lessons in working with what you got

This weekend I really got the urge to make some clothing. I mean, I pretty much always have this urge, it just doesn't always get fulfilled because of time and life and work and blah blah blahfreakingyawn. I've been sitting on McCall's 6436 for a couple of weeks now after picking it up in the last $1.99 sale (love those things). Finding a nice, normal, woman's shirt pattern seems rather tricky, but this one looked inoffensive enough, and even a bit like those Equipment blouses I've been coveting for, um, ever. I had beautiful images of a whole army of these classic, everyday blouses in easy to wear, solid, crepe-de-chine. Colors like navy. Or white. Or (lets get crazy) plum. I would wear them every day and they'd solve that weird hole in my wardrobe and I'd finally be on my way to creating a perfect, daily uniform! I'll look like a Jcrew catalogue! Wardrobe bliss shall be mine!!

But as I mentioned in my last post, I already blew my fabric budget this month and so I've been sitting on my hands until payday rolls around again (worst. feeling. ever.) Looooonnnnng Sufffferrrinnng Siiiiggghhhh.....

What's a sewist to do? I'll tell you what she's to do. You put on your big girl panties, throw your stupid ideal out the window and make something! What I don't have is cash to buy more silk. What I do have is silk. Yeah. I know. Just sitting there. I always talk about how I don't really have a stash, and this is mostly true (I keep a couple yards of special fabric around, just waiting for the perfect project, like any sane person) but I did have about two yards of silk habotai that I bought for dyeing. I'm sure I had it earmarked for something special, but like I said, sometimes you just gotta throw that ideal image out the window. 

So I set to work dyeing my silk habotai. If I'm going to go to the trouble of dyeing my own fabric you can bet your butt I'm not just going to dye it a solid navy. Oh no! We're going to make it a little special. I decided to depart from my past tendency (see here or here) of haphazardly mucking the dye about until I ended up with something I didn't hate and instead tried to work off of a grid system. I also wanted something that wouldn't overwhelm my shirt pattern and so I settled on a polka-dot design (because who doesn't love polka dots?!) Of course it's me doing it so I wasn't too concerned about making the dots the same size, or too evenly spaced. I mean, the beauty of hand painting anything is being able to see the hand. 

I also realized that one of the things I was never totally happy about with my past dyeing experiments was the color.  I don't know why it took me two whole tries to come to this conclusion, but it makes perfect sense. Any color "straight out of the tube" always looks a bit manufactured to me.  In painting one of the first things you learn is to mix your colors - even if you're painting a red flower, you never use the red straight from the tube. I found the same to be true of the dye colors, even the premixed colors look better when they get muddled about a bit. For this fabric I mixed "seafoam" and "steel gray" to get the subtle minty base color and then mixed "plum" and "strong navy" for the purple-y dots.  Is it obvious yet that I only bought dyes in shades of blue? I need to remedy that because I'm getting a bit bored by it! I would have liked to push the purple color more towards magenta, but alas! No warm tones!

I really love the way this fabric turned out. It reminds me a bit of the playful Nani Iro prints. It has the classic look of polka-dots, but with a quirky and offhanded painterly quality. It won't make quite the understated blouse of my dreams, but I think it will be beautiful all the same. In fact, it might be even better.

Take that dream wardrobe.

Oh! And P.S. For those of you that may be wondering, I'm still plugging away at my quilt. I got two more rows done during the evenings this past week. My vehement distaste for the whole thing has, well, paled a bit. And as I said, I'm determined to finish. Because quitters never win... or in this case quitters never get cozy bedding.  

xx

feeling scrappy

So I'm currently in between projects at the moment. I've already spent my monthly fabric allowance on a top secret project that I can't show you yet, and you all know I'm not much of a fabric stash-er, so this weekend found me with the itch to make something, and minimal means with which to make it! 

Enter the quilt that has been languishing in the dusty recesses of my brain for the past year and a half.  I think I posted about this way back when...? I remember spotting the inspiration for this quilt in the early days of my Pinterest addiction when I wasn't so jaded by the never-ending parade of pretty (and unattainable) pictures.  I thought it was genius because I had saved the fabric-scrap-bunting that I made for my wedding (an uncharacteristically sentimental move, might I add...) with the intention of making my husband and I a wedding quilt....awwwww....

Never mind the fact that the idea of actually making said quilt sounded like the most horrid thing ever, and I was convinced that it was a task reserved for some circle of hell (perhaps as punishment for, I don't know, cutting out your paper patterns or some other ridiculous sewing-sin...) Or that I really have no idea how to make a quilt. So there my scraps sat.

Until this weekend! When I decided what the hell, it can't be that bad and gave it a go.

I found a couple of old toile's (ahemcloverscough...cough) that were crumpled up somewhere, ripped them apart and used them for the white triangles. The patterned triangles were ripped from my bunting and resized.  I plan on spacing out these rows with a plain white row (pretty much a dead copy of my inspiration photo).  I have no idea how many rows I'll need to make it actually fit on our bed. Alot probably. So many that I may even need to buy more vintage fabric just to make it work.  

