sketchbooks

You guys were all so nice when I posted pictures of some of my sketches in a recent post, that I thought I'd give you a more in depth look into my sketchbooks. That, and I have nothing sewing related to show you as I'm waiting on the mail. You know how it goes...

Drawing in a sketchbook used to seriously stress me out.  I never used to feel like my sketchbooks were private (this is because they weren't, they were always looked at by professors and classmates, critiqued for content, or else I was being told to draw in them more...) My relationship with sketchbooks always felt rather forced. It wasn't until I gave my entire studio practice a rest that I started to realize that my sketchbook didn't have to be for anything. And it could be really really ugly, and that was okay. This was of course the sort of thing I was always told in school, but perhaps it never sank in because of the environment (or my own pride.)

Now my philosophy on sketchbooks are pretty relaxed. Sometimes my grocery list ends up in there. Sometimes my drawings end up in the notebook I use for work. I draw when I feel like it, and I don't even think about it if I don't feel like it. 

I occasionally make technical drawings, or drawings of clothing - sometimes copied from somewhere, sometimes just imagined. Usually if I'm working through a design in my head I'll make a few different sort of drawings, some with measurements or mini pattern pieces. And sometimes I just can't quite see a design clearly in my head and I need to draw it out. This is helpful for me when I'm deciding what pieces I want to make. Something can sound good - you put the right pieces together - but when you actually sketch it out you might see that the shape is all wrong... its like a pre-curser to making a muslin.

Some of these ideas are still in the running to be made, others have been nixed...Usually when I draw clothing it's more for a purpose than making a nice drawing - like walking through a design. I might make notes or include elements of color or things that might be inspiring me.  But sometimes I just want to draw for the sheer joy of it, and this is usually when I sit still for awhile and do some observational drawing. My husband and I are still drawing each other, and lately it seems all I want to do is draw my plants...

Do you guys feel like drawing is a useful tool for you in your sewing process? Do you find the prospect of drawing intimidating (I can relate)? Do any of you just draw for the heck of it? 

For the record, it's still hard for me to make a drawing and not judge it as "good" or "bad" - even the technical drawings.  But thats not what it's about.  Just a little reminder to myself...

xx

witchy woman

Oof! I swear the sewing blogger gods did not want me to get this post up! They were just throwing me one curve ball after another. However, I'm trying to do less whining in this space so I won't really go into detail...

Oh what the hell... I'll just tell you the worst of it - my bike was stolen yesterday (this is the 5th bike in the matter of two years...seriously) and my bike was my number one source of transportation (and I loved it) sooo... boo!

Alright! Thats that off my chest! Lets talk about this dress shallll we? This is the Satsuki Dress from Victory Patterns made up in black silk crepe de chine.  When the new collection of Victory patterns came out I, like many other sew-ers out there, kinda went apeshit. I seriously felt like Krisitann had been digging around inside my brain, making notes on my deepest wardrobe desires.  I believe I even uttered the following phrase aloud, while gaping at my computer screen: "Holy shit,Victory Patterns! Get outta my head!!" I am, if nothing else, extremely eloquent.

Oddly enough, the pattern I was most drawn to was this simple, kimono inspired dress - labeled for beginners. You guys. I can't even tell you how many little mistakes I made while sewing this up. Like, so many. Which is ridiculous because the pattern was printed perfectly and the instructions were beautiful and clear and easy to follow... basically my difficulties were in no way the fault of the pattern - I'm just really dumb sometimes.  I'm blaming it on it being that time of the month and moving on. Are you with me on this one?

Since I've been living in Texas I've found autumn to be a very difficult season to deal with.  I feel that growing up in the northeast I've been hardwired to think in terms of four seasons, and there seems to be some seasonal depression thats just in my bones.  Here in Galveston the weather has certainly cooled off some, but its still hotter than many places get during the height of summer. I mean, I spent both of my weekend days at the beach...

