What I love: Bob Ross and the Joy of Painting

If you are North American, chances are you know the soothing tones and cheesy landscape paintings of Bob Ross’s tv series, The Joy of Painting. If not, here’s a little musical tribute that says it all! 

All those platitudes and little says are no joke - that’s exactly how he talks. And it’s mesmerizing!

I don’t know what it is about Bob Ross, but I swear, watching his videos is as good as meditating. Calming relaxing, motivating… it’s a miracle of cheesy art and cheap public television!

Brits, Aussies and others, have you heard of Bob Ross? Does anyone else have memories of being entranced by his shows? What other 80’s show are you nostalgic for?

Remember, folks: There are no mistakes, only happy accidents. Add some happy little clouds… Add a happy little tree. This is your world - You create it! 

New Patterns to Try!

Few things are sure in life - death, taxes, and everyone catching colds as soon as we get back to school! So instead of sewing, I’ve been curling up under as many duvets as possible as soon as I get home from work. I started feeling a little better today though, and celebrated with a trip to the fabric store! 

I bought some $3/m navy knit to make a shirt, and $5/m navy sweater knit to try drafting a draped cardigan. It actually felt good to buy basics. (Who am I?) And even more out of character, I bought PATTERNS! And we’re not talking Colette here: McCalls, baby! 

I’ve only sewn with one Big 4 pattern before: New Look 6022… but I’m determind to make comfy, practical clothes for teaching, and until Cake launches the Tiramisu pattern, I figured McCalls would do just fine. 

#1: M5974

This one has heaps of reviews on Pattern Review, and won as one of the top patterns of 2010. That’s got to be good, right? I’m nervous about hemming and edging on knits - The only way I’m confident is using folded bands like on the Renfrew. But I’m ready to try:  I got some knit stay tape from Sunni and I bought some clear elastic today, so I’m hoping those help!

I like the wrap dress version, but I think the scoop neck is more, uh, practical for me! Here’s a picture of a WIP from Flickr: 

Basic, but I think it has promise! 

#2: M5890

This is another really basic pattern that I think has potential. Here’s what it really looks like: 

I like princess seams in wovens, but it seems a little fiddly in a knit? I’m curious to give it a shot. I’ve been look for a draped cardigan pattern that isn’t too long or too heavily draped, and I think this one might work. 

For inspiration, here’s the cardi in a stripe by Mindless Indulgences…

And a bright version by Lindsay Tyler on Flickr…

The strange thing is that there are NO reviews of this pattern on Pattern Review, and I can’t find anyone who has blogged about making the dress! It’s a bit of a mystery: Is something wrong with the pattern? Is it just so boring-basic that no one is making it? Or am I looking in the wrong place? Maybe I’m just used to indie patterns with an active blogger following?

When you buy a new pattern, do you research it first? How influenced are you by online reviews? And have you had any good or bad experiences with McCall’s patterns? 

What I love: Historical Documentaries

While school is starting, I’m keeping the blog fires burning with a few posts about my nerdy interests beyond sewing. I’m hoping that you’ll share a few favourites of your own! 

Above: Historian Lucy Worsley in costume. 

 I think it’s fair to say that most sewists are inspired by beautiful clothes from the past. Beyond simply lusting for the Downton Abbey costumes though, I think sewing builds a real connection to the lives of women in generations past, when handwork was a necessity and not a luxury or hobby. I’ve always loved history, and I’ll watch pretty much any historical documentary I can get my hands on! (British though, not American… Something about American docs tends to swing into superlative, overdramamic schlock really fast!) 

One of my current faves is anything by Dr. Lucy Worsley. She is Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces in London, which includes places like the Tower of London and Kensington Palace. She looks at history through the little details in life, which for me is much more interesting than grand battles and royal decrees. Here’s an example from a series where she explores the development of different rooms in the house from medieval to the present:  

There are plenty of YouTube videos of her work, including: 

• King Alfred… The Great?


• Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls


• Developing the Regency Brand

It took me a while to warm to her rather distinct style, but what I love about her is that she is genuinely geeking out for history. It’s clear she really loves history, and wants you to love it too! 

Are you a history buff too? Are you particularly interested in one era, or do you love it all? Would you rather get your history fix through fiction or non-fiction? (Me, I love both!) 