I should also probably tell any serious quilters to please, cover your eyes! I'm sure I'm doing about a million things wrong technically but just bear with me here! I think this will work! I'm basically going about this in the same "bull in a china shop" way that I tackled learning how to sew garments. Thank god I didn't have a blog around then!! Y'all would've died of horror...

So after spending an entire day working on this, I've gotta say, I found working on a quilt to be...

(please ignore the weird brown stain... our place is old... yeah... that's it... not dirty, just ollldddd...)

Yeah, no, not fun. Sorry quilters! I just don't get it! I mean... where's the fun in this? All that tedious cutting, and then at the end of it you don't even get to wear it! Don't get me wrong! I will finish this mother fucker. Oh I will finish it. And I will put it on my bed. And every single damn person that comes over to my house will be forced to look at it as I tell them that I made that bitch.  Because it may very well be the first and last quilt I ever make!!! 

Here's what I really don't get... see that picture up there? You see, I thought I was going to get rid of my scraps by making a quilt... No. Not the case. Instead I just get more effing scraps! Just smaller ones. And more oddly shaped. What now? Do I have to make another quilt with even tiny-er pieces?? 

God? Is this what hell feels like? Is this for that vintage 60's pattern I cut? Look, I'm sorry! I didn't know!! I only just started sewing! Surely that small sin isn't worth wiling away my eternity sewing short, straight lines, cutting smaller and smaller pieces of fabric until my carpal tunnel acts up, all in the effort to put something on a bed???

Nah. I'm just kidding. This quilting business isn't so bad! It certainly is a way to kill some weekend time. But something tells me I won't be making a quilting conversion anytime soon...wink.

xx

lingerie lovers beware...

Hey ladies! I just wanted to give a little shout out to my girl Maddie over at Madalynne. I know you already follow her blog (right? right?!) because it's awesome and chock full of knowledge that only us sewists can appreciate, so maybe you've already seen the big news...

Maddie is launching a line of lingerie patterns! And the first one, the Amerson undie, is available to download for free! You can get a sneak peek of the rest of the line in this super lovely photo shoot that Maddie put together. 

I actually got to take a peek at the pattern last week and it's, well, gorgeous! And I'm not talking just about the undies themselves. Everything about the design and layout is really beautiful and well-thought-out, and how incredible are Anto's illustrations?! Anyway, go snag yourself a free pattern! I'm itching to try and make these from some silky scraps that have been lingering on the edge of my sewing table for far too long. Now I just need to get my hands on some lingerie elastics... any suggestions?

xx

stargazer

This was my last make of 2012. I don't know why it took me so long to get it photographed and on the blog... actually I do know, but I'm too embarrassed to say! 

Sigh... you guys, I can't keep secrets from you! So this is what happened: I made two of these dresses right before Christmas - one for me and one for a friend. Only I seemed to miscalculate my yardage and I didn't have enough fabric to make one of the belts. No biggee, I thought, I'll just give my friend the belt and then dye some fabric to match for mine. So off her dress went in the mail (I gave a little sneakery peekery in this post) and there mine sat, un-hemmed and belt-less (and dare I say sad and forlorn?) until... oh... this weekend. Guys, I am not big on having UFO's hanging about my sewing room. I'm much more of the "finish what you started" type of sewer - for better or worse - so it was killing me that this dress was just sitting there, gathering cat hair. You see I did dye fabric but somehow it came out a crazy color, and I was genuinely stumped! So finally I gathered every last teensy scrap of this fabric I had lying around and cut out as many rectangular pieces from it as I could and made a belt out of it! I think there's something like nine sections to this belt. It actually turned out to be quite long! Wraps around twice... who woulda thought...? Lesson learned: never underestimate your scraps!

This is my second time making Victory Pattern's Satsuki Dress. My friend saw the black one I made last fall and said she liked it so I thought I'd give her one as a gift. But since I'm not a totally selfless seamstress I also made one for me. This time I lowered both the front and back neckline and added about an inch of length (to make it bike-riding-appropriate... sorta). I lowered the back neckline at my friend's suggestion, so now you can wear it as a v-neck or backwards as a boat-neck. I lowered the front "v" based on my own preferences, and also confirmed my suspicions that, even given the opportunity to wear a different neckline on the same dress, I'll always choose a v-neck! It's just more comfortable and, I think, flattering on me!

The fabric is hand dyed and painted by yours truly. It's a silk noil from Dharma Trading Co. I worked the same way I did the last time I hand painted fabric, laying out the continuous yardage and working directly on it. Unfortunately (or fortunately...? or just totally unpredictably...?) this created little bit of a variance in color and design throughout the length of fabric. Like the good person I am, I cut my friend's dress from the parts of fabric that I deemed the "prettiest" and made mine from the leftover, slightly odd parts. Not that you can really tell in these pictures, but the back has a totally different feel from the front. One of the good things about letting a project sit for as long as I did is that you can start to see it in a new light. I felt like my friend's dress had a very pretty sort of Japanese floral feel to it, almost landscape-y. Mine, however, I felt looked a bit more like I was about to go to a Grateful Dead concert. Nothing against DeadHeads, but it's not really my look.  However, give me few weeks and a bit of critical distance and now I feel like the dress is more celestial than stoner. 