I'm really not complaining about the weather - I love the balmy falls and mild winters of East Texas. And for the first time in my life my feet are actually warm(ish) for the majority of the year! But what I'm trying to get at is that I'm struggling with incorporating a fall feeling into what is essentially a summer wardrobe. I feel like this dress hits the nail on the head for me. It's still light and breezy (thanks silk!) but there's a certain moody quality to it that seems far more appropriate for October than it does June.

And having nothing to do with any of that... If you've ever looked at my pictures on this blog and wondered if I just wander around posing in front of other people's houses... you would be absolutely correct! I've pretty much overcome my awkwardness at being spotted preening by myself in front of a camera, and on the rare occasion that someone actually asks what I'm doing I usually just mumble something about being a photographer and give them a stink eye of such magnitude it could fumigate an entire city.  

But every so often I get caught doing something totally weird that even I have to slink away from with my tail between my legs. These photos, for instance, were basically taken in someone's driveway. No, I have no idea who's house it was - I just liked their trees, okay?! The owner of said house opened his front door to let the cat out and spotted me crouching in his driveway, right by his car, fiddling with my camera settings. It was my turn to receive some serious stink eye. I tried with all my might to look like it was the most natural thing in the world for a girl to be squatting in someone's driveway, dressed like she's got a hot date (at 5pm on a Wednesday) and taking photos - presumably - of some gnarly bit of curb as I grabbed my stuff and scurried away.

And on that note, hope you're all having a lovely week!

xx

internet friends are the best friends

Back in the beginning of August I received a big, squishy envelope in the mail, all the way from New York City.  Upon opening it I found a generous amount of yardage of this awesome printed fabric.  Those of you with eagle eyes and mad blog stalking skillllzz may remember this fabric from another blogger's make. I had a serious crush on this fabric when Sonja posted her adorable Scout tee back in July. And being the amazing person she is, Sonja sent me some. Just like that!

Friends, if you want to know the way to my heart - like the deep down recesses of my heart, the places that once you get in you're not getting back out - just send me fabric. I loved Sonja before for her humor and her down-to-earth approach to sewing and knitting and her fabulous makes, but now this love is for real.  Sonja, you complete me.

When I was a little girl I used to take old sheets and beach towels and blankets - pretty much any large swath of fabric and drape it around my body and pretend I was a queen, or a model, or more often than not, a witch. Those big fabric rectangles were, like, a million times better than any actual dress-ups I owned (I mean, they dragged around on the floor after me and I could throw them over my shoulder... ) I don't think that impulse has ever left me because as soon as I unwrapped Sonja's present I immediately wrapped myself in the fabric and started swanning about the house. Actually that's pretty much what I do anytime I get new fabric, but I was particularly in love with the print on this one. The wheels in my head started turning as I began to contemplate what to make it into. What design would best show off the print, but also compliment it in style? Do I break up the print or choose a garment that will let the print run unbroken? And then there was the age old question - what do I really want to wear?

I may have thought about this too much. But eventually I decided I wanted something where the print could be both broken and unbroken.  At the same time this Electric Feathers Infinite Rope Dress kept playing around in my brain and I decided to try to recreate something similar with my fabric.  

For such a simple dress (really, this dress has two major seams) it actually took me a little bit to figure out.  In the end, my dress ended up with a much fuller hem than the inspiration dress, but I'm okay with that.  I reached a point though where I began to question this fabric for this design.  This really caused me to stall in sewing it up. After all, I didn't want to waste my awesome fabric!  I realized I had completely paralyzed myself - I was too nervous to cut into my fabric, but I couldn't move on to another project! So - as I usually do in times like these - I asked my husband, who told me to just go for it and he thought that I'd like the dress I had originally planned. Part of me still feels like maybe this would be better in a drapey-er silk, but I have to agree with Nick, I do really love the dress, and even more I love seeing my vision come to fruition.

I did make the ties long enough that they can be wrapped entirely around the waist.  I like having the option of wearing it both ways, however, knowing me I'll probably wear it loose and full more than I'll wear it all reigned in (even though I really do love the way it folds and cascades when belted.) And yes, I'm fully aware that if I ever get the hankering to make babies I'll already have a nice start on a maternity wardrobe! What can I say?! I like-a the volume...

