The Great British Sewing Bee!

I watched it! Thanks to Karen for letting me know it was on YouTube. I had just assumed it would be blocked because every other video I've tried to watch here has been unavailable in Germany.

(possible spoilers ahead!)

I must say, who won was completely not a surprise to me. Ann had the most experience and was very good at picking projects that were within her capabilities given the time she had.

I was astonished over and over at the difficulty of the patterns Lauren picked, and then even more astonished when she finished them! I only wish I were that good. Or half that good.

I also felt bad for Stuart. He has amazing design ideas, but doesn't yet have the skills to turn them into perfect reality. I hope he comes back in a year or two. I think he could win.

And lastly, I want to be on that show! Maybe I will move to Britain. Just kidding. Sort of.

Fearless February!

I'm joining Fearless February over at Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing! Here's my challenge to myself:

In the month of February, I will learn to sew buttonholes by hand. I will make as many as possible in order to improve my speed and my technique.

Anyone else want to join?

Major Reorganization

A few days ago, I just got so frustrated with the major mess that is my bedroom. No, I refuse to show before pictures. Let's just say it was bad.

I sorted almost everything out. It was then that I realized that the current space I had for sewing stuff was simply inadequate. I had this:

On the other side of the room, where I had heaped all my sewing stuff I had found while tidying that didn't fit into the shelves or the drawers, I had this:

So much stuff that didn't fit. I knew it was hopeless, so I went to my mother's pile of extra storage boxes (I didn't know she had one, but apparently she does!) and pulled out a bunch of boxes. Then I set myself to the daunting task of sorting that enormous pile of stuff out and deciding what to keep, what to toss, and how to sort out the stuff I was keeping.

Of course, once you spread a giant pile like this out, it looks horrible. Especially since I hadn't vaccumed! But here are the results of my labor:

I am super pleased to say that I got everything sorted into boxes and stored on that shelf you can see in the background of the 3rd picture. But I think there are enough pictures in this post already, so for the final finished project you'll have to wait until tomorrow!

Well, you know,

One out of two isn't bad. Except I didn't even do the one over the weekend. I did it last night. *sigh* I have all this sewing mojo, but I have to constantly tamp it down to write papers!I have five or six papers left and then I will be done for the semester. Not counting my final exams, of course!

I do have pictures of my completed project, but here's the thing...this is a present, and I don't know if M reads my blog. So I will have to hold off on the pictures for a little while.

The problem with this time of year...

...is that I am sewing presents, so I can't post about them! No, really I actually do have another project, but I am lacking photographs of it. It's pretty fun, though!

The other problem is that as the semester winds down, the workload winds up. I have four weeks of school and seven papers left. And five exams. So work is pretty intense at the moment. In a few weeks things should be calmer, and then I can start with real Germany wardrobe planning.

In the meantime, since photoless posts are boring, I leave you with this rose.

Wardrobe design

I'm not entirely sure who reads this blog. Probably about 50% of my hits come from family or friends. But for those who don't know me in real life, I'm going to be spending the Spring semester abroad, in Germany. BUT! I'll be going on the German semester, which means I'll be gone from February to July. And, due to the fact that I am flying on a cheap student ticket, I get to check one bag.

This means I need a very focused wardrobe. It also needs to be very varied, because this is the Freiburg temperature map:

(Image source: weather.com)

In other words, I need to be prepared to dress for temperatures in between 29 and 78, with the possibility of it getting cooler or warmer. Yikes. I don't like extreme temperatures, and both of those ranges sound unpleasant to wimpy me!

So, here are my thoughts, in no particular order.

1. Skirts are more versatile than pants, because they can be worn with tights in cold weather and without in warm weather.
2. Skirts and tops are more versatile than dresses, because with two dresses you have two outfits and with two shirts and two skirts you have four outfits.
3. I should have at least one pair of shoes that I can do *lots* of walking in.
4. I should have a pair of warm boots, which I can do *lots* of walking in. So I guess really I need two pairs of shoes I can walk in, since I won't be wearing winter boots in the summer.
5. I probably need at least a week's worth of outfits, but do I need more? If I do laundry every Saturday, I could theoretically repeat the same clothes every week for six months. Theoretically. That would be pretty boring!
6. I should probably limit my clothes in terms of colors, so pick one neutral color to be my neutral colors for the semester. Then I won't have to bring as many shoes, for example.