This was the first time I worked with silk noil and I'm really pleased with it. After the first washing it was a bit stiff - and smelled oddly of fish - but in the second wash I used a fabric softener which brought back some it's drape, and the fish smell... well... I think it's faded...? It sewed up really really easily and pressed like a dream. The texture is kind of nubby and rough, but also somehow really comfy against the skin. I feel like this dress is as comfortable as a sweatshirt dress!

I actually set out to take these photos twice. As usual with me, I get a pretty strong idea of how I want my photos to look and I just knew that this dress would look amazing photographed at the South Jetty - a concrete path that juts out from the East end of the island into the Gulf. The day was overcast and the colors were perfect. And best of all - no one was there!! 

Yeah, but my camera battery was dead. Foiled by the blogger's worst enemy!! So round one was a bust.  But! I was not about to be dissuaded so easily. I went home and recharged and set out again later in the day. Unfortunately in the time I was away some fishermen found the jetty, too. We only gave each other a few dirty looks before we decided to just ignore each other. However, while I was taking pictures I became a bit distracted because quite nearby, this started happening:

Dudes, that is someone getting their life saved!!! No joke, the helicopter rolls up, lowers down, then I see one figure descending into the water in a rope, and when they pull him back up again he's got a second person with him, flailing around in his flippers! I'm assuming since the be-flippered person was flailing that they were still alive... dead people don't flail do they?

To be honest, by this point there was quite a crowd gathering around and I didn't stick around to see what happened. You see, I generally think that if I'm being pulled out of the sea by the coast guard and I may have just survived a near-death experience, the last thing I would want is a crowd of people around to witness it! 

Okay, true story time - so I grew up going to the beach every summer (Wildwood, NJ woot woot!!) and am generally a pretty strong swimmer. My parents and grandparents made sure we all knew how to be safe in the ocean. Before I could swim I knew how to do the dead man's float and what to do if I was caught in a riptide (you swim parallel to the shore people!) Anyways, you get the idea! So one summer I go out into the water by myself and start swimming for a sand bar a bit out in the distance. As I'm swimming I hear lifeguard whistles, but I figure it's no biggee, probably for people that were swimming too far out. I make it to the sand bar, climb out, turn around and see a lifeguard hurtling at me through the water! Apparently I had been caught in a current that had pulled me way far off from the point I entered the water! (P.S. I would've figured this out when I decided to make my way back to shore, and could've like, you know, walked back to where my towel was...) The lifeguard insisted I hold on to his red-hot-doggie-looking-flotation-thingy and he made me come back in to shore, right then, where - wouldn't ya know - a huge crowd had gathered! You guys... I was mortified!! I was, like, 20 when this happened!  And the lifeguard was cute, of course! I mean, maybe I really was in real danger and I didn't know it, but mostly I was embarrassed! 

By the way, I don't think my story has anything to do with this guy getting saved by a helicopter - just maybe tangentially related...? You know... water saving stories and all that...? Yeah? No? Maybe... just a little?

Alright, folks, I'm out!!! Have a good Sew Grateful Week! And know that I am sew grateful to all you readers and for this lovely sewing community I've found myself a part of. 

xx

easy/facile | dress/robe

I'll be the first to admit that my handmade garments tend to lean towards the drape-y and shapeless. It's kind of my thing. But even I had to give pause before making this Vogue8827 up. This was one of those patterns that when I saw the line drawings (it's allll about the line drawings, you guys!) I said to myself:

"Self, that would look really good on you."

"You know, Self, I think you're probably right - but don't I already have something like this in my closet?"

"Yes. Yes, you do. And you wear it all the damn time."

"You speak the truth. Hmmm but, Self, doesn't it kind of look like a bathrobe...?"

"Why yes, yes it does. And your point is....?"

"Ah! I see where you're going here, Self..."

And so the internal battle was won (or lost, depending on which side of myself you were on) and I bought the stinking pattern and made it - in all it's bathrobe-y goodness. I am, after all, the same gal that on a particularly dreary day likes to eye up my comforter and thinks, "You know, with a belt and the right pair of shoes and lipstick..."

So this is View B of V8827, made up in a size 6 (for reference, my measurements put me more in the size 12/14 range). I used a super soft and slinky mystery jersey that I bought at this place in Houston that I swear takes delight in driving me insane by not marking their fabric content. I'm pretty sure by the feel and smell of it (is it weird that I rely on my nose to tell me fabric content? Does anyone else do this? It's just that poly has such a distinctive odor to me...) that it's a rayon jersey, but it has a really beautiful sheen to it which makes it look and feel very elegant. Eh, who am I kidding? It's probably some crazy blend...It's only a two-way stretch which made it pretty stable to work with. I thought this would be ideal since this is a pattern for wovens or knits. But more on that later...

I made zero changes to this pattern while making it up. I guess I was relying on the fact that I was using jersey and the draping throughout the bodice to make up for any fitting issues I might encounter. And that worked out just fine, because I don't really notice any fitting issues! Oh, besides the uneven hem. Ignore that, please! I swear it changes every time I put it on. Sometimes it's straight, sometimes it's uneven - that's just the nature of a bathrobe/dress such as this!

