9 months in the making

Believe it or not, I can actually do a small June round-up. Although I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet, for the most part.

So this month, I...

• Finished all of the hand-sewing on the second quiet book, thanks to a week where I literally had nothing left to do except hang out at my parents' while Doug was at work and wait to see if I'd go into labor. All that needs to be done is to sew the finished pages back-to-back with the machine, and assemble the book. 
• Finished knitting a scarf from a Craftsy class that I started last year sometime. And I have quite a bit of the second ball of yarn left, but I do have an idea for a project to use it on. Just need the time.
• Did not use up any of my fabric stash. But I did order 7 yards, because Fabric.com suckered me in with geeky novelty prints. 
• Got the scrapbook that I've been working on almost completely done, minus a few pictures that just got ordered. (Since I got married, I've been doing one per year, running from June to May in order to coincide with our anniversary. I seriously love the pocket-style scrapbooking, it makes it so much easier to keep up!) I even managed to finish up some older unfinished album pages, too! 

Oh yeah...and I finished this project.

He was born on June 22 (a week and a day past his due date), 20 3/4" long and 8 pounds 10 ounces. He's 10 days old now, and though it's been pretty exhausting, it's been fun getting to know this little guy, too. He's usually pretty happy, except when he has to get a bath or I take too long in getting ready to feed him.

Of course, when I do feed him, then he looks more like this:

Speaking of feeding, he's ready for that again. Hobbit was a very accurate nickname.

Back later...

pinned there, done that (the May wrap-up)

The latest two sewing projects--both things for the baby--were ideas that I found on Pinterest, and they (mostly) worked out. So I figured I'd just show them both at the same time. You're getting all phone photos/previously taken Instagrams today, since the DSLR is packed with the hospital bag now. It's also been rather dreary weather here all week, so I apologize in advance for the not-so-great lighting on the first item in particular. I just wanted to get this post done before I'm a little...distracted. Ahem.

Thing 1:
Not the most exciting make ever, but it was necessary. The co-hosts of the Small Human Being Sewalong put together a lovely Pinterest board that had all sorts of useful items on it. Among them was this baby changing mat pattern/tutorial. Which I basically just used to get the curve of the top, and then completely winged it instead, haha. I basically just wanted something I could throw into the diaper bag that I could use when I'm having to change him at other people's houses/those public restroom changing tables, fold up to contain potential messes, and then throw in the wash. I also thought that using up a little more of the leftover fabric from the bag would be nice! Though, sadly, I didn't manage to finish the suedecloth off.  The snap setter I bought for the diapers came in handy for coming up with a hidden closure, though.





I decided to make the dimensions wider/longer than the original, and leave off the two pocket wings on the side. I didn't think they'd be very useful with the extra bulk of cloth diapers, especially once he's in the larger sizes. It's not like I won't have the bag with me at these times anyway. The inside is a double layer of polyurethane laminate, since I'd had to buy an extra piece at Joann's to finish off the diapers and had leftovers, and I know it's washable. Even though it makes the inside look a little more boring than vinyl-covered cotton prints would have been, which is what the original pattern called for.

I'm glad that I had to get a little distance on this one to get the full shot--the binding really isn't all that great, because I forgot how to do the corners. But this one's more of a function over form project, anyway. At least, that's how I'm justifying my less-than-stellar work to myself.





Thing 2:

I've been racking my brains for months, trying to figure out what to do with these adorable felt ornaments that my mom made:
 
She made a whole bunch of these as favors for my baby shower, which had a children's book theme. That's also mostly what I Doug and I decided to go with for the nursery. So we have representatives from all sorts of picture books: a Fox in Socks, a moose (for If You Give A Moose a Muffin), the owls are from a book called Who's Hiding--which is what gave her the idea to make these in the first place, the frog and bear come from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, the rabbit is for the Beatrix Potter stories (after Peter Rabbit loses his coat and shoes), and the penguin is for a book called How Do Penguins Play? (And also for my mother-in-law, who is completely obsessed with all things penguin.)

As for the dogs...they're little felt versions of our Malkin and Crosby!

Anyway, I was originally thinking of making a mobile, but was having trouble figuring out how best to make them to accommodate the ribbon loops, and not create a potential safety hazard on the crib. Then I saw this Pinterest tutorial for a homemade play gym that's lightweight, easy to deconstruct for storage, and had felt ornaments. And I knew it would be super-cheap, because I already had everything to make it except for hula hoops! I wasn't originally planning on having a play gym, since they're so overpriced, but it was too cute of an idea to pass up. Hopefully the dogs won't be all over the baby with this...

Instead of a quilt, I opted to make a solid fabric mat, because I had yards of this swirly green quilt cotton that I can't remember what on earth I bought it for in the first place. (That, and quilts take longer.) I also had some solid green leftovers from my last round of geeky bibs, and more of those snaps. I managed to use up about half of each piece, so once again, I need to figure out what to do with leftovers. Oh well.

I had to kind of wing it on the tabs--I did manage to sew them into the hula hoop cover tubes, but then discovered that the original length would leave the ornaments hanging way too low. So I wrapped them around the tubes a couple of times and hand-tacked them down, then added the snaps in the appropriate places. Overall, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, though!


 The dogs were less impressed.

Aside from following a Pinterest tutorial for making a couple of old camisoles a little more nursing layering-friendly, hacking the Ikea curtains and the blackout curtains that we got for the nursery together, and starting work on another felt quiet book (Doctor Who this time), these two things are pretty much all I have to show for the month. Which leaves my stashbusting total at somewhere around 3 yards. Not my best month, but I didn't buy any fabric, so that has to count for something!





Aside from that, Doug and I have been working hard on finishing up this project:


We both did the wall decals, but he pretty much took care of the extra bathroom otherwise. And he helped with organizing the closet, but I took care of dealing with the rest of the laundry and hanging things up otherwise. (And that laundry was not an easy task, because we had the baby shower on Saturday. Between a giant clothesline full of baby clothes that Doug's mom/sister/aunt put together, outfits that other people bought us, and some extras we hadn't had before like hooded towels and crib sheets, I seriously had a pile as big as our larger dog!)

Now that that's all taken care of, and my music teaching work is more or less wrapped up for the next couple of months, I just need to figure out how to occupy myself for the next week and a half or so while I wait for the kiddo to make his debut. I do still have hand-sewing, but finding comfortable places to sit long enough to get anything done on that, or read, is a bit of a challenge right now! I may spend some time playing with my scrapbooks again, though, since the chair at that workstation seems to work better for me for some reason.

