A little extra crazy!

Umm - these are a bit bolder than most of my regular clothing, dear readers. But I really do need casual clothes, and I was looking to quickly try out the McCalls legging pattern (6173) before I try to make a fleece-lined version (it is *cold* here in Toronto.)

This camouflage/animal print has been in my stash since about last summer. I bought it on impulse, when the Fabricland on the Bloor-Yonge line was closing, but it wasn't a very good impulse. The fabric is a cotton knit, very little lycra, meaning I was always a bit dubious about how good the stretch would be, and whether it would recover ok.

It worked out ok though - I've been wearing it for the last couple of hours without any serious wearability concerns.

I've only complimentary things to say about the pattern. I read that it ran large, so I made a small, altering at the marked petite lines. It fits pretty well, and is easy! (One pattern piece - no side seams. Nicely done, McCalls!)

I do need a longer top though - my ass does not need to be seen in leggings, and demands to be properly covered up.

One more picture - I took a billion photos  - this one shows the pants better, with with a bit of my head cut off. It's a sad commentary on my photo-taking skills that these were the best three.

Un-UFO-ing: A completed 9 patch quilt

The UFO story - I started this quilt way back - maybe 2 years ago? I made 25 blocks from scrap fabric, then got tired of the project, stuffed the blocks into a bag, and promptly relegated it to UFO-land.

Due to a silly most excellent 2013 resolution - I pulled the blocks out, made 75 additional blocks, pieced them together, basted, quilted, and bound. Phew!

Which means - the quilt - she is done!

I laid it out on my bed to take a quick photo. Quick being the operative word - I evidently didn't bother with smoothing it down.

As always, I had 'help' quilting.

Little Biscuit is seriously the world's most indulged cat. She wedged herself on the quilt in such a way I couldn't move it at all. And then, she looked annoyed when I continued sewing. (In fact, she's now head-butting me so I can't type.)

 As always with quilting, my philosophy is to use up scraps. These two blocks contain left-over fabric from 4 items of clothing I've sewn - this green BWOF dress, this floral vintage, this top and a pink skirt that I evidently never blogged about, but which was the second skirt I've ever made! (No new fabric purchased - I stole the sashing fabric from my mother's stash.)

And this one uses left-overs from my PJs. What can I say? I'm really bad at throwing away scraps.

For backing, I used a stash fabric, bought at Bouclair, when they were closing out their garment fabric section. This was over 5 years ago, I think. I have a ton of fabric from that shopping trip, and I'm glad to use this piece up. (And I used almost all of it up, score! I just have a 6 inch strip left - easily used for something else!)

In the era of high speed internet access, do people still apologize for picture-heavy posts? If so, my apologies.

This hits one 2013 goal (quilting UFO finishing), and one stash fabric used. (Only 24 to go!) Not only that, but since I used some itty-bits in its construction, I think I'll link it up to the Stashbusting Sewalong, as well.

Ah, the smugness.

And now, sewing for me. (This quilt is a very belated Christmas gift.) The Jan Burda awaits, and hopefully, a house-project-free weekend.

The good, the bad and the ugly...

Lots of miscellaneous ramblings here, dear readers. Humour me, will you?

The Good:

1. Stashbusting!

 

The Stashbusting Sewalong coincided very nicely with my urge to use up what I have, vs. rush out and buy more. Thanks, Emily and Cindy! 

My specific pledge - I commit to using 25 pieces of stash fabric in 2013. I also commit to buying new fabric only if I will use it up right away.

With the sew-along, there's also themes - Jan is itty-bits, etc. These, I'm going to play by ear - I work best to my own schedule and there's things I need to/want to sew that don't necessarily fit into this. 

2. Toronto Sewing Meetup!

Yes! Gillian and Adrienne are totally making this happen, and I can't be more excited. I love hanging out with sewing people (previous meetings: with Clio, with Sue, Connie and Claire). Now, I just need to remember the stash pledge. :)

If you are a GTA sewist - you should come!

The Bad and the Ugly:

Only one rant here - umm, free time - where are you? There's been a spate of house projects - last weekend was spent removing a valence and patching the resulting gap in the ceiling, the previous weekend was spent moving a whole bunch of bricks to my backyard (I'm hoping to make a pathway.) 

