Sewing With Purpose and Repurpose

Over the last year I have been experimenting with this Butterick B6101 Katherine Tilton pattern. I haven't posted the results of my experimentation because I needed a willing photographer to take a few shots.  After a relatively short canoe trip with my daughter Emma, I conned her into taking some photos. I assume she was just grateful I didn't torture her with an long and arduous paddle. This pattern is great because it hides any bulges and rolls that might have accumulated over the winter months and provides a cool outfit for the hot summer days. The first attempt was using a dense polyester fabric  trimmed with a 1950's retro pattern accent. Wasn't happy with the neck line, I changed it slightly on my next attempt. Attempt number 2 was a plum linen that was a big hit although I wasn't happy with the size of the arm holes, they were too big. Must be changed next time around. Attempt 3 I used a wool jersey and cut up a jacket I no longer wore for the ac...

I recently did a pattern swap with a friend of mine! She has been on a collared shirt making kick recently and it inspired me to get moving on one for myself. She is a big fan of the Archer shirt , so I bought the pull-over pack and we did a swapsies Behold! My Archer: Lookin' stunned, almost like I didn't set the self timer myself.  I found the fabric recently, and it was a bit of an inspired moment. I was at Affordable Textiles Ltd in Toronto looking for something completely unrelated and stumbled upon it. After being told by the guy at the front that he himself had a dress shirt out of the same stuff, I knew it was fate. What do I do with my hands???  I immediately thought of a 1/2 meter of quilting cotton I had in my stash that would look great as an accent. This took a bit of finicking with the placket but I made it work  If you saw an attempt at dynamic modelling in my last post, you will see some very un-dynamic modelling in this post. Lets count ho...

I'd always really liked the Alder shirt dress from Grainline Studios , the idea of having something loose fitting and comfortable but still having a defined waistline appealed to me. When I saw this version, posted by Jen on the Grainline blog , it gave me a kick it the butt to buy the pattern. Those are my colours! I knew immediately it would become a staple in my wardrobe. As much as I am drawn to the outrageous prints in the store (and buy them because I'm impulsive), I tend to only wear black and grey in real life. I was really busy and didn't get around to making the dress until fairly recently. Part of this is because of how HUGE the pdf was. I loovvee Grainline's patterns, but their pdfs are often colossal from containing all the views in one file. I used a black polyester "linen" from the sale rack at Fabricland (evidently my favourite place) It's really light to wear in the heat (tip for wearing all black in the summer). My big gripe with the...

Last week was the Met Gala! One of my favourite things is looking at all the dresses post gala/award show even though the actual event never interests me. One thing that jumped out at my this year, was all the silver sequins!! Met Gala AKA Silver Sequin Party Which reminded me of the skirt I made for new years! Which reminded me, I'm super duper behind on blogging my makes :/ I have me-mades dating from August that I need to blog, OOPS. Part of that is because I've been really busy with school, partly because I have tried to focus more on the purpose aspect of my sewing, and being more thoughtful about what I spend my sewing time on.  So I pulled out my best Kardashian pout and took some snaps of my new years outfit, in May. With a grey t-shirt.  Don't got those Kardashian hips though :) Can you imagine the fit alterations those ladies would need?! I used Lekala 5088, three seamed skirt, this time knowing the nuances of the pattern. Although you put your measur...

Sensible Sun-wear When my two daughters Alex and Emma were young we lived for a short while in Australia and spent countless hours on the beach, where most children are fully clad in front zip sun suits to protect them from the relentless sunshine. In contrast to Canada where, when the sun does shine, and the weather is warm enough to sport swimwear, we all stripe down and expose as much skin to the sun as possible, with the exception of those who do not possess tan worthy completions. Myself and my youngest daughter Emma were gifted with skin that goes from white to red within minutes of sun exposure, for that reason the Australian sun attire was not abandon when we came back to Canada. The economics of supply and demand in the Canadian swimwear market does not lend itself to full coverage sun attire. The availability of full sun protection beach wear, known on the market as rash-guards, is limited to items plastered with brand names and more appropriate for an 18 year old surfer ...

When I first saw the Turia Dungarees from Pauline Alice pop up on my blog feed, I thought they were kinda silly. Overalls?? For adults? I haven't worn overalls since I was 10 around the farmhouse. But as I saw more and more of them, something in me changed. I needed a pair. The ones that changed my mind were the f loral ones by Lady Sewalo t, these chic ones with the slim leg from fruits flowers &clouds , and the SEVEN pairs Yosami made for a charity auction .   I didn't actually expect I'd get a lot of wear out of them (I figured I just needed to get the overall craze out of my system) so I headed to the bargain rack and picked up some grey-scale leopard denim (3 dollas a meter y'all) except I actually wear these all the time. I get so many compliments on them! And they are so comfy. I slimmed down the legs a bit and that's the only thing I changed. Next time I will lengthen the straps a bit, I have a long torso. Chic overalls, who would have...