. I think a saturated blue or purple would be better than this pink. Instinctively, though I can't really explain why, the following colors are a bit of a not-quite-ok for work.

- Pink
- Yellow
- White
- Orange

But I can't explain why. (Especially the white. A cream seems ok to me, but a white seems too summery, if that makes any sense.)

Conclusions so far: (All of this just applies to my workplace. There's a ton and variety in workplaces, your experience might be totally different from mine.)

- Full skirts in a color are not ok for work. (The jury's still out on full skirts in a neutral.)
- Really bright colors are probably out as well. (Though I don't care, I'm going to keep wearing the pink dress.)
- Prints in bright colors are definitely out. Prints in neutrals are ok, as long as they are a work-appropriate shape.

I know this might seem to be pretty obvious to a lot of people. But, with me? When buying RTW clothes, I was appropriately dressed, mostly by instinct. However, when sewing my clothes, I need to articulate why something works/doesn't work, so I'll remember that at the start of a project.

The problem with sewing for work...

is that it is a wee-bit boring. Still, I told my inner child to grow up, and cut out fabric for a white shirt last night.

I'm a tiny bit concerned about the fabric. It has self-embossed stripes on it (I'm sure this is the wrong technical term), and these stripes are quite sheer. Sewing an unwearable white shirt would be very, very annoying. (Though I could always use it as a summer-weight jacket, I guess...)

This evening promises to be busy. My parents just got back today from a trip to India, and they are dropping by in the evening. (Parents, if you are reading, bring fabric.) I've been meaning to catch up with a friend as well, and this catching up will take place over beer. I'd really like to get the white shirt done tonight, but realistically, it's just not going to happen.

Tomorrow morning, I have a meeting with some pretty senior people, and I must look grown-up and professional. Since I'm doing Me-Made-June, this limits my options somewhat. I will perhaps pull out my grey dress. Grey = work-appropriate, right?

The Mini-Miracle Dress - Simplicity 3803

So, I realized I`d never shown a picture of the dress I made early May. I referred to it in this post.

It came together easily, I sewed it in 15-minute chunks, and it was done in a few days. Sewing in 15-minute chunks, balancing the rest of the stuff I have to do - this kind of balanced sewing is something I frequently aspire to do, but rarely achieve. Perhaps because of that, I`m extra-fond of this dress.

I`m not going to bother with a full-blown review, but the bodice is Simplicity 3803, the skirt is just a rectangle with tucks. The fabric is a thrift store find, I paid $3 for it, which I remember thinking was expensive, since I didn`t actually have a use for this fabric. In retrospect though, I`m very glad I bought it.

The instructions on this pattern are actually pretty good. They have a hand-sewing-free method of attaching the lining to the fabric.

I like hand-sewing-free methods. I see a lot of sewists that talk lovingly of careful hand-sewing - I will confess to not understanding this at all. I like machine sewing, and detest hand-sewing. If I resort to hand-sewing, it`s because I don`t know how to do something by machine, and I should learn.

So, today. I have done no sewing, and am likely to do no sewing. It is a gloriously beautiful day, I think I will spend some time on my balcony instead.

Making it Mine: My version of Lily`s dress in How I Met Your Mother

Here it is, my version of Lily's dress.



The entire story:

I'm a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother. Recently, I spent some time at my laptop, catching up on episodes I haven't seen, and I stumbled upon this red dress that Lily wore in an episode at the end of Season 3.



The instant I saw this dress, I wanted to recreate it. I tried to find an image of this dress so I could zoom in to see details, but this was tough! This is a 2008 dress, and I could not find a store that had it in stock. (I`m assuming stores don`t carry 5 year inventory.)

This meant I had to be content with recreating a similar feel - vs. copying the dress exactly. This was fine by me, I wasn't looking for a complicated project. Simplicity (the concept, not the pattern company) is good.

The sleeves in the inspiration dress reminded me of McCalls 6200 - a dress I`ve made recently (though without sleeves.) I went shopping for a red knit fabric, pulled out some leftover white knit, and got to work.

I cut the neck band and the sleeve band in white. I shortened the hem by 4 inches, and added a 4 inch strip in white. I cut a top red piece and a bottom red piece, splitting where the waistline was, and added a strip of white for the waist. Beyond that, I pretty much constructed this dress as indicated in the pattern (except, I stitched the neck bands together at the neck edge, based together and treated as one piece where it attaches to the dress.)