Alma, Part Deux

This pattern has passed my ultimate test: I can make one in a single sitting before lunch! It didn’t turn out exactly as I planned, but that’s ok!

This is my second Sewaholic Alma, make with 1.5m of Japanese double gauze. I only paid $4 for this piece, but I never knew quite what to make with it. It’s reversible, with gingham on one side, and a red, cream and blue stripe on the other side. From across a room though, the stripe just looks like a washed-out pale pink, which is really unflattering on me! The warm tone of the cream isn’t great for my skin tone, so this blouse was a bit doomed from the start… but dang it! Double Gauze demands to be used! It’s so cosy and soft that it’s like wearing flannel pyjamas. 

To begin with, I thought I’d alter the pattern to make the v-notch deeper. Of course, after I sewed the facings on, it turned out to be too deep for comfort! I couldn’t just pull the two sides of the notch together (no one needs a third bust darts!) so I ended up sewing a little dickie on the contrast stripe behind the notch. 

And THAT made it look like a frumpy art smock! 

When in doubt, add distraction: Covered buttons! 

I also took the blouse in, and added a contrast cuff to the sleeves. 

So there you have it: Lots of problem solving, and still a quick make! I’ll definitely wear it, but it’s a little off. My husband thinks the sleeve cuffs are weird… I think it might be the buttons that are strange? Or maybe the colour was always going to make me a bit washed out?

These two Almas did get me thinking more about buying fabrics that will make me look good. I tend to buy fabric that I love, without thinking too much about how the colour and pattern will look on me. I end up with clothes that I love, but not always clothes that really flatter! (Seriously, does a dress covered in pieces of washi tape flatter? Nope! It’s still awesome fabric though, and I’m going to love that dress when it’s done!) I’m trying to stear away from black these days, and use navy instead… and looking for bright whites instead of naturals or light grey. I’ll still buy fabric I love, but I’m finding it fun to have a few more guidelines!

How about you? Do you consciously pick warm/cool tones and bright/muted colours to suit your complexion? Or do you buy whatever colours/prints strike your fancy?

In the Mood

Have you checked out Mood’s website recently? I think they must have updated it… because it’s suddenly *almost* user-friendly! Still a bit odd to use… but look at the splash page for the Fashion Fabric Section! 

A complete overview of each kind of fabric! Just click on the picture to shop for that type of fabric. It’s a real treasure trove of info for a new sewist like me - I mean, I’ve heard of so many kinds of fabric, but sometimes it’s hard to really understand the different qualities of each type. 

Case in point: Has anyone else been puzzling over the difference between lawn and voile? I know they are both lighter than quilting cotton. I have sewn with fabric meeting that description, but I never knew just what it was… but now I do! Thanks, Mood!

Mystery solved! 

Do you have any sewing mysteries yet to solve?

Miss Alma!

Alma.

It’s such an old-fashioned, grandmotherly name, but it’s a heck of a new pattern! I’m a Sewaholic fangirl, so it’s no surprise that I like this one too. Between Pendrells, Renfrews, and Almas, I wear a Sewaholic top almost every day! 

For my first Alma, I used a fine Japanese quilting cotton that I got here. 2m for $14 was a great deal! I chose View A: the notched collar neckline, with the cap sleeves. I’d already used the cap sleeve pattern on a few other projects, so it was interesting to finally read the instructions and see how they were supposed to be sewn! (No surprise, her method was better than mine! :P )

As usual, I left the zipper out, and the fit is just right for me. I’ve been trying to puzzle out lately how body types might affect the need for zippers… All I can figure it that since I have a relatively large natural waist measurement proportionate to my other measurements, I am able to pull dresses and blouses over my head. (It’s a bit of a wiggle to get in, but it’s worth the laziness of not sewing zippers!) For someone with more difference between waist and bust, maybe a zipper would be more important? 

My only complaint is that the blouse is a teeny bit short, especially with the belt on. Fine for an office, but I had to be careful when I was teaching gym! I added some length on my next version, and it’s much better. 

All in all, I’m really pleased. It’s a great basic shape, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out in a different kinds of fabric. (My second version, soon to be posted, is Japanese double gauze.) I like basic designs that are easy to modify… and I’ve already used Alma as a the base to draft a few completely different things! 

Have you made an Alma? Do you have a basic blouse pattern that you love? And do you leave zippers off, or are they important for your fit? 

