Upcoming sewing.

Sew Be It Studio has a Sew Green contest going that I want to enter. (The prizes are nice... I'm a sucker for free stuff.)

The garment I'm reusing for this project is an old salwar kameez. Once upon a long, long time ago, my aunt had bought this (or maybe had it made?) for my cousin. Either my cousin wore it, or most likely, she didn't. She then proceeded to give it to my mother.

My mother decided this salwar looked dreadful on her, but she didn't want to take it to India to recycle, like she normally does, incase my aunt saw it and was hurt (or mad at my cousin.) So, it sat at the back of my mom's closet...

Until I came along. I wanted to make something for Halloween. I decided a Renaissance dress was what I wanted to make.

Here are some before pictures.

Me, wearing the dress (I've already ripped a sleeve out) I'm literally drowning in fabric.



And the pattern I want to make:



The contest ends this week, I think. I have a skirt, shirt and vest to make. Hmm. I think I should start this NOW.

Butterick 5030. View D.

Finally, a picture of a dress. I've been making this dress for weeks now. Not the fault of the dress, just not finding much time to sew. I like this dress, though. I've been wanting to make a wrap dress, and this one feels easy and summery. (And I do realize its fall. Ah well. I can wear it next year.)

The pictures make my waist look enormous. I didn't think the dress did, but I'll wear it with a belt to give my waist more definition.



Here's my pattern review.

Pattern Description:

Misses Dress, Belt and Sash. Flared, wrapped dress, below mid-knee has semi-fitted bodice, front band or collar, sleeve variations.

Pattern Sizing:
8,10,12,14. I made View D - made an 8 on top, and graded to a 12 at waist and hips.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Sort of. The neckline on my bodice was a lot lower, so much so I have to wear a t-shirt under. However, I am petite, so maybe that's why?

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I thought the pattern fit together well.

Fabric Used:
Striped shirting fabric bought on sale at Bou-clair (its a cotton blend, I think.) It was very easy to work with.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
Since I'm petite, I took inches off the skirt obviously. I also took an inch off the bodice. Now that I'm thinking about it though, I think this made my neckline that much lower.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I would definitely recommend this. I might sew it again in a very different fabric.

Conclusion
I really like this dress, and think I might actually wear it outside the house. (But with a belt, I think the dress really needs one.)




And finally, I need to learn to take better pics. Bleah.

While I'm still to take any clothing pictures, I do actually have a couple of pictures to share. Around Canadian Thanksgiving, my mom decided that she wanted to make a couple of baby quilts for a friend's kids. I got drafted into this project (why?) and helped pick out colors, patterns, etc. And then, I got suckered into actually quilting. (I hate quilting.)

I used the birthing method for binding that I first found out about on Lady Havratine's blog I do love this method of binding, I think its way easier than binding, and the results ended up neater. I also used the simplest quilting design in the world...

The little boy's quilt was just pinwheels alternated with solids. I've done this before, I like this layout a lot, and it helps use up triangle blocks that are lying around.



The little girl's quilt - both my mom and me absolutely loved Amanda's the future's so bright quilt. Since she was kind enough to post measurements, our decision to make this was even easier. As with the other quilt, my mom pieced and I quilted.



I'm currently working on a wraparound dress made with some of my ridiculously large Bou-clair haul. Its cotton, which is silly, since its freezing in Toronto. Ah well. I'm almost done with this dress though, so I'll post pics later this week.

My public service announcement...

For those who live in the GTA, Bouclair is getting rid of its apparel fabric, and has most stuff discounted to 90% off. I loaded up big-time, but when you can get 100% cotton fabric for $1 a meter, its all good.

I should post this in Pattern Review, shouldn't I? That would be a good thing to do.

I'm really upset that they are closing out their apparel fabric though. Its hard to find reasonably priced fabric, and Bouclair had some good deals. I'm not too sold on Fabricland yet, either. Perhaps I should just go downtown?

Cidell tagged me for 8 things you didn't ask to know about me. First time being tagged, so I'm excited to play. Here goes...

