Almost new - McCalls 6112 (view B)

It is Diwali today, and one of our Diwali traditions is wearing new clothes.

On the phone with my mom, I was trying to figure out what was new in my wardrobe. Nothing came to mind. I didn't have any time to hastily sew myself something new, and buying something when you have a fabric stash the size of mine - well, that isn't really an option.

So, I settled for almost new - this version of McCalls 6112 (view B), that I've worn out only once before. I started this mid-September, finished it early October right after I came back from France, and wore it out to a friend's for Thanksgiving lunch. Almost new was going to have to be good enough.

Let's see - this is pretty simple construction. I looked over the instructions, they looked fine. What I did differently? Interface the edges of the hem, neck arm-holes and shoulder openings, for extra stability. Though painful, this extra step is definitely worth it - my dress feels well-constructed.

In retrospect, I wish I had bothered to make view C - the version with pockets. Or added in-seam pockets to my version. However, at the time, I was ridiculously busy, and was looking for instant gratification, so no pockets it is.

(Showing off the crazy sleeves...)

Note to self: get a better black belt, this one is pretty pathetic. Or alter this one by cutting off the excess length.

Funny/random story: My parents drove into the city (they live in the suburbs) and my brother, my parents and me went out for Diwali dinner. To a Chinese restaurant. Eating Chinese for Diwali is definitely not a tradition (although our food was delicious - maybe it should become a tradition!) But it cracked us up, eating Chinese on the biggest Indian festival of the year.

Crazy Camouflage

Most posting catch-up here...

It was back in September, I think, that Faye had asked about McCalls 6400.


As it happened, I'd just recently bought the pattern, and was curious enough to try it out. I pulled out an impulse fabric purchase (promptly regretted...) - a bright green camouflage, and got to work. I made view B.


While this t-shirt feels current - due to the asymmetry, the dolman sleeve and the ruching, at the end of the day, I just don't know. I'm not feeling this t-shirt.



For starters, my fabric doesn't have enough stretch.

But there's something about the shape that just doesn't work very well for me. (Incidentally, after looking at these pictures, I thought they had come out way better than the t-shirt looks in real life?) In addition, it just isn't very wearable - the t-shirt keeps getting twisted out of shape (grain issues, perhaps?) when I try to do any actual work wearing it.

Really simple sewing though. One pattern piece - join the side and shoulder seams, and you are done.

I will say I want to try it again in a fabric I like better. Like a solid black? We'll see. The queue is long, and the days are short...

How to create multiple UFOs - a step by step guide

Step 1: Announce your intention to cut a shirt out by Friday, and then spend Friday evening watching a movie and grabbing drinks with a friend instead. (Ides of March, btw - and I highly recommend it.)


Step 2: Find out Saturday morning, that during the night, your sweet little cat has dragged your plaid fabric on the floor, and then proceed to throw up on it. Clean cat throw-up off the floor. Wash your fabric in the bathtub. Wait for fabric to drip dry.

(No pictures of this step, thankfully.)

Step 3: Create probable UFO 1 by starting another project while waiting for fabric to dry. Start a bit of a grudging project, making a t-shirt quilt for my brother. (Promised for 3 years, been waiting in the queue for that long. I thought I might finish it up for Christmas, since we'll be visiting him then.)

Step 4: Start t-shirt quilt project by cutting lots of t-shirts up. Make huge mess.



Step 5: Proceed through the mind-numbing boredom of cutting out 12.5 inch blocks of crappy interfacing to fuse on to the t-shirts to stabilize it. Fuse blocks. Start cutting them out.


Step 6: After cutting 3 blocks out, decide that this is the most boring project in the world. Get bored, decide to grab coffee/play with cat/listen to music/write a blog post/clean apartment instead. But wait, the fabric should be dry, no? Perhaps I'll do that instead?