So I guess this is my last post for a little while, until I am physically able to/can start sneaking in some time to make things again! In the meantime, wishing you all lots of summer sewing fun!

summer sewing daydreams

Well, here we are...about 2 1/2 weeks before my due date. Sadly, I've reached the point where it's just too physically difficult for me to start any new sewing projects, other than the hand-stitching I've been doing on a second quiet book. (Thanks for all the kind words on the last one, by the way! It was fun.) Between my back refusing to let me sit comfortably anywhere for longer than 5 minutes, and my belly getting in the way of both the sewing machine table and my ability to get the leverage needed to work the foot pedal, I've just had to accept that I'm just going to have to wait and see what sort of time I can carve out to delve back into this with a newborn. I have managed to finish a couple of things this month, which I'll show soon. But I'm coping in the meantime by playing around with pairing patterns and fabrics in my stash to figure out some potential projects that will be forgiving of the changes in my figure that will still be happening/easy to adapt to my new lifestyle of mostly stay-at-home mom. I do plan on picking up the music/sewing lessons I teach again, hopefully around mid-to-late August. So teaching-friendly clothes are ok, and I don't have to do all yoga pants. I don't even own a pattern for yoga pants, anyway. So there's good incentive to not even go there!

(Honestly, I've managed to stay within the recommended range for pregnancy weight gain, even though it sounds like Hobbit is going to be a bigger baby than I'd expected--not a 9-10 pounder, thank God, but still bigger than either of us or our siblings. I guess all that nausea has been good for something after all! So I'm hoping that means that maybe all of those Thurlow pants will fit again this fall, since I didn't have to give them up until almost the second trimester. That would help sooo much.)

Anyway, here's some of the potential ideas I've been bouncing around:

1. Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress. This one is at the top of the list, honestly. I've had this pattern/fabric combo bagged up with notions for about 2 years now, with the intention of sewing it for the summer-to-fall transition. But other projects kept getting in the way. I still really like this rayon challis print, though, and I'd like to see it become something. The bonus is that there's so many colors to pick from in the print that it'll be easy to adapt to fall layering with boots and leggings. Plus, it'll go great with the next cardigan I plan to make for myself, whenever I finish the quiet book and can get back to knitting instead of hand-stitching! The gathered/tie back waist should make it forgiving for whatever's going on with my waistline, and the button front means it'll be great for nursing.  I am thinking that maybe I should wearable-muslin this first, since I do have some bedsheets in the muslin bin with a similar drape to this fabric, and my bust measurement is already a whopping 5" bigger than it used to be! (Good thing I hadn't traced this one out yet, right?)

2. Sewaholic Rae skirt. I bought this one kind of on a whim during one of her past sales, since it looked like it would be a more flattering fast skirt to sew than some of the older patterns that I had. I've never made it, but elastic waists are sounding pretty good right now, since they'll be a little more adjustable as I lose some of these pounds I've put on. Also, I could use some bottomwear, since I have basically zero shorts that will fit me this summer, other than a couple of elastic-waisted pairs I picked up at the thrift store recently that I'm just hoping will fit--not like I could try them on to see. I'm also not sure how many of my skirts I'll be able to squeeze into, or how quickly. That's what I get for generally preferring the fitted waist aesthetic, right? I probably won't do quite this many, but here's a couple of things I found in the stash that might work. (If I combine the black linen-looking stuff and the camel linen, at least-- I don't really have enough of either to make anything, since they're both leftover pieces, but have been thinking for awhile that they might pair nicely.)

3. Seamwork Adelaide dress. I was really excited to see this one in the current issue, because it looks like it'll be a really forgiving make as far as sizing goes, though still a little more flattering because of the belt. And, again, it's a really nursing-friendly option. I do have a pattern subscription at the moment, so the pattern is safely downloaded and awaiting printing. I'm thinking maybe this twill for it--it was given to me for free and I have quite a bit of it, so it's not a huge loss if the pattern doesn't work for me. My one debate is whether to hunt down those snaps, or to just use buttons, since I do have a lot of buttons. Particularly, I have these sparkly red ones that I got to make a Beignet skirt that never happened--I later ended up deciding that a red skirt isn't really something I'd use much, and swapped the fabric--and I think that and maybe some red topstitching could provide some much-needed interest to this otherwise rather boring fabric. Thoughts?

4. Grainline Archer blouse. I've had this pattern, and this Japanese linen fabric that I specifically bought for it, for about a year and a half now. And since this is a looser shirt by nature, I probably won't have to size it up quite as much as I would other patterns. Which will make it more forgiving for (hopeful) weight loss, too! The pattern is printed, but I do need to assemble it.



5. Colette Mabel skirt. Another pattern I own/have printed, but haven't tried yet. It's not like I haven't gotten plenty of practice sewing knits lately, but I do have a couple of interlock jerseys from Joann's that are a little on the thick side for tops (I know, because I've used them for a couple of tops), so this could be a good candidate for fast, easy bottomwear. This color is the only one I have that's large enough by itself, but I do have some brown as well that might work if I pair it with something else. Or just buy a little more fabric. I bet Joann's still has it.

6. A nursing top or two. I think I could make one pretty quickly from Simplicity 1469, since I've already used that one and I have some knits that would work well together for a sleeveless version. (I just might want to reduce the width of the back a little, since I won't have to make it quite so maternity.) I've been advised by a couple of helpful sewcialists that the smaller nursing openings will probably work better than I thought, so thank you for that tip! Another option is to play around with altering one of my more basic knit top patterns. I'm thinking maybe the Deer & Doe Plantain to start, since I won't have to worry about the waist sizing, given that it fit me as it was until probably month 6! Also, Heather was kind enough to pull out some of her old nursing tops awhile back and Instagram a few pictures for me so I could get some ideas, and the Plantain looked like a very good candidate for some similar hacking. (Thanks, Heather!)

Other possibilities already in my stash for maybe a little more down the road, when I have a better idea of sizing...Some, but not all, pictured here: a nursing-hacked Renfrew, the Granville blouse, the Yaletown blouse, the Maria Denmark Edith dress/blouse, the Espresso leggings (because I've decided I like leggings for layering under skirts, and definitely not because I've decided I like leggings as pants!), this random Simplicity shirtdress that I forgot I had, Butterick 5084 looks like it would be fairly easy to hack for nursing based on tutorials I've seen, and I could possibly adapt Butterick 5206 to be a real wrap top instead of a faux wrap top. I've been wanting to revisit that pattern for awhile anyway, and I think one of my Paris fabrics could be perfect for it!

I'm trying to look at this as more of a list of ideas, and not an actual project list. After all, I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to sew anything, especially if I can only grab 10-15 minutes here and there. It's hard to predict, without knowing how well this baby will nap and things like that. I know I'm prone to overly ambitious lists of what I think I can get done in any given season, and I don't want to put myself in a position where I'm frustrated about how little I'm finishing when I'm already going to be sleep-deprived and trying to learn a whole new skill set to enable tiny human survival. At the same time, Future Zombie Me will probably benefit from having a more narrowed-down list of possibilities for when I do have some time here and there to work on something. It's going to be hard for me to not have a concrete list of plans, but hopefully I'll be able to adapt and go with the flow a little more for now.

