June 2019: What Happened to May?!

I can’t be the only person who is seeing this year slip through their fingers, can I? Is the year moving too fast for anyone else?

White embroidered tucked Butterick 5890 short sleeve blouse with gray linen drawstring Burda 6678 drawstring pants

First time I’ve used this white reflective piping and it’s pretty fabulous!

Showing off my new black linen Vogue 9091 culottes!

Admittedly, part of the reason why I’ve felt so busy is because I’ve been sewing up a storm. I’ve been trying to create some summer weather clothing, since a lot of my things from last year do not currently fit. So I made a white blouse and another pair of my favorite culottes in a larger size. I haven’t worn them together yet but they will be nice paired up. And they go with several things in my wardrobe, which means these will get heavy rotation this summer.

I finished up Me Made May 2019 having worn something Me Made a whopping 29 out of 31 days. The two exceptions were work-related. I need to make some super corporate-y things to wear to work events. Here are some of my favorites: I keep analyzing what it is about my favorites so that I can spend more time making things that I’ll actually like once I’m done. A quick read here shows that I like things slightly fitted around my waist. And prints. Lots and lots of prints. Mostly floral.

My main Me Made May pledge this year was to not buy any new patterns or fabric the entire month, and I not only survived that, I realized I have at least half a dozen things to make before I even need anything. But of course, it’s now June, and I pre-ordered some Charley Harper fabric from Fabricworm.com. It’s barkcloth, and I’m not entirely sure what it will feel like, but I love the print. It won’t ship until July at the soonest so I’m thinking a pleated skirt or maybe some sort of cocoon jacket. While all this mad sewing was going on (and a million other things) in May, what was *not* going on was all the biking I promised myself I’d do. I’m not sure I biked any day in May – bad! I need to pull the bike out and clean it up and that’s part of my excuse. Weather, work schedules, after work activities, and everything else have piled up. Maybe I need to stop considering myself a bike commuter. Or a bike rider at all. <very sad face> Ah well, it’s a new month, so many more new opportunities, right?

This Star Wars print fabric *arrived* in May, but I ordered it in March, so that doesn’t count and still supports my Me Made May pledge : )

 

Sewing March19: Bunnies Take Over

Not much sewing happened in February because the bunnies took over our lives. Seriously, three little rabbits, the largest not even 7lbs, and all we did was watch them every minute we could. Bunny bonding is not for the lazy or distracted.

Pretty much how I spent all February

L to R – Sullivan the Angora, Henrietta Rosalia Miracle, Gaston the Lionhead

In November, while we were on a family trip to Disney World, one of our angora rabbits unexpectedly died. Apparently Quinn, sister to Sullivan, was the glue to our happy fluffy bunny family, because Sullivan and Gaston, our little 3lb lionhead bunny, ceased to be friends. We took them speed dating at three different rabbit rescue group events, and eventually chose a new girl to be their friend. Henrietta Rosalia Miracle (I like the name Henrietta; she hid under a rose bush for 6 months after her former abusive owners threw her out of the house; Miracle is what the rescue group named her) came home the first weekend of February. Although Hetty and Sully and Gaston spent a week together at the rabbit rescue group and seemed to get along fine, we kept a close eye on them. All seemed to be fine for the first week, and then they started brawling. Yikes! Sully liked Hetty so much that he was mounting her as much as he could (which is a normal part of the bunny bonding process; its how they establish their natural hierarchy) – but she didn’t like it. So they started fighting, which is a *bad bad* thing. So we separated them, rebuilt the pen to keep them all apart, and called the rescue group for advice. For the last two weeks we’ve done some careful bunny bonding steps to reintroduce them in smaller neutral territory, and it seems to be working. Whew!

Although I haven’t had the free time to sew that I had hoped for, I finally managed to finish my Charley Harper children’s sheets top. Clearly I have no idea how to determine ease on patterns any more because I cut a size that ended up being massively oversized. So I took it in and hope that I like it. I did a rather crappy job on the neckline but I can’t imagine anyone else will notice. I have enough fabric (sheets) left over that I plan to make a summer top, too, yay! I ordered a Burda 6678 pants pattern then decided that I ought to test it first before I use the tencel twill I have in mind for this pattern. So I found a quilting cotton at JoAnn Fabrics on clearance and bought the last 2 5/8 yards. Hopefully that’s enough after I lengthen the pants! I may try to make those before our upcoming trip to Texas mid-March, but maybe not. Then I have at least four tops I want to make – I really don’t need more tops but they are so much easier to sew than the things I really need, which are pants (bah).

Burda pants muslin cotton quilting fabric – not the best for this style but cheap and ultimately wearable

Considering changing my mind and making both fabrics with the Vogue 8772 pattern

My mom and aunt visited Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics last week and bought me  yard of this fab-u-lous zodiac embroidered mesh I asked for. Do I have anywhere to wear a fancy top made out of this amazing fabric? No – but do I care?!?! Look at it!!! Thanks, Mom! (totally envious that they got to go, since they are nearby and I’m on the other side of the country….) It’s almost spring, though, and our icky weather will soon be behind us! Has anyone else started their spring or summer sewing yet?

