First week of school: take 2

Just found this draft. oops. it's late, but true. :)

Day 1 (orientation) boy asks for advanced science curriculum "I want to study quantum mechanics"

Day 2 (first day) first request for help spelling is for the word "repertoire". Second is "sponsored". 

Day 3 new kids volunteer for, excel at, and are appreciate for taking on classroom jobs.

Day 4 in collage about equity, scales are decorated "because some people need lentils and some people need Korean food". 

student refuses to help clean the classroom until better wages are negotiated. 

Honey, this is NORTH Oakland. Welcome home!

make it perfect: Shearwater Caftan

good shirt. i wear it all the time. 

 kinda tight in the armscye...but i don't always notice so maybe it's great.

 i never use the sleeve tabs.

 the fabric is this stuff

 WHO DOESN'T LOVE MOTHS?!?!?

 somehow it has a bit of shaping though it has no darts or anything.

 don't I have freaky fingers? also dirty hair, in these pics :)

 "no no like this!"

Anyway, make your own if you like to not get sunburned and stay cool. make sure your fabric is breathey.

xo 4e
bex

check that widget!

Hi pals.

It's summer. How great is that? (For a teacher, it is GREAT!) So I have been sewing, of course, and munching cookies. Did you know I eat a lot of cookies? You can see it in my FBA!  (lol sewing joke!)

Anyway, the old blog is pretty neglected, so I thought I'd just be super explicit about where to talk sewing and such with lil ol me.

here's what I did today...I've spent a lot of time sewing and unsewing this dress. no photos of the real thing STILL,  UGH. What do the zig zags tell you....? it's MYRTLE. 

1) Instagram. I'm also taking pictures of bugs, flowers, the city, and my munchkin, but usually one of us is wearing something handmade, so that's fun. I'm @rebeccaw0w

I had only shown this underbutt Bombshell beach skirt on Instagram...

2) Pattern Review - now that I have a clue about what I'm doing, I'm subjecting the large world of sewists to my brave and brash opinions. Check em out! 

I reviewed the Maria Denmark Signe dress on there. 

3) at the Bay Area Sewists meetups! I've plugged them enough, I know. It's so fun.

Here's a dress I blogged about then subsequently updated THREE TIMES. I think I like it now. 

4) If I hit you up on one of those media or you want to talk sewing or patterns or fabrics or whatever, write me! I do love the conversation and am totally into stitchery meetings, I'm just not an excellent broadcaster :)

xoxo
bex

Meetup: score!! And wows to C Sews

Before: nice fabrics that are Not my style. (Plus excess swim fabric just cause I have loads and why not share the love)

Not shown: dots in b/w colorway

After: fall wardrobe- L to R baby corduroy, wool, wool knit, and tasty linen 

Awesome. I'm so proud of how much smarter my fabric swap choices are. Last time I did this I took home piles of synthetic strangeness. Growth! 

Now back to my baby's hoodie and a grip of Myrtle dresses. 

Thanks so much to Chuleenan for killing it on g

roup organization! Congrats to Lindsay on her modified tiny pocket tank, happy bday to Meg and yayyy I got to meet Ebony! 

Bay Area Pride. 

Happy sewing!

Rebecca

Ps I wore my Polly top and it's too big- but a good stash buster!

To Do List

There are a lot of projects flying in my head. For my own brains:

Soma Swimsuit
Bombshell swim skirt/bootie shorts

call this a skirt, put on a slouchy white t, take the boys' numbers

potholder for housewarming party
Fabric boxes for
 - rag rug strips
 - bias bits
 - knit scraps
Dresses for gfs
Kindergarten backpack
some kind of cardigan

cardigan, bruh

color wheel art piece
various lunch bags
Polly Top
cut paper branch mobile
Prussian blue skirt
Moth something or other (scout? sylphide? both?)

so pretty!!! yardage is waiting in the closet. 

black ponte laurel dress
breton laurel dress (or other a la staple dress?)

How far does your yardage go?

I'm pretty cheap. Let's just get that out there. I could say frugal or treehugging, but cheap is truer.

I'll drop $$$ on a nice glass of wine, fresh cherries, even a ridiculous artisanal hot dog (oh Bay Area). But I save money almost everywhere else by being CHEAP. I also don't like waste.  

SO- I've been obsessed with nebula fabric ever since I saw this: 

Aah!!! Gorgeous!! I thought about buying a scarf to sew with...and then about Spoonflower...but no, those are not in my price range. But Girl Charlee, she knows my style. Some of their fabrics are kind of crappy. We should get that out there. This might turn out that way...but for now I'm showing you how much outfit I squeezed out of two yards of magnficently printed nebula fabric.

Piece 1: everyday tee from Meg McElwee. Why is everyone releasing t shirt patterns right now? This is the best one and you get a craftsy class with it. Win!!

Piece 2: signe dress!! As I was cutting the tee shirt I realized that this soft amazig fabric needed to be a dress I could wear every day this summer. Ta daaa:

Maria Denmark's signe dress!!

Piece 3: Then I made matching undies. They're  soft and lacy and undies! Zoe's is close, but I made this pattern from a fave rtw pair.

Piece 4?? Nope :(

It obviously pays to have some TNT patterns around. And notions. But that's what you get for 3 years of obsessive stitching, and yeehaw!

What's your record for items/yard??

Sinbad & Sailor Dove tee

Today is woven tee day. 

I have made a couple of Grainline patterns' Scout tees, but am always doing something fiddly to bring in the back (CB seam, sneaky darts, etc). Full bust with a flowy shirt back combine to make me look like a teepee- not so flattering! So i bought I'd try out the Dove "fitted" tee from new kids (??) Sinbad & Sailor. I love the saucy back slit too. 

Here's my super scrap-busting version with plaid shirting, linen, and lace. No attempt at pattern matching due to fabric limits (make do and make).

Everything fit together like a dream! If it weren't a "muslin" I'd definitely French all the seams and might also set the sleeves flat. As it was, my machine bunched the lace of the arm heads just enough that I didn't have to fit them. Woo. 

Chucked the facing for a bias bound neckline, and I'd do that again too because I find facings are always flopping about and yuck.

I'll try it on in the mornin to suss the fit. In the meanwhile- have you tried this puppy? Were you as impressed as I am?

UPDATE: the fit was TERRIBLE. You can see that it's very wide and squat - that didn't work for me. I took in the side seams about 1/2-1" on each side, then let out the hem. 

It seems like the back slit is a way to make the shirt work in a fabric that doesn't move- and because it goes so high it's really revealing. I may add a button or two around the top of the slit to keep the top in place. a windy breeze almost revealed my whole torso without it! 

Finally, the armholes are really tight. I'll adjust that if I take this on again. Which I will probably do because the bust fits really nicely and I am a glutton for punishment/complicated projects with low payoff. 

Tell me- did you fix these things already? Or could you tell before I could that this top was a no-go?

Xoxo r