Sew Crazy

Finally, pictures of my finished sewing projects this year:

Here is Blanche modeling my Cherry Chaos dress.

Here is my 1950's style wrap dress. I looks much better on me, I promise.

And finally the pictures you've all been waiting for...

BEHOLD! The Weekender Bag, finished and ready to go:

It hangs at about hip level for me. Perfect for throwing over my shoulder or wearing it across my chest.

And here is the spacious front pocket for storing all those items you need at a moment's notice.

Yay!

White Rabbit

This past weekend was pretty good for me....though I've discovered some minor issues with current projects I am working on.

Firstly,
Jonesy (the boyfriend) took me to see Sucker Punch. I had a great time, but I do have a few things to say about the movie.

The costumes, hair, makeup, etc....was simply amazing. I personally happen to think that Zack Snyder's movies are just really beautiful to look at, but that's just me. I don't want to give too much away...so I'll say this, the visuals are good, but the plot is sort of "meh". From what I've read, lots of the plot got cut from the movie for the theatrical release, so I'll pass final judgement after the director's release comes out.
Other than that, I don't want to say anymore to spoil it for y'all.

I'm also a fan of the soundtrack thus far, but that's mostly because I love covers.

A while back, a buddy of mine mentioned I should do a hilarious sewing miniseries on youtube completely drunk, for entertainment purposes. I figured I'd give it a go.

So this past weekend I got stinking drunk on Saturday night in order to film "Shit housed Sewing". I filmed 7 minutes of me blathering on about sewing materials, and then went to bed. I got up yesterday and watched what I had filmed. I guess I was in a mood or something because it came off really condescending and not all that funny. It doesn't help that I was sort of approaching it by the seat of my pants. I've decided that I'm going to sit down and make some base notes, and then film based on that...and try not to come off so condescending. I think I am funniest when I am being sincere about it, and this time, that just didn't happen.

I also realized that this en devour is probably going to destroy my liver.

It's like this whole weekend was a swirling vortex of epic failure, because I've been trying to correct the lapels on my cherry dress, and no matter how hard I worked on it.....it just wouldn't come together the way I wanted it to.

And because the cherry dress isn't completed and wearable, it's creating a back up in my projects that I need to get completed....like that damn weekender bag.

My plan as of current is to get the cherry dress to a wearable state, finish the 1950's wrap dress, and get the bag muslin put together. If everything works out, I should have the final bag completed by mid April.

I've also decided that I am going to go all out and make a 1950's style ball gown for formal night at RVBTO. RVBTO is my Viva, for those of you who don't know. It's not a rockabilly event, it's an internet nerd convention in Toronto, Canada.

I'm thinking, it's going to be this pattern....and with the fabric choice I've already made, I am not fucking lining this damn dress....I'll wear a slip. Maybe in red...maybe in blue...maybe in green. We'll just have to see.

Now I just need fuck awesome shoes to go with it.

Serging Feelings

So, It would seem I've reached the point in my sewing that I am ready to start thinking about investing in a Serger.

As of current, I already own a Serger that is collecting dust. It was free from a person on Freecycle. It's a decent model of serger (White brand) and it's probably a late 80's model. The only thing it came with was the serger it self, the foot pedal, and a dingy dust cover.

I ordered the manual for it, and attempted to thread the bastard (after a through cleaning...yuck.) and it worked...for a little while. I know it needs to be serviced, and I need to get some different presser feet for it. At this point, I'm not sure that it's actually in working order.....it sort of stopped working...but that could be because of improper threading, wrong needle used, me being a moron at sergers, etc.

Bottom line: Regardless of working condition, it desperately needs to go to the sewing machine repair shop and get worked on. When Doris had her gears replaced, it cost me about $220.00.....now the serger won't cost that much to get looked at, but it could cause up to that to get it serviced. Sewing Machine repairs are not cheap.

Currently, I am trying to decide what I want to do with the serger I have. Should I take it to the repair shop, invest some money into it (i.e. getting the correct presser feet for it and cutting blade for it), or say fuck it and get a new one all together (new one would run about $200.00)?

I've been sitting on it for so long....I need to do something with it. I also need to make room in my already cramped sewing room for it....which is another problem all together.

I have quite a few options here....and I just wonder what the best route will be.

Busted

This weekend was both a bust and a great victory for me.

First things first....I decided that I was going to start a new dress using this amazing anchor fabric.

Clearly, I wasn't the only person who had this idea.
This fabric is totally sold out, everywhere. I was able to snag one yard of it, which will become a purse or possibly a weekender bag.

So, back to square one on that.

Secondly, I found the most nerdtastic Space Invaders fabric and I plan to buy more of it. I bought a yard of it and made a weekender bag out of it. Pics or possibly a video to follow.

As for great victory, I went to the Galleria over the weekend and bought about $100.00 worth of MAC cosmetics.
I got one palette from the Wonder Woman collection, a lip liner, an eyeshadow, a lip primer, and Ruby Woo lipstick.
I know MAC is known for their eye shadows, but holy shit...their lipstick is amazing. And I love lipstick.

I can't wait to get my hands on Russian Red lipstick and another Wonder Woman Palette as well.

Hooray for traffic stopping red lips!

The Travel Dress....Finally.

I started working on this dress in like..November. It wasn't a hard dress to make, I just procrastinated and such....Once I finally finished the dress and tried it on, I discovered that I had gained so much weight I couldn't fit into the damn thing.

