Stop Blogging Your Perfect Sewing Life

Recently, an article entitled "Stop Instagramming Your Perfect Life" has been making its rounds among my IRL friends (contrast this to you, my dear readers, who are the friends I never know how to describe -- "this lady I kind of feel like I know from the Internet because we read and comment on each others' sewing blogs, but I've never met her, and I only know her by her blog handle and I'm pretty sure that's not her real name"). The author discusses how social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) can not only make people dissatisfied with their "normal" life, but it can also keep people from connecting authentically because everything looks fine in their pictures, status updates, and tweets. Since I'm an introvert, I don't do well with having to connect with multiple people all the time, so I actually find these snippets from people's lives helpful. Also, maybe it's just my perfectionist tendencies and Asian "saving face" upbringing, but I find it difficult to let others in on my messes. Still, I do understand the sentiment behind the article. When all you're reading is posts about perfectly fitted pants and sleeves that didn't have any issues with being set in, it can get a little discouraging. (Incidentally, I'm not accusing anyone else of doing this -- most of the other bloggers I read are lovely in their real-ness, but my personal tendency is to just blog tra la la it's fun with sheets, all the time!)

So, in the interest of being honest, allow me to share some not-so-perfect bits of my life from this very week, as they specifically relate to my sewing. 

1) Making a wedding dress for someone isn't all exhilaration about gorgeous satin. When I first put together the skirt for Elaine's wedding dress, I was pretty psyched about what I thought was a brilliant idea at the time: I would do flat-felled side seams, then thread a piece of ribbon through the inside of the seam to use for gathering up the skirt. That way, I wouldn't have to make a separate channel on top of the seam (and therefore stitch four whole extra lines). Killing two birds with one stone, so brilliant, right? Unfortunately, I neglected to think through the hemming...In order to hem the skirt, and still keep the ribbon free, I ended up ripping a tiny bit of the channel above the proposed hemline, carefully pulling the ribbon out of the hole, and then having to make a hand-worked eyelet around the rip to keep the edges from fraying. In the end, it didn't take too much extra time, but a bit of forethought might have been nice.

Pictures of this were too blurry, since 1) dark purple, 2) reflective satin, 3) the best thread-matching I've ever done, and 4) really tiny details. Instead, I settled for drawing a picture, with cats to illustrate my sentiments. 

2) I left my phone at a Joann's Fabrics in San Leandro yesterday. I stopped there to get some more thread (thinking foolishly that it would be more convenient to pick it up there after work instead of the very-difficult-to-get-to Santa Monica location that's close to home), pulled out my phone to check something and set it down, neglected to pick it back up, and then left the store. I didn't realize that I'd lost it until after the store closed. To my relief, a quick call revealed that they had found the phone and would hold it for me, but the problem was that I was restricted to public transportation today. Of course, the store isn't located near any convenient stops; long story short, I would've either had to walk three miles or take buses for an hour and half to get it back. I'm just so grateful that my principal was able to stop by and pick it up for me! But so much for thinking I could be really efficient with my sewing errands...

3) I've got someone coming over to stay tomorrow night, and this is what the sewing/guest room looks like right now. This is about as real as it gets, yo. Sometimes, in a fit of manic creativity, you just move onto the next project without neatening up, right? Please tell me you do that too!

As you walk into the room, this is what you see. Yeah, that's a pile of  scraps on the floor. And a piece of black fabric draped over the bookcase. And overflowing boxes and bags everywhere. And several shoeboxes of notions that just never manage to stay stacked. 

In case you couldn't tell that that was an ironing board on the left in the first picture. I wouldn't blame you, though, as it's covered with hats that I don't know how to store (I need some hatboxes!) and fabric. And bags of unfinished projects underneath, and a teetering stack of vibrantly-colored fabrics for this month's stashbusting challenge. It's a wonder I can ever manage to press my seams. 

At least the actual sewing area isn't as bad in comparison? At least my thread is organized by color? At least it's too dim under the chair for you all to see how many snipped threads are hanging out down there? 

Mr. Cation is pretty gracious about ignoring the mess in there most of the time (although he occasionally, jokingly (but also kind of seriously), complains that he isn't allowed into a whole room in his own apartment), but that just means that when I do need to make it livable, things are that much worse.