Step 7: Cat decides in favour of the t-shirt quilt by sitting on the plaid shirt's pattern pieces. One does not mess with a cat. Ever. Especially one who likely threw up on your fabric deliberately because she's annoyed you had a friend over for drinks. ;)



Another quilting project. Why do the sewing gods hate me so? Sigh. I like my brother, but this is very, very grudging. I want to sew for me, damn it.

When life gives you tomatoes...

you make tomato sauce, of course...

A while back (August?), I was chatting with a friend of mine, who was basically complaining about the yield of his garden - he had too many tomatoes, and was wondering aloud what he was going to do with it all. Now, this is a pretty nice problem to have, right? So, I proposed a trade - I would trade him a six-pack of beer for some tomatoes - I let him figure out the exchange rate. He gave me two big baskets - like 10-12 pounds? (Well, it was very good beer.)



A perfect trade - we were both happy with what we got.

Now, I knew I wanted to make an Indian-style tomato sauce. I had visions of making a whole load of sauce, ladling them into bottles and freezing them. Then, when I was feeling too lazy to cook something from scratch, I could just pull out a bottle, thaw it, add a vegetable to it, and be done! A good vision!

So I spent the better part of an evening in the kitchen. I chopped onions, peppers, ginger and garlic and sauteed them...



Then, I added chopped tomatoes and let them all simmer (I threw in some Indian spices too - mostly cumin, but also some curry powder.)



And lo and behold, I had sauce.


(I would be in very good shape for winter, if it weren't for my unfortunate habit of being lazy quite a lot. I've already pulled out and used two jars - and I think I have about 8 bottles left...)

Oh, a sewing update? I've started cutting out a shirt. It's a kind of plaid, so the cutting is very slow going (cutting in a single layer, aligning the plaid, etc.) I hope to be done with the cutting tonight, which means that I should have time to finish the shirt this weekend.

And done! The Very Very Red Quilt top

Dear readers - it was fairly obvious during this project that I was approaching this quilt rather grudgingly. "Finish the damn UFO," I kept saying to myself.

But what do you know? It was worth it. Look how pretty! (Lots of pictures, since I'm rather proud of it...)





Also, cats have magic powers! My cat can detect the moment a quilt top is spread out anywhere. And will be there instantly to sit on it.



This quilt top was made from assorted left-over pieces from many quilting projects. No new fabric (well, my mother has a basement of quilting fabric, why would I ever need to buy any? I simply raided her stash for border fabric.) There's remnant pieces here from projects that are over 10 years old. Totally impressive UFO-busting, if I say so myself. :)

A faint stirring of hope

The blocks are done - all 56 of them. Now, I have to add the sashing, and piece them together. Still, hope. This should be done by Thursday (it would be done earlier, but I've social commitments Monday and Tuesday).

Not soon enough, I'm so ready for some garment sewing.

Parting shot (shamelessly copying Summerset here):

I drove up to Honeywood today for Foodstock. It was a cold and overcast day, but the food was delicious, and it was nice to see the community rallied around a cause. (Also, some farmers gave me some free brussels sprouts, yay!) Here's the line of people waiting to get in...

Catching up on posting old projects - a pink & yellow baby quilt top

What do you do with your scraps?

As a by-product of sewing, I have a ridiculous amount of scrap fabric. Like, bags and bags and bags of scrap. The kind that could/should get me on Hoarders.

Every once a while, in a somewhat futile effort to do something with it, I make a quilt top for no reason at all. This one was made sometime this year, as far as I can remember. I think my cousin needed a present for a baby, so I gave it to her, and she quilted it up? I can't remember... (maybe I gave her this quilt top instead?)

Some of the fabric in the top come from leftovers from clothing - remnants from this dress, this skirt, and the rest is quilting scrap.

My favorite efforts to make quilt tops from scrap - this woolen one and this bed-size one (complete insanity, by the way, dating back to days where I clearly had more time than I do right now.)

White shirt, black skirt.

