History in the making

History in the making
Originally uploaded by fishbellywhite.

this has nothing to do with sewing (I didn't even wear anything I made for the occasion) but is more important to me than anything else right now.

I also took a picture of my NO vote on Proposition 8 but the print was too small and it didn't come out very well.

I'll be on pins and needles all day long waiting for all the results!

Dia de los Muertos dress

I have always been fascinated by Dia de los Muertos.  I like the way it combines mourning with a certain lightheartedness, with sugar skulls and dancing skeletons and visits to the graves of those we've loved.

A few years ago I bought some Day of the Dead themed fabric, and have been planning to make something out of it ever since.  This year I finally got around to it.  I didn't have anything to do for Halloween that warranted a full-on costume, so I wore this instead.  If something that required a costume had come up last minute I would have

just painted my face like a skeleton and gone as one of the skeletons on my dress, but that didn't happen.

It's a duro dress, which is a design that I think lends itself to themes.  I don't normally like to sew theme dresses, because then I feel limited in how often I can wear them and my thrifty nature requires me to only make things that have multiple uses, or at least things that I can convince myself will have multiple uses even if that is just denial on my part.  but this?  I can wear it every year!

So I wore it to work Friday, and got many compliments, particularly from strangers on the Muni train in the Castro.  I would have worn it Saturday too at the Dia de los Muertos

 procession, but it was raining cats and dogs so I didn't go.  Then I wore it again today under my choir robe at All Souls' Day mass where we sang the Mozart Requiem.

I also included a picture of my skull necklace,

 which I bought in San Antonio over 10 years ago at an artsy shop in the King William District which specialized in such things, shortly after I first developed this ongoing fascination with Day of the Dead.  I used to wear it quite a lot, though nowadays I'm only goth on Halloween itself so after today I'll hang it back up on the vanity where it's been for all 4 and a half years we've lived here.

Back on the Blog, and what I learned by sewing my own wedding dress

When last I blogged I had plans to sew every day.  Since almost a year has passed since then it may seem as if I must not have met that goal.  Truth is, I didn't sew EVERY day, but pretty close to it for several months, if not sewing then definitely knitting.  I just didn't blog any of it.  At first because I was making things to give people for Christmas and didn't want to ruin the surprise for anyone by putting it on my blog.  Then, because my computer died.  And then the camera died.  

Plus, I am lazy.  I'll blog if it's easy, but not if it isn't.  Now it is easy again because I got a Macbook which I love more than pretty much anything else I've ever owned, and even though we still haven't replaced the digital camera I figured out how to use the PhotoBooth feature to make images that are plenty good enough for blogging with.

Since then a lot of things have happened, the main thing being that I got married.  I sewed my own wedding dress from Vintage Vogue pattern V2903.  I had these great plans to get it 

all done early and avoid last minute stress, which of course didn't happen at all and I was literally hemming that thing at 2 AM on the morning of the wedding.  

I didn't mind though, I'm pretty much at peace with my procrastination habit and I figure that as long as things that have to get done actually do get done it doesn't matter so much when.

the main drawback was the annoyance of having every single person I encountered ask me every single day during the two weeks before the wedding, "how's the dress coming?" and then react with extreme abject horror when the answer was inevitably oh I haven't started yet but I will soon, don't worry! 

Seriously, people looked at me like I said I had killed a puppy or something and everyone else was 500 times more concerned about it on my behalf than I was.  Including people I hardly even know: the hipster dude who cuts fabric at my fave store, the little old lady who struck up a conversation with me at the bus stop, waitresses at the rehearsal dinner restaurant, everyone.

I will admit to feeling that if I had given myself more time I might have been able to make it into a more flattering fit, but everyone I've mentioned that to says I'm crazy and it looked great so whatever.

I learned a LOT by making the dress myself.  Technically I didn't do it all on my own; my friend Carrie who is a dressmaker and has been sewing for longer than I've been alive helped me out, and having someone actually show me how to do things that before I'd only ever taught myself from books or websites made a huge difference.  Here are the things I learned for the first time, or learned how to do a whole lot better than I knew before:

• Making and fitting a muslin: before I'd been too lazy to do this, but it wasn't hard at all and didn't take as long as I feared.  I still won't be likely to make muslins all that often, but now I won't avoid doing it if it's a project that really calls for it.
• Installing an invisible zipper: this is one of those things I had always thought would be difficult but it was so super easy that I only want to do invisible zippers in pretty much everything from now on!
• Using bias tape to finish the arm opening: I wanted to make the dress without the sleeves, and wouldn't have known how to make this work without help.  Carrie showed me how to finish the raw edges with bias tape, which before I had only ever used as a decorative trim, not as a way to smoothly and invisibly finish a raw edge.
• Clipping curves: this one feels so dumb and simple when I think about it now, but I never truly understood what the instructions meant when they said to do this!  now I do, which is great because I tend to like designs with princess seams or other curved lines and it is much less challenging for me now to make these things work for me

Besides learning this stuff, working with Carrie helped me get a better sense of what parts of a project to spend lots of time on and what's safe to let go of.  For example I normally like to have very nice finished seams on the inside of my garments, french seams usually, but given the time constraints and the fact that I'm unlikely to wear this dress more than the one time it was nice to be able to give myself permission to just not worry about that.