1. Apart from sewing and crafting, the other things I enjoy doing are watching football and drinking beer. I actually like drinking beer so much that when I moved to Toronto, I immediately started a beer group to go drink beer with me. The inherent contradictions in my choice of hobbies (girlie vs. beer slob on couch watching football) amuse me.

2. I have many good qualities, I'm nice, good-humored and generous, but I'm also incredibly messy, and the world's worst procrastinator. Case in point - I sewed up four skirts in July, and all I had left to complete and wear them over summer was attaching a hook and eye to them. Yeah, still not done. Hence, didn't wear any of the skirts over the summer. I'm idiotic like that.

3. I never mention my blog to casual friends. In fact, the only people that know about my blog are my family, and three of my friends.

4. My parents used to live in Africa. I bought so much fabric when I visited, that I have a whole suitcase of gorgeous fabric sitting somewhere (in storage, since I'm between apartments.)

5. I stay friends with ex-boyfriends. My entire family thinks this is pretty strange. I tend not to worry about it.

6. Reethi is my real first name. Its Indian, I grew up in India.

7. I'm addicted to email. I check email every 10 secs. But I procrastinate on replying...

8. I'm writing a children's novel. My deadline is November end. I WILL finish this by then. (Ok, I've now stated this publicly, so more pressure.)

That's my 8. I'm tagging no-one, or everyone. If you read this, and want to play, please do!

Pondering jumpers...

The jumper trend seems huge, and I've the September BWOF, with a jumper pattern which I think I can manage to sew without too much heartache. (See Cidell's really cool version here.)

But...

The deal is, I'm short and plump, and I've a bit of a tummy. I'm pretty sure the jumper will make me look shorter, plumper, and completely shapeless.

So, the smart thing to do would be to go to the mall and try one on.

I've been a bit sewing-uninspired. I had almost finished installing my invisible zipper, and then the zipper pull came out, and I couldn't fit it back. So I had to rip out the entire thing, and now I need to go shopping for an invisible zipper. Bleah!

On patterns: Finally finding a pattern sale in Canada (Fabricland, all Simplicity patterns for $1.99), I added the following patterns to my pattern collection.

Simplicity 3692 - inspired by this dress, by Jenny which its not identical to, but I'm not upto drafting patterns...
Simplicity 3838 and Simplicity 4020 - inspired by this idea on Nibbles and Bytes
Simplicity 3631 - ever since Sew Stylish did an entire magazine with this pattern...
Simplicity 4074 - I'm going to be brave and try a knit dress one of these days... this is for that day.

On muslins: I don't make muslins. I might have mentioned this before? And I think its because I really don't buy expensive fabric - I'm super-cheap like that. I don't think I've ever paid more than $7 a yard. And $7 - that's really expensive for me. Usually, I pay $2. Or $3. Which makes everything I make a muslin, I guess. If I ever bought expensive fabric, I'm sure I'd make sure the pattern worked for me.

On photos: My camera is still hiding. I'll hunt it up, since I made a dress I want to take a picture of. I found the fabric in Bouclair's $1 remnant bin, and using some trim my mom was going to throw away, and $5 in lining (the most expensive part of the project) I made a dress I'm hoping will be quite wearable. I'm proud of my ~$6 dress.

Bad, bad Reethi.

I'd like to say I've been frantically busy, and hence no posting. But really, its because my digital camera is buried somewhere, and I don't want to go look for it.

In chorus now, please. Bad, bad Reethi.

Moving Day

In brief news, I finally (after talking about it for a few months) have moved to Toronto. I like Toronto so far...

The people are nice - though they like to complain about how people in Toronto aren't nice. I'm not quite sure why.

The fabric is plentiful, if not cheap. I miss the dollar bin at WalMart, and my internal struggle between the cheapness, and feeling like I shouldn't be supporting WalMart with my purchase. (There's actually a lot of angst and conflict there, I'm from a third world country, but I'm a business major, I believe that globalization is largely a good thing for my country, but it does come with its own costs... lots of angst. Which is a topic for a different post, in a different blog, since this blog is more or less about crafting...) However, back to bitching about Toronto prices, ouch!!!! I got spoilt living in Michigan, clearly.