In between that, there's this quilt - which I should have just sent away for quilting (I thought my quilting skills need practicing. They do. However, this might be one where I should wave the white flag, decide I don't care if I can't quilt, and just outsource it.)

I've been pretty diligent about not getting distracted - I know that if I start cutting something, or tracing something - this quilt will fall firmly back in the UFO pile. However, the down side of that? I feel like I've been working on this quilt all month. And I'm itching to sew some garments for me! 

I haven't bought the Feb Burda, thinking I should make something from the Jan Burda first - and I can't make anything from the Jan Burda till this quilt gets done, and this quilt feels like the never-ending project, and aaargh!!!!

(Deep breath. Perspective. Quilt almost done. Only 2-3 hours of work remain.)

Work in progress

Pieced together and basted - all that remains is the quilting and the binding.

2013 Goals

In the next installment of Gillian's Top 5 list making, my top 5 2013 goals.

This is my favorite bit, dear readers. I love setting goals. I suck at tracking them, I suck at meeting them - but setting them? Love it.

Okay, let's hit it. This one is definitely in order of priority - 1 being the most important, etc.

1. Sew something from every Burda magazine I buy. Every single year, I feel like I make a variation of this resolution, and then break it promptly. Not this year - I'm determined.

2. Finish a quilting UFO once every 2 months. Finished quilts are useful. Half-finished blocks lying all over the place are just plain annoying. Get it done already, Reethi! (However, I've so many half-finished projects that this goal could take over my life, so I'm just going to aim for finishing one every two months.)

3. Make a raincoat. Every single time it rains in Toronto, I wonder why I haven't made myself a raincoat yet. 


4. In keeping with using the things I buy, I'd like to sew one project from each of the 6 Japanese pattern books I own (all three Pattern Magic books, both the Drape Drape books, and Shape Shape.)


5. Participate in the 2013 SWAP, and in 3 Pattern Review contests.

There'd be a 6th goal on buying fabric, but Emily and Cindy conveniently announced the Stash Busting sew-along, and I'm going to join that and make my fabric resolution as part of that.

 

Sewing with a grudge

Dear readers, do you remember this amazing quilt my mother made for my brother? 

Looks pretty amazing on my bed, no? But they wouldn't let me keep it.

No lie, I think it's by far the best quilt my mother has ever made. 

So, the quilt top was completed in February, and then it sat around at my parents for a while, then my mother sent it off to be quilted, it came back from the quilting, and I offered to bind it for her. 

Sigh. And so it sat around again for a few months, as I procrastinated on the ~2 hour chore. (I don't like sewing for other people.) 

New Year, New Reethi. Or so I'd like to think. Plus, I wanted the space in my fabric closet, so I got to work today, spent a few hours on it, and voila! (Funny story that - there's never an ill wind that blew no good. I was unexpectedly home this morning waiting for some roofers to show up to patch a hole in my roof. On the plus side, it gave me a few unscheduled hours to sew. On the minus side, they told me I need a new roof. Houses. Sigh.) 

Nice binding, right? My sole contribution to this project. 

Which makes my first finish of 2013 a project for someone else. Gah. I now know why the Selfish Seamstress calls it Sewing with a Grudge.

Moroccan Morning - sneak peek!

A couple of Saturdays ago, it was cold outside, and I sat down and worked on a quilt pattern all day. I promptly sent it off to my mother, and since that moment, have been calling her daily to check on its progress.

(She's in serious rebellion at this point, dear Readers. Evidently, she wants to work on her own quilting projects - not just test out my patterns. Bizarre!)

Anyway - she sent me this photo of the partially completed quilt top last night (at midnight. If I were a nicer human being, I'd be feeling guilty.)

Isn't it rather fabulous? I certainly think so. It definitely helps that blue and yellow happen to be one of my favorite colour combinations.

This pattern should be ready to go in about a month or so - I've realized that in the quilt pattern business - the perfect photo matters a lot! So - she'll finish the top, we'll send it off for quilting, it'll come back & I'll bind it, and then, I'll take photos, PDF the pattern, and put it up on Craftsy/Etsy. Lots of work. Good times!

In the meanwhile, I'll just admire this photo.

Top 5 Reflections/Inspiration

In the next installment of Gillian's Top 5 list making, the Top Reflections & Inspirations of 2012.