Also, turns out I've gotten much better at sewing in general and I totally don't need to use as many pins as I have been.  Things do come together just fine without all the overthinking and fretting I'm usually in the habit of doing.

Overall, it was a great experience to have, and I am so very proud to have sewn my own wedding dress.  It gave me a great deal of confidence that I'll take with me when doing other, much less momentous sewing projects.  I'm at the point now where I pretty much sew an outfit for myself for every special occasion, whether it's formal or casual, a once in a lifetime event or just a day trip or regular old garden party or holiday celebration.  I intend to post about this much more often now and share my crafting fun with whoever is interested enough to check in on this blog.  Enjoy!

Wedding boots!

Wedding boots!
Originally uploaded by fishbellywhite.

New fabric, and a new resolution

It's been a good long time since I posted because it's been a good long time since I sewed, or since I knitted anything exciting enough to post about. Plus, I still want to lose weight, so I've continued to be ambivalent about sewing anything new. But I want to get back into it, and I figure if I sew as I lose weight I will always have stuff to fit me, and if it's something I sewed it ought to be something I can alter later on if I want to take it in.

The other problem now though is that I have a lot less time than I used to. I have a new job, which I love by the way, but it is full-time instead of the 80% time I worked before, and it takes greater mental energy and an earlier bedtime so I just don't have the wherewithal to come home at night and do a bunch of crafting. Especially cutting. I hate the cutting part.

But, I still have plenty of patterns, and plenty of fabric, and I went ahead and bought more from Fabric.com just yesterday. As you can see by the accompanying pictures.

I'm taking inspiration from another blog that I subscribe to on my feed reader, Sew Every Day. I like this blog a lot, even though it's not as flashy or tip-filled or even as frequently updated as other favorites like A Dress A Day or Stacy Sews or Gorgeous Things, all of which I also adore. Sew Every Day is nicely written in a straightforward way, and it's accessible, because she just plugs along and does something sewing-related most days, even if it's as small a task as sewing a single seam. She makes lots of good basic clothes for herself this way, which is what I want to do.

So I'm making a resolution to do something similar, and sew a little almost every day. Realistically this will probably mean more like, oh, 3 times a week most weeks, none at all for a week every once in a while, with a two to three day binge of sew sew sew sew sew every six month or so.

The plan I have for now is to keep making dresses, mostly shirt dresses and maybe one or two more duros (even though those are getting kind of played out, they're just so easy and fun and versatile!). I'm trying to make sure that every dress I make is usable for slightly warmer weather (it never gets all that hot around here, but sometimes warm) but also, more importantly, can be layered with a turtleneck and tights and boots for the much more frequent cooler weather. I find that shirt dresses and duros are good for these purposes. Although there's also a need for the in between, where I just throw a cardigan or blazer over the top, and duros are hard to put things over because of the kimono-like sleeves.

I also like the dresses to be sort of more on the casual side. Just the fact that they're dresses makes them dressy enough with the right accessories, but I like things that can look dressed down too, and I think once again duros and shirt dresses are good for this, especially if I choose the right fabric. That explains why I'm so into plaid, it can look professional enough for my job, but also casual enough to wear out to the park on Saturday or to the sports bar on Sunday.

Burda 8075

This may be my favorite thing yet to make, because it came out nicely and was very easy. Don't get me wrong, I love my duro dress, but this one didn't require me to set in sleeves. Which, I'm getting better at, but it's still a huge pain in the ass.

The first time I tried to make this pattern was a disaster. It was the project that taught me that I have an unusually short measurement from my shoulder to my bust point. Does that mean I'm short-waisted? I've been told I'm short-waisted but this measurement has nothing to do with my waist so I think it's something different. Short-busted? That just sounds strange.

Anyhow after realizing this I started cutting out my patterns differently to adjust. I cut everything for my usual size, which is hovering around 16 now (I am biting my tongue, no more self-judgement, it's not helpful!) but all the parts above the bust I cut out along the line for size 12 or 14. I leave the widths the same, using the size 16 cutting line, but anything length related, and then the neckline and collar, I cut at the smaller size line.

And it came out great!

That's Sparky in the picture with me. I wanted to pick him up for the picture but he doesn't like it much and it also would have obstructed the top of the dress. I've been wearing it, as you can see, with black leggings and red ballet flats. I also carry around a red cardigan to go over it. When it gets colder out I think I'll still wear it with a black turtleneck underneath, black tights, black boots, and my black leather jacket over it.

some finished projects

I took these photos over a month ago but am finally posting to prove that yes, I do occasionally finish and even wear dresses that I make! Here is a duro dress, and a knitted dress.

I especially like the Duro, which I usually wear now with some tan western style boots. It's proven very versatile for going from work to various after-work events, like a fundraiser we had with the Social Justice Council for a Guatamalan mission. The dress is festive and stylish enough for a cocktail reception like that, but business-like enough for the office.

The knitted dress has proven slightly less useful because it's a little bit low-cut and I can't really decide on what shoes are good to wear with it. I don't mind lowcut dresses or tops, in fact I wear them frequently, but I do have to pay more attention when I'm wearing something as plunging as this!

I haven't been sewing quite as much lately, but I'm getting very far along on a nice knitted dress with a cable down the front. It's purple, which I know a lot of people don't like, but I think it will look fab with my red hair and some black boots and denim jacket. Right now it's covered in dog hair unfortunately so I don't really want to take any WIP pictures until I can make it more presentable.

