A Whole New Year

Hi. How are you?  It's been awhile, hasn't it? Almost a full 365 days, in fact, since my last blog post. Oh, I've been around on facebook, instagram, and twitter (albeit less often), and I've tried keeping up with peeps on blogs, but man there's an acre of sewing folk now!  The Sewcialists' Firehose now has an impressive list of people, new ones joining often. Despite being one of the founders I've neglected our movement completely for some time now. I have to give mad props to Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow for tending the fires and keeping them going.

So why have I been not blogging? There are many reasons, the biggest being my mental and physical health. I know I have talked about chronic pain, depression, and anxiety a good bit on this blog. What I didn't want to blog about was how much time and money I've spent on specialist after specialist. I didn't want to fall into the "I'm sorry for being a bad blogger, I'll try to blog more" trap. I didn't want to whine publicly about how crappy I felt. To be honest, most of the time I tell people I'm fine when I'm not because I just want to be normal.  (I don't do this with people close to me though, they can see through the lie)

Now, however, I finally have a solid diagnosis, fibromyalgia (details here if you want to know more).  It's a contentious condition with many doctors still not believing it real, and then there's whole "It's all in your head" spiel we get, especially as a woman. The ironic part is that it IS a great deal all in my head, because that's how these illnesses work, it's the brain and nervous system malfunctioning and firing off constantly.  Sometimes it will subside for months at a time, though not for me as of yet.  It comes with a host of sub-illnesses, and it is usually set off by traumatic events, and there's been no shortage of those in my life. In short, I spent much of 2015 re-evaluating my limitations and finding my center.

I think I'm close to finding my center, or as close as i'm going to get for now.  I found that I do miss writing and sharing my creations and creative process. I like sharing the weird bits of my life, too. I think this year I am finally ready to come out of the cocoon, and spread my wings and understand it's OK if they can't range as far as they used to. I want to enjoy the now and look forward to new things in 2016. This should be an adventure.

Kitschy Coo Hacks: The Cowl Neck Maxi in Blue

Hello Sailor.

 y'all. Y'ALL. This is like, my favorite knit garment I've ever made, FOR SERIOUS. Its a combination of Kitschy Coo patterns that have been modified from the original. The bodice is from the Lady Skater but I used a Threads tutorial to create a cowl neck.

The skirt is the maxi version of the Camino Cap, but this time I had enough to go all the way to the floor.  The fabric is a navy blue bamboo rayon from Fabric.com, its one of their reorderable medium weights that aren't quite so clingy as other rayons. Still, if I'm going to wear it out and about it needs proper foundation garments for a smooth silhouette.  And I have, in fact, already worn this to work.  It was a bit bizarre because if ever staring was audible, it was that day. No one actually complimented the dress, but one lady on the elevator had her mouth open. When she realized I was looking at her she said 'Your hair is... amazing".

I was like "Um, thanks! Oh hey look this is my floor".  Cause I suck at taking compliments, its taken years to learn to just say thank you.

This fabric drapes beautifully,  I might add. LOVE IT. Let's see what else? Ah yes, I used clear elastic at the shoulders and the waist for stability. I did cut the bodice two inches shorter to have it hit at the right place with the weight of the full skirt. I just did a rolled hem on the serger because this is a knit and well, I was feeling lazy. Wanted to WEAR IT NOW!

This is the "Would you please do something about your dog barking all fucking day" face. Seriously people, if you are going to have a pet, don't neglect them!!

I want like, a closet full of these! I'm wearing it around the house right now and I can be active and do things in it without worrying. If I'm cooking there are aprons for a reason!  I also know that y'all are going to ask me about a tutorial, I've already mentioned to Amanda (Of Kitschy Coo) that I'm game. The kids are away with their Grandma this week going road tripping, so its been quiet and I've been concentrating on the six things already cut out. Yes, SIX. Crazy, I know. I have another hand full of things I've not yet blogged and need to share!  I've started working out again now that my pain management doctor has agreed that it will take more pain meds in the short term but be beneficial in the long term. I'm pretty determined to make that uphill journey for a second time (the first was before Mom went into hospice).

So tell me, have you ever hacked a pattern until is was barely recognizable from the original? Did you like it afterward?

Stay tuned, later this week I have photos for Oonapalooza!

The Raglan Skater Dress

So y'all know the Skater Dress from KitchyCoo  first debuted for girls, and I really love it. One problem, it was just a little too small for Felicity. Then the Lady Skater debuted (I've made THREE! Will blog later) and its for teens too. But it was too big, except for the skirt. So I had a lightbulb moment. I decided to take her favorite raglan t-shirt pattern and hack it off at high-waist height and add the skater skirt. I had to cut the size 3 and then shorten the size one length by two inches.  It seems Viking Mom has had a Viking Daughter.

DO NOT be fooled by this adorableness. She's a bruiser when you make her mad. 

Thus, the raglan skater dress was born. It suits her broad shoulders very well and I may have to create my own hack for this too. This was the test run made out of a thick cotton/poly jersey blend that I inherited from Mom's stash. I had a moment when I remembered I was suppose to help Mom cut a dress out of this fabric for her and it sparked a short crying fit. But my family and the #sewcialists pointed out using it this way would make her happy. Especially with the added iron-on kitty bling. I'd had the iron-on for so long I forgot where it came from.

Hello Kitty!

See? The iron on gives it just a tiny bit of visual interest. Tractor and farm cats help too. I should mention we took these photos up at my friend D's place. They have lots of animals as D's Mom (its a multi-generation house) rescues animals. Anyway.

The great thing about the Skater Dress is that its perfect for active girls that like to wear dresses. Make it out of a durable washable fabric and you have a play dress you make up from cut to finish in an hour. No joke! Its no wonder these are so popular, it really is a great pattern for a sewing quickie. 