So there you go -- if all of that isn't wonderfully imperfect, I don't know what is!

On the other hand, Walnut is always fabulous. Oh, except for that one time (not this week, thank goodness) that he got diarrhea and some of it stuck to his butt, and then he sat down on some of my fabric. Yuck. I'm just glad that it was only a yard of cheap poly-knit that I had no concrete plans for, so no real harm done. But it just goes to show, even sewing with cats can't always be fun and games!

What kind of sewing-related disasters don't make it onto your blog? 

Not a Shellfish Seamstress Anymore

I'm sorry, I really couldn't resist the crustacean pun. I mean, it's not every day that one sews up a lobster dress! I hope you will excuse me.

My camera does NOT like photographing/monitors do NOT like displaying all these tiny stripes. 

After the issues with my mom's machine in SF, I ended up taking my sister's lobster dress home to TCOCC with me to finish. Since I couldn't get it done during spring break, you'll have to settle for pictures of the dress on a hanger instead of a real live person. I'll bring it back with me the next time I travel up there for work.

Back, with a pin to hold the crisscrossing straps in the right place without a person to fill them out.

As I mentioned before, I used Simplicity 6926, a 70s sundress pattern. Since my pattern was a size 10, (my usual size), and Emily is a bit tinier than me, I used slightly larger seam allowances to sew what was probably a size 8 or so. I also did an SBA (so easy with princess seams!) and shortened it by a good five or six inches, which feels scandalously short to me, but looks excellent on her. It's funny how my legs look best when skirts end right about the knee, but for her, several inches above that is best. The things you learn when you sew for others!

The other cool thing I did (or at least I thought it was cool) was flip the facings to the outside. See, Emily really liked the look of the white band with the tiny navy blue stripe on the original sheet, and wanted that on her dress as well. To get that look, I cut the facings from a white pillowcase, added a strip of navy bias tape to the bottom edge, and instead of the sewing it on right sides together, I sewed the right side of the facing to the wrong side of the dress. Then I understitched as usual, flipped the facing out, and topstitched it from the right side. All the raw edges are enclosed, and it gives a nice, clean look on both sides.

Snaps! 

Pocketses! And chevrons on the side seams!

Check out the pretty pretty insides!

My other modifications were adding pockets to the skirt and bringing the straps to the inside of the bodice. To keep the clean look of the front (and also because my machine makes messy buttonholes), I opted to have the straps attach with snaps. The finishing touch: covered (nonfunctional) buttons with the lobster motif!

I'm so psyched that I thought of this!

Also check out my almost perfectly matched lobsters on the back! 

Summary:
Fabric: One twin flat sheet, 100% cotton, with blue and white stripes and red lobsters, by Tommy Hilfiger, thrifted, and one white king-size 100% cotton pillowcase, also thrifted
Notions: Two 7/8"covered buttons and metal snaps for the front, ten 5/8" navy blue buttons on the back, navy bias tape for the trim
Hours: A lot. Between cutting and sewing all the fiddly facings and straps, the fitting, finishing the insides nicely with seam binding, and all the buttons and buttonholes, I probably spent a good ten hours or more on this dress. It's more time than I would've spent on a dress for myself (especially when I re-sewed all the buttons 1/8" down because it looked better), but since this is for someone else, I wanted it to be as perfect as possible!
Will you make this again? I quite like this nautical look, but I doubt I'll make it for myself unless I find similarly awesome sheets.
Total cost: $5. The linens were $3, the buttons $1, and the bias tape $1. As Emily said when she saw the pictures I sent, "you could sell this for like $70 on Modcloth!" So that's a savings of $65, if you don't count labor...
Final thoughts: I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and at least based on the pictures, my sister likes it too! The whole thing looks so delightfully nautical, but obviously still inappropriate for the HSF's "By the Sea" challenge by about 40 years. Don't worry, though, I've got my own nautical outfit planned for that challenge!

This makes two garments that I've sewed this year for my sister, unasked for, just because I thought she would like the fabric. It would appear that I'm not following the Selfish Seamstress' rules anymore, except that Emily is one of those people whose talents you can exploit. If Selfish can exchange a dress for a painting, well, Emily gave me five paintings three years ago, so if anything I'm the one who's really late in the talent exchange.