I'm working away at it furiously precisly because I am so tempted to stop. I'm terrible at finishing things before starting other things, and I have an idea for a grey cabled cardigan that I want to use to learn how to use steeks, but if I start that I will have more unfinished projects that will fit in my knitting basket and I promised myself not to do that anymore.

Body image issues and sewing

I have a confession to make. I haven't been blogging here much because I haven't been sewing much. And I haven't been sewing much because I am really unhappy with my weight right now, and it's no fun to spend a bunch of time on something that I don't look good in anyway because I feel like I don't look good in anything right now.

I hate feeling this way. Part of the reason I re-taught myself to sew as an adult was that I had gained a lot of weight several years ago and I wanted to have clothes that were cool and cute even though they were in a larger size. It's hard to find that in stores. But then I lost the weight and moved to a small studio with no room for my sewing set-up and so stopped sewing so much.

I started again more recently for reasons that had nothing to do with my weight. I just wanted to make cool stuff in general, and I like the creative process involved with deciding what to make and then putting it together. I wish that were enough for me, that it didn't also have so much to do with wanting to look a certain way myself. But I guess it's not, because I've gained back a bunch of the weight I lost and suddenly sewing and fashion in general don't have the same magic for me anymore.

So I think I've been procrastinating on sewing in general, and on posting some of my project pics here, because of how insecure I'm feeling about my body lately. I had hoped that sewing would help me work that out. Maybe it can if I can get myself motivated again. I think that the way sewing can help with body image is by giving you a more objective way of thinking about your body. Instead of looking at myself in the mirror at Mervyn's in a dress I might buy and thinking, thighs too big or belly too pudgy, sewing requires me to just objectively think hip size 41" waist 32". Just the numbers, not the judgment. And you can't fudge on those numbers, the way RTW sizing messes with our heads by having something sized as an 8 at one place and something the exact same size marked as a 12 someplace else. If my waist is a 32, I've gotta sew the dress to fit that, no matter what, because I'm not gonna be able to fit into it if I sew for the waist I wish I had instead. So, objectivity, and truth, without judgment. Well, at least until I try it on at the end.

Does that make sense?

So anyhow it's something I'm struggling with right now, hence the spotty posting and ambivalence about finishing projects. Maybe writing about it here and now will light a fire under me and get me going again in a more positive direction.

I'm here and I'm still sewing

I haven't posted in ages and I have no really good excuse, especially since I have been sewing and I've even taken pictures of some finished projects but just haven't had the chance to put them up!

I'm moving ever closer toward my goal of usually wearing at least one thing that I've made. Mostly because I've actually finally made some stuff that I want to wear. Still, the half-finished items are more plentiful than the finished, as are the mostly finished that aren't working out quite right and that I can't figure out how to fix.

I posted in the Sewing Pattern Review boards about my frequent problem of needing to take up the shoulders in dresses that I make and got some good suggestions about changing the patterns rather than trying to change the garment once it's put together. problem is I am lazy so I have to start by trying the easiest possible fix and then work toward the ones that are harder if the first try doesn't work. I had wanted to get started on some vintage patterns, but I don't want to try out any alterations on the vintage stuff until I figure out if they will work or not.

I picked up several new patterns on sale at the Vogue website so here are a couple of those, none of which I've actually made yet naturally. Although I did cut out 8108 with some fabric I got on my pilgrimage to Mood Fabrics, and I'm super excited to find some fabric that will work with that plaid thing.

Hopefully I will have time soon to post the pics of finished projects because I'm really really proud of them and want to show them off.

The universe wants me to make muslins

OK, I haven't posted in ages, mostly because I've been busy with other stuff, mostly work-related, and going to various meetings and events in an effort to network to get my consulting business jump-started a little bit. But also because I'm pretty frustrated with my sewing right now.

I have been sewing sewing sewing but there's always something wrong with almost everything I make. I made the Burda shirt dress, but had to take up the shoulders and then couldn't get the collar to work again, so I did it without the collar, which doesn't look as good as I wanted, but I didn't have any fabric left to recut the collar in a size that will fit. And now I've also noticed that the darts need taking in because it's too big and looks a little like a maternity dress.

I'm making Butterick 4973 in a nice olive green knit, and it is simple and will be great... if I can only get the neckline not to gape.

My striped corduroy pencil skirt rides up weirdly and has a big wrinkle across the front when I wear it. I have no idea what THAT's all about. I made it ages ago and haven't felt good about wearing it since because of this problem.

I can deal with the darts on the shirt dress, but the rest is making me crazy. The only things I've made that have really worked out for me so far are the center view of Vogue 8300 in a black denim (the facing's wonky but it's on the inside and doesn't show so it counts as ok), my easter dress
which is nice but not often wearable, and the grey knit dress I wore all around NYC. Which I guess is pretty good, that's 3 things, but I'm working on so many more that are not working out! And I'm tired of using my seam ripper all the time.

anyhow I'm just ranting now. but it's driving me nuts and causing me not to really want to post here like I had been before. I think the universe is telling me to make muslins from now on, but darn it I don't want to!!

Dancing on the Bar in a dress I made myself

Holly Dancing on the Bar at Yogi's
Originally uploaded by fishbellywhite.

I haven't been posting because I was out of town. We went to NYC and guess what! I got engaged!

