On a Lark » Graduation

Another day, another…bag

Emily — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:12:28 +0000

Business is booming around here. Well…booming is a relative term. I am keeping busy though and I have a new bag design in the works. While the new design is under construction, I made another bag like this one:

I made this one for my Mom and I think it’s my favorite color combination to date. The lining on the new one is different though. I used this Amy Butler fabric:

This particular fabric was part of my graduation gift from my brother and his soon-to-be wife. I introduced her to the “design wall” feature at Fabric.com. Check it out at your own risk, it’s addictive.
Between sewing, puppy training, and job hunting, I admit I’ve spent a little too much time online imagining things I’m going to make and buy when I move to a new place. This is probably not the best use of my time but it sure is fun And I’m pretty sure I could make stuff like this (both photos from Anthropologie) for less than a couple hundred dollars:

But a lot of things still need to happen before I start Anthropologoie-ing a new apartment. One more step on the road is our street wide yard sale on Saturday. Out with the old and in with the new!

Woes in the world of sewing

Emily — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:11:51 +0000

Soooo….remember the graduation dress I worked on this spring? Well it came out great! It had been hanging up for the last few weeks waiting for graduation. But what did I wear on Saturday? A blue and white sundress that I bought last summer. Why? Because when I put on my graduation dress about 30 minutes before I was set to march, the zipper on my dress failed. At first I thought I maybe made the dress too tight, but it wasn’t even that. Somewhere along the line, the zipper was damaged and no matter what I do it comes off track. Has anyone had this problem with invisible zippers?

Anyhow, I’m not heartbroken about it. I really enjoyed the process of making it, and my graduation day was still full of sunshine, friends, family, and happiness. But now I’m faced with a new challenge. Do I fix the dress or not? I would definitely wear it again, but without a specific event in mind, I’m not sure I can handle the frustration and time involved in taking out the zipper and putting in a new one. I guess we’ll see how it goes : )

So a few lessons were learned in all other:
1. Really test out any garment made for a special day. Notable, pull on the zipper
2. Always keep a back up at hand.
3. Make sure you have enough time to change into your backup dress after you realize that your first dress isn’t working and still get coffee. A good cup of coffee on the porch can cure a lot of things.

Purple and yellow make a good pair

Emily — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:00:12 +0000

Among many things I’ve picked up while living with my roommate is a healthy appreciation for the purple and yellow color combo. It’s good. Accept it. Where is this going? I made a little graduation gift for my roommate! I picked up some fat quarters from Joann’s for the project. Typically, I don’t use fat quarters because they aren’t a great deal and I don’t like the name. But in this case it was perfect. Two fat quarters = one excellent wallet.

I got the ideas for the felt from this pillow. But as it turns out, I’m not so good at translating a picture into the same shape free hand. All things considered it turned out pretty well.

Graduation is sneaking up in the next few days. I’m VERY excited, but I’m definitely going to miss my roommates and our little house. Onwards and upwards.

Finally finished!

Emily — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:37:22 +0000

Well, I finished my graduation dress over the weekend. And with three weeks to spare! This project was a huge learning curve for me! LOTS of hand sewing, which I’m generally terrible at. It took a few goes, but I got the hang of it.

I’m going to put a full pattern review on Pattern Review soon, but if any of you are thinking about using this pattern (Butterick 5353), here are a few things I noticed:

1. The sizes run a bit big. Using my measurements, I should have cut a 12, but I cut a 10 and ended up taking about 2 inches from the back center seam and an inch from each seam under the arm. So don’t necessarily trust their sizes chart.
2. Next time I will make a less structured dress. Fitting is frustrating
3. I think this pattern might be better suited for a stiffer material than Swiss Dot, but I really like the look of lighter material.
4. I’m going to try hard not to freak out when I make a mistake on a project, because I made a lot of this one and it still worked out. This is including the hole in the skirt that I created when I ripped the zipper out for the fourth time a little bit too vigorously. A moment to breath and a little bit of iron on patch, and it was as good as new.

And in closing, a photo of Otto the Puppy at 4 weeks:

Hope you’re all having a lovely Monday!