This should have been an easy dress to make, but the waistband took 2 iterations to get right. First iteration, too low on my waist. Second iteration, too loose. Aargh. Lots of seam-ripping and cursing happened.

Apart from that, this is a really easy dress to make...

I need to sew practical work things now, so readers, if I make another non-work-appropriate dress, please feel free to kick me.

More work wardrobe reflections

(Sorry about the blurry pictures. If you click through on them, it takes you to a better resolution one.)

I've been thinking about this work wardrobe thing.

As I said in my previous post, I wore the red dress on the left to work on Wednesday, and felt slightly out-of-place all day.

On Friday, I wore the black printed dress on the right. This is one of the simplest dresses I've made, but I reach for it near-constantly. It is loose enough that I can hide all body issues under it, but still flattering. I love this dress.

I was trying to think of why I thought one dress was more work appropriate than the other. After all, they are both prints. They are both about the same length. Both have sleeves.

Here are my theories.

- Color: Color seems to be a no-no at workplaces. A splash of color, in a blouse, for example, worn under a jacket is ok. Head-to-toe color, in the form of a dress? Out of place. Had I worn a neutral khaki jacket over my dress, I dare say I'd have felt less out-of-place. Sally at Already Pretty had a post about this a few days ago, it clearly stuck with me.

- Shape: The red dress has a vintage-feeling, flared shape. The black dress has a more contemporary straighter silhouette. As much as I love my vintage patterns (and trust me, I have a boatload of them), I don't think the vintage silhouette works for the workplace. It feels costumey. There are people that can rock vintage dressing, and I love their blogs and photos, and covet their clothes. But... mostly, these people work in non-corporate North America. My work place isn't banker-corporate, but it is corporate enough.

As I think through sewing a more work-appropriate wardrobe - I need to remember - color and shape.

(Crap! My stash is all cheerful prints. Super crap!)

Dressing for work during summer

Yesterday was gorgeous. It was the kind of early summer day that Toronto gives you to make up for the crap-tacular winter that we are subjected to. I wore this dress to work. And I felt out of place all day.

On the face of it, this dress doesn't violate any corporate dressing rules. (The rules that HR carefully reminds us of at the start of every summer, for fear that we might transform into an army of tank-top wearing drones, I suspect.) It has sleeves. It is of the right length. It does not have any corporate logos on it.

However... As I've become increasingly self-stitched in the last couple of years, my wardrobe has diverged more and more from my colleagues. They wear black pants, I wear skirts. They wear separates, I wear dresses. They wear jackets, I wear cardigans.

The thing is, I don't like to stand out. I like the idea of being stylish, not fashionable. I want my clothes to have an understated chic-ness. I want to be well-dressed, but not out-there.

In many settings, my dress works perfectly. Summer BBQ? Perfect dress. Beer with friends? The dress didn't attract a single comment. But, this is not the right dress for work.

Though I try to avoid the tough projects (pants, jackets, anything with button-holes), I think it is time I started exploring the idea of a work-appropriate summer wardrobe.

Sigh. This is a bit of a pity, I love my summer dresses.

Sewing Goals - 1st week of June

After the adventure that was (the inaccurately named) 7-Dresses-in-7-Days, I'm assuming I'll spend some time picking up the crap that's all around the house, but I thought - hey, it's the beginning of the month - let me make some actual sewing goals.

With that in mind, here's what I'd like to do by next Wednesday:

1. Finish my red dress. My inspiration dress is this red dress that Lily was wearing on season 3 of How I Met Your Mother. It's cut out, and sewn together, but a quick try-on last night revealed I needed to take an inch off the bodice length, and possibly an inch or two off the skirt length, so some seam-ripping awaits.



2. Make a white shirt. It isn't just for Me-Made-June, I don't actually own a white shirt, self-sewn or otherwise. I have fabric, I probably even have buttons. This shouldn't take that long, I should just get to it.

3. Cut out some lining for a UFO that's been in the pile since about this time last year. (Waiting for lining to be cut out.) If I can get everything ready, I'll be in good shape to work on this next week.

4. This isn't a sewing thing precisely, but I need to do the winter-summer clothes transfer in my closet. I still have woolen skirts on hangers. It's time to pull the summer dresses out, and put away the heavy winter gear.

5. If I have time after all that, I'd like to trace something out from a BWOF magazine. There's a simple knit dress I've had in mind for a long time now (with corresponding fabric in stash.) I'd really love to get this going.

That's it! Readers, do you have sewing goals this week?