The fabric is a light weight cotton and I lined it in a white silky rayon to help with the see-through factor and also to add some swishy-ness.  I always feel that with super simple designs like this my impulse is to rush through them, so I really tried to break that habit and take the time to focus on little construction elements where I could, like interfacing the neck opening and understitching and making an itsy-bitsy narrow hem. I used Jen's  (Grainline) tutorial for the hem because this post was still fresh in my mind. It turned out beautifully, but I think that may have had more to do with my nice, stable cotton than it does with my sewing skills! Despite my attempt to attend to the details, I still can find things I'd like to change (isn't that always the case?) I wish I could have found a way to make the ties more substantial. I love the inspiration dress's thick ropey ties - but my commitment just wasn't there!

I conceived this dress (yes, all my handmade garments are my babies) while suffering through some seriously hot and humid (like 110F plus...) days. Fortunately we had a "cold snap" right before I took these pictures. 88 degrees never felt so cool!! Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week and those of you that are beginning to experience a change of season - enjoy it! And if you get a hankering for summer you can come visit me - it'll still be hanging around these parts until... oh... November? I have an air mattress...

xx

stitching and wittering

Hi everyone!! Just a quick word today to let you know that I'm being interviewed over at Stitch and Witter as part of Joanne's brilliant series of posts on "My Handmade Style." So if you've ever been curious about how I cultivate my "look" (pfft! as if I've got my shit together that much!!) or what sort of aesthetic I aim for in my me-made wardrobe, look no further! I answer all this and more - as well as come off as slightly crazy and long winded (but you already knew this) - over here. 

And if you haven't been following along with the previous posts in this series, please be sure to check them out as they are pure blogging gold for us self-stitched folk. Plus, I hear that Joanne has got some more fashionable ladies stashed up her sleeve to interview in upcoming posts - so there's more to look forward to! 

Alright, please be sure to have a beautiful remainder of your week, and God-willing-and-the-creek-don't-rise I'll be back here next week with more to natter on about. Peace out!

xx

faux pas

Well here we are. Labor Day weekend and I'm wearing white pants. Take that, outdated fashion rules! Although whether I have the chutzpah to continue wearing white pants past this point we'll just have to wait and see. I'm not a betting lady, but if I was, I'd probably say it's a safe bet to assume that these pants will continue to get worn as long as they fit, regardless of the season.

Before I go much further into the discussion of white jeans and what-not let me just say thank you to everyone who left a kind comment on my last post and to all you have stuck with me during this most recent unanticipated blog break. Word on the street has it that after I wrote that last post in a fit of "woe is me" I pretty promptly got my period. Needless to say things started looking a bit less "doom and gloom" from that point on! I'm not going to blame it all on womanly troubles, however, the move totally threw me for an unexpected loop - which was further compounded by a really busy and stressful couple of weeks at work. One of the toughest things for me to adjust to has been our temporarily restricted budget! All of our extra resources have been going to settling into our new surroundings (I could go into why we didn't have things like kitchen utensils or plates or a mattress or bedding prior to this move but its kind of a boring story - so just accept it as fact that my husband and I basically came into our new apartment relatively empty handed!) This means that I haven't had much time or funds to put into sewing. And that makes for a rather Sad Sallie. 

So while I was getting myself all in a funk for not making anything new or having anything to post about I remembered these white jeans I made back at the end of July and never got around to photographing. These jeans have been getting a lot of wear and have become a pretty important part of the weekly wardrobe rotation. I used the same Built By Wendy pattern that I used to make my dark denim pair.  The fabric is some stretchy bottom weight cotton something-or-other from Tessuti (I'm sorry I totally forgot what type of fabric this is!) I ordered it specifically for this project back in April or May.  You know... in the spring... when white jeans would have been a bit more practical! But due to this and that they ended up getting pushed to the bottom of the sewing pile until the end of July. So really it's totally appropriate that they not get photographed until the beginning of September! Ah, such is the timeline of our lives...

