I'm back!

So I haven't written in this thing for months now. I apologize if anyone was actually reading regularly. I've had a lot going on. About eight months ago I was in a show, Pirates of Penzance, that caused me to get injured. So I've been dealing with what has been diagnosed as a herniated disc and spinal stenosis. Which sucks. Big time. I had to drop out of school which kind of threw my whole life off track. So right now I'm not sure what I'm doing. I've been stuck at home for about eight months, and I can't trust myself to drive, so I've been completely dependent on others to do anything.
The injury has even cut into my sewing time. I cut on the floor, since I don't have to luxury of a large cutting table. That's really strenuous on my back. But I have gotten a little in, which lifts my spirits a bit.  And I leaned how to crochet! No classes or anything, I actually learned on youtube. It's amazing what the internet can do for you these days.
Another adventure that I started was fostering dogs. I've always been passionate about animals, and I have to rescue dogs myself, but I needed to feel like I was doing something good. So about 3 months ago I got my first foster dog and it was an amazing experience. He's been adopted already! So right now I'm waiting to get my next one.
Hopefully soon I will start feeling better and I can start doing the things I want again. But for now, I'll sew as much as I can, crochet and learn more, and learn new things! Maybe soon I can be a part of the sewing blogger community, and start feeling a sense of... well, community!

Back to basics

I know. I haven't written for a while. What can I say? I've been busy. I had a very long few weeks, what with procrastinating for months and then trying to get all my outfits sewn for my sister's wedding. Then there was the wedding itself. We left at 2:30am from the west coast on Thursday, got to the east coast at 5:30pm then left again on Sunday at 4:30, got to the west coast at 12:30 and then began the hour long drive home from the airport. All in all, it was wonderful to see my sister and her new husband but it was an extremely tiring weekend.

But now, referring to the title, I need to go back to basics. Wardrobe basics specifically. I make a lot of wearable clothes, but I don't have much to match them. I have all these skirts that I've made, but I rarely wear them since they all match to the same two tops. So its come to my attention that I need a top that's in between a t-shirt and a button-down. But I also need some button-downs. So for the "dressy t-shirt" I think I'm going to use the Ariadne Tunic from Tanit-Isis. Free pattern bonus! For my button-down I'm going to use Vogue V8747. I have a RTW blouse extremely similar to it, which is part of my concert dress (the basic black uniform that all choral members have). But I would like some other colors. This pattern has multiple cup sizes, so I'm hoping it will fit wonderfully. My last item on my basic list is a pair of high waisted wide legged trousers, for which I've not found the perfect pattern yet. My basic uniform is jeans and a shirt, so I'd like to get out of that rut by making a point of dressing well everyday.
How do you feel about dressing up every day? Too much work, or totally worth it? And do you have an idea of which pattern I should use for my trousers?

Sewing Inspiration (and how I came to find that I had none)

I promise I've been sewing. I promise. But that muslin I told you about? Utterly uninspiring. Kinda baggy in the torso, fine in the waist, and a nice full skirt. (Pictures to come when I actually fix it) It's a nice dress for everyday, but the actual article would have been for my sister's wedding. Did I mention I'm going to have to take pictures?

So of course, my body has to make things harder for me. I dug out and old standby, a 90's five paneled, sweetheart neckline dress. I know this one looks good on me. The problem? It doesn't have sleeves.
Frankenpattern Away!


The of course after all that work, I'm just not feeling it. I have the bodice all sewn together even with the lining, but I just can't bring myself to finish cutting out the skirt and finish that dang dress!

Onto another dress! Now I'm working on the Modcloth replica, which is actually coming along nicely. Except for the fact that it doesn't really cover the girls. Luckily that's an easy fix with a modesty panel.

In the case that I don't finish my frankenpattern dress, which was intended for the rehearsal dinner (Which is on a boat. I'm not a happy camper. I'm not a fan of being around water that has things living in it. But, hey, what are you going to do?), I will make a previously planned skirt.

I have everything I need for this bad boy. (Bad girl?) And I can whip it up in about a day, so even if I'm crunched for time not much worry will be had.

Canine Emergency!