Punishment? Why yes, I would like more punishment, please.

Ahem. I'm convinced after last week that I'm definitely insane. Why else would I do this?



I, Reethi from http://weekendcrafting.blogspot.com sign up as a participant of Me-Made-June '11. With the exception of outerwear, sleepwear, underwear and shoes, I endeavour to wear all handmade or re-fashioned items each day for the duration of June 2011.


(Oh wait, I know. I like participating and seeing what other people are up to.)

7 Dresses in 7 Days - Learnings

Yes, I know Learnings isn't actually a real word. But, as a former consultant, trust me when I say we used this not-word daily.

In the end, even if there weren't 7 dresses, I was pretty pleased with what I accomplished. 5 dresses from stash, 5 never-used patterns from stash, and 5 new mostly-wearable dresses.

I was most excited about using the patterns. I've accumulated 3 boxes of patterns, not counting the Burda magazines, and I'm pretty stoked that I used a few of them in this exercise.

The other thing I liked about this challenge is that it got me to sew daily. I can accomplish a lot if I just sew in 15-minute increments.

Of course, when you are in the midst of self-imposed craziness, things like cooking and cleaning fall by the wayside. Balance is the thing I struggle with on a daily basis. I still need to find time to sew, clean, cook, read, play-with-Biscuit, work-out, practice-my-French, go-out, entertain, drink-beer, all on a consistent, regular basis. This is significantly harder than it seems, but if only I manage to figure this balance thing out, I will attain nirvana. (Figuratively, of course.)

My biggest sewing related learning: I don't sew as much as I think I should because I'm vacillating on what project to work on next. Note to self - vacillate less.

Sewing Pattern Review - McCalls 6243

Fabric: A cotton lycra blend. I bought this in Toronto - about $6 a yard?

Pattern: McCalls 6243, view C.

Construction: So easy! I left out all the zippers, mostly to speed it up. Since it is a knit, it didn't need a back zipper. Start to finish, this was 2 hours, tops. A really great dress for a beginner.

I finished the neck, arm edges and hem with a simple fold back and stitch down with a stretch stitch on my machine. First time I'm trying this, and it worked great! I will definitely try this again.

Likes/Dislikes: Like, with qualifiers. It's a tight dress, I need to lose weight. I wore this with Spanx, and I still kept checking the mirror. It isn't that bad, clearly, but I think that I'm supposed to be at ease in what I wear, so in that sense, this is a bit of a fail. I'll get over myself eventually...

Oh - this was dress 4.

Sewing Pattern Review - BWOF 04-2010-112

Pattern: BWOF 04-2010-112. A one-dot, super-easy Burda pattern.

Fabric: A gift from my cousin, I think. Or my aunt. It is a cotton fabric, and the black dots are sort of embossed. I really like this color on me!

Construction: This was a one-dot pattern, and it actually was really, really easy. In fact, I should have been finished with it in two hours, until I hit one tiny snag. My casing for the elastic - not wide enough. (Silly Burda directions!) Make your life easier - sew a half-inch casing, not a 3/8 inch casing like the pattern suggests. After much painful trying to push the elastic through, I finally ripped and redid the casing.

Also worth noting - the elastic length they suggest is for a falling-off-the-shoulders look. I wasn't really interested in this, so I shortened the elastic till it stayed on my shoulders.

Likes/Dislikes: Really like. I wore this dress out Friday night, I got looks! Looks are fun.

Oh, this was actually dress 6. I sort of skipped past dress 5 since I wanted to wear this dress out Friday night.

Sewing Pattern Review - Simplicity 2963

Pattern: Simplicity 2963. I've had this pattern for a really long time, I've never used it.

Fabric: A gift from my aunt. I think this is a silk-cotton mix? Or a really nice kind of cotton. When I first saw this fabric, I thought the color looked kind of like hospital scrubs. After reflection, I've come to like the color on me, I just sadly really don't like the pattern very much... Sigh.

Construction notes: They were fine. I made a size 10 all the way through, and made it shorter so it would hit above my knee. This is a pattern that's pretty good for beginners - apart from the pleating in the bib, there's nothing else that's complicated at all.

Likes/Dislikes: Meh. Perhaps I'll try it with a different belt. I just think that these loose unstructured pieces don't really work well on my body. I'm short and I'm carrying around a few extra pounds. Loose just makes me look huge and shapeless.

This was dress 3, btw.

Some pictures while I write reviews...

