"Scrap-busting" Quilt in Progress: Not A Sundress!

After my promise to myself to not give in to fall sewing, and to keep making cute sundresses until October, what do I do? I promptly start working on a QUILT, of all things! If that doesn't scream fall, nay, winter, I don't know what does. But that's classic me, to decide I want to do one thing and then get bewitched by another. I still have at least three summery dresses I want to make, so let's hope this quilt goes quickly!

I originally decided in my new school year sewing resolutions that I wanted to make something like this book themed scrap-busting quilt. I mean, I love books, so it's perfect, right? Well, never content to leave well enough alone (who or what is this Well Enough character? why won't anyone leave him alone, poor thing?), I decided to make a quilt based on a very specific book, and hopefully still do some scrap-busting at the same time. It's turning out to not actually bust very many scraps, unfortunately, but that's okay, because I love how it's going so far!

As mentioned before, my husband and I just moved to LA from SD, and of course we had to bring our cat, Walnut, along with us. It breaks my heart to see how many ads in the pet section on Craigslist are about people who are moving and therefore are giving up their pets. I understand that every situation is different, and sometimes there really is nothing you can do, but Walnut is our baby, so we wanted him with us in LA for sure! Granted, moving two hours over to another city isn't the same as moving cross-country or even internationally, but it wasn't easy either.

Planning for how were going to transport him with as little stress as possible for all involved, I definitely had a few moments of "how much easier would this be if it were just the two of us humans!" But it reminded me of one of my favorite books, The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery...specifically the part where the little prince's fox says "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." Ideally, my quilt would have had this scene on it, but that wouldn't really bust many scraps. So I decided to do the scene from the front of my edition of the book, where the prince hitches a ride with a flock of wild birds to escape his planet. By doing each bird in a different fabric, I used...maybe two percent of my scraps. Oh well.

"I believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds."

I started by sketching on wrapping paper all the different pieces I was going to need, then outlining them in Sharpie and cutting them out.

Free-handing it from my well-loved copy of the book. With very professional paper-weights.

I wrote down how many I would need of each bird and star, just like a real pattern! Hah, not really.

Scraps cut out and ready to go!

I used a white IKEA sheet as the base (no idea what the official quilt term is called!) for my appliques.

Before washing, Walnut had to claim it as his own by getting his hair all over it.

I laid out all my scraps. Seconds after this picture was taken, Walnut jumped on the prince and started rolling around all over him.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to use to attach the little prince to his birds...ribbon scraps? Embroidery thread? Part of the quilting process but in a different color thread? Any other ideas?

Also, I don't actually know how to make a real quilt, so this is yet another figure-it-out-as-you-go project, like my fake Bellatrix corset. I just finished pinning the scraps onto the sheet, and hopefully I'll finish sewing them on today. After that, I just need to unroll my batting, cut up another sheet for the backing, quilt and bind the whole thing! So easy! Hah. Hahaha. I crack myself up.

DIY Dinosaur Implement Holders

Get ready for it...drumroll please...

We are finally all unpacked and settled in! And it only took a week! All the boxes have been unpacked and recycled, artwork put up on the walls, and inaugural meal cooked. The only things yet to be taken care of are selling an old desk, coffee table, and end table, and then acquiring an ironing board. I'd love to get a hold of a used one, but I don't know where any of the good thrift stores are in this area yet. So it looks like garment sewing will have to wait a little longer.* Boo. This is especially sad since, according to all the sewing blogs I'm reading, autumn is right around the corner and I should be pulling out my plaids and tweeds, instead of still mucking around with bright cheery cottons. Well, I live in sunny SoCal, and I will stubbornly continue sewing sundresses until October, I say!

In the meantime, while packing and unpacking, I discovered a bag of miniature glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs and two picture frame shelves that were languishing unfulfilled in life. Since I was in such a domestic, organizing-type mood, I decided to turn them into a rack like this one from ModCloth. Since I already had all the materials, I saved $59.99 + S&H!

