Skiing in Seattle

Greg and I just got back from an epic eight-day trip to Seattle.

I started the trip out right by staying up alllllll night the night before we left. We were set to leave the house at 5 a.m., and I was working until 1 a.m. Since I need about an hour to get myself together in the morning, I decided against sleeping for three hours. It turned out to be an awesome decision. I slept all the way to Seattle. Total win.

We decided to take a trip out there early in the year so that we could take advantage of good skiing weather and the opportunity to visit Greg's sister, who lives out there. We went Wednesday to Wednesday, and she was able to take off the second set of weekdays, so for the first few days we headed out to Crystal Mountain ski resort about two hours outside of Seattle.

Can I just say it was amazing? We stayed in the cutest little suite/condo with a dollhouse-sized kitchen (we did all of our own cooking for this portion of the trip), sitting room complete with wood stove and a hot tub and heated pool.

And the skiing was awesome the first day. Powdery and fun. Best of all, I hadn't forgotten how to ski. (I was a little worried -- I just learned how last year!) The second day was slightly less awesome -- I fell a lot and the slopes were more crowded because it was a Friday. And there was no new snow.  Ah well. Not every day can be a winner, right? That day we did get to take a nice detour to see Mount Rainier at the top of the gondola:

Friday night we hopped off to Seattle to meet up with Greg's sister and her boyfriend, who are just the nicest people with the cutest house and the silliest little Boston terrier. Greg's sister, happily, was able to act as our tour guide for the remainder of the trip, Tarzan (the Boston) in tow:

Over the weekend, we did all of our sight-seeing. I'd never been to Seattle before, so I was super excited to visit Pike's Place:

It reminded me of a giant version of Baltimore's Cross Street Market, which is a block away from the house I grew up in. Needless to say, I adored it.

We also visited the sculpture garden:

 I made that dress, by the way. More in another post since I made three of them. I don't remember what this sculpture was supposed to be, but it was shaped like a giant geometric donut -- with a bite out of it.

We also visited the locks. Oh. My. Goodness. I'd never seen a lock in action in person before. It's fascinating. I probably would have watched all day if I hadn't been with other, less interested, people. But I did get to watch twice! I took a long cell video of the process (I'll spare you my poor cellphone videography, no need to worry.) Also, that first boat was ADORABLE. All wood detailing... the lady aboard said it was a 1978. So pretty. Seattle is chock full of beautiful boats.

We rounded out the trip with wine-tasting, another day of skiing and visits to several local independent fabric shops (!!). I'll try to have a separate post with my haul from the fabric shops. Too good to be believed. And, of course, nothing like what we have here.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and incredible food, a sweet hostess, good skiing and a ton of fun. It was so sad it all had to end, though I confess that I do think one of the best things about going away is coming home. At least for me, returning home always increases my appreciation for little things: my bed, a glass of my favorite wine, non-travel bottles of toiletries (I hate them!), good milk and general familiarity. Home is, after all, where your sewing machines are. ;)

Things I've Sewn Lately: New Look 6150

Finally got to take some pictures of some of the things I've made lately and I've got several pieces of clothing queued up to show you.

I made Greg play the part of fashion photographer today. Isn't he such a sport? All photo credits are his, of course.

But first, a sewing machine update. No, I didn't rush right out and buy a new machine -- but my mom, bless her heart, is too busy to sew lately, so she's graciously loaned me both her sewing machine AND her serger. 

It's practically too good to be true. I was so depressed about my machine breaking -- again -- but so so excited and grateful to be loaned some really high-quality machines to play with. Though I worry I might become spoiled...

And, bonus, her serger is the exact model I've had my eye on to buy. So it's like an extended trial. :D

Of course, the second I got the serger home, I had to rush right out and get a knit pattern and some knit fabric to play with. No time to delay!

This is a super soft rayon knit made by Sew Classics and bought from JoAnn fabric -- all Sew Classic knits are 40 percent off right now, so hurry up and go get some!

The pattern is New Look 6150, a faux wrap with ruched sleeves and a ruched side and I sewed just about everything with the serger.

For those not familiar with sergers, look at the inside of a stretchy shirt you own. I bet you're wearing one right now! See the funky stitching on the seams? It's done with a four-thread serger. Fancy, right? You use a serger so that the stitches stretch with the fabric. Have you ever bought a cheap stretchy top, pulled it over your head and heard thread cracking and breaking? I know I have! That's what using a serger avoids. I'll try and snap a picture of the one I'm using, but, as you might have surmised from previous posts, my sewing room is in the basement and sees very little natural light. 

Anyway, back to the shirt! Did I mention it's really soft and comfy?

I wore this outfit to work on Friday and it was so nice and comfortable all day long. 

Here's a closer look at the sleeves:

And the back:

And the always-important bend-forward test. 

Here's a link to my review on Pattern Review in case you're interested. I highly recommend this pattern! 