Have you ever had a season where you knew sewing time was going to be a rare commodity, or you were going to have some serious measurement changes? How did you deal?

They're finally done!!

My biggest baby-sewing project, that is: the diapers. I really doubt this is the sort of thing most people reading this would be sewing, so feel free to skip this post if you think it'll bore you. But given that this was a 2-person, 4-month job, the end is definitely worth celebrating!

Also, I'd like to give a shoutout to my mom--I know she reads this blog when she can, and I literally could not have done this and finished with this much time to spare without all of her help. My sanity would not be very intact either, for that matter. So thanks, Mom!!!

So...this is what 72 cloth diapers plus inserts look like, at least as far as I could fit them into the picture. There's 24 apiece of three different sizes: newborn, small and medium, because according to the pattern, these three sizes should fit him all the way from 8.5 to 35 pounds. Worst case scenario, if Hobbit is a fast grower, I may have to make a batch of larges sometime, but now that I know the process, hopefully one set would go fast. I also went for prints/colors that I considered to be fun-but-gender-neutral, since we started this process before I knew he's a boy, and ideally, these will hold up well enough that I can use them again for any sibling he might get down the road. But even if they don't, I think the money savings on using them with one child will make this effort worthwhile!

The pattern we used is called Darling Diapers Unlimited. The nice thing about this pattern is that you can use it to make pretty much any type of fitted cloth diaper that you want. The not-so-nice thing about this pattern is that it makes the directions ridiculously confusing to follow. I ended up making two different styles, and literally went through the directions to re-write out a step-by-step guide for Mom and I to follow, only using the printed directions as a reference point after that.

For all of the diapers, I used poly-urethane laminate for the outside, a softer athletic mesh for the inside layer, and cotton fleece for the "soaker" layers. I was able to get the mesh from Joann's, but I got everything else from Diaper Sewing Supplies. The quality of their snaps and elastic sounded a lot better than the Babyville Boutique stuff I could get at Joann's, and I liked that the company aims to supply quality American-made products in an eco-friendly manner (including their PUL manufacturing). Also, frankly, they have a much bigger variety of prints and they're way more fun!

A little more detail on the two styles...

Left side: Unfolded. Right side: Folded and velcroed closed.

The newborns are basically what you'd consider an "all-in-one" diaper. I did have to wing it a bit on the padding, because I'd already cut everything as rectangles to fold into thirds before I realized that the stuff-the-pocket type wasn't even listed as an option for this size, due to how tiny they are. So I added a layer of the athletic mesh on one third of the soaker for softness, and then sewed them into the back. Since they're still mostly detached, I'm hoping this will help them dry faster. I also ended up stitching a little extra fleece underneath in the backside region--hopefully it's not too TMI to say that the soaker ended up being narrow enough that I was nervous about things being contained back there without a little extra width. Ahem. I used velcro for the closure, to make it easier to handle the diaper changes while we're first learning to do this, and did the scooped front option so that it wouldn't rub against his belly button while that's still healing over.

Clockwise from top left: Unstuffed, the liner, and stuffed.

For the small and medium sizes, I did more of a "pocket diaper" for ease of cleaning and especially speed of drying. So all of the soaker layers are the tri-fold rectangles, and can be pulled out for washing. I also decided to do snaps instead of velcro for these two sizes--I figured those would stay on a little better once he starts getting mobile, and also be less likely to pick up all of the dog hair that seems to accumulate around here. That, and since these heavy-duty plastic snaps don't separate quite as easily as the usual metal sewing ones I've used in the past, hopefully that will keep him from succeeding in taking them off himself! Here's hoping that I can keep the two sizes straight, since the solid blue/green and the TARDIS print were used for both of them, and I figured I was spending enough and therefore didn't get size labels.

The stashbusting total: a whopping 31.25 yards! Granted, I did buy all of these fabrics specifically for this project. I did have to buy an extra yard of the athletic mesh, though that got used up. I bought a little extra plain PUL from Joann's to help reinforce snaps once I ran out of scraps, and still have maybe a yard of that left, but I purposely bought extra so I can make a changing pad for the diaper bag. (Hopefully that will happen soon.) And since the rectangular soakers took less fabric than I thought, I have nearly 2 yards of the cotton fleece left over. It's got a pretty rough texture on the outside, so I don't think it'll make a good sweatshirt or anything like that. But I have some ideas for non-clothes things I can use it for, if I don't end up needing to make a set of large-sized diapers.  

And since the whole point of this undertaking was to save us money long-term, here's the breakdown: I ended up paying a total of around $350 for all of the supplies, which translates to less than $5 per diaper. It looks like the absolute best I can do buying the cloth ones new is around $6.67 apiece. I got this price off of a 6-pack on Amazon, and those are ones that have a bajillion snaps so you can try to make the same diaper fit the kid as he/she grows. Definitely cheaper, but I wasn't sure how well they'd hold up from all of the washing. If I was getting the more sized ones like I made, it would be at least around $18 apiece. Which means I would have only gotten about 19 diapers for the same cost.

On the flip side, I did a little googling, and according to Mint.com, the average cost of 1 year of disposables is around $800. I know I'll have to occasionally use the disposables for instances like church nursery/if Doug's mom is babysitting for us, since I really can't see her wanting to deal with these. (My mom is totally on board, though.) Even so, aside from the cost of detergent and my time in carting the laundry around/getting loads started and put away, using these as my primary means of diapering should pay for itself in less than 6 months. Which means more money for fabric, right?

February month-in-review

Aside from the dress in my last post, I thought I'd just do a recap of what else I've been making this month, since it's a lot of works-in-progress and stuff that I wouldn't give individual posts to. Also, thanks for all of the lovely birthday wishes and compliments on that dress!

1. First off, the totals. I tend to only count stash as busted once the project is actually sewn up, so for this month, I used up a total of 9 1/2 yards of fabric. I did buy one pattern (The Sewaholic Granville blouse, since Tasia was having her big birthday sale and I actually didn't have a standard button-down shirt pattern in my stash) and a zipper, but overall, I did manage to stick with using things I had.

• The maternity dress was 3 yards. 
• I used half a yard of ugly quilt cotton plus some ugly quilted fabric that my mother-in-law dropped off to me the day before to make an ugly pillow to keep between my knees and help me sleep with reduced hip pain, because that's been an issue for the last couple of months and my OB suggested a thinner pillow than the one I'd been using. I didn't measure out that quilted fabric, I literally just folded it up into the size I wanted and sewed the ugly cotton into a pillowcase around it. So I'm not going to show that here, though I did post it in the Stashbusting Sewalong group on Facebook, since one category in this month's fabric contest was Ugly. (I literally don't even know how that fabric got into my stash. I didn't buy it.)
• As for the rest, I made this:
  
  

Doug and I almost have the nursery (aka the Hobbit Hole) set up, minus whatever we're given in the baby shower that my mom's been planning and a few minor projects. He had the idea to do a hammock for stuffed animals, since we need to keep those away from the dogs. Malkin in particular has a habit of tearing holes and ripping all of the stuffing out as soon as he gets his paws on them! I had a lot of tulle left over from making my wedding dress, because I seriously overestimated how much I would need. Good thing it's cheap. I didn't use it all up, since it was in two pieces, but I did manage to use up a 6-yard piece by cutting 4 layers and zig-zagging the edges to hold it all together, then binding the shorter edges/making tabs out of a scrap of thicker white cotton from my scrap bin. Not bad for an afternoon's work, I think, and I'm happy that I found a way to use up some tulle on a project for a boy!

