Oct. 31

I said I would have something to show for this weekend and by golly I do. No, it isn't a finished garment, but it is a little group of adorable tapir pincushions! And I really made them a couple weeks ago, but I just now took pictures of them and put them on Etsy. That counts in my book! Two are happy and one is terribly sad. Poor fella.

And of course, I've been collecting more recipes! I fully intend to make my own french toast bagels with this recipe (though I'm putting some cinnamon chips in mine) once my package is all eaten which is a whole new ballgame for me. I also have a recipe for honey wheat sandwich bread that I'm going to try out once I finish my loaf. I'll definitely document the bagels, we'll see about the other.

Oct. 30

Happy Halloween!

Oct. 29

I am so glad it is Friday. I've been sick the last couple of days and am greatly looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I just got a book in the mail today that I'm really excited to read it, it's called Machine of Death and it is an anthology of stories about people who know how they are going to die and it was published by two of my favorite webcomic artists, David Malki and Ryan North.

I've been cooking up a storm lately as well.... lets see, I made some fried mozzarella sticks the other day. First time attempting to fry something and though it was successful, it was kind of gross. What does one do with leftover oil? I think we ended up throwing it out. Today on my way home from school I had a very strong urge to make chicken noodle soup, noodles and all. I love having a pasta maker. There is something extra delicious about homemade chicken and noodles. I strayed from the recipe quite a bit.. I put potatoes and tons of rosemary in it. I wrote down my recipe, so if anyone is interested let me know.

Mmm... look how colorful it starts out!

And then it promptly becomes beige after everything is added and cooked. Noodles and chicken are so worth it though.

 

 

 

After that I whipped up some Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese... it is just heavenly on one of the french toast bagels I bought yesterday. Really. Fantastic. I used this recipe last year and I'll be using it plenty more this year.

MMM..... words cannot convey how good this smelled.

I realize that this blog hasn't been too sewing oriented lately, so I guess I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I am doing with it. It also means that I haven't been doing as much sewing as I should. This will be amended this weekend. Now that I've written that I need to get something done.

Oct. 25

With my attempt to be a successful seamstress I've been thinking a lot about my decision at the moment to abandon a traditional college degree in favor of simply taking classes to educate myself about topics that can be useful to me. Learning how to sew as a trade to support oneself seems to be rare among people my age, and when talking about this with others I've felt that I needed to explain myself as to why I'm not on a path to get a degree like everyone else.

I'm definitely of the opinion that education is one of the most important things a person can do for themselves and I always thought that I would want to go to college for as long as possible, grad school and all. Now that I'm a little older (and I have a roommate in grad school) I can't think of much I'd rather not do with the next few years of my life. I guess now I just don't equate education with a degree as much as I used to.

I just read an interview with Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs about this, and there was definitely a quote or two that resonated with me.

"There is nothing wrong with working in an office. There is nothing wrong with getting a college degree. The flaw in our character is our insistence on separating blue-collar jobs from white-collar jobs, and encouraging one form of education over another. Why do we value one above the other, when our future depends upon both? That’s our blind spot." - Mike Rowe

Oct. 24

The Screenland Armour location when it was brand new.

There are these wonderful places in Kansas City called Screenland Theaters. I can't find any kind of summary of who owns the business or why it was started, but leave it to say that someone has renovated old theaters around KC and it's a very good thing. Before this week I had only been to one location downtown that plays almost entirely films that aren't playing anywhere else in the city (it is where I saw Best Worst Movie and The Animation Show). Horror Remix this month though, was at the Armour location in North KC, then yesterday my roommate and I saw another show there which is the main reason why I'm writing about this at all.

Three years ago I missed a showing of a Sound of Music sing-a-long and since then I have wished they would have another one, and sure enough, this weekend they did. I was so happy to see it on the big screen! Whenever there was singing lyrics would show up on the screen and everyone (mostly adults mind you) would sing along without abandon... "The Lonely Goatherd" was especially entertaining! It was a very relaxed show and there was almost constant interaction from the crowd... hissing whenever the baroness would come on screen and waving flashlights around during the Nazi scenes at the abbey.

Good times.

In non-film news, my mom, grandma, and I went to a little town in central Kansas today called Lindsborg which has capitalized itself a bit on being a "little Sweden" kind of place. I made adorable little gift tags and a couple phone calls beforehand and set up a consignment deal with a shop called Anderson Butik with some of my dala horse ornaments. This is the first time I've done anything like that and I'm really excited and I hope they sell. I'm going to try and get some in a bed and breakfast down there as well.

I haven't made any progress on the skirt other than trying a few different ways to sew in elastic (how is this possible people? I'm having a mess of a time with it) and ripping out tons of zig zags. I may have to cut out a new liner and start anew, possibly with just a straight up gather and a zipper -- sans elastic.

Oct. 22

I took a microbiology test on Thursday... it's always good to get those kinds of things out of the way; now I can enjoy my weekend without worrying about it. To start off with, my roommate and I went downtown this afternoon and finally tried out a new frozen yogurt place called Spoons. Delicious. The closest thing we have to a Red Mango around here... nice tart yogurt with fruit as the only topping. There was a snickerdoodle flavor as well which we almost got... cinnamon ice cream makes me weak! I'll definitely have to go back for some of that.