Has anyone else done anything like this? Does anyone have any advice? I don't want to be too spartan, but I also am starting to worry about packing, and if I decide to sew a bunch of things I want to know sooner rather than later!

Juggling the pieces of life

I'm sorry my posting has been a bit boring lately. I have three essays due this week, two of which I need to write in a foreign language, and one of which I have to record and mail to Chicago.

At the moment I feel like I'm juggling things. Nothing has fallen, and I don't think anything will, but I pick each thing up for a few minutes, make a tiny amount of progress, and then put it down again. So I haven't made any progress worth blogging about on my sewing projects.

I should be done with all my essays by Friday, and the weekend will be devoted to finishing the vest, because Halloween is on Wednesday. (Right?) I've also started a new project in the costume shop, which should be exciting. I hope.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know the reason for my silence. Once the number of balls decreases, I'll be in better shape to post something interesting.

Sew-along

I just joined the Male Pattern Boldness Halloween Sew-Along. Hopefully this will motivate me to, er, start sewing that costume. I'm just so busy with school work right now. Maybe I can get started while watching the Orioles play the Yankees tonight.

Skills I want to learn

I need to work on my skills gradually, because my current method of sewing is stupid. Currently, I pick things I like and do them as well as I can--if there's something I don't know how to do, I skip it or do a poor job of it. I wind up with ill-fitting or badly constructed clothes, and this makes me unhappy.

So. These are the skills I want to learn, in no particular order. Please recommend your favorite resource for learning them--book, video, blog, class, whatever!

1. Bodice alterations. My particular issues are narrow shoulders, slumped shoulders, and a small bust. I think probably a princess seam is the easiest to alter, so I may start with that.

2. Pockets. I can easily sew pockets if they're in a pattern, but I would love to know some pocket theory so I can add them to patterns that don't have them.

3. Buttonholes. They're easy on a machine, but my machine can't do them, and my handmade ones are sad and pathetic.

4. Facings. Mine never work right. They always flop and stick out. I need to learn either how to do them properly or replace them with a lining. Or something.

5. Underlining. The one time I tried it, it did not work well. I don't know what I did wrong, but the top layer stretched out and got all baggy. It's not pretty.

6. I don't even know how possible this is, but it would be nice to know how to alter RTW tops. (See fitting issues above.) I don't really feel like sewing complicated things like jackets, at least not yet, but they never fit me!

Any other skills I should know, but clearly don't?

Costumes and clothes

I am first and foremost a clothing seamstress. It's what I do best, what I enjoy most, and what I find most useful. And yet the vast majority of my sewing these days is in the costume shop at school. I spend 10 hours a week there, plugging away at all sort of things--making quilt squares, fixing stuffed animals, altering patterns, altering clothes, making muslins, and all sorts of things. I enjoy this job, I really do. It enables me to keep up and improve my skills through tons of sewing.

But at the same time, sometimes it feels like taking a path that runs right next to the one I would really like to be on. I am getting better at sewing. Since starting to work at the costume shop, I've learned how to do things I didn't know how to do, like cuff men's pants or make machine buttonholes. These are useful. And yet if I had the choice, I would cut back my costume shop hours and spend more times sewing clothes. Costume sewing is sometimes more and less precise than regular sewing, and I find this to be frustrating at times.

It's helpful for it to be more precise, when it is. I have a tendency to say good enough and let it be. On stage, the bright lights make it easy to see flaws such as poorly done hems or color mismatches. The need to get these things right is good for me.

However, there are times when you can cut corners in a really serious way, and it's fine. Last time I was in the shop, I altered a pair of pants. I needed to make them smaller. I picked them up, and this is what I saw:

 

The pants had been too small for someone else, and had been altered by sewing a triangle of flannel into the back of a pair of dress pants. It looked awful. But in the costume scene, it probably didn't matter--the actor probably wore a jacket to cover it up. Since costumes will be used for specific, designed movements with preordained matching clothes, there's no need for them to be able to be worn in any other circumstance. As long as no one will see it, you can cut corners in a pretty serious way. That, I think, is not so good!

