shirt!

Holla atcha, blog! I finished my shirt! If you recall it was a dress to shirt transformation that involved the total take apart of the dress to cut out pattern parts and put it together as a shirt. I learned cool things like how to UNDERSTITCH and SLIPSTITCH. (RElearn, actually, since I had done it before, but long ago.)

As a refresher, here's the before:

Let's remember, this was $0.75 worth of fabric (and buttons! and zipper!), and now it is this not-perfect, but good-enough shirt:

I promise I'm wearing shorts. Just you can only tell in the one picture. It's a bit shapeless, and you don't really notice the little yoke and gathering up top (detailed in the corner), but I like the pattern and I think I like it enough to actually wear it around. There aren't any pictures of the back because the back is pretty much exactly the same as the front. At the very least, I am proud of myself for finally finishing it. And I like it with a belt!

Things that were tough:

• This fabric is old. It frays soooo easily (and rips easily too) 'cause it is decrepit and fragile.
• The pieces didn't match up as well as I would have liked. 
• I got so tired of working with the instructions after a while. It is a lot more work to sew from a pattern than to just wing it. 
• I put too much pressure on the pedal of the sewing machine and it goes crazy fast and I'd get stressed when I was sewing sections that needed to be more particular.

Things that were nice:

• Making something totally different from a frumpy dress.
• Hand sewing! I actually really like that sometimes. Like when Mad Men is on and I'm seeing all the pretty clothes while I make clothes.
• The pattern of the fabric hides mistakes!
• I like gathering fabric!
• BEING DONE.

And on the topic of being done, to be honest there are a couple things I should fix that probably I won't because I am just so over this project, ha. BUT IT IS DONE (enough) SO THAT'S OKAY.

Also spent hours out for coffee and dinner with dear Steph and read more of my book. I am almost done with it-- expect an entry about it because I am wrestling with it very much.

So today, blog, has been very productive. Even though I didn't get up until noon.

almost finished

Srsly almost finished with that shirt I've been sewing. Hemming and side-stitching left- easy-peasy. Read some today, too. Legit blogging tomorrow.

the truth about some things

1. I am a terrible blogger, mostly because my life is not interesting enough to talk about.
2. Today... not the most productive.
3. Cleaned my room, though, since I have been letting it get ridiculous by leaving/throwing things everywhere.
4. Also finished season three of Gossip Girl, not that I would ever watch or have ever watched that show.
5. Read a lot of pages, too.
6. OH AND I DID whip out my clarinet and play it for a while for the first time in a long time. My mouth is no longer strong buuuut I do remember notes and I played what band music I had that sounded interesting and I miss band a lot because I'm a giant nerd. I will maybe get some good solo music or something.
7. I did sew a tiny tiny bit.
8. So I guess it wasn't that unproductive.
9. Here's a pretty picture I found on the internet, because every blog (especially this one) needs more pictures:

Found it here.

hey again, blog!

I have not been home so here's an update:

• made a bandana! with embroideryomg!
• pumpkin muffins!
• wandering around outside!
• super fancy mall!
• driving in the rain and the sun!
• sister's graduation!
• got a new book and been readin' it!
• avatar and where the wild things are! (both pretty decent)
• camp planning!
• picking off all my nail polish! (oops)
• sleeping and eating!

So. Back to regular updates tomorrow.

sewing and i...

Dear Sewing from Patterns,

You irritate me. Pictures do not often come out quite the same in the pieces. Gathering fabric is weird and upsetting to pin and baste, because it doesn't seem like it's going to look nice, but then it does look nice and I am thrown off. I get too stuck in wanting to be just like the pictures and it makes sewing stressful instead of kinda fun and creative.

Now, I know that you help me to be happier with what I sew. In the end, I'm way happier with you than with refashioning, usually. (Except when you really mess with me and end up looking terrible / when I don't follow directions). You are teaching me a lot, and I appreciate that. Maybe someday we can be best friends. I think once I am better at this sewing thing, we will be. I have faith in us.

Just know that you're not my favorite ever right now.

With love maybe someday,
Lindsay

Anyway, even though sewing from patterns is frustrating and hard for me to keep to, I did do a little bit of work today on that shirt. Then the cranky set in and I had to put it down. It's better for everyone that way.

Got laundry done! I am the best. Three loads worth of awesome.

I think another reason I'm frustrated with sewing, now that I'm thinking about it, is because I have way too many projects I want to do, and sewing a shirt from scratch takes a hell of a lot longer than sewing a skirt from a dress. A lot less attention to detail is necessary for that and the instant gratification is a lot more instant. I am someone who likes to see results, and sewing from patterns takes me sooooo much longer to do than refashioning old clothes. Speaking of, I have at least seven pieces in my closet (thanks Sarah, for your grandma's dresses!) waiting to be refashioned. I have tons of fabric from my grandma's house and tons of patterns. I have a bag full of high school t-shirts and fleece waiting to be turned into a t-shirt blanket. There are too many projects I want to do, so when one takes a little longer I get frustrated and just stop being inspired with that one and thinking too much about other things I want to do. Which means I get nothing done.