This fabric had far more stretch to it than my dark denim and therefore I had to take these pants in something crazy on the sides (this was even after reducing the pattern to compensate, or so I thought, for the extra stretch.) Unfortunately this sort of threw off my back pocket placement - not anything serious, but they are a tad bit closer to the side seam than I would like. 

These were also the jeans that I was lamenting about when I wrote this post. I don't know what my deal is, but I am constantly breaking twin needles! Okay... actually I know what my deal is... I keep trying to  make them go over my zipper teeth ... How else are you supposed to get the topstitching just right??! 

This top/tunic/dress is also handmade - but its really nothing to write home about. It's literally two rectangles of a dreamy silk jersey sewn together with holes for the arms and head. In a previous life it was a Drape Drape dress that I wore to a gala but it was far too low cut and revealing to wear in a normal context and I was too in love with the fabric to just let it hang there. So I snipped it apart and have just been wearing it around the house like this. Okaaay so this outfit is basically just my pajamas with a pair of pants and a necklace thrown on top of it to throw you off the scent! And yes, I'll probably wear it for the next three days solid. Easily.

I think I'll leave you today with a few iphone snaps of our new place. I'm not much of a "nest-er" or really into the whole home decorating thing but I'm a little proud of how this place is starting to come together...

xx

new digs

I'm not even going to pretend that my mental state right now is stable or that I've actually had a full nights rest for the past week and a half. So let's just get that out of the way in the beginning! The Sallie writing this post is an emotional wreck! I don't even have Internet - I'm typing this on my teeny phone and using my precious data plan.

Anyway - we've moved! And with the move came a buttload of other life changes which has left me feeling like someone just ran my brain through a blender. Not to be all "woe is me" or anything but woe is freaking me!!

Okay. Enough complaining! I wanted to introduce you guys to my new work space. It has a door and everything!

I have two "tables" (two sawhorses with a hollow core door balanced on top - gits 'er done) one with my sewing machines and one for cutting and drafting. Also behold my closet with the world's smallest sewing stash!! I'm sure I'll fill the space up in no time, but right now it feels a bit empty and forlorn.

Well friends, please forgive my continued silence around these parts and in commenting on your blogs while I try to get my life back on track. Despite the relative upheaval my mushy little brain still seems to be churning out ideas for future sewing projects. So hopefully this transition period can pass with relative grace and I'll meet you on the other side with some beautiful things to share!

(also please excuse any wonkiness in the formatting of this post. I've never used this blogger app before so I have no idea what this will look like!)

xx

leona

next week my maternal grandma, leona (or lee lee, as my grandfather - last picture - used to call her) turns 90. an achievement indeed.

familial traits are funny things. i certainly look like a strange mixture of my mom and dad, but most of my family agrees that the person i really resemble is my grandma.  i'm pretty sure i'm the only one that inherited her nose (although i come by some pretty strong nose genes from all sides of my family! we're nosey people, i guess!) and we both have the ability to give a look that can stop a child from misbehaving halfway across a restaurant! in other words, no one is left in doubt of our displeasure! after my last set of pictures on this blog my mom even commented that i pose like my grandma! i'd like to think i've inherited her legs, which last time i checked are still just as svelte of ankle as they are in these pictures.

i remember the first time i came upon these photos of her and my grandfather when i was teen. i was pretty obsessed with classic movies from the 30's, 40's and 50's.  katherine hepburn was my idol. when i saw these pictures of my grandma - most of them taken to send to my grandfather while he was away in the navy during world war two - i thought she looked like she had just stepped out of one of those movies! i still think she looks like a movie star.

my grandma was also quite the skilled seamstress, making many of her own clothes (like lots of women during that time) and even some of my mom and aunt's clothing. my sister had borrowed her old kenmore sewing machine a couple years ago to sew curtains for her apartment and after using it a few times had pronounced it broken.  this past christmas we pulled that old machine out to see what was what and it turns out it had just been threaded wrong! my grandma, at 89 years old, after not touching a sewing machine for decades, showed us all up by deftly threading her machine and setting it right without missing a beat!