For the record, a majority of the stuffed animals in there are actually ones I'd kept from my own childhood/teenage years that had some sentimental value. Though the Donald Duck and the little German shepherd puppy were gifts from the soon-to-be grandparents, and there's a bunch of Dr. Seuss-style fish that my mom made as well.

2. I'd mentioned earlier in the month that I had some pretty massive, time-consuming baby projects to make, so I thought I'd give the update on that.

First of all, I've been going to my parents' a couple of times a week to work on the cloth diapers that my mom and I are sewing. They live closer to my teaching than I currently do, so it makes sense on the days I have fewer lessons to drive up there for more than one thing. Most of her projects are packed away now, so she's using her sewing time to help me, which is so great of her. We still have a long way to go, since we're ultimately making 72 (2 dozen each of 3 different sizes), but everything is at least cut out and ready to sew, and we're making a pretty big dent on the smallest size of diaper. So this is one of those.


And this is what I've been working on instead of knitting for most evenings lately, using this pattern. It's taking awhile, since I've been having fabric glue issues and therefore have been basically hand-stitching the majority of this, with a little machine sewing thrown in to secure the edges of pages when backing them to hide all of the mess. Oh well...toys for boys need to be sturdy anyway, right?




And here's a little closeup of the Fellowship of the Finger Puppets so far--the imagery is based a little more on the movies, so I'm going with that. So this is Boromir, Pippin and Legolas. I probably would have finished all 9 puppets last night, except the fabric glue that I bought yesterday specifically to assemble these just isn't sticking to the felt very well! (My previous fabric glue had gotten too dried out to use, and these pieces are way too tiny for hot glue. So once again, I'm hand-stitching!) I've got 6 puppets in various stages of completion, and then 8 more pages on this book, I think. Some are much less intricate, so that will help. I also have a second book all cut out and ready to go that's Doctor Who-based. If nothing else, maybe I can have these done in time to give Hobbit for his first Christmas?

So my goals for March, aside from continuing to make as big a dent on these books and diapers as possible:

1. Sew my diaper bag, which I cut out earlier this week and that is therefore ready to go for my at-home sewing time. I'm planning to start that today.
2. If I have time, sew myself at least one more article of clothing to get me through the next couple of months. Probably a top, since hopefully the weather will start to warm up and I can at least graduate to 3/4 sleeves. Especially if I make it nursing-friendly so I can wear it in the fall, too. 
3. On the non-sewing front, I'll probably also have to start thinking about some cooking days, since one of my plans is to try to get our freezers filled with as many prepped meals as possible so I don't have to worry about food too much in the first month. (And by prepped, I mean either just defrost, or throw in the crockpot/oven and be done with it.) I have a list of recipes to make, including breakfast and lunch options that I can eat with one hand, plus a second list of ALL the ingredients, but I probably won't really start with this until closer to the end of the month/beginning of April. We still need to eat in the meantime, so I'm focusing on using up the older stuff that's in there first.

On a more personal note, since this still sounds like a lot, we've decided that I won't be resuming my retail job this spring as usual. Our plan was for me to stay at home with the baby anyway, though I'm still going to be doing my music and now sewing lessons, which I do have babysitting lined up for. (Thanks, Mom!) But since spring is the busiest season at that job and I'll be in my third trimester the whole time, and there's several factors at that job that would make it very physically difficult (having to bend down to lift plants for scanning, stools with no backs, 6-day workweeks, the owner smokes in his office often and cigarette smoke makes me sick even when I'm not pregnant, the nausea still hasn't fully gone away, etc.), we decided that it would be much better for me to use those last couple of months to just focus on final preparations instead of struggling through two part-time jobs plus all of that. Which is also why I'm planning to do cloth diapers and cook ahead, since in the long run that will save us money on diapers and avoiding takeout while we're first learning how this parenting thing works. I can't say I'm too broken-hearted over the thought of having more time in my day to cram in as many hours of sewing and music as I can before having to spend most of my time ensuring the survival of another human!

sew and tell time!

Yeah, I could just come out and tell you what the gender is. But it's so much more fun to take this as an excuse to sew something to show it!! (Ok, so I already posted this to Instagram/the Stashbusting Sewalong group on Facebook. But this warrants a blog post too, right?)

So this is the outfit I made for Hobbit.

That's right, it's a boy! Doug is absolutely thrilled, since he was hoping for that outcome more than he was willing to admit, even to himself. Plus he's excited to teach him all about hockey. I'm excited too, though I will admit that some of my first thoughts were along the lines of wondering how long I'd actually be able to sew things for him/can I still do crafty stuff with him/etc. Good thing I've already seen stuff on Pinterest about building toy catapults and such, because that looks fun! I'm also giving myself pep talks about all the geeky things I like that boys often also enjoy, like Tolkien and Star Wars and Legos and Marvel movies, to remind myself that I'll be ok.

Oh, right, I should probably talk about the actual sewing project, too! This pattern is McCall's 6494, made in a size small, which looks like about 1-3 months. Ok, so I'm guessing on that-- I'm pretty new to this whole kid sewing thing! I'm hoping this will work for this summer and into September, since our Septembers are often on the warm end as well. I did have this pattern on hand, because I'll admit that I did buy a couple in the cheap pattern Joann's sales back when we first started talking seriously about having a kid. And I chose this one, because minimal pieces made it look like it would sew up fast! We told our family and closest friends on Monday, but this was my chosen method for the Facebook reveal, so I didn't want anything that would take too long and risk someone accidentally letting it slip. Also, the dinosaur was fun.

The fabric is lightweight denim, left over from my Thurlow trousers. I had 1 3/4 yards of that left, and this project used up 3/4 yards of that. So I guess some little baby jeans-like pants may be in order to use up the rest--I don't think I can squeeze anything for myself out of a yard, given that I don't entirely have the full width of the fabric to work with due to how I cut the Thurlow legs out. I made the applique from the last scrap of the solid green that I recently made those Lord of the Rings bibs out of, plus some rick rack purloined from my mom's stash (with her permission). Yay for stashbusting! I also had just barely enough snaps of a slightly larger size to do this. I guess I'll need to pick up some more if I'm going to make any more baby clothes. Unless I can find snap tape at Joann's, since I need to stop there today to check on supplies anyway. (Not fabric, for the record. Hardware for a diaper bag so I can use up some fabric.)