This is the actual dress I was wearing when he proposed, made from Vogue 8145. This is a highly embarrassing picture as I was drunk and dancing on a bar at the time, but it's the only one I have showing the whole dress so I had no choice but to use it. I live to serve.

The dress was originally 3/4 sleeved the way I made it, but it was unexpectedly hot in NYC and I realized that one of the advantages to having made the dress myself was that I could just cut the sleeves off myself if I wanted and not feel that I was messing it up somehow.

Also, it was knit jersey fabric so it won't unravel where it was cut. It is a VERY comfortable dress and I'm quite happy with it. I made it pretty much just like the directions said, except that the ties are not as wide because I folded them over and sewed them into tubes to turn inside out instead of just hemming them as the instructions suggested. And I found the way they were tied on the pattern envelope highly unflattering on me, so I just wrapped them around in a sort of empire waist instead and it changed the whole look for the better. Basically I wore the thing all weekend, with red ballet flats and a red cardigan for when it was chilly.

I also took and wore the duro dress I made but don't seem to have any pics so I'll have to get some another time to post, or see if our NYC friends took any that they can email me.

I almost didn't make it to the garment district because of the aftermath of the night this picture was taken--I was VERY hungover--but finally dragged myself over there and bought some very nice fabric which I will take pictures of and post in the next few days, along with my plans for it. This other picture is me at Mood. My mood: hungover. In other words not so good. But it was fun anyhow.

And just because, I'm also adding a picture of the engagement ring which is an antique sapphire with white gold filigree. N. proposed at Katz's Deli, which I thought was awesome. This was right after I said yes. With a chopped liver sandwich. N. had pastrami, and we both had chocolate egg creams.

Happy discovery, and breaking a vow

Last night I was going through all of my fabric to see what I can actually match up with some patterns and what I really want to make sooner rather than later. I have one basket full of fabric in the corner by the sewing machine, and two large plastic bins on top of the big bookshelf. Which by the way is an extremely un-earthquake-safe placement for them. I need to quake proof the house sometime. But not yet. Too much sewing to do.

So anyway at the very bottom of one of the un-earthquake-safe plastic bins I found a knitted purse project I had been working on a couple months back and hadn't seen since then! I'd looked, I thought, everywhere, with no luck and even started a new version of it, grumbling all the while because this one was about half done, but I didn't think to look under fabric because I keep yarn and fabric basically separate. Usually.

I remembered how it got there. I used to keep a few small knitting projects, each in its own freezer bag, under the couch for easy access until the day we left Sparky out in the house on his own with Scout to see how he would behave. He behaved by dragging out all of those knitting projects and chomping away. fortunately he didn't destroy anything I really cared about but the freezer bag for the purse project was all tattered and the yarn was all tangled and I was too annoyed to deal with any of it so I threw all the gnawed on knitting stuff into this bin, and proceeded to pile fabric on top to put all my misbehaving dog troubles out of sight and out of mind.

Anyhow here are some pics of the purse in progress. And my foot. And a doggy toy. Those components were unintentional.

I'm using some yarn I got on eBay, very cheap, and now I know why because it is super-old and kind of brittle so I have to use two strands together and break off at weak spots in the yarn and start again, hence all the ends hanging out all over the pictured finished piece.

It is just a plain basketweave sort of stitch, 8 knits, 8 purls, repeated with a single knit stitch on every row at beginning and end for selvedge. You can see the unblocked finished piece as well as the other piece in progress. I'll next knit or crochet a strip about 2 inches wide or so to single crochet both pieces to as the sides and bottom. I'm undecided about the strap. I don't want too long a handle or strap, just big enough to go snugly over my shoulder and under my arm when I'm wearing a jacket. I made some I cord to test for this, but now I'm leaning toward using some large rectangular plastic handles that I will cover with the same yarn in a sort of single crochet to make them match.

I will definitely do a lining out of whatever decent matching fabric I have on hand, and put in a magnetic snap for the closure. Hopefully I can finish it very soon to take to NYC, but I'm not sure because I have lots of sewing to do for the trip also.

I basically decided to break my vow not to buy more fabric and to go get some black denim or suiting to make a jacket out of to take on the trip, because I don't have any decent black blazers or cardigans right now. I will probably also look at some other patterns for tops, and if I see some red/black/white plaid cheap I'm getting it to make a simple little button down shirt from. Because yes, I plan to learn buttonholes tonight or tomorrow. Seriously! And, if I find suitable red and/or black cottony fabric I will make the duro dress to take also because I'm tired of waiting till it's close enough to October to use the Dia De Los Muertos fabric for it instead. I can have more than one duro dress, can't I?

As you can probably tell I'm using red black and white as a theme so that everything I make and pack will match and so that I can wear red lipstick all weekend because I want to and that's all there is to it. Does anyone else in the world plan to sew a whole wardrobe simply to match a lipstick shade? I doubt it but I don't care, I'm doing it.

Getting down to the wire

As per usual, I have been procrastinating. On lots of things, but this blog concerns sewing and knitting and such so that's what I mean here. I still want to make a lot of the stuff I'm going to wear in NYC, but we leave in a week so I better get crackin'.

Again as usual I've started to doubt myself as it gets closer to time to do something. I'm no longer sure about the items I posted earlier being the ones I definitely want or need for the trip. Now I'm leaning toward some other stuff, but I think posting it all would jinx it and just make me change my mind again so I won't go into detail until I'm actually packing--or totally back from the trip--and therefore must commit.

