Worldwide Knit-In-Public Day!

Saturday was Knit In Public Day… and my sister Anne’s local yarn store, Shall We Knit, had a big open house event. Even though I’m not a knitter (since it gave me carpal tunnel 7 years ago), it was really fun to see other people geek out over their beloved hobby! (So that’s what I must look like in a fabric store! :P )

Are you familiar with the brand Soak? It’s a Canadian brand which is sold worldwide. It’s a gentle wash for wool, lingerie, and other delicates. They recently released these awesome gift boxes with wool, a knitting pattern, nail polish, hand cream, and Soak wash in coordinating colours! Anne was the hand model for this turquoise colourway, so we had to recapture the image! (Sigh. Why don’t I have her elegant hands?)

Squee! Look at the rainbow-y goodness!

There was a dye demo by Indigo Dragonfly, and the yarn was auctioned off for charity!

Tents were set up outside the yarn store, so we ate goodies and I watched people knit! (Anne made me guess what 3 ingredients were in these yummy squares! The answer: Ritz crackers, condensed milk, and Skor bites. Surprisingly delicious!) Can you tell I’m wearing one of my Peony dresses? It was a cold rainy day, so no sundresses for me!

We finally rounded off the day with a visit to a local historic house, where our friend Erin works as a reenactor! She was a terrific host, and told us all the cool details about the textiles in particular. (Erin is also the sewist and knitter behind Robot A Day!)

A wonderful day - Thank you, Anne, for being a great host! 

P.s. Oh yeah - and of COURSE I went fabric shopping! Found a little something for Jill, and I’ll pop it in the mail this week! :) 

Building a blog community - Thoughts and questions!

Hello! I had so much fun this week reading your comments on my giveaway post that I thought I would do a quick post reflecting on them. I asked you to leave a comment about your experience in the online sewing community, and it was neat to see what you wrote!

(Forgive me - I’m falling back on cute animals pics again to illustrate this post! You don’t mind, do you? I thought not!)

We love the blogging community. Rather obviously, everyone had a positive experience with the blogosphere… or we wouldn’t be here!  

We’re newbies! Quite a lot of us were relatively new to blogging about our sewing.

• Cuckoo Chanel, Kirsty from Top Notch, MarrieB from Purls and Pleats, Jenny from A Short Version of Things, Kate from Future Nakano, Renae from RenaeMade, Maider from Masustak Eguzkitan, Sue from Sewin’ Steady, and I all started in the last 12 months. Jill from the Sew Alongs is coming up on her 1-year blogiversary in July!


• Amy from Sew Well, Andrea at Four Square Walls, Roisin from Dolly Clackett, and Magpie Mimi have all been blogging for well over a year… 

Which got me thinking about a couple of things: 

1. Are you more, less, or equally likely to comment when the blogger has about the same amount of skill/experience/following that you do? I’m afraid I’m subconsciously guilty of this one! I mean, I love reading “big” blogs by people like Gertie, Sarai, Sunni, and so on, but I rarely comment! When they have so many comments already and such a wide community, my highschool brain kicks in and feels either intimidated or of little worth. By contrast, I feel much more confident commenting on smaller forums like the MMM Flickr group or less-famous blogs.


2. How do you read blogs? I use Google Reader, and love it… It makes it possible to read WAAAy more blogs than when I actually checked each one individually! On the other hand, I miss seeing the formatting and personality of the blog template, and I’m less likely to comment when I have to click over to the website! What do you do? 


3. Is this your first/only blog? I had a personal blog for a few years while I lived in Japan, and I’ve had active classroom blogs, but this is my first craft blog. It’s also the first time that my target audience isn’t people I already know! How about you? If you have other interests, do you blog separately?

I’d love to hear your thoughts! 

Another repeat!

It seems these days I don’t want to dig into new patterns… Just keep cranking out the old ones! My first new garment since Me-Made May is another two-toned Sorbetto!

This si actually the original fabric that inspired the two-tone design. When I bought this faux-ikat fabric a month or two ago, I cheaped out and only bought a metre. Unfortunately, my hips are too wide to get a Sorbetto out of a straight metre. Thus, the two-toned shirt idea was born. 

I’ll be frank - It’s terribly made, and i don’t care! The black bias tape I used as facing was too wide and therefore pulls at the fabric and shows… I didn’t finish the seams inside… and the navy is super cheap broadcloth. Oh well - It was comfy and cheerful to wear, and I got compliments from my new coworkers! ;) 

My photog told me to spin, so spin I did! Sadly, this shot reveals the unfortunate truth about this design - my %$#@ bra straps show! I guess I took out too much width from the back shoulders in an effort to stop it gaping, and now my straps show with my shoulders roll forward. I had the same problem with my previous version, and I forgot to fix it. 

Tomorrow is Worldwide Knit In Public Day, and I’ll be joining my sister and some knitterly friends in Waterloo. Too bad there is no such thing as “Sew in Public Day”… Or is there?

Hello, hello! This past weekend I offered to send one of you lovely people 2m of fabric chosen by me to reflect your personal style! It’s time to find out who the winner is! :) 

I hope this video works ok for you - It’s my first time posting one! Just in case it doesn’t work well, I’ll post the winner in the comments section!

Me-Made May Reflection

What a month! I struggled the first week and lost a big of momentum somewhere in the middle, but overall I’ve loved my first Me-Made May! I’d watched from the sidelines before, but actually taking part was so much more fun! 

At the start of the month, I did a round-up of all the Me-Mades that I could wear, and proposed an extra challenge for myself: Japanese For Crafters! Each day I introduced a sew-related word or phrase in Japanese, and challenged the Flickr group to try using it in the comments.