I have chores to do, so I'll get these reviews up over the next day or two, but here are some pictures.

McCalls 6243


BWOF 04-2010-112


Simplicity 2963

Of all the dresses, I like this one the least. Ah well.

7 Dresses in 7 Days: In the end, there were 5

What can I say, dear Readers? Thursday night and Friday night involved copious amounts of beer.

I had a blissfully lazy weekend, and finally ended up finishing Dress 6 this morning. Unfortunately, trying it on, it needs some tweaking... (yes, I am aware that normal people try on a dress during the sewing process, not after the zipper is in and the hem is done.) I'm going to try tweaking without touching the zipper, and if that fails, I've some serious ripping in store for me. Entirely my own fault, of course, I should know better. But sometimes, I just get in a sewing groove, what can I say?

I will do photos tonight. (Saturday, the day I was supposed to take pictures? I spent most of it being very, very, very lazy, refusing to get out of my pjs. Good times!)

7 Dresses in 7 Days - Slightly hopeful

Well, I didn't set out to sew and blog about 7 dresses in 7 days. It's all I can do to sew these puppies up. Pictures and reviews will have to wait till Saturday.

So - let's summarize the state of the challenge.

Saturday (Day 1) - Dress 1 sewn.
Sunday (Day 2) - Dress 2 half-sewn.
Monday* (Day 3) - Dress 2. Dress 3 started..
Tuesday (Day 4) - Dress 3 finished. I am now a dress behind.
Wednesday (Day 5) - Dress 4 finished. Dress 5 cut out. Dress 6 traced out. I'm still a dress behind.

Wednesday - yesterday - was actually super productive. The dress I chose (McCall 6423) was a knit - very easy, no fitting - especially when I left off the details that made this distinctive - the exposed zippers. I left them off for two reasons. The most important was that I didn't have a suitable zipper in stash, had no time to shop, and really, didn't have much time to fiddle with exposed zippers.

Also, really, exposed zippers are a trend. They will soon be behind us, and I'd rather have a classic dress with interesting seaming. (I made it in black too, so really, short tight little black dress? That thing will kick around in my wardrobe for years.)

I also cut out the next dress, which is a vintage Advance pattern. And I traced a BWOF dress (a one-dot dress - I'm all about making this easy.) So hopefully, tonight I'll finish the Advance dress (dress 5), cut out the BWOF dress, which will leave me finishing the BWOF dress and making another dress tomorrow. Difficult, but not actually impossible. (Especially if I pick another easy knit dress!)

As I was thinking about this challenge, I asked myself - if it came down to it, would I rather use new-to-me patterns, or would I rather finish on time? Because there's plenty of knit patterns I've made before that I can finish in a couple of hours.

But really, I'm incredibly excited that I'm using up these patterns that I buy with the best of intentions, and never end up using. In the end, that's much more important.


* Monday was a holiday for Canada - and I had the day off.

7 Dresses in 7 Days - Punting?

Ahem.

Monday's dress isn't done, since I did very little work on it yesterday. (I just lazed around all day instead, blissful!)

And I realized - apart from social engagements today and Thursday, I also have a French class I signed up for tomorrow. (My French is barely passable and getting rusty with lack of use, and I've a trip to Paris planned in the fall. French class seemed necessary.)

Part of the 7 Dresses in 7 Days thing - I'm trying to use patterns I haven't used in the past. If it were a familiar pattern, I could maybe just whip it up. For example, I could probably make 7 versions of the Butterick dress without too much trouble. But that wouldn't be as interesting, would it? Plus, I want to use these patterns I buy and never use.

5 dresses to make. 4 days to make them in. 1 full-time job. 3 evening engagements.

I'm not giving up yet. But, this is starting to look like a long shot.

The Second Dress: Simplicity 2444

Ok, this dress technically took a day and a half. I started at 9pm, sewed for a few hours, then spent about an hour finishing it up today. Moral of the story? Start sewing earlier than 9pm.

Of course, if you have a day job, I challenge you to start sewing before 9pm. I'm not sure how Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are going to play out. I have to work, of course, and on Tuesday and Thursday, I have social engagements that involve beer. I'll have, at best, two hours to sew, but post-beer. And this is what happened the last time I sewed after drinking beer. :)


Now, the dress, and a review.

Pattern: Simplicity 2444. A recent pattern acquisition, bought when Simplicity patterns were $2.22 at Fabricland. This is as low as it gets in Canada, and I splurged and bought 7 patterns. I should at least try to use them, right? Instead of shamelessly hoarding?