I started with cutting all my dinosaurs in half, right in between their front and hind legs. I tried using an X-acto knife first, then a box cutter, but the tiny blades made my cut sort of uneven, so eventually I just whipped out my fancy Henckels Santoku and starting cutting them up on the cutting board. When my husband saw my set-up, he definitely had one of those double take, WTH, oh-okay-it's-just-my-wife-being-weird moments. I think the husbands of crafters must have a lot of those moments.

I figured that since these guys weren't going to be holding up much weight, I didn't need to go crazy with putting in bolts and all, but if I were to do this for say, a clothes rack or purse rack, I would definitely use bigger dinosaurs and follow the directions here. I ended up just using my handy hot glue gun to attach the dinosaurs. This had the added bonus of making it look like the dinosaurs were either melting, or bursting out of the shelf, or trapped in the La Brea tar pits.

Noooo!! I'm meltiiiing!!!

 I let the glue dry overnight, then put them up: one next to the front door, for keys, and one above my craft table for sewing tools and notions. I love them so much, because 1) dinosaurs were my first obsession, way back in elementary school, and 2) they glow in the dark, so if I ever need to pink something in the middle of the night and there's a power outage, I will be able to find my pinking shears!

I used the butts for my sewing stuff since the sewing room is less public. Some people might be offended by dinosaur posteriors.

They kind of look like they're in medieval stocks, with signs declaring them as Toyota or Honda hanging round their necks.

Making these dinosaur racks reminded me of how much I used to love dinosaurs. There was a time when my brother and I had a whole collection of plastic models, and we would make elaborate dioramas in our bookcase. We would always check out dinosaur books from the library and lament the lack of new ones. I can't believe I used to know almost all the dinosaurs, their diets and eras and predators and prey and everything! I really hope that my kids will also be into dinosaurs, because I totally want to live vicariously through them with beds like this or this. In the meantime, I will smile every time I grab my keys.

*I did manage to sew a little bit only a couple days after moving in, though, as a trip to IKEA with a friend resulted in curtains that needed to be shortened. Now, normally I would abide by the words of my sewing idol, the Selfish Seamstress, and refuse to do home dec sewing for someone else, but this was an excuse to unpack my machine before other, more practical items.

Versatile Blogger Award!

Last week, in the midst of the moving chaos, I got a lovely little note from June of Creations by June saying that she had nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. It totally made my day, because I had already been thinking about how versatile all over the place my blog is. It started when I read the fabulous Reese Dixon's introspective post about how it is recommended that bloggers narrow their topics so as to draw a specific audience. Well, I ended up deciding that my interests are too varied, and this blog is meant for me to have an accurate chronicle of all my projects. So it was surprising and unexpected to be recognized by a stranger for my haphazard efforts; thank you, June!

Anyway, here are the rules:

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post
• Share 7 things about yourself
• Pass this award on to recently discovered blogs

Here are seven random things about me:

