Friday, August 23, 2013

VLOG2 A Cautionary Tale about Pre-Treating Fabrics.




Yes, that's right. ANOTHER BLOG POST! WITH VIDEO!

In other news I have cut out in five hours two lady skater dresses, a lady skater t-shirt hack, a dress for my daughter AND the Tofino pj pants. I'm taking them all with me to my friends house along with my two main machines. My Brother sewing machine and Singer 4-thread serger.

See y'all later!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Sewing Plans! My First "Official" Vlog



So the still image for this vlog is kinda hilarious. Also, I apparently I like to scratch my upper lip when I'm thinking about what to say next. Who knew? But I'm actually enjoying doing vlogs cause I can use my hands when I talk.

One note, the green denim is from Fabric.com, I forgot to add that part. I was also trying to say the red knit would go well with the gauze.

Patterns mentioned by me:

Lady Skater
Sewaholic Tofino, Thurlow, and Salspring dress.
Cake's Hummingbird
Colette's Hawthorn and Jasmine
By Hand London's Victoria Blazer

Ok, hope this wasn't terribly boring. Tell me what you have planned, please?!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

In Which I Say Things Out Loud (Word Meme)



So EONS AGO *dramatic echo*, in internet years, Miss Isis did a thing called "Blog Voices". I've been wanting to do this for ages and ages and finally entered the 21rst century and got myself a nifty HD webcam. This is what I did first. You might have to turn the sound up a bit, I was talking a bit softly in some spots.

After watching myself do this, which was weird, I realize the fact that my parents came from two entirely different parts of the USA comes into play. And if I'm around my southern in-laws, well, I get a thick accent. But years of doing IT work on the phone has made me fairly clear good about enunciation.

And below is the list of questions/words.

List of Words:
Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

List of Questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Sunday, August 18, 2013

I'd Like to Thank The Academy and Other Honorable Mentions

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on my last post, it really brightened my day!

Oh goodness, I have so much to catch up on! Really. I also keep losing all my good blogging ideas or by the time I get time to sit down and write I'm all derpy and tired. And lets not even mention I'm like, a month behind on reading other blog entries. I have been chatty with #sewcialists on twitter, however. And if you didn't know, you can now buy sewcialist swag from SewBrook over on Zazzle.com.

Oh, and I also received a couple of blog award nominations from fellow bloggers. Two of them are Liebster awards, from Cari Homemaker  (Like, LAST YEAR???) and Heather B, I've tagged this one forward before so please excuse me for not doing it again. But if you don't follow these ladies already, should.



However, I also got a "Very Inspiring Blogger" award from Midvale Cottage, IN MAY. Srsly, I'm slackin' here. Side note, she runs an Etsy shop with vintage patterns here.

This award has responsibilities, though, and I'm going to flub my why through it.

1- Display the award and link back to the person who nominated you
2- State 7 facts about yourself
3- Nominate 15 bloggers for the award
4- Notify the winners


Blogs:

Actually, There are so many blogs out there full of wonderful people that I can't even begin to single them out. Instead I'm going to plug ALL of the #sewcialists by saying hop on over to the webpage and check out our blog aggregater "Firehose".  And its not just blogs, its Twitter and Instagram too with anyone that uses the tags #sewcialist and #sewcialists. This is, hands down, one of the best and most supportive corners of the internet and I'm so proud to be a part of this group. You can find it here: http://sewcialists.org/firehose/

Now, for seven facts about myself? Hmm, lets see:

1) I lived in a tent for a year while traveling with the Renaissance Festival when I was 18.
2) I've worked in the Telecommunications, specifically ISP (internet service provider) for 14 years now, but I didn't go to school to learn the trade. It was one of those "I just picked it up" kind of people.
3) Due to a traumatic childhood experience, I hate cantaloupe.
4)I played flute and I went to band camp.
5)My husband married a redhead and all of his female friends are redheads. I'm not sure how this is about me, but I just want to point out I think he's a masochist.
6)When I was a baby they accidentally swapped my bladder with a squirrel's bladder. This is why I have to pee every 15 minutes.
7) I really do *gigglesnort* but I'm told its very endearing.