I only have one complaint about this pattern, and it's that while they do recommend jerseys as a suitable fabric, the instructions are really for wovens. It calls for a lot of hand stitching, which I thought was a bit odd for a jersey and I was a bit reticent to do it, but I did because I couldn't really come up with any better ideas. So the yoke facing is attached at the yoke/upper back with slip stitches and I used a length of skinny black ribbon and a catch stitch to do the hem. I felt like this would work because the hem doesn't need to stretch at all, and really it makes for a much neater finish than I would usually get with a twin needle. 

The place I had the biggest problem with the instructions was in setting the sleeves. Really, V8827? Do I really need to ease stitch my jersey?? Although I'm not really sure what I expected. Two sets of instructions? Pfff!!! Please, that's definitely asking too much from a big four pattern company!

I made this dress to wear to an opening at the gallery this past weekend (If you follow me on instagram you may have got a sneak peek!) I had originally thought I'd make it in black - you know, so it could be classic and versatile or something... But I don't really know what happened... Somewhere in the jersey aisle my plan went awry and I decided that a shocking fuchsia was really way more fun, and frankly just as versatile! 

I'd also like to take a little moment to do a PSA for wrap dresses. No really! Hear me out! Ladies of the World, Wrap Dresses are Your Friend!! Real or faux, wrap dresses are magically figure flattering and yet curve revealing. They look effortlessly sexy, and yet you, quite literally, feel as if you're wearing a bathrobe. Their wrap ties visually create a waist if, ahem, like me, you happen to be lacking in that department, and they accentuate the hell out of my tiny waisted sisters! I know some women bemoan the potential for boob-spillage that can occur with wrap dresses, but to them I say "Lighten up! That's part of the wraps charm! What? You wanna buy your own drinks at the bar?!" Just kidding, I don't say that. But I do say that's one of the beautiful things about a stretchy jersey wrap dress. Conforms to the curves, and all that...

Okay. End PSA.

I hope you all have a beautiful week! I'll be taking it easy for awhile as I adjust to the little emotional let-down that always happens after finishing a big project. Lot's of tea and comfort food and catching up on bad TV and good books are in order. And of course blog reading. Lots and lots of blog reading!

And, yes, I took these photos because the flowers matched my dress. I'm easily amused...

xx

because, i mean, why not?

Yes, yes, yes, I know that we are now a full week into 2013 and all this New Years Reflection bullshit is soooooo last week... but what can I say? I'm a chronically late person? Or just slow? Ah well, better late than never I say!

There is actually quite a lot that I am proud of in 2012, and I'd like to take a second to recognize a few of the good things that have come my way in the past year, sewing related and non. After all, New Year's is the time for self-reflection, even if the time for reflection is reaching the end of its shelf-life and starting to stink up the fridge...

Let's start with some life reflections, shall we??

Almost exactly a year ago I began working at a new job here in Galveston, TX. This has made a huge difference in my life. One of the reasons I've been so slow about writing a post about my job is that it is actually kind of difficult to explain what I do. The relatively straight-forward explanation is that I am the program manager for a small art non-profit here on the island. We are a fully funded artist residency and we also have a small project/gallery space, which I am in charge of along with the director. In fact, the director and I are in charge of everything, because we are the only employees (the director is also the co-founder) so basically we run a very small, but ambitious operation.  I'm incredibly grateful that I get to work in an extremely creative environment, with someone I enjoy, and that my work is varied and meaningful to me. I've worked a lot of terrible jobs in my time (that stint as a secretary at a tax firm was a particularly low point...no offense to secretaries, or tax accountants, and, besides, I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual...) so I'm particularly grateful that I am actually challenged and excited by my work, rather than feeling like I'm just slogging through the week in order to get to the weekend. As I said, the difference it has made in my personal life throughout the last year is huge.

This past August my husband and I moved house, yet again. This time just to a different neighborhood, same city, but it still marks the 4th time I've moved in the last 6 years (since my undergrad) never staying anywhere for more than two years. I really sort of love Galveston in all of it's weirdness and I'm happy to be staying here for the foreseeable future. Our new place is spacious and wacky and charming and ugly all at the same time, and Nick and I have been having a good time making it feel like home, even on a shoestring budget.

Which leads me to - Nick! I could write a novel here, or say nothing at all. I'll try not to be toooo sappy (for his sake). He's really my backbone, the one who's holding this bag of tricks together. We've been married every single day of 2012 (our first FULL year of marriage! Yay!) and it's our relationship, more than anything else, more than the job, or sewing, or the blog, that has made me feel so very grateful for this full and loving life I get to live. 

Now are you ready for some good sewing/blogging reflections? I feel like I can be a bit more succinct with these...(ppfftt!!! Who am I kidding??)

As I was putting together the images for this post I had a lot of fun thinking about how sewing has changed my life, like really had a major impact on my life in a very real way.

- I buy way less and am a far more discerning consumer when I do. 

- Looking at the images above I really like how you can see my own personal style begin to develop and become stronger.  I feel like through sewing I've been able to really focus on clothes that make me feel good, that help me to feel like my absolute best version of myself. This is something I hope to really continue to nurture in 2013.  

