MMM/Japanese for Crafters, Day 1

(Photo courtesy of Laila at Tokyo Fashion.com)

Picture this: You are on vacation in Japan, so of course, you go fabric shopping! You walk down the crowded sidewalks of the Nippori fabric district, passing countless stores filled with buttons, notions, second-hand kimonos, and stacks of fabric. 

(Photo courtesy of Laila at Tokyo Fashion.com)

You go inside a narrow six-story shop, just one of four branches of that store on the street. You see hordes of Japanese crafters, digging through beautiful fabric at very reasonable prices.

Is that Liberty over there? And 3 shelves of Echino? And a whole rainbow floor of quilting fabric? It’s heaven.

Only one thing is missing. How will you talk to the other crafters? How will you find out what they are making, or get the inside scoop on the best place to buy vintage buttons or cool bias tape in Tokyo? Never fear, Japanese for Crafters is here! 

Lesson One, for Day One of Me-Made May: 

Wearing Pendrell blouse, refashioned sweater-into-cardigan, and handmade glass pendant.

i.e. It was so rainy on the first day of “tezukuri no go-gatsu” that it was really hard to take an in-focus picture! 

Now it’s your turn - I’d dearly love to see you use “tezukuri no go-gatsu” in a comment! 

Hope you are enjoying MMM so far!

Me-Made May - Welcome to Japanese for Crafters!

I love blogging pictures of my sewing, but I hate posing… and so I bring you a Me-Made May special: 

A series of 31 Japanese phrases that you might need if you were to meet up with a Japanese sewist! 

(What can I say? I’m a teacher to the core! ;) 

Here’s the plan: In each daily outfit picture, I’ll hold a sign with one Japanese word or phrase. According to educational best-practices (wink), it’s important to use a word as soon as you learn it, so I’ll use it in a sentence and challenge *you* to use it in the comments! 

WIll you become fluent in Japanese? No. Will I have something to distract me while I pose awkwardly? You bet!!! I’m hoping it spices up the whole daily photo thing, both for me and for you!

(Look! It’s young me, back in my first year in Japan!)

Now, fair warning: I’m not Japanese. I’m not even close to fluent in Japanese. But after 5 years of living there, I do love the language! I use Japanese a surprising amount as a supply teacher to entertain and motivate classes… but it’s almost inevitable that I’ll make a spelling mistake or typo at some point. Forgive me, please! 

Are you ready? Let’s the lessons begin! 

p.s. What’s your special skill? Do you have something you could teach us during Me-Made May? I’d love to learn!

Me-Made May - What have I got to wear?

Before MMM’12 starts, I thought I’d take a look at the clothes and accessories that I have to choose from this month! 

First up: Dresses

Blue Peony, Tropical Truffle, Denim New Look 6022, Larkspur Peony, Black Floral Peony, and self-drafted Tank Dress.

Next: Skirts

Colette Meringue, Gingered Truffle, a bias-cut polka dot linen skirt I made 10 years ago that needs so reworking, and a self-drafted double-knit skirt.

Shirts: aka. The many incarnations of the Sewaholic Pendrell!

Japanese floral lawn, white swiss dot, navy and white polyester, and rayon challis with bow collar - all sleeveless so that they work well under cardigans in the chilly Canadian spring!

Accessories:

 I have waaay more options than I expected! I’d forgotten about the older me-made skirts, and I just finished the two floral Pendrells yesterday… but put altogether, it’s not a bad little wardrobe. I’m aiming for one me-made garment or accessory each day. I really think this should be fine. (I almost wonder if I should change my pledge to something harder… but no, let’s not go crazy!) Of course, only one garment is stretchy, so my goal for the month is to figure out how to sew t-shirts.

I’m really curious to see everyone get started! I’m planning to post pics everyday, but with a little twist to keep things interesting… If you are participating in Me-Made May, how are you feeling about your homemade wardrobe and the month ahead?

Colette Truffle Meets Ginger Skirt!

I love the Colette Ginger skirt - but at $16+tax+shipping, it’s a little steep for me right now. Instead, I looked carefully at as many pictures and descriptions as I could, and made the Truffle dress into a skirt instead! I drafted a waistband according to Sarai’s tutorial… then got lazy about the zipper and decided to pull it on over my head instead! (It works just fine, but there’ll be no sexy undressing in this one - It involves rather a lot of contortions to take off!) Incidentally, this is the darker side of the same denim that I used for my recent dress. This time, I remembered to use the stretch in the right direction!