For as long as I need to work this many hours a week, I will continue to be grateful that my job is in a field I love. But if I ever get the chance to step it down at the shop and up at home, I will be, as a friend would say, on it like Blue Bonnet.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the total lack of sewing reports lately. My Very Hungry Caterpillar dress has taken an unexpected and major deviation, but I should be able to report on that soon. Maybe by the end of the weekend? We'll see.

Labor day weekend work!

Well, my sewing table has gotten to be such a disaster I can hardly sew. It's also in the dining room right now, which my mother doesn't like. This weekend, my goal is to fix up my sewing area, including moving it upstairs into my bedroom. And also clean out that hermit crab tank, because my brief stint of hermit crab keeping has taught me that perhaps I am not meant to be a hermit crab keeper!
This is what my sewing table looks like right now. Note the giant pile of stuff stuffed behind the hermit crab tank. That has to go too.

Just a heads-up!

I will be spending the next few weeks away from my sewing machine. Life has intervened, and sewing is going to be very sparse. I will have my embroidery project, so I will try to keep you all updated on that, but my internet time will also be reduced. Regularly scheduled programming should return by the end of August at the latest.

My apologies to all!

Planning vs. Doing

There are times I am just not motivated to sew. Since posting about my dress, I've sewed one seam. I am going on vacation fairly soon, and I know I won't have time to sew during the vacation. But I don't have time to finish the dress before the vacation, so I'm not very motivated to do it.

Instead, I am planning.

I have bought four new patterns from Jalie. A running skirt pattern, a knit dress pattern, and two shirt patterns. With shipping included, the order cost $55, which is the most I've ever spent on one order before! I have plans for five other patterns from Simplicity and their umbrella companies (one advantage of having teacher parents? Cheap patterns twice a year!) Now I am looking at fabric online. I don't have the energy to sew, but I do have the energy to spend money I shouldn't be spending instead!

This isn't good. No more buying fabric until I am done this dress! (Unless something should go wrong and I need more fabric for this specific project.)

RIP

Some of you may have wondered why, after getting input on more Romeo and Juliet posts, I haven't posted any. The truth is, I haven't had the heart. Just a few days after posting the poll, we received word that the rest of the run would be canceled because the boy playing Romeo had been found dead. No one was expecting this, and we still have no information on how or why he died. This took a lot of the fun out of Romeo and Juliet. I will still probably do some more posts, but it will take a while.

RIP, Tyler. You will be missed.

Dearth of posts

So, sorry for the lack of posts lately. I didn't want to announce this on the internet in advance, but I spent the last week on vacation, camping in Western Maryland. We had a great time, but (obviously) I got no sewing done. The Romeo and Juliet costumes are supposed to be due this Sunday, so today I'll call the costume lady and see where we are. Let the madcap sewing begin!

Busy? Who, me?

It's interesting, really. It never rains, but it pours! In my last post, I mentioned how most of my fabric is now assigned to a specific project. Normally, I would have picked one of those projects up and started sewing it. Probably an easy and short one for motivational purposes.

Enter, instead, more costume sewing. The school year is over, and with it, my job in the costume shop, but I volunteered to help make costumes for H's summer play, Romeo and Juliet. I had thought that this would take the form of someone handing me a pattern and some fabric and telling me, "Here, this has four straight seams. Sew this!" Was I ever wrong! The lady in charge of costumes and I had a nearly two hour meeting today. I'm sewing a tabard to match two left over from last year's play. That's pretty straightforward. However, I'm also sewing an overdress for Juliet! Clearly this woman is more trusting than I am, especially since I will have to alter the pattern substantially because it is multiple sizes too big! Don't get me wrong, I can certainly do it, but I wouldn't give someone I'd never met a costume for one of the lead roles.

These projects are supposed to theoretically be done soon. Like maybe Sunday if possible. On to the sewing! Pictures will come as projects are completed. I hope. I still haven't found my camera from my move home from college.

Why do I complicate my life?