I do still plan to take the grey jersey dress, because it's long-sleeved and I think it may be chilly in NY next week. So that's what I'm going to make tonight. Or at least get started on. It's cut and ready to go so I don't think it will take terribly long.

As for the tunic top, I tried it on on Easter and don't like it after all. It fits weird, and I don't think I can fix it. So that's out. I don't want to make another one at least yet for fear of facing the same problems. So I need to decide what to make and take instead.

The shirt dress is also cut and ready, but I don't have all the buttons I need and I think I'm putting it off simply out of my buttonhole phobia. I need to just get over it already. There are at least 4 other things I want to sew but can't until I learn buttonholes. So I guess it's time, but I can't seem to sit down and MAKE myself do it.

I know, I'm being super-obsessive about all this. It's just my nature.

This morning I went through the enormous pile of laundry N. promised to do tomorrow, and used it as an opportunity to kind of check on my wardrobe, see if there are some things I should get rid of, and some holes I need to fill. Naturally there are lots of both. I'm having trouble letting go of things that I've been keeping with the intention of altering to fit. Maybe tonight instead of making the grey jersey, or at least over the weekend, I need to spend some quality time with my box labeled "alter these" and decide what I'm just not ever going to get to, and get to the ones that I AM going to alter right away. I should just have a big alter fest, and whatever doesn't get altered over the weekend I'll get rid of.

But altering's much less fun than making! We'll see how far these good intentions get me over the next few days.

Easter dress

Easter dress
Originally uploaded by fishbellywhite.

Twirl, lady, twirl!

N. took this picture of me on the balcony of our friends' North Beach apartment on Easter. It's the first thing I've made that I wore out to a real event, and I got lots of compliments on it. I did a lot of twirling; I'm not used to circle skirts but it was super fun.

Sorry for the crappy picture quality. I'm still getting used to this whole camera phone thing.

this is that Butterick retro wraparound dress pattern by the way. 4970 or 4920 or something like that.

Stitching and pitching

I thought I wasn't going to post today because instead of sewing last night like I thought I was going to, I went to the baseball game. The Giants played the Padres in our second game of the season, and my friend Michele (that's her at right, telling me Happy Birthday at the game) called me right before the game to see if I wanted to go. It was her birthday gift to me! Today is my actual birthday, but we have to sing for Holy Thursday tonight so she decided to help me celebrate yesterday instead.

Anyhow the Giants lost, so that kind of sucked, but whatever, it was fun anyhow and I got garlic fries. Plus it's only the second freakin' game of the season, so geez all you so-called fans calling sports radio, enough with the whining already about how bad we are this season! I like to maintain some optimism about my teams for as long as I can, even despite evidence to the contrary. Let me live in my fluffy pink cloud world for a while, the world where the Giants win the pennant and all my knitting turns out perfect even without swatches, ok?

But the reason I'm posting anyway is because I came across this: Stitch and Pitch. It's the perfect marriage of two of my favorite things, baseball and knitting! The designated SF Stitch n' Pitch game is July 24th which is way too far ahead for me to plan for now, but I signed up for the email list so when it gets closer to time I'll probably make a point of going that night. I don't know if I'll actually enter the baseball themed needlecraft contest, because I'm usually too lazy for contests of any kind, but who knows, I may get inspired.

I knit at baseball games, either actually at the game or while watching on TV, all the time anyhow. When the Giants were in the World Series, I knitted an orange scarf while watching the games at the Hotel Utah. Unfortunately they lost, and then the next season, it seemed like they always lost when I wore the scarf so I decided in my superstitious baseball fan way that I had knitted FAILURE into the scarf and couldn't wear it to games anymore. I only wear it on the off-season now.

I started knitting a scarf last season in red for my other favorite team, the Red Sox, but I put restrictions on myself to avoid more knitting of failure. I only knitted it either while I wasn't watching a game but they were up in the rankings, or while I was watching a game and they weren't losing. Anytime I was knitting while watching a game and the other team pulled ahead I'd put the knitting down.

Unfortunately this meant I didn't ever finish that scarf. I need to start over this year. Maybe I'll do a new orange scarf for the Giants also. Last night I just worked on my current easy project which will either be a shrug if I don't run out of yarn or a short wide scarf if I do. That's a picture of it (above) I just took, on my desk. Note the dog hairs conveniently knitted straight into the design. Courtesy of Sparky. He's lucky he's this cute, otherwise I would've had to cook him for dinner after he chewed up some of my favorite knitting needles last week.

Playing catch-up

I haven't posted in several days, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, N. had surgery. Nothing really major, but he was out of commission for several days and I ended up with a lot more on my plate than usual what with running errands for food and drugs, walking the dogs, and doing various chores that he would normally have done. So I hadn't been sewing or knitting or crocheting as much as usual.

Also because it's Holy Week, and I sing in the choir at church, and this is like the busiest week all year. I had rehearsal last night, I have rehearsal and Holy Thursday mass tomorrow night, a noon service on Friday and then Good Friday mass later in the evening, a rehearsal Saturday afternoon, Easter vigil mass Saturday night, and then of course Easter mass on Sunday morning.