Here she is: 

(Sorry all these pics are so washed out - I think my camera was on a low-light setting!)

It’s not as A-line as a real Ginger… Maybe the Peony skirt would have been a better choice?)

Lookee! I lined it! (Side note: I love my new serger! Makes finishing the seams sooo easy, for both denim and the lining!)

Voila! The waistband. 

I made this belt to go with the navy Pendrell I’m wearing in these photos… but it works well with the skirt too. It’s just a package-worth of “denim” elastic with a sew-on belt buckle. It cost less than $5 to make, and it’s really comfy!

—————————

In other news: 

I’m hoping to combat my frustrations this week for a lovely relaxing day of sewing today. My new goal is to do garment sewing on the weekend, and stick to simple things like making zippered pouches etc during the week. I’m hoping that will prevent me from  making even more poorly-planned UFO clothes!

Sewing in Frustration

I’m having a dilemma. I’m lucky enough to often have time to sew after work… but I’m almost always looking for a cheap fix, an adrenaline high, something to make me feel better after a tough day. As a result, I rush through things hoping for the “high” of finishing… and surprise, surprise, I end up with poorly fitting, poorly planned junk! 

Witness Exhibit A: My THREE unfinished Pendrells. 

(And yes, I made #3 tonight in an act of frustration. I started to retrace the pattern to go down a size, to see if that would fix my problems with the other ones… but somehow there didn’t seem to be any real size difference between a 12 and 14, so I have the same damn fitting problems as I did with the other two!)

Clearly I need help! I read about other people sewing as this calm act of zen, to centre themselves and create lovely clothes to be proud of. I do LOVE the act of sewing, and the sound of my machine’s motor is wonderfully calming. But somehow, instead of just enjoying the detailed, step-by-step process of creating lovely things, I push to hard, too fast, and cut so many corners that my projects are doomed from the start. 

HELP! How can I stop wasting my time and my fabric? My husband suggested having some handwork on the go for when I need to relax, which is very wise… unfortunately I’ve had lingering Repetitive Stress Injuries for years, and I can’t hand-sew for long. 

Deep down though, here’s my problem: Sometimes sewing wildly and without a plan works for me.

Witness Exhibit B: 

All of these items were completely unplanned and sewn quickly, but somehow they turned out, and I love them. I guess I just keep hoping that more things will work! 

I’ve had a life long love/hate relationship with being impulsively creative - sometimes I’m proud of it, sometimes ashamed. Right now though, I’m just frustrated and disappointed in myself. I’m not enjoying sewing as much as I want to, and I’m wasting fabric. I’d really love to hear how sewing fits into your life - Is it relaxing? Is it rushed? What’s your key to creating clothes that you love?

Thanks! My goal for the weekend is to at least finish those three darned Pendrells so that they’ll stop haunting me… and maybe to figure out a new sewing routine that will encourage me to take things slow! 

New Look 6022 - My First Denim Project!

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I bought New Look 6022… and promptly sewed it up in denim the next day! I’d bought the fabric for my Colette Sew-Along Meringue, but in the end, I managed to make both this dress AND a skirt out of it! Does everyone find the fabric recommendations so generous?

Without further ado, here it is! 

I really enjoyed sewing this pattern! I was clearly inspired by the Fabled Needle’s lovely denim version of this dress. It was basically a muslin - I’m never sewn a dress with this loose shape, so wasn’t sure how it would fit. (It’s also my first Big 4 pattern in the last decade!) 

To keep things simple, I made the sleeveless version: 

I’m excited to try it out with lots of different sweaters and accessories - It’s the perfect blank canvas for Me-Made May! (Although I did quickly realised today that I don’t have many belts that work with sweaters, so for now it’s one or the other!

Fitting: I think I cut a pretty straight size… ummm… 16? Whatever the largest size was. After reading some pattern reviews, I cut a gentle curve at the side seam to give some shaping. I also had to make the armhole (Is that an armscye?) about 1” lower/larger.

I couldn’t predict how things would fit, so when I cut the back pieces I added about 2” in width at the centre seam. The bodice and waist ended fitting well according to the pattern, but I I used the extra inches to make the skirt more a-lined. Next time, I’ll add a slight a-line at the side seams too. 

A couple more things:

• I actually use the reverse side of the denim because I liked the texture and colour.


• It’s a fairly light denim, so it hangs well. Phew! I was worried for a while!


• I fought with my machine to do the top-stitching with jeans thread… I just couldn’t get the tension right! I ended up just fudging it. Its a mess on the inside. 


• No zipper. Hurrah!

