Stolen!

When I posted photos of this dress, my cousin wrote this message:

as my son says dont fish for compliments..its beautiful - Im so stealing it....so when u come to our get together please bring this one and the black with dots for moi...Princess :)

I know a command from the princess when I hear it, and brought the two dresses (as the princess decreed) to DC, where we are in the midst of a family weekend.

And look, she looks fantastic, how annoying!!!! I hate when my clothes look better on other people.




Needless to say, these dresses have been stolen. But never mind, I unexpectedly stumbled upon a G-Street Fabric location, and enough fabric has been bought. Hmm. I should give her the bill.

Mangoes with glutinous rice

Read more here about the Madhur Jaffrey project - one of my 2010 goals. For an index of recipes, click here.

I try to preserve my Monday nights and stay at home. It typically gives me a chance to cook some, clean some, and sew some.

Yesterday however, we had a mini-party to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was a wine & dessert party. (John's vegan, and therefore, cheese is out.) Originally, I thought I'd make coconut flan, until I realized - duh - that flan has eggs. Instead, I made mangoes with glutinous rice. It was really easy to make (just mix the cooked rice with coconut cream and sugar), and very tasty.



This new, slower pace of the Madhur Jaffrey project is working well for me. It's summer - I really don't want to be in the kitchen. (Or in the sewing room, for that matter.) I want to explore the city, to soak in the sun, and to chill on patios. I'll get back to lots of cooking in winter, when there's nothing else to do.

In which I drool over photos of clothes

I found a Naracamicie catalog on my trip to New York earlier this year. My cousin and me were eating in Little Italy, and the store was right next to a bakery we stopped at for dessert.

There was a lot of clothes I was drooling over, so I thought (rather belatedly) that it might be worth posting pictures of the catalog. Enjoy!

Quick & Dirty Sewing - Simplicity 2883

I had time to sew over the weekend, yay!

Last night, at 5.00pm, I pulled Simplicity 2883 (now OOP) out. I needed a few easy knit dresses - dresses have a way of looking pulled together, without worrying about coordinating anything, and the knit dress I made a couple of months ago has got a ton of use so far.

This is an amazingly easy dress. I started at 5.00pm, I was done at 8.30pm. That's incredibly fast sewing for me, and it even included some ripping (I don't actually recall a sewing project that didn't include ripping, that's just how I roll.)

The dress has 4 pattern pieces - bodice front & back, skirt front & back. I skimmed the instructions, and then just did what I wanted anyway.

The bit I did notice was that they have you fold the neckline and armhole seams back, and stitch down. Now, this is an invitation for major stretching out of shape - and I'd also been wanting to try the amazing Jalie technique to finish necklines and armholes. Kay describes it much better than me here. Now that I read her description, I find I did mine wrong(!), but it worked pretty well anyway. I love how easy this technique is, and I'll be using it forever!

Silly stuff I did - I was doing the Jalie technique fast, and didn't measure/pin stuff right. As a result, my neckline's too tight, and my back gapes a tiny bit. (Entirely because I am an idiot. This technique is flawless and perfection. I'm in love with this finishing method.)

I still haven't hemmed the dress, a step I might end up skipping. (As soon as Cidell said on her blog that she didn't finish her knit hems, I decided that was validation enough, and promptly stopped hemming my knit dresses.)

End result? Hmm. I'm torn here - mostly because as I look at these photos, I realize I look ridiculously pudgy and chunky. Now, I've been eating poorly, and being even lazier than normal, and have therefore put on a few pounds, (and on my 5ft frame, you can see every f***ing pound). But still - I look square in this picture, and square is not a good look.

Skipping the belt, I just look pregnant. So, sigh. I'll wear the dress to do errands and such-like, and maybe I'll wear it in real life if I just drag myself to the gym and lose a few pounds (alternatively, I should just drink copious amounts of coffee and start smoking, right?*)

Ok, other details. The fabric was a remnant from Fabricland, who I'm really pissed off with, since look at the tear in this fabric! I was seriously annoyed, but too lazy to take it back to the store. Still, I did have enough fabric to make the dress I wanted.



I made a size 10 all the way through, I think, and ended up taking 5 inches off the length of the skirt.

*I'm joking, people.

Sewing pattern review - McCall 6035

I saw the Selfish Seamstress' post on her McCall blouse yesterday, and that reminded me that I'd never shown (or reviewed) my version of this blouse. So, at lunch today, I pulled out the iron, ironed the crap out of this blouse, and took some afternoon balcony shots (thereby undoubtedly providing much entertainment to the office building directly opposite.)