Fabric: Cotton, bought in WalMart when I visited my brother in South Carolina. I paid $2 a yard for it. This fabric has been aging in my stash for a year and a half now, so I'm quite pleased to pull it out and use it.

Construction notes: I actually pulled the instructions out for this one. They were fine.

Here's what I should have done differently.

- After cutting a size 8 bodice, grading to a size 12 at waist and down, I read the pattern sheet, and noticed the bodice size 8 had a finished measurement of 34.5 inches. Major oops, leaving me a half-inch of ease. I therefore took my seam allowances down to a quarter inch, but this bodice is still quite snug. Next time, I'll read before cutting. (Or try to.)

- I should have taken a half-inch off the width of the shoulder. Now, I know I need to do this in almost every pattern. Why I constantly forget, I have no idea. The sleeve is falling off a tiny bit, but it isn't a major oops.

Here the alterations I made. They worked out well.

- I took an inch off the bodice length to petite-size it. No lines on the pattern, but straightforward nonetheless.
- I took 4 inches off the skirt length as well.

Likes/Dislikes: I love this dress! I love the color on me, and I love the skirt, it feels full, but still flattering. Also, pockets? Super-useful.

Post-script:

I need to scramble to finish a dress today. have intervening dinner plans, and honestly, my house looks like a tornado touched down right in the middle. Still, 7 in 7 is still on, I haven't yet given up.

Dress in a day: Butterick 4443

Do you ever wake up in the morning, decide you have nothing to wear for an evening BBQ, and spend the day making yourself a new dress? Because, dear Readers, that was me yesterday.



This is a really easy dress. My pattern was still in factory folds. I started at 1.00pm, I was done at 5.30pm. In between, I stressed about how messy my house was, played with Biscuit, ate lunch, and wasted some time on the Internet. That's an easy dress.

I've been really bad at posting pattern reviews, so let's reverse this trend.

Sewing review:

Pattern: Butterick 4443. I cut a size 8 for the top, grading to a size 12 for the waist and hips. I petite-sized by using the provided petite-sizing lines (so useful!)

Fabric: A cotton with a bit of stretch to it. I bought this fabric in New York's garment district a year ago. I think I paid about $6 a yard for it? Wasn't more than $6, but it could have been $4. It was a while back, I don't remember.

For lining (the bodice of this dress is lined, the skirt is unlined), I used a cotton voile. I bought this when I was in India in Feb 2010, and have used it to line all my cotton projects. The voile tends to distort pretty easily, which is a pain to work with. On the other hand, when summer kicks in, I don't want a synthetic lining against my skin. Hence, I sucked it up and used the voile.

Construction notes:

- Rather than use the pattern's suggested method for attaching the bodice to the lining, I used Trena's method of attaching the bodice to the lining. Much easier.
- If I were to do this again, I'd shorten the bodice another inch. The waist seam is below my natural waist, and I don't really care for this look. (I don't hate it though, I still wore the dress out.)
- Entirely my own fault - but I should have interfaced the edges of the neckline and armscye. This fabric has a bit of stretch, and I think it stretched out a little.
- Even cutting a size 8, there's a bit too much fabric in the back neck. Next time around, I'll redraw the center back seam to remove this excess.

None of the above quibbles prevents me from wearing this dress though. It's just that after 4 years of sewing, I now look at everything with a sewist's ridiculously picky eye. I I can do a better job fitting.

Conclusion: I'm wondering if it's crazy that I'm thinking of sewing 7 dresses in 7 days? I'm still on the fence about this, but if I do see this through, this is dress 1.

A couple of mini-miracles

Were you wondering if I was floating around in a raft of crankiness? Because the last post was extra, extra cranky.

But no, things have been pretty good!

So, as you know, my sewing machine was making alarming noises, and I was afraid the whole thing was going to fall apart. It was still stitching ok, but it was loud! Anyway, I was sewing a pretty thin fabric, and the stitches were pulling, so I thought I'd rethread and try again. So, I re-threaded, re-inserted my bobbin, changed the tension and tried again.

While I was looking at my bobbin though, I noticed how disgusting my whole bobbin area was, filled with lint and gunk and yuckiness. So - miracle 1 - I decided to clean it out. I took my bobbin cage out, cleaned all the lint out, and put everything back together. And the alarming noise disappeared! (I don't think lint makes machines noisy, I'm guessing that the bobbin cage was loose or something?)