Ok, so today I realized something. I collect complicated patterns and fancy fabrics. I also get overwhelmed by long projects and am often scared to start them. I have all these theoretical plans of making structured jackets, full-size quilts, and other heavily involved projects. As a result, I never get anything done. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of sewing supplies I have, the number of patterns that would be great if I could alter them so they actually fit, the yards of cloth that seem like they would be good for something someday, and so on.

This has got to stop.

I'm perfectly happy in a simple knit skirt, or one made out of quilting cotton. It's easy, pretty, feminine, and cheap. And it's not overwhelming. A simple dress I can pull on over my head sounds like magic to me--no fussing with anything.

I like things simple, but I haven't been applying this to my sewing life.

So--strict rules for a great purge. I'm thinking to get rid of all the patterns that aren't in my size, or the size of someone I'm likely to be sewing for (sister, mother, etc). Then get rid of all the pieces of fabric that I can't match to a pattern. I'll probably allow a few exceptions, to make my life a little easier. Nevertheless, this should greatly reduce my stash. Will it cost more money in the long run to not have all this stuff on hand? Yes, but probably not enough money to make it worth the amount of my mental energy that I waste on worrying about my sewing supplies. I'll talk this plan over for a day or two with my mother, so feel free to chime in--am I crazy? Are these rules too tight? Too loose? Any exceptions or other nuances you would add?

Dress plans

Ok, so not having a computer has been going pretty well. But I haven't been doing that much sewing either! I've been doing a good bit in the costume shop. We're currently working on a quilt. The person who runs the costume shop actually asked me to up my hours, so that's flattering! I'm working eight hours a week now, instead of five.

This is something I would like to sew:
This is fabric that I own, pinned to my dressmaker's dummy. I like the combination of the stripes and the cowl. My sister thinks it's got way too much going on and I should pick a new fabric or get rid of the cowl. What does everyone else think?

Less internet = more sewing?

Just a heads-up, that starting at the beginning of next semester, I will no longer have my laptop around. I'm experimenting with not having a laptop at college, so I'm leaving it behind at my house.

I'll still be using the internet, just not as much. I'm hopeful that this will mean more sewing to blog about and be proud of. However, I'm working 14 hours a week next semester. I blocked out my schedule and it looks BUSY. I'm going to try super hard to be organized and disciplined and sew regularly, but I can't make any promises for sure until I figure out how hard my courses are going to be. Sewing and homework are both going to have to fit in after dinner (or before breakfast, but that seems a little extreme).

Live blogging my knitting!

So, tomorrow I go home for Christmas break. I'm excited to be going home (duh) and quite pleased with how I finished the semester. But there's one project left unfinished. And that's K's sweater. I have the front, the back, and one and a half arms done. Unless I start getting way too sleepy, I'm not going to bed until I'm done the knitting. (Tomorrow I'll sew it together.) I'll live-blog my progress--although I expect the sane people are all in bed!

1:08--Just finished watching Legally Blonde for the first time ever. I liked it! I'm currently 11 inches into the 21 inch long arm. 10 more inches to go!

1:52--12 inches done, 9 to go. At this rate, I'll be done in, oh, 6.6 hours. Hmm. I guess this really will be an all-nighter. Or I'll give up. We'll see.

2:43--13.5 inches down, 7.5 to go. I am definitely feeling the time now! We'll see how long this lasts.

3:13--14.5 inches down, 6.5 to go. Slowly getting there. I'm taking a quick break to eat an orange and move around a little.

3:45--16 inches down, 5 to go. The pace is picking up! As is, probably not unrelatedly, the wrist pain.

4:15--17.5 inches down, 3.5 to go. The number left to go is getting reassuringly small, but the time is getting disturbingly late....

4:45--18.75 inches down, 2.25 to go. Slowing down. :( I should hopefully still finish within the hour, though.

5:15--20.5 inches done, .5 inches to go. So close I can taste it! I just realized I forgot that there isn't just assembling the sweater; there's also knitting the neckband. I think I can still leave that until tomorrow, though. I'll be getting up early and not leaving campus until 3 or so.

5:27--Binding off! Why is the last 1/2 inch always the longest and most time-consuming part?

5:33. DONE. Goodnight!