From Oregon...

We had a fun trip to Oregon to visit my parents and my brother, who came back from South Korea. We did lots of fun things like hiking at Opal Creek, feeding the beagles, going to garage sales and a winery and other fun. We even went crabbing for the first time at the coast! It was not really crab season yet, so we only caught four or five and they were either female or too small to keep. 

 It was fun to see my whole family together with Andrew there too. I got to see my friends from home as well and it was a wonderful break from work!

Look, my mom made me a purse! Isn't it cute? The best part is that it matches my awesome Minoru jacket perfectly. It is pretty big and if I put it flat on a table, I can easily find all of my things inside. 

I have great pictures from the road trip from Oregon to Chicago that show off my last dress that I made. Maybe tomorrow?

Why have you not been sewing, Molly?

Most importantly, my bff Stephanie and her bf came to visit us in Chicago! Yay! They drove (15 hours) to see us and we had a week of fun. So much fun, perhaps too much. Hilariously, Stephanie turned up with the exact same Forever 21 dress so we dressed as twinsies to go to the Reddit meetup. Meeting a bunch of strangers from the internet was surprisingly fun. Ladies, it was like 15 guys to each girl, so you should consider attending the next one... hahaha. 

 We also wore our matching children of the world skirts to the pride parade, which was fun.

 We ate out a ton, played Cards against Humanity of course, did all kinds of touristy activities and even drove up to Milwaukee to do the Miller tour. That was both cheesy and fun. I wish I had worn my High Life girl costume, but I didn't even think of it until we got there. Oops.

Point being, I obviously did no sewing that week. Then, the next week it was sooooo HOT. So hot. Like 100 degrees for days on end, and we have no A/C. It was terribly hot in the house, so I was relieved when it was time to go to work, if only to be cool. 

Now, today I am going to Oregon to visit the rents and then my babby brother is going to move to Chicago, so we are driving back in his car. This will be a fun trip!

Also, I spent the last month or two obsessing over the Game of Thrones books. A friend from work recommended them, and Andrew got them for me on the Kindle app, so I simultaneously became obsessed with A Song of Ice and Fire and reading on the ipad. So my sewing seriously got neglected as I blasted through the five 800+ page books. They deserve a separate post at some point.  

I will be gone for the next week and a bit, so have a great mid-July and tell me your vacation plans for the summer!

Pattern gift!

A few women I work with at the restaurant sew, so that's fun! I so rarely meet people in real life that like to sew. Diana gave me these patterns, which were her mother's. She only has sons and didn't plan on using them so I got them. Yay! I especially like the scalloped dress with the wrap skirt.

Which one is your favorite?

Thurlow shorts: the new Sewaholic pattern

Tasia released her newest pattern yesterday, the Thurlow. It is a pair of slightly flared pants or two versions of shorts, with or without cuffs. I was a pattern tester again, so now I finally get to show you my shorts!

While I know the brown with small white bubble fabric won my poll a few weeks ago, I went with the crazy brown and orange and white print instead. My mom was shocked that I didn't use the "winner," but I never said I would. Ha ha!

These are actually the second pair I made, so they are quite nice! I really really like them and  they are great! They have a little bit of flare to the legs, nice pockets in the front and welt pockets in the back and a curved waistband (which so many shorts patterns don't)

 I made a two and they fit nicely. My 60s polyester has a little bit of stretch, but it is a very stable fabric. The back is nice too and they are really comfortable. So far they have gotten nothing but compliments!

One key to the pattern is that the pockets sit out slightly from the shorts. I did not get this on my first pair and  the pockets are impossible to jam my hands into. On this pair, the pockets are comfortable and I can fit my hands in. They close with two pants hooks and a button, plus the zipper. On this pair I didn't make the cuffs. 

 See they are super nice from the side!

 Most of my thoughts on the pattern have to do with the back. These were the easiest and nicest-looking welt pockets I have ever made, EVER! Tasia has invented an easy way where they look so nice. After making Vogue pants with welt pockets that has about 55 billions steps and still came out all crooked and wonky, these were so satisfying to make! The look professional.