I plan to follow it all up by drinking margaritas and beer all day on Sunday. That's playing catch up in a way also, since I gave up drinking for Lent and plan to seriously start making up for it on Sunday. Hey, maybe I'll do some drunken sewing and take pictures of disastrous results to post here! Um, or maybe not. We'll see. And then we're going out for a nice dinner to celebrate my birthday which is actually tomorrow and which I have no time to celebrate on the actual day because of all the singing and religious stuff I have to do instead.

Fortunately a lot of the stuff we're singing is my favorite kind of music, really overwrought crunchy sorrowful dramatic Lenten stuff, like Gesualdo (who by the way is also famous for being a murderer, see the links for the juicy details), and Sanders' "Reproaches" (also notorious for being interpreted by some as anti-semitic... I see their point but disagree, or at least I don't find it any more anti-semitic than the gospels are inherently which is a whole other topic better suited to a post on a religious blog which who knows maybe I'll start someday, plus I just find the piece beautiful-sounding and great fun to sing) and Allegri's Miserere.

The third reason I haven't posted is that I'm starting to feel guilty that I never have any interesting photos of either finished projects or projects in progress. I've been procrastinating posing for pics of finished stuff because by the time I get around to it in the evening my hair looks crappy, my makeup has all come off, and I've put on my pajamas to chill out in front of the tv and don't want to change. And I am vain so I want to be in my pictures, and I want to look good!

So anyhow. I have very little to share, except that I've come up with a plan for the stuff I want to make and wear in NYC when I go.

I want to make my grey jersey dress from a Vogue pattern I ordered but haven't yet received (I will probably leave off the ribbon wrap thing on this version, but I'm not sure yet), and I'll wear that with purple tights and my black kitten heels if it is chilly out, or barelegged with my chartreuse and red slingbacks if it's warm. I don't have anything else to match those slingbacks so I'm looking forward to having a nice simple plain grey dress that I think they'll look good with.

I have my purple tunic top that is finished already, which I will wear with dark wash jeans and black kitten heels.

I want to make the black Burda shirt dress with white line drawings of flowers, and wear that with the black heels and footless black tights and white shrug that I am nearing completion on, or possibly red ballet flats and red cardigan from Thrift Town.

If it's warm I'll also take the black eyelet which is finished except for an alteration to make the waist slightly bigger, and wear that with footless tights and red ballet flats and cardigan. Oh, and I need to find a slip to go with it first, and I can't find any slips anywhere... what's up with that, doesn't anyone wear a slip anymore?

And I want to make a twist top out of some nice stretchy fabric in green and black print that I just bought, to wear with jeans and heels or with a denim pencil skirt I'd like to also make if there's time and room in the suitcase. Probably with footless tights also, we'll see. I may also take the awesome tunic shirtdress/blouse I scored at Goodwill the other day to wear either over jeans or with tights also. Have I mentioned that I love tights?

The gals at Go Fug Yourself seem to hate the footless tights look, (and granted those links go to some pretty bad examples) but for some reason I really love it at least when it's done right, which it usually isn't. For me though ot makes things slightly edgier looking or more casual looking I think. I'm sure it will soon go out of style but I think I'm going to wear the hell out of them till then. They're surprisingly practical for this in-between San Francisco weather too, they make my legs a little warmer but not too warm since they leave the ankles bare.

As I lamented earlier I have no interesting project pics ready for this post, but a post without pics of some sort seems naked, so here is an image of another vintage pattern I ordered but haven't decided what to do with yet. I kind of like how that view on the right looks like it's a sort of leopard print, so maybe I'll make something like that out of it. ooh, or zebra print, I've been coveting some zebra print lately, I thought maybe in a coat, but maybe I could carry it off in a dress if the design is simple like this one. I'll have to ponder, and see what fabric I can find on sale.

I have several more vintage patterns on the way to me from Ebay so I'm putting a moratorium on further vintage pattern purchases. Also on fabric purchases till I sew up at least the list of things I just mentioned for the NY trip.

Tonight hopefully I'll have time to finish the denim cheongsam-like dress I started on Sunday, and maybe cut out the twist top. I want to experiment with cutting more than one fabric at a time, since I have some of the purple fabric leftover from the tunic top and think that would make a nice twist top also.

The agony of indecision

I've started looking on eBay for vintage patterns, the cheap ones, which means the less popular ones, but still. And I've actually gotten a couple! I haven't decided yet what to do with these, but there is some green and brown plaid at Fabrix I've had my eye on and I think it would make a nifty vintage dress, maybe the 1950s style one. On both of these, I will probably make the skirts less full. I like the full skirt look, but it uses so much fabric, and I'm not sure it's the most flattering for me anyway.

I continue to buy and buy and buy fabric without managing to finish much of anything, but I think I don't care, at least not yet, because I have a few other things in mind. The aforementioned plaid, and some thin sort of sweatshirty material for a dress I talked about in an earlier post, and some dotted swiss of some type for some thin sheer little floaty tops I'll make just as soon as I learn how to do buttonholes. I've been procrastinating on the buttonholes. I think I'm scared. It seems weird to have a phobia of learning buttonholes. Like Billy Bob Thornton's reported phobia of antique furniture. Who could be scared of antiques? Well, I'm scared of buttonholes so now I guess I get it.

