Little Dance

Hi everyone,

Just a quick hello and welcome back. I have had a busy week. I went to San Diego last weekend for my Baecation to see a friend. We had a lot of fun camping and hanging out together. My boyfriend and I drove up last Thursday and returned Sunday night. This past week has been a blur of chores and grocery shopping. In between those chores I finished my fourteenth dress I have named “Little Dance”. For this post, I am sharing pictures of my pattern and how I styled Little Dance.

First off, this bird fabric is from Joann's  and I believe it is a Calico Keepsake fabric. I purchased it in the beginning of the year and it has sat in my stash since January. I was going to use the fabric to make pillowcases to help  brighten up our living room, but I never got around to it. These little cuties have been waiting for a transformation and I knew after making my first bird dress, I had to make another. I washed and dried the fabric and began the awesome process of pinning and cutting out the fabric. Here is a picture of what this looks like to me:

Having a couple of good patterns that I follow to create my dresses, I have traced the bodices onto old Christmas wrapping paper so that I can reuse them. I haven’t gotten around to copying all of my pattern pieces, and I feel I really should because some are getting a little beat up. I make sure that after copying that I include all the symbols that are on the original pattern piece. I have also begun to use packaging tape to reinforce the corners of my bodice pieces so they are a little more sturdy. I also make sure to write on the copied pattern piece what pattern it is from and what style.

When cutting our fabric and sewing, I also make sure I have an ironing board out with a hot iron at the ready. This helps me from being lazy and not pressing the fabric and seams during the project.

Next, I make sure to pick out matching thread and zipper that goes with the fabric. I load the bobbin and keep scissors  and seam rippers nearby in case of mistakes.
Speaking of mistakes, I made several while sewing together Little Dance. The first was that I ran out of thread while gathering the skirt fabric. This forced me to work quickly and doing so, I ended up ripping out half of the thread on the side of the skirt. Later when I sewed the bodice and the skirt together, I did a horrible job keeping the skirt straight which caused the skirt’s gathers misalign. I had to unpick and try again. Finally, when installing the zipper, I actually pulled a rookie mistake and sewed the front of the bodice into the zipper! Hah. All of these mistakes are ways to help me get better at sewing and learning how to fix difficult situations. I actually like making mistakes so I can learn from them.

Once Little Dance was finished, I could not wait to wear it to work immediately. I styled it with navy tights and cardigan, tan oxfords, and my new Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five pin from Shop Martin on Etsy. I received several compliments on the dress and it's beautiful chartreuse color. The fabric was really soft and comfy. For all the mistakes I made, it came out wonderfully in fit and cut. I am so in love!

Current Reads

I am lovin' Dumplin'. I didn't think I would but I have thoroughly loved the premise. I have even began listening to a little Dolly Parton too. I am currently listening to it via Overdrive, but I enjoy it all the same. 

Tell Us Something True is another book I'm reading currently that I like. I cannot wait to progress further into the plot to see what happens. 

 This Savage Song has been confusing and hard to me to get into. I believe this book is too over-hyped. At this point, I'm not really sure what is happening and I don't know whether I should give up or keep reading.

I really enjoy Shadow and Bone, but unfortunately it reminds me a lot of Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I didn't like Red Queen so we'll have to see how similar their plot lines are. 

Thanks for reading my current reads post! xoxo 

Bird Dress - A Beautiful Disaster

This blog post is aptly named for my finished current dress project. Let me tell you a little more about how I got the fabric, the sewing process, and the relief I’m feeling now that it's done.

It was love at first sight when I found this bird fabric at Joann’s back in May. My local Joann’s only had a one yard available at the time, so I went online and purchased through Joann.com and unfortunately during my transaction, the fabric sold out. I frantically called Joann’s customer service department and waited on hold for over 30 minutes.  The customer service rep told me that the fabric has been selling out, and that she could offer me a couple of fat quarters at the time. I was bummed, so I asked if there was a possibility that it would be repurchased soon. The rep told me it would be in 2-4 weeks. I sighed, and relented that I would check the website again when I could. Fast forward two weeks later, Joann’s website restocked the beautiful bird fabric and I purchased 4 yards to make a pretty dress for myself.

After a week of telling friends and family about my recent fabric purchase, my package arrived. I was not happy at all. First, Joanns sent me only 3 yards. Second, two of the three yards were separated. Thankfully, Joanns did not charge me for 4 yards, so that was nice but I was still mad. I washed and dried the fabric so it was ready for its transformation. Then librarian job interviews happened and I lost touch with sewing for a couple of months. During this time, my Two of Hearts dress also sat unfinished in my sewing room. The bird fabric lay on the bed, while I tried to think of thread and zipper choices. Now, in the past two weeks I have finally began working on the dress.

I laided out my self drafted skirt pattern, and my Butterick b5748 bodice pattern on the varying pieces of fabric and discovered that I could fit all the pieces easily. This has been a new realization because I am such a beginner level sewer, I didn’t think I could make a dress out of 3 yards  and not mess up. But there in the scattered pieces of the bird fabric I could make a dress if I cut carefully and paid attention to the number of pieces needed. I cut out all the pattern pieces, ironed and smoothed out any wrinkling, and I began the crazy journey of sewing them all together.

