Lessons from Me Made May

1st lesson: I need to exercise more!
Taking just a week of selfies showed me that it was time to get active. I've been teaching and on my feet for 6-8 hours a day, but not yoga or running as much as I should. That feedback was hard to take (as a sewist I measure myself constantly, but somehow...), but easy to act on. I've been working out 3-4 times a week and am feeling much fitter and hotter (http://instagram.com/p/ozMRzjvhcn/). ;)
reader- how can i post images here from instagram? ??

2nd lesson: I'm making what I like to wear.
My funds have been pretty tight for a couple of years since quitting PR and moving to education, so if I wanted to wear something I had to make it. Done! MMM made me focus on solid color tops to coordinate with my flashy bottoms, which means I have a new black tee and a new acid green tee to make eveything else infinitely more wearable.

3rd lesson: I reallly reallly really wanted a Saturday/Farmers market dress.
My darlingdonne was a hit and made me a sewing friend at the farmers market, but honestly it feels dumpy (even after i raised the hem 3-4" from those pics) and I stretched the v neckline on the right side so i don't love it as much as others do. Enter Linen! Laurel! AAAAYYYYY-men. I finished the neck and arms with piping because WHY NOT. I've been wearing these every weekend since and they are so easy to style and wear. I don't even wash them - just rinse and hang because linen fell from heaven in a divine state.

4th lesson: The stash is shrinking due to ruthless busting.
I'm making silk "muslins" at this point, to get rid of those "too fancy for today" fabrics that just sit there. It forces me to learn silk skills (thanks, Thread Cult!) and relieves the guilt of hoarding. Sewing is to reduce my impact, right?

5th lesson: I am SO FORTUNATE to be doing this here (in the SF Bay area). There's an awesome meetup group that makes me feel connected even if i barely ever make it (see first year teaching), the world's best sewing store next to the world's best grocery store about a mile from my house and they are both locally owned. There are lots of other scrappy and mystifying resources around, and of course, the people are ridiculously awesome. My meetup isn't octogenarian quilters (that would be fun sometimes but you know), it's Beth! and Meg! and a bunch of other people who will probably blow my mind when I finally meet them. Also Katrina, my latest art/craft crush, who I met at an art crawl last month and whose art got me focused on foxes. My finally-found spirit animal!

Please send fox fabric. 

So there we have it. What did you learn? What shall we sew this summer?

xooxoxxoo bex

um, i started quilting.

so yeah. i have this giant sack of fabric scraps because i hate waste. scraps are like sewing's leftovers, and my mama taught me to make stuff out of leftovers.

turns out it's fun. i knew it would be, i love making something cute out of basically nothing. but i'm not really into the quilt aesthetic...am i?

i love a blanket, after all. so anyway, i started stitchin with Amy Gibson on Craftsy (why was that name so familiar??? i wondered. oh...because i combined baby baby and electric youth. AWESOME.) Amy's doing a block a month, with December dedicated to binding and whatever else it takes to make the blocks into an actual quilt. She's hugely pregnant right now, so I am curious about how that's all going to go.
nonetheless! I stitched and slashed to make an asterisk. here it is!

those stripes used to be boxer shorts. :P

also this "wonky pound sign"

boxers + old sheet = new blanky

It is So. Satisfying.

Shall we have a Quilting Bee? GAWD i want to have a sewing slumber party. are you in??? after the olympics, obvy.

xo
r

update: i'm posting my quilting pics on craftsy, because this must not become a quilting blog.

contemporary pattern! TNT2B

Dear Jen,

I love the tiny pocket tank Thank you for a flattering, cool alternative to those dresses that treat me wrong.

I wore it for 3 days, even though my facings were flipping (yes, i skipped a step. i don't have matching thread, and i don't trust myself at the fabric store. so no top stitch around the neck. i know i know). It was On Trend, cool (not sweaty), and looked cute on my bod. Here I am eschewing carbs and waiting for my soup while I wear it.

My little dude chose this photo shoot moment to snuggle, so i'll try again once i do them laundries. 

contemporary patterns win! what others do i need???

xo

bex

dear craftsy, i love you.

Dear Craftsy,

Thank you for being awesome when I told you that I enrolled in the wrong course. And even though i printed the pattern and watched a couple of episodes, I was being sincere that DAMN I bought the WRONG course for my sewing level and interests.

So thank you, a million times, for letting me into the Sewing Basics course, without paying all over again, while I let that Gertie jacket founder on my floor. The pieces are literally on my floor; there may be mice living in them. That lovely, brown/black multi-flecked wool is in a giant pile of fabric and pattern pieces, abandoned. I blame K-Line ;) ok not really.

So now i can learn about taking care of my machine, and VERY BASIC fitting stuff (which I obviously need like crazy) and not try to tailor a damn jacket right off the bat.

Here's to quitting things that are wrong for you!
luv
bex

ps Gertie, I also love you! And I really love your notes about interfacing and pattern ease to the max. but that jacket is not my jam, at least not now.