survival 101

my sister asked me how i'm surviving without a laptop.
surprisingly i'm handling it pretty well.

of course i can't

* update my blog as often (i'm writing this at work)
* check my mail when i want (the family computer is always being used)
* watch a movie (i like watching movies in my room)
* upload my pictures (no usb cord. i was using the memory card insert thing on my laptop. which means boring, image-less blog entries by me for the moment)

but this weekend i've been quite "productive":

*i'm rereading jane eyre. i didn't know that mr. rochester was THAT old. last time i read it was when i was in grade 8, which was several, several years ago.
*cleaned the bathroom.
*made pancakes.
*wrote letters (i love making cards and sending them out)
*hung out with best friend :)
*practiced on the piano (for more than an hour. quite a record breaker.)
*and i finished a dress and a skirt!

i used the built by wendy pattern 3964 again, but omitted the inset and redrafted the front piece. it's so much easier and better looking that way! i worked on it like i used to work on my essays: took lots of breaks in between. but all in all it should have only taken a morning to do(without the cutting of the fabric and transferring of marks- i find this takes the longest. i always do this the night before). there were less mistakes and minimal seam ripping, yay!
i also added the sleeves but didn't elasticize them. instead, i hemmed it and drafted out a pattern for epaulet looking things to go with the sleeves, similar to this:

i used gold buttons that i got on sale for 50c from fabricland.
i must say that i will be wearing this often!
i'll post up photos, hopefully soon...

have a nice monday!

3 more days till my partner in crime comes! :)

ps: i am itching to buy fabric. argh. argh. argh. but i'm trying not to spend, especially since i have a stack of fabrics waiting to be turned into dresses!

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"battle scars"

last sunday was like spring cleaning in my room. i had taken out all of my clothes from my closet and sorted through the ones that i no longer like or wear. i came out with a huge bag full.

i also decided to get rid of the things that i made.

i told john that i got rid of my poorly sewn clothes, and he begged for me to fish them out of the bag so that he could keep them.
when my sister found out what i had done, she told me that yes, i should retrieve them and keep them, because these are my battle scars.
i'm looking at them now and i can't believe that i wore them out or to work!
so without further ado, here are my scars. and they ain't pretty. hardeehar.

this is the first shirt i made. i made it without a pattern. i wore it to work for casual friday. my dad called it my recyclable shirt. worn twice.


my first attempt to sew from a pattern. this is the anda dress from burda style, and the final product shouldn't look like this. i printed the pattern without changing the page layout. this has been infamously called the potato sack by my very sarcastic co-worker. it is also my first attempt at bias binding. worn once. and never again. (i got compliments though, funny enough. this girl at this boutique, and another lady who thought it was from club monaco) haha.


this is the camille skirt. i used a tutorial on how to make mui mui-esque skirts. i didn't use enough fabric. i thought the gold thread was a pretty cute touch though. worn once.


i thought, hey since i've been sewing for a few months now, why not try a built by wendy pattern? they're supposed to be simple. i chose the wrong pattern to start with. argh. it was all going smoothly until i did the inset. and the one thing that screwed it up even more was the topstitching, which i really suck at, and the dress was too short. so i tried to lengthen it by sewing onto it more fabric. it came out wonky in the end. i wore it anyway. my co-worker asked me if i made it, and i learned my lesson. to avoid another potato sack comment, i said no. it was thrifted. ahaha. he believed me and thought it was nice and unique (sometimes the word "unique" can be such an insulting word, but that' s just me). worn once.

it's a very good thing that the fabrics i used were all $3 a meter, or else i would have been really angry at myself.

the only thing that i'm proud of and that i've worn lots of times already is the knit jersey dress that i made from the sew u stretch book. this one got compliments as well, but i never owned up to making it. it avoids further scrutiny, you know? (it is for that reason that i won't be posting up any pictures of it. haha)

so now my "wip" (as fellow crafters call it) or work in progress, is my second attempt at the built by wendy dress, sans the inset. i'm using light denim (which i purchased a few weeks ago and got 50 % discount) this time.

i'm envisioning it to be wiksten - ish.

yars, yars. i'm dreaming.

but a girl can dream.



ps: gross. i hate it when my cat cleans himself in my room.

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a laborious day.

i spent the entire day working on the built by wendy dress.
it was pretty tedious, especially transferring the markings from the pattern onto the fabric.

it was smooth sailing until i got to the inset and the yoke facings.
i decided to take a break from sewing before i gave up altogether.
this pattern is definitely NOT for beginners.

this labor day was really nice and relaxing though (despite sewing difficulties...sewing is still a hobby after all):
- breakfast, lunch, dinner in the garden
- watermelon slices
- watching penelope with the fam
- sleeping in till 9 am

it's 12:39 am and in a few hours i have to be at work.
bah.

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these are a few of my favorite things.

today i shall:
- check out buskerfest and walk to wendy's to pick up a mandarin chicken salad
- take the GO so i can get home before 7
- practice piano like mad
- start on the built by wendy pattern
- be more forgiving of myself
- sleep early

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music and passion were always in fashion at the copa

i am so fricking tired.
i went to class today and was sort of in a trance for the entire thing. i wouldn't be surprised if i've forgotten how to sew in an invisible zipper.

so i made a dress last night to wear to work (yars, yars, i washed and shrunk the fabric) today. and not bad at all. :)

two things: never sew on the actual bias tape. and don't take fashion advice from those who think fishnet jerseys are sexy at a pride parade.

and...they've arrived! my babies have arrived. hehe. i love amazon

we went to the new house today. we finally got the keys! i'm so excited for the new room...i have big plans for it. i want a taller table so that i don't have to bend when i cut out and measure patterns.

tomorrow i have to stay at home to pack.
still no progress. sigh.

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