I clearly missed the memo about how this was to be done before the start of 2013. :)

Reflections:

1. Fabric fast - no fabric purchases since April. Fabric gifts from other people weren't allowed either, and neither was I allowed to buy fabric for other people. Nope. I had to go cold turkey.

However, this was surprisingly less difficult that I would have thought. (Shopping with the sewing buddies was the only time I was seriously tempted - there was a remnant at LA Fabrics that would have made the most amazing purple skirt in the world. I did a bit of pouting then.)


2. I did a rough count, I think I sewed between 20-25 pieces in 2012. That's significantly down from previous years. On the one hand, I'm ok with the number. On the other hand, I wish the number was slow because I'd completed something time-consuming and show-stopping.

3. I have an inherent tension between wanting to sew easy things, and wanting to sew more complicated things. "Huh, Reethi?", you ask? Let me explain.

I've a crazy busy life. There's the full-time job, of course, but there's also a pretty active social life,  weekly trivia with friends, a large social beer group I run, French class twice a week, a family I like and see often, a house that is not new (built in 1938) that requires time and attention, a new quilting pattern company thingy, and of course, most importantly, little Biscuit.

Squeezing in sewing in the middle of all that is often a challenge (one I love - I love sewing!). Therefore, when I do manage to get a bit of time, I often want instant gratification.

However, the clothes that get reached for, again and again, are those that fill wardrobe holes, and these are often not quick and easy. I desperately need raincoats, lined woolen pants, suits for work, etc. I'd be insanely proud of myself if I made all of these.

In 2013, I need to reconcile these two divergent desires.

4. Blogging vs. sewing: Not many people read my blog. Occasionally, I'll wish I had more comments, or some such thing.

And I love the sewing community, I love seeing what you are doing, I love meeting people through the blog and all that. But - if blogging didn't exist at all - I would still be sewing.

At the end of the day - I want to be a sewist. Your comments are treasured, each and every one of them, but they are the icing on the cake. It makes the cake sweeter, but cake's pretty awesome all by itself. Whenever I'm wishing more people commented on a post, or some such thing, I need to remember to stay true to what I really care about.

Ok, I'm breaking the rules, I only have 4 reflections.

Inspiration: 

Sheesh - how do you do inspiration? Everyone on my blog list to the right inspire me. A lot of other people whose blogs I haven't added to my reader inspire me. (I procrastinate a lot.)

I do tend to be especially interested in sewists that face similar challenges to me - work a full time job in an unrelated industry, and sew in spare time. 

Instead of picking 5 people, I'll pick 5 recent projects that made me gasp. This is in no means exhaustive, and not in any particular order.

1.  Clio's leather jacket. I want to steal it.
2. Carolyn's leather and ponte knit dress. (Hmm. A theme. Perhaps I should sew a bit with faux leather?)
3. Amanda's black and white jacket. (Ok, there's definitely a leather trim trend here.)
4. I'm not even going to try to narrow it down to one of Carolyn's 65(!) creations for the year. I want every single thing she sews. (Ok, if I were forced to pick just one thing, maybe the red dress.)
5. Not sewing related - but everything CrazyAuntPurl says gets me thinking. (Yes, that wasn't a recent project.)

I'll do Goals tomorrow? This post took forever to write! And will probably take forever to read, if you are still reading. :)

It paid off! (Insert evil laugh here.)

Today was January 1st, dear readers, as you know. Apart from the promise of a new year, and all the goodness that entails, today was extra special because...

Yes, that's my brother handing me $50 - since he didn't think it would be possible that I refrain from fabric purchases for 8 months. It must suck for him to lose. And do I look like I'm gloating? I am. :)

The story, if you don't know it - in April, after a couple of large fabric binges, I decided I wasn't going to buy any more fabric. I said this, aloud, to my parents and brother. My brother scoffed, and bet me $50 I couldn't go the year without buying fabric. Needless to say, he lost.

Now, I probably would have bought some fabric if the bet hadn't held me back, and so I'm rather happy I had the threat of the bet looming over me. The truth is, I have lots and lots of fabric. More than I have time to sew with, if I'm being honest. And there's the question of how many clothes one person really needs.