Here goes!

Fabric: Silk cotton from India. I had 1.25 meters of this - aargh. I had to skip the collar, since I didn't have enough fabric. I paid $2 a meter for this. On the bolt, this fabric is stiff-ish, with a bit of sheen on it. However, water stains this sheen, and I had to soak the entire thing in water to remove the effects of a couple of water drops. Ah well. Shirts do need to be washed.

Pattern: McCall 6035, with the sleeves from View C and no collar.

Pattern adjustments: I cut a size 10, graduating to a 12 at the waist and hip. I sewed the A/B cup bodice, and had no issues with the princess seams. (Using a tip by Tany, I stay-stitched the princess seams, and then clipped them after sewing to get them to lie flat.)

Two issues I did have - first, a bit of gaping at the bodice. I need to learn how to position my buttons to avoid that.
Second - as you can tell from this photo of my back, I need to learn how to do a swayback. Aargh. I was hoping to avoid learning stuff like that.



Time taken: I think I sewed this over 3-4 evenings.

In conclusion: I'm a little torn on this shirt. I've only worn it once, and I'm not sure why. (Gaping at the bodice is one reason, of course. Also, I don't actually tend to wear shirts very often, I reach for t-shirts and blouses much more often.) I do however like this pattern, and want to try some of the other sleeve variations, and of course, I'd like to sew the collar next time (I hate not having enough fabric, so annoying!!!!)

Sewing update...

I opted to stay in last night, and do a bit of sewing. I was working the navy blue pencil skirt (McCalls 5817) that's part of my May-Mini-Wardrobe.

This skirt has been stalled for a couple of reasons. First - I made the pattern up in a straight size 12 (shown here on day 14), but I've been a bit unhappy with the fit. The back is distinctly too loose and it makes my butt look large and shapeless. So, I knew that in this version, I'd have to play around with fit to get it to fit properly.

Second, and typically, I didn't cut my lining out right away. When I don't do this, I almost always procrastinate on a project. Adding to the heel-dragging, my lining was Bemberg rayon, and I've heard rayon shrinks, and I didn't want to create a dry-clean only skirt, therefore the lining needed to be pre-washed. Ok, laundry + cutting? This pretty much guarantees a project will never get finished.

Anyway, I actually steeled myself to do a load of laundry, and I even cut the lining out earlier this week. Monday night, I basted the skirt to tweak the fit, and I think I'm happy with where it stands right now.

Last night, I constructed the skirt. Tonight, I've a small block of spare time again(yay!!!!), and I'll finish it. I'd have kept going last night, but I had a morning meeting at work that I needed to be awake for, so I forced myself to get to bed before midnight.

Finished Skirt - Simplicity 4236 - view C

The last skirt I made with Simplicity 4236 came together so easily that I had to make it again.

I bought this pretty fabric in India in February. It was $1 a meter (umm sorry, I know how annoying I must sound!) and I bought it explicitly to make a flared skirt of some kind.

As I've noted before, this is a simple skirt to make, with just one pattern piece, and the waistband finished with twill tape. I complicated it somewhat, as all my seams are Hong-kong finished. (I'll take a photo later to show you the inside.) The skirt is also lined - I used the same pattern piece, but took some fullness out of the lining. The lining is all French seams, for extra-niceness. For the lining, I used some thin cotton voile that I also bought in India. It is very sheer, but the cotton feels much nicer than a synthetic would.

Final comment - I do really like taking pictures on my balcony, but since I face a ton of buildings, they must think I'm the weirdest person in the world as I run back and forth from my tripod, messing with the settings, and taking 20-odd pictures.

On my bed today...

My aunt, uncle and cousins were in town this week, and my aunt and uncle brought back this quilt, all quilted up. They also brought me this Jewel Box Quilt.

Back in February, my aunt showed me a newly completed Jewel Box quilt top that she'd made, and I thought it was simply lovely. I asked her what she was planning on doing with it, and I said that if she intended to put it on eBay, that I wanted it instead.

Actually, my exact words were - If you are planning on putting it on eBay and making *@#*& $25, I want it instead.

