Strange hobbies

I tend to go through phases - sometimes really long ones - where I just can't bring myself to buy clothes. I love clothes, I love looking at magazines and online and in catalogues and in second hand stores and on etsy and pinterest and - well you get the picture! I like looking in stores too, but even if I find something I like I usually end up thinking "meh, I'd rather sew a dress myself", at least right now.

It's not always less expensive to sew my own, but on the other hand I can be choosier about fabric. And I really do enjoy the process of sewing, choosing a pattern and fabric, cutting it out, fixing all the little details. I suppose I just like spending the time sewing, and have a few things slowly, rather than have lots of clothes quickly.

But time! Boy does it take time. Especially the last few weeks, my school schedule has been really demanding. I started a dress, the perfect fall dress, ages ago, by the time I finish it'll be winter! Today, for example, I sewed and hemmed the sleeves but now I think I have to cut out new ones and start over because I don't like how the plaid matches, or rather doesn't match.

Oh well, it'll be great when I finally finish!

Life could be a dream, sweetheart

Here is how I looked today when I stayed at home studying and trying to organize all the many things I need to do this month.

This blouse is made by me, from a vintage pattern from 1957.  The shorts are from H&M and the watch is my dad's. It's so sunny that I couldn't keep from squinting!

My favourite part of this blouse is the double-pocket.

itty-bitty

I'm sewing a baby-sized shirt today. I'm obsessed with how tiny the pocket is!

Photos of the finished product tomorrow!

Organized, me?

I needed a better way to organize all my sewing thread. All my many spools were neatly packed in a box but it was impossible to see what colours I had. I had to root around to find anything, and removing one spool from the box threw the rest of them into disarray. I was thinking of threading the spools onto wooden doweling and hanging them across a frame, when I opened an old Burda pattern magazine and saw this great idea:

The perfect solution! Of course I had to make one, and it was really easy. I found a piece of cedar in our basement and measured the placement of the holes, then drilled them.  My drilling arm got a bit tired after a while so my dad helped me out.

I used my carpenter's ruler (a very handy tool, by the way, it folds up to just 15 cm in length so you can carry it in your purse, for all your emergency measuring needs) to mark 7mm dowels into 2 1/2 inch lengths (I think the mix and match approach to measurement units must be a canadian thing)...

...and sawed them off using a regular square saw and a mitre box. 

After sanding down the dowel edges and the surface of the plank, it's just a matter of inserting the pegs into the holes in the board. I had planned to use glue, but if you have a good match between drill bit and dowel size, it's not necessary.

I made the mistake of buying the doweling before I knew the dimensions of the board I was going to get, so I ran out of pegs, but as luck would have it I had exactly enough space for all my thread spools, so I suppose I don't have to hurry to finish it.

I have a mild obsession with organizing everything by colour (case in point:I recently bought a red eraser to match the box of läkerol, the tiny notebooks and the box of pens on the red shelf above my desk...) and especially with arranging groups of colours by tone, so I love being able to arrange all these colours and have them hanging on my wall for all to see!

A thoroughly modern Thursday

My tennis practice was rained out for the second week in a row, so I did what any modern, 21st century girl would do. I sat down and hemmed some handkerchiefs instead. (and waited for a sunny day to photograph them, of course!)

I use cotton or linen, 1 foot square (30x30 cm). With cotton I usually machine-hem them, but with soft fabrics like linen it's almost as easy to hand-roll the edges, and it looks so elegant. I prefer white, because it's so easy to wash all your white things at once and stick them in the sun to dry. Otherwise I like to use fabric scraps from cottons I've sewn with, as in these green ones. Sometimes I initial or monogram them, but I don't always get around to it. The pattern for these initials comes from an old book of my grandmother's.

Handkerchiefs are one of those things I love because they are so perfectly practical, as well as being a little bit old-fashioned. Not to mention their versatility as an accessory. But I love things that are perfectly simple, designed to suit one purpose very well, and with no superfluous bits. Things like Converse sneakers, white t-shirts, and sturdy handkerchiefs.

It doesn't hurt that they are reusable, and it's so much nicer to pull one out of your purse or pocket than it is to use a kleenex!

Friday: The Week in Review

This has been a busy week!

I brought home a pile of fabric [my favourite sight: a bundle of new fabrics] and have been sewing a great deal. Shorts, dresses, blouses. I'll do a post soon.

My favourite sight: a bundle of new fabric

I finally got new tennis shoes. I love them! Super light, super comfortable, and they have tiny Michelin Men on the heels. ♥

My garden has been growing like crackerjacks and one morning for breakfast I had nothing but a big bowl of blueberries and strawberries, floating in milk. Heaven.

I work as a research assistant for a post-doc at York, and this week he gave me an interesting assignment. He's writing about an experimental film that remixes clips from old Andy Hardy movies, and he wanted me to find out the source of a particular scene in the film. I had heard of Andy Hardy, but had never seen any of the movies. It's a film series starring Mickey Rooney from the 30s and 40s, and is considered the first 'sit-com', though in the form of movies, since they predate television somewhat.

I've been trying to narrow down which of the movies this particular scene could be from (there are 16 of them) and have been downloading them. So far I've watched two. At first I thought I would just skip through the film on fast-forward, trying to spot the scene, but they are strangely compelling and once I start watching I can't seem to stop. It's like a mystery case, I've become completely wrapped up in trying to track down this little clip, and I have a feeling I'll have seen all 16 Andy Hardy movies before the week is out.

♥ Dawn

Gentleman

My cat, Gentleman, is sometimes very naughty, but today it looks like he is living up to his name.

Shorts: 1942 edition

  

Today I started sewing a pair of shorts for my boyfriend on his birthday.  The pattern is from 1942! It has the coolest buttoning-waistband detail.

This is the first time I've sewn with a non-printed pattern.  Instead of printing the markings on the tissue (such as where darts go, etc) they put small perforations in the paper and you copy these onto your fabric.  I think it's actually a bit easier than using printed patterns, as transferring the markings is just a matter of using a sewing pencil or tailor's chalk to draw them on, rather than having to use tracing paper, tailor's tacks, or any of the other ways to do it.

I'm planning to make a post in the future about sewing with vintage patterns! It's not very much different from modern patterns, but I do have a few tricks up my sleeve to share! Plus I just want an excuse to show off my old patterns and the things I've made with them!

Projects in Process

I almost always sew and bake more the more I have to do at school.  It's the best way to procrastinate.  This weekend I've been working on a paper about blogs, which makes it much more difficult to unselfconsciously make a blog post.  But anyway, here we go, let me show you what I've been working on:


I've sewn lots of things to take my boyfriend when we see each other next week!  I love sewing and I love sewing men's clothes, especially.  They have all the nice sharp edges and neat details that I love to make but don't usually wear myself.

First I made a light blue dress shirt, something everybody should have.  I hand-worked the buttonholes because my machine, reliable as it is in other ways, makes terrible buttonholes, and anyway, it's a skill I wanted to pick up. This is, I think, the first one I made.  They got better as I went along.

I also made a pile of monogrammed handkerchiefs.

It might seem silly, but I've always wanted to monogram something.  I love things that are just a little too unnecessary, too detailed, too old-fashioned.

I took quite a few in-progress shots so that I can make a how-to post later.

Finally, I've been making pyjamas.  My pyjamas are starting to get a bit fall-aparty, and this super cute kitten fabric is just the thing to make new ones out of.  

And, finally, I made some jams for my partner, too.  We need to be able to have pyjama parties, after all! All the fabric I used was already in my stash: striped seersucker, soft white cotton, and some lilac cotton for trimming.

  Phew! That's all for tonight!