As an aside on the high Canadian prices, I paid $4.50 for a half pint of Guinness yesterday. $4.50. HALF-PINT. Given that my diet is fairly high in Guinness, this could hurt.

Then again, I can go to any number of ethnic eateries, aimed at Toronto's immigrant population, and get a filling meal for under $5. So I guess, little give, little take.

There's no Joann's here. Ok, this one is truly tragic. Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I like big-box fabric stores, with their plentiful supply of cheap fabric, and 40% off coupons. Given that about half the projects I make don't quite turn out as planned, cheap fabric is pretty much a must. Not to mention the 99c patterns, I loved those... (an aside to friends in Michigan. When coming to visit me, presents of fabric will be much appreciated. I will ply you with Indian food, in return.)

Ok, that wasn't brief at all.

Sweatshop sewing

My new thing is sewing clothes. I love the idea, especially since I've always been the type to look at something (anything) and go, "oh, I can make that". And no, I can't, or if I can, won't finish it all the way, and it will remain a UFO forever, but still.

So, bags haven't been made in months, but I did make:

- 4 skirts (waiting for me to sew a fastener onto the waistband...), using my exising Simplicity pattern.

- One rather sack-like dress,

- One shirt (all done!),

- Another shirt (waiting for bias binding at the neck and sleeves), this time, copied from a t-shirt I own,

- Another skirt, copied from a fun Gap skirt I own...

- And a pair of capris! (Which needs hemming and buttons, but I'm so pleased with myself!)

I promise I'll edit this post with pattern # and pics over the weekend.

Blogging favorites

I read, and love about a gazillion bloggers. But I do have a few special favorites, the blogs whose posts get read first on bloglines... And I think its because their lives are a little more similar to me - single and crafting, vs. married with kids.

Among them are...

AfricanKelli - the first blog I ever commented on! Kelli is fantastic, of course, and I love her blog for the mix of doing good, crafting and travel...

Cidell - my newest complete obsession (in a good and non-stalker like way...) Cidell sews up a storm, and I sat, the day I found this blog, until 3am in the morning, reading it, start to finish. As I slowly dip my toe in the sewing my own clothes world, Cidell is great inspiration.

Ok, its 1.34am. Time for bed. Seriously.

And I promise. Pics will follow over the weekend.

Swapping joy...

First, my beautiful apron...


I signed up for the One Hour Craft apron swap a while back, and have been bad about posting pictures. Shari sent me the most beautiful apron! It is so, so pretty. I love the contrast of the flowered fabric with the dots and the stripes - so well done! Here are a couple of pics, including one of me looking quite dorky...





I made Shari an apron too, from Butterick, B4945 I had fun with it... contrasting fabric with more crazy pom-pom trim...



Onto, Post Karte. Gina sent me such fun stuff!






The most beautiful yarn, an orange (my favorite color currently) journal, kittie notecards, pretty notepaper, and so much more! I was very spoilt.

I like swaps!

And the giveaway winner is...




Angie! Angie, please send me your address and I'll send you a bag. Thanks for commenting, everyone! (And sorry about the delay, I'm vacationing in Montreal.)

Sewing adventures...

While I'm a fairly competent maker of patchwork and bags and misc. stuff like that, I've never been able to sew clothes. I've found pattern instructions gibberish, and complicated, and I don't understand notches, markings, or any of that stuff.

But seeing all the cool clothes people make really inspired me to try again. (I once made a sack-like dress in some sack-like fabric, which I promptly threw away. Lesson learnt - I must like the fabric. Complete waste of time otherwise.)

I was especially inspired by this shirt...

So, I re-dipped my toe into the sewing clothes pool. I started with a skirt, Simplicity 4036. And it worked! (Mostly. Can I insert a gripe here about pattern sizing vs. clothes sizing in retail stores? I mean, I know its the retail stores that keep changing the sizes, but still. I measured and guessed at a size... the skirt is a tiny bit snug, but more or less ok.)

Inspired, I made more. One for my friend Jeeva, shown here.



Which I was very pleased with.