The first issue that happened was that I noticed I cut my back skirt pieces an inch shorter than the front skirt piece. This means I had to go back and recut or hem the skirt so that it evened out. I choose the cutting route. Next, I sewed the bodice pieces together and I used scrap fabric from one my first dresses I made. The scrap fabric is a grey fabric with ditsy white floral. I used that fabric for the lining. I sewed the bodice together and let the project sit for a couple days. I returned to it by the end of last week, in which I sewed the skirt and pockets together. I had some friends over for Magic the Gathering and drinks and I got to show a friend my progress. The bird dress sat again until last Saturday, when I began to sew the bodice to the skirt. Oh boy. I like to pin perpendicularly to the fabric and sewing machine so I keep the pins in while I sew. I then remove the pins afterward and inspect my stitches. Due to the amount of fabric and pins, my sewing machine tried to eat something. It made crazy grinding sounds. Ray came rushing into the sewing room to ask what was happening. I thought I had broken my machine. I stopped, lifted the presser foot looked around. I rethreaded my bobbin and needle. I turned on my machine and tried again. The needle could not keep the thread in it. I rethreaded again. Finally, it worked and was sewing okay. I continued sewing the bodice and the skirt together.

Today, while sewing the zipper, the back seam, and the hem I had difficulty again. The problem arose when I installed the zipper. I am not a great zipper sewer. I should probably enroll in some kind of zipper boot camp, because it takes me forever to sew them and just knowing that the process is coming up psyches me out. Well, determined to sew the zipper and finish the project, I started sewing the zipper into the dress. When I got to the bottom of the zipper, I zipped it up and pivoted. Nothing. I had to take the whole dress out from under the presser foot and rethread. I sewed on a scrap piece of fabric and saw it was fine. I then sewed again. I finished installing the zipper and turned to the back seam. I took my time pinning the back seams and sewing them. After, I went to the inside of the dress and sewed what I call the “dress guts” together. These are the the ends of the skirt and the bodice. I don’t have a serger/overlocker machine yet, so I use a zig zag stitch to finish off the ends. I then began to roll the hem to sew and finish the dress. I pinned the rolled hem in place and began to sew. Everything was fine until at  the last foot of the hem, I ran out of bobbin thread. I stopped, loaded my bobbin briefly, and sewed again. Then at the last inch I ran out of bobbin thread again. I quickly loaded my bobbin to finish. And BAM, the bird dress is done! UGH. Why was it so hard? I think it’s just me and my mediocre sewing skills. I need some extra tips.

Anyway, I am so happy I am done. This is my thirteenth dress I’ve  finished this year. I have began to wash and pick out fabrics for my upcoming projects. Now to take a week off to read and relax. Thank you for reading! <3

You’ve Gotta be Kitten Me: A Review of a Crafty Girl’s Favorite Fabrics

HAH, did you see what I did there? Well this blog post is going to be all about fabric and dresses. I usually begin my hunt for printed dress fabrics by looking on Instagram under the tags: #dinosaurdress, #memade, #birdfabric and etc. While I scroll through the images that match tag terms, I find my inspiration for fabric and dress making. Here is the process I took for my current kitten fabric obsession.

Step One - Inspiration:

I was cruising on Instagram for different dress ideas when I stumbled upon this beautiful Lindy Bop kitten dress. Specific Instagram: girlinadress__ Mary-Elizabeth kills it with her vintage and pin-up themed fashion.

Step Two - Reviews:

After considering this purchase along with frantically looking online for plus size reviews of this dress. I found two blogs in which I used for reviews of Lindy Bop dress fit. The first was June Bugs and Georgie Peaches and the second was Porcelina's World. Both blogs gave me better understanding of how Lindy Bop’s dresses fit and feel. I enjoyed both blogs very much for my vintage inspiration!   

Step Three - The Hunt:

I started my hunt for kitten fabric on Fabric.com. I used the search box and typed in the phrase “kitten fabric”. I used the categories on the left hand side of the webpage to limit the search results to only Quilting Fabric. Then I scrolled down the page to find the Kaufman Whiskers & Tails Kitty Fabric. I decided to purchase 3 yards of the adorable fabric.  

Also, a new favorite website of mine is Miss Matatabi. I found this Japanese fabric website through some careful Internet searches. The Cotton +Steel fabrics on Miss Matatabi are AMAZING and I loved admiring each one on this website. This weekend, I purchased these Cotton + Steel two fabrics: Boo Charms Berry and Penny Arcade-Balloons Navy. Both fabrics I’ve been watching on fabric.com for months waiting for the price to go down. When I saw both on Miss Matatabi’s I bought them immediately.

