Picture Quick Takes

1. I am growing out my hair. Well, the hair on one side of my head. We have finally found a hair dresser we like! And now I can do fun projects like growing out my hair in an asymmetrical fashion. Next hair cutting time, I'm coloring my flippy bit blue!

2. This past week, Matthew and I celebrated 8 years of being together. Today we made our anniversary dinner and drank a stupid delicious bottle of wine to celebrate.

We made Japchae, Curry Tofu Cakes, vinegar dipping sauce, with rice and ate on top of our Grandma Trudy placemats. It was so so great.


3. As part of a team building exercise at work, we painted parts of murals that will go into our hospitals. I got to paint the turtle butt. My job doesn't normally entail painting, but it is still pretty awesome.

4. We bought a house last month on our 95/12 anniversary! We took a week off work to paint, clean, and do construction work. We moved (or rather paid movers to move our boxes) into our new place last weekend. We love it a ton.

5. As part of the move, we purged our old college notes and text books. Does anyone need a lot of physics texts? We tried to sell them at Powell's but they wouldn't take them.

6. For my birthday this year, my sister bought me Ferment Your Vegetables and we did a great job of using our vegetable garden at the rental to make some ferments. Sauerkraut! Fermented Tomatillo Salsa! Cucumber Pickles!

7. A few months ago, Matthew and I went to Rockaway Beach and got Prontopups. So, of course, I had to get a picture of Matthew riding the Prontopup...!

Saturday Quick Takes

1. We bought our tea plants today! As soon as we buy a house we will plant them in the ground, but for now we will watch them slowly grow in the pots.
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2. I volunteered through a woman volunteer Meetup Group to usher at the Northwest Children's Theatre anime reimagining of Snow White. The show was interesting and it was nice to meet and chat with some nice women.
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3. Our sugar snap peas have been coming in and growing like crazy. They are incredibly tasty, as all garden vegetables are.
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4. On my way back home from the theatre today, I stopped by Powell's, as you do, and picked up a couple of new books. The Pattern Magic books are to help with the sewing funk. It is crazy fabric manipulations for things that range from completely unwearable to I could probably wear that to work.
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5. A few examples from Pattern Magic:

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6. These lentil meatballs are on my list of things I want to cook this week. We picked up some rhubarb and strawberries at the farmer's market this morning, so I'm planning on making a couple of tarts as well.
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7. Are you watching the Americans? I love it so much and I found out that it was based on this story of Russian Spies living in the US. A commenter on Metafilter lived down the street from them and reports that they were not out of the ordinary, as you would expect from spies trying to blend in.

Quick takes back again

1. I am updating my food blog with pictures of what I am bringing to work for lunch. It has been a fun exercise to decide what to eat for lunch every day, especially since the cafes at work are not fantastic.

2. I moved to a new cubicle a few weeks ago and I am now by a window, but unfortunately, I now face my boss.

You can see his monitors poking over the top of mine. My old desk is the one in the far background. My goal for the weekend is to buy a tall leafy plant to put between our desks.

3. I went to ACT-W last weekend and it was fantastic. It was wonderful to be around so many smart, nerdy women.

4. I am going through a sewing funk right now. I bought some bra making supplies, but the fabric I bought (from an online store) was so terrible to sew together, that it threw me into a funk. I am trying to decide what to make next. Maybe I'll try bras again with a different fabric.

5. I bought all the ingredients last weekend to make Watermelon Tuna, but never got around to making it. That will be this weekend's project!

6. I need to get new glasses.

I wear mine on top of my head any time I need to do something close up, otherwise my eyes are strained. Time to use my vision insurance!

7. Matthew went on a quick trip to Shanghai this past week and he brought back the most delicious green tea I have ever tasted. He bought it at a market where they were roasting the tea leaves. It tastes amazing. I can't wait to be able to make my own tea!

Podcasts

I love podcasts. I listen to them while sewing, riding the bus, at work, and while I'm doing things around the house. And because I love finding curated lists of podcasts by other people, I thought I would put together one of my own.

News
NPR 5 minute hourly news summary. This is what they play at the top of every hour and it allows me to get a quick news update whenever I update my podcast feeds.

Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten. Slow German news. It updates daily with about 10 minutes of slow read German news and I love it.