- This is kind of piggybacking on the previous thought, but I feel like making my own clothes has really helped me conquer some body-image issues I've had in the past. I always hesitate to talk about this because it is so personal (ppfft!! This is already an insanely personal post!) but it's also something that I feel very strongly about. Oddly enough, since I began sewing my wardrobe I've become far less critical of myself physically and I feel more at home in my own skin than I've ever been. You could certainly chalk this up to getting older, or being in a loving, stable, healthy relationship - but I really suspect sewing has had a hand in this (as well). 

- I feel like this past year I conquered a few of my goals for sewing. I tried with all my might to sew a hard-working, practical wardrobe, and all in all, out of 21 (really 22 but I haven't got around to posting the last make of 2012...woops) garments made I really feel like the majority of them get a fair amount of rotation in my wardrobe. The all star, of course, is my jeans. Those babies get worn at least 5 days out of the week. I'm wearing them right now. I wear them all the time. So much, in fact, that I believe I need to make a new pair in 2013. I also began experimenting with dyeing and handpainting my own fabric, which was a long time goal of mine. I enjoy adding that extra personal touch to my clothing, and I hope I can find a way to improve on my methods in the upcoming year.  I'm also proud that, really, looking at all those clothes up there, all of them are wearable, finished beautifully on both the inside and out, very few corners were cut, and most have stood up to repeated washings and wearings. Way to go, handmade wardrobe. Way. To. Go.

- 2012 is the first full year that my blog has been a big part of my life. I sort of started it half-heartedly back in 2010 (I think...?) not really sure what I wanted it to be and eventually I gave it up.  Once I became more engrossed in sewing it just became natural for me to want to share it and connect with a community and so I started up the blog fresh in the fall of 2011, decidedly more sewing-centric. I know everyone says this, but I am just so amazed by all the wonderful people I've been able to connect with over the past year.  Many of you I care about just as much as any of my friends that I get to see in the flesh, and I sincerely hope that our paths will cross in 2013! (Oh how I'd love a blogger meetup!!!) So to all of you, dear readers, I don't say it enough, but thank you thank you thank you! I'm so grateful to have discovered your blogs, shared in your stories, oohed and ahhed over your beautiful creations, and connected with people who share my same passion. 

You guys, I'm feeling a bit mushy!! I wanted to list out some real hard practical goals for 2013, but I seemed to get lost in all my reflections! No matter how old and moldy they might be! And I think this post is long enough for today. Congratulations if you made it all the way to the end. Your medal is in the mail (just kidding). 

Thank you again for a great year, and here's to 2013!! Woot! Woot! Can't wait to see what you all have in store. 

All my love,

Sallie

cobwebs

Well friends... it's getting to be that time of year. Time for the cobwebs and dust bunnies to creep in on this here blog. For the tumbleweeds to start a blowin' through. I know what you're thinking, more than usual? And the answer is, yes, more than usual. 

Because its the holidays!! Yay!! Time for the annual excursion back east to see family and more family!!  This year Nick and I will be road-tripping our way through the south and meandering on up to my homeland - Pennsylvania. I'd like to say that we are one of those couples that makes it a point to stop at all the funny little roadside attractions on our way, but if I'm being honest with myself, We're really more of the wake-up-at-dawn-only-stop-for-coffee-and-a-piss-until-we-reach-our-destination sort of road-trippers. We have a schedule to keep, dammit! 

We leave tomorrow and will be gone for roughly two weeks. But! Before I go I wanted to leave you all with a little sneakery peekery around my world as of late. Enter, the Instagram photos! (p.s. If you'd like to follow me I'm sallieoleta although I haven't quite figured out the point of Instagram yet, so my photos come in fits and bursts and are generally pretty lame... fair warning, ya'll)

From the top down:

1. A pretty little number I made for a friend. But because I'm not a totally selfless seamstress I made one for me too! See number 3...

2. A box of ruby red grapefruit, lovingly tended to by a sweet South Texas friend. These will be coming on the road with us... to stave off scurvy... just kidding... 

3. A close up shot of the version of #1 I made for myself. Truthfully, mine did not turn out quite as pretty as my friends. I suppose that's one of the joys of working with hand painted fabric, the results are somewhat unpredictable. But I'll tell you all about that when I get back from or journey and do a proper post on it. 

4. My Christmas gift from work. An engraved hunting knife. Symbolically kicking off our newest project, which is to create a satellite art space in the hills of West Texas. The knife will obviously be needed to protect myself from mountain lions... You guys, I love my job...

I know it's not a very comprehensive glimpse into my life lately, but unfortunately it'll have to do. Because now there is laundry and packing to do, a final wipe down of kitchen and bathroom (I hate coming home to a dirty house) animals to be crated up and dropped off at assorted friends houses, and audiobooks to be downloaded. Not to mention the fact that I generally live in denial of all the fun "Christmas spirit" type stuff that most normal people enjoy this time of year, which usually means that my grinchy-self goes into shock when I arrive home to a decked out house, glittering trees, presents, cookies and non-stop Christmas music. This year I'm determined to work up some cheer to bring along with me to prevent the all-systems-shut-down that sometimes happens. And guys, that takes work! 

