lululemon's got nothin' on me!

lululemon sells yoga mat bags for $48-$58.  that's highway robbery.  sewaholic had a simple pattern for a yoga mat, so off i went to indulge my newest yogic tendencies.  i used a $4 couch cushion cover i snagged from the as-is section of ikea for the body fabric.  i wish my couch was made of this fabric.  there's a nice thick grey weave with black in the background so that it isn't too light.  (my couch is cream... i'm scared of how easy it is to get it dirty.)

i was surprised that this bag used most of the fabric (the back side isn't of the same fabric, but of something cheaper).  i made a little pocket for my keys and wallet using scraps of the couch cover and this little blue zipper from a sweater that i used to make a small grey throw pillow for my bed ages ago (not sure if you remember it from this blog).  yes, i saved this zipper.  i couldn't throw away such a cute combo of shiny silver metal teeth and baby blue.  

the drawstring was half of a drawstring from another sweater that i eventually tossed because it shrank so badly in the wash.  i had stripped it of all its buttons and drawstrings...  i'm thrifty, what can i say?  and also terrible at laundry, hehe.

i made a strong strap to sling over my shoulder from the body fabric.

here's minnie-me modeling the bag with my yoga mat in it.

i love it!  too bad my fav yoga teacher is on vacay for the next 2 weeks.  i'm scared to go to someone else's class because no one else has been as attentive to my pegleg as this teacher.  i'm stoked to go show off the bag though, hehe!

concealing the dirty laundry

you know the expression "to air dirty laundry in public?"  yeah, i'd rather hide