Top 5 Misses of 2013

Continuing in the spirit of Gillian's Top 5......


Top 5 Misses: Sewing Fails, UFOs, worn once, or complete disasters:

1.  Dr. Who Hollyburn skirt:  I made this to match my daughter's circle skirt, but it is so translucent that it's almost transparent!  I didn't have any lining fabric when I sewed it, so I bought a neutral slip, but then it still looked weird.  I plan to unpick the waistband and sew in a lining whenever I get some good slippery fabric.

2.  Tiny pocket tank:  I didn't even blog about this one.  It went together easily, and I used a beautiful waxed cotton from South Africa, but it just wasn't quite right.  The colour makes me look sickly, and the fit is off on me:  the high bust is both too tight (pulls across the upper chest) AND gapes open when I lean over.  Not quite sure how to remedy that, but I don't think I'll wear it again.

3.  Red trousers:  Before sewing the successful red leggings I mentioned in my last post, I cut and basted a pair of trousers from Simplicity XXXX (something I'm too tired to look up now because I think I recycled it), using some cheap red twill.  The fit was so monstrously bad that I threw them in a pile and haven't pulled them out since.  I flubbed the zip fly, the front crotch hung about 2 inches too low, and the back was giving me a horrible wedgie.  No photos exist.  Consider yourself lucky.  

4.  14th century tunic:  I promised my man that I would sew him an historically accurate linen tunic for doing readings at conferences (he studies and teaches old->middle English literature).  The cut pieces are neatly folded balled up in my to-do pile.  Oops. 

5.  Trousers for my son:  my son is going through a phase where he hates wearing anything with a button waist.  Most of his pants are jeans with button waist.  Sigh.  So I told him that I would make him a few pairs of pull-on trousers or fleece pants.  Have I made any yet?......

Top 5 of 2013: Hits

The end of the year always engenders a little look-back post.  This year I got encouragement from Gillian's Top 5 lists roundup, because G-D knows I wouldn't have thought to do this in time if someone hadn't reminded me.  

Let's just say that between working full time (with the goal of discovering some fantastic drug lead before the funding runs out in March), taking care of two kids alone during the week, and finding enough time to keep up minimum hygiene standards around the house, there hasn't been enough time for sewing related things.  I was kicking myself a bit about that, but then I tried to think of any full-time working single moms who sew and blog, and I came up blank.  If there are, I don't know how they do it.  I'm only alone 4.5/7 days per week, but it's enough to knock me flat once the weekend rolls around and Mr. A.S.S. is back home!

Where was I before I got off on that rant?  Oh yeah, Top 5s.  Here is the first of the lists, with more to follow as soon as I can find the photos on my old computer.

Top 5 Hits: Favourite Creations, most worn or most loved:  This is going to include projects from 2010-2013 because I haven't made that many things this year.  And because this is the first year I'm participating in Gillian's Top 5.  And because my blog = my rules ;)

1.  Red leggings.  I made these in April as part of Tempest's Bowie Sewalong.  I didn't think they would be a wardrobe staple, but I wear them almost every week in cold weather!  I didn't get them posted in time to be included in the sewalong, but I added my photos to the flickr group anyway.  Badass.  

2.  Thigh high slit skirt:  The Sew Weekly reunion in August was such a great way to get the band back together!  I hope that we do it again, perhaps using the Pantone colours, although I must admit that radiant orchid is not a favourite of mine.  

3.  Good Morning Starshine tunic:  I made this in 2011 and I think it is the me-made thing that has been worn the most in 2013.  It's good in summer as a dress; it's good in winter over leggings, it's good for the beach over a swimsuit.  I will definitely make another.  Oh wait, I already have.  OK, I'm make yet another. 

4.  Dr. Who littlest circle skirt:  Again with the Tempest sewalongs!  Inspired/bullied by Whovians like Tempest, Rachel and Meg, I started watching the 2005 reboot and decided to jump into the sewalong.  I'm not a cosplayer, so I wanted to make something practical.  I made this little linen circle skirt for my daughter, and she has worn it every week since.  

