Jan 24 2011
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update

Finally, someplace to work from.

Insert the sound of my hysterical laughing.

As usual, I come back after a six (seven?) month absence, and my previous post is about how I’m going to make more time for blogging.

I guess this post could essentially be the same as the last one, minus the bit about being able to blog on my lunch hour. I still work at the same place; I’m just not allowed to eat lunch at my desk. Which bites, really. But I don’t want to get into that.

In the time since I last posted, anniversaries and holidays have passed, the Mister and I have finally moved out into a place of our own, and I’m slowly getting used to feeling suspiciously like an adult.

The current desk set-up.

The current desk set-up.

I have been unpacking and organizing and trying to get our household all set up. I’ve got my own desk for the first time in four years, and it’s big enough to hold my computer, the sewing machine, and the serger at the same time–though for obvious reasons I can’t use them all at once.

Pincushion close-up.

Close-up on the badly made pincushion.

My first project in the new place was the Weighted Pin Cushion, from the tutorial over at Sew, Mama, Sew.

I saw it first over at Noodlehead, and I liked it so much it’d been on the top of my to-be-made list since October.

I really didn’t take the care like I should have for the project, but it started with not especially liking my fabrics. I made it because it was useful and because I wanted to try it with not-good stuff before I ordered fabric specifically for it.

I really like the design, and if I hadn’t half-assed it, I’d really like this one. I could see making this for a few of my friends who sew; I think it’d make an excelent gift. When I’m ready, I plan on making matching machine covers and an ironing board cover (matching in that I’ll make those, and a new pincushion, in specially picked fabric), if only to girlify the office that I share with the Mister.

The hardest thing to get used to in the new place? His interest.

I’ll be sewing and all of the sudden he’ll be hovering over my shoulder, watching what I’m doing. It could drive me batty. I’m not used to anyone taking an interest in what I’m doing. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, though.

And he might hover less if I fix the pocket in his favorite shorts.

Jun 19 2010
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update

A Quick Update.

I seriously can’t remember the last time I posted, which is a terrible, terrible thing.

My life has gotten infinitly busier than it was last time I was writing. I now have a full time job working at a law firm, and an insatiable addiction to World of Warcraft.

Which means that I have barely any time to think about crafting, let alone do it. But I think I’m getting into the groove; I’ve been working for a month now and am not exhausted when I come home. There are things I want to make to add to my wardrobe. And I’m so much happier now than I was for the last year, that I finally feel like it’s okay to indulge in new supplies to make things.

I’m going to try to be more regular around here—or at the very least not dissapear for months at a time. Especially since I have a lunch hour in which to expound upon my recent crafty endeavors.

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Apr 25 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

I seem to be on a sewing kick these past few weeks. The only knitting I’m allowed (or that I want to do) is Icarus, so that I can get it done in time for a friend’s May 1 wedding. That means that all other crafting is of the fabric variety.

My mom still likes to get us Easter clothes, but I convinced her this year that I would much rather have fabric to make a skirt or dress. So, I walked out of the store with fabric enough for two skirts or dresses (they take the same amount of yardage) and a new pair of Fiskars dressmaker scissors. I’m pretty excited.

  • Over at Casey’s Elegant Musings, there’s a really great post about how to get perfect patch pockets. Which is so very helpful to me, because I can never seem to get mine looking crisp and perfect. This technique will really help next time.
  • Having a travel document holder last time we went on vacation probably would have helped me not freak out about 10 times about where my passport and money had got off to. Luckily, there’s a tutorial over at Thimble for how to make one. Will have to make one before my next trip.
  • From my very own google search: How to sew a blind hem by hand, over at Craftzine. The by-hand part is important, because without it, you get results that require a sewing machine (which I have) and a special foot (which I do not). Very helpful when hemming up my A Plus A Line skirt last week.

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Apr 21 2010
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thoughts

Knitting and Sewing and Thinking

It may seem like I’m not making anything with the lack of posts going on. I found that when I started blogging over here, ideas were flowing like water. Besides, I had a large back-up of things I wanted to talk about, but were too crafty for my personal blog. So, for a few weeks, I managed to get a post up nearly every day.

I kept up hope that my crafty friends would join me. They all craft and blog, and seemed really excited about the idea of a group blog. But the days went on, and it turns out that they were petrified of posting something not interesting, and so it is still all me, all the time.