Letting Go

Last night I went downstairs to sew after I finished work. I finished cutting my latest pattern, Butterick B5781, last week, so I was excited to start sewing.

I got through some stay stitching and was putting the bodice back together when the machine got stuck. The needle is in the locked down position and the bobbin assembly won't turn.

I took the whole business apart and examined the belt and the inner workings. Everything looks fine. I took out the bobbin and cleared the fuzzies out of the bobbin case. I put the whole thing back together. Still no dice.

I'm a little frustrated. I was so excited when I got my machine repaired in late September (my handy dandy ticket tells me I picked it up on Oct. 1.) I spent nearly $100 getting it repaired then and afterward it worked wonderfully. Three months later? Not so much.

At the time I had a major dilemma -- fix the machine or put that money toward a new machine? It's the same dilemma I'm having now.

Should I start visiting dealers and squirreling away cash for something new? I had been lazily saving for a basic serger, but it looks now like that might be a bit farther off.

One thing's for sure, I can't drop $100 on my beloved 338 every three months. That's just insane.

Repair it once more and hope for the best?

I'm not leaning toward that option.

I suppose the best idea is to start visiting various machine dealers and saving my pennies and looking for sales. Buying a sewing machine seems like one of those things, like buying a car, that's best done in person.

The thing is, I'm just so sad about it the whole thing. I finally got my old bookcase from my parents' house and got the whole room set up nicely. I got a dressform for Christmas and a padding set and I spent an entire afternoon measuring and padding and measuring. I should be ready to sew!

Letting go isn't easy, but I think it's what I have to do.

What do you think?

Ringing in the New Year

The second the ball dropped in Times Square, marking the beginning of 2011, he kissed me for the first time.

Now, two years later, we live together.

Crazy how those things work, right?

So many wonderful things have happened since then. That year I made one resolution: to carry cash. (I've renewed that particular resolution every year since then with mixed success.)

I never made resolutions until 2011. I never wanted to be the type of person who resolves every Jan. 1 to "get fit" or "find love." Mainly because I know I'm not the type of person to follow that sort of resolution. (Many kudos to those of you who manage it!)

I try to keep my resolutions to things that I want to be mindful of in the new year. And frequently they're things I've started doing before the new year. But writing my resolutions on paper helps me to remember them. I've always kept a journal -- a book of lists and appointments and recipes and calorie counts.

This year, I'm ordering a new book (I've only got two pages left in my old one!) and I'll copy this list onto the first page.

For 2013, I am hoping to follow these goals and be mindful of my desire to achieve them:

• Work: Use all of my vacation and better track my comp time. 
• Fitness: Run once a week and do yoga twice a week.
• Health: Drink more water, visit the dermatologist, wear glasses more frequently.
• As always: CARRY CASH. 

I'm sure I'll have varying success with these. For instance, I tend to get stuck in fitness ruts. Lately, I've been going to yoga  all the time and somehow, now that it's cold out, I've conveniently forgotten about running. Oops! So I want to attempt to give myself a goal of running once a week. I can do that, right? 

Mostly, I just want to make a good effort at all of these. But I won't hate myself -- or give up completely -- if I mess up a few times. 

So here's to a successful 2013 -- I hope it's wonderful for all of us!

Christmas Stockings

This year, Greg and I decided to do Christmas stockings for each other. Of course, instead of buying stockings, I decided to make some. Joann's, as always, was having a sale. So I bought a yard each of red plaid and green fabric and a yard of fusible fleece to make the stockings a little puffier.

Fusible fleece, just in case you're wondering, is about $8 a yard. But I had a 50 percent off coupon, because I'm awesome (I highly recommend the Joann's app if you're a big JoAnn's fan.) The ladies at my JoAnn's crack me up. At the cutting counter, I presented the fusible fleece and requested a yard and the lady looked at the fleece and leaned over the counter to whisper, "This is not on sale. You have coupon?" I told her that I did, and she smiled big and cut the fabric for me. She was genuinely worried that I might overspend on fusible fleece. Cute, right?

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the second stocking. The first one I made after work one night, meaning that I didn't finish until about 2:45 a.m. since I work until 1 a.m. Which is to say that there aren't pictures from the first stocking.

First, I made a "pattern" out of muslin. I had to make the stocking HUGE to account for all the seams and quilt. I just used a charcoal pencil to sketch a rough outline -- and then I realized how much would be taken up by seam allowance and made it about half again as large.

I cut just about everything with a rotary cutter because I'm lazy and I think the finished cut looks more neat. And I'm lazy.

Do you like my pattern weights? They're my mom's. She gave me a bunch of her old stuff. She has fancy new pattern weights. But these have character -- I remember her using them when I was a kid.   

So first I cut out two stockings and two cuffs from the red plaid. 

Then I cut two stockings and two cuffs from green. 

