mom's bday cocktail dress

i made mom a superfly cocktail dress for her bday, to wear to my cousin's wedding. i used the butterick5353 pattern,

along with this pretty upholstery-weight fabric i snagged from gaffney's in philly, from back when i worked across the street!

the back of the fabric was pretty cool, and i really wanted to use it as contrasting fabric for the waistband and collar. however, the sticky coating on it, made this completely not an option.

therefore, i oriented the fabric so that the diamonds where vertical for the bodice and skirt and horizontal for the collar and waistband.

the contrast was subtle, yet classy. i love the bodice. it's very form-fitting.

here i am, trying on the dress. i made it for mom's build. it's a bit loose on me on top, and obviously way too long (although this was from before i hemmed up the bottom). hehehe.

stay tuned for a pic of mom in it at the wedding. jimmy was in charge of snapping one for me and he said they're on his camera. whoohoo!!

gingersnaps

heading home tonight to see the bunks and visit the momski. she loves gingersnaps. i made her some gingersnaps. i also ate some gingersnaps... oops.

next project on the docket: cocktail dress for mom for my cousin brenda's wedding. that's right... mom is gonna be wearing a cocktail dress. whee!!!

summery peach pie!

michelle hosted a dinner at her apartment this weekend. she made dinner, and i baked a peach pie! whee!!!! yay for summer!

july's summer dress

i'm alive! july's garment was a summer dress, using the Simplicity 2916 pattern. i realized i have very few cool summer dresses... the last 3 dresses that i made for myself are very fitted and thus are too hot. (really this should be my august garment because i was late by a couple days. settling in brooklyn took over my life, hehe.)for fabric, i used leftover dark grey linen from my october garment of 2011, the "take manhattan tunic," for the bust, and this cream, grey and coral striped shirting fabric for the bottom (this fabric is the same fabric i used to make dad's 4th shirt (still in progress... grrrrr)! when i finish his shirt, we can match, hehe. (isn't it every dad's dream to match their daughters? forget mother and daughter matching schemes. hahaha)
while this pattern was deemed "easy," of course i had to complicate things by sewing the top bar of the bust section on backwards. hahahahha! (i fixed it, of course. i'm too much of a perfectionist to leave such a mistake!)the skirt section was a pain to make. soo many pleats, each of which had to be hand-basted and pinned! however, the end result was fabulous! check out the neat and even pleats i made at the waistband!despite the heavy rains of sunday night, i met up with emma in west village for some $1 oysters, for the primary purpose of wearing my new dress. it was pouring. my hair is not usually this slicked down...check out the back. there was a cute tie for the back. see how wet the bottom is? oh the sacrifices i make for the garments i sew! i'm not really that fascinated with the posters. hehe

i've moved!!!

now a resident of brooklyn, ny!! whee!!! and, better yet, bunks arrives sunday! it's been a month without my bunny. i miss him. i've been tackling a 5000 piece puzzle since there's no bunny here to chew the pieces. once i finish, and here's hoping i finish before the munch-monster arrives, i've gotta get going on several sewing projects promised for friends and fam!

6 days until we're reunited!

my bday labelmaker!

i finalllllllly opened the labelmaker jimmy got for my bday last year.  it's pretty fancy!  fancier than the labelmaker that my colleague had!

check out my new "buttons" label on my shelf of sewing stuff.  the label-less tin to its right is the gift tags tin, which got a label shortly afterward.  i'd take a pic of it, but i already packed it in a box for my move next monday!  YIPPEE!

grad gifts

i got invited to a graduation party for these twin brothers one of whom i taught last year and the other i taught for 2 years.  for alex:  "alex, in case you ever need to know the 1st 100 digits of e in a jiffy... -helen"  ah, yes, admire my fine wrapping job!

e, euler's number, is quite useful in physics, math (obviously), and business (alex's intended major in college).  i had 2 pics of bunks leftover from christmas cards that i sent years ago.  i wrote out the 1st 100 digits of e around the border of the mat that i made.