I did make a couple of changes to the pattern/instructions:

1. I left off the facing, because those partial facings always flip out somewhere and annoy me, no matter how careful I try to be with understitching. Also, an interfaced extra layer of denim that ends partway down the chest sounded like it wouldn't be too comfy for a baby's sensitive skin. (Look at me, trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about!) So I turned and topstitched those edges instead, and added a little tab on either side of the snapped shoulder to reinforce it. It looks more jeans-y that way anyway.
   
   (Note: I'm very, very glad I basted this first, even though it made things take longer, because I would have not caught the edge in multiple places otherwise.) 
2. I did the bias tape facing for the snapped crotch lining before I hemmed it, because why wouldn't you want to eliminate unnecessary handwork? Sewing on those 7 snaps was enough!

With that update, here's my question for those of you with sons or nephews that you've made things for: any cute boys' sewing patterns to recommend/sources for fun prints? Because my general overall lack of boy-friendly fabrics in the stash means I can justify a little bit of shopping, right?

administrative details

Just two quick things today:

1. Since the sidebar widget I had for my finished projects hasn't let me add anything to the list since May (really, Blogger?!), I finally got fed up and reworked the page for what's in my closet to take care of that. It's just a big link list now, since trying to figure out how to add that many pictures would take forever, given that this is on the older side for sewing blogs. But I did at least organize it between what's in my closet/what isn't in my closet anymore/stuff I made for other people/etc.

Incidentally, I'm kind of surprised at how old certain items in my closet are now. Like that black military jacket I made back in 2006--whaaaat? I guess that explains why the lining is tearing. I'm also wondering how many of those current closet residents will get to stay around post-baby, but I guess it's too early to worry about that.

2. Since I ended up with significantly more yardage than I started last year with, and the Facebook group is really fun, I'm doing the Stashbusting Sewalong again. With all new themes and a bunch of new hosts! I didn't volunteer to host a month because, you know, baby stuff, but best of luck to all you ladies who are participating! So here's my pledge for this year, which I kept really simple:

I, Becky, will endeavor to end 2015 with less yarn and fabric than I started this year with, and to only buy notions as needed for specific projects.  I shall also try to limit the number of new patterns I buy for myself this year. 

To avoid stressing myself out, I purposely am not doing a number of yards/pieces of fabric type pledge this year, since I have no idea what sort of wrenches being pregnant and having a newborn will continue to throw into my sewing. And I did also specify limiting patterns for myself, because I'm sure I'm going to want to start collecting a few kids' patterns. I do have a few from things I've made for friends before, and whatever's in my Burda magazines, but not a whole lot to pick from in my pre-existing stash. If Hobbit cooperates, we should see if we're having a boy or a girl in less than two weeks, which I'm getting quite excited to find out!

And with that, I guess I'd better finish practicing my flute so I have a shot at actually cutting something out today. Yeah.

2014's top 5 Highlights

Continuing with the lists... I was originally intending to lump the last 3 topics into one post, but this particular category ended up being pretty wordy. So I'll spare you the mega-post.

The new category this year is "Highlights", which is pretty much anything not sewing-related going on in our lives. I don't know about you, but sometimes I find it hard to share life stuff on here, mostly for fear that I'll bore people. So this seems like a pretty good way to keep it real! (Of course, I have actually talked about some of this stuff on here...oh well.)

1. Travel. This was a really good year for that, and I'm really enjoying that I can say that I went fabric shopping in both New York and Paris this year! And there was also my girls' geekout weekend in Atlanta for DragonCon. Aside from those three trips, Doug and I took a day trip down to Washington, D.C. for our first anniversary, which was also a lot of fun, and I also got to spend a day hanging out with some of my cousins down at the Delaware beaches. That's been a tradition since I was a kid, and I'm glad I found some time to go down this year, even though I wasn't able to stay overnight at all this time. (The picture is me and Doug at the Eiffel Tower, because why not?)







2. I got a piano this year! Both of my grandmothers have been trying to downsize their belongings recently, because it's getting difficult for them to live on their own since both of my grandfathers passed away in 2013. So one of the big things going on in my family right now is that my parents are building a new house, and both of my grandmothers will be moving in with them in the spring. My mom's mom had two pianos, so she asked me if I wanted one. She actually gave me the bigger one! So this is a baby grand that my great-grandfather originally purchased in 1928. It's horrendously out of tune, which I'll need to remedy at some point, but I like the family history behind it, and it's been fun brushing up on my other instrument. I took piano lessons for about 7 years when I was a kid, but my parents didn't want us overloaded with too many extracurriculars, so once I got to 7th grade, they asked me to choose between continuing with the piano or the flute, which I'd been playing for about 3 years by then, for my music lessons. Obviously, I picked the flute, though I still played the keyboard at home for fun when I could, and I also had to take one semester of basic piano as part of my music degree. (Which, since I already knew how to play scales and stuff, I basically spent learning the "Linus and Lucy" song from Charlie Brown specials. The professor didn't care as long as we tested well.) The other thing connected to this is that I'm actually teaching one beginner piano student now at a local school, in addition to the flute. So in the long run, this could be a very good thing for my music teaching career.

3. In the category of non-sewing/knitting hobbies that I don't talk about on here much, I am still scrapbooking. The Project Life system has turned out to be a really good fit for me--I can save photos without feeling like I have to make a layout for everything, and the pockets make it really easy to finish pages quickly. I still do "real" scrapbook pages from time to time, usually for bigger events. And I still use my older supplies, usually in the form of cutting down big pieces of paper to make cards when I don't have a color I want. But aside from still needing to write in a few notes and paste down a few pictures, I'm basically done with everything from the wedding to our first anniversary. And I already have some stuff in an album for year 2 as well. That's a nice feeling.

4. Meeting writers. As if I didn't have enough to do to keep myself busy, I've always loved to read. And I got to meet two of my favorite living authors this year! A couple of friends and I went to see Brandon Sanderson at a quasi-local bookstore signing, and I briefly got to meet Jim Butcher when he was signing books at DragonCon. (I was wearing my Belle costume at the time, and when he saw me next in line, he sang one of the lines from her intro song: "Look there she goes, that girl is so peculiar..." So that's a fun story.) One of the friends I went to Atlanta with is a published author herself, and she introduced us to another writer friend, Diana Peterfreund. I bought two of her books and read one on the plane on the way home from Atlanta. I have yet to read the second, but I quite enjoyed the one I read, so I'm sure I'll get to it before too long.

5. Family stuff. Being able to say I've been married for a year was pretty exciting for me, since I wasn't sure I'd ever get married in the first place. And, of course, what's been mostly occupying my brain lately is being pregnant with our first child! (And all the nausea that goes along with it, which is sadly still going on. I thought the second trimester was supposed to be better!) I'm sure this will be occupying a LOT more of my attention for 2015.

