I'm done

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Have you noticed how people on reality television shows will get frustrated with something and then defiantly say "I'm done!"? And it's this very final, terrible way to feel about something. Do you remember when people used to be happy when they used that phrase?

A sink full of dishes? I'm done!

Three weeks worth of homework from your finance course? I'm done!

I wonder what has changed in our society. Perhaps I'm the problem--paying too much attention to reality TV. 

On another note, Adam and I have started saying liberally instead of literally.  Liberally can mean both freely and amply, correct?

"I liberally called her, like, five times."

"I liberally complimented every shoe in his closet."

 "I liberally applied sunscreen before sun exposure as directed by the manufacturer's instructions."

It's funny and I think more reflective of the exaggeration that's trying to be expressed. 

Because no fitting room has a literal wait of a million years. But you could liberally wait that long, I suppose, if you really wanted to.

Yes? No? Will you try it out and report back?

Kitten and I are reporting from the sewing room on this sunny yet chilly afternoon. And we're pleased to announce the completion of the traveler dress. We're done!

I discovered a buttonhole foot tutorial that helped relieve (some of) my fear of the buttonhole foot. I held my breath, but at the end we got buttonholes! 

I have a few progress pics to share before we do the big reveal.

 Non-smocked pocket. Turned out that simple was better in this case.

Pardon the huge mess in the background. This is Kitten making a face that says "I'm about to jump on the ironing board."

 It's really easy to handstitch the collar inside seam with a cat sitting on your dress. Oh wait, no. No, it's not.

 Post-buttonhole foot, I used the seamripper (picker, in British) to cut the buttonholes open.

Kitten inspects. She says, "I see that you forgot to trim some loose threads there. Better get to it or it will look homemade."

And, "I'm hungry."

This is the nearly completed sideview before buttons. Adam sat with me last night as I sewed them in. It was a really exciting Saturday night. We also made dough for some Mother's Day cinnamon rolls. We had quite the party. It was liberally the most exciting night of our lives, ever.

See the buttons? It may need a quick fabric belt before it's completely complete. But it's complete enough. Come on, right?

Done!

I will be getting back to embroidery now. But not before I make some dinner for my husband. He's liberally starving.

A grand smocking disaster

What a smocking mess!

My ambition got the best of me this weekend as I spent a frantic Sunday rushing to finish my first iteration (sorry for the buzzword) of the Traveler dress so I could move on to the turquoise striped version.

Just as it is best in life to not rush through things, so it is in smocking. Noted.


If only I'd known to be patient as I was bee-bopping along on my muslin traveler dress around 6 p.m. or so. I did the first few steps of the second version and thought, "Oh, I'll just smock a quick pocket, sew it on the dress and be on with it."


Uh, no.

I had mistaken myself for an expert, which I am not, and proceeded to waste the next three or so sewing hours trying to get back on track. Perhaps I should share where I went wrong. I hand stitched five rows of stitches with one stitch at every 1/8th of an inch. The rows were about 1/8th of an inch apart. Then I pulled my ends, creating a gather for me to do my embroidery smocking upon.

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This is a view of my front, and a fun preview of my fabric (loves it!) But you can also see my mistake. It's entirely too narrow to be a pocket. It wouldn't even work for the front of a Barbie dress.

So then I cut another wider stretch of fabric and realized as soon as I put the scissors down that the stripes were going the wrong way. But I nevertheless proceeded full speed ahead. I put in my much longer rows of smocking stitches, did my gathers and made my smocking stitches.

I was so excited to pull the threads out and examine my work, but I was so disappointed with the results. It was a smocking mess.

I oversmocked.

In my eagerness to smock as I learned to smock at sewing camp, I missed entirely the fact that I didn't need quite so much smocking on my delicate dress pocket.

What I ended up with was a fussy mess of ruffles, smocking and flounces. It would be impossible to sew to my dress and probably make the whole thing look totally amateur. (I realize that it may look amateur at the end, but only because I can't get along with my buttonhole foot--another story for another day.)

 

Clearly, this is not my aim. So back to the drawing board.

Adam is out at the golf course this evening so me and my trusty companion, who is sitting here next to me, will try it again. I am going to start with finished pockets (top seams sewn, edges rounded, etc.). And I'm only going to do three very short rows of smocking. I want it to look delicate.


We shall see.

On another note, I have my Grandma Hazel's pinking shears to help me. They're still in their original box. I'm so excited to use them!

Updates soon, friends!  

Gathered here today

Look at my sad frozen tomato plant! The new rule: wait until Mother's Day or after to plant vegetables.

Well, let's get to it. 

I've been astounded by a few things related to the Lisette Traveler Dress. First, that I thought this would be easy. It wasn't. Second, it worked! My little dress turned out adorbs! Totes! 

It wasn't impossible, though, either. I always have the door from Alice in Wonderland in my mind when I struggle at the sewing machine. Alice is trying to get through the door, which tells her that he's locked. Alice frets that it's impossible and the door corrects her and says "It's not impossible, it's simply impassible. Nothing's impossible."

I apologize for what I think this is my seventh Alice in Wonderland reference in as many posts, which probably indicates I've seen the movie way too much. 

But there's a point to this Alice in Wonderland. A few steps on the dress seemed impossible, but they were just temporarily impassible. But please don't ask where the buttons are because I'm terrified of the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine. It hates me and eats everything I try to feed through it. I will need to call a professional for help with that.