5.  And finally, the very best thing I've made this year hasn't yet been made - know what I mean?  It's that fantasy project that I always have in the back of my head, but never quite get around to making.  It's that avant-guard, complicated, perfectly fitting, ooh-and-ahhh-inspiring garment that is always just out of reach.  It's that project that I think about when my mind wanders during a boring meeting, or on a long bus ride when I'm trying to block out the world.  Ah yes, the fantasy project.  That's what I'm going to make next, and it will be fabulous.  

Follow me on Bloglovin

So, uh, apparently I hadn't done this yet.

Well, better late than never:


Follow my blog with Bloglovin here.  (Although I should note that I'm astounded that there are 369 of you that already follow me.  Are my sporadic unedited ramblings really that interesting?  No wait; don't answer that.)


Now excuse me while I get back to watching all the episodes of Doctor Who in time for Tempest's Doctor Who Sewalong!

Justin Leblanc's "Test Tube" Dress

OK sewing scientists, back me up here:  Justin Leblanc's unconventional materials dress that walked the runway at NYFW 2013 was made from PIPET TIPS and not test tubes, am I right?

Look at this gorgeousness!

And here's a couple of admittedly terrible screen shots from episode 13:

No, it's actually pipet tips Justin.  

Top = test tube
Bottom = pipet tip

Now that that little bit of scientific accuracy (and precision!) is over with, how can I make my own pipet tip dress?  I know it is supremely impractical, doesn't allow sitting / kneeling / going to the bathroom, but hey, I'd look and sound fabulous in it!

source unknown

It's vaguely like a native american jingle dress, except the jingles are plastic, not metal.  And they are oriented the other way around.  I made some unblogged jingle dress separates for The Sew Weekly last year, and the post is still here, so now I'm full of ideas about how I can adapt the jingle dress idea and make a kind of sewing scientist unconventional materials dress of my very own.

Wouldn't that be an incredible sew-along?!?  After all, the unconventional materials challenge is most Project Runway fans' favourite episode.  

What do you think?  Am I crazy, or have you also been hankering to go materials shopping at the hardware / grocery / garden center / lab?

OK, I'm on my way over to twitter to try to stir up the idea.  :)

 

Introducing the newest member of the family

No, I haven't joined the pregnant sewing blogger club (as I constantly remind my son, there will be NO MORE BABIES IN OUR HOUSE, thank you very much).  Rather, I came home from work on Monday to an empty house, but a curiously familiar musty smell....

What do I spy here?

Why, I do believe it's a Featherweight 221!

(Please excuse the blurry iPhone photos, but I had to get it set up and tested before the kids got home and turned it into another featured post on "Shit My Kids Ruined".  Ask me about my brand new MacBook Pro that was purchased for me last month from our research grant.  No wait, don't ask me.  I'm still pissed off.)

The whole Featherweight story is: the week before last, my Husqvarna Viking was acting up and I had it disassembled all over the living room floor like some teenage boy with his motorbike engine.  If you've ever tried to repair your own Viking, you know that it is engineered such that all the moving parts are only reachable AFTER you've removed the bottom plate, all the casings, the strap cables connecting the computerized portions, and the motor.  It has got to be the most repair- unfriendly design for a sewing machine.

Anyway, I was taking a desperately needed beer break, when my man wondered aloud if it might not be easier to just buy a new one online second hand, since there always seem to be loads for sale in Montreal.  I said that I wish I had the Featherweight that I had learned to sew on, since they are reliable and relatively easy to service.  I then got to explain to my man what a Featherweight is, and told him the tragic story of how my mother had donated hers to the local Village des Valeurs (where I'm sure it was snapped up by some lucky SOAB for next to nothing).  I showed him a few overpriced machines for sale on Kijiji and eBay, and we happened upon a reasonably priced one for sale in the next province over.  It was listed as "sluggish; needs some work", but it looked pretty good from the photos, and Featherweights aren't the most difficult thing to fix, so he decided to put a lowball bid just for fun.  Knowing how they get auto-bid up to several hundred dollars at the last minute, I promptly forgot about it.  I went back to the Viking a few days later and managed to fix it so that it was running better than ever.