The bias tape inside makes me happy! 2m for 100yen at the Japanese dollar store!

I’ll definitely sew this pattern again. It was easy to make up, and it’s got some really cute sleeve options.

————————

Lately my blog posts always run so long - Sorry everyone! I’ll be quiet and leave you alone… but first, a rare picture of my husband Jamie and I! Somehow we just never take any photos of ourselves… 

I love him dearly for being happy to take photos of me, and for balancing out my rainbowness with his all-black metalhead wardrobe. Mwah!

A little something that I finished today - Details as soon as I can take pictures! 

Catching up on Blogging!

What’s the right word for sewing-blog-related admin/paperwork? Both of those terms sounds far too boring and stressful for something that is fun! 

A couple of things to share: 

ONE: 

1. I’m joining Me Made May this year! My pledge is to wear something handmade every day. I’m allowing myself clothing and accessories because, hey, I’ve only been sewing clothes for 3 months! (Is that true? Hard to believe! Feels like longer!)

TWO: 

Just for fun, I entered my navy and white Pendrell in Made By Rae’s Spring Top Sewalong! Not because I have a hope of winning, but because I’m so thrilled to be able to sew wearable clothes for the first time! It’s just exciting to be able to participate and contribute to the online sewing community which I love and appreciate so much.

THREE: 

Speaking of which, I’m still grinning that Maider at Masustak Eguzkitan gave me a Versatile Blogger award! Eeeee! Thank you so much! (For those of you that are non-sewers, there are a few blogger “awards” that get passed around from blogger to blogger, somewhat like a chain letter… Sure they are ubiquitous, and almost everyone has won one at least once… but I’m still THRILLED that any one even reads, let alone enjoys, my blog!) I think it’s so wonderful that blogging allows us to make friends all around the world, and gives us a place where our passion and skills are appreciated and cultivated. Thank you, Maider, and thank you to anyone reading this! 

(Here’s Maider, in a photo from her blog.)

Now, according to the “rules”, I’m supposed to nominate 15 blogs that inspire me and tell 7 things you might not know about me. Which is all well and good, but to be honest, I’m reluctant to nominate bloggers who have already been nominated scores of times before.

Instead, here is a list of blogs that brighten my day:

The Big Guns: 

• The Coletterie (Who doesn’t love Colette Patterns? They are consistently inspiring, and come up with really practical blog posts.)


• Tilly and the Buttons (OWOP was a stroke of genius! 


• So Zo’ (Like TIlly, she’s an amazingly community-minded individual who has had a huge impact on the sewing community, not least through Me-Made months!)


• Sew Weekly (Again, one person who has changed the face of modern sewing by challenging herself and others to make sewing a big part of their life!)


• Casey’s Elegant Musings (Seriously, the woman is just charming! Casey was one of the first bloggers I followed.)


• Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing (Another blog that everyone loves for good reason. I can’t wait to get Gertie’s book when it comes out!) 


• Sewaholic (She’s Canadian, she’s my age, and she’s got her own pattern line! I’m in love.)

The New Kids:

One of the things that i love about the blogging community is that it is in constant flux. Here are some of the blogs I’ve started following in the past 12 months that are clearly the next big stars!

• Sewin’ Steady:  I always look forward to seeing what Sue makes next!


• Masustak Eguzkitan: Maider has a great sense of style - and blogs in two languages and speaks at least one more! Always impressive! :)


• Lucky Lucille: I think Rochelle is one of the stars of the Colette Sew-Along - she’s clearly working hard on her store and blog, and makes consistently great clothing!


• Rhinestones and Telephones: Speaking of the Colette Sew-Along,  Sarah is one of our lovely hosts. She also lives just 90 minutes away from me, which makes her the nearest blogger that I follow!


• Miss Crayola Creepy: Our other Sew-Along hostess! I love her spring palette, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she makes!


• A Good Wardrobe: Lizz makes classic but bold clothing - Her red Iris shorts just days after the pattern was releases were perfection! Plus, we’ve bought the same fabric as each other twice! ;)


• Annie Bee Knits: My sister’s awesome knitting blog! She’s head of one of the largest knitting guilds in Canada, and her work is outstanding. Plus, read about her experience going legally blind from cataracts here! None of us really understod what was happening at the time, so I’m so glad she’s written about her experience!


• Dolly Clackett: Roisin’s blog is a great mix of inspirational cute dresses and realistic day-to-day life. I really appreciate bloggers who are up-front about stresses and failures as much as their successes!