Then I ironed one stocking and one cuff to the fusible fleece (again with the laziness -- I could have used normal quilt batting.) I wanted the stockings to be different on each side, so I sandwiched the opposite fabric onto the other side of the fusible fleece and sewed a seam around the outside.

I did this for both sides of the stocking and then sandwiched the two sides together and sewed around the outside. Except the top, obviously -- you want your stocking to open. (Fun fact: The first stocking, I sewed the top shut by mistake. I got in a groove of sewing all the way around. Don't be like me.) 

Then I trimmed the seam allowance with pinking shears, sewed the cuffs (also sandwiched with fusible fleece) to the top and flipped the whole thing right side out. 

Finally, I sewed a little loop on the back of the cuff so that we'd be able to hang the stockings over the fire. 

Here's an inside shot. Please excuse my scrap fabric pile in the background. 

These made pretty small stockings, as you can see with my hand there. (Although, for the record, my hands are huge -- larger than most men's hands.) But they're just big enough for a good bunch of small stocking stuffers, which is exactly what I wanted. I haven't decided yet if I want to embroider the solid green cuffs with our names. So far I'm thinking no. Maybe next year. :)

Hope you all have a merry Christmas!

The Dress

Last night was Greg's company Christmas party -- the perfect opportunity to wear my new dress!

This is Butterick pattern B5708. I just love it! On Black Friday, I ventured out to JoAnn's and they had all Butterick patterns for $1, so I stocked up.

This pattern is from a collection of vintage patterns that they re-released last year.

It was a fairly simple dress to sew and the pattern instructions were nice and clear, which I always appreciate.

I don't have a zipper foot for my sewing machine, so I had to hand sew the zipper. And the dress was HUGE the first time, so I had to pull it apart and take it in a couple times (resewing the zipper three times, thank you very much). And I didn't like the way the straps were supposed to tie, so I tied them at the shoulders. But that looks a little more fancy anyway, I think.

Butterick 5708

Overall, I think it was a success! I got tons of compliments, which are always good for my ego. One gentleman even stopped me to say that I looked like I stepped right out of 1953 (I chose to take this as a compliment) and that he adored my dress. So sweet!

I'm wearing it with a crinoline from ReSashay, which is the most wonderful online shop. I ordered the crinoline on Monday, and it was delivered on Wednesday.

And you can barely see them, but I'm also wearing my mom's wedding pearls. I found them in a dresser at my grandmother's house when we were packing her things so she could move to a condo. My mom had forgotten all about them!

This was a fun project, but next up are a dress (one that is slightly more work-appropriate) and a little shell shirt. I'll let you know how they turn out!

My Sewing Machine

Matching homemade outfits -- oh yeah!

My mother is a fantastic seamstress. She made all of my clothing (except jeans and underwear, she is usually quick to point out) and Halloween costumes (everything from a fuzzy bunny to a unicorn) when I was a kid. She also stayed home with me until I was 3 and supplemented the household income by making costumes for the Peabody Dance School. She made me a flower girl dress for my Aunt MeeMoo’s wedding.

Basically, my mom is a sewing badass, though she doesn’t break out the machine as much anymore.

Singer 338

Recently I came into possession of the sewing machine that my mother used when she was learning to sew. My grandmother’s sewing machine. From the early ’60s. On the phone the other day, my Mommom informed me that she bought it in 1963. 

It’s green and loud and heavy.  

This Singer 338 is about to be 53, ya'll -- it deserves mad respect.

Really, there’s no reason I can’t do all of my sewing on this machine. My Mommom and Mom both did. (Mom’s got a super fancy newfangled plastic machine these days.) 

I’d also really rather not drop $500 on a brand new machine that’s willing to do quilting. Because I would really like to make a new quilt and cheap machines don’t have the wherewithal to manage heavy quilting. 

And I love my little blue 338.

Also, I just don’t trust a machine that weighs less than 20 pounds. There’s something just not right about that, let's be honest.

So I've carved out a little corner of the basement for a sewing area. There was a serendipitous coupon (Groupon? LivingSocial? The world may never know) for G Street Fabric, a fabulous store near here. It was $25 for $50 worth of merchandise. So naturally I bought the largest cutting mat I could find. And it fits perfectly on the table that used to hold Greg's miscellaneous papers. Yay for using a filing cabinet!

On the ironing board, you see my latest project, which I plan to wear this weekend to a fancy party -- and there will be finished-product pictures, don't you worry!  

I know it's a bit of a mess right now. 

But I've got major plans for this space, which looks a bit bare now. I've got a bookcase to put in there to hold all my fabrics and notions and things. And I plan to put up a magnetic knife strip for my scissors and a bulletin board I have leftover from another DIY project. Not to mention some pictures and my little TV -- gotta have something to listen to while I work! 

I have so many ideas for making my little sewing room into something both functional and cute (rather than the current mess.)

For now, though, it meets my needs and I'm having all kinds of fun with my little sewing projects -- even if I'm not quite up to fuzzy-bunny-level sewing just yet. ;)