So, I kept sewing. A couple of disasters, (not in my sewing, I don't think, but in the fitting? see above gripe about sizes.) I don't have pictures of these, but they are worth sharing. I should take pictures of these.

Ok, conclusion to this long, winding story, I promise. Being a little ambitious, I thought I'd tackle New Look 6672 (view C)

And I'm actually fairly pleased with the way this turned out. If I had to do over, the only thing I'd mess with is the bodice, I'm not super happy with it, and its drawn a little tight, making my arms look fat. (They don't really need extra help.)

Plus I don't really think I should do gathered skirts (hips - I have them.)

But all in all, nice. (Fabric note: I used some cotton I bought in Jo-Anns a while back. Its a little thick, which made the dress easier to sew, but a thin cotton would probably drape much better.)



Oh, and taking pictures of myself is very hard.

And I wish I could say my house is a mess because I'm moving. But the unfortunate truth is, my house is mostly always a mess. The only difference is that right now, I have an excuse.

Post Karte

I signed up for this fun swap a while back, and I've been quite awfully procrastinating about it. (And the apron swap.) Gina was my partner, and sent me a ton of pretty stuff, which I'm yet to take a picture of. (Bad, bad Reethi.) Tomorrow, I promise.

Anyway, one of the parts to this was to take pictures of 5 things that made you happy. I cheated and sent this to Gina electronically. (Bad, bad Reethi.) Still, it was worth sharing, I think. (I tend to share more projects here, and less about me in real life, mostly because I like to keep them separate, and besides, my life isn't really that interesting...)

Ok, onto my 5 things that make me happy:

1. Coffee. In particular, this coffee, both because it reminds me of a vacation where I sat in the tent at Café du Monde and ate beignets and drank this very good coffee, but also because this is very good coffee. Also, the tins make me happy. They are so colorful!



2. My new bag – especially the colors, and the pom-poms. This bag is a bit of a departure for me, since the goal was to make it from what I had lying around, but also just play with it. I love how the colors ended up working together, and the pom-pom trim just added a bit of kickiness. (I also like saying pom-pom, and making up words like kickiness.)



3. My cool dining table light. A find at the clearance table at Urban Outfitters, $10, and its given me three years of pleasure. At night, it casts this beautiful orange glow, and my apartment looks warm and inviting. Looking up through the window, I want to go in and ‘be in’ my life.



4. Vacation - I’m always dreaming of vacation, or planning a vacation, or basking in the glow that comes from a good vacation… Recently, I was able to sneak away to Key West for a weekend, this was in early April, when Michigan was experiencing a super-cold weekend, which made this extra special. I stood at the water’s edge, and took this photo to remind me of how warm the sun felt, how welcome-cool the water was, and how lucky I was to be there.




5. And last, but not least. Harry Potter. (The book, not the movie.) For years now, I’ve been reading the series, waiting with huge anticipation as each book comes out, devouring it in instants, and then waiting again… And now, less than a month to go before the final book is out! Hugely excited!



That's it. 5 thing that make me happy. Although, to be honest, a ton of things make me happy. Coffee's probably always number 1 though. (How did shoes not make it to this list, anyway? Shoes make me happy too... very, very happy. Even when my toes are in agony, happy.)

Woo hoo!

So, I noticed today on bloglines that I have 7 subscribers. How did that happen? The 7 of you - thank you for putting up with my almost-never posting... And hey! This will be my 25th post!

I should have a give-away. (I have to warn you though, I'm not one of those super-neat sewers. My work does not hold up under close scrutiny.)

Ok, giveaway. I'll give away this tote, inspired by my Simple Sewing book to a random commenter, if you comment on this post. The tote itself is a combination of new and thrifted material. I think its kind of cool and funky.

EDITED TO ADD: Oops, forgot to mention, I'll draw names next Monday, July 2nd...

Old stuff

I think I've mentioned here before that I used to quilt (or rather, just make the patchwork tops) a lot, once upon a time. And I would sell stuff on eBay, and get heartbroken when stuff wouldn't sell well, and my hours of effort, not to mention fabric, would get bought for $20. Or less.

Anyway, I was browsing through an old backup, and found these pics, so I thought I'd share.