But lo and behold, he won the auction!

And can you guess the cause of the "sluggish movement"?

There's the culprit:  the bobbin winder had been shoved all the way down against the belt, and the seller didn't know any better, apparently.  Their ignorance was my gain.  :)

I gave it a quick look over, threaded it, and took it for a test drive.  Perfect.  Didn't even need cleaning or oiling, but I will do both just to start off on the best foot.

Ignore that wonky stitching in blue on the right; that's from my
Husqvarna before I fixed it.

So, now I have a Singer treadle, a Featherweight, a modern Viking, and a Brother serger.  I've joined the sewing machine hoarders' club.  Though I've got nothing on Peter.

Yet.

Fall for Cotton

In just under the wire!  I blame:

1) having my machine break as I started this project, and then taking a few days to fix it myself,
2) the general exhaustion that comes from single parenting during the week while Mr. teaches in another city,
3) too much dreaming of what to make next rather than focusing on one task at a time.

I think I deserve a celebratory drink for having finished!

The pattern (Simplicity 8141) is not strictly vintage, since it's from 1996, but the silhouette is vintage-y, n'est-ce pas?  It's got that just-below-the-knee length that can be either slightly awkward or slightly retro, depending on your point of view.  I'm going to go with retro.

I'm quite satisfied with the print matching I managed on the front band.....

...and across the back seam and zip....

...but the sides are a hot mess.  But hey!  Look at that kick pleat!

The fabric is 100% cotton shwe shwe purchased at the Timba Tranding in Gaborone, Botswana in 2012.  The print kind of makes your eyes go a bit goggly, even if you haven't been drinking.  I think that's what initially drew me to the print, because frankly, when presented with 100s and 100s of shwe shwe prints, I get paralyzed by choice.  

a small selection of the shwe shwes in the shop

And just because I always like to keep it classy, here's an outtake for you Loran:

Map the Sewintists: New and (slightly) Improved!

View Larger Map

It's been exciting and frankly shocking to see so many people participate over the last 8 months in my mapping project!  When I came up the with idea that morning last February over breakfast, I thought I'd get maybe 100 people participating, which was about how many readers I had at that point.  Little did I expect that it would grow to 800+ people and places of interest!  When I talked to people outside the creative community about this, the first thing they always ask is, "How are you making money from it?"  

They've kind of missed the point, haven't they?  

I didn't spend loads of time and money developing a website; I simply opened up a portal that helped people come together, either for fun or for collaborations.  It was free for me to set up like this, and it has taken way less time that blogging for me to manage.  (In fact, I should really go back there today and clean up some of those double pins and errant pins in the middle of the oceans.  Unless you pinned while sailing the 7 seas?  No?  OK, they'll be deleted soon.)  



View Larger Map

But seriously, the utility of the map was limited by the page breaks that were automatically made after ~120 pins.  I tried to find someone who could translate the idea to a dedicated web page, but it was going to be too complicated and way too expensive for me to undertake.  So, in lieu of the time and money (and coding knowledge needed) to create a dedicated page for Map the Sewintists, I've found two ways to view all the pages as one.  I've changed the text on the original Google Maps page to this:

"Map the Sewintists
.................................. 

Because we have ~500 participants, we have spilled over on to 5 pages. Scroll down to the bottom of the list of people to see the page numbers, and they you can look at each page individually.

If you'd like to view all the pins together in one map, you have two options:

1) Easy: visit the compiled map here: http://goo.gl/maps/Y5BZd

2) If you have Google Earth: Click on the blue KML button below. A file will open in Google Earth."



I hope that makes the experience for everyone a bit easier.  Again, please let me know either though this blog or by private email about any connections you've made via the map.  I'll do a blog post if I get some interesting stories!  I know that I've used it twice already; once to find people near Tampa when I was travelling for work, and now I'm using it for my job (which I can't really talk about yet, but I'll explain if it pans out).





Thanks everybody, and happy pinning!