Good morning! It was a weekend of highs and lows -- shall we start with the lows? I had been looking forward to large chunks of sewing time, but it was not to be. Much to my dismay, I discovered that our basement was flooded and spent my allotted sewing time moving a large number of plastic bins and wiping down the the floor. Not fun. On the bright side, however, our basement is now sparkling clean and I managed to finish K's costume in time for the school event. We even got our photo ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness
Happy Friday! Above are my poor, poor neglected serger (left) and sewing machine (right). Did you know that you can use a regular old sewing machine cover for your serger too? The pear print is what could be considered a vintage Kokka linen/cotton blend -- I made that cover for my very first Singer sewing machine back in 2007 or so. I adore that fabric. The cover on the right was a potential book project (it has multiple pockets), but it didn't make the cut. Good news: final illustrations for ... Read more
Friday Outfit + Randomness
Happy Friday! The teachers' strike finally ended on Wednesday of this week, and it's funny how almost every parent I ran into on the first day of school commented how looooooong this summer vacation was. All told, the start of school was delayed for six days, but when you don't know what's happening each day, every passing moment can feel like an eternity, you know? Anyway. K thoroughly enjoyed the extra days of lounging about with friends, and despite my best efforts, I wasn't as ... Read more
Wednesday Outfit: Ottobre Marja Top
As you know, I'm devoted to my Japanese sewing books, but K is starting to outgrow the 130cm size which is usually the largest size offered. Luckily, I happened to be organizing all of my sewing books and patterns and discovered that I'd purchased quite a few Ottobre issues back when I'd first caught the DIY bug. Look, the sizing goes up to 170cm! I decided to try the simple Marja knit tunic in 134cm from the Spring 2009 issue. This was my first experience with Ottobre patterns, ... Read more
Monday Outfit: Rockstar Pants
Good morning! Everyone knows about K's love of animal prints. And most people know that I make all her clothes, so of course, she received two yards of animal print fabric for her birthday. "Pants!" she said without an iota of hesitation when I asked her what she'd like me to make with her special fabric. Pants it is. I used the "slim pants" pattern from this great book, but made a few mods in addition to lengthening the pant legs by 1cm. I changed the front pockets (the original ... Read more