My grandmother's birthday quilt...

When I saw this beautiful quilt at Amanda's blog, I was choked up a little by the post and the thought. I also filed it mentally away...

Until last week, when I made a similar quilt for my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's my only living grandparent, this birthday is a big deal, my parents will both be flying to India for it, and I wish I could be there too.

The quilt... (apologies for the ridiculously large picture, but I'm too lazy to resize)



I twisted my family's collective arms for the pictures, with me calling my parents in Canada to ask for pics, and they calling across the world to India. Sheesh, you would think collecting photos would be easier.

Close-up of my grandparents...



Thank you for the inspiration, Amanda. And the entire blog world, that is so generous in sharing everything that they create. I'm very grateful.

I'm making stuff...

in an attempt to avoid job-hunting, something I truly, truly hate doing.

This quilt - from the Roundabout pattern in the Piece and Play book by Judy Martin. Its small, and for a friend's new baby. (I'm actually not going to quilt it, since I loathe quilting, but am simply going to attach a back to it and call it done. Woo hoo!



A week or so back, I also made this quilt (or whatever you call patchwork with a back and no batting) for another friend's baby. I really didn't like the way this turned out, it didn't do anything for me at all, but in the spirit of better done than not, I sent it off anyway.



I also sent the same friend this bib, my first ever bib! I liked it a lot, especially the patch of the boy - the fabric was a great thrift store find.



Also making...

This messenger bag for a friend's 10 year old boy. I think he liked it!



This tote-bag for a friend's mom's birthday... (I really, really like this bag...)


This cushion cover for a craftster swap...


More stuff for a different craftster swap...




Last month, for the first time, I actually made an apron for Tie One On! I took awful pictures of this apron, this is a close-up of the pocket - the best picture I have. However, I sent it to my friend Shirin, so maybe she'll send me an action shot...



And a preview of this month's WIP for Tie One On... I found the house, half finished, in a thrift store, and added the trees... Hopefully, this will also make it off the WIP in time...



Just realized that the apron is not due until the end of June. Yay!!!! I thought it was the end of May. Stress for nothing.

And now, back to the job search, or the avoidance thereof...

More Dear Jane blocks...

A6 - Uncle Homer

B13 - Four Corner Press

D13 - Field of Dreams

M12 - Hopscotch

I'm clearly doing all the easy blocks first.

Since the last post, I felt some guilt about my WIP list. So I added interfacing to my mom's bag, getting that off the list. I made this bag last Labor Day weekend, but without interfacing. My mom said she wanted it, and cooperatively took the seams out, so I could add interfacing. But yet, its stayed on the list for months and months and months. Ah well, finally done.

Yesterday was all-craft day! I ignored the zillions of things I should have been doing, and crafted instead. Which is mostly a good thing, except those zillions of things don't really go away, and now I'm behind.

I made...

This market bag: One of the resolutions I made at the start of the year was to not use any new plastic bags. I've been mostly good at this, diligently keeping a bunch of paper bags in my car, and using them everywhere. (Except when it comes time for leftovers at restaurants. I should make a bag just for that.) This bag is either a bag for me, or a bag for the Sweatshop swap at craftster (plug: my favorite swap!), or a bag for my mom. (Who has already claimed it. Hmm. We shall see.)

These scrappy stringy quilt blocks, made with stray leftover fabric. I have a complete inability to throw away fabric, and this was the result. Its remarkably fun to do, there's no matching, you just pick a piece of fabric, and sew it onto a muslin back, and repeat. I made 5 yesterday. I see this as a one of those projects where you make a block every once a while, and eventually piece together. Another entry on the WIP list. (My friend Brian pointed out I'm very good at starting projects, not so good at finishing them. Its true, but I have only this to say - so what?)

This easy block: In a complete bout of insantity, I decided I wanted to make the Dear Jane quilt. Even though I have no patience. Even though I don't like fiddly little blocks. Even though each block is 4.5 inches, and there's 169 of them. Not to mention the ridiculously intricate triangles in the corner. I figure I'll be done with it in 10 years.

I started easy though, this is block M10 - Simple Simon.