(My aunt is more interested in the process of quilting, rather than the quilt itself. While I'm a lazy quilter, and want quick and easy results, she takes on technically challenging projects and really enjoys the journey. So, when she's done with the quilt top, she isn't as interested in hanging on to it, and so it goes on eBay. And in this recessionary market, quilt tops unfortunately don't always sell for very much money.)

So, my aunt got the top quilted, and brought it for me. It entered my house last night, and was promptly laid out on the bed. I love presents! And look how pretty!

And a certain somebody approves...

How to use a flat-felling foot

After I flipped through David Coffin's Shirtmaking book, I ordered myself a flat-felling foot from my local sewing store. It came in, I went to pick it up, and I asked the relevant question - How do you use it?

We couldn't figure it out, and so the guy turned to an old Singer reference book - dated 1946. (I didn't take a picture of the cover, sorry!)

So, here's how, in Singer's words:






Enjoy! As for me, now that I know, I'll be practising.

I'm in appliance hell, and other mini-notes

My iron died. Argh. I had an entire evening free last night, and the damn thing dies. Do you know you can't actually sew at all without an iron? (Of course you do.)

In other news, I'm thinking of being crazy impulsive and buying a serger. Trying to finish interior seams using hong-kong seam finish is very labour-intensive.

In progress right now is a simple circle skirt - almost done. The zipper is in, but I need to finish the seams on one side, the lining is in, and everything needs to be hemmed. There are some weird folds around the zipper that have to do with the way I cut the lining out, I think, but I'm hoping that a good ironing will sort these out.

In the meanwhile, I also started a quilt top last weekend. I've a friend whose birthday present is seriously late. I'm not sure how I'll get it quilted, but I'm hoping to finish the top at-least by the end of next week.

I guess I like having multiple projects at the go, because I cut out a purple pencil skirt last night as well. Either that, or I'm creating mulitple UFOs.

And no, I haven't forgotten about the May Mini-Wardrobe. The blue skirt and jacket were bundled away when I had people coming over and needed to clear the dining table in a hurry. (The sewing table doubles as a dining table.) They remain bundled away, and it is time to pull them out and finish them. As always, I get stuck at the lining stage, I don't cut out my lining at the same time, and then it is a massive struggle to will myself to cut out the lining, and finish the damn things.

Canada Day!

It was Canada Day yesterday, and I spent a blissful day just lazing around. Not even a little sewing! It was amazing.

In the evening, I did head to the Harborfront to see tall ships and fireworks. It was beautiful by the water...


...and when it got dark, the tallships looked spectacular (and a tiny bit spooky)


The fireworks were fun...


...and the CN Tower was all lit up.


It was a good day.

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

Monday night's cooking frenzy

Read more here about the Madhur Jaffrey project - one of my 2010 goals. For an index of recipes, click here.

When in Montreal, I lunched at the market, and stumbled upon some morel mushrooms. They were ridiculously expensive, but I had two recipes that called for them, so I sucked it up and bought them. They dried up somewhat by the time I was able to use them, but I rehydrated in some hot water, and they were fine.

With the morels, I made Morel Mushrooms with Peas, and Kashmiri-style gucchi pullao.




Since I had a ton of groceries in my frig, I also made Brown rice with spinach, Spinach cooked in a Bihari style, Cauliflower and peas with yogurt and Besan (A savory, chickpea flour quiche).






I promptly gave my parents the brown rice with spinach, since my frig was overflowing with food.

I was in the kitchen from 5.30pm until midnight. I stopped for about an hour to give a friend some career advice, and maybe watched a half hour of mindless TV, but that was still a lot of cooking. (I am a slow cook when I follow a recipe, I guess, since I don't really work on multiple recipes in parallel. I'd wither and die in a professional kitchen.) I'm really quite insane.

And I (sort-of) give up!

Read more here about the Madhur Jaffrey project - one of my 2010 goals. For an index of recipes, click here.

Ok, here's where it stands.

- I started with 484 recipes to cook.
- I've cooked 174 (~36%) - leaving me 310 recipes to cook in 6 months.

And this is, ladies and gentlemen, the point where I throw my hands up in despair and reexamine this.

I've seen the writing on the wall for a few months now. But I was determined to plow through.

Then, I stopped to think of why I was doing this, and whether I was doing all the other things on my list this year.

I had a theme for the year - a year of consistency. I wanted to clean consistently, cook consistently, sew consistently, and do other things like learn French, attend lectures, etc. The Madhur Jaffrey project has, however, because of its sheer size, taken over. My apartment is a shambles, my Burdas lie untouched (although contributing to that is the sheer suckiness of the offerings in the last six months), and I'm pretty sure Biscuit hates me.