Tagesschau. More German news, but at a regular speaking pace.


Deutsch
Slow German. Slowly spoken German podcast about.. anything. The latest one was about having Coffee and Cake with friends and family on Sundays.

WDR Hörspiel-Speicher. I LOVE Hörspiels. They are German audio plays that can be disturbing, funny, strange, or historical. I have noticed two things though - a lot of people die (Er ist Tot!) and people apologize a lot to the point where the bad guy saying "Es tut mir NICHT leid, ha ha ha" was quite amusing to me. This podcast has a series of shows right now called Klaus Barbie and from what I could make out, I thought it was a detective going around to different cities around the world helping solve crimes or something. Well, it wasn't really and Klaus Barbie was not just some fun loving German detective and I don't REALLY know what I was listening to.

SWR2 Hörspiel. These are more documentary dramatizations Hörspiels. The one they did recently about Hurricane Katrina was really interesting to listen to.

Homestorys. I recently subscribed to this podcast, but it seems like they interview a different person every episode in their home and they just talk to them about their life. I like it so far.


Interesting people having conversations
Longform Podcast. One of three people will interview some sort of journalist about writing, gathering stories, and the process of creating. This is another recent addition, but I enjoyed the last couple of episodes.

Death, Sex, and Money. A WYNC podcast about... Death, sex, and money. The host, Anna Sale interviews famous people and no so famous people about really intimate things in their lives. They did a series of stories with people in New Orleans that were all amazing, but I especially liked Terri Coleman's episode. Also check out the Siblinghood episode.

On Being. This used to be called Speaking of Faith and Krista Tippett would interview a lot of priests, rabbis, theologians, etc. But with the name change, the format was changed to focus less of spirituality and more on passion, although there is still a lot of religious talk. Check out: Katy Payne, acoustic biologist who decodes elephant language and whale songs and Gordon Hempton, acoustic ecologist who records "silence" in nature.

Criminal. They interview a "criminal" or someone who knew the "criminal" every episode and tell their story. It isn't so clear on if the people are always criminals or not. Petrified Forest Thieves and the woman who acts an exit guide are a few episodes that I liked.

Strangers. Lea Thau interviews normal people so they are no longer strangers. She did an interesting series where she interviewed her past boyfriends to see what went wrong in their relationships. Or check out this episode with with a booker for Court TV on her job.


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I'll blurb all the rest of my podcasts at a later date, but here is a list of them for reference.

Science Vs
This American Life
Planet Money
On the Media
Note to Self
Ask me Another
Snap Judgement
Invisibila
Serial
Slate's Double X Gabfest
Slate's Political Gabfest
Reveal
Seriously...
Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything
99% Invisible
The Heart
The Allusionist
Lore
StartUp
Reply All
Mystery Show
What's the Point
Best of the Left
Above & Beyond: Group Therapy
Deep House Cat

The Wedding Dress

Goodness, it has been a bit over six months since I last posted. A lot has changed - we moved from our downtown-y apartment to a rental house in further out SE Portland (where I have a private sewing studio!), after 11 months of underemployment I started a job in June with a local non-profit health insurance company where I do fun data analysis projects, and I made my sister's wedding dress!

This post is about the wedding dress.

I started with Lekala Little Atlas Dress #5199 in her measurements. It is a bit unweildly to make a wedding dress when she lives in Texas, I am in Oregon, and the wedding was in Las Vegas, but we made it work through photos and chatting on the phone.

I used the bodice of the Lekala dress and drafted a 1/4 circle skirt according to her measurements. My sister crocheted an overskirt (and shawl, but it was too hot to wear it) which was so pretty.



I made the final dress out of Silk Dupioni lined with rayon bemberg. It was my first time using either fabric and while I liked the feeling of the bemberg, it was a bit of a bitch to sew due to the the shifting while cutting and sewing! On the other hand, the silk was fantastic to sew with because it had a bit of texture and did not shift around.


Here are the practice dresses:

Muslin #1 - Bed sheets from my mom's fabric stash. (Thanks, Mom!) My sister wanted the strap on the left, just narrower.


Muslin #2 - Fabric from JoAnn's. I used the straps from the Cambie Dress, but they were toooooo wide, so I took them in by 2-ish inches for the final product.