The other things I really like is that they are designed to be easily fitted to your body, so no more making pants and then having them not fit at the end. You sew up the center back seam last, so you can baste it and fit it to you perfectly. That was great!

You can go check out the line drawings and Tasia's pants and shorts here.

I have one other pair that I will post later! Happy Saturday!

Next up: Summery Sundress

I went to a Birchbox event last week on braiding hair.. Basically you got your hair braided, some champagne and cupcakes and a birchbox of hair products to try out. It was fun and I chose the braid that wrapped around my head like a crown. I cna braid and french braid my own hair, but something this complicated is beyond my abilities. 

 I bought this printed linen to make this sundress, a See & Sew pattern. It's a medium, but I can shrink it down a bit. If you look at the line drawing, it is backless and wraps and ties in the front. That seems simple and delightful for the hot weather. Plus it's a halter top, so that is adjustable too.

 It looks cute in white, but I think that would be too see-through for my liking.

Off to work!

A dress for a spring evening wedding

Perhaps you thought I didn't finish my dress in time for the wedding? Well, you would be nearly correct! I decided the night before we left that I had put it off for too long, but I gave it a shot anyways and I made it pretty quickly.

I wanted to have a very simple style because the fabric is so intense alone. It is a pale pink-grey poly tulle with tulle rosettes sewn all over it. I bought it at Jo-Ann when it was half off. I went up to Vogue fabrics in Evanston to find the right shade of Bemberg lining. One of the saleswomen was really helpful; we determined that none of the shades really matched, but she suggested going with the closest to my skin tone after I told her the style dress I was going to make. She was definitely right and it is a good match.

At the wedding

For the actual sewing, I made a strapless bodice from the lining using the front bodice of my Cambie pattern and the back bodice of my Lonsdale pattern, so that was easy. Then for the overlay, I used the back bodice from the Cambie pattern and just trimmed off the cap sleeves. I sewed the shoulder seams and then shaped the sides to fit without darts, since they would show through the sheer fabric. This only worked because I am so flat chested now. 

I am standing oddly, it doesn't have a big fold down the middle.

The skirt and the lining are just one piece cut lengthwise from the fabric to avoid seams. I sewed the lining and tulle together in the side seams and attaching the skirt so it wouldn't show through. I put in a side zipper by hand on the left side and whip stitched the neckline and armholes by hand. I hemmed it on the machine and it's really not noticeable. 

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So even with the crazy fabric, overall it is fairly neutral and subdued. I wore these skin colored shoes. The wedding was in Manhattan at a Greek Orthodox church and the reception was there too. It was fun and we got to see two friends from college get married; actually they started dating just a few months before we did when we were all studying abroad in Paris! At this wedding at least we could say we're engaged finally. At the last few weddings so many people were asking and it was awkward. I mean we have been dating for seven years, but what's the rush?

Here is a close-up of the fabric and you can just see the lining underneath. 

Anyways, it was a fun wedding and I am happy with the dress, though I don't know when I would wear it again!

Which fabric for shorts?

I want to make a pair of shorts and any of these fabrics would work nicely. I picked all of them up at different estate sales and they are all a slightly scratchy polyester. I think they are all pretty 60s, or maybe 70s? What decade do you think is right?

I put a quarter on there to give you an idea of the scale; they are all pretty bold prints. I think a dress or even a skirt would be a mistake because it would look too costumey. Like this dress I made from a similar fabric. Plus, it's a little too scratchy for a shirt.

Shorts would be perfect and I could tone the print down with a solid colored shirt. So we have at the top chocolate brown with white bubbles; bottom left is orange and brown and white geometric shapes and the bottom right is orange and light and dark brown and white (it looks like toobs with a b) I don't know if you use google analytics for your blogs, but you can see what keywords people use to end up on your page and just the casual mention of things like bra straps brings up some weird searches, so lets not even go there with goobs.

Anyways, a poll for you!

Which fabric would make cute shorts?
Brown bubbles Orange geometry Orange and brown toobs None, they stink Alll
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