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Showing posts from January, 2015

What to Sew...What to Sew

I've made two garments this month and I thought I was on a roll....and then I just lost all desire to sew. I have a couple unfinished projects that need a wee bit of attention before they're completed, but neither of those things have sounded appealing lately. I have a couple muslins laying around somewhere that could be dusted off, tweaked, and ready to become actual garments, but those seem like a lot of work. Nothing sounds appealing! You know what did sound appealing this past weekend? Sitting on the couch and consuming the entire Season 4 of Homeland. It was amazing. I've only completed Week 1 of the Wardrobe Architect, which was kind of a mind fuck since I'm not good at handling my own self criticism {why are we so hard on ourselves?}. But it felt good to get some of that crap out of my head and on paper. The weird thing about having a pared down list of goals is that I don't know what to sew. I've been thinking of my {relatively} small fabric stash

"No, You're Only Halfway Done"

You guys, I knit my first sock! And it's totally fugly up-close {trust me}, but I did it! So I succumbed to the knitting trend that seems to have taken the sewing blog community by storm the past year or two. I first tried my hand at knitting maybe a decade ago when my mom practically taped knitting needles to my hands during one of my vacation breaks home from college. I'm not much of a scarf person so the thought of knitting rows upon rows upon rows of garter stitch or whatever it's called did not appeal to me since I wasn't planning on doing anything with said finished scarf. But then I saw Tasha's Dragonfly sweater and I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped because it is so freaking gorgeous. Anyway, long story short, my mom gave me some supplies, I bought a few more knitting needles, I've gotten pretty good at searching for tutorials online, and I've completed a cowl, a shawl, and socks! Well, actually, as my husband put it, " No. You're

{Butterick 5526} Pink Plaid Flannel FTW

I used to buy button-up blouses when I first started working because it was the easiest way for me to feel professional in such a conservative setting (I work in the engineering field). I didn't mind the weekly pile of ironing although I did mind the fading colors of my cotton blouses after one too many washes. Over the years my patience with ironing has waned to zero and now I can't remember the last time I bought a button-up blouse. These days I tend to favor the easier pull-on blouses, either the breezy, silk-like ones or knit tops. Ones that don't require a lot of pressing. Ones that don't require such precise fitting. Another reason I have strayed from buying button-up blouses is that once I started to focus on fit, I realized they weren't fitting all that well. Even the blouses in the petites section don't fit me well. Even though I've been sewing for several years,I put off trying to make my own because they looked like so much work. But after m

{Links} 2015.01.18

It's been awhile since I've done a Links post. Enjoy! 1. Southwest recycled old seat cushions and turned them into handbags and weekend bags. If you like the leather/denim combo look and are into the re/up-cycle lifestyle, then these bags are for you. { Southwest Handbags // Quartz} 2. At first I thought this article was about people putting hair salons into their homes to make some extra cash. I was so wrong! Are in-home hair salons the new luxury item of the 1%? One of the in-home hair salons that was photographed is almost as big as my last apartment! I only get my hair cut 2-3 times per year because I'm too lazy{and cheap} to get my hair cut on a regular basis. I'm also so lazy about getting my hair cut that I hate making an appointment so I go to a place where they only allow drop-ins. So I suppose I understand why some people would want a hair salon in their house {because of the convenience}, but it just seems so extravagant....{ Home Hair Salons // Wa

{Goals} What to do in 2015

I drafted a long blog post about my 2015 goals and let it sit, unpublished, for a couple weeks. I thought about it almost every day wondering if I should publish it or not. I never really understood the necessity or desirability of goal setting until recently, probably the last 2-3 years. I've noticed that writing them out (either in a notebook or in a blog post) helps make them "real" and not just a bunch of "that would be nice to do" thoughts. So I knew I wanted to write about setting goals, I just wasn't sure if the goals I set were the "right" ones to make. In 2014 I set myself 8 sewing goals . I didn't accomplish all of them, but I came pretty close. I never finished a button-up shirt for my husband (I only made a muslin, which still needs to be fitted) and I never got around to picking a coat pattern. Even though I didn't finish all 8 sewing projects, I'm glad I set them because I made some stuff I'm pretty sure I would ha

Top 5 Garments of 2014

I hate to sound like I'm bragging, but I'm so thrilled with some of the stuff I made this year. After several years of struggling with sewing and fit, I finally feel like I got it this year. I definitely have a lot to learn and my fitting isn't spot-on, but it has improved so much from when I first started sewing. Here are my Top 5 Garments of 2014 in no particular order. 1. Butterick 5526 Pink Plaid Flannel I love, love, love this shirt! It doesn't even fit perfectly, but I love it. It was meant to be a muslin since I bought a cheapish flannel from Jo-ann to test the pattern and my plaid-matching skills. But I've been wearing it almost every weekend since I made it and I want to throw it on as soon as I get home from work. Why did I wait so long to make a plaid flannel shirt? I'll be bummed when the weather warms up and the flannel won't be as comfy. 2. Deer and Doe Pavot Jacket I love this jacket! I love how it looks casual, but can still be sort

My Least Liked Garments of 2014

I've been debating whether or not I wanted to "participate" in the Top 5 Misses/Hits, but after noticing myself really enjoying reading a few ( Carolyn , Winnie , and, of course, Gillian ), I decided to go ahead and do it! I'm going to break it up into two posts. We'll start with the not-so-good and end with the awesome shit. A lot of these items were just discussed in my previous post of unblogged items, so I'll try to limit my descriptions to just why they're either in the Hits or Misses categories. 1. McCalls 6563 So I made this pattern twice in quick succession because I thought I really liked it. I even called it a Tried and True (TNT) Pattern on Instagram after I made it the second time. But then I started wearing them and realized I completely dislike them! This pattern is a bias cut blouse and I've come to realize that I hate wearing bias cut blouses. It's very possible that I didn't handle the fabric correctly, but it's als

The Unblogged of 2014

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope your 2015 is off to a great start. I know mine is because I haven't done a lick of work yet :) I can't believe I actually contemplated going to work today. My decision was made when my coworker said, " when's the next time we'll have a 4-day weekend? " Good point, sir. So glad I decided to give myself a 4-day weekend because it feels so good right now knowing that we haven't even reached the weekend! Anyway...I had intentions of blogging about all of my finished garments for months, but I just never got around to photographing them "properly". Now that it is already 2015, I decided to do a quick round-up of stuff I've made throughout the year that have been languishing in my "to-blog-about" queue. I may or may not do a full-blown review of each garment in the future; I actually have a lot of posts drafted, but for now, this is just a quick and dirty photo-heavy post so I can get it off my chest. For