Sad Crustacean and Football Fish

Fenxi: my first cat love.

Gummy, the derpy weirdo. What is it about orange cats? 

And Walnut, of course! She did this painting of him as a dapper gentleman cat before she ever met him. And if you're wondering what to do with saved cat whiskers, well, obviously use them in cat paintings! Those are actually Fenxi's whiskers in the painting, though. 

The three cat paintings are hanging in my sewing room to inspire me. I'd say I got the better end of the deal.

Look Away, It's Another Felted Cat!

I'm so sorry, Sonja, but...well, I still had more hair left. 

Sitting up this time. 

I'm really pleased with how I was able to get in some shoulder and haunch definition. This is a muscular cat! Good thing, too, because...

...his homely face certainly isn't going to be bringing in the ladies. 

Thankfully, he's already got a designated companion. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cat took a honeymoon trip to the Argonath, one of the seven wonders of the geek world.

Obligatory comparison and introduction to the original:

Same pose!

"And what gift would a felted cat ask of a real cat?"
"None, Lord Walnut, for it is enough for me to have seen a real cat, and to have heard his majestic words."
Then the Lord Walnut shed three thousand of his hairs.
"These words shall go with the gift...I say to you, Felted Cat, that your paws will flow with hair, and yet over you hairballs shall have no dominion."

(The lighting on this picture was just so reminiscent of Lothlorien, I couldn't resist.)

With humblest apologies to JRR Tolkien, who does not deserve to have his brilliant and beautiful words co-opted by a feline-obsessed blogger. 

April Stashbusting Commences!

PSA: Ailurophobics (not sure what you're doing reading this blog, actually), clean freaks, and those with weak constitutions, look away! This post is not for the faint of heart.

There comes a time in every long-haired cat owner's life when one must bust a very different kind of stash:

With a AA battery for comparison. 

See, two Christmases ago, my brother gave me this book on using cat hair to do needle felting. Excited (and slightly skeptical), I started collecting Walnut's hair, and over a year later I finally got myself a felting tool. Since it's a stashbusting kind of year, well, you may think this is an April Fools' Day joke (and it is a bit tongue-in-cheek), but this is a totally real cat that I felted!

I didn't take any pictures of the process, since I wasn't sure how it would work out. To be honest, it didn't really look like much until I added in the front legs and the head. I started out with a peanut shape for the body (at which point Mr. Cation thought it looked like a turd...and he was right), then added little rounds for the hindquarters, three little "logs" for the tail and front legs, and finally the head. The finishing touch was stitching on the facial features, so I guess it still counts as sewing?

Look at that adorable face!

The whole process took about an hour and change, and was pretty relaxing. Stabbing a needle into a ball of fur over and over again is quite cathartic, even if I occasionally stabbed my thumb. The good news is, I've still got plenty of fur left!

Yup, barely busted this stash. 

When Walnut came over for a snack, he met his tiny doppelganger:

Okay, but in all seriousness, there is real fabric stashbusting going on over here in the month of April! The challenge this month is Vibrant Color, so I'm going to sew up one of the two orange fabrics in my stash. And since it's a challenge, it means you have a chance to win more bragging rights! The rules for challenge submissions are:

1. At least 75% of the item must be made from your stash supplies. 
2. Item must be made within the month of April. 
3. To enter, link your submission photo to the link party before the last day of the month. I'll put up the link party in the last week of April. 

So if you're not totally turned off by the exorbitant amount of cat hair featured in this post, and if you haven't unsubscribed from my blog in disgust, I'll look forward to turning down the brightness settings on my screen at the end of the month!

Just a couple of cats, hanging out by the window...

Historical Sew Fortnightly: Accessorize

Actually, this should probably be called the Historical Glue Fortnightly, as there was almost no sewing involved in this tricorn; it's mostly hot glue holding the trims on! The only sewing I did was to attach the feathers.

Awkward selfies with the iPhone.

For this challenge, I wanted to embellish a tricorn to go with the pirate costume I want to make one day. I already had a cheap tricorn from a costume store (originally marketed as a Pirates of the Caribbean costume piece), so it was just a matter of looking up historical engravings of pirates to see what kind of trims would be period-appropriate.