1. I am a late-blooming cat lady. We never had cats growing up, and in fact a neighbor cat ate my beloved parakeet when I was in elementary school. But a trip to the SPCA four years ago resulted in a spontaneous kitten adoption, and now three of the loves of my life are Fenxi, Gummy, and Walnut. Yes, the cats have their own Facebook pages.
2. I never thought I would love chemistry as much as I do now. When I was younger my dad tried to get me interested (he's got a chemical engineering Ph.D), but I ended up skipping all my AP Chem classes in high school and going to the mall instead. Somehow I landed a high school chemistry teaching job and discovered that I love how beautifully it all works. 
3. Even though I love science, I hate math. I am aware that the two go hand in hand, but instead I love science...and reading and poetry and music and art.
4. I also love reading about doomed expeditions. When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was concerned that I was so into the Donner Party. Well, Mr. V, now it's also all about the 1996 Mt. Everest expedition, the Scott Antarctic expedition, and pretty much every Jack London short story ever. Something about the combination of freezing temperatures and starvation and man vs. wild, I guess?
5. I hate bananas (and everything banana-flavored, no matter how subtle), refuse to drink smoothies that have bananas in them, and refuse to kiss my husband after he's eaten a banana, but LOVE banana bread. 
6. As I realized when I was packing, I actually have a wardrobe of dress-up clothes. I think normal people are supposed to have a work wardrobe and a casual wardrobe, and maybe a going-to-weddings-and-other-formal-occasions wardrobe, but I also have way too many impractical fancy skirts and dramatic capes and other sci-fi/fantasy accessories.
7. I never know what to do in social situations. I was always so immersed in books when I was younger, I apparently missed the entire part of childhood where you learn to interact with others. It's only recently, through careful observation of my most socially apt friends and then analysis for common actions and statements, that I've even begun to try mimicking proper social behavior. When to go in for hugs, the types of things you're supposed to say when you first meet people, what not to say to people unless you know them super well...these things were always a mystery to me. Thankfully, my husband is excellent at winning other over, so I let him handle most of the socializing.

Here are some blogs that I've recently begun following:

• Farah Makes Stuff: such a courageous lady, and a talented seamstress as well!
• Welcome to the Good Life: awesome DIY Anthropologie projects, so honest about motherhood's ups and downs
• How Are You I'm Fine Thanks: I have never been so inspired by somebody's art and reposts of other people's art
• Curves, Patterns and Pins: the brain behind Check the Technique!
• Cotton and Curls: great refashions to inspire me
• Sewing in No Mans Land: A glimpse at life in another country, with sewing included
• Edelweiss Patterns: fascinating Sound of Music-inspired sewing, as well as other costume/clothing studies; currently hosting a Retro Butterick Walkaway Dress sewalong!

Wow, I Guess I Live Here Now

As I mentioned before, my husband is going to start business school at UCLA Anderson this September. This meant all sorts of interesting emotional and physical baggage to sort through as we made the move from chill (but not chilly) San Diego to harried Los Angeles. We've been here about four days and have finally unpacked most of the important stuff and reassembled and rearranged all of our furniture. It's starting to feel more like home in our apartment now that I've put up some artwork and put out nice little knick-knacks in the bathrooms. I don't know why, but once I have my apothecary jars of corks and Scrabble tiles out, things just feel more livable.

Since I started the move the LA with a list of thoughts, and since I haven't gotten any better at emotional management in one week, here are some new thoughts about this great big freeway* I apparently live in now:

Chilling in the insane sewing room, on top of a box of fabric.