Unsticking Myself

Folks, I’ve been stuck. Not feeling like myself, but somehow unable to do the things that would make me feel “me”. Namely, blogging, buying fabric or sewing!

For the last two nights I tried to sew a dress for my cousin’s wedding this weekend… but using a slippery, shiny polyester for the first time was not a smart choice! It’s an unfinished mumu at this point, doomed to be a UFO forever. (Pretty fabric though - teal and purple painterly fabric. Might eventually make it a skirt?) 

I tried to use this pattern, which I’ve made before… but attempting to draft my own facings resulted in a huge, wide, gaping neckline! FAIL.

I’m also noticing a change in the kind of clothes I want to wear. Since I started sewing last winter, I’ve been using a lot of quilting cottons and fairly sturdy denims and twills. I guess I’ve finally read enough blog articles saying “Don’t wear quilting cottons!” that i’ve lost faith in my choices… Which is too bad, because look at this pretty little quilting cotton project under way: 

It’s an Alma-blouse Washi-tape Dress! Almost finished for 2 weeks, can’t find the energy to sew the sleeves on and hem it!

With the plethora of bloggers recently preaching wardrobe planning and everyday basics, I’m suddenly feeling like I need to assess my wardrobe as a whole, and think critically about my style. These days, I’d rather put on a comfy knit shirt than a constraining woven dress… Here’s my favourite outfit I came up with lately:

That’s me and my sister at the KW Knitter’s Fair… I made her model all of the lovely knits she had on display at the Guild sample table! She is both awesome and prolific!) 

I’m wearing a pair of bright coral jeans that I modified from low-rise to comfy pull-on mom-jeans. I’m wearing a me-made stripey tank and a me-made felt broach, and I felt both comfy and cute all day! I need more outfits like this in my wardrobe. 

Which brings me to the fabric shopping dilemma! Should I buy voile and lawn for blouses? Should I buy double knits and learn to make classic, versatile dresses? Or should I buy insano knits and make crazy t-shirts to wear with a cardigan? 

I’ve loaded up more online shopping carts than I care to count… but I finally pushed send on these lovely knits from Girl Charlee: 

I’m planning shirts with the chevron, floral stripe, and the bird fabric (I’ve been envying other bloggers that bird fabric for ages!). The sweater knit is going to be an experimental draped cardigan, based on a RTW sweater I like.

I like the graphic nature of all of the prints, and that they are neutral enough to go with lots of cardigans over top! I’m hoping that these fabrics fit perfectly into my wardrobe to round it out, while still being a fun replacement for the bright print dresses I used to wear to work. 

That’s enough rattling on from me - How about you? Do you the trends in blogging influence your ideas of style? Have you noticed any changes in what you want to wear/sew lately? Please tell me I’m not the only one so susceptible to peer pressure!

What I love: Todd in the Shadows

Pop music. It’s everywhere, and you either love it or love to hate it. Either way, chances are that you can sing the chorus to “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepson… but how much do you know about it? That’s where Todd in the Shadows comes in - my favourite internet pop music reviewer! 

Here’s a little taste: 

Todd posts on a great nerd website called “That Guy With the Glasses”. There are reviewers for every part of pop culture: music, movies, tv, and comics! They all offer clever, insightful, and feminist commentaries, which makes terrible media much more fun! Here are the ones we regularly watch:

• The Nostalgia Critic: The creator of the site, he takes a look at the movies of our childhood. 


• Similarly, the Nostalgia Chick  digs into movies, tv, and music from the 80’s and 90’s. I might do a whole post about her later - Her Disney reviews are AWESOME! 


• Linkara is the first reviewer we started watching. He does really great critiques of crappy comics!

But back to Todd. If it weren’t for him, I’d never know as much about the bizarrities of Ke$ha or the true career lows of the Black Eyed Peas! As well as breaking down current pop hits, he does some best of/worst of lists and takes a look back at some one-hit wonders (Baby Got Back! Kung Fu Fighting!) If you are ever looking for a quick video to watch while you eat dinner or take a break after work, I highly suggest some Todd in the Shadows! 

I’ll leave you with this: 

Enjoy!

Still here!