Finally, some pictures of garments.

The white shirt I've talked about here and here. I think it's been complete since about July. I know I finished it before I went to Copenhagen, since I took it with me. The pattern is McCall 6035, which I've made before. Although I screwed up this project one hundred different ways (mostly, I cut one sleeve wrong, which means it was set in rather half-assedly), I love the end result. I think this shirt fits me well, it's super useful, and since I used like 8 buttons on the shirt front, doesn't gape at all. Love it!

The skirt has a mini-story associated with it. I've been eying this fabric all summer long at Fabricland. But I've reminded myself that I have too much fabric, blah blah. Ok, sometime in September, I was having a seriously crazy week, and I took refuge by taking a day off work, and heading to Fabricland. This fabric came home with me, and I immediately started cutting into it to make this skirt. I made it in one afternoon (2-3 hours of work, but there's no zipper, since it's a knit, so it wasn't that hard.) The pattern is McCall 5817, which I like since there are no darts on the back, rather the back is made up of 3 pieces - a center back and two side back pieces... Although you'd think the fake animal look would reduce the wear on this skirt, I've already worn it twice since I made it - once to a party, with a plain black t-shirt, and once to work (which is when this picture was taken.)

And yeah, I need to get a haircut. This evening, I think.

Catching up on posting old projects - Diya's apron

Since I'm still working on the stupid quilt top (I should come up with a better name for it, no?), I thought I'd blog about an old quick project instead.

I think it was last year - my friend Anu invited me to her daughter's third birthday. Now, I was a bit stumped for present ideas (Diya really doesn't need any more clothes or toys), so my parents and me decided to be sensible and give her cash. But cash, while useful, is really not cute. And so I decided to augment the gift with a tiny, 3-year-old-size apron.



We augmented the apron with some Dollar-store tiny dishes and cooking utensils...





Et voila! Instant present!

The state of the sewing table

In a bid to finish up some of those annoying, lingering UFOs I have so many of, I've resolved not to work on anything else until I finish this silly quilt top. Sigh. Boring.

Back from vacation...

I got back from vacation Sunday evening. France was lovely...

In the end, I had time to sew practically nothing. But it was fine - the weather was a lot hotter that I'd anticipated (a very pleasant surprise!), and so I wore the same two dresses - both self-sewn - over and over again.

A couple of travel photos...

At the Canal du Midi in Agde

The Roman Amphitheatre in Nimes

At the Pont Du Gard

At the Roman Theatre in Orange

While I loved being away, I'm happy to be back. My summer was a bit crazy and hectic (though in a good way) and I'm looking forward to a more laid back fall.

A Quilt-a-long completed, 4 years too late

Dear Readers, I have a lot of unfinished projects. But I'm thrilled to finally finish this one - a quilt top that I've been dithering on for 4 years.

The story goes like this. 4 years ago, my mom started this quilt-a-long hosted by Amanda. She industriously made a set of blocks, set in white, but then, upon completion of the blocks, wasn't sure if she wanted to set them the same way Amanda had. You see, Amanda's quilt finished in a lap quilt size, and neither me nor my mom are very big on lap quilts. We much rather have bed-sized quilts.

So, I offered, in a moment of complete idiocy to make some blocks set in black, and then we could combine these blocks to make a larger size quilt. I started the project with enthusiasm, made a few blocks, and then got bored and promptly abandoned this project.

I think at some point, I did finish up the blocks, but then I dithered around with the setting, and so on and so forth. In the intervening years, I'd pull the pieces out, work on it for an hour or so, and then get bored and start a more interesting garment instead.

When my mom was going to India earlier this year, I was determined to finish this quilt top, so I could get it quilted in India. But then, alas, I ran out of fabric. And so the project sat in the background, yet again.

Well, it's finally done, and I couldn't be happier. The quilt's ok, but the real joy is in the finishing - I'm delighted to finish a UFO.

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!