patagonia got jealous

when i made dad his navy fleece jacket this winter, he loved it so much that he asked me for another.  this time he wanted the pockets to have a zipper so that he could store his keys and/or wallet in there for when he went for a run or a bike ride.  with another $4.99 fleece blanket, i fulfilled his request.  it's pretty badass, if you ask me:

those zippers, sheesh.  not easy to put in.  i'm also such a clever girl that i inserted the main body zipper below the collar initially... oops.  i have some serious visual/spatial awareness issues. 

here's the back.  nothing special.  the hems were finished with a twin needle.  the cuffs have elastic closures, also done with a twin needle.  omg, sewing such tiny cinched closures with a twin needle (not the sturdiest of needles because i also have 2 with which to contend) was a total nightmare.  easily took an hour per cuff!

i even had extra fleece leftover to make dad some cinched sweatpants.  they're not really that short... i dunno why they look so tiny.  the scraps were used for the puppies i made this spring.  yes, this fleece has been cut for the jacket and pants since spring.  #slackerdaughter

last week, when the rents were in town, i also made some homemade hummus (this time with tahini and no avocado...  real hummus, folks!).  i cut some of the salt that the recipe suggested.  i can't stand how salty store-bought food is!  why not let the consumer salt to their own preference?  amirite?

mom got in on the crafty extravaganza.  she cut out a pants pattern and was tracing it on the wool of a pair of pants she had from years ago that she never wore because they were too big.  clever, isn't she? 

(omg i'm in awe that she's endeavored to sew pants as her first self-made garment!  from whom do you think i get my gutsiness???)

the bunks was super cute throughout all this crafting.  look how poised the lazy boy is!

croatia and new top for the nyc philharmonic concert

my friend emma and i took a 2 week vacay to bari, italy and croatia right after school ended.  bari wasn't anything special, but then we took an overnight ferry (i swear we were gonna sink!) from bari to dubrovnik, croatia.  people looked at me funny all trip...  i was sporting a big hiking backpack and a serious-looking knee brace:

 

this was my first time in croatia, and holy moly was it beautiful.  mountains led right to the shore.  we had to drive for 3 hrs through bosnia to get to the croatian town of makarska, the prettiest of the places we went:  

the mountain range in the back had the 2nd highest peak in all of croatia, sveti jure.  hell yeah, we hiked it!  the sign at the beginning of the path said it would take 2 hrs 30 mins.  lonely planet claimed 4 hours.  we took 5.5 hrs.  often we hiked at the very edge of cliffs.  so thrilling.  slow and steady wins the race, right?

views at the top were STUNNING.  you apparently can see italy in the far far distance, but i'm not sure which little lump of land it was.

we drove on to an island called hvar and then ended our trip in split.  the drive was beautiful.  a typical view:

i'm proud to admit that i returned home with no new fabric whatsoever.  #winning!!  

yesterday the nyc philharmonic put on a free concert in prospect park.  they set off the most beautiful fireworks afterwards (better than the 4th of july ones!!).  coworkers and i picnicked.  i contributed 2 batches of homemade avocado hummus (aka bean guac, according to shirley).  deliciousness, i tell you!

bunks was bored out of his mind.  avocado and chickpeas do not interest him, apparently.  he napped at my feet:

and of course, i had to wear a me-made top.  my first of the summer!  i used butterick 5637, the tunic length on the right,

and this salmon pink cotton-lycra blend that shirley gave me.  so soft, yo!!  

the back had gathering in the center of the peplum layer.

and here's the front.  thanks to dearest madeline for taking this pic of my coworker brian and me enroute to the concert.  

happy summer!!!  on to my next project: mom's bday present!  (it's at the end of august... i need a serious head-start hehe)

why did waldo wear stripes?