Anyhoo, I'm delighted that my machine is better.

It's a cheap machine, so I hate getting it serviced, since the servicing in Toronto costs as much as the machine. My brother was going to India, so I was going to send it with him to get it fixed there. However, he's going for two weeks, so I would have been without machine for two weeks, and I didn't think I could survive that. Now, I don't have to, yay!

The other miracle, I've been sewing. I went through about a week of sewing-slump, in which every project I touched briefly seemed to fail, and nothing seemed very fun. But on Sunday evening, I gave myself a stern talking-to, and started cutting fabric. I've been working on it in bits and pieces all week, and it's now done! (It helps that I haven't been out much all week and it's a really easy dress.)

Pictures to follow soon, I promise. I would have taken pictures this morning, but I woke up entirely too late. It'll still be daylight when I get home tonight, so I'll take a few pictures then...

Gah.

I've had a string of sewing failures, and these make me cranky.

The first one was a quilt top. My mom had originally made 12 blocks with white backgrounds as part of a quilt-along. But, she wanted a full-size quilt, not a lap quilt, so I told her I'd make the same blocks, but with black backgrounds, and then we could combine the two to make a black and white quilt.

I made three of the easiest blocks, and then got bored by the project. So, I set it aside... This was back in 2007. (Oops.)

Last week, I helped my mom arrange some fabric on newly-installed shelves, and found these blocks. I thought it might be time to get this project done, once and for all. So, I grabbed fabric from my mom, and got to work.

All of last week, I pieced blocks together. (Apologies to all the quilters out there, but wow, quilting is so boring, and takes so long!)

And then, when I was almost done, I ran out of border fabric. I'm short 1 yard, which I'll have to go to the States for... Aaargh. And aargh again.

So, nothing to show there.

I was cranky about that for a couple of days, but last night, I cleaned my sewing/dining table, got all the crap off it, and decided to start another project. I thought I'd start quilting my woolen quilt top.



I had two packets of quilt binding, so I started sewing it on. Get to the end, and of course, I'd run out of binding, with a half-side left.

In all of this, my machine is making some seriously horrible noises, so I'm going to have to part with it for a bit and get it serviced.

And so, gah. And gah again.

A fuzzy picture of a really crumpled dress

I got my mother to take pictures of my Vogue dress over the weekend. Unfortunately, this didn't work out well at all. My camera batteries were dead, so my mother used her camera, which is evidently set to take the lowest resolution pictures possible. So, no ability to zoom in and see details.

The wrinkling, that's my fault. Evidently, this dress wrinkles. I wore it to work on Friday, and wore it again for photos on Sunday, without ironing in-between. And with this fabric, I clearly need to iron it after every single wearing. More sighing.

But, for reader amusement, here is a really fuzzy picture of a really crumpled dress. Unfuzzy, uncrumpled pictures coming soon.

That's my fabric!!!!

Look!!!



Found this dress on Modcloth.

That's the same skirt I just finished. The fabric is Michael Miller - I bought some in New York - I paid roughly $6-8 per yard for it.

I have a tiny bit left over. I was going to use it for a baby blanket or something, but now I wonder, should I make a top instead? Hmm.

I hate hand-sewing!

There is a tiny flaw in my new dress (I did finish the Vogue last night, and Mom, that's why I didn't pick up the phone.)

The neckline isn't symmetrical. I wore it to work today, and stared at myself in the mirror - nope. One end of it is much more curved than the other. Argh. (So I tossed a cardigan over, which hides it.)

I finish my sleeveless lined dresses the BWOF way (the one they illustrate with a dowel - leave shoulder seams and a bit unsewn, join lining & fabric at neck and arms, and then turn right side and sew shoulders). This leaves a tiny bit of hand-stitching at the shoulders, which I'm generally not content doing, but still manage to anyway. Unless it is on a neckline such as this, where the boat-neck really shows every single flaw. In this case, I've turned down a seam allowance while hand-stitching a bit further than the other side.

(Is anything I'm saying making sense? It might not, I've only had one cup of coffee.)

Anyhoo. When I get home tonight, I evidently need to rip out the stupid hand-stitching, and fix this.

But you know, apart from that, I' pretty happy with this new dress. In fact, I'm off to the washroom, to stare at the dress in the large mirror there.

Weird sewing dream/nightmare

I had the weirdest dream last night.