What about you? Anything exciting going on for you this year?

FESA report card, and other news

Now that it's December, and the Fall Essentials Sew-along is over for another year, let's see how I did...



Well, I didn't do great. I had seven things on my original list. Very conservative of me, I thought!

1. Espresso leggings (Fashionable Foundations): didn't get to them.

2. Roheline cardigan (Chic Chemises): The knitting part of this one is done-- I barely finished in time, as I wove in the rest of the ends and sewed up the underarms on the 30th. I do still need to add buttons, but first I need to find some. The buttonholes ended up being a lot smaller than I expected, and I somehow didn't buy enough of the original buttons I purchased for this. Either that, or I lost a pack. So I need to find some small enough to fit through those tiny one-stitch buttonholes. Not that I'm likely to button this much, but oh well. Pictures to come.

3. Darling Ranges dress (Fabulous Frocks): My original plan of sewing this for The Monthly Stitch's Frocktober got scrapped when it became apparent that my peacoat would have to be a higher priority. Maybe next fall?

4. The peacoat (Baby It's Cold Outside): I did finish this! And since I've already talked about why it was such a time-suck, I'll leave it at that.

5. The Scraptember skirt: I worked on it, but didn't finish it. In my defense, Julia's had it in her possession for awhile to figure out what she wanted to do about another tier, so I haven't actually had access to it.

6. A scarf: I knitted part of this while I was on vacation. And haven't touched it since, so I could concentrate on my sweater.

7. The Disney sewalong project: Which would fall under Chic Chemises and Fashionable Foundations. You know I already finished the shirt, and I did also finish the skirt last week. I have a little extra time tomorrow, so hopefully I can get some pictures of the outfit then.


So, not my most productive period of sewing. But once again, life happened while I was busy making other plans...the truth is, there is a reason why my sewing mojo has been so low during the past couple of months, and it's not just all of the tailoring involved in that coat. Some of you whom I chat with on Twitter may remember me mentioning some major jet lag and nausea when I got back from my trip in September. Well, turns out it wasn't jet lag...I've also been busy over the last couple of months with making a tiny human! My "morning sickness" has really been 24-7 nausea for about 6-7 weeks straight now. So most of the time, I've felt too crappy after work to do much of anything other than sit in front of the tv, and sometimes knit. It really was pure stubbornness that enabled me to finish that coat!

Thankfully, I'm just about at the second trimester, currently on week 12, and hopefully that means I'll stop feeling constantly sick soon. (Oh please oh please...) And yes, there is going to be some baby-centric sewing going on here, but I seriously need some more maternity clothes, so I'll still be making stuff for me as well, I promise! Finding RTW maternity clothes that aren't in boring colors or fit properly in places that aren't supposed to change that much--i.e. my shoulders and the length of my arms--is really hard, you guys!

Do the (blog) hop!

I'm sure many of you have seen the blog hop that's been going around about our writing processes lately, and Alessa nominated me! If you don't know her, she lives in Germany, makes wonderful, colorful dresses, and started a new job as a doctor this year (congrats!) So it's an honor to be nominated by her. And here's my answers.

Early days blog photography, when Donna 1.0 was my main model.

Why do I write? I started this blog waaaay back in 2007, mostly just as a way to keep track of my own projects, make notes of changes that I'd make when re-using patterns in a place where I couldn't misplace them, etc. Somewhere on the way, people actually started reading it and (gasp!) commenting. And suddenly, I was actually part of a sewing community. Since I live in what is basically a desert for garment sewing, and the only people I know who sew regularly are my mom and grandmother (who are both more into quilting), this is a pretty big deal! When the "sewintists map" went live, I kept checking and checking, but I've never seen another pin in Delaware. I guess it's a good thing I'm only a day trip away from Philadelphia/Baltimore/DC, right? So my blog is still mostly just for my own personal documentation, but also as one method of keeping conversations going with other sewcialists.

A recent outtake with both dogs trying to get in the action!

What am I working on? Blog-wise: you probably wouldn't know it, but I am attempting to work on improving my blog photos. My current challenges here are that I don't have anywhere good to take photos outside on a regular basis, since I live in a middle-unit townhouse that has a lovely view of one of my state's busiest highways from the backyard, and I'm still trying to convince my long-suffering husband to not be scared of my camera. Also, photobombing Golden retrievers. :-)

I'm also working on writing more concisely, because I have a tendency to ramble!

Sewing-wise: I've got two projects going on right now! One is my winter coat, which I'll probably write more about soon. This one pretty much demands in-progress posts. The other is a patchwork skirt commissioned by my sister-in-law. It's a good thing she's patient, because I started this one before my wedding dress and it still isn't done! But since this is the perfect project for Scraptember, I'm trying very hard to finish it this month. We'll see if I make it, since I'm leaving for vacation on Friday!

How does it differ from others of its genre? I don't think my blog is all that unique, tbh. I don't design patterns, I'm not an expert at fitting or pattern hacking, and I'm not trying to come up with anything to sell at this point in my life. Since I've already turned one hobby into a job, via my music teaching and occasional performance, I'd like to keep my crafty life as something that's just for fun! I guess what does make me a little different is that I don't just sew--that's why I named this blog what I did. I've been teaching myself to knit, I make jewelry when the mood strikes, I've been making scrapbooks since I was in high school, and sometimes I do other "crafty" stuff. And I need to remember sometimes that just because something isn't sewing-related, doesn't mean it's not creative or unworthy of a mention.

Or not-so-secret costumes, though only the Whovians would get this.

Also, some people like "secret pajamas" clothes.... I like making secret costumes! (AKA things inspired by geeky things I love, which can still be worn in my everyday life.)

How does my writing process work? Most often, I start with the words. I've always found it easier to consolidate my thoughts in writing, rather than verbally. Also, sometimes I pre-write my posts at my retail job, when I'm close to finishing a project and don't have anything else to do. (Shh!) After that, I take the photos/pester Doug into taking them for me, edit my text as needed to match them, and post! Lately, that's also been followed by tweeting about the new post, since sewing completely sucked me into the Twittersphere. 

I'm supposed to tag two other people, so I'm nominating Katie from Kadiddlehopper and Helena at By Eitchy. In case you don't know them, Katie makes fabulous clothes for both her and her highly photogenic daughter, and has the most stylish Barbies around. She's seriously tempting me to get out my old Samantha doll and make some outfits for her with my scraps! Helena lives in Sweden, is working through a really fascinating project she calls "Sew For A Change" where she's also working on greening up her lifestyle, and has also been in pretty much the same boat of re-examining her wardrobe plans and ideals through the Wardrobe Architect project. I also find it interesting when she talks about Swedish culture, since it sounds like it's soooo different in a lot of ways from what I'm used to here in America.

DragonCon, and what I wore!

Well, I'm back.

