organization

I thought I had posted about this already, but on
 second look it seems not.  While I was procrastinating working on my wedding dress, I decided there was no possible way I could work on something so darn important until I spent, oh, like 10 hours shopping for organizing supplies and then another 5 or so using those supplies to organize my entire sewing area.  Yay!

Now this of course was classic procrastination and avoidance, but it really turned out to be a good idea and made it a lot easier to do the dress--and all my sewing--when I finally got around to it.  which was of course mere days before the wedding itself, but that's no longer important.

I like seeing other people's systems for organizing themselves, so I took some pictures to post here for anyone else who shares my obsession.  Of course it's all very messy again by now, since I've actually been using the space, but for a few brief shining moments it was perfect as pictured here.

The top picture shows the thread holder I hung up above my cutting table which also holds my sewing machine.  I put various zippers, bias tape, hem tape, lace, and ribbon in zip lock bags which I also hung on the extra pegs, and 2 clipboards on the bottom row of pegs to hold pattern instructions for easy reference as I cut or sew.

the bottom picture is of peg board which I hung to the right of the sewing table for all my scissors and rulers and tape measures, etc.  I also left space at the top for zip lock bags with unfinished projects, though I hope to eventually cut back on those by, you know, finishing them.  Or giving up and getting rid of some which I've already done.

Under the table, where you can't see it all, is a laundry basket with mending, a shopping bag with scraps, and some cutting mats and other things too big to hang elsewhere.

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!

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.

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.