I bought a whole bunch of dark denim on sale at Discount Fabrics in the Sunset on Monday, and have been trying to decide what to do with it. I'm thinking I'd like to make a denim cheongsam. I think that would be a funky twist on a semi-casual sort of wear-out-during-the-day dress. I thought I could put red bias binding around the collar and armholes and maybe the hem. Then it would go well with my red ballet flats and my favorite red cardigan. and red lipstich natch. I love me some red lipstick. Plus if I make it up in denim it will be easier to undo and fit better if I need to so that I can practice on cheap plentiful denim instead of the rarer, more expensive brocade I've had for months waiting for me to get my courage up for the cheongsam.

Which reminds me, I'm obsessed now with bias tape ever since I used some I made myself around the edges of the Butterick retro wraparound (pictures coming, I promise, but there's something wrong with the lens on my new camera phone so none yet!). It's so easy to make it! It looks so cool! And I can use it to avoid hemming! How awesome is that? So I'm going to stay on the lookout for super-cheap fabrics that I may not use for whole garments but would be cool to make bias tape out of.

Right now I have so much unused fabric and so many uncut patterns stashed away for planned projects that I can't decide what I should do next. I've realized that most of the things I've been working on, at least as far as sewing goes, have been too summery for usual San Francisco weather so I think I need to prioritize according to some things I'll, you know, actually WEAR. Like, maybe even to work. But I do want to get a lot of things done specifically for the New York trip, and I don't really know what to expect weather-wise there, so I'm torn. It's keeping me up nights. The agony of indecision! Tonight I have too much work to do to start anything new, so I can put off the decision till Friday at least.

Scout the dog and Scout the pillow

Scout the dog and Scout the pillow
Originally uploaded by fishbellywhite.

I haven't had the time to take new pictures of my work, even though I finished the Butterick 4720 (or is it 4920? the wrap dress thing) and it looks pretty good. I'm busy now setting up blogging from my phone, and from flickr. So this is a test of blogging directly from flickr, with a picture of my dog Scout and a pillow I made representing my dog Scout. I made this quite some time ago, and it has since been ever so slightly chewed by the new dog Sparky. Maybe it was jealousy and he needs his own face on a pillow. I should work on that!

I just used scraps that I cut into the appropriate shapes, placed on the square background, and then satin stitched around on the sewing machine. Next time I go through my scraps I'll see if I have enough to make one for Sparky, and also one for my cat Owen who died around New Year's and who I really miss. I always meant to make one of his face when he was still with us, but I'll have to do it as a memorial instead.

Coming soon: More personal photos

I'm very excited because I'm getting a camera phone soon! Maybe as soon as TOMORROW!

I think I might have blogged earlier that I was getting a hand me down camera phone from a friend, and I did, but she had warned me that it was beat up and not really very good and guess what? She was right. So I started whining to N. (my BF... I'm trying to think of a catchy nickname for him but so far have drawn a blank) on a regular basis about how I really really really really want a camera phone so that I will have a camera with me at all times and can pictures of things for my blog and of questionable parking practices in the city and of weird and fabulous outfits on the street and so on and so forth.

I didn't expect to really get one, but N. has been going through all our bills to find ways to save on monthly expenses and realized that if we change cell phone providers we can shave a substantial amount on our monthly bill AND get cheap (with the rebate) new phones with cameras. Yay!

So I figure I'll take more pictures. For example yesterday I wore a skirt I made to work, but I haven't ever gotten around to modeling it for a picture but I easily could have taken a shot of the inside of the hem to demonstrate my finishing techniques or whatever at any point during the day and then downloaded it to post here. Hopefully I will have many opportunities like that as I wear more of my own creations and also as I get used to having a camera with me all the time.

Speaking of hems, I finally pressed up the hem and the sleeves on my black eyelet dress last night and started handsewing them. Hemming is the only type of finishing I know how to do pretty well, so that it looks neat on both sides. This is because even before I started sewing much from scratch I frequently had to hem things to fit my short self.

I handsew all my hems unless it specifically seems that machine stitching will add a good design element, which is pretty rare in the styles I like anyhow. First I press up about 3/8 of an inch with some stitch witchery (that sticky iron on stuff, you know) and then another 5/8 to 1 1/2 inch or whatever seems to look good to sew. I usually use either the slant hemming stitch as seen about halfway down this page of hand sewing stitches, or more often, an uneven slipstitch as illustrated slighly further down the same page. I prefer the latter because it really is almost invisible, but the former is faster for when I'm feeling lazy, and easier if the fabric is tightly woven and hard to push the needle through. Or if I put the stitch witchery too close to the first fold I pressed up, since the stitch witchery is hard to push through sometimes. In fact that's a good tip: don't put your stitch witchery right up into the fold! I'm gonna have to remember that one.

There's one little trick I use that I'm not sure where I came up with, it may be really obvious but I'll share it anyhow. Even though the stitches are very tiny they still show just a little bit on some material in the right light or from the right angle, so I want them to be very evenly spaced. So I use a pen to mark two little lines on the tip of my left thumb (I'm right handed) so that when I grasp the hem to sew I can make sure the needle comes out by one mark and goes back in at the other.

See, if I had a camera phone I could take a picture of my thumb which still has some residual ink from the marks I put on last night. Because I know everyone out there on the internets is just dying to see my sad chewed up little thumb.