The setting is Madurai, a hot and dusty South-Indian town that I've only been to once in my life. My family and me are in a car, driving towards the airport so I can catch a flight. There is plenty of time, we are going to be 3 hours early.

For no reason at all, my grandfather decides to change shirts, and switch to a black shirt. But the shirt placket has a tear in it, and so my grandfather asks me if I'd fix it.

Sure, I say. After all, I have my sewing machine in the car. (Of course.)

The thread in the sewing machine is white. I look around in the sewing machine storage compartment, and find a black bobbin and green thread on a spool. So I start unwinding the bobbin a bit, to cut off a length of thread, to wind it over the green thread, so I'd be using the right color thread.

Clearly, this is a dream, I am nowhere this meticulous in real-life.

I then look for an outlet, and the one on the car will serve. I can run my sewing machine right in the car.

We pull up in the parking lot, right next to a tree. I start winding the thread.

Suddenly, my sewing machine starts running. At furious, full speed. The needle is going up and down, except there's no thread, no bobbin, and no cloth. It is hitting the throat plate, I can see needle marks on the plate.

I check the foot pedal, to see if it is stuck - nope. That isn't it. So I panic, and pull the wire, disconnecting the machine.

It doesn't help. Electricity or not, the machine is still running. The din is staggering. My mother is shrieking, asking me what's wrong. I'm pulling and pushing at everything I can think of, trying to stop the machine. Nothing helps...


And then I woke up, thankfully. Sewing machine nightmares are scary. (And no, I didn't actually go and check on the machine, that would have been too insane. Right?)

In actual sewing news, I finished a skirt since my last post, but I'm waiting for a nice day and an obliging photographer so I can take pictures outside. I'm sick of my It's-winter-I'm-not-going-outside photos.

I've also cut out, in an effort to sew practical things, a cotton sheath dress. The fabric is a beautiful dark-pink silk/cotton mix (it might even be silk - my mother bought it for me, so she'll know.) I've had it in my stash for approximately 3 years. I'm using Vogue 8110 (just realized it has never been reviewed on PR, hmm...), which has also been in my stash for 3 years, an acquaintance who was moving out of Toronto gave it to me. It looks like a pretty simple dress, and I'm hoping to complete it by tomorrow.

Fabricland is having a $2.20 Simplicity pattern sale, so I went to take a look at lunch yesterday. 7 patterns came home with me, sigh. The pattern boxes I have are already overflowing... One of them, Simplicity 2936 was bought only because of its resemblance to the new Collette pattern (Violet). I'm entirely unsure if the loose fit will look good on me, and I rather prefer to find out at $2.20 than $16.

And that's my no-picture, sewing roundup of the day...

UFO Watch - One off the list

Remember this dress?



Well, it's been sitting in the wadder pile for about 3 years. I don't throw away anything, and I've been meaning to fix it for 3 years.

Well, today I realized that I won't fit into this dress until pigs fly. I tried basting in a zipper, and it wasn't pretty. Some strategic chopping and seam ripping later, it is a skirt. I won't get a ton of wear out of it, though I do think it'll be an interesting thing to wear on a patio during the summer, with a white shirt and a black jacket.



I used my narrow hem foot to do the hem, reasoning that I might as well get some practice here. Still need more practice, the hem is pretty crappy. However, I've decided only a sewist would notice, and I've made my peace with it.

The Woolen Fabric Scrap Quilt Top

I haven't traced or cut anything out after the birthday dress, but over the weekend, I did cut and sew up this quilt top.

I made it with leftover scraps from the various woolen garments I've been sewing. This skirt, this skirt, this skirt, and a whole lot more. In the upcoming days/weeks, I'll quilt it up (super simple lines, of course) and it'll make a great cold-weather blanket to snuggle under. (And since it still appears to be winter in Toronto, I'll be able to use it this season as well! Bah!)

Of course, the instant a quilt is laid out, anywhere in the world, little Biscuit is there to check it out and sit on it. So adorable!

The 2011 Birthday Dress - Part 3

All done, Dear Readers. How very awesome.






At some point, I'll take better pictures outdoors. But, this will give you a quick view. I love this dress!!!!

The 2011 Birthday Dress - Part 2

Of course, I went out last night.

In my defense, it was a lovely day. It was 20 degrees and windy. The air was crisp, and I decided I *must* leave my cave of an apartment and go for a walk. Walking in Toronto is always interesting, there's stores that provide good sewing inspiration, and good cooking inspiration too. (Which I need pretty desperately, I haven't entered my kitchen for a month and a half.)