• Dixie DIY:  Casual and modern clothing - with plenty of tutorials and free patterns! Another blogger who really gives back to the community!


• LLadybird: Lauren is talented, funny, gorgeous and a prolific sewer! I can’t believe all the great stuff she churns out every week!


• Lazy Stitching: Just coming back from a bit of a hiatus, I love Alana’s clothes and tutorials!


• Knitting to Stay Sane:  Another knitting blog, and another local-ish blogger! I met Glenna through my sister. Glenna is taking a year off work to focus on knitting, writing, and launching her first line of knitting patterns! I’m excited to see her crafty career get underway!


• Stitch and Witter: Joanne always makes things that I would dearly love to wear! She is fairly new to sewing (though not as new as me!) and I’m impressed that she’s always challenging herself to try new things!


• The Sew Alongs: Another lovely blogger who makes things that I wish were in my closet! I’m so jealous of her recent trip to Cape Town… looking forward to seeing what all that fabric becomes!

I could go on and on (even more than I already have!) but I’ll stop there for now. Like I said, I know that many of these blogs has already been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award many times… but if you haven’t, please consider yourself nominted! :) 

I’ll leave you with three pictures from this week: 

Daffodils in our garden…

…a Red Admiral butterfly on our plum blossoms…

…and the school field just a few hours into a freak snowstorm that continued all night and led to a no-bus day at school today! I guess I won’t be taking any pictures of my new sundress anytime soon!

Catching Up on Sewing

Lately I seem to start sewing projects, then leave them with only a few seams to go. The problem is that in preparation for Me-Made May, I’m trying to sew some “cake” (aka. practical basics) instead of so much “frosting” (pretty dresses!), as Tasia from Sewaholic would say. I’ve been literally losing sleep over how to make my latest Pendrell more interesting… only to realise that the whole point of “cake” is it’s going a be a little boring on it’s own! 

(And let’s be honest, I’m making the shirt with this gorgeous Japanese lawn which is very similar to Liberty cotton, so “boring” is relative!)

I’ve also got all but the hem finished on yet ANOTHER Sewaholic Pendrell in a pink cotton… My first version with sleeves! (I made View A)

  

It was the sleeves that I first loved about this pattern, but oh boy, they are not working for this! As my Mom said, bubblegum pink + puff sleeves = bad bridesmaid! Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s worth finishing. Boo. 

In fact, I got so frustrated with my two problematic Pendrells that I gave up and made a dress! I bought New Look 6022 yesterday. I’m trying to expand my pattern collection intelligently, so this pattern was easy to justify. I don’t have any patterns for loose shift dresses, and I don’t have anything similar to either sleeve option either. Not sure who wants to sew a drawstring bag with a tissue pattern, but that’s ok!

Of course, I promptly started trolling the internet for everyone’s versions of this pattern, and found a lot to love!

In particular, this casual denim version by the Fabled Needle: 

Isn’t it awesome? Clearly I think so, because a few hours later I had finished this: 

I’m going to wear it tomorrow to our Professional Development Day, so I’ll try to get some pictures! 

Pendrell, Take Two

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to try hard not to justify buying any more fabric by saying that it matched my Spring Summer colour palette. Um, yes. Noble and worthy goal, but a complete failure. I bought fabric Saturday, sewed it on Sunday, and wore it on Monday! Worst of all? I love it and I want more!

Here it is, my second sleeveless Sewaholic Pendrell: 

Here’s what I love about it: 

• It’s a neutral dark navy, so I can wear it with any colour of cardigan or accessories. Like turquoise. Or yellow. Or red. Or everything at once!


• The pattern hides my serging mistakes.


• It’s drapey and hides a multitude of sins.


• It’s perfect for work! 


• I gave mine a curved hem, inspired by all the awesome Wiksten Tank shirts that I’ve been seeing lately. 

I really do think I’ll wear it mostly with a sweater, but it works as a sleeveless shirt too: 

I don’t know if the shoulders are supposed to come so far out, but I kinda like how it balances my wide hips. Since Sewaholic patterns are designed for a pear-shape, maybe that was Tasia’s design plan all along! 

Without a belt or any accessories, it’s pretty dull: 

As before, I sewed a straight size 14… but had some fitting issues at the bust. I think I’m not doing the princess seams properly. 

The fabric is a really nice semi-sheer polyester (or is it rayon?) challis from Fabricland. hurray for 50%-off sales! It’s got a hint of a grid texture woven in. Can you see it where the light shines through?