I've started a skirt today as well in my first attempt to make a pattern from draping on my dress form, first time doing pockets, first uneven hem, and first partial elastic waist. What am I thinking? So far I have the entire outside layer done with the pockets so I need to work on that hem and figuring out how to put in the lining/elastic. I think with the other half of the fabric I'll just give it a zipper and not worry about the elastic, it's cutting it close with being able to pull it on as it is and I don't have any extra fabric to spare. I guess that's what I get for trying to make two skirts out of less than a yard and a half of fabric.

It is raining in Lawrence tonight and I can't wait to go to bed.

Photo by deadst4r

Oct. 18

Photo credit goes to iantmcfarland

I just went to a Sufjan Stevens concert in Kansas City last night that was incredible! Due to a bit of a medical emergency with a friend I went with, we had to leave after only about half of the show, but what I did see was great. It gave me a much greater appreciation for his newest album, The Age of Adz (I was kind of lukewarm to it before). The opening act (DM Stith) was fantastic as well. As soon as I got home I downloaded his album and I couldn't stop listening to it today. Below is the only video I could find of the concert: the opening song, Seven Swans, and my favorite of DM Stith's that I've heard so far.

Oct. 16

It would seem as if I've been doing stuff since I posted last... I had my first sale (the blue pinstripe dress from this post) which is pretty exciting. I also made a couple new skirts that I posted up on my shop earlier today.

 

 It's kind of exciting to be able to sell things that I make.

The other day I was such a homemaker... I baked pumpkin applesauce muffins, and tried three new recipes! The first was guacamole because we had an extra avocado, and that turned out great on top of some black re-fried beans... yum. I'm not much of a chip person so we don't have any in the apartment, so I baked my own lime tortilla chips with some corn tortillas I had which were great too. I may need to bake them a bit longer next time though.

Then I made some breaded ravioli from some frozen ones I bought at Costco. Breaded ravioli is one of my favorite things and I'm excited to know how to make it now. I may post the recipe here soon.

Oct. 13

Last week I was walking around downtown and saw that a used bookstore that I've been eying (that has previously been closed whenever I've been around) was open. This place was so full of books that I could barely even get around the owner to go down the narrow row between the shelves and almost all of them were vintage. I worked my way around the whole place and walked out with a sewing book from 1943, one of my favorite fashion periods!

The inside is full of great techniques on how to restyle older dresses and mending, not to mention a huge variety of examples of details and necklines and other elements.

I have to admit, the only neckline I really like here is the scalloped one on the model.

I may have to make one or two hats as well!

I like the little cape idea in the top lefthand corner of this one especially.

I don't have school for the next couple of days, so I'll be sure to get some sewing done, then this weekend I have a birthday shindig for a friend in Kansas City and I'm going to a Sufjan Stevens concert! So excited.

Oct. 10

I've been trying to rearrange my room this weekend in hopes of clearing a wall for the sake of taking pictures. I've ended up moving my dresser, a bookcase, and my bed, and got the wall across from the window clear, but now my room is a mess! At least I now know what I'm doing tomorrow night. I was able to take a bunch of pictures this afternoon of a new batch of sewing patterns to put up on my Etsy, so I'll have to get to that here this week.

Today Hancocks was having a pretty good sale, so I hopped over there to check it out and came back with the apron fabric for my Sound of Music dress (blogged about here) and a couple solids that I'm in dire need of. I've found that when I buy fabric I only seem to buy prints, and that is not always a good thing. There have been a few things that I've wanted to try but I couldn't without a contrasting solid fabric. They also had Simplicity patterns for a dollar apiece, so I got a few of those. I'm really excited about a few of them.

I'm loving these Cynthia Rowley ones... I've been seeing that skirt on the top for months now and I think it looks great every time, the waistband detail is lovely. This second one must be new because I haven't seen it anywhere. I think I'd probably make the version A with the shoulders or maybe no shoulders at all for a summer dress. I haven't ever really made anything with long sleeves, so that version might be good to try as well.

I got this one almost purely for the peplum. You can't see it well in the picture I'm afraid. I've been itching to make a dress with one for a while now. This fits the bill of being more fitted than most of my other dresses as well. Almost all of my dresses and skirts are full or shapeless which I don't think works as well for winter as it does for warm weather. I have a few patterns for pencil skirts and simple A-lines, so hopefully that can be averted this season.

Oct. 4

It has been longer since my last post than I meant... I've been busy, I promise! This weekend I went with a friend to his family reunion in Bentonsport, Iowa which was a very small town and very relaxing. He has some adorable little cousins that we played with a lot... I taught one how to throw a frisbee and take a picture with my digital camera. I believe by the end of the day she took a hundred and fifty pictures, almost all of them being either out of focus or of the floor. The things I do to entertain a cute child!

Today I picked up my sewing machine and I look forward to trying it out to make sure it's all set. I stopped by the thrift store by the sewing machine shop and came out with some sewing patterns for a quarter apiece. I think I'll only sell a few of them, the others I think could make some cute girls dresses. I need to find projects for the fabric that I have! I also have a lot of school work this week, so we'll see which one is triumphant.

I have however, been steadily uploading vintage sewing patterns onto my other Etsy shop. Take a look!