On other notes, the collar I was fretting about was no trouble at all. The sleeves nearly did me in. Those gathers were killers!

 

For some reason, the blogger application is not playing nicely with me today and some of my pictures are horizontal despite the fact that I deliberately saved them as vertical files so they'd display correctly. 

Pre-sleeves and collar. I added an embroidered basket of apples in for my pocket to give it a splash of color. (Underneath is the top of an experimental outfit I started on but never finished. I think it might become a superhero costume next year at Halloween.)

Collar! (Superhero costume peeks out the sides.)

Someone noted at sewing camp that my tomato pin cushion is well-loved. It was Grandma Hazel's! So obviously it is loved and cherished. Now I wonder, did she have a thimble? I needed one when I was doing the hand-stitching on my collar.

Fun sleeves! This is a combo of the View A collar, the View C sleeves and the View B body (for those familiar with the pattern I'm working from.)

It just needs some buttons! I am wearing it over my swimsuit when I head to Florida later this month. I'm pretty pumped as I'm in need of some pool time.

Here's my little helper taking a bath on my pattern and directions. At the moment she is licking my fingers and trying to eat a tissue.

Next up: I am making the Traveler dress again, this time with the View A body and collar and View C sleeves. I think. Ergh, I can't make up my mind!

I am also going to do some smocking on the upper pocket because I learned how to do it at sewing camp and think I'd better practice before I forget how! I saw a smocked ladies' dress at Kate Spade today on the Plaza and I was so excited that smocking is getting its due from the bigger names in fashion.

I've almost completed the main illustration in my embroidery from sewing camp. Can't wait to post pics of my little mouton. More on that to come.

"Start at the beginning...

And when you get to the end, stop."

This is the advice that Alice, who is lost in Wonderland, receives as she seeks to find her way.

I appreciate this advice, find it helpful and remind myself of it from time to time. And, just like Alice, I give myself very good advice, but I don't always follow it.

So instead of starting on my Lisette traveler dress at the beginning, naturally I began in the middle. I was so worried about messing up the collar that I decided to start there. I stumbled upon this step-by-step instruction to create a perfectly turned collar and went for it.

I'm happy to report that it worked! I took a picture of it but it just looks like a white collar, sort of priestly. Not that interesting.

I'm making my dress with muslin first as a practice before I tackle the really pretty turquoise striped fabric I bought for the project.

So far so good!

Progress pictures soon!

I dreamed a dream

It was pretty cool to have Liesl Gibson of one of my amazing instructors last weekend at sewing camp in Boulder.

She challenged our class with some smocking (pictures coming soon) and it was fun to learn. But before she smocked, she designed patterns. So one of the first things I did when I got back home from camp was to order this pattern from Lisette, Liesl's line of modern ladies' clothes.

I went to Joann today for all of the fabric and notions and the girl who cut the fabric had to keep telling me that I can do this. But I don't know if I can do this.

But she said I can. I think I can.

I dreamt last night that I hosted a class to teach the cathedral windows quilt pattern. And it went really well! So maybe this is something that will come true! Not so sure about this dress.

I will keep you updated on the Lisette dress. I already made a dumb-dumb mistake when I went to pre-wash my fabric and forgot to pull out the buttons, which were tucked inside. I found six of them scattered around the bottom of the washing machine and the other four stuck to the floor in the basement.

I think I have my work cut out for me.

Updates soon. Promise!

La cage aux folles

Or perhaps "les cages" as there are two pictured.

These are soft birdcage sculptures that my mom and I learned to make at sewing camp (or what we tastefully refer to as a sewing retreat.) For those not in attendance, retreat may suggest calm repose or meditation, not the frenetic pursuit to learn, understand and remember how to do something newer and cooler with sewing than anything you've ever done in your life.

Or that's how it was for me.

After only one or two minutes of Internet research, I learned that La Cage aux Folles, the French play/movie that was the basis for the hysterical 1990s American movie, The Birdcage, doesn't translate to birdcage at all. It means "the cage of madwomen." Or cages of the madwomen (see above). However, this newfound information doesn't discourage me from using it as a title for this post.

After all, what better description could you come up with for our fast-paced but magical weekend at sewing camp? Plus, we made birdcages.

I shouldn't make too many jokes because I don't want to underplay the joy of the experience or the sheer intensity of packing 16 hours worth of serious instruction into one lighthearted weekend. But all those in attendance are seriously dedicated to the craft of sewing and that alone makes us all a bit mad (Alice in Wonderland mad, not angry mad).

Our teachers were amazing. I must say at times I was a bit starstruck. But with four hours per class, I managed to get over it. The weekend just raced by.

I came home with four half-started projects and I will do my darndest to finish them and post pictures for you. Be on the lookout for a smocked necklace, an embroidered animal with some words in French (my dad will like this), a homemade pattern with my measurements that I will use to make a shift dress, and a second bird and cage.

What fun! I'm so inspired and want to teach now! I think it might be fun to teach the technique to making the cathedral windows. What do you think? Would you sign up?

Kudos and thanks to my mom who made the long trek to Boulder with me for the sewing weekend. We had such a great time! I'm so glad we were able to go together.

Here we are at the closing ceremony. Do we look exhausted?

Check back in for more pictures coming soon!

What I'm missing

As you know, I'm away at sewing camp, which I've been excited about for months and months (and months).

But you know I'm missing these two.