...because he didn't want to be spotted!  hehehehe

for mom's mother's day present, i used butterick 5610 view c, a kimono-sleeved and pleated loose top with the stripe monster fabric (omg i still have TONS).

man, i still hate this fabric.  it puckers like whoa.  this top was also huge on me.  like a muumuu.  except i'm not currently in hawaii, so this muumuu was poopoo on me.  (i just spent all yesterday writing a witty and ridiculous school-wide email... please excuse me..)  the front was pretty cool.  there are 4 pleats down the front.  because the fabric is so striped, it looks like the middle is a stripey waterfall.

the back was nothing special.  thankfully mom is much taller and broader shouldered than me, so it looked much cuter on her.  Still not sure whether or not i want to bother tweaking the pattern to fit me.  the neck hole was so wide it sat at the very ends of my shoulders.  woe is me.

happy mother's day, mom!

last baby shower gift set... FOR NOW

dearest grace, an old friend from my childhood, is pregnant with a boy!  she had a baby shower this weekend.  a puppy, bib, and bootie set for her!

not gonna lie, i hate making the booties.  more than anything.  i finished the puppy and bib 2 weeks ago.  the booties took an all-nighter saturday night.  MISERABLE!  i hand-sewed this one because the booties i made for jenny's baby (born last thurs, congrats jenny!!!) were machine-sewn and looked awful.  to be honest, these hand-sewn booties were not much better.  ugh.  never again.  i wasn't willing to scrap the nice fabric i had already cut out, so i made myself finish the job.

i found the cutie pie napping in the sun this weekend.  hehehhe.  such a goof!

and puppy #4 has been born

but this time i was clever!  i armed myself with doll needles so that i could stitch the eyes in easier!  whoo!

best invention ever!  no more stabbing myself accidentally in an attempt to reach from one eye to the other!  whoo!!

i ran out of the pink flannel, so this puppy has a burgundy fleece tail.  i actually prefer the body fabric for the tail... don't know why i was using contrast fabric on all the other pups!

i cut out a "sweet pea" and peapod to rubber cement on cardstock to make a simple greeting card:

bunks got many treats this weekend while the rents were here for mother's day.  he got all tuckered out from all the sweets!  spot the bunny:

puppy #3

a friend on my (former) football team helped drive me and bunks to the animal hospital that night he ripped off his toenail.  at midnight.  clearly i owed him a puppy for his newborn nephew...

now that i am the master of puppy-making and pay people in puppies, i've perfected how to make one in 4-5 hours.  even though the time required to complete one has decreased, my fingers still get sore from having to stitch eyes and noses.  (i have to use thicker thread- embroidery thread- which is tougher for me to pull through fabric.)  =(

oh, and half way through my bag of fiberfill, i discovered the free gift that came with the bag... a stuffing tool...  see the funny thing is, as someone of chinese descent, i happen to own millions of these "chopstick-shaped implements" known as CHOPSTICKS, and i've already been using chopsticks to stuff fiberfill for years.  the fiberfill company is so innovative, OR #iamsoclever

cutie pie was watching me brush my teeth last night.  boring sight isn't it, bunks?

RIP toenail

the little guy had to go to the animal e.r. sunday night.  the bugger was so excited about the fresh hay i was laying out for him that he jumped on top of his cage, fell off, and ripped his nail down to the base.  there was blood everywhere and i couldn't get it to stop.  the vet clipped off the hair by the nail and put in something to make sure it wouldn't start up again.  yesterday i took him to the vet a couple doors down from my apt and he got a clean bill of health.  attaboy!  he's off to his bunny adventures again, making a mess in the apt while i'm at school...

babies r us called

they want to hire me.  just kidding, although they should at this rate.  puppy # 2!  he was pretty plump before the eyes were sewn in...  

since this puppy was meant for a baby shower, i figured i'd make an entire gift set to match the puppy.  so, the baby also got booties and a bib.  the booties were a huge nuisance.  i had to bind each piece with bias binding, of which i had none, so i used seam binding instead.  it was so annoying to sew with something that was so fragile and frayed constantly.

not gonna lie, the end result was pretty darn cute.

i need to make the elastic around the back a little tighter...

isn't the set cute????

i cut out a little fuzzy flannel turtle and rubber cemented it on cardstock to make a little card.

