A plan for October

Well, it's certainly been like **crickets** around here, hasn't it? I've been on a little internet diet of late - trying not to switch on my computer at night - which has felt great but has had the unintended side effect of dampening down on the blogging front.

My original plan for October involved this stack of fabrics:


I rarely sew full outfits, but for once was hit by a wave of inspiration to stitch up something that would all go together. After I pulled this stack out, though, and mulled it over, I realized that the reason I never wear pale gray blouses is that they wash me out terribly. Especially in winter. And since this would have layered under a sweater and involved so many ruffles that nothing could possibly layer under it, I've had to stick the gray back into the stash to let it mull over what it would like to transform itself into (it currently lives as a very large Mens button-down).

The sweater refashion and murky-lavender-not-quite-gray-skirt-in-eyelet are still in the works for Fall, though. We'll just have to see if they make it for October.

Speaking of the FO graveyard, I've really been trying to cut back on those projects that give off hints of "meh" before I get too far into them. Life's too short!

MMM-L, Days 1, 2

Day 1.

Ah, yes. This was me on a chill Saturday afternoon. Do note that my skirt matches my bedding. The skirt is the one seen here [and actually, now that I look at it, that whole outfit is the exact same as the one I modeled 2 years ago. I'm not sure what this says ... except that my tastes are not so very fickle and that I'm really starting to hone in the on the pieces that I adore, and shifting everything else to the refashion/Goodwill pile?]


Day 2.

... Could it be? ...

A bone fide, out-and-out handmade dress?

Like, she didn't just slap 2 rectangles of fabric onto an existing shirt to make a 'shirt dress' but an actual dress??

Holy crap I was excited when I finished this and it fit. Princess seams! Curved yoke! Top stitching! Petite waist adjustment! Pockets (x2)! Chucking Simplicity's recommended 6" of positive ease and cutting out a size 10 instead of a 14 and then cutting into the 100% linen without making up a muslim ... and it all working out in the end! Score.

Presenting Dress #2: Flowers That Pop.


Simplicity 2798, which I found via Melissa. I am so, so pleased with myself. Oh right, and with this dress. The princess seams are really flattering, you can't really see it but there are pockets at each side panel which are terribly handy yet don't interfere with the lines of the dress. It's really flattering on, as well - skims your body without being overly revealing, and the silhouette is quite smooth. Also, I love all the customization options, and now that I know it fits, I would really love to make up a sleeved version in the future.


For the yoke I used fabric from the Park Slope line, which I absolutely adore and have been sitting on for quite some time. Initially I wanted to make a shirtdress out of it and then realized that might be a little crazy, even for me. Also, the fabric really doesn't drape well, but it works superbly as an accent, so don't be surprised if I am later inspired to make a brown fall shirtdress with this same fabric as accent piece.


I think this generally fits pretty well. After I pinched out an inch at the waist because I'm petite and have a short waist, I cut the hem 1" longer than the mini dress length and folded it under about 3/4" and used hem tape to create the hem, and it came out pretty much the length I wanted. I found the neck slightly constricting so I winged a new hemline [as, ahem, the very last step, which meant that if I royally screwed it up I'd be very, very mad at myself, but we were Living Dangerously at this point]. I also used bias tape to finish all the seams and could give a crap how wonky the zipper is in the back.


After I finished this, I read somewhere that some people find Simplicity's shoulders to be overly wide. I thought I had wide-ish shoulders after years of swim lessons, badminton, dance, yoga, and then dragon boating, but even I find them a bit on the wide side as well. Thinking about cutting a size 8 shoulder and then grading down to a 10 for the bust and hips next time around. Also, and this is related, but do you see how there is a very bit of excess fabric in the upper chest area?


I've seen some people pinch out a petite adjustment there, too. Think I should do that in the future, except not sure how to handle that with the princess seams. What if I cut the yoke 1/4" lower? Do you think that would do it?

OK, but overall those are tiny gripes. I am sooooooooo excited!!! So much so that I've dorkily peeked ahead in Weather.com to see the next time the weather will climb into the 80s and I can justify wearing it again in May ... and it should be soon! Sweet.

We return to our [ir]regularly scheduled programming!