I’m still learning how to handle slithery fabrics, and spray starch is my new best friend. The funny thing is, although people online mention using starch, no one seems to say how they use it! I’m not sure if I’m doing it “right” or not.

This time, I sprayed the whole length of fabric as I ironed it after the wash, and then blocked, starched and ironed each piece after I cut it. (In the photo above, you can see the cut fabric being pulled into shape under the paper pattern, in preparation for starching.) Does anyone else do that too?

One final bonus pic before I go: I don’t know how other bloggers seem to pose so naturally, but my camera is always full of what-was-I-thinking shots this this! 

Serger +Pendrell = <3

Folks, I’m a  lucky lady. Not only do my parents let Jamie and I live with them while we get started teaching in Canada, they halp ake my sewing addiction possible! Back in November, they let me take over the basement as a sewing room… then in February, my mom bought me a dress form… and last month, she went 50-50 with me on a serger!  (At this rate, I’m in no hurry to move out!) 

We bought a Brother 3034D, but it took me a couple of weeks to feel brave enough to actually use it. Now that I’ve had a chance to use it, I’m in love! It’s so fast and easy. 

I promised myself that I’d really practice with it, and learn how to use it properly before I started any real projects… but of course, 30 minutes into “practice”, I was itching to sew something real! I searched in my stash, dug through my patterns, and thus my first ever Pendrell was born! 

It’s made with an embroidered swiss dot that I bought 7 years ago - and who knows what I thought I was going to make with it then, because I definitely didn’t have the skills to work with semi-sheer lawn and inserting a lining! 

I cut a straight size 14, and made very few changes: 

• shortened 5 inches


• enlarged the neckline, because my giant noggin couldn’t fit through the original neckhole


• hand-appliqued mini pompom to the neck after finishing. I like how it mimics the swiss dot puffs! 

I made the sleeveless version so that it would work well under cardigans… but it’s perfectly wearable with out the sweater. Enjoy my awkward posing! 

I wore it yesterday to a crafting night with my sister and her friends, and I’m happy to report that it was as comfortable as a t-shirt! I’m so happy with how well the pattern fits and how easy it is to serge together (No seam finishing! Hurrah!) that not only do I have another one almost finished, I’m planning on cutting and sewing a third today! I think this pattern is going to get me through Me-Made May! 

Here’s what we worked on during our crafting night: Glass pendants! 

We’d gone to a workshop months ago, and then ordered some supplies from Etsy. We used a  variety of Japanese paper and printed scrapbook paper for the designs. It was fun to do some mindless crafting, with no big decisions to make and lots of fun designs to choose from! It was neat to see what different people gravitated towards. Mine are very bright and multi-coloured. Jamie got in on the action too - Can you tell which ones my heavy metal-loving better half created?

Enough blogging - To the sewing room! Hope you are all having a happy weekend of craftiness and good friends too. 

Spring and Summer Sewing Plans!

Every fall and spring, Colette Patterns challenges sewers to come up with a colour scheme to inspire their seasonal sewing. I’ve enjoyed looking at other people’s plans before, but this is the first time that I’m participating! 

I’m on a tight budget, so I started by photographing all the fabrics in my stash, and making a list of all the things I’ve already planned to make in the next few months. Then I tried to squish all those ideas together into a colour palatte… and guess what? It didn’t work! :P Some of the fabrics just aren’t matchy-matchy with each other… and somehow, as I edited it down, I was left with boring pastels. (Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be sewing some pastel stuff… but as a whole mini-wardrobe, I’d rather have something bolder that will work in Fall as well!) 

Here’s my first draft: 

Nice, but not inspiring. I took a look through Pinterest, and found a great wallet from the Accessorize website that I love. That led me to think of the beautiful white/navy/red/turquoise Japanese fabric that is hanging on my wall in so many photos… and with those added inspiration, I came up with this! 

I think the addition of navy really helps - and luckily a lot of these are destined to be blouses to wear with jeans at work! Of course, as I played around with the orientation and layout, I suddenly realised -

I’ve come up with a RAINBOW, folks! Check the blog title - I’m not lying!

I’ll even admit that I’m not likely to sew anything yellow - I just like the colours together! (I do have a second hand yellow belt that I picked up recently but haven’t found anything to wear with, so I’m hoping to work yellow in that way.)

Here’s what i’m planning to make: 

Of course, the dangerous thing is no that I have an official palatte, I suddenly feel justified in buying more fabrics to match it! Dammit! Didn’t I start by saying that I’m on a budget? 

I’m off to the city, where I’ll try to resist the lure of the fabric stores… Maybe!