After what had been a typically normal day in the house, two nights ago was one of the most abnormal nights I've had in a while. I was settling down to watch "The Other Bolyen Girl" when Hannah decided to jump on the futon with me. In fact, it would have been abnormal for her not to. But of course, this wasn't a normal night. She had some leftover stool hanging from her so I took her outside to finish her business. After 20 minutes when she was still straining I started to worry. After calling the emergency vet clinic in our area, they advised that I bring her in. And I'm glad that I did.
She had some radiographs done which showed that Hannah had eaten my sewing needle! Thread still attached! Luckily she didn't have to have surgery and the needle didn't poke though her mucosal lining. She was put under anesthesia and the vet removed the needle from her. We got to bring her home just hours after the procedure and today she is back to her old self, voraciously eating her food, barking at Scooter and curling up to sleep on the couch.
Let this be a lesson to everyone to keep their sewing things away from young children and pets.

Le Petit Prince

Le Petit Prince is actually one of my favorite books. It seems that every time I read it I learn something new. Unfortunately the copy I have is in french, so sometimes, especially now as I haven't taken french class in three years, it's a challenge to read. I'll have to put "get english copy of Le Petit Prince" on my to-do list.
I don't have anything besides the book that represents my love for it.  So I'd been searching for a shirt or a dress that has some of the illustrations on it, but to no avail. There's a lovely store online, La Boutique du Petit Prince, that has all things Petit Prince related, but they didn't have what I wanted.
So after I saw this beautiful design for a quilt via Cation Designs, I thought "Duh! Make a dress!" So that's the second design in the lineup.  This dress is actually going to be a wearable muslin for my dress to wear to my sister's rehearsal dinner made from Vogue V8766.

I'm going to be making the version in the upper right hand corner with the full skirt and half sleeves. Also like Cation Designs (can you tell she's my favorite?) my muslin is going to be made out of a bed sheet. And that's why she's my favorite, because she and I both make our clothing out of bedsheets, only she tends to make much cuter dresses than I do.
This image is definitely going on it.

And I'm hoping I'll have enough room for this one because the fox is my absolute favorite.

I'll be cutting the images from the various colors of fabric and appliqueing them onto the blue bedsheet.
Eeep! Excited!


Also, as a bonus, I have dogs laying on fabric:

This is Scooter, laying on fabric from a previous project.

And this is Hannah laying on my fabric today and chewing on a rock. Ridiculous.

Dogs are definitely difficult to sew with. Mine like laying on (usually just ironed) fabric as much as cats do and as a plus, they shed like crazy. I wish I had a cutting table. It would help my back and the dogs couldn't get up on it. Although Hannah jumped over the couch the other day, back to front, so it's been established that she can jump really high.

More ideas still, but I'll save them for another day!

"Skirts which Flatter the Figure"

Ok so maybe the mannequin production has been a bit delayed.  Luckily, that dress (see last post) that I need to drape on it is actually for a special event in September; my sister's wedding! So let's get on with the rest of my projects already!

This week promises to be quiet and productive. Which is good since I have a backlog of ideas.
The first in the lineup is a skirt made from a pattern dating 1957. Well, it's more of a tutorial, since there isn't any real pattern per say. It's found here on a blog dedicated to vintage sewing and knitting patterns. But here's the particular one I'm using.

I'm going to be using this fabric, a medium weight cotton:

And these buttons:

They're actually lighter in person. I blame the color on the artificial light.

The skirt it actually coming along fairly nicely. I have all the pleats sewn in, the waistband, and the place for the buttonholes (I'm sure there's an actual name for that. Anyone know it?) so I'm fairly far along for two hours of sewing and cutting. But since I tried to give myself plenty of ease (unlike my other skirts) the skirt actually ended up being about and inch too big. Easily fixable though.

And I think I'll start a new post for my next project idea. This one has gotten a bit long.

Introductions!

Hi all!
As this is my first post, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about me and what this blog is going to be about.  My name is Alayna, I live in California, and I started this blog to chronicle all of my projects. It's going to be a lot of sewing, a bit of baking, some music (I'm an voice performance major with an emphasis in opera) and a whole lot on the perils on doing all this with my two beloved dogs.

My first project is going to be making a custom mannequin using this lovely tutorial. As a crazy minority in California (freakishly tall and over the top curvy) this is a really great find for me. The way I'm built is actually why I started sewing clothes for myself in the first place, as all the dresses I found made for "my" age group barely covered my butt. So I picked up my sewing machine, the assorted skills I made during a 5th grade quilting class and a whole lot of courage and made my first dress.

My NEXT project is the one I'm really excited about. This dress:

It's called "Here In My Carnival Dress" by Eva Franco from Modcloth. I'm not going to make this exact dress, although I did find an absolute ringer for the fabric at a little remnant store. I even bought the last yardage off the bolt. I don't have a pattern so I'm going to drape it (my first draping project!) onto my new mannequin. Wish me luck!