Because I might be needing a new hobby soon

Emily — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:05:23 +0000

Once I’m done with school (in only a few weeks!) I might have a little more free time. And I’ve really been wanting to try out making a quilt. My Grammy Meigs made amazing quilts, but my favorite were her t-shirt quilts. She made one for a bunch of the grand kids with all of our favorite old shirts. Here are a few shots of mine:

These are my favorite squares. For some reason I always loved the Acadia National Park and the navy blue Field Day shirt:

And of course, I had to include this shot, courtesy of the Maine State Prosecutors Association. Those jokesters . I should say that this isn’t even the most ridiculous t-shirt I have from this group. The one I plan to put on my quilt so “Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Prosecutors” and it has a lawyer moose on it. Amazing.

I have quite a collection of t-shirts from college and assorted other adventures, so hopefully a t-shirt quilt is in my future. But I also LOVE this one from A Common Place Life. Here’s a photo from her website:

It might be a little advanced for my first try. But I like how she chooses all different types of fabric, because I have all kinds of random fabric in my stash that needs a home. Does anyone have any good quilting tips they’ve picked up over the years? Has anyone made a t-shirt quilt before?

Invisible Zipper How-To

Emily — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:35:03 +0000

It’s been raining here the last few days but the sun is shining at our house! My roommate has grow lights up and the space heater on in our bathroom for a whole army of little seedlings. Watermelon, eggplant, brussel sprouts. Yum. Only two plants have been attacked by the puppies so far. We’re hoping to keep the seedling death toll to a minimum from here on out .

While my roommate has been busy in our makeshift greenhouse, my never ending graduation dress saga is slowly dragging to a close. In truth, I’m really enjoying keeping a project going this long. There’s no rush, so when I get frustrated I can put it aside and tackle it again the next day. Anyhow, one of the final pieces of the puzzle is installing an invisible zipper. You know the type, they live on your suit skirts and cocktail dresses. Who knew they could be such a trick to get just right? After several attempts, I got it right and I didn’t even use a fancy invisible zipper foot. So here’s a little bit on how I did it.

The first step is ironing the zipper out on a low iron setting. I had read to do this, but I didn’t really get the point until I sewed it in without ironing it enough and it was far from “invisible”. You have to take the zipper teeth and actually unroll them away from the tape, more than you would expect. You’ll know you’ve got it right when the zipper is upside down and you can clearly see the two little rows of stitching on the back of the zipper teeth. In the image of below, the bottom side of the zipper is ironed and the top side is not.

I didn’t have an invisible zipper foot, but they look pretty cool and I think it definitely would have made this job easier. But still, it’s completely doable without the specific foot. You just have to make sure that you use your fingers to keep the zipper flat so that you can sew as close to the zipper teeth as humanly possible.

I had plenty of chances to get the picture above because I sewed on and ripped off this zipper quite a few times. Below is how it looks with both sides sewn on but before the lining is attached. I’ll iron in the seam so the zipper teeth are on the edge and hand sew the lining to opposite side of the zipper.

And there it is zipped up. I still can’t completely believe it worked. Sewing is magic.

Keep an eye out for a more detailed tutorial on Hubpages soon!

Brown Paper Packages!

Emily — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:36:06 +0000

Are there many things better than getting a package on a sunny spring day? Sitting in my mailbox this morning was my order from Lush! My New Years Resolution this year was to try to make generally more healthy decisions, so I used this as an excuse to order some natural shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant. I’m not willing to give up function on any of these items, but Lush products work great and are mostly free of preservatives and harmful chemicals, which is both good for me and Mama Earth. Word to the wise, order from the store not the website. If your order is over $60 (which between my roommate, our boyfriends, and me wasn’t too hard to meet), than shipping is free and it comes in just a few days.

I got the Seanik Solid Shampoo, the Teo Deoderant and the Jungle Solid Conditioner. Both of the guys got Soak and Float Solid Shampoo. This shampoo literally smells like fire. But men seem to love it. So there you go.

The fact that there’s more than one picture on here of my shampoo and conditioner should be an indication of how excited I am.

In other news, the dress is coming along great. I had to make two alterations in the top and this is the first time I’ve ever done an alteration mid-project that actually looked like I meant to do it in the first place. Big strides around here.

The final step is the invisible zipper. Which requires an invisible zipper foot. Which I do not have. Anyone have any great suggestions on how to put in an invisible zipper?

And finally, one more lovely reminder of spring. Our resident huntress, Scout the Kitty. Can you spot her under the bird feeder?