The original goal was to have a prop to make me feel less foolish posing every day - and I was more than a little worried that people would be annoyed that I was bending the structure of the challenge. To my relief, people in the Flickr group got right into it! The word-of-the-day led to some neat conversations and always motivated me to take and post a daily pic!

Here’s what my month looked like: 

As a teacher, we talk a lot about engaging students in meaningful discussions. While everyone loves a good compliment, I love to see people digging a little deeper! Another hot buzzwords in teaching right now is “effective feedback” - giving immediate, concrete, and meaningful feedback right away. The flickr group provided just that! A daily boost of confidence, some helpful and kind advice, and a push to continue doing your best! It certainly helped me grow and challenged me to constantly raise the bar.

During the month, I finished 8 garments, including one for my Mom! As you can see, it was exclusively doubles: Two Sorbetto, 2 Licorice dresses, 2 Renfrews, a second Truffle skirt, and a first of two Cambies! It made sewing fun and easy to repeat the same pattern, and meant that I was able to expand my wardrobe quite a bit during the month! 

Another benefit of the month was that I grew much more comfortable in front of the camera. My husband was a huge help: He hopped out of bed early every morning to takes pics, and did silly things while shooting to make me relax! 

Here are a couple of my favourites: 

Sense a theme? Thanks, babe, for all your support! 

Strange as it might sound, the photo component also helped with my self-confidence. I’ve never felt very photogenic, and yes, I slouch, blink constantly, and pull a lot of odd faces during photos… but taking 20-50 pictures a day helped me come to terms with how I look from different angles. Sometimes Japan made me feel a bit sumo-sized, but looking through my pictures and clothes, I really quite like myself. Thanks, sewing! 

The final thrill of MMM was having so many people join in on my proposal to thank Zoe on the last day. I loved reading everyone’s reflections on the month (Told ya - I like instigating meaningful discussions!) I’m so glad it worked out!

(The final day, dressed in Nautical Zoe-tribute!) 

Arigato (thank you) to all the MMM participants, and the people who supported us! 

Matta rai-nen! (See you next year!) 

You are the cat's meow! (AKA. Giveaway time!)

Lovely readers, today all your comments made me feel like this: 

Actually, the whole Me-Made May made me feel like this! 

Forgive me for speaking in internet animal (Come on, it’s totally a language, right?), but it seems the best way! 

I started this blog back in November as a way to reach out past my little town, to express and motivate myself. I didn’t start sewing clothes until January (It’s true! Check back in the blog history!) When I participated in OWOP at the End of March, I only had made multiples of one pattern… and now here I am, at the end of May, with a closet full of colourful me-made clothes and new connections to sewists around the world!

Now, one of the nice things about having a teeny tiny blog is that it’s easy to recognize and get to know the people who follow. I really appreciate that anyone would take the time to comment - After all, we’ve never met, and probably never will! Nonetheless, I’ve “met” the loveliest people through the online sewing community, and it’s time I said thanks!

Which brings me to a spur-of-the-moment, celebratory “you make me happy!” giveaway: Leave a comment below telling me about your own experience in the blogosphere sewing community. I’ll draw one person at random, and go shopping for 2m of fabric that just screams their name! In a week or two, the fabric will be winging it’s way towards them. (Consider it a test of how carefully I follow your blogs in return! I can’t promise anything amazing, because my Ontario shopping options are limited, but I’ll try for something fun that reflects the winner’s style! :) 

Don’t be shy - Comment away! 

I feel pretty, oh so pretty! (Aka. The Floral Cambie)

O hai! I made a Cambie. 

And it makes me do things like this: 

Uh, yeah. This is the most ulta-feminine dress I’ve ever made, and I’m not sure how to feel about it! Its made from a thrifted bedsheet, which should make it totally casual… but somehow even the black border can’t balance out the polkadot/floral/sweetheart girliness. 

To make matters even more fem, I changed it into a princess bodice: 

When I made a muslin, it was clear that the darts were never going to be enough to shape it over the bust. Pinning in some extra darts from the top down helped, but I figured that with only 2cm between the top and bottom darts, i could do it more elegantly with a princess line! I’ve never converted a pattern before, so I’m glad it worked. My sister is *cough* rather more endowed than I, so fingers crossed the princess seams help with the FBA! 

Here’s the back: 

I think it’s a brilliant design: sundress from the front, full coverage in the back! It was a bit scary to sewing in the lining without know if it all fit yet, but it all worked out! As a confirmed “pear”, Sewaholic’s patterns always work well for me! :) 

I cheated a bit with the skirt because I wanted to use the border print. I just hacked off the length of the skirt, gathered it with the serger, and sewed it on! (I’ve actually never done a gathered skirt before… I started out doing Gertie’s “zigzag over string”method, but hated spacing out the gathers. Serging was much less accurate, but fast!

However, even with bust adjustments and re-sewing the straps shorter, the bust still gapes! (Go ahead, take a look up above! I won’t tell! :P) I actually made the straps so short that I had to lower the armpit after the whole thing was finished. Why does it gape? Gaping is NOT ladylike! 

Here’s the problem: Where the heck am I going to wear this dress? It makes me thing of the pretty dresses with giant lace collars I used to wear to birthday paries when I was 8. I love the pattern, but I don’t know how to make it less frou-frou. The black belt was the best I could think of, but I’d welcome accessory suggestions!

By the same token, I have fabric to make another version in a light, drapey faded grey-blue with white polka dots. Is that going to equally girly? Should I ditch the fun gathered skirt and make the more boring a-line? HELP!