1. I am so glad that driving Walnut up to LA is over. Seriously, the most harrowing two hours I've ever spent in a car (and that's including the trip to Jerusalem from the Dead Sea in a borrowed car with a non-functional GPS). That cat knows how to tug at your heartstrings with his non-stop, tragic, this-is-the-worst-torture meows. Then as soon as we got to the apartment he was all excited to be poking around into all the new nooks and crannies and claiming everything as his own by rubbing his cheek on stuff. 
2. I love how bright and airy our new apartment is! It's on the top floor, so we get plenty of natural light during the day. Contrast this with our old place, which was on the ground floor and shadowed by the balconies above us. Seriously, if it wasn't a blindingly bright day outside and I wasn't taking my photos in a specific spot in front of the bedroom door between 10:16 and 10:32, it would be too dark to see anything. 
3. I am a fan of our new furniture arrangement. The 5x5 Expedit is being used as a room divider and I couldn't be more thrilled! My dream has always been to live in a library; in this arrangement, it's like living in TWO libraries simultaneously: one library where all the books have titles, and another library where the books are just artsy and have lovely beige-y pages.
4. No more walk-in closet. Boooo. Also, I don't how to arrange my sewing room so there are just boxes of fabric and bed and desk pieces everywhere. 
5. There are ants! Grrarrrgh. I got so used to not having to worry about ants in San Diego; it's time to start vigilantly ziploc-ing everything. 
6. This is a terrible thing to complain about, but here it is anyway: we have free utilities so my husband thinks this is an invitation to crank the AC all day. I am perpetually slightly cold, but then I guess in San Diego he was perpetually more than slightly warm. 
7. LA people are quite rude! One of the reasons why I didn't want to go to UCLA for college was the hurried, brusque, can't be bothered with you attitude of what seems to be the majority of people here. I mean, our cashier at Trader Joe's was probably the angriest TJ employee I've ever seen. I miss how laid back San Diegans are. 
8. I need to readjust my ideas about how much time it should take to get somewhere based on how many miles away it is. San Diego: # miles = # minutes, more or less. LA: # miles x 9 = # of minutes to get there. Apparently, according to native LA-ers, I should just assume the worst and then be happily surprised when I arrive. 
9. It is mind-blowing (tongue-blowing? stomach-blowing? THIGH-BLOWING?) how much good food there is within 5-10 minutes of where we are. We've already had the most amazing ramen, curry, Burmese food, and sandwiches on PRETZEL BREAD. When we drove back to San Diego to get Walnut, our dinner options in Mira Mesa seemed so...pathetic.
10. I miss how almost everyone from our church in San Diego lived less than a mile/five minutes away from us in Mira Mesa. Here, it seems that everyone we know who supposedly lives in the same city actually lives at least 45 minutes away. 
11. Also, "city" doesn't mean city the same way I'm used to. LA is many cities within one city, so apparently we can write either Culver City or Los Angeles in our mailing address. In San Francisco, I lived in the Sunset district. In San Diego, the neighborhood of Mira Mesa. Here, we live in the City of Culver City.

Not City of Culver. Or just Culver City. Nooo, it's the pretentious City of Culver City.

*My first introduction to LA was the song "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" where it describes LA as a great big freeway where they make you a star. And for the longest time, that's what I really thought it was (the freeway part, not the star-making part), since we were always driving through it on the way down to Irvine every year for Christmas.

Also, June, thank you so much for your Versatile Blogger Award! I'm honored and as soon as life settles down, I'll be sharing my seven things and nominating other blogs.

Projects for the New School Year

As someone who's always been involved in school in some way or other, it's always seemed a little odd to me to make New Year's Resolutions in January. After all, as a student or as a teacher, my time for new beginnings and fresh starts is the beginning of the school year; therefore I've historically (ha! as if I have that much history under my belt) written resolutions in late August. When I was in middle school and more academically-minded, my resolutions were to make all A's, or place in the city-wide Mathcounts competitions. In my boy-crazy high school days, my resolutions usually had to do with becoming so poised and amazing that I would attract the attention of my crushes. Yeah, I'm embarrassed by high school me. As a teacher, my yearly resolutions were about making sure not to let any students slip through the cracks, or getting some curriculum project done, or effecting certain changes in how the school was run (that one usually didn't happen).

Having just picked up sewing last spring, last August was the first time that I made sewing-related resolutions. I apparently wasn't very optimistic about my skills, because all I had on my list was:

1. Learn to insert actually invisible zippers -- check, several times!!
2. Make a pleated skirt -- check!
3. Make a circle skirt -- check!
4. Make a fitted skirt or dress -- check!
5. Make a full-skirted dress -- check!
6. Learn to shir -- uhhh, no.
7. Make something wearable without a pattern -- check, several times!
8. Refashion something -- check, many times over!
9. Dress up for Comic-Con -- check!
10. Deplete my fabric stash --ha! hahahaha! That's funny, last year me!

All in all, a pretty good year.

Since I already have a list of techniques to tackle, here's my list of actual projects to make, not all of which are sewing-related. I want to go back and retry my earlier artistic endeavors and see if I still love them. If not, time to give away the accessories associated with those hobbies. The process of packing has reminded me I have way too many art supplies.