A pirate scrimshaw, from the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine. [source]

Frideric Guillaumlii Roi de Prusse, c. 1744, by Joh. Martin Will, Augsburg. [source]

Electeur de Brandenbourg, c. 1714. [source]

I boiled this down to gold lacy-looking trim on the edge, ribbon with a button on the right side, and a large bunch of ostrich feathers on the back left side.

Summary:
The Challenge: Accessorize! Granted, this is for a costume I haven't started yet, but it's still an accessory, right?
Fabric: None.
Notions: Gold metallic trim leftover from my Regency ball gown project, red-gold polyester ribbon from my stash, a large gold button that matches my steampunk gun, and four large red ostrich feathers.
Pattern: None, but I used the above engravings for reference.
Year: Early 18th century, the Golden Age of Piracy.
How historically accurate is it? My base tricorn (and the hot glue) is ridiculously anachronistic, and my trims aren't much better, but at least my placement of things is historically accurate!
Hours to complete: 1! Gosh, I love fast projects.
First worn: For pictures today, but I'm trying to figure out if I feel like making it out to the SoCal Ren Faire for Swashbuckling Day.
Total cost: $40...$10 for the tricorn, and the rest for the ostrich feathers. Those things are pricey! I'm counting the trims as free since they were all stash or leftover from other projects.

Serious pirate face. 

Oh, you wanted a look at my fake pirate costume?  

I wasn't sure we had enough light left to take pictures so I just threw everything on quickly, hence the improperly tightened corset. The dress is a thrift store find (only $15, and breathable rayon to boot! Possibly one of my favorite finds ever.), the belt is from Ross several years ago, and the thin belt/harness thing is from Cotton On. 

March Stashbusting Link Party!

I've been stalled on my own sewing projects this week after a machine breakdown, but before that happened, my sister was able to squeeze in a stashbusting project of her own. In lieu of sharing anything I've sewn, take a gander at her potholder made from fabric she's had stashed for a while:

All museums should use cats as showroom aides. The fabric is Robert Kaufman's Metro Cafe Toasters, originally purchased from Peapod Fabrics in San Francisco. 

She only just started sewing with a machine last year, and this is only her third project (here's her first!). Way to go with tackling quilting with three super-tall layers of batting, Emily!

And now it's your turn to share! Once again, the link party is your chance to show off what you've made from your stash, and it doesn't need to fit the theme necessarily; as long as you used fabric you already own it counts. After all, potholders aren't necessarily spring-y...

Happy ending: I took my mom's machine in to the shop to get a tune-up (it hasn't been serviced since she got it years ago, I think), and now it's back to being functional. I don't know if I'll get the lobster dress finished before we go back down to TCOCC, but I'm going to try!

Boo-urns!

The best laid plans of Cations and cats go oft awry.

I had a whole list of things I wanted to accomplish during this week in SF -- finish the hem of Elaine's wedding skirt, make something out of my awesome Jurassic Park sheet, and make a dress for my sister. Alas, it is not to be, as my mom's dodgy old Kenmore decided to go on strike. I was already having issues with it last summer, and somehow in between getting up to cut out a facing and sitting back down (I'm totally serious -- nothing happened to it, nobody used it), the whole thing froze. When I try to turn the hand wheel, it just doesn't turn (not even the tiniest bit!), stepping the the foot pedal produces a hum but no motion, and a thorough inspection of the bobbin case area doesn't reveal any offending thread or lint. I'm totally flummoxed -- what could've happened to make it suddenly, randomly jam like that? It's not computerized, either, so fried motherboards aren't an option.

Just so this isn't an entirely picture-less post, here's the sheet that I'm using to make my sister's dress!

It's got lobsters on a navy and white pinstripe background, 100% cotton with a nice soft hand. Emily has a fondness for crustaceans, so I was pretty psyched when I found the twin flat sheet in excellent condition at a thrift store.

I'm using Simplicity 6926, a 70s sundress pattern, which should make for quite the nautical look when I'm done. If I ever get done, that is, thanks to the silly machine's silly temper tantrum. Time to look for a sewing machine repair shop!