However, since it’s just me, the posts have been trailing off. I don’t really do too many in-process posts of my projects because either things are going well but slow, or don’t take me too long at all. Also, I try to be crafty every day, but that hasn’t yet translated to writing every day. (Trust me, I’m working on it.)

For the last few days, as I work exclusively on my Icarus shawl, I have been thinking about the differences between knitting and sewing.

Continue reading →

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Apr 15 2010
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sewing

A-Plus A-Line Skirt from Burda Style Pattern

Mosaic image of the A+ A-Line skirt, sewn by Lisa.

1. Left side view, 2. Front view, hanger, 3. Right side view, 4. Right side view, hanger.

Last Tuesday, I had a job interview. Which of course means that Monday was spent creating a skirt to wear to the interview.

I had decided, even before I knew that there was an interview, that I wanted to make the A-Plus A-Line skirt available for free on the Burda Style website. I had printed it out over a month ago, and had been taking my own sweet time in taping the pattern together. And let me just say, taping the pattern together took way, way more time than the actual sewing of this skirt.

I started Monday afternoon, and probably worked on it for about 4-5 hours, which got everything done except for the hems on both the skirt an the lining. There was nothing terribly complicated about the pattern. If you’ve made any sort of skirt before, this one is just as easy, even if you’ve never done a lining before (and I hadn’t.)

The outer fabric is grey wool suiting that I bought ages ago when it was on sale. The idea was to make a skirt/jacket set with it. The skirt is out of the way, now I need to improve enough to feel like I can make a suit jacket. It was my first time sewing with this type of fabric, and it was relatively easy. The hard part was getting crisp lines with the iron. The lining is purple rayon bought specifically for the skirt. I think all linings should be in fun colors.

Over all, I’m really pleased with the skirt. It fits, which I wasn’t particularly expecting (I cut the 16, but have now moved on to thinking I’m larger than I am than that I’m smaller than I am). I had decided if it didn’t fit me, I’d send it off to a friend who is a little smaller than me, and who’s mom could take it in if it so needed.

Pattern Notes:

  • The pattern took about two yards of the wool fabric, and about 1.5 yards of the lining.
  • I hemmed it up to land above my knee, but now seeing the photos, I think I’ll let it down an inch or two. It just looks too short to me to be “professional.” This length would be perfect in a flirtier fabric.
  • I am not pleased with the puckering just under the waistband at my sides. This is obviously a fit issue. My solution would be to either lose weight or to try to figure out exactly why it’s puckering. (At this point, losing weight seems like an easier option).
  • I still need to work on my zipper insertion. If I could afford a pile of zippers, I’d start making little bags to practice on. Even though the zipper is red and I didn’t use an invisible zipper, I think I shouldn’t be able to see it as much as I do.
  • I would love a blind hem foot, but that would probably require a new machine as well. But I did not enjoy hand hemming the outer skirt.
  • The mister and I really need to work on our photograph skills. And perhaps learn how to actually use the little Nikon. And wait until daytime for photographs.
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Apr 04 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

Oh hi! Happy Easter! I totally remembered that I was supposed to share awesome stuff on Sunday!

This week we’re traveling, celebrating Easter + the mister’s birthday together. I like it because I’ll still get my very own Easter basket from his mom (my mom say’s we’re too old for them, but we still get a spring “outfit,” this year it was new gym shoes for me).

Anyways, I found some awesome stuff this week, and not all to do with Easter!

  • I don’t particularly like to eat Peeps, but they do make adorable decoration, especially when reproduced in felt for as bunting, via Dana-Made-It.
  • I love fabric, it’s true, and over at True Up, Kim has an interview with Jessica Levitt on her new fabric line, which I can’t stop thinking about. Also, leave a comment over there and be entered in to win a fat quarter pack of the fabrics talked about.
  • Have I mentioned my love of robots? Over at Stitch-Craft, Holly made a memory game with a robot dingbat font, cardstock, and fabric. I would love just the adorable bag she made to store the game.
  • Even though I don’t have my own dining table (still living at home, sigh), I adored this post by David Lebovitz on the French usage of cloth napkins. And of course am inspired to do something similar at my own table.

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Apr 03 2010
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knitting, WIP

Finally, the second chart on Icarus.

In progress, second chart.
I know iPhone photos are terrible quality, but I’m just not going to pull out the Nikon for an in-progress pic (well, not until I manage to get myself an Eye-Fi card, but that’s another matter.)