1. Make steampunk costumes for myself and my husband for next year's Comic-Con check, but only for myself, and I didn't end up going to Comic-Con
2. Paint my old chem lab goggles and Nerf guns to match the steampunk costumes check and check!
3. Get the patterns for, and make, the Pendrell Blouse, Lonsdale Dress, and Crepe Dress
4. Make a twirly dress from some gorgeous lace-looking and sea-foam jersey I have in my stash
5. Make a better nautical-inspired dress than my first attempt kind of
6. Sew up at least three vintage patterns (I though about making this five, or even ten, but then decided to be realistic) definitely check!
7. Use my woodburning tool for something, anything! check!
8. Draw a set of Dixit cards for my friend Sam before she leaves for Bulgaria
9. Make something that wouldn't look entirely out of place at a Gatsby Afternoon, even if I'm not going
10. Finally do something about all my shirts from college retreats and CCS and CHS and make a t-shirt quilt
11. Attempt to use up some of my fabric scraps and make a bookshelf quilt
12. Make a white dress and then draw all over it with my new fabric Sharpies more or less
13. Dye something check!
14. Finally carve the rest of my linoleum blocks and print either a dress or tote or something check!
15. Make a cool dorky necklace that holds my miniature set of gaming dice check!
16. Make a vague knock-off of the Cirque A Line Anthro dress with my IKEA hippo fabric check!
17. Make a halter dress
18. Make a strapless dress check!
19. Finally scrapbook my honeymoon...
20. Make a Regency-era dress so as to be able to attend a Miss Haseltine's Drum, a dance event actually in Culver City!
21. And just for kicks, I'll say deplete my fabric stash again O_o

I'm sure I'll think of other things to add to this list, but at least this gives me some focus.

Childhood Nostalgia: Doraemon Sweatshirt

Who am I? Can you guess?

In the process of packing and sorting for our upcoming move, I found a project that I'd almost forgotten about! Which is really sad, because my sister and I made this two summers ago, and I promised her I'd take pictures, but then the school year started and my free time was nonexistent.

When we were growing up, in an attempt to help us retain our Cantonese, my parent would rent us Doraemon movies that had been dubbed in Cantonese. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of watching this blue robotic cat from the future help out a dorky kid, let me quote Wikipedia:

A majority of Doraemon episodes are comedies with lessons regarding values such as integrity, perseverance, courage, family and respect for elders. Several noteworthy environmental issues are often visited, including homeless animals, global warming, endangered species, deforestation, and pollution. Miscellaneous educational topics such as dinosaurs, flat Earth theory, wormhole traveling, Gulliver's Travels, and the history of Japan are often covered.

We seriously watched Doraemon (known as Ding Dong in Cantonese) every Saturday night for a period of oh, five years? I loved his yojigen-pocket and all the ridiculous gadgets he would pull out of it; for the longest time the pink go-anywhere door and the little helicopter-hat were staples of the stories I told to my siblings during long car trips. Anyway, a couple summers ago, my sister and I were bored at home and somehow decided that the perfect cure was to make a Doraemon sweatshirt. Using an old sweatshirt as a basis for our pattern, we cut out the appropriate pieces from royal blue sweatshirt fabric and white fleece. We glued on the facial features and even made a detachable bell from a sample square of gold fabric (which we had to wheedle out of the begrudging fabric store owner). The best part was trying to figure out what to do for his tail -- we tried making a 3D one, but it just looked too ridiculous, so in the end we just sewed on a red fleece circle. All in all, it was a hilarity-inducing two days.

With the hood on, I look absolutely deranged. Oh, and I can't see anything.

Kind of like a sillier version of the catgirls at anime conventions.

Close-up on the bell.

I think the backing is an old plastic folder? I don't even remember anymore.

Look at the grody stitching job on the inside!

Unfortunately, this sweatshirt has never seen any wear. It's polyester, so it's extremely warm and sweat-inducing, but the glued-on pieces don't seem conducive to washing. This was also before I knew about knits that only stretch one way -- and of course I cut the blue sweatshirt material to stretch the wrong way! It's a little tight to get on and I can't wear it if I gain any weight around my hips.