On Summerset Banks's Pins and Needles blog, she asked: do you have any particular "go-to" garment, the one that you wear all the time for all types of purposes because it's just that versatile/comfortable/ awesomly stylish/whatever? OK that's a paraphrase. Anyway, I don't, but I sometimes have in the past, and I'm hoping that something that I make in the next few months will become that go-to piece. I'm musing over the idea of a dress made of sweatshirt material (I saw some thin sweatshirt material at Fabrix that I almost bought some of and will probably go back for) that, if I pick the right pattern, could be a go-to dress, since it will be relatively warm for the SF cool weather, and as a dress it can be dressed up, but as sweatshirt material it can be dressed down. It will also match with almost anything I'd bet, be comfy, and not wrinkle easily. Ooh, and best of all, now that I think of it, it will match some fab chartreuse and red kitten heel peep toe shoes I got from a friend but have never worn out because I don't have anything to match them! So now I HAVE to make it. I'm also loving all the canary yellow accessories that seem to be in this season, which will also go with sweatshirt grey.

Anyhow we'll see, and I'll try to remember to revisit the question at some point in the future as more of my projects get completed.

The hair always wins

I bought a pattern to go with the red stretchy fabric I posted about buying the other day: Butterick 4789. It got decent feedback on Sewing Pattern Reviews, and it was pretty cheap at Joann's so I went for it. I'll work on it after I finish the approximately 30 million other things I've got going on right now.

I'm also bidding on some honest to goodness vintage patterns on Ebay right now, since I love the vintage look but don't actually own any vintage patterns yet. Since I am cheap I may not win any good ones, but we'll see. I'll post pics if I get any.

I posted my questions about finishing the insides of garments on Craftster and got a lot of useful feedback. Several people DO finish, and a few even say that they would never NOT finish. But, I'm still lazy, and I'm still pretty sure I will never start lining things that don't call for lining, or learn how to do french seams for anything that I don't have to finish. I may however start zig-zagging my seams to finish them, because another craftster made a pretty good case for the fact that things will probably last longer if they're at least marginally finished on the inside. Plus I guess I can use the practice.

Maybe I'll zig zag the edges of pieces before I put them together if that seems workable, because I'm really bad at zig zagging or otherwise neatly finishing seams that are already stitched, since it's such a small space to stitch on and a little hard to work around if it's not just a straight line.

I may be willing to learn flat fell seams, because they look sort of cool on the outside too, but again, I'm too lazy to start doing them all the time.

Anyhow last night I was too tired to stand at the ironing board and turn up hems on the wrap dress and the eyelet dress to finish up, so I started an easy knitting project instead. I wanted something I could do without thinking, while I'm waiting for things or riding in the car or watching TV or whatever.

I'm going to need a white wrap or sweater of some sort to go with the shirt dress that I hope to do next. I always always need a wrap. Mostly because it's always sort of chilly at some point in the day in San Francisco, if not all day every day like lately, and like it will be all summer most liekely. And even if I go somewhere warm, then I freeze indoors from the air conditioning. I used to hate that about going places in Texas during the summer, you could catch pneumonia just from the extreme temperature changes from sweltering outside to teeth-chattering cold inside.

I've been saving Uncommon Threads on the DIY network to my DVR to watch every day and picked up a few good ideas for projects. Recently I saw the episode about making shrugs into other, more complicated garments and really liked the idea of the "shracket." Actually I hate the name because it's hard to say and sounds a little like a combo of shmuck and racket (I imagine some mealy mouthed gangster saying, "That shmuck fell for the numbers racket we ran last year!" or something. Whatever that even means. Can you tell I watch too much film noir and gangster fiction?), but the garment itself seems easy and pretty quick and cool looking. I didn't want to crochet it though because I don't want the stitch to be so open so I'm going to do a knit version instead using some Bernat Baby Boucle yarn in white I got for $2.99 a skein at Joann's yesterday.

Here's how I'll make it. I'm knitting a long rectangle in regular stockinette, long enough to reach from one elbow across my shoulders and back to the other elbow, and wide enough to wrap snugly around my upper arm. I'm using a size 7 or 8 needle (I don't know which it is but I'm pretty sure it's one of them). Then I'll stitch up the sleeves almost to the armpit on each side to make the shrug. I'm thinking of making it so that the purl side faces out, because it looks less directional than the knit side and might make it less obvious that this thing is just a glorified shrug. There's nothing better than a design that's easy as pie to make but looks like you put lots of skill and time into it!

Then I'm going to switch to larger needles, probably around a size 10 since I seem to have about 4 size 10 needles for some unknown reason, and pick up stitches all around the opening in the middle. I'll knit that in 2 by 2 rib, or maybe a fancy twisted or eyelet rib if I'm feeling ambitious, until it's long enough to fold over into a collar on the top edge.

I'll then pick up stitches with the same size needle around the sleeve openings and knit the same rib stitch into cuffs that I'm hoping will sort of bell open to the wrists. I love bell sleeves even though I usually have to be careful not to just drag them through a plateful of BBQ or pasta when I wear them. I hope the sleeves will open out like this without shaping because the needles are bigger, but if not I'll just cast on extra stitches or increase evenly by trial and error until it looks like I'm envisioning or I give up and just let it do what it wants.

This by the way is the same philosophy I use to fix my hair: trial and error to make it look like some gorgeous movie-star idea of a hairstyle I have, ending with my giving up in exasperation and letting it do what it wants to anyway. It's an ongoing battle, and you'd think I'd learn the truth eventually: The hair always wins. Always.