Step Four - Cutting Shit Out:

I plan on making a vintage inspired dress with pockets. This means cutting fabric out. If you know me, you know I hate cutting anything. Especially paper and fabric. I have created a self-drafted skirt pattern that I use very often because I like the style and the length of the skirt. I usually use either two manufactured bodice patterns, Simplicity 1873 in style C, or Butterick B5748 in style B. These are my go to bodice patterns. I have copied all of my favorite pattern pieces onto Christmas wrapping paper so that I may preserve their use.

Thanks for reading xoxo

Friendship

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." ―William Shakespeare

I’ve never been one to start something with a quote, but I think there’s a first time for everything. When I typed “friendship” onto this blog post, I then searched the Internet for something that would summarize my feelings on friendship. This quote by Shakespeare hit home. I believe friendship is a something that brings out the best in you. Friendship is growing, changing, and finding someone who sees it and still accepts you. Friendship is a relationship between two people who recognize the differences in each other and still loving one another. Friendship is being able to listen to each other and talk openly. Friendship has been a topic that I had in mind when I started this blog. I wanted to talk about the evolution of my friendships and what’s it like to be a young adult with friends.

It took me years to figure out what friendship meant to me. As a child, I was a bossy friend that told my friends what to do. I moved around a lot so I made friends at school and then lost them when we moved again. As a teenager, I was so glad to have made friends and to be hanging out. So many late nights spent driving around, singing and fighting against those angsty teenage feelings. Online AOL chatting with friends and changing Myspace Top 8’s to mirror the friends I had become close with. As a young adult, friendship for me has been rocky. Friends have come and gone. Friends have become roommates turned into frenemies over stupid fights. Friendships changed and I’m okay with knowing that because, hey we are all adults. I have lost friends and I have gained friends, but I am so happy with those people have remained my friends all this time.

One of my favorite female friendships is to my friend I email on a weekly basis. She and I share things about work, relationships, and books we are reading. Within these emails I have shared my thoughts and fears and I feel like we have reached some sort of deep communication. Every time I hit the send button, I feel a great sense of relief because I am able to let out a little of myself. Emailing long distance to my friend has been the biggest exercise in communication and listening skills. I have never had such a responsive and attentive friend before and it feels so magical and loving to have one now. This friend makes me feel like every weird 20-something quirk that I am going through is not weird and that life is easier knowing I can tell her these secrets and that she can share her own with me. Our text messages are equally amazing, because I make sure to talk about boy butts and fart situations that make her work days a little brighter. Talking to my friend this way is something I treasure and I cannot wait to see her in a couple of weeks.

Another example of one of my best friendships is to my boyfriend Ray. Ray and I met in a difficult situation but from that our friendship grew into love.  We met almost 7 years ago through his ex-girlfriend. We knew each other on a very casual level. He knew me as that crazy punk girl, and I saw him as my friend’s boyfriend.  We would go to improv comedy nights on campus or see each other out after class. I was a very casual acquaintance with his ex-girlfriend. When they had broken up, we met again in our college’s student union by mistake almost 5 months after their break up. I was very hungry and I kept the conversation going by threatening to steal from him and use his body as shield at the Subway counter. The group of girls I was eating with both loved him and in fact one of them said I should f#$( him. After that day, I pursued him via text for over a month, giving up after some time. He finally got the clue and responded. We went to see a movie and realized a couple weeks later that we wanted to be together. This is the type of love they write songs about, like Bon Jovi’s hit song Livin’ on a Prayer. This love stemmed from us becoming friends and getting to know each other. Now, our relationship means so much to me and I am thrilled we got to know each other. After being together for 5 years, we have become each other’s best friend. We know each other so well and I have personally have never known love and acceptance like this before. Thank you Ray for being my best friend.

Have you ever had that beautiful amazing friend that is so supportive that they are your own cheerleader? I have several cheerleaders that reach out to me when I am in need. They send me messages of encouragement, they say how wonderful I am. It definitely helps my self esteem to know that they see me the way I want to be seen. As friend, I do my part to reciprocate those messages and try to talk more about things going on in their lives. I want to know that they are doing well too. I want them to know that I see them the way they want to be seen. And I know we all have those friends that we don’t talk to often, but they are there. So reach out and tell them you care.

In the beginning of this year, I listened to Lena Dunham’s Women of the Hour Podcast series, in which she covered several topics including female friendship. This podcast inspired me to think about my current friendships. Also, Dunham’s podcast had me reflect openly about the friendships I’ve had in the past. She actually talks about her friendship with Ashley, an email friend just like mine. Their discussion of love, feelings of worthiness, and other thoughts reminded me of how beautiful friendships can be. It also made me think of past female friendships that I’ve had and whether they were actually beneficial to me. Was there something there that my friend and I didn’t express? Did they feel something I did not? Was I being the selfish friend? All of these questions have been my mind and I know I won’t get closure. They linger there and I have to think that it's better they are left unanswered so I won’t have to worry about these people anymore. I feel better moving on and living my life and knowing they are living theirs. I don’t want to confront and fight over the past. I just want to live.