Now that the bet is over, I'm not actually itching to go buy fabric. I will buy fabric this year, probably, but I'd like to be extra-mindful about it. A mini-goal - I'll only buy fabric if I need it for the upcoming project. Nothing for the stash. I think that'll keep me mindful.

I do have to head to the fashion district sometime soon - I need interfacing! Let's see how well I function when temptation is actually in front of me.

BWOF 11-2012-136A - the last project for 2012?

I'm hoping not, though this indeed might be it for 2012 sewing - I work a half-day tomorrow, there's new year eve festivities planned in the evening, and I've a maximum of 2 free hours in between.

Yes indeed, I do have a giant pink flower on my breast.

Before I left for Germany, one evening, I pulled out the November 2012 issue of Burda Style, traced out the 136A top, and sewed it up. The fabric was part of a G-Street haul two years ago. Like everyone else who has made this top up, I raised the side seam to close the arm hole a bit.

Unlike other quick and easy projects that haven't worked well, I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. I desperately need tops - they are a big wardrobe hole. Burda Style has been drafting a bunch of easy, yet interesting top patterns that I've been meaning to make, and I'm glad I got to this one.

I'm showing off my Christmas decor. Notice my top matches my awesome pink feather tree in the background.

I've another version cut up - watch for that in 2013!

Top 3 Misses!

In the next installment of Gillian's Top 5 list making, the Top 5 Misses of 2012.

Honestly, I've got to say, I didn't really sew enough this year to have much to say in this category. I mean, there's always things that I sew that don't work out, but that's just par for the course. That being said, here are some big misses for the year.

1. Ridiculous and fluctuating weight issues. I'm short. Which means - a 5lb gain shows. It also means, a 5lb weight gain makes my clothes not fit right. A ton of sewing issues this year can be blamed on this category. Case in point, this pair of pants, which is actually pretty well sewn, and still hasn't been worn.

2. Another theme that I have to guard against in 2013 - sewing something that I think will be quick and easy, because I don't want to start a major project. Some quick and easy projects do lead to good results, of course, but more often than not, there are disasters. Projects that I know will most likely not work, but I still sew, because I'm looking for quick and easy. Like said monstrosity below.

3. Sewing things with no consideration of my lifestyle. I live in Toronto, I grew up in South India. This really means I'm cold all the time, which means that a short sleeve jacket is close to useless in my actual life. My cream Simplicity 2443 Jacket - well stitched though it is - has never been worn. (I still hold out hope for it though, next summer maybe.)

There's probably others that don't get worn a lot, but these are the biggies!

And done!

Dear readers, I've been really busy the last couple of days, making the final adjustments to my first quilt pattern (woo hoo!), coming up with a company name, figuring out yardage requirements, and adding a second sizing option. Whoa! Lots of good stuff, I'm pretty stoked!

All of this means, I think I'm ready to publish it. For the moment, I'm thinking Craftsy and Etsy. There's a bit of logistics stuff to figure out - Paypal accounts, blah blah, but I'm hoping to put the pattern up in 2012. (Three days, Reethi - get to it!)

I was incredibly embarrassed by how lame my original pattern name was - so much so, I'm not even going to tell you what it was. Trust me, it was the lamest thing ever. And therefore, many, many thaks to Kay, Jean and Sophie for your suggestions for pattern names. All your entries inspired the final name. Kay's comment about "No Start, No End" prompted me to think of the concept of Infinity. I loved both Connections and Pathways - in the end, I went with Pathways, but I'm holding on to Connections! I think it'll come in handy for the next kolam-based quilt.

Enough talking Reethi - let's get to the picture, shall we? Here's the cover page of the pattern, featuring my mom's completed quilt top. (Well, she still needs to attach a border, but I got impatient.)

Kay, Jean, Sophie, I'll send you the pattern if I have your email address. If I don't, will you send it to me, please? And of course, if you do make it, I'd love to see pictures. Though there are a lot of steps, the quilt is easy enough to sew - it's all squares and rectangles, no curves, no triangles.

Top 5 Favorite Creations of 2012

Rather late to the game (I just got back from vacation yesterday!), I'm joining Gillian's Top 5 list making.

Here are my top 5 favorite makes of 2012. (In no particular order!)