There's no good reason this walk turned into a 'call a friend and meet for a couple of pints' night - but it did, of course - I had a groupon to use that was going to expire soon, and I hate to let them go unused.

So, I got back home at 11.00pm.

I'm so, so glad I got the fabric all cut out. I like sewing, I hate cutting. I didn't have many seams to sew to get the dress to a try-on stage, so I got to work and got going. At this point, the only things left to do on the dress are (1) to hand-tack the neck facings to the shoulder seam, (2) to finish the armhole seams and (3) to decide what length I want the dress, and hem it.

That's just a couple of hours of work, yay.

Good news - I *love* this dress. It is (exactly as Carolyn said) sexy in an incredibly understated way. I was afraid I'd have to wear Spanx under it, but no - it skims rather than clings (an advantage when you actually make your own pattern size, instead of the optimistic lower size.)

I'll see if I can get photos up soon! On Saturday, I'm going to be too busy partying to actually worry about things like photos for the blog.

Incidentally, this is an incredibly easy pattern to sew, I have no idea what the 2.5 dot rating is all about, unless it is to do with the arm flaps (which I'm leaving out) or with the incredible amount of cutting. I agree with the cutting, but once you are past that bit, really simple!

(Or could it be that in the last 4-5 years of sewing, I've secretly been advancing my skills, and am now ready to try a 2.5 dot pattern? I don't really think that's the case though - must experiment.)

The 2011 Birthday Dress - Part 1

There are a few bloggers (Trena and Melissa come to mind immediately, but I'm sure they aren't the only ones) who always make themselves something fabulous for their birthday. I've wanted to copy this idea for a few years. A couple of years ago, I failed miserably at making this BWOF dress. Last year, I thought of it, but just didn't get around to it. But this year? This year *will* be the year, dear Readers. A birthday dress *will* be made this year.

The dress needs to be ready by Saturday evening, since that's the big birthday drinking day (my actual birthday is on a week day, but a majority of my friends are incredibly lame about going out on weeknights, so the weekend it will be.)

Originally, I wanted to knock off the Lanvin dress that Helen Mirren is wearing here. I even went out to Toronto's Fashion District and bought some gorgeous blue knit fabric. But then, I started wondering - would this dress flatter me? Did I have enough time to make this dress, since I'd have to franken-pattern it? And so, I mentally went to Plan B.

Plan B is BWOF 09-2010-122.


I cut everything out last night, and constructed some of the skirt. Hopefully, tonight, I'll be able to finish it off. I'm going out Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, so I really only have 2 evenings to get this done.

Honey, I lost my sleeves!

One of my most recent pattern acquisitions was McCalls 6200. Yesterday evening, I was looking for an instant-gratification project, so I pulled out this pattern, some fabric I'd recently bought at Fabricland (it was a remnant, I can never resist those), and started cutting.

Of course, it was only after I cut out the front that I realized I didn't have enough fabric. (Yes, I know I should have measured, but I was also setting up my new laptop at the time, and I was cutting on the floor, while trying to prevent Biscuit from walking on my fabric. I just wasn't paying attention.)

And so, the dress has no sleeves. I had to do a little tweaking to get it to work (the sleeve opening was too low, so I sewed that seam higher to get it to not be quite as revealing.)

Despite the oops! - I like this dress a lot. I love the fabric, it feels nice to the touch, and I'm currently drawn towards shades of blues and purples (see this shirt as evidence). It'll work well for summer, and I can wear it in spring and fall with tights and a jacket.

Oh - definitely worth mentioning - check the amount of ease in this dress. I typically cut a 10 on top, and a 12 on the bottom. I went down a size for this, 8 on top, 10 on the bottom, and I think it turned out perfect.

First quilting success - a tiny baby quilt

Dear Readers, this is the first time I'm actually happy with a quilting effort. (Not the top, the actual quilting process, which I usually fail horribly at.)

My mom needed a baby quilt in a hurry, for the baby shower for a gender-yet-to-be-determined baby. This pink quilt top was therefore not going to cut it.

I flipped through flickr for inspiration, and found this photo, with its lovely colour palette. I wasn't about to piece together a lot of triangles to copy it precisely, but I did copy the general layout and color scheme. I made this (all from scrap, yay!), and actually managed to do a decent job quilting it. Yay for me.

And the back. Notice the lack of horrible ripples. I'm pretty pleased with myself.



I think this quilt makes up for the fact that I never sew for my mom, don't you?