Oh, and it looks ridiculous. I mean, wearing a sweatshirt with a cartoon character on it is one thing. Wearing a sweatshirt that itself IS a cartoon character is another. And wearing said sweatshirt when you're in your late 20s and the cartoon is so obscure that most people won't have any idea what it is, is just silly. Well, maybe I can wear it for a special event (like a kid's birthday party, not like a business school event). In the meantime, every time I look at it, I just laugh. Doraemon was such a critical part of my childhood, and my sister and I had so much fun making the sweatshirt; even if it never gets worn out into the real world, I think it was a worthwhile endeavor.

Packing Up My Life

There hasn't been much sewing going on, nor will there be for at least another couple weeks. My husband and I are packing up our life here in San Diego and preparing to make the move to Los Angeles so that he can attend grad school at UCLA. Because I'm such an INTJ, I'm having a hard time processing my feelings about the move, so I thought I'd make a list instead. Lists are so much more manageable.

1. I will miss all of our friends here in SD terribly. I spent my first year back in SD pretty much friendless (aside from my husband) and community-less since we were attending a really large church and I worked from home. This was pretty much miserable (because even introverts don't totally hate people), and I was so thrilled when we started attending Exodus and I found some lovely ladies who are also of the race of Joseph. I love these people so much, it's weird to think that they weren't in my life two years ago. 
2. I don't relish the thought of meeting new people and making new friends since I'm such an introvert and kind of socially awkward. I never know what kind of small talk to make and I know that I'll meet all sorts of intense people when I accompany my husband to business school events. 
3. I am scared of LA traffic and LA drivers. 
4. We are going to be living EVEN CLOSER to Trader Joe's than we do now! Incredible!
5. The fashion district and all its fabric stores!!! I = excite! Cannot write proper sentences!
6. We will be that much closer to NorCal and visiting my family.
7. I don't want to learn a new set of routes to places. And I don't want to figure out where a good dry cleaner/mechanic/thrift store/etc. is. 
8. Arrrgh packing and unpacking. Grrrr undecorating and redecorating.
9. At least I'm being forced to go through my belongings and sort them into keep, donate, and toss piles. I realized that the bulk of my stuff is either books (and boy do I have a lot of books!), teaching materials (for AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Psych, physical science, and regular chem/bio), art supplies (all my phases mean that I accumulate a lot of tools), fabric (three 66-qt plastic storage bins :\), and clothes. All of which I tried to convince my husband are necessary to keep and move. Good thing we're hiring movers.

My last sewing project before I packed up my machine was some pillowcases for a friend. Not too exciting, but I am looking forward to getting my stuff unpacked so that I can get to some new projects (hopefully utilizing some of those techniques I listed previously)! One of my friends gave me four new vintage patterns yesterday night that look absolutely fascinating. With the help of One Yellow Cottage and the Vintage Pattern Wiki, I was able to approximately date the patterns.

Simplicity 3352: an absolutely gorgeous-looking slip from 1950.

Simplicity 3932: At first I thought it was a dress, but it's actually culottes! Crazy! Also, a Size 20.5, so it looks as if I might need to learn how to grade vintage patterns after all. My friend gave this to me saying, "You're the only person I can imagine actually wearing something like this." I think that's a compliment?

Butterick 2506: Based on the hairstyles alone, I'm guessing that this and the previous pattern are from the 60s. Interesting maternity outfit, although the jacket looks worth trying even without being pregnant.

Simplicity 5030: Cute nightgown and bloomers from 1972.

Coincidentally enough, two of the patterns are the perfect size! I am the most stoked about the slip, because it's the oldest pattern I own, and I'm curious about whether I can turn it into a dress.  But it will all have to wait until at least two weeks from now. Boo.

Walnut snuggles up to pegged-for-donation purses. See, Daddy, I don't want to give them away either!