Lets see, how high is this?

Watch this!

WEEEE!

"Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuses" - Robert Heinlein

Lets give horses apple treats!

Ooof, sour apples are sour. Good thing horses like them!

Run! 

Jump for joy!!

And there you have it. I'd say she's pretty happy with the dress.

Chipmunks, Toothpicks, and a Red Dress

My weekend did not go according to plan. At ALL. I had planned on starting my Kaftan Beach Cover-up but got sidetracked by laundry, teaching kids to clean, taking my daughter to urgent care, making a red dress, and chasing a chipmunk out the second story window. And not in that order.

I guess I'll start with the chipmunk portion of this, because its rather entertaining after the fact. We have four cats and a cat door, and we live quite a ways out of the city. This means that we get all manner of critters brought in as "gifts".  The problem being, some of them are perfectly fine and get dropped in the kids' rooms. I guess because they think the hairless two-feets need hunting lessons? I dunno.  In any case, we thought we had managed to take care of them all, but when I went into Simon's room I found that his hamster food had been ransacked and was all over the floor. I was like "Did you do this Simon?" and he was all "I haven't been here in three days!". Obviously the hamsters were still in their cage.

So we went back to cleaning and I went back into his room just in time to see the chipmunk jump behind the toy box in the middle of the room (don't ask). I'm fairly certain this is the same bugger that's been eluding us for two weeks now, as part of his tail was missing last time, this time it was healed over. I had Felicity stand at the door and Simon over by his book case. And I tried desperately to corner the little bugger with a towel, a feat I repeatedly failed my dexterity role to accomplish. Every time it headed for the door or bookcase the kids would make loud noises and scare it back to the other side of the room. At one point it even went inside Simon's old computer case (empty) and I was all "TECH SUPPORT CHIPMUNK!". That solicited many giggles. So did the fact it jumped right through my legs three times when I had it cornered.  It was about then I noticed it kept jumping up toward the window from other random things on the floor.  This gave me the brilliant idea to open then window (which has no screen) and then herd it that direction. FINALLY it went for the window again, this time jumping from the little guitar amp, then barely over to the desk where it scrabbled for a hold for a second (while I held my breath), and then WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! out the window.  I stuck my head out and saw it land and run back into the woods. There was much cheering and elation on our part. I can't imagine what anyone happening by would have thought of that.

And then this happened. Somehow a toothpick managed to get on the dining room floor and Felicity stepped on it, hard enough it broke through all layers of skin. I didn't realize this until after my MIL and I tried to get out the piece that was stuck in there with a really sharp needle. This was pretty late at night and urgent care was already closed and it wasn't life threatening so we didn't take her to the ER.  We went first thing in the morning. Felicity was a real trooper, even though they had to use double the amount of local anesthetic (250ml!) to numb her foot. Apparently she inherited the "resistant to anesthesia" part of the red hair gene. This is what they cut out:




OUCH!  I  would like to mention that we did bandage it and give her some ibprofun before bed and tried to ease the pain as much as possible. Its unfortunate that the way US healthcare works, even with good insurance, emergency room would have been an 8 hour wait + $1500 or more bill, or she could sleep in her own bed and then just wait a few minutes at the urgent care center and I only have to pay $40. I'm gonna stop before I get on that soap box right now, though, because it gets me emotional. In any case, she went to her Grandmother's after we got back from the UC and got lots of attention and pampering.

Saturday was mostly quiet outside of laundry and cooking (I should do gluten-free cooking posts, maybe). About 3:30 in the afternoon I decided to go ahead and cut out another Simplicity 2369 out of the cayenne red bamboo knit I got from FabricMart. I bought it full price when they first came in and I was so glad I did, because it was the first color to sell out. You can get it in other colors here.

This was a quickie phone photo I took right before bed. I didn't finish until 11pm despite having to be at work at 6am (sewcialists NEVER do that, right?).  I normally can't sleep until about that time on Saturday's anyway, though I'm normally useless after about 8pm. I would not have tried to work on anything new or delicate while that tired. Its a straight size 18 and I only used 3/8 inch seams. Because it was such wide yardage (68"!), I used 1.5 yards of fabric, which puts it at a material cost of about $20 dollars. Four and a half hours from cut to finish, but that's only because I had to re-thread the serger and coverstitch machine twice each, due to order of construction. Remind me to buy more red spools of thread at the next 50% off sale. Though if you look at my start and finish times its much longer than 4.5 hours, but I was also doing laundry.

I'm considering trying out the (american) pant for this pattern. So far its all proving to be well drafted for a Big 4 pattern, so the pant/blouse combo might something super comfy for around the house and errands, without being yoga pants.

So. How'd your weekend go?

Vogue 8747 - A Classic Princess Seam Blouse

This is my Hautey Bitch look. 

I really must sing the praises of this blouse. Vogue 8747 is from the "Basic Pattern Custom Fit" line, and I think I'm in love with these. Its built on their standard block, with most of the bust adjustment done for you. The two major changes on my part were large upper arms for the sleeves and rounded upper back adjustment. This is my second make. I also did a plain black one, but did not photograph it.

These trousers were given to me by a friend that had lost a great deal of weight after surgery. I love them to bits but they are getting kinda threadbare. I will probably use them to help draft a new pair.

I also really like how this goes with my floral bolero.

Hmmm. Hair stuck under the jacket. My mojo seems to have taken a hiatus. I did make a raglan t-shirt for Simon out of narwhal fabric, which he quite loves. I still have to finish it. I want to make a skirt or two for work then get cracking on my raincoats.

Ok, well. That's all folks! Until next time.