A Complete Outfit

I got back into sewing in December last year with just enough time to make one piece of clothing. I chose NewLook 6944, a simple skirt with 4 godets, because it was only fitted at the waist and it seemed like a simple pattern that I could put together relatively quickly.

I did make the mistake of tracing the godets to the trim line for one of the other views rather than the cutting line, but I just ended up shortening the rest of it and, since I'm only 5 foot 2, it came out pretty much perfect.

You probably can't see it very well, but the godets have the reverse side of the fabric on the outside. I thought it might look interesting, but the colours are so similar that you probably wouldn't notice if you weren't staring at my legs.

One thing I quickly realized after I made this skirt was that I really didn't have much to go with it. Everything that was the right colour was trousers and skirts.

That's why my first project of 2018 was NewLook 6705. It's a pretty simple top that I've made before in a different size, but this time I made it in quite a shifty draping fabric. I tried to get around the fabric moving all over the place using spray starch but it didn't work out that well, so a packet of wash in starch is on my Amazon wish for next time.

Can you see the dark patches around the pleats? That's the starch. It didn't seem to do anything when I was trying to do the whole piece of fabric so I really piled it on there. It washed out, but I'm really learning something new with every project.

I never really know what to do in pictures. Doesn't help that I don't have someone to take them so It's just me and a timer. The camera was tied onto the tripod with elastic as well.

 Generally, I'm pretty happy with this outfit. I've been loosing weight lately and the skirt is a little bit loose already, but I can see myself making another one in a smaller sign. The top also doesn't do a whole lot for my figure, but under my cinched in brown jacket and at my desk that doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

One thing I will change when I next make that top is the yoke. The straps are two far apart for my shoulders so they gape and hang weird, but I don't want to do any alterations on patterns until I've stopped loosing weight and I know I'm going to be able to use it more than once.

My God, It's Been Two Years!

It's been an awfully long time since I did any proper sewing and this blog kinda fell by the wayside. I didn't mean for it to happen, it just kind of did.

I did make a dress to go to my brothers wedding, but the less said about that the better. It was bright yellow and I was at my heaviest so I can't look back at the photographs without cringing.

It was maybe a couple of months after that I went on a diet and started loosing weight. I've lost more than 35 pounds and gotten a new job that pays more, so I'm feeling better in myself, and I guess that's what's made me want to get back to the sewing machine.

What's silly is, I actually started trying to put something together back in November. It was going to be a Christmas dress for the gym's party. As it turned out I didn't have the time, and as I've been working on it it's dawned on my that at this rate it won't fit by the time I finish it.

I still love the look of it, but maybe I'll stick to stuff that's not so darn complicated until I'm the size I want. I'm going by waist size because weight get's unreliable when you add muscle into the mix, and I just have 4 inches to go before I'm the size that I'd consider ideal. That may sound like a lot, but I'm cycling 9 hours a week for the work commute so it's not impossible.

Until then I'm going to make a couple of versions of New Look 6944 in different sizes and work through them. Version C is only 3 pieces and I'm pretty sure it would be easy to take them in if I wanted to. Certainly easier than that dress!

Well, I guess it's a case of live and learn.

I Read A Lot Of Blogs

I read a lot of blogs, but I don't tend to read them like you would expect. I tried subscribing to them and reading posts when they came up but I had a tendency to not check it for a day or two... or a month, and when you go back that far and try to find where you were, you've forgotten most of it.

When I found something I was able to recognise and read forward from it, it was like reading more than one book and switching every page. Maybe that works with two or three but more than a dozen and you start asking yourself when Ahab will slay the alien. Whether Lady Chatterley will fall in love with Snape or Dumbledore.

So, when I find a blog I want to read I stick it in my favorites. When I get around to it I go to the archive tab, go right to the first post, and read forward from there. Then I bookmark the specific post and go off and do the same thing on another blog.

So if I used to leave comments on all your posts but don't any more, that's why...

I told you all this because I was going through alidamakes's archive and came across a post from back in May of 2013. It had a quote I felt I needed to share.

Makes me think of all the bad dresses I made. Makes me feel a bit better about them.

Blegh!

No crafting has happened since Saturday and it probably won't be for a few more days. I have the sore throat from hell. My submandibular lymph nodes are the size of grapes and I can't swallow without flinching.

And yes, I google everything that's just the slightest bit wrong with me.

I went to the doctors but they just used the opportunity to do a pap smear and give me an inoculation I should have already had. That just made me feel awesome...

Fashion Book Monday?

It seems like Sunday is my reading day, and since I post about what I do a day late, why don't we just make Monday posts about books?

So, in between visiting the grandparents and getting a terrible headache, I read Fashion Since 1900 by John Peacock. It's layed out with a couple of pages of drawings of various women in dress of a specific period, sorted into various categories, and then a couple of pages of outlines with the descriptions.

I can't imagine it's a book you'd spend a large block of time reading. I'll be honest, I think you can do better nowadays with google. People have scanned so much original material and posted it online.

A Pick Me Up

I was having a bit of a downer when I wrote my last blog post, so I decided to do something quick and easy to cheer myself up.

I made a rat hammock out of an old pair of jeans that had ripped on the back, in a way that left a little too much showing. I ripped both legs off and cut them down the outside seam and cut off the hem. You see those D rings in the corners? Those strips of fabric holding them on are the cut off hem!

This one should last better than the last one. :-)

I also measured a piece of fabric to go in the 'Shop the Stash' page. I knew when I bought it I'd have a hard time finding a place and time I'd wear it, but it was too awesome to pass up! :-)

Mess And Stress Killed The Crafty Bug

I just haven't been feeling up to making anything for a little while. It's partly because my workspace is an utter tip, but that's not the only reason. It's also a combination of the cold making me want to huddle next to the little space heater, work taking up a lot of my emotional energy, and getting pulled into other things like finishing writing a story I started back in August. That's always like pulling teeth.

I think I'm going to have to bring home one of the bookshelves I've got at my parents. I have to clean up my crap.