So I'm off! I hope all of you out there have a nice lead up to your holiday. If you're traveling, be safe, and if you're staying put, revel in the season just a tiny bit for me! 

xx

fire hazard

Sooo... this is pretty much a complete 180 from my last make...

I made myself some faux leather leggings. I blame this on Pinterest. Then again, I blame a lot of things on Pinterest these days, so maybe it's time I (wo)man up and take responsibility for my own actions, or something... 

Let me explain. A couple months ago I made the truly rare excursion to an H&M store. This never happens. But one of the things I wanted to check out was leather leggings. As the fine purveyors of cheap trends that they are, I knew H&M would have an example of this particular trend in stock, and lo and behold, they did. So I tried them on and I remembered why I hated shopping at H&M. They fit like crap, they smelled weird and they squeaked when my thighs rubbed together. They were also somewhere in the realm of $30. Pretty steep just to try out a trend. Coincidentally (or not coincidentally at all) around the same time I decided to check and see if the local fabric store had any non-hideous options for fake leather. And, would you look at that! They did. Enter the dark-chocolate-almost-black-stretchy-light-weight faux leather of my dreams. 

My husband was seriously worried when I came home with a yard and a half of the stuff.

I used my trusty stand-by for skinny pants - or really any and all pants - the Built By Wendy SewU pants pattern which I've sliced and diced so many times I feel like it's mine.  After an ill-fated first attempt I decided to omit the center-front zip fly and instead installed an invisible zipper at the side. Way cleaner finish.  Because of the zip fly debacle I had to scrap my first try at the pants fronts and I didn't have quite enough leftover fabric to cut a whole new front out of. So I cut the pants fronts in two pieces, adding a seam just above the knee. I figured if they were real leather pants they'd probably have similar seaming anyway - and what the hell we're having fun here.

I have to admit - a lot of questions and doubts went through my mind as I was making these. Questions like...

- Is it wrong to sew something so trendy? I know a lot of the sewing blogging community is anti-trend but what's so wrong with it? I actually feel like I might wear these crazy pants for many years to come. They're surprisingly versatile...

- Can you wear leather leggings and not look like Sandy at the end of Grease? I thought that if I paired them with opposing textures and long layers I could prevent this. However my husband just told me that I look like Princess Leia on the Forest Moon of Endor (that's Ewok Land to all you non Star Wars nerds...like me) in these pictures, which wasn't really a look I was going for either... Editors note: Nick would like you all to know that he is NOT a Star Wars nerd. He just happens to know about the Forest Moon of Endor...

- Which is worse? Buying real leather hides from animals or buying fake leather from petrochemicals? Either way, I'm guilty of both sins.

And the big question...

- Are these pants going to melt to my legs???

No really! This is a serious concern of mine! It just so happens that on the two occasions when I wore these to work we had a bonfire (remind me to tell you what I do for a living again... it's pretty awesome...) The first time I was so wary of the flames and my legs catching on fire that I left to go change into something less...combustible. The second time I called my husband to bring me another pair of pants.

I also don't know that I will ever wear these in the car on the off chance I might get in an accident and the engine explodes and my pants catch fire and melt to my legs and I have to go to the hospital where they pick little pieces of burnt plastic off of me with tweezers and my legs are forever scarred from my ridiculous petrochemical pants...Good thing I rarely drive.

I made this top too. I was very inspired by Papercut Patterns Sloppy Josephine Tee which I decided was the perfect casual top and was all set to buy it. Until I saw that it wasn't available to download and it had to ship all the way from New Zealand and I wanted it noooowwwww (P.S. I will plan ahead in the future because their new collection is seriously blowing my mind!) So I pulled out my ruler and french curve and set to work drafting my own. 

Then I got totally frustrated and remembered that there is a raglan t-shirt pattern in the Built By Wendy SewU Home Stretch book. Those Built By Wendy books... I had no idea they would be paying off big time when I bought them! So being much more comfortable altering patterns to my liking than drafting from scratch I went ahead and deepened the neckline, added a little bit of "dolman" to my sleeve, and added a longer, curved hem. 

From there it was so easy-breezy-beautiful-covergirl! I cut into this sheer, white, tissue-y rayon jersey and, I swear to God, I blinked my eye and a second later I had a new t-shirt! A t-shirt that I have been wearing literally every day since then. No really. It's getting kinda gross...

And with that lovely thought, I'll leave you!

To all my U.S. friends, I hope you had a lovely and relaxing Thanksgiving, and I hope your hangover wasn't as bad as mine!

xx

how to act like a lady

Gah! I'm so sorry for my recent silence around these parts. I didn't mean to just disappear like that, but sometimes it happens! For whatever reason, I really wanted to slow down and take my time on this dress. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to the feeling of pressure to push through a project just in order to get it up on your blog, a feeling that I like to shake off every now and again. I also usually make dresses like this with an event in mind - usually an opening at my gallery or some other type of occasion - but (thankfully) my social calendar has been pretty quiet so there was no real rush.

