Category: Making

sewing

Stashbusting with the Sewasauruses

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It’s only been recently that I’ve started to take seriously the challenge of “sewing down” the fabric stash. Several of last year’s projects have “use what you have” as part of their guidelines. I’ve used stash-fabric for many of my Sew.Quilt.Give. contributions. Throughout last year, I had the general goal of not buying lots of new fabric; I don’t know that I succeeded at this, since I have a teetering pile of “potential” clothes. Not buying more fabric is one thing. Using up the stuff on hand is another. I may have intentions to live lightly and not accumulate stuff, …

crochet

Yarning

Once upon a time, I thought I’d crochet myself some socks. I bought two balls of sock yarn and found a pattern to download. And made exactly 1.4 of the ugliest socks ever. I don’t know if it was me or the pattern but this was a sock designed for someone with a large growth protruding from the top of her foot. I did the only sensible thing: tear it all out and pretend it hadn’t happened. Now, what to do with two balls of sock yarn? I started a shawl. It made sense at the time. My shawl pattern …

sewing, Wardrobe Improvement Project

Showtime

The official Tiramisu sewalong is all done. And after three muslins for the the bodice, I’m saying it’s time to do this thing for real. Not that I’m totally confident that I’ve got the fit “just right”. But I’m not sure I’m being realistic any more. The last time I had the latest muslin on, I noticed some wrinkling around the armscye area. Has it always been there? Is it supposed to do that? I might be starting to nit-pick, looking for flaws to adjust where there aren’t any. Besides, my muslin fabric is a bit different from the fabric …

sewing, Wardrobe Improvement Project

Over-Estimation and Frustration

After at least 3 hours yesterday working on my Tiramisu, I have nothing to show. I suppose I could post a photo of my abandoned muslins, but you can imagine a small pile of green fabric topped with some pieces of white-and-red stripe, both with lots of loose threads, right? It’ll have to do, since I don’t have the guts to post pictures of myself in ill-fitting muslins. Man, this has been frustrating. I’ve long thought of myself as a fairly solid intermediate when it comes to sewing. I’ve now come to the realization that drawstring bags, phone cozies, tangle …

sewing

Other things I made in December

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Rather than drag out the “catching up with things I made last month” posts any more than I already have, here’s a (incomplete and abbreviated) wrap up of some of the things I made on a whim. Like these woven stars. I used Betz White’s tutorial, which is way easy to follow. I used tweezers instead of a bodkin (’cause I don’t have one) to finish the weaving. The binder clip hint is essential. I am wondering if these stars would come out if I used sewn fabric tubes instead of quarter-fold strips. There’s a lot of fabric folded away …

sewing, Wardrobe Improvement Project

Making a Tiramisu

StephC over at SewingCake.com is hosting a sewalong for her first pattern release, the Tiramisu dress. I’d like to say I’m participating, but I think I’m more officially lurking. Maybe it’s different in Australia in early January, being all summery and so forth. Here, the second week of January is full already, since that’s when all the things that have been ignored for the two weeks of Christmas/Winter break come due. Or maybe I lack dedication and I’m looking for excuses. Either way, I’ve been watching the Flickr pool and the assorted discussions for the sewalong, but I haven’t uploaded …