Ok, that's all folks! Wow, I'm really glad I got that out because I was feeling some serious blogger guilt.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A Mini-Vacation and Other Things

So my little boy turned 12 this past weekend and I'm pouty because he's growing up so fast. But, then on the other hand, I'm proud that he's turning into a fine person, though I'm a bit biased.  The friends we went to stay with in north Georgia live WAAAY out in the country. Like, we have to go down a few dirt roads to get there. They have this huge house that is labyrinth like and sectioned in a way that two families can (and do) easily live there. D (we will call her) parents had bought the land and build the house over many years. In fact, its still a work in progress and what is done is just beautiful. And they also have three horses, four dogs, four cats (possibly more?), and numerous types of nut and fruit trees. And NO CELL SIGNAL.
They have DSL but it can be cranky when 8 people are all trying to connect with wifi on their phones so it was often a game of "Who's got the best connection now". So that, plus the fact that I brought the full memory card for my DSLR is why I have next to no pictures of this place.

So anyway. D has been friends with my husband longer than I've known him, and while we consider her and her family like our family, we lost touch with her. The reasons are unimportant, its just so wonderful to have them all back in our life. They invited us to come out and spend the night after our first dinner date, so we went out this weekend for Simon's birthday. Ds sister made gluten free Portal cupcakes. And well, here's a photo that just kinda sums everything up nicely.

*geek
And yes, that is Derpy and Dr. Whooves. D's sister has a little girl that is the same age as S&F's baby cousin. Because they usually help their grandma with babysitting they are more than adept to keeping small kids occupied and mostly out of trouble. D's sister was beside herself as she's completely unaccustomed to her daughter not constantly wanting attention from her.  She wants us to come visit with the kids more often. I told her I'd be more than happy to do that.

D also had me go over a costuming project with her. She hasn't sewn anything from a pattern in over a decade and she chose this one:  McCall's 6818   We laughed over the fact that of course she would pick something a bit ambitious out of the starting gate. Though I'm excited to help. :) I was hoping to help more while there but I've been fighting a massive UTI and diverticulosis flair up so I spent a lot of time laying down.

Oh, the other thing that happened was one of their succulent plants had its yearly bloom. It was a big deal because you can sit and watch the flower quiver as it opens. The kids were in awe, checking on it every 2 minutes or so (because kids don't sit still very well).

Night Blooming Cereus.
D's Mom picked it and brought it downstairs where we were going over some sewing books. Felicity was sad "I wanted it to fill the room with wonderful smells while I slept" she told me. :)


So, other things. I um. I acquired a lot of fabric recently because #sewcialists are a bunch of enablers. And then Sewaholic released a pattern I had to have. You should buy it too. Then I bought By Hand London's Victoria blazer, and Cake's Hummingbird pattern.

At some point I'll actually sew things. Well I have sewn things! But I haven't blogged any of them. Another pair of Clovers, a few Renfrews, and a Raglan T/Skaterdress hack I made for my daughter, complete with sparkly kitty iron on. I'm sure there was something else but I can't remember right now.



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Super Dress Kawaii!!

Hi!
Hi y'all. Miss me? I know, I've been absent from bloglandia of late but for good reason. I've been trying to get my health in order. If you follow me on the numerous social media sights you might have heard me complain a bit about it. So these photos are to make up for that. And because you knew this wig had to come out again eventually.

#bitchyrestingface
This is Simplicity 2369 and its the third one I've made. I put up a single photo of the first one last summer and never got around to taking more photos. Its view C but with B length dress.  This is the perfect pattern for hourglasses and insane prints. And as it turns out this dress is a serious conversation starter for geeks. If I wear it out for errands its like "OMG, she's one of US and I can talk to her and not sound crazy!".  Which happened to me after this photo session when I ran to the grocery store. Ten minutes after checking out I was still talking to the clerk about Dragon*Con.

somone's gonna get it

I totally used my daughter's room for these photos. I confess I cropped out part of a bed and some dirty clothes. 


This is my pimp hat.
Because everyone needs a purple velvet pimp hat with leopard trim.

More bitchy resting face. 
I'm totally going to use this as my profile picture now.

Stats:
Pattern: Simplicity 2369
Fabric: From fabric.com its an ITY knit I bought a couple years ago for about 2.99 a yard. I used about 2ish so four dollars.
Time: Oh, I dunno. I cut it out in an hour one day and then sewed it up in about three a week or so later. Ok, that's a lie. I spent about four hours one evening trying to get the cover stitch to work on this fabric. It wouldn't. And the next day I couldn't get a double needle to work. This fabric DOES NOT LIKE TOPSTITCHING. Which is also why I  didn't bother hemming it. Fortunately, it ain't raveling.

Who me?

Hope you love it as much as I do! XOXO

Thursday, July 4, 2013