I am finally, FINALLY onto the second chart of my Icarus shawl. Where I thought I was never going to get. It’s pretty much the only thing I’ve worked on this week, other than the slight detour for the mister’s birthday present.

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Mar 28 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

I apparently suck at a “weekly” feature—I’m working on it! Last weekend was a last-minute trip to Redding to visit the mister’s family and help with the massive spring-cleaning effort out at his great-aunts. I’m sure our time is coming; the back yard here is calling out for help.

The last two days have been spent preparing for, and then executing a full-reboot of my computer. The mister had bought a copy of Snow Leopard about a month ago, and it took that long for me to muster up enough nerve to do a full back up, a Time Machine backup, and then hit the switch and delete everything to start over fresh with a OS upgrade.

Everything is running great, pulling out the libraries I needed for particular apps has been a breeze (like all of my half-written blog posts in Ecto, and my Delicious Library). I particularly think it was easy because the mister works for Apple in tech support, and thus actually supervised the whole deal.

Anyway. So this week is a bit short; I guess I didn’t see too much that floated my boat to the point that I wanted to share it with every one. Not sure if that is a product of the week, or just me personally. Or maybe my internets. It’s been horridly slow this week, so less web surfing was done.

  • Am seriously loving the pants over on Green Apples. I’ve never been a fan of the high-waisted look, but these pants look amazing. Next time I find Vogue patterns on sale for 99¢, I’m going to have to pick up this one.
  • There are can cozies, and then there are can cozies. You know you want your beers to be kept cold in a Star Trek uniform. Found at Knit Faster.
  • Check out these awesome egg crafts by Benita over at Chez Larsson. Each one starts with a blown egg shell cut into shape with a dremel tool, and she shows you not only the finished object, but how she put each one together, with a little story to boot!
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Mar 23 2010
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sewing

New blue polka dot skirt.


So, after two days of sewing, I managed to finish my first skirt of the year.

I used McCalls pattern M5631, which called for 3.5 yards of fabric. Before I opened up the instructions, I really couldn’t wrap my head around how a skirt could call for the same amount of yardage as a dress pattern I had bought. And then I started sewing. Having both pleats and gathers, this skirt is really full. And very likely to flip up in the wind (which totally happened when I wore it out on Monday.)

I let the Mister pick the version of the skirt to go with, and I really like the fake layers at the bottom. They’re harder to see in the polka dot, but they are a nice little detail. I like how I followed directions exactly and the skirt hits at exactly the right spot on my knee.

This is absolutely my favorite, and am pretty sure I can wear nearly any color top with it; it’s all a matter of finding the right shade. One really good thing about making my own skirts is that I can take a swatch of fabric with me when I go shopping for tops to be sure that the colors will match.

Pattern Notes:

  • I made the size 20. For serious. Had I made my waist size, the skirt would be sitting about five inches higher. I am ridiculously high-waisted. As it is, it sits about an inch below my belly button, which is exactly where I like skirts of this type to sit.
  • The pattern was really straight forward. Sizing comes completely from the waistband, the pleats and the gathers. All the sizes (14-20 in my pattern envelope) used the exact same skirt piece at the same dimentions; the smaller the size, the larger the pleats and the more the gathers. Will make it really easy to pull apart and downsize if I lose the weight I’m trying to.
  • Did the “C” view, but omitted the waist sash because I don’t really need to emphasize that.
  • Ended up inserting a regular zipper; tried to do an invisible one and failed horribly, so I went back to what I know I’m good at. I’ll try again on the next skirt.
  • The hem and fake tiers were really easy to do, as the skirt body is actually square. Thus I didn’t have to try to ease in anything on a curve.
  • I am most definitely planning on making this skirt again, as soon as I can afford some more fabric.
  • I used a light-weight cotton (no idea what, bought it at Hancock’s); but can see this in a voile with a lining, a linen, or any other light-weight fabric.
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Mar 17 2010
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knitting

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hope everyone remembered to wear green today! Our family is a little bit Irish, and it’s my aunt’s birthday today, so we always celebrate by wearing a bit of green.

My pin knit up  from the shamrock pattern link that I shared with you all on Sunday. It was very quick to knit up; I did one for me and another for the Mister in about an hour total. I ended up using worsted weight yarn with 2.75mm needles (US 1).

I love little pins like this. Now I’m up to two: one for valentines day, and one for today. Maybe I can figure out a little flag next to do multiple holidays.

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