I'm back!!! SO sorry to have disappeared like that, I can explain, really ~

-Moving apartments took WAY longer [and more people] than I expected, plus I have no internet at the new place at the moment
-Flew back to CA, squeezed ridiculously large friend-catch-up into a ridiculously small number of days
-Flew out to Beijing to see my brother!!!

I had the grandest plans to update you all while I was there, but the very first night I landed in China I realized that the Great Firewall of China does not currently like Blogger, and has it on its black list. Why? I have no idea, but this explains why my brother's blog has been silent for the last few months. I've told him to email me his blog posts and I will post for him.

There was speculation the site blockage had to do with the [then upcoming] 6/4 anniversary - you know, the one that is one month after the 5/4 anniversary that marks the beginning of the revolution that eventually tumbled China into civil war and ultimately into the hands of its current political leadership, and also the anniversary date of Tiananmen.

But anyways. After much traipsing through China [and oh man, about 14 hours on a bus in a 2 day time period, PLUS 5 additional hours in a taxi] I'm back and can't wait to share past adventures and current! Plus I've got lots planned for this summer :-). In the meantime, though, I'm fighting to stay awake to fight off jet lag [hm, like when that 1.5 hour nap suddenly exploded into a 3.5 hour one? hehe], but when I upload photos I'll be sure to share! Especially since I received some ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL mail that I CANNOT WAIT to share!!! Thanks Zonnah!!! I love it so much, it is going with me EVERYWHERE from now on!!!

OK, but to make this a non-pictureless post ...


Digging in ... and seeing how well Denyse Schmidt's fabric lines play with each other ...

New Old Fabrics to Play With

Mmm ... am falling prey to the rainbow effect ...

Am also, apparently, falling prey to the buy-fabric-in-more-than-one-colorway effect.

Who doesn't like a hint of red?

Or rickrack even, or a little bird?

More colors

Taking a little break from my purple obsession of late ...

Nice, spring-y colors. Destined eventually, one hopes, to be finished by the time spring arrives.

Stashbusting scarf

This is the yarn equivalent of a scrappy patchwork scarf ... a random stripe scarf! Perfect for using up all those odd balls of yarn leftover from other projects. Completely and totally inspired by a scarf my e. twin gave me, I am not afraid to admit, but with a bit more texture and monochromatic with lots of neutrals, of course, because that's apparently how I layer colors:

Knit lengthwise [I think I cast on 200 stitches because I like long, narrow scarves. If I was to do it again I'd probably cast on an addition 25 to 40 stitches, but that's just me. Also bear in mind that I'm about 5'2", so not very tall.] This is one of those creations my mom declared 'Ew, don't do that!' i.e. that's REALLY ugly Jessica! when she saw me knitting it, and when I was finished she decided she wanted one too. It's not the first time that's happened :-P.

A close-up of the yarn. The white novelty yarn gives it a lot of great texture. Unfortunately I got it from Michaels 2 years ago and haven't been able to find it since [um, but I've only looked in one Michaels, so you may have better luck!], so I think that's the end of these scarves for me. One 50g ball had just enough for 2 scarves.

It's so funny. I've been looking for Flea Market Fancy fabric for ages now. Of course I only become smitten like, what, 3 years after the fabric came out? This is a terrible habit of mine. So anyways. I was poking around the other day and somehow came across this post someone had written about the exact same topic and linked to someone else's post on the exact same topic and in the comments I found a phone number to a LQS in Wisconsin that will mail you out your fabric and an invoice, and you just mail back a check. Sweet! I'm so excited for it to arrive! It's been a total splurge, I think I'm going to have to put off getting more Park Slope in honor of Denise Schmidt ...

Sorry that was random but seriously, it's been 2 years of searching on and off. Also on my list? This realy great blue and green Japanese tree fabric I can find in other colorways but not the one I want, and this green handwriting fabric. Those may be lost causes.

Wonkiness, thy middle name is Jessica

Because I already have a middle name and that's Living D [cousin to Tenacious D, I'm told] so there was nothing left but to offer up my name as nickname to Wonkiness, which generally describes much of my sewing adventurings.