The trip to my very first fan convention was a ton of fun, despite the lines and sleep deprivation. I got to hang out with a friend who I'd previously only met in the real world once (hi, Faith!), I met several actors from favorite tv shows and movies, and got a couple of books signed by one of my favorite living authors. Oh, yeah, and it was basically one giant 4-day costume party, so of course I was all over that!

Several of the things I wore were me-mades that I just ran out of time to blog, so I'm sharing them now. (This will probably be a fairly picture-heavy post, so consider yourself warned.)

For Thursday, we decided to do a Despicable Me theme-- Cassie went as Gru, and Faith and I as her minions! We even found bananas to carry! I went the cheap/lame way out for my goggles and just wore my glasses, partially because I ran out of time to make more accessories, and partially because I had to get up at 3:30 AM to make it to the airport. My me-made for this one was the yellow hoodie. I'd originally planned to take this opportunity to try out the Disparate Disciplines Avocado Hoodie. But due to time/thrift shop constraints, I decided to keep it simple and short-sleeved.  The result is a Renfrew with an Avocado hood. The "hair" on top is just basted-on scraps of black leftover from my recent dress, so I can remove that anytime.I'm actually really happy with how this quasi-hack turned out, and could definitely see more hooded Renfrews in my future! But I'd still like to try the Avocado for real at some point.

As for the overalls, they're just horrendous shorts I found at the thrift store. I should be nice, since some other sewist took the time to resize the legs and turn them into shorts. (The inside seams are basically raw and obviously home-sewn, while the hem was hand-stitched.) But it ended up fitting me really oddly--almost too-tight around the thighs, with the torso and straps being too long and baggy. The original overalls were XL, which probably explains it. And if I ever do this costume again, I'd definitely try for different overalls, but  they were literally the only ones I could find that weren't made for toddlers! I added a hand-painted patch with the Gru logo on it. You can see it a little better in this photo. And look, we found a monster minion!

I started Friday off with a Firefly t-shirt, but changed into my old Eowyn costume partway through the day, because one of our main activities that we all wanted to do in the evening was the Tolkien track's "Evening in Bree" party. (Which was SO fun.) I don't have much to say about this costume, since I've mentioned it here and there on the blog before--the only new addition was the blonde wig. Which did get a little snarly in the back by the end of the party, so I need to figure out how to untangle it without ripping all of that fake plastic hair out. The only other thing I'll say is that the costumes in the contest were amazing, and I felt very out of my league. But I did have a kid come up to me at the end of the party and hand me a sketch that she'd made of my costume, which I thought was really sweet.




Saturday was Belle day for me, and easily the crowd favorite! I've talked about the blue dress and the top here recently. Since then, I added an apron made from an old bedsheet in my muslin pile, and a bow made from scraps of the blue dress. (Just a tube, stuffed with some leftover tulle from my wedding dress to keep it perky, sewn around a hair elastic with another scrap of knit.) I also carried around a basket, which I swapped with Faith, who was doing Red from Once Upon A Time that day because all she needed was a stuffed wolf, and my book didn't fit in mine. I got lots of compliments from passers-by on how "cute" my Belle was, and several people asked to take my picture. But the two best moments were when I was getting a couple books signed by Jim Butcher, who saw me coming up and sang a line from her intro song in Beauty and the Beast ("Look there she goes, that girl is so peculiar..."), and the little girl I passed in the skybridge between hotels whose face lit up as she squealed, "Belle!" Making a kid happy made me feel rather good about my life that day.

I did have a couple people ask me where the Beast was. I told them that he was back at home, taking care of the library. (Sorry, Doug.)

Sadly, I didn't make it to any Doctor Who-related activities, but Cassie, Faith and I did go around dressed as companions on Sunday. I don't have any pictures at the moment of Cassie as Oswin/Clara, since that's on another girl's phone, but we ran into a couple of Weeping Angels (yikes!), so this is Faith as River Song and me as Amy Pond. This costume was super-easy-- just the zipper-leg jeans from earlier in the spring, (because after all of that time sewing the skinny jeans, I saw a picture where the cropped jeans she was wearing in my chosen outfit had that detail!) and a thrifted and slightly modified plaid shirt. Also, tally marks on my arms with liquid eyeliner, because as one person I met put it, "Amy without the hashmarks is just a girl in a plaid shirt".

This was an easy recon overall, though I guess "regeneration" would be a more appropriate term here! I shortened it to get rid of a tear, took in the sides and sleeves a bit, and cropped the sleeves to more of a 3/4" length before sewing the cuffs back on. And since one of my costuming goals was clothes I can wear in the real world, I can quite confidently say that I will be wearing this one over the fall.

I saw so many amazing, creative costumes, and it really makes me want to step up my costuming game! Sadly, not all of my pictures are the clearest-- they looked fine on my camera, but the ones from the first day or so, while I was still trying to adjust my settings, ended up slightly blurred. But I did go ahead and make a Flickr album of ones that I wasn't just passing in the hallways and therefore couldn't stop, and thought were funny, creative, or just plain amazing, along with the pictures I've already shared here. (I'll admit there's a disproportionate amount of Lord of the Rings-related costumes, and Disney costumes. But I have an excuse for the Disney, since I'm co-hosting the Sewcialists' sewalong in November!) I'd definitely love to go back again sometime if circumstances/money allows, especially if I have time to do some real costuming beforehand!

back in the saddle

I've long had an issue where if I feel like I failed at something, I have a really hard time overcoming that sense and picking it up again. There was this one time during my college years where I did a week-long music workshop out of state, and one of the people running a masterclass there was the principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I picked a piece to play for that with the help of my flute professor, worked my tail off on it, and got ripped up one side and down the other for my performance of it. It was a solid two years before I could pick the piece up again to do even a very small performance at a nursing home with it. I used to draw and paint all the time when I was a teenager, and since I dropped out of being an art major after one horrible semester, I've barely been able to pick up a sketchpad--even though I'd love to get back into that sometime, the inspiration just hasn't been there. And even though it wasn't really a failure, ever since that time a couple of years ago where my best friend and I tried selling our wares at a craft fair, and then I set up an Etsy shop to try to get rid of the many, many extra pieces I had afterwards (which sold nothing), I haven't even really tried to make any jewelry.

But Me-Made-May made me miss it. I honestly got more comments about my jewelry on my Instagram pictures and the Flickr group than I did about my clothes! (Not really sure what that means about my style, but oh well.) So I pulled out a couple of my bead boxes and made some stuff during the course of watching a movie with Doug one night a couple of weeks ago. So even though these may not be anything exciting, they're important to me, because it represents finally getting past a mental block. (Also, they're all completely from stash, which is always good!)

I made three necklaces and a bracelet. I haven't had a chance to wear the bottom necklace or the bracelet yet, but I'm wearing the purple one today and I wore the coral one recently. After all of that palette work for the Wardrobe Architect project, I realized that coral and plummy purple were both things I could use more accessories in!