Sewing Feb 19: Winter Blues

After a productive December, my sewing has sort of come to a screeching halt. One success, one failure, and lots of plans – but no free time in the near future. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose hobby takes a backseat at times, amiright?!

Success

My Disney World Jungle Cruise-inspired shirt turned out great, I love it! It’s well-made, comfortable, and the coconut buttons are perfect with the lagoon map print. I only added a tiny reflective ribbon tab, so it’s not very reflective, but that’s okay. This is the third time I’ve made this Vogue 8772 pattern and I think I’ve figured it out. I’ve actually got plans to make a fourth. I guess I’ve found my uniform!

I wore it at Disney World, and was pleased at how many compliments I got from cast members.

The famous (or infamous) Purple Wall at the Magic Kingdom!

Failure

I’ve been dying to make the Tilly and the Buttons Orla Top out of these Charley Harper kids’ sheets from Pottery Barn. Thankfully, I made a muslin first. I don’t really like it. Okay, maybe going up in sizes will help a bit. Maybe it’s the yellow gingham. At any rate, I rarely muslin my projects, and I’m sooooo grateful here that I did, because I would have been very upset to ruin the fabric. I’m not sure what my next step on this one will be, but I’m setting this aside for a while.

Okay, maybe it doesn’t look that bad – the pattern will need some work before I like it

Plans

Found these little blue buttons on Etsy and aren’t they just perfect with this fabric?! This combo will be my next Vogue 8772 shirt. I can’t wait to make this! I’m going to try to add reflective piping to the cuffs, so stay tuned! This is a long-term plan but I’m super excited to make this reflective Dashing Tweeds fabric into a Chanel-inspired jacket. I’m aiming for September to get this completed. That seems like a long way off, but I want to alter the Simplicity 2284 pattern (at least attempt to get it fitted), make a muslin, and buy a really nice lining – maybe silk? Maybe a Liberty of London cotton lawn?

The craziness of life right now means that I won’t have much free time for a while to sew. While I’m thinking about my plans, I’ll have to be happy with wearing this awesome tee shirt that my dad sent me:

Practicing Skills, Practicing Patience

I’m going to Orlando soon for a meeting for my industry association and meeting some colleagues a day early to have some fun at Disney World. I promised myself that I would not make or buy anything for this trip – yet there I was, on the Martin Luther King Day holiday, madly trying to finish up a shirt. Promises, promises.

Vogue’s V8772 shirt pattern has universal praise amongst the sewists on Instagram, so I had to see what the fuss was about. I added it to my #2018MakeNine list for later this year, perfect with the lavender Charley Harper scissortail bird print quilt cotton and black reflective fabric for collar and cuffs. I want to finish winter-worthy reflective outerwear instead. But then… trying to decide what to pack for this business trip, I decided that this simple shirt would be easy to whip up over the long weekend, and give me something else #memade for the conference. I love wearing clothing I’ve made when I travel. First I had to practice my skills – reading skills. It seemed like a simple shirt but looks are deceiving – and somehow my brain was not plugged in while I was working on it! I carefully chalked traced all the markings – check. Lengthened the sleeves and body 1/2″ each, and dropped the armhole about an inch – check. Body darts – check. Cuffs – fail. I totally spaced the proper way to do the slash opening, which I only realized when I was congratulating myself on how nicely the birds matched up on the cuff. Gah. I read the correct instructions and did the wrong thing.

It only looks wrong to those who sew, I realize. Don’t look at my wrists when I wear this!

Then I did it again! I read the directions wrong on the front packet and hem, and made the error worse by trimming it, which meant I had to come up with a new way to hem the shirt. Seriously, where was my brain?! The directions pretty much said left and I dyslexically went right. Somehow, my brain is not connecting everything properly. I’ve noticed this before with other thing and hope it’s not a bad sign for my old age!

Such a complicated foot for making buttonholes!

Then, I got to practice my patience when my fancy computerized sewing machine got fussy about the buttonholes. I love this new machine because it does buttonholes automatically, yet having to do 12 of them somehow taxed my brain and my patience. Little did I know (until I took out the buttonhole the fourth time) that the sensor wheel has to be on fabric as well, in order to function properly. Maybe I would have figured that out if my brain was working. So learning about my new machine along the way…Despite the drama, however, I think the shirt turned out pretty well. I had to wash it to get the chalk markings off, so no photos of me in it yet, but it does fit pretty well. And now that I’ve had so much practice with it, the next one will be easier. I’m considering the bow collar option, since I’ve seen so many pretty versions on Instagram. Maybe for Spring? Apparently, a sewist can’t have too many of these shirts!

I think this will look professional with dress pants, a sly nod to my daily commute choice as well as showing off my creative side.And of course, when I’m biking to and from work (once the weather is warmer and I don’t need a coat), the collar and cuffs will show off nicely. Now to get back to my winter coat before winter is over!

Pretty pleased with the placement of this bird in the collar. (The reflective material doesn’t breathe at all, so I wanted cotton against my neck.)