It is time to reconsider.

The goal was to force me to cook new things consistently - so I'm pushing my deadline back. I'm adding 6 months to the clock. Which means I have to cook a managable 6.46 recipes a week. I can do that.

New deadline - July 1st, 2011.

(I spent Monday evening cooking 6 dishes, so I'm almost done for this week. Yay.)

PS: My mom thought I was stressing myself out by cooking all these recipes. That isn't precisely true. I still really enjoy the cooking process, and in a perfect world where the amount of spare time I had was doubled or tripled, I would love to cook 310 recipes in 6 months. However, the stress was that so many things were being left undone, and I didn't feel balanced at all.

A very important anniversary

Three years ago, I made my first skirt. My zipper didn't meet neatly at the top, but it was wearable, and got me started on this amazing journey.

Not exactly to commemorate this event, but I'm making a skirt right now. I'm using the Simplicity 4236 pattern, and, inspired by PR Montreal, and the many discussions I had with people there - I'm even finishing all my interior seams.

The first three years of sewing has been mostly about quantity. I sewed a lot - all of it fast and easy and sloppy. My goal for the next three - to be as impeccable as I know how.

(Yes, I know I still owe pictures of the cocktail dress. June was a crazy whirlwind - I was out of town three weekends, and have barely been at home the remaining time. July promises to be saner, so pictures will be posted soon.)

PR Weekend Montreal - Recap

What fun last weekend was! I took full advantage of being only 6 hours away, and made it to PR Montreal.

Ok, I will confess I was nervous about meeting so many sewers! My dress had french seams partly because the silk frays, but mostly because I wanted to do the best possible job for a dress that would be displayed to other sewers. I packed with extra care, since everything I made was going to be on display. It was all very nerve-racking.

Very unnecessarily nerve-racking, because of course, everyone was super-nice!

Friday morning, I checked into the dorms, and then headed to the two talks - by Kathryn Brenne and Jeanne Bidet. Both very different, both very informative. For Kathryn's talk, I was sitting all the way over in the back (umm, I was late - my major character flaw - I am always late...) Which meant I couldn't see all the detail in the yummy garments, so for Jalie, I made my way over to the front, and sat in the front row like a good little teacher's pet. Fascinating and informative! I've several new techniques to try.

Friday evening - cocktail party time. I liked my dress (yes, I did finish sewing it) but didn't sew a clasp, and didn't want to enter it in the contest. But everyone made me. What wonderful dresses there were there! It was so inspiring to see what everyone had made, and I totally resolved to sew more better/slower/with more care.

(Oh, and the dinner was amazing.)

Saturday morning - super early (for me), it was get on the bus and go fabric shopping. I have no illusions, I'm not sewing my own workout wear (and if you know me, you know I almost never work out, I'm really lazy), so I went instead to Madeline Soie et Laine. Great store - I wanted to buy the entire store. Instead, I settled for 3 pieces, two off the remnant table, and I bought one meter of Michael Miller cotton that's going to be a great summer skirt.

Most of the day was spent fabric shopping. I bought 7.5 meters in total, which was on the low side, it seemed. However, my stash is out of control, and I really am struggling to find time to sew, so this seemed plenty.

Saturday evening, pizza and a fun show-and-tell. And a pattern/fabric swap. I wasn't organized enough to bring fabric or patterns, and I felt bad about taking any patterns, but there were tons of vintage patterns, and I didn't have the power to resist. Bad Reethi!

Sunday morning, I headed to the McCord museum to see their old costumes and Cirque du Soleil costumes. It was hard at the Cirque du Soleil exhibit - I wanted to touch everything, and of course, you actually can't, at a museum.

After that, I wandered back hostel-ward, and got on my bus...

Special thanks to all the organizers - Anne-Marie, Kay (and isn't her dress to die for? I saw it in person, it was so spectacular), Connie (who made our oh-so-cute badges and pins, I have no idea how much patience that takes!) and Claire (who found me a copy of La Mia Boutique, and then traipsed all over town with me looking for other sewing magazines)

It was really a great weekend. I met tons of cool people, everyone was nice and friendly and welcoming, and it was so much fun to talk sewing non-stop for two days.

And, umm, I was too busy talking to take any pictures, hence this is a picture-less post.