I have made this dress a total of 5 times - 2 linings and three fashion fabrics and I am now able to bust it out in about 3 to 4 hours. Doreen, if you ever need to renew your vows in the same dress, I can totally do that for you. : )

Here are a few more final photos (with Elvis. It was Vegas after all! If you are going to get married in Vegas, it probably should be done by Elvis). The straps should have been sewed a bit shorter, but at the final fitting, it looked like they were fine. My mom did the hand sewing to attach the straps to the dress (Thanks again, Mom!). I dislike hand sewing a lot.


Her bouquet is made out of "zipper roses". A friend from her work made all of them and she assembled them onto the foam ball. It looked super cool.






The immediate family.


Everyone who came to the wedding!


Here are a couple of photos from the after party:


Sister Selfie time!


Doreen is drinking all our wine!!


My siblings (minus my brother :( who wasn't able to make it). We all look the same and different at the same time.


I didn't make time to construct a new dress with working my new job, so I went to Nordstrom Rack to pick up a new dress. It was so novel that having a completed dress didn't take many complicated steps (scheming, cutting, constructing), long hours, and swearing - I just tried on a few dresses and picked the one that fit me the best. My sister, Beth (on the far left), though, made her dress, and did a super great job!

FYI: It is a terrible idea to go to Las Vegas anytime that it might be hot. The weather ranged from 27C to 42C+! But, as everyone kept reminding me, at least it was a dry heat. However, it was so hot, that I don't think humidity played a part in my uncomfortableness! Also, I recommend going to the Hoover Dam and taking at least the Power Plant Tour. It was really neat to learn about the history of the dam. Although, I think the idea of the dam providing endless water to the surrounding states is flawed, it really is an engineering marvel.

TL;DR: The wedding dress came out well, the wedding was so much fun, and Las Vegas was hot. A++ would do again.

As a side note, my husband has the same waist size as my sister, so I had the dress on him to trim up the unevenness from the quarter circle skirt. I wish I had taken a picture of him in the dress, but alas, the memory just stays in our heads.

2014 Sewing Round-Up

I didn't sew as much this year as I desired to. We moved in the middle of the year and while being VERY happy about the move, I have been a little sad and directionless. I'm doing better now that I have more of a life plan made - anyone want to move to Oregon and join our Space Science non-profit? I am also giving myself permission to sew and not think of it as time wasted because I am not looking for a job. The things we get in our heads sometimes...!

Here is a round up of my favourite things I made this year and the not so favourite things. I gave away a lot of my handmade clothes to friends because it fit them better than me, so I don't have photos of all the clothing I made.

Belated San Francisco and Christmas write-up!

I was in San Francisco for a conference a few weeks ago. Well, to be clear, Matthew was there for the conference and I went along to see my space science friends, see the SFO sights, and go to sewing shops. While I was there, I saw a post on Carolyn's blog that she was \ in San Francisco for the same conference and was asking if anyone wanted to meet up for fabric shopping/coffee, etc. After my husband encouraged me to email her, we got together and went to Britex fabrics! It was my first time meeting up with another person who is as obsessed with garment sewing as I am. We had a great time chatting and walking through the fantastic fabric shop. Carolyn is friendly, super talented, and makes wonderful clothes. I'm glad I got over my social awkwardness to send her an email. Thanks for fabric shopping with me!

After our shopping excursion.

Interesting things

Here are some interesting things from around the internet.

1. One of my friends runs a sandwich blog in which her and another friend are making all the sandwiches from the Wikipedia list of sandwiches in the order that they appear in the list. The writing style is amusing and I am in awe at the commitment to go through all the sandwiches.


2. Earth has a space shield! A friend of mine is on the paper that found, using Van Allen probe data, there is a "glass wall" keeping out killer electrons. Pretty neat-o.

I tried to find an article with the most ridiculous comment section and I think this might be it, although the Fox News comments didn't load for me, so I could be wrong.

"the thing the worries me is haarp messes with the atmosphere and there is no guarantee our shield is not being effected or damaged by this. If this planet loses its shield to solar storms are particles we will all cook before we even have time to scream."

"And yet US astronauts apparently just closed there eyes and put on sun tan lotion while cruising through the belts whilst traveling to the moon, haha yeah I buy that theory!"

