Elisalex Skirt

This past Saturday, Matthew and I attended a wedding of one of my friends. I first met her about 9 years ago when I worked at Welch Allyn for about six months. We have stayed in contact since then and I'm glad that I moved back in time to come to her wedding!

When I sew, I mostly sew things that are useful to wear and that I will wear a lot, cake as some people say. I don't really sew a lot of "frosting", but I think a wedding is one of those times when you can make some super dressy and fun. I used the skirt portion of the Elisalex dress and used a super shiny curtain I bought from the thrift store last year. I still have three panels left of these curtains and I don't know how many more shiny green garments I need in my closet! I procrastinated the sewing of this dress until the week of the wedding, so I decided to just use the skirt portion of the pattern because I just needed to fit my waist and I didn't want to mess with fitting the bodice on my body.

From September 24, 2014

I traced out the pattern pieces for the skirt, held them up my waist, and laughed. The drafted pattern piece reached to about mid calf on me and I knew that was a first class ticket to Frumpsville. I originally cut off 9 inches from the pattern piece before I cut out my fabric and before I hemmed the bottom, I cut/hemmed off an additional 4 inches. No Frumpsville here.

From September 24, 2014

My curtains were lined with a white cotton fabric and I used that as my lining. I cut the lining with the same pattern pieces as the skirt. I thought about drafting a waist band, but decided to just join the lining and front fabric at the top. I understitched the lining to the fashion fabric seam allowance to keep it from peaking out. I cut the skirt in size US 4/ UK 8 and it fit my 26" waist snuggly, but not uncomfortably. I did not decrease the tulip shape at all as I have seen other people do, I think it looks fine as is. With the shorter skirt length, I think the poofy-ness is a nice proportion. I installed an 8 inch invisible zipper at the back of the skirt.

From September 24, 2014

I made the scarf I am wearing from a piece of polyester chiffon fabric. I originally intended for that fabric to be used as an overblouse thing to wear over camisoles, but it is so damn shifty! Cutting it out was a nightmare, trying to get the seams to line up/sew up was a nightmare. Nightmare all around. I don't think I am ready for the shifty chiffon world and I can see why people on Project Runway get dinged for using it when they don't know how to handle it. Instead of a shirt, I cut out a rectangle and hemmed up the edges with my narrow hem foot, leaving the selvedge edge free. I love the colours on it - they go with everything in my colour palette! And as a person who is not a big fan of prints, this is very abstract and pretty. I love it and got a lot of compliments on it when I wore it to a job interview.

From September 24, 2014

I'm laughing in all these photos because Matthew's face was hilariously scrunched as he was trying to see the screen in the afternoon light.

I'm not sure where else I can wear this skirt, but it was fun to make up. Maybe I'll take the time to fit the bodice knowing that I like the skirt shape.

Hi, I am at Portland

It has been about a month since I left the East Coast and I wanted to update my blog about the move.

1. I do not have my PhD... yet. I am still trying to decide if I am going to defend, but for right now, I am pleased with my conciliatory Master's. The jobs I am applying for do not require a PhD and it might be better if I just stick with my MS. I do need to make a decision one way or another soon, though, because tuition billz for the fall semester are arriving soon as well as student loan repayment billz if I am not in school.

2. The cat survived the move mostly unscathed. Our vet in Dover prescribed her Xanax for the flight and shortly after I gave her the smallest dose possible, her back legs became paralysed. It was terrifying to watch her pull herself around by sliding against the wall. She was really Zen about the whole experience as if she was thinking "Okay, this is what is happening now, how do I best go about the situation" and not showing any agitation or anxiety. Although, that might just be due to her having some Xanax. We took her to the emergency vet clinic a few hours before my flight and thankfully, the paralysis had already started to wear off. She was the best cat on the airplane!



3. I am currently looking for a job doing.... something. I am applying to a variety of positions (QA engineer, physics instructor at the community college, data analyst for an education research company) and the common thing that sparks my interest seems to be if it is something meaningful (environmental! education!) and technical. I want to find a job where my technical skills are used and what I do contributes in some way to making this world a better place.

4. Sometime in the last five years, there has been an explosion of cider makers in the PNW and I couldn't be happier. While Farnum Hill ciders were delicious, it is very fun to have a wide, WIDE array of ciders to choose from.



5. I visited my parents last week and was able to shop Mom's House of Fabric once again. It has the best prices around! Part of my fabric haul included some yardage to make some sort of garment for Mom. It is interesting to sew for people other than myself and think about how they like clothes to fit and the things they like to wear.

6. Matthew and I started working out with a friend and we are getting great pleasure in poking each other's muscles the day after a session.