While on the farm Lorna, my kind host, suggested I do some sewing to pass the afternoons while she and Carl were at work, and it was just me and 250 acres of quiet solitude. Inspired by the potholders she had hanging in her kitchen then, and all with fabrics from her stash:

And as Kris pointed out, you can stick your hand in the pocket! It's ready-made for use as a mit! Lorna and I, longtime sewers that we are, neither one of us spotted that.

This picture doesn't do the wonkiness justice. It is wonkines personified. After all, trying to sew strips of fabric together which were not measured before they were cut, and then were sewed without a single pin to keep them in place, on an old machine going through layers and layers of shifting fabric ... which I somehow thought would be improved by quilting the whole thing together ...

Nope. But wonkiness it is, and inspired I call this idea. A handy way to recycle old clothing, I say!

See, I haven't been totally lagard!

Except that, really, my mom takes most of the credit for this one.


It's done! The watermelons are happy in their new home as a lap blanket! Um, except that this quilt top was mostly finished several months ago, but I finally put on the binding a couple weeks ago! My mom's been having a field day doing the hand quilting. That's our new agreement - I piece, she quilts.


Puuuuuuurty.

And luckily, I just finished another quilt top! Just have to find a backing and sandwich the layers, and mummy will have more to keep her occupied =).

27: A Matter of Logic; self photo plus the question of photography, revisited; wherein I repeat myself

27: A Matter of Logic. Now, when they have a sign that says, "$0.20/button or $5 for a cup of buttons," logic dictates that we would go for the cup [a good-sized cup, I might add], right? ... This is what I tell myself, anyways.

So back to the question of tinkering with photographs. After some thought, I realized that the point of the quasi-self-portrait from last time was not to showcase the flower pin, even though that was the original intent of taking the photo, or rather, that series of photos [I deleted most of the initial photos, and actually, its funny how these things evolve. Initially I was just straight-on taking a photo of myself in the mirror and focusing in on the flower pin. But everything kept coming out blurry, so then I tried propping the camera on my head and aiming it downwards, my stab at increased stability. From THAT the idea of using the triple mirrors in the bathroom to play with multiple images came into my mind, and that's how we ended up where we are now.] Really, the idea of the final photograph was the multiple 'selves' and what that says, so here's a revised version of last time's B/W version of 26:

And here it is with film grain. Not quite sure which one I like better, but I definitely like it better than my last B/W focal attempt. In fact, I might almost like them better than the all-color version.

And I know that nobody really cares about the millionth tote bag that I've made, but oh well:

This bag is to try to bribe my mom to use fewer disposable bags while grocery shopping. We're trying the 'reuse paper bags' method, but I thought a new tote might also do the trick.

I've had these two fabrics for awhile, and they're both thrifted finds that make me smile. Thrifted ~> Recycle ~> to Reduce Waste = :-). When I first finished the bag I wasn't nearly as crazy about the fabric combination as I thought I was going to be, but its slowly growing on me. The inside is lined with the same fabric as the handles. Let me tell you, that is a stunning print [you can also see it here but a little 1" strip doesn't really do it justice]. It was one of those TriplyHappy thrifting finds [1) a king-sized comforter with pillow cases = tons of fabric; 2) 100% cotton!; 3) half-priced day at Goodwill, score] ... expect it to show up in lots of places [see 1].

I gotta say, the bag's definitely got its imperfections [why is it that I don't always get better at things as I make more of them?] including the fact that one of the handles is twisted. Now, the old me would have gritted my teeth and picked out the stitches. The new me is learning to accept the imperfections and see them as 'character,' instead. Quirky. Adds to the charm. As a perfectionist who has always had a very specific asthetic that appeals to me, I'm really trying to learn to appreciate the character and quirkiness that comes with handmade. That comes with this blog - like that picture up there, #27? Yeah, the fabric's technically upside-down, but am I going to rotate the picture? Nah. Whatever dude. So yeah. Acceptance. Something to work on in the coming year.

Its when the scarecrows start getting adorable like snowmen that I start getting in trouble ...


Today I am making squash soup. Grandma and I roasted the seeds, which came out beautifully, and I fed some scraps to the wormies outside. It feels wonderful to use seasonal produce as a centerpiece, and later be able to use so much of it, so little waste.