After busting my ass for over a month, I've lost 10 pounds, and I can squeeze myself into the dress.

I used the following Vogue Pattern:

If you remember my purple wiggle dress form a few months back, you will see that this is the same pattern from that dress. I chose to go with the main view this time.

The pattern reminded me of a very early 60's silhouette, so I went all Mad Men on it.

I think it turned out nicely...wish the sleeves had come out less puffy, but all in all, I think I will be wearing it to work pretty often.

Achievement Unlocked: 10 pounds down

So, this journal may be a bit early...but on January 4th, 2011...I weighed 226 pounds and some change.

It was the biggest I had been in several years, and I was VERY unhappy about it. I decided to do something about it. Which was really hard. I gave up things I loved (junk foods) and did things I hated (going to the gym).

And today, I stepped on the scale and I knew all my hard work had paid off.

216.6

I still have 1.4 pounds to go before I hit my first goal marker, but I I know I will hit my goal soon. Since my total goal is 175, I figured I would just round to the nearest five mark so for this first goal I actually had to loose 11 pounds, hence one pound to go.

I still have a long way to go, but I know I can get there, one day at a time. I really hope to hit 205 by March 31st. I'm not sure that will happen, but I am going to try my hardest.

31 days till 205. I'm going to have to bust my ass.

Frugal Living: Meal Planning

It's pretty common knowledge that planning your meals in advance can save you money at the grocery store. The theory is that you have all your meals planned, and have a list of what to buy at the grocery store, so you can coordinate with the current sales and you only buy what you need and therefore spend less money. I remember when I was little, my mom would pull out 10 different store ads and she would sit for hours planning that week's shopping list and all of our meals based on what was on sale and which coupons she had on hand. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't have time for all that mess. I work a job and have a household to attend to. I don't have the leisure to just sit down and plan a menu and shopping list.

So, I set out to find some quick internet assistance on my time and meal planning dilemma.

I discovered a few sites, and I am passing them to you, along with my thoughts on each.

The first site I discovered in my internet travels was: MealsMatter.org.
After registering, I finally got settled into working with the site. I decided to start my planning immediately and jumped into what I would have for breakfast tomorrow. I clicked on "Add Recipe" and found myself jumping for joy. They have hundreds of recipes, which are sorted into every category you could imagine. They even have holiday recipes. You can add items to your "pantry" so you can be sure to use things you already have on hand. You can also add your own recipes to the "My Cookbook" section for quick reference. Planning a week's worth of different and delicious meals took me about 30 minutes, but I still had to check the grocery store ad to see what was on sale. I do recommend checking it out.

The next site I checked out was Monthly Meal Planner. Honestly, this site was much more difficult to navigate than the aforementioned site, and it really wasn't much help to me. It might be better for those families who buy in bulk, but it wasn't for me.

The last site on my internet conquest for meal planning domination was: Food on the table.
As soon as I signed in, I was directed to choose my grocery store. I chose the Kroger that I frequent, and the nearest HEB. The site then pulled sale prices from those stores...I didn't have to do anything except select the sorts of things I enjoy eating (like poultry, beef, veggies, etc.). I found they had a wide variety of recipes, and you can select recipes based on what is on sale at your local market, you can then import those recipes into a shopping list and print out the list or have it sent to your mobile phone.
I started out by adding two ingredients that were on sale (shrimp & catfish), and then selected recipes to use to prepare them. It imported all the ingredients I needed to prepare the recipes and I had to remove the items that I already had in my pantry. I could have also added personal care items if I needed to the list as well. There are pros and cons to this site, to access all the recipes, you have to fork out some $$. Not interested in doing that. Also, this isn't a "meal planner" as it is more of a grocery list generator. It saved me some time, but I still had to go back through my pantry and see what I already had on hand. It is very user friendly, and will find the sale items for you, which is a big time saver.


I do recommend you look at all of them and see which site suits your needs.

Happy Planning!

Big Doris's New Home

Who is Big Doris?

Big Doris is my 1979 Singer Stylist sewing machine. I've had her since I was 13 years old. My mom taught me to sew when I was just a wee one, and when I got a little older, I begged for a sewing machine. After she past, some friends of the family found me this older model sewing machine and gave her to me for Christmas. I've loved and used her ever since. I've only ever had her break on me once, and that was after 10 years of frequent use and several moves. She had all her gears replaced and it ran me about $200.00. Worth every penny.

For ages, my dining room table also moonlighted as my sewing table. That was a major hassle because when I wanted to eat dinner, I had to put away Doris and move the project I was working on. It was a huge pain in the ass.

I mentioned that I was on the look out for some sort of sewing cabinet to one of my seamstress friends casually one day. While I told her my plight of my multitasking dining room, she told me she would look out for something for me.

A few weeks later, she called me with great news. She had an extra sewing cabinet she would give to me. FREE SEWING CABINET!? YES PLEASE.

She and her husband delivered it to my apartment and I placed Big Doris in it. It wasn't a perfect fit, but it works just wonderful for me.

Here she is in my little sewing corner of my sewing room. Complete with Murphy's laws hanging on the wall.

Look at that extra storage space! Complete with SPOOL RACKS!! YESSSS!

Now Doris has a home, and my dining room table can be just that, a dining room table.