7. It has been so so fantastic to be able to have such a wide array of vegan food at my disposal at both the grocery store and in restaurants. I went to the Vegan Grocery Store and I didn't have to check any of the labels for dairy (or hidden meat)! Regarding the hidden (or not so hidden meat), when I was in Colorado, my dad I went to the grocery store to pick up some food. I selected a broccoli salad from the deli area to have around as a quick veggie type snack and dutifully checked the ingredient label for any mention of dairy. When I opened up the container, I realized that while it didn't have any dairy, there were bits of bacon in it. Ha. And that was on the label.

Goodbye, New England!



Hello, to my new home!

BurdaStyle Slender Pencil Trousers

Here are the pants I previewed in the last post. I love love love them.

I used this pattern from the Winter 2014 US BurdaStyle Magazine. Matthew Santa bought me the magazine for Christmas and it was probably the best gift I have received. This magazine comes out quarterly with 20ish sewing patterns (plus more that you can download for a fee) that are generally pretty interesting style-wise. I have picked up the next two editions (spring and summer) and will subscribe after we move. You do have to put up with tracing the patterns from sheets like those below, but that is not a big deal.



Onto the awesome pants. I had about a yard of the stretch cotton twill fabric I used for my coat and was trying to decide what to do with it. Matthew suggested that I try making some pants. I went through all the patterns I have and chose 4 patterns that were pretty simple - narrow leg, minimal pattern pieces - and settled on this one from BurdaStyle.



I have a few fitting problems, but for a first go they are amazing. I made a size 36 with no adjustments. There is waaaay too much fabric in the front for a stomach that I do not have and too much fabric under my bum for a butt I do not have. I asked for fitting advice on a few sewing forums and it was suggested that I shorten the crotch length in the front, do a flat belly adjustment, and a flat butt adjustment. I'll also take in the leg a bit more below the knee.



Despite the fitting problems, I have worn these many times since I finished them. The 3% spandex makes them just stretchy enough to be comfy, but not jegging-ish and I think the colour is perfect for pants. These pants fit right into my colour palate and the Autumn 2014 12 piece collection I am working on.

Most man I have shown my pants to has had some comment along the lines of "It must be difficult to use the restroom in those pants" due to no zipper in the front. Oh, women trousers, you are a mystery to men.

One last thing: My pants were a Featured Member Project on Burdastyle.com! I'm an internet superstar.

I am on a self imposed fabric buying ban until I find a job, so I'll have to wait to make another pair of pants from this pattern for a few months. I do, though, have some linen and denim to turn into pants from other patterns in the meantime. Let the summer of learning how to fit pants, begin!

I made me a coat!

During spring this year, I discovered that I was missing a lightweight jacket from my wardrobe. I have a heavy wool coat, a lighter wool coat, a rain coat, and sweaters, but nothing between the lighter wool coat and sweaters that I could wear on non-rainy days. I thought about buying the Everlane Trench Coat, but it sold out before I was able to purchase one, so I went searching for a sewing pattern.



I am not sure how I came across Waffle Sewing Patterns, Pinterest perhaps? or maybe while I was trolling Etsy looking for sewing inspiration? Anyway, I came across the Duffle Coat and decided that it had everything I wanted in a spring jacket. It had a loose, A-line shape with a hood and pockets. Sold! So I went to Jo-Ann's to find fabric. I was browsing through the bottom weight fabrics and found this teal cotton with 3% spandex. Having a stretch cotton probably wasn't the best choice, but this coat used up nearly three yards of interfacing along most of the seams, so they are not stretching anywhere.



This was my first time sewing a coat and overall it went pretty well. There is some funny business going on, such as I sewed the toggles slightly askew so it pulls the front up a bit, when I was attaching the lining something stretched a bit somewhere leading to some bunching on the inside corner, and my first welt pockets are not even but they are serviceable. I am treating this coat as a wearable muslin.



I cut a straight size 36 and it fits overall. I wish I had lengthened it for my long torso by a couple of inches, but there were not lengthen/shorten lines on the crazy pattern piece. The coat is essentially one pattern piece that is both the front and back, with no side seam, so I wasn't sure how to extend it without skewing something. I'll investigate that further if I make this coat again.



The instructions included with this pattern were fantastic. They are illustrated clearly and all the steps are very nicely explained. I was able to do my first welt pockets relatively painlessly with the very detailed instructions. There was also a reminder at each step you needed to press and provided instructions for finishing the main seams with a faux flat felling. The multi-sizing on this pattern was also great. It is set up so each size is a different layer in Adobe Reader and you only need to print off the size(s) you desire. Very clever. I would buy another pattern from this company!

The pockets are placed pretty much where a side seam would be and I find them too far back. Instead of being able to easily put my hands in the pockets, I have to search for them and it bothers me. I would move them forward just an inch or so.



My colour pallet does not normally include teal, but I just kept coming back to this fabric when I was at the store and I decided that it was meant to be. I'm still a bit iffy about this colour as a coat, but stay tuned for the pants I made from the leftover fabric because they are fantastic.