 "jarred, should you ever wonder what the 1st 100 digits of pi are... -helen"

pi, a transcendental and irrational number, is also super useful...  jarred hasn't quite figured out what he wants to major in (he's changed his mind 3 times this year already)... but i'm sure he'll use pi at some point!  these are really the 1st 100 digits of pi:

congrats, class of 2012!

mille grazie!

some star jars for my 2 italian teachers, franca and chiara.  i'm going to miss them!

graduation dress

my june garment was one heck of a project.  right after i finished my may garment, i dove right in, hoping to complete a new dress for my students' graduation, friday june 8!  i used this fabric (that is stain resistant!), that i purchased from g street fabrics near dc years ago,

and vogue1174

this project was no small feat.  i had my serger and sewing machine on at the same time and my apartment looked like this:

 poor bunks was bored out of his wits:

the bodice required my usual adjustment:  skinnier up top, wider at the waist

putting the bodice together was a huge pain in the butt.  there were 7 pieces for just the front half and i wanted to make sure that the pattern continued smoothly.  also, each piece was split by piping.  ahhhhh!!

the pattern made the skirt super long.  we all know i'm not that modest... so off came 2.5 inches.

around back, i lined up the fabric so that the zipper split a reed right down the center!  suffice it to say, cutting fabric for this project probably took 5 hours...  sigh.  

the inside of the bodice had a foundation (as vogue calls it), otherwise known as a modern day corset.  sewing boning is WORSE than sewing in zippers.  too bad there were 6 pieces of boning to sew in.  ack. 

the final result was quite stunning, if i do say so myself.  the kids were thrilled that i finished (many heard about this project), as were the few teachers who i told.  here's a pic of em and i outside independence hall, after graduation.  i had cute gold wedges on, but got tired from walking in them, so here unfortunately this pic is of me in gold sandals.   

we finished, bunks!  we finished!

now off to finish dad's shirt that was for xmas, his birthday, chinese new year, and now father's day.  oops.  i'm a terrible daughter

tiered cake for sonija and b

sonija and bernardo came to visit for the holiday weekend!!  i made them a tiered devil's food cake with caramel frosting.

"make a tiered cake" was on my 30th bday bucket list.

not sure if this cake counts towards that, seeing as it's quite ugly...

 however, it was DELICIOUS!

o is for ostentatious

i kinda lost track of time and didn't realize that may was nearly over when i started this shirt.  oops.  anyway, i used the "dark secrets" blouse pattern from "twinkle sews."

  

the shirt was meant to loose and billowy, with poofy balloon sleeves.  however, the pattern didn't account for a shortie like me, and thus the sleeves were like bat-wings.  ie, when i raised my arm, the whole shirt lifted up.  also like a flying squirrel.  not ideal for a teacher like me.

thus, i took in the sides a bit, and actually cut out sleeves.  instead of black swiss dot silk chiffon, as recommended by the pattern, i opted for a black swiss dot cotton.  no thanks to sewing with silk.  the neckline had pretty latticework with gold studs at the intersections.

the balloon sleeves were borderline ridiculous, but i'm secretly a huge fan.  i wore the top today, on my last day of school, with april's chevron-striped skirt!

'round back, there's a keyhole at the neck, with a cute gold button. 

i only got 2 compliments from kids, hehe.  oh well.  i dig it.  i'll wear it out this weekend!

stay tuned for june's garment, which hopefully will be a new dress, in time for graduation...

happy mother's day!

dear gmommy,
i baked these for you.  hopefully helen doesn't eat them before you arrive. (oops, she got to 2 already!)

love,

(the new phone takes such awesome photos!)

muffins for the fam

i've recently been SWAMPED at work.  end of the year, finals impending, whew.  and then this week i was hit with a massive cold.  bleh.  but this weekend the fam got together in my wee apartment to celebrate mother's day early (we always beat the crowds with our holidays hehe).  dad, jimmy, and i went on a 50 mile bike ride... i almost didn't make it back.  apparently we forgot to bring snacks and i totally ran out of blood sugar at about 35 miles.

then saturday night, i baked squash muffins so that we'd have a nice breakfast the next morning.

dad loved them apparently, even asking for seconds.

next up on the sewing docket:  black swiss dot blouses for mom and i (soooo excited to start this!), and still working on dad's xmas/bday/(and now) father's day shirt.  oops.  i don't really enjoy repeat projects...  this will be shirt #4 for him  =)

3 years!

today marks the 3-year anniversary of this blog! may there be many more years of sewing, baking, crafting, and bunnying to come!

bunks, IN his hay bag. hehehe