This is the dress I made using my hand painted silk habotai. The entire dress is lined in white rayon bemberg. The pattern is essentially Simplicity 1880 - the same as my earlier, purple version - but with a few modifications: 

Obviously this version is sleeveless.  I felt like the little cap sleeve on my first version made my shoulders look a tad football-player-ish so I decided to leave them off this time around. Also, it makes it easier to layer under cardigans and such. And whether or not a garment is cardigan-ready can really make-it-or-break-it for me! 

I also cut the skirt as a half-circle skirt rather than the four sections that came with the pattern. This eliminated the center seam and the weird fall of the bias that happens with the Simplicity skirt. 

And finally I shortened the front bodice pieces by about 1/2 inch in the center, tapering to nothing at the side seams in order to prevent gaping at the center front. While wearing that purple dress I've looked down a fair few times to see that one or both boobs were on high display. I'm not particularly modest, but I still put fixing that issue pretty high up there on my "things I'd do differently..." list.

Hmm... maybe I should have taken some length out of the center back too...

After the initial excitement of painting my own fabric died away, and my joy passed that the dye actually took and didn't, like, wash right down the sink, I had a hard time deciding what to make with my fabric. In my post-fabric-dyeing sobriety I gave the fabric a cold, clear, critical eye, and I sort of felt like it looked like a Target shower curtain. How underwhelming! But really, it depended on my mood. I still loved the watercolor-like bleed of the spots and there are areas where the colors overlap and become really nuanced. But I guess once I had the finished fabric in my hands I felt like I needed to do something really artistic and daring with it.  But nothing really seemed quite right. After draping the fabric around myself like a toga for about a week and a half I finally decided to quit over-thinking it and just go with my original plan, whether or not I still felt like it was the 'best' one. And you know what? I'm glad I did. I'm starting to sense that might be the story of my life... You'd think I'd learn...

The original idea for this dress, fabric and all, came from a dress I saw well over a year and a half ago in the window of one of my favorite stores in Houston, Leap. I can't remember who the dress was by, and I think I've tried to describe it to every person I know who works there. There's a possibility the dress was made by Electric Feathers, which wouldn't be surprising because I'm often inspired by their work. Regardless, it was a white, wrap dress with delicate blue brush-like marks hand painted all over it. My fabric came out a bit more spotty than I remember this dress being, and the overall look much more classic, but it's still quite lovely, and fulfills my long desire for that other dress.

Now I just need some occasion to wear it...come on life! Get fancy!

xx

it's election day!!!

Saw this on one of my favorite blogs and just had to share! Now get thee to the polls!!

xx

a self-stitcher goes shopping

So here's a story for you...

Yesterday I decided I needed to venture off the island to buy myself some lining fabric for the dress I'm making out of my hand-painted fabric. I wasn't really feeling up to making the long trek allll the way to civilization (Houston, in my book - and where the only mildly decent fabric stores are) so I settled for the JoAnne's conveniently situated at the halfway point. 

First of all, JoAnne's was in total, full-out, Halloween cray-cray mode and I was slightly terrified, but I soldiered on because I'm brave like that. Turns out that the majority of their fabric, including their skeptical selection of lining fabrics, was on a 50% off sale! Awesome! So I pawed through the polyesters, setting my "natural fiber" bigotry aside for the time being. I mean, a sale is a sale. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I'm pretty incapable of impulse buying these days - especially on mystery fabric - and so I pretty easily talked myself down from purchasing anything other than what I came there for: white rayon lining fabric - the bemberg variety.

Well they were out. Completely. They had orange and black, but... you know. 

So I'm feeling a bit deflated because this means I'm going to have make the long haul up to Houston anyway. But, alas, I wasn't going to do it this day. However, there I was, in the midst of this huge shopping complex, and I decided to do something that used to cheer me up in my pre-sewing days - I decided to go clothes shopping. 

Now this wasn't a total coincidence - word on the street had it that the Houston area is finally home to an H&M, and it just so happens to be at my halfway point - right across the street from my JoAnne's. Once upon a time I used to love me some H&M. It fit my graduate school budget and it catered to literally every look and occasion. Trendy? Check. Office appropriate? Check. Hipster? Check. Bohemian? Check, check, check....

I have grown up some since those college days (thank god) and so have my tastes in clothing - helped along mainly by the fact that I've sewn every major new garment that's been added to my wardrobe since 2010.  I'm far more pickier about fit, fabric and quality than I used to be. And I'm a fair bit more educated on the, shall we call them "dangers" of fast and cheap consumption, especially within the clothing industry. But despite all this, a morbid curiosity drew me in. And I'm glad I went, because otherwise I would have never known that Kelly Clarkson was still making music (where have I been?!?)

Truthfully, I knew from the outset that I was not going to buy anything (see above, re: impulse buying).  But I figured this might be a fun opportunity to try on some trends I've been thinking about and see if they would actually work on me.  The looks I wanted to try? Oversized sweaters, leather leggings, wild prints.

So without further ado, here are some of the outfits I put together on this pretend shopping spree:

Glitter sweater and faux leather pants.