"Its God who protects us. God's shield."

Gold, my friends. Pure comment gold.


3. A former labmate is in Antarctica doing some fieldwork on instruments down there. His blog is interesting and I have been enjoying the daily penguin updates (none seen as of yet). I'm jealous that I never got to experience time out on the ice!


4. Are you listening to the Serial Podcast, a spin off from This American Life? If you aren't, you really really should be. I found out this week that Slate is doing a podcast about the podcast and I am excited to start listening to it. I love hearing theories on who committed the murder based on what we are told.


5. I no longer identify as Mormon, but much of my extended family does, so I like to check in on what happens in that realm occasionally. One of the things I dislike about the church is how women are not treated as equals to men and they are told they should just be happy with their special roles as wives and mothers. This past summer Kate Kelly (founder of Ordain Women) was excommunicated for advocating for gender equality in general and more specifically allowing preisthood ordination of women. Around the same time as her excommunication, John Dehlin (who runs a popular Mormon podcast that talks about "tough" Mormon issues) was facing his own possible excommunication but it never happened. Kate Kelly wrote a blog post on why she thinks she was ex'd and he was not. SPOILER ALERT: Four of her reasons are "He is a man". As a person (not just as a woman!) it pains me to see people being treated differently based on their sex. A woman should be able to do the same things a man does and vice versa. I have so many thoughts about Mormonism that I usually only voice to my lovely husband, but I might write a post soon addressing some concerns that won't stop bothering me.


6. Recipes that I want to try: Pumpkin Chili (substitute jackfruit for the pulled pork); quinoa bowl with gravy, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes; and a new way to serve the carrots hanging out in the back of your produce drawer.


7. Happy December! I get to see Space Science friends in a bit over a week, give Matthew his awesome Christmas presents in a few weeks, and enjoy the non-snowy days here is the lovely PNW all month long. It is going to be a great end to 2014.

Thank you, Auto Awesome, for making our Christmas tree last year twinkle.

Jade Skirt and a little rearranging

I've been on a sewing streak this past week or so. I finished the Scout shirt I spoke about in the last post, but it has been relegated to the trash bin - dartless tops do NOT look fantastic on my bigger bust and the upper chest and back were much too tight for me. It is too bad because I LOVED the fabric I used. Oh well, at least I learned more about my serger and the insides were very clean.

On to something that totally worked for me! And I was able to serge almost all the seams!

Sewing Fails

Not everything I make turns out super awesome, sadly. I have been working on this blouse thing from 9/2014 Burda Style for the past week or so in short chunks. Trace the pattern here, cut the pieces there, sew this and that.

Doesn't it look lovely in the photo? It is sized for petites, so I added some length (1.5 inches above the bust and 1.5 inches right above the waist) to put it back in "normal" size and to account for my long waist. I probably could have gotten away with just 1.5 or 2 inches or maybe nothing at all! I've made three or four things from Burda Style and I can't seem to pick the correct size for me. Are the sizes consistent across the patterns?



The proportions look ridiculous on me, it is too big overall (I cut a straight size 18 which corresponds to a size 36), and I am reminded AGAIN that ruffle or pleats or fluffy bits are not for me. Looking at the photos, I added WAY too much length, shouldn't the waist be on the same level at my elbow? I feel soo ridiculous in this. I know that I could probably fix it and make it fit me, but I would never be happy with it. Off to the scrap pile it goes. I am chalking this up to learning more about what I like to wear and what I look good wearing. I did learn how to construct a cut on shawl collar and my seams/pleats matched up almost perfectly, so I have that going for me.

I did get to use my new serger for the insides! As an early Christmas present, Matthew bought me the Juke MO564DE and so far, I LOVE it.



You can see this shirt cut out next to the lovely new machine. I've only had it for a week and it is my first serger, so I cannot do an in depth review of it yet, but it made the insides of this blouse beautiful and is pretty easy to operate. I'm excited to use it to make Christmas presents.

I wish that everything I make turned out great, but alas, that is not how my sewing world works. For my next project, I think I'll cleanse my sewing palate with something quick and easy like a Scout shirt. I have some beautiful green fabric a friend gave me before she left NH that I think would make an excellent shirt.