the flannel is leftover from pj pants i made mom a couple christmases ago.  the green fleece is from a fleece suit that i'm in the process of making for dad.

congrats, jenny!  can't wait to meet the little guy.

a puppy for penny!

suddenly i have 5 baby gifts to make.  yeesh.  i figured i'd start off with one for little penny, since her mom alex is hosting the baby shower for my friend jenny this saturday.  alex and i taught a class on the history, sociology, demographics, architecture, and politics of nyc by using  broadway as the main thread.  we walked the whole length, all 13.6 miles, with the kids.  i did it despite my slow pace and slight limp!

the puppy tail:

sewing stuffed animals is quite fun.  you're essentially building it and the stuffing step is like breathing life into it.  here is the bare pup before the details have been added.  the little yellow threads mark where to line things up, the ears, and the eyes.

you probably recognize the burgundy fleece: it's leftover from mom's fleece suit.  the pink flannel is from a pair of pj pants i once made my friend lan years ago.  they didn't fit her, hence why they never made it to this blog.  i had only a scrap of the flannel left!  bunks is quite uncertain on what to make of this new friend... 

or foe?  he was only mildly curious, giving him a sniff 

and then hopping away.

hope penny likes the pup!  1 down, 4 more to go!

crisscross dress debut

wore my oregon crisscross dress yesterday.  got a surprising number of compliments- surprising because I was so uncertain that i would even like it on.  i do love the pockets though, and the ease while wearing it.  no exposed bra straps!  i've been swayed: i'm a fan!

the stripe monster debut

ok, i look like a derp.  and the dress is a little hiked up so it's real baggy up top.  i was eating an orange.  after school is snack time for me, hehe.

kris kross will make you wanna jump, jump

i used to be obsessed with this song in middle school.  ha!  

while visiting shirley, i decided to tackle the complex pattern on the left (below, simplicity 2250), figuring it'd last me for a while, seeing as this time i was out in oregon for 10 days.  what i didn't factor into the equation (haha factor, equation, math!) was the fact that i had to do exercises and stretches for my leg every day too.  that cut so much out of my sewing time =(

the model has on a dress with horizontally striped black and white fabric.  i've never made anything with horizontal stripes, and i had this chambray and white striped fabric that has little red dashes through the center of each white stripe.  i had used some to make michelle pj pants a while back and had tons left.  i was planning on making dad a dress shirt with it, but something told me that he wouldn't like the slight sheen on each of the chambray stripes, hehe.  below is a zoomed in pic of the bust.  THIS is why the dress was tedious.  there were so many tucks, pleats, and darts.  and then, because i am so busty (or not), i had to add extra darts to take in the material so that the bust wasn't baggy.  took forever for me to figure out where to place them so that it would take out the extra fabric in all the right places.

the back is adorable.  the top part of the back has elastic, though for absolutely no reason because it's attached in a way that doesn't stretch.  the huge tie is pretty cute.  i made thicker straps (not spaghetti straps) to cover up my bra straps.  i hate when bra straps show.

i hand-picked my second zipper ever.  look how teeny the stitches are (or perhaps you can't even see them)!  i should have paid better attention to matching the stripes when i sewed the zipper.  oops.

for the lining of the bust (i didn't bother lining the bottom because the fabric isn't see-through or thin), i used this cream floral fabric that i once prewashed with navy fabric.  the navy bled on everything (including that red and white ikat print sleeveless top i made while i was in philly, and thus it is no longer as crisply red and white as it used to be!  yeah, i'll admit, i cried.  now it looks like a hippie top.).  thus this is really an ugly bluish cream floral fabric.  it had a bit of stretch to it so it perfectly matched the stretch in the stripey outer fabric.

here's the front.  the skirt was a pain to make too.  so many pleats and gathers.  I HATE MAKING PLEATS AND GATHERS.  i'm afraid the dress is rather busy, so i question if it'll look ok on.  i'll probably wear it with a white cardigan next week to school, so you don't see the straps. 

tomorrow i'm going to wear the stripe monster to work!  stay tuned for a pic!