but whether she was sewing her clothes or buying them from a store, my grandma always had, and still has, a great  eye for fashion and quality - a trait that, unlike her sewing skills, she did  pass down to the women in her family.

i'll be gone all next week visiting my family and getting ready for my grandma's surprise birthday party (don't worry - i didn't spoil the surprise! she still shakes her head wonderingly anytime anyone mentions "the internet" and she probably thinks a "blog" is a minor, but unfortunate skin disease) so the blog will be quiet(er) than usual.  when i get back i get to enjoy the thrill of packing up and moving apartments - a task i'll be happy not to do again for quite some time! so needless to say things may be a bit dead around here. but i'll try to get everything back up and running as soon as i can! plus i'll have a whole new sewing room (all to myself!) at our new apartment so i'll be excited to break it in.

hope you all have a good couple of weeks (can you believe its almost august?!?!)

xx

r.i.p

what have i done to deserve this? i mean... i'm a good person... i pay my taxes. i don't talk ill of the dead. i only tell the good kind of lies... sure there's that affection for astrology and crystals - but that's mostly all a joke... 

perhaps this seems a bit overly dramatic. let me explain. i'm working on another pair of jeans. a white pair. in all respects this pair is exactly the same as the last pair except that they're white. but i tell you this now... not a single step in sewing this pair has gone right! i sewed the fly closed - twice (i was even following my own stinking tutorial!) i've broken or bent three - three twin needles (the first one i threw away in a fit of rage so the evidence does not exist to show you) i managed to get the fabric sucked down so far into the feed dogs i literally had to take apart my machine to get it out. there was this moment where my ironing board decided to collapse on me and i did this really weird slow dance with it to prevent the hot iron falling and burning me half to death. even when i decided i needed to take a break and eat some lunch i totally lost my shit on a container of arugula. pms much....

anyway... if these jeans make it to the other side unscathed - we'll both be different people (or... umm... pants...)

so, you know, just in case you thought it was only you that had totally bizarro accidents happen to you while sewing...its not...

xx

update: i just sewed the back yoke's on backwards. i am officially done for the day. 

nick's dress

gosh! the weather has been so dreary here lately that this late afternoon sunshine left me feeling slightly giddy. like someone just told me i got to have chocolate for dinner...

i'm calling this dress "nick's dress" even though it would probably be more appropriately known as simplicity 1880, or perhaps the "2-in-1 dress" or hell even "sunni's dress".  because this dress is, obviously, all those things. but i'm going to call it "nick's dress" because my husband picked out the fabric, and because he likes it. iron clad reasoning. 

i have to admit that i don't usually consider myself a purple person - actually i believe this dress stands alone as the one and only purple item in my closet. but while at a fabric store in houston - when we were picking out fabric for my husband's shirt - i mentioned that i wanted fabric to make some easy summer dresses. we happened to be standing by the bolts of linen and i believe i lazily stroked one and said "linen might be nice...or maybe a lawn..." and my husband, sensing what i'm sure was about to be an endless back and forth and hemming and hawing that could, really, last hours, grabbed this slubby purple number and said "how about this?!! this would look really good on you!" and you know what... i agreed. so good eye, nick. i know you just picked it to get me out of the store faster, but it just may be my new favorite color.

this dress is a little different for me. it may not look like it, but its far more vintage-y than what i would normally wear. you see i have a long standing struggle with vintage and retro styles. i love them, but they don't always love me (can i get a hell yeah from any other thick waisted sisters out there who can feel my pain??!?!) but this dress didn't seem so literally vintage and i do love me a wrap dress (even a faux wrap - as the case may be) and maybe, really, this was all in my head anyway...