School started this week, and man oh man, it is EXHAUSTING! I’m using every little speck of my creativity to keep my class engaged (seriously, the attention span of Grade 1’s is about 7min tops!) and there’s nothing left for sewing. Even though things are going well at school, I’m just worn out. Last night, I was too sleepy to drive safely by 9:30pm! How lame is that?!

Not to mention that I’ve had 2 versions of the Alma blouse done and photographed for over a week, but I can’t find the energy to blog. Eish. Thanks for bearing with me through my pre-written blog posts this week, and thanks especially to those who linked to their fav animals videos for me! They really cheered me up. 

Today I was determined to sew something simple just for fun. I settled on some zippered pouches using some newer fabrics from my stash:

I’ve made so many of these that I thought it would be automatic - but I kept finding new ways to mess up! I miss-cut one piece, completely lost (and never found!) another… sewed one of the darts wrong, and had trouble topstitching along the zippers! In the end, I recut the lost piece, and they turned out just fine! I’ll use them to hold my girly stuff at school. ;) The little robot applique is from the dollar store in Japan, and I’ve been waiting to use it for a few years. I’m happy it has a home! 

My other “crafty” project of the day was writing out 250 sight word cards for my class! 

What tasks do you have at work that draw on your creative side?

So hard not to make a rainbow...

Here’s a sort-of crafty project I worked on over the summer for school: Stretchy Hundreds! (Well, at least that’s what I’m calling them…) 

Basically, it’s 100 plastic beads on a long string of elastic, with each group of ten beads a different colour. I’m making one for each child in my class (that’s 2000 beads - What am I thinking?) to use in math. I saw them at a workshop in July, where they suggested using them to practice counting, skip counting, addition, subtracting, and all kinds of math. Manipulatives (things students can touch, hold and move to physically represent math) are a big deal in math, but the great thing about these strings is that they stay neat and tidy, and there’s less chance of kids taking forever to set the out neatly! (On the other hand, just thing what 7 year olds can do with a long string of elastic! :P) 

How does it work? Say the question is 7+4: Slide 7 beads along, then slide 4 more… you’ll have 10 beads of one colour and one bead of another, which makes it really easy to see that there are 11 beads! The elastic holds the beads in place, to it’s easy to push the beads along but they don’t just slide freely. Each string is identical, so that we should all end up on the same colour bead if we’ve done the question right.

The hardest part? Not arranging the beads in rainbow order. I wanted a lot of colour contrast between each grouping… but oh, they’d be so much prettier in a ROYGBP spectrum! 

What I love: Kitten videos!

School has started, and I’m spending my day surrounded by 20 Grade 1’s! It’s the youngest homeroom class that I’ve ever had, so there’s a steep learning curve for us all! While I’m figuring things out at school, I’ll probably be doing a little less sewing in the evenings (and a lot more collapsing on the couch!) 

To keep the blog going, I’m scheduling some non-sewing posts. (Yes, I’m writing this in July, because planning for the blog is far less stressful than planning for school!)  One of the things that fascinated me about the blogging community is how our nerdy interests extend far beyond sewing. In this series I’m going to be sharing a few of the other things that make me grin or giggle: historical documentaries, nerdy social commentary, and internet memes galore! I’m hoping that you’ll share some of your favs in return. 

————————————

Let’s start it off with a classic: A Den of Kittens!

The purring! The endless kittens! THE CUTENESS! I freely admit that I watch kitten videos when i’m feeling blue, and they cheer my up every time. I dare you not to smile.

So, ‘fess up: Do you lurve the internet animals? Do you have a favourite to share with the rest of us?  

When sergers attack...

Yesterday I posted about my new Maca-ny Peo-ron dress, and you were all very kind in telling me not to stress about copying one pattern with another! Thank you for that. 

A couple of people also said that they couldn’t really see the hole my serger made in the back bodice… but believe me, it’s there! My serger accident happened right at the end - after I’d I’m finished, actually! It was all done, but I thought Id just tidy up the waist by serging the seam… and voila!

(Oh, look! You can also see where my staystitching on the skirt hasn’t been removed or hidden in the seam! Classy!)

There was no way I could replace the whole back panel, so as I said yesterday, I just steam-a-seamed a patch from the inside and zigzagged the edge with vaguely matching thread. I’m not sure how it will fare in the wash… but I’ll find out soon enough!

Have you done this sort of thing before? How did you fix it? I’m sure it will happen to me again, so I’d love some advice!