1. My first version of Butterick 5006. I love this dress - I love the fabric, I love the fit, I pretty much love everything about it. The sleeves make it easy for me to wear in winter when I want to get dressed up - I just layer a top underneath, a cardi over, and warm tights, and I'm good to go. (A bit cold, but hey, one must suffer for beauty.)

I've made two other versions of this dress, and I'm plotting another version soon.

2. My green and purple Vogue 1179. Again, a dress that got a ton of wear during summer. Plus, it worked great for fat days - the pleating hides a multitude of sins.

3. My hoodie. I've worn this nearly non-stop in spring and fall since I've made it. It's practical and useful and I love it.

4. Vogue 8667 - birthday dress. This dress was great - I made it for my birthday, but I also wore it a ton of times to work over the summer. It made me feel instantly dressed up and pulled together.

5. My grey pants. Like the hoodie, I've worn these pants a ton of times since I've made them. They are my favorite self-made pants, I absolutely adore them. Plus, the grey is a nice versatile colour to pair things with - practically anything matches these pants.

While I was significantly less productive in 2012 than 2011, I think I got more wear out of most of my garments in 2012. I did sew simple pieces, mostly, but I also felt like I understood my style better, and am now mostly making things I know I'll get good wear out of.

A very neon version of McCalls 5752

I've decided I hate ruching.

Catching up on old sewing projects, this dress was one I worked on over the summer. I hated sewing it - the ruching took forever, and it didn't really work - the gathers hung loose and looked messy. Since then, I've sort of made my peace with this dress, I still don't love it, but it isn't all bad.

If I were to sew it again, I'd also shorten the bodice a bit - there's some bodice gaping that I think would be fixed quite simply. (Of course, I could just unpick a few seams, but let's just be realistic and say that that won't happen.) And the ruching - I'd either just leave it out, or build some negative ease into it - a lot of the problems I had with the gathers not quite sitting right would have been solved by negative ease.

In-Process: My mom's kolam quilt

My mom brought her in-process quilt top to show me over the weekend, and I can't resist sharing this photo. I'm loving how this one's shaping up!

A mini-make

I'm going on vacation in a few days, and I've been reluctant to start a major project before leaving. I needed a little make - one that would hopefully turn out better than the striped-t-shirt-from-hell.

In true packrat tradition - I hate throwing out my scraps. I've whole bagfuls of scrap.

The third element in this story - a Kwik-Sew panty pattern (2467) that was in a pattern bundle given to me by a friend.

And thus, the next make became clear - panties made from knit scraps. Quick and easy.

Or so it would have been, had my machine cooperated at all. But it was snarly and spit out thread in all directions, and we had a bit of a contest of wills - would I give up and throw the panties in the dustbin, or would I persist, even though my thread was snapping every inch?

I won, sort of, in the end. I have a completed pair of panties. They aren't pretty, snarls of thread and fabric are everywhere, and for months into the future, I'll be picking out thread from my... - well, you get the picture - but hey, they are done, the panties fit quite well - right size, good coverage, comfortable, and I'm quite pleased.

I made a size M. I took out 1.5 inches from the length at the outset, and further trimmed another 2 inches from the waist once the leg elastic was in, and I could try them on. As designed, these are very high waisted, but with the trimming, they now come upto my belly button. On the next go-around, I'll trim another inch or two out again, to get it to be still lower on my waist. 

A story about a quilt

This entry doesn't have anything to do with garment sewing. 

Chennai, where I grew up, is hot and dusty. Our floors were mosaic, and they were swept and mopped twice a day to keep the endless dust at bay.

Once the sweeping and mopping of the inside of the house was done, attention would be transferred to the veranda. It would also be swept and washed down, and then, while the concrete was still wet, a small kolam would be quickly drawn at the entryway to the house.

With a small handful of rice flour, the dots that acted as the grid would be laid out. Then, depending on the mood of the kolam maker, either a simple monochrome kolam would emerge, or a complex multi-coloured work of art. It was the most transient of art forms - people would walk on the kolam, disrupting the pattern, and even if we all avoided smearing the kolam, the veranda would be washed and the kolam redrawn the next morning or afternoon.

When I started quilting, I fantasized about a 'kolam' quilt, and wanted to replicate the patterns I'd seen as a child. This thought has remained in the back of my mind for many years, and I'm pleased to say, I've finally brought this to life.