so i made the damn dress. i lurked sunni's sew-along in the most lurky-lurksome ways and made the damn dress. the construction is so thoroughly covered in the sew-along i won't go into any of it here, but i made a straight size 10 without making a muslin (eek!! totally living on the edge over here at sallieoh...) i had measured all the pattern pieces before hand and had an inkling that the waist might be a smidgen tight (see above, re: thick waisted) and lo and behold! it was. but only a smidgen. so i sewed each of the side seams at the waist with a 1/4 inch seam allowance and tapered it back to 5/8 inch. the waist is still snug, but not in an uncomfortable way. just in a squish-you-in-to-make-you-look-like-you-have-curves sort of way.  i'd like to make this dress again (because despite all my bitching, i really really love it) and when i do i'll make sure to add 1/2 an inch to the waist in the flat pattern.

i never noticed that weird wrinkle above the zipper until i looked at these photos! doh! also - can you tell which foot no longer has a big toenail?

the only snag i hit during construction was with the zipper. i installed this pretty little purple invisible zipper and it was weirdly hard to get in (a problem i don't normally have) and then when i went to zip it up the zipper pull got stuck at the waist seam (what is it about waists today?) and i pulled and pulled and pulled and broke the effing thing off!! so pissed. however i gave myself a break and then groped through my stingy notions stash and found a long ass white invisible zipper i had probably got for some forgotten project and put that guy in there figuring, hey, its invisible. and it is. except for the pull (and where it gets a bit tight at the waist but lets just ignore that for the sake of my vanity) so now it looks like i got some armpit jewels. its all the rage...

ignore that part where the bias binding doesn't meet the waist. just ignore it!

i got a little crazy in the notions aisle of jo-ann's searching for hemming tricks and bias binding for the neckline. and by crazy i mean i bought something in a contrasting color! holy beans! she's lost her mind! i had just enough fabric to cut out the dress minus facings so bias binding around the neck was my only option. i don't have a lot of experience hemming this circle-y of a skirt and i think i didn't want to fiddle around with a narrow hem (and the resulting burnt fingers) so i bought some hem lace in the same teal color as my binding and hand stitched it down, which didn't take as long as i feared it would. i rather like the prettiness it lends to the inside. 

i wore this dress to a recent opening at my gallery and felt like quite the lady all night. even the part where i was shoving my face with barbeque. total lady.  but this story doesn't have a completely happy ending. i'm very sad to report that the little citrine crystal necklace i'm wearing in these pictures met its demise while bending over my tripod (and catching the necklace on something and jerking my head up quickly. i can't tell you how many necklaces have died this way). this makes me very sad because, while i don't really really believe that crystals have powers or anything - there was something about this one that gave me a certain energy... 

and now that you all think i'm a crazy i'll say goodbye. i'm going to go have chocolate for dinner. 

xo

well look what the cat dragged in...

if you happen to pick up the august/september issue of vogue patterns you may see a familiar face on page 9!

robin denning, of a little sewing, and the new editor of vogue patterns contacted me awhile ago to see if i would like to have my rachel comey for vogue patterns top, v1247 (click here for the original post), featured in the upcoming edition's "what are you sewing". and boy did i ever!! this was such exciting news to me - i was completely floored! and of course said yes in all sorts of dorkasaurus ways! 

well a good bit of time passed and my very own issue arrived in the mail and not only did i get the thrill of seeing this here mug in print - but i had the added thrill of seeing that i was also the winner of a one-year subscription to vogue patterns! yes please!!!! doublefistpumphighfivekaratechopkick!!!!

i am so excited for robin and her new career venture, not only because i think she'll be fantastic, but also because its just so very inspiring to see someone's passion and love of sewing move from the basement or extra bedroom or whatever corner of the house its shoved, and come out into the limelight and take center stage. 

so congratulations again, robin! and thank you so much for thinking of me. i am delighted to be a part of the magazine, and can't wait to get my paws on upcoming issues of vogue patterns!!

xx

oh and p.s - for those of you that asked about my shoes in the last post - they are by anniel. i picked mine up on sale from my favorite store in houston, leap, but according to polyvore they seem to be sold at various locations across the internet. it looks like the prices are all over the place right now, so you could probably pick them up for a good deal if you do a bit of hunting! good luck!