For the lining, I chose a cotton flannel gingham fabric. I really hate being cold and I thought the flannel would be perfect for early spring and late fall weather. I'm laughing in the picture above because I had just asked Matthew if he was taking a picture of my coat or my breasts.

This project took me about a month from fabric purchasing to hem finishing (which I was able to do with my blind hem foot, such a great invention). I worked on it an hour here and there when I needed a break from dissertation writing. This has been my largest project with so many outer coat and lining pieces, but so worth it. The only problem has been that I finished it right as the weather started heating up here and haven't been able to wear it outside anywhere.



Here is a preview of my awesome pants! I'll write up a post about them soon.

Post-AGU Quick Takes

1. AGU went really really well this year! I gave my first talk and it seemed fine. The talk right before mine had technical difficulties in that all of his, mine, and the talk after mine slides had been removed from the network folder and replaced with talks from the previous day. Due to the AGU time constraints, he had to do about half the talk without slides until they were able to fix the problem. Thankfully, I did not have to do an interpretive dance about EMIC waves.


2. I love love that Matthew and I get to go to AGU together every year. I wish I could take him along to all my conferences.




3. I talked to potential future bosses while at the conference and instead of helping to limit my decision, it made things much more complicated. I'm confident I'll end up somewhere super awesome.


4. I made it back from San Francisco in one piece! The very very slow bus ride from Boston was a bit scary at times due to the heavy snow fall, but I was sitting next to a post-doc and our chatting made the time go by much quicker.


It really was a sea of white while driving.


5. After cleaning off the small layer of snow from the car and driving home from the bus station on Saturday, I woke up to this Sunday Morning.




6. Kitty butt was very happy to have me home. It is nice to be greeted by this little creature that sounds excited to see you. I dig it.




7. I made Chickpea Dumplings in Tomato Sauce last night for dinner and it was fantastic. The flavour from toasting the cumin, coriander, and mustard seeds was amazing and I liked the contrast of the sauce with the little dumplings. Since I was just cooking for me, I halved the amount of tomatoes and chickpea dumplings, but kept the seasoning the full amount and it was perfect for me. I was worried about the dumplings falling apart in my leftovers, but they held up like a champ.

Pre-AGU Quicktakes

1. Let it Snow!



2. I made a delicata squash rice bowl based on this recipe this week and it was good. Very good. My changes - pan roasted chickpeas with salt, pepper, and chipotle powder instead of the tofu and no mushrooms. For the sauce, I omitted the lemongrass.


3. I have enough nice Me-Made clothes to make it through the entire AGU week. And then I can show off my threads to everyone!


4. Over the last couple of weeks, I lost two earrings while wearing them. Now I have two sad earrings without mates. I should probably procure more those plastic earring backing so I don't lose anymore.


5. Over Thanksgiving, we went to Philadelphia for our 3rd Honeymoon trip. We visited the Mütter Museum, Eastern State Penitentiary, Rocky Statue, Magic Gardens, and Museum of Natural History with animatronic dinosaurs and a behind the scenes look at how the animal dioramas are made. We also made it to Vedge (oh my goodness so much good vegan food), Miss Rachel's Pantry (okay vegan food), and Brauhaus Schmitz (not even remotely vegan food). We used AirBnb for our lodging and the apartment we stayed in was quite lovely.


6. While in Philadelphia, we went to Hats in the Belfry and bought a couple of cute hats for Matthew - fedora and page boy.


7. We also went to Fabric Row and I quickly became completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of fabric available! This is not your typical JoAnn's store which was exactly what I was looking for. Overall, Philadelphia was a fantastic trip.

Archer Shirt

I made a button up shirt! I used the Grainline Archer pattern (all patterns are 20% off through Monday with the code GIVETHANKS20) and love it!

I cut a size 4 and used the 1/2 inch seam allowance everywhere except the side seams where I increased it to 5/8 inch. I'll probably still bring in the side to make it a bit more fitted. I didn't use the instructions provided with the pattern, but followed along on the Grainline Sew-a-long. I sewed most of the shirt in a few hours, but then the cuffs started confusing me, so I had to put it away until the next day.

I am a big fan and already have several other lengths of fabric designated for this pattern. The only thing I don't like about the pattern? Having to sew on soooo many buttons.

Ghost Photos

A few weekends ago, Matthew and I went to a graveyard in town to take "ghostly" pictures. I wore a white dress I made and we used the Holga to take multiple exposed shots. The idea was to make me look like a ghost going through the cemetery. Next time, I will wear darker clothes - the white dress showed up a bit too well in all the shots. In the few Matthew was in, he looked much more ghost-like than I did.










We might use this as our Christmas card photo this year.


What do you think?

Photo Quick Takes

I went to Washington DC for work last month (right before the shut down!). Here are a few Holga pictures from that trip as well as some other photos.

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Mendum Pond for the Physics picnic.

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Creepy New England cemetery.

Autumn in New Hampshire