OOPS.

Note to self: finish sewing your darn shirt so you can move on. It could be fun. Attitude is everything, right?

Speaking of, I'm working from this pattern: McCalls 5388. It's not hard, but it is time-consuming. No ruffles and no sleeves, so it's in Quadrant III, for all you math nerds.

not the most productive

Well, guys, today was not the most productive of days. To be fair, it wasn't entirely unproductive. I did go out and get fingerprinted to prove I'm not a kidnapper for my summer job. Then I came home and got distracted by UH OH THE TELEVISION.

But it wasn't just any television. It was TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras. Jesus. That show. Is the worst. It is watching the worst people ever do the worst things ever and make examples of how America is terrible sometimes. I could not look away, obviously. And TLC was doing some marathon or something because I watched four episodes (that's four hours) while I half-heartedly worked a little on sewing and also ate dinner and stuff. But basically I spent my day watching 3-year-old (sometimes they were younger and sometimes older... up to 9!) pageant girls (and boys!) and their crazy pageant parents and being so horrified I couldn't look away.

Am I disgusted with myself? Eh, maybe a little. But days like these happen sometimes. It's like that time after I had oral surgery that I watched Tila Tequila all day while on Vicodin. Anyway.

So what sewing did I get done? Well I transferred the funky shapes on the pattern sheets to the fabric (this... might not make sense if you don't know how patterns work... but basically there are little shapes that you have to match up between pieces, like a puzzle, but you have to copy these shapes onto the fabric, or at least that's what I do runonsentencesorry) and then I sewed the bias tape onto the arm hole bits. This takes a lot longer than you'd expect, turns out. Three rows of sewing for each arm hole and multiple times ironing and super-precision and stuff. BUT IT WAS A GOOD LESSON, and I will definitely use bias tape in the future for things like u-necks and other arm holes and stuff. Also now I can make bias tape, which is good for the part where I am cheap and also good for matching fabric.

I also worked on the gathering that happens around the neck, and I was gonna sew on the yoke (this shirt has a yoke! front and back!) but then I got a phone call and now I'm all thrown off so I'm just going to give up on productivity for today. Particularly because sewing when I'm tired and irritable means that I will do a quick (crappy) job, and I am supposed to be getting better at this, not cheating.

So... kinda did stuff, but could have done more, had TLC not thrown horrifying people in my face for hours. (I also watched PREGNANT AND IN PERIL, which was really not as interesting.)

On a brighter note, I've been writing everyday before bed, except when I am not home / when company is over. All summer, actually. I am pretty proud of myself for that. Also, this is funny.

a shirt for $0.75 (provided I can follow directions)

After a glorious birthday weekend involving relaxation and booze and turning into a grown-up-21-year-old, I'm back to doing things that are slightly more productive and sometimes less fun.

I started today with some good old-fashioned seam-ripping to take apart the floral dress recently procured at the local thrift store for $0.75. I took apart the sides, took out the 8 ridiculous pleats on the upper portion, took out the zipper, took off the non-functional buttons, and ironed the crap out of that fabric. (Sometime in the middle of SEAM-RIPPING FOREVER was a trip to Target where unfortunately there remain zero one-piece swimsuits, which is a bummer because I need one for not looking whoreish working at camp this summer.)

After seam-ripping the poop out of everything, I cut out a pattern for a SHIRT because I am going to try making a shirt. It's Simplicity somethingorother, I don't remember the number, and I am far too lazy to go upstairs to look at the pattern. I'll include it next time, once (if) the shirt is finished. Although I love skirts and dresses very much, I'm attempting a tank top mostly just because I've never made a shirt at all and it's a SUPER COOL CHALLENGE for myself. Which actually seems like it's going to be a lot easier than all the other patterns I've attempted in the past, soooo fail on the challenge part, maybe. (Fun fact: I have sewn three things with patterns. One was a tote, one was a dress, and one was a failure of a dress.)

Somethin' coo': I noticed unfortunately that I need bias tape for this pattern, also. I've never used bias tape before but I'm excited for it, not only because it's a new thing to learn, but also because I made my own. Usually you buy stuff that matches your fabric, but I made some from some leftover fabric. I used this tutorial, but I don't have a fancy bias tape tool, so I just used my iron (it takes longer).

Here's a picture of the dress before, some homemade bias tape in the upper right corner, and the cut out pattern pieces waiting for me to sew them.

The little green square on the neck of the dress is the price-tag. $1.50, but green tags were half-off the day I went, so I got it for $0.75, and soon that'll mean a shirt for $0.75 and also a good long zipper and some buttons. This is what we call a good deal.

Going to the zoo with friends tomorrow! And maybe even doing some sewing. We shall see. It's supposed to be summer for real tomorrow (hot) and maybe the zoo will kill me (probably not).