For the last few months, I've been drawing kolam patterns on a grid, trying to map it out into a quilt pattern. About a week ago, I sent a completed set of instructions to my mother, my cousin and my aunt - and asked them to test the instructions for me.

Et voila! My aunt, who is a speedy and experienced quilter sent me these pictures this morning.

I'm beyond thrilled.

My mom's working on her quilt right now - her quilt is in the more traditional black & white. If all goes well with the two versions, I'll upload the quilt pattern for sale in Etsy as a downloadable pattern.

Now, if you've read the entire bit, I've a request. I need a name for this quilt pattern. Any suggestions? Please leave me a comment! (I'll sweeten the pot a wee bit - if I pick your name, I'll send you the downloadable pattern. I'll also select 2 other random comments to send a free pattern to.)

One striped mess

Way back in the time tunnel (August, I think?) - I'd just moved into my house - the sewing room was in an uproar, and I desperately needed to sew. And so, I pulled out McCalls 6400 - previously made here, decided that a fabric with stripes would be *interesting*, and got to work.

End result - this hot mess, that I've only worn underneath cardigans, for fear of being laughed off the face of the planet.

This fabric actually shows all the fit issues that I had with my first version. Most frustratingly, a pleat of fabric seems to have formed under my right breast, and I have to keep tugging it down. It's a bit snug at the hip, so I'm not sure if that's why - it could also be somehow grain-related - the top keeps twisting on itself as well. Let's just say hot mess and leave it at that, shall we?

It's a huge pity though - this fabric would have been the most awesome striped t-shirt, or a cardigan or something. Wadders suck.

Butterick 5206 - the first version

Fabric stashes are funny. Sometimes, I remember the provenance of every piece of fabric - other times, not so much. I found the fabric for this dress in my stash - and I had absolutely no idea where or when I bought it. (If that's not a hint that I need to stop buying fabric - I don't know what is.*)

Anyway - this was the first version of Butterick 5206. I love this dress - I've already worn it ~5 times - and would wear it more, but I'm a wimp about wearing dresses and skirts in winter. 

There are two things of note in the construction. The first is the neck and back binding - I ignored the directions that would have you cut a knit fabric on bias. Instead, I cut a strip of fabric on lengthwise grain, folded it in half along the long edge, stitched that to the *wrong* side of the neck, and then flipped it over, and top stitched from the right side. (I forgot to take pictures - hope that made sense.) This gave me a very lovely professional-looking finish. The bias would have been a disaster. (Seriously, Butterick?)

The second was the sash. The directions have you attach it to the waist, and then wrap it around. I thought the dress would be more versatile if the sash wasn't attached. However, the wrong side of the sash kept showing, and since this knit fabric has a very prominent wrong side, I cut two pieces out for the sash, and sewed them together to eliminate the problem of the wrong side showing.

I've a bit of a hankering to sew one more version of this dress - however, I have plenty of *necessary* sewing, and I think I might get to that instead.  

Finishing an old UFO

Dear readers - I'm sure that most sewists have UFOs lurking in their closets. But I think it's safe to say that I take it to a whole new level of laziness and procrastination. These pants have been sitting in the UFO pile for almost a year, simply because I needed to sew a hook and eye and a button to fasten the pants. I'm serious. Everything else was done - the zipper was in, the cuffs were finished - everything except a freaking hook and eye that took me less than 5 minutes to do today.

I think atleast a little of the procrastination was due to the fact that these pants are slightly too tight on me. But still.

These are the same pattern as my SWAP pants - basically, an old RTW pants that I traced out. Apart from the too tight bit - I'm reasonably happy with the fit - there's a bit of wrinkling around the crotch and the fly front, but the back's pretty good. Atleast a bit of that wrinkling has to do with operator error - I'm still to figure out the ideal way to stitch lined fly fronts.

Excuse the wrinkling - the pants have been sitting in the UFO pile for close to a year. 

I'm currently in the midst of cutting out a jacket. It's been trying. The fabric is very prone to distortion, and I think I'll need to interface the entire jacket to give it some stability. Of course, I don't have enough interfacing, so cutting and sewing is a bit stalled. Hopefully, a bit of time over the weekend to buy some interfacing, and I can get to work - I'm looking forward to the challenge of sewing a lined jacket.