Isn't this pendant cute? My sister-in-law gave it to me for either my birthday or Christmas last year. It's actually a little locket, and the package said fairy door, but we all know it looks like a hobbit hole door, right?








I also made a few pairs of earrings. One of my basic black earrings fell out of my ear and got lost a few months ago, so I needed something to replace it. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for bending the teardrop shapes out of the wire myself! They're also slightly hammered, though you can't really see the texture in this picture. The other ones were basically just making bead drops and dangling them off the pre-made 8 loops.


And then I also made a few more basic beaded earrings. The spiral loop 8's were pre-made like that, but I did the wire wrapping on the purple pair myself.

So that's it!

New York, New York!

I feel like I have so much catching up to do right now! I finished two more Thurlows late last week, and still need to take pictures of those. There's the latest Wardrobe Architect study. And then, over this past weekend, my husband and I went to New York City! His birthday was yesterday and mine is later this month, so we thought a little getaway would be a fun way to celebrate.

Our hotel, as it turns out, was in the Fashion District, since we arrived via Penn Station and that was very close by. So that means our hotel featured things like this artwork made entirely from spools of thread! There was also some kind of sewing workroom directly across the street (though several floors down), which I could peek into every so often and see what they were working on. That was pretty neat.


We did do a lot of the typical touristy things, like Times Square and stopping into the Empire State Building. We went to the NY Public Library and the American Museum of Natural History (the one from the first "Night at the Museum" movie), and spent some time in a big NHL store, because he's a big hockey fan. But what you probably care about the most is that he let me go to Mood!


He even held my coat for me while I was shopping. He's the best. Though I think he was a little overwhelmed--he's seen it on TV while I've been watching Project Runway, but I don't think he quite expected it to be quite so jam-packed with fabric!

We didn't see Tim Gunn, for the record. Or Swatch. But I did see a bag of his dog food on a shelf by the register.

I know this picture is a little blurry, but I'm posting it anyway because it makes me laugh. ALL THE FABRIC WILL BE MINE!!! Precioussssss fabric.... Ahem.












So what did I end up with, you ask?

I made up a careful game plan before I left home--while I did build a travel allowance into my Stash Diet pledge, I wanted to be responsible, so what I decided to focus on looking for was 3 yards of some colorful lining for the winter coat I already have outer fabric for, and some notions for a Cooper bag, which I also already have fabric for, and can't get anything locally.

Aaaaaaaand I didn't buy a single thing from that list. They didn't have the bag notions, and the only lining type stuff I could find was all solid colors--everything else was too sheer and would likely get shredded quickly. So I'll just get some polyester silky print at Joann's sometime instead.
This is what I actually bought. There's 3 yards of each piece. The top one is an embroidered cotton that was in with the eyelets, black on either ivory or light tan. (I haven't seen it in the sunlight yet, and it's looked different depending on the lighting.) The bottom one is a lovely soft knit, I think maybe an ITY. I probably should have looked more closely at fiber contents, but I was too busy looking for prices, to be honest! (It was $14 per yard for both pieces, which is a little higher than I usually pay, but how often do I get to go fabric shopping in a fabric district?)

I already have a loose game plan for both pieces, too! For the embroidered fabric, I'm thinking a fairly casual jacket that I can throw on over either t-shirts or dresses, probably with some kind of contrast (read: black) collar and possibly cuffs, if it's 3/4 sleeves. (Which I'm strongly considering, since the fabric seems more suited to warmer weather layering anyway.) As for the knit, definitely some kind of dress, though I'm not sure what sleeve length to do, if I make it with sleeves at all. I just need to figure out what patterns to use!

A quickfire shirt

Another FESA project down! I usually feel like I'm pretty slow at sewing, compared to a lot of bloggers that I follow, but this shirt took me only two days from start to finish--and that includes some single-layer cutting! I had two unexpected days off of work recently, due to some nasty, rainy days. (My garden center job involves sitting at an outdoor register, and it's already been pretty slow lately, so rain = even more dead. So they told me to just stay home.) The Thurlow pants were already at the point where I just needed to sew the hems by hand, so I figured I'd save that for tv time and make something new instead.

It's a Renfrew, of course, since I've been talking about revisiting this pattern since the first one I'd made. And I think that was actually the best possible choice for this fabric. It's hard to tell how a fabric will handle as flat yardage sometimes, and I discovered as I was working with it that the edges have a very strong tendency to curl to the outside, and develop little tiny runs in the fabric in the process. So a pattern with bands at the sleeves and hem was the perfect counterbalance, and I'm glad I didn't try to do one with a more traditional hem! Especially since I'd been going back and forth for quite some time about what this fabric wanted to be.

I did have to fiddle with the print placement a bit, due to the stripes, and I think it worked out well overall. I do wish the stripes were a little more matched up at the seams, though. Despite all of my pins and careful placement, it did shift around a bit during serging. (Which was surprising, since the fabric generally clung to itself quite a bit.) But I like the way the thin stripe looks as the neck binding, and even though I didn't quite have the yardage to make that stripe line up between the body and the arms, I think it still looks pretty good overall!

I'd originally altered this pattern to make the waist curve in a few sizes smaller, but for this one, I cut it more of a straight size 8. The fabric is sheer enough that I knew from the start I'd have to wear this as a layering piece, and with its clingy tendencies, I wanted to give it a little extra wiggle room to make it easier to pull over my camisoles. I also did a cheater adjustment on the arm length, and just cut that to the largest size with the width of the regular size 8. It worked perfectly, and I'm quite happy to not have my wrists hanging out like they often do with long-sleeved shirts! I'll be cranking out at least one more of these before the cold weather ends, and this pretty much clinches it as my favorite knit top pattern!

And hey, look, a different backdrop than usual! We spent the weekend in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, since I was in a friend's wedding. The ceremony and reception were held at the Landis Valley Museum, in and around this barn. I managed to get my husband to take these pics before the rehearsal started, since we got there about an hour before everyone else and had time to walk around. It matches my shirt pretty well, doesn't it?



This was my artist friend (the one I made that apron and placemat set for recently), and I have to say, her vision turned out quite lovely! The grapevines with the twinkle lights were already there, but we hung the paper lanterns ourselves. There were a lot of people helping to set up, so even though there was a lot of work, it was still a relaxing, fun time.









I did a little more crafting for this, too! The night before the wedding, the rest of the bridesmaids, the bride and I made our bouquets.None of us had really done floral arranging before, unless you count my trial-and-error artificial centerpieces that I made for my own wedding, but I think they turned out nicely! It just took us a few tries, that's all.

I also made that little banner hanging up there by the dessert table. I don't have a decent close-up because there wasn't time, but I brought it home with me, so I can take one if anyone is interested.

I have one more recently finished project that needs photographing (knitting this time), and I'd better get on it, since the Doctor Who Sewalong is officially on now!