Since my life is a whirlwind, I leave in the morning to go to Chicago for the weekend. I'm hanging with college buddies, so there will be no time to fabric shop (and this is a good thing, trust me.) But, I'm itching to sew, and sewing will definitely happen on Monday.

Cocktail Dress: Quick progress update

I should be done by now, shouldn't I? I'm not.

Unexpected social stuff last night shortened my evening, so rather than sew from 8pm (the original plan) - I got in front of the machine at 10pm instead.

However, in the 3-odd hours I put in, I managed to get a reasonable bit done, and right now, what remains on the dress is:

- Ironing the skirt gathers. I gathered by hand, since my silk felt too fragile for my zig-zag stitch on my machine. The gathers are sort of even (I'm never very good at this, however) but they need to be steamed down a little.
- Finishing the inside seam where the skirt attaches to the midriff band. Right now, this is the only unfinished seam (the skirt has french seams, and the bodice is self-lined, and has no visible seams). I didn't want to sew the waist seam as a french seam, since I thought it would add bulk. Now, I'll have to spend some time researching what the best way to enclose that seam.)
- Sewing the zipper, and sewing the center back closed. Along the way, I need to also enclose this seam.
- Hem. I told my mother I'd be hand-hemming on the overnight bus to Montreal. At that time, I was joking. Now however, it might actually be true.

Readers - help me please - best way to enclose my seams? I could make silk bias-tape (I do own a scarcely-used bias-tape maker), and then enclose the seam in that. It might be fiddly however, and also add bulk. Any better ideas?

Cocktail dress in a hurry: Fabric

Ok, since I leave on Thursday for Montreal, I'm not actually at the fabric picking stage. Fabric has been cut out, and the bodice has been sewn. I hope to finish this tonight, or worst-case, tomorrow. (Else I go naked. Dire!)

Like I said in the last post on this dress, I'm using a beautiful midnight-blue silk for this dress.



And of course, the princess Biscuit approves.

One aargh moment so far - I've managed to cut my bodice in such a way that one of those dots on the fabric is - how shall we say it - in the wrong place. Aargh. However, since my bodice is self-lined, I might simply flip the right and wrong sides. (I did try to take care when cutting it out, to make sure it wouldn't happen. And before I do the flip, I'll try it on with the actual bra I'm planning to wear - since I'm sure that will make a difference.)

Another word on the Handkerchief Quilt

A few weeks ago, I got an email forwarded by my mother, from my uncle. They'd painted their bedroom, and my uncle had sent her a photo.

But then there was this comment from my mom, which I found hilarious.

hmm hanky quilt it is the FAVOURITE!!!

sigh sigh



S'okay, mom.

However, the most ridiculous bit of the entire thing was that this was the easiest project ever.

Cocktail Dress - I picked a pattern

First though - hey - I had comments! Thanks! Angeal - I love McCalls 6113, but unfortunately, I don't have this pattern in my stash, and it is just too complicated to get to Fabricland to buy the pattern. But for the future - I agree, this would showcase my fabric beautifully.

So, the pattern I picked was a bit boring, but I've a hidden motive here.



My hidden motive - I want to use some satin fabric I bought in Toronto a couple of months back to make a maxi version. It wasn't cheap fabric, and I want a couple of tries to perfect the bodice fit.

For my cocktail dress though, I'm going to make the short length, halter top version, in a beatiful midnight-blue silk.

Up next - muslin making! I normally don't bother, but I don't have time to fail here. I want to make a wearable muslin though. If I elect to stay at home tomorrow night, then perhaps I can get it all done tomorrow!

Cocktail Dress in a hurry!

So I need to make a cocktail dress for PR Montreal.

I have a week and a half of time, which would generally be sufficient, if not for the reasonably-frantic pace of my life. (Tonight, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday are reasonably booked up, leaving umm... no time to get it made.)

On the good side, I have fabric. Both my aunt and my mom have given me old saris (beautiful silk in the most amazing colors - I have a grey silk, a midnight-blue silk and a cream-ish silk to work with, I think.)

On the bad side, I have no idea what a cocktail dress is supposed to look like. (In my fantasy life, I have occasions where I need to wear a cocktail dress. In my real life - not so much.)

In other sewing news - my skirt and jacket are languishing, unfinished, as I haven't gone near my sewing machine in a week.

Up next - later tonight, I'm going to pick a pattern for this. Given I have a week to make it, it is safe to say it'll be easy.