Stuff I Like: New Fabric Etc.

Emily — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:20:33 +0000

This weekend felt like June. And not even the type of of June we sometimes get where it rains the whole time. The nice type of June. Anyhow, there’s nothing like beautiful weather to make me remember all the news things that I like (and that you might like too!)

1. Ambiance Bemberg lining: This is a really luxurious feeling lining that I’m using for my graduation dress. I’m using this fabric from Fabric.com. It is a bit of a trick to deal with. Case in point, Pattern Review has a three page discussion in their forums about how to handle it (check it out here). But still, I sort of love it.

2. New spring projects: Inspired by this pillow, I bought myself some felt. It’ll probably be a while before I get to actually put it into use, but for now it’s something colorful to think about:

3. Headway on winter projects: And this is also an example of why I need a serger. Or more aptly, need some kind of crafty patron that would like to donate a serger to my cause.

Graduation Dress Bodice Interior

Topstitching Fun

Operation Graduation Dress is chugging along. This is a good project for me because, usually, once I get going on a project, I like to finish it in one shot, even if it takes all night. It’s taken some serious self control to work on it for a few hours here and a few hours there.

4. Chubby puppies: That’s right, the puppy from a few posts ago is now giant. He’s more than doubled in size in his week and a half of life. We’re going to name him Otto (aka the Ottoman Empire or Ottopotamus). He’s adorable.

5. The new Vitamin Water flavor Spark. It is delicious.

What do you like right now?

Spring time and dresses

Emily — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:12:33 +0000

Do you know that feeling that you get when you step inside after standing by a bonfire as the sun goes down? And your nose and ears are cold but the rest of you still has the lingering warmth of the fire? And the house smells like fire and spring time? That is the best. It looks like it might finally be spring time in Maine. The flowers are sprouting. The driveway is muddy.

Besides enjoying the spring weather, I got my bridesmaid’s dress for my brother’s wedding. His fiance (who is probably the most organized and sane bride-to-be that I know) told us all to find a black cocktail dress for the occasion. No seafoam green tulle will be rotting in my closet! So here’s what I picked (from J. Crew):
I love it so much that I want it in other colors. I wonder if I could make my own. Has anyone sewn with silk tricotine? It seems like a relatively easy pattern, but I’m pretty new to working with slippery materials that might not respond well to my furious seam ripping.

I also picked new fabric for my graduation dress! I’m starting to get a little panicked that it won’t be ready in time, because I only have about 6 weeks! And as it turns out, they still expect me to do homework until I actually graduate. Crazy. Anyhow, I went with a little bit more informal fabric, and I’m excited. I picked blue light weight chambray for the top and the deep red swiss dot that I showed in a previous post for the bottom:

It’s going to be great. What are you doing to celebrate spring time?

Operation Graduation Dress

Emily — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:00:28 +0000

I am graduating! After 18.75 years in school, I am almost done! Woohoo! So I need a dress. But part of my New Years Resolution was to not by any new clothes. This of course excludes absolutely necessary items, like a suit for interviews, a bridesmaid dress for my brother’s wedding, socks, and underwear. Because no one wins if I abstain for purchasing said items. What to do? I’m making my own dress.

I’ve sewn a few pieces of clothing, but with pretty limited success. I have two or three pieces that I wear, but a graduation dress is a whole new level for me. I shopped around for a pattern for a while and I ended up finding this one, Butterick 5353. My boyfriend’s sister got it for me for my birthday!

I usually just start cutting and figure everything out as I go along, but this time I decided that I should probably start with a muslin to make sure it fit. I have to say, muslin sewing was sort of liberating. It was nice to sew with reckless abandon. Sort of. As much as you can ever sew with reckless abandon I guess. Anyhow, while my roommate and I listened to podcasts I tried to piece this thing together. It was little more confusing than I expected, but in the end, it fit!

I think I might just wear it like this. Start a trend you know? Despite difficulty just figuring out the muslin, I’m pretty happy with the fit and I’m ready to start on the final product. But first I need to pick a fabric. I found some great swiss dot at Fabric.com:

But then again, a print might be a lot more fun. And there are so many prints out there to be had, all of these are by Amy Butler:

Decisions, decisions. What fabric would you use? I’m more than willing to let someone else make the decision here. So seriously, what fabric would you use?