I first became aware of my desire for faux leather leggings while trolling one of my favorite style blogs, sea of ghosts.  The inspiration to pair them with an oversized sweater perhaps came from Pinterest? Not really sure. Anyway - these H&M faux leather leggings were not very stretchy. I grabbed them in a size 6 and a size 8, not really sure what my size is in that store and mainly eyeballing the waist. The size 6 fit the best, but oddly. Tight in the waist, baggy in the crotch. I'm not sure why I was surprised by how... squeaky these were... but there you go. Squeaky pants. The sweater was acrylic and cozy, but I probably wouldn't actually pair these two in real life (I think I can come up with a better top for leather leggings, don't you?)

Cable knit sweater and crazy print, cropped trousers.

I was very drawn to this whole display of stuff in this wild, floral digital print. There was a ton of it. Apparently Lucky magazine put this stuff as its "top pick" because there were signs all over the place! So these trousers are a size 2, to give you an idea of the crazy sizing. They only had a size 2 left, and I decided to give it a go. They fit, but they are what a friend of mine once fondly termed "yeast infection pants" - meaning the crotch seam was where no crotch seam had a right to be! So I'd probably size up in the pants and size down in the sweater (there's oversize, and then there's sloppy...)

Crazy print dress

This dress was the most ill-fitting of the bunch. It was made from a stretchier fabric than the pants.  It was rather loose in the upper chest, and real tight over my belly and butt. The waist line also kept wanting to hike up. And it was short! Like, whoa! When I first spotted this dress I thought that if it fit it might actually make a fun work dress, but it would need at least 6 inches!

Another crazy print dress.

This was the last dress I tried on. This was a thinner fabric than all the rest, pretty silky to the touch at first, but even for the short time I had it on it became kind of scratchy.  It's a simple A-line shift dress, but I liked the way the pattern was placed. There was even a bit of tricky seaming that happened at the shoulder to keep the illusion going - an unexpectedly thoughtful detail.

All in all, I have to admit that the quality wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be! Of course there is no telling how any of these things would hold up with repeated wearing and washing.  In the end, I came away from this little pretend shopping spree with some ideas for fall/winter sewing, and feeling like my style mojo might have just got a kick in the pants. This isn't to say that I intend on copying these looks, but sometimes you need to step out of your daily routine to get the old wheels a-turnin' !

Does anyone else go pretend shopping when they need a bit of inspiration? I'd love to hear about it!

xx

watercolors

Many moons ago, when I was just a young buck in grad school, I discovered the joys of watercolor. Having devoted the majority of my young adulthood to studying oil painting (I mean, is there any other medium if you're going to be a serious painter? Wink...) it felt somewhat naughty and subversive to put down the turpentine and fill a jar with water, pin some paper to the wall and set to work, letting the colors bleeeed. I didn't do anything super cool or smart with those watercolors - I just painted still lives - huge still lives - of all the dirt and crap that was sitting around my studio (I kept a very untidy studio.)

little details of those watercolors...

I don't know that I've ever really given the full story on this blog of how I made the switch from painting to sewing, but that's because there really isn't much to tell. I think like a lot of people that pursue a passion extremely hard, I just experienced burnout and needed a break. I also never stopped working with art and artists on a daily basis, albeit in a much different capacity, and so it has never been far from my mind. But the long and short of it is: Shortly after moving to Houston with Nick, I stopped painting. Around this same time I received a sewing machine for my birthday (for lack of any other birthday ideas, Nick suggested I ask my parents for a sewing machine - that man is clairvoyant sometimes, I swear...) and left it sitting in a box for a number of months. Finally my fingers started to itch for a creative outlet and I buckled down and learned how to thread my machine and sew my first few tentative stitches...

One of my earliest frustrations with sewing was with my fabric choices. Perhaps I'm exceptionally picky, but I was never happy with the prints readily available to me at the local fabric stores. I find it exceptionally frustrating when you have a mental image of your dream garment only to find that the fabric in your minds eye simply does not exist!! You guys have seen enough of my makes to know that I tend to favor loose, abstract prints with a hand drawn/painted quality. Prints that looks like I might have made them...

So from the very beginning I've had "learning to hand dye fabric" on my sewing bucket list. This summer I got really excited to see that The Art of Cloth Dyeing was being offered as a class on Craftsy.   I enrolled and began leisurely working my way through the classes, not really taking notes or doing any of the techniques shown, but just trying to get more information on how dyes work, what you need, steps, etc. My husband, Nick, kept raising his eyebrows at me because much of the samples shown in the class are what I might call "fancy tie-dye." While I think some of these immersion dyeing methods can yield really beautiful and unusual results - and I plan to try them out in the future - I was really watching this class with my own agenda in mind.

What I really wanted to do was direct application dyeing. So after waiting patiently for a few months until I had enough money to gather supplies, I finally put in an order with Dharma Trading Company (anyone watch Lost...?) for some bulk fabric, chemicals and a small selection of procion dyes.

This past weekend I hand painted my first length of fabric - three yards of some diaphanous silk habotai (habutai?) I had to work very quickly (thats the reason why all these pictures show me with my dust mask and gloves on) just barely touching my brush to the fabric and letting it bleed outward. The more layers I put on the looser my "hand" became and I began to have fun letting the colors mix and travel directly on the fabric. It reminded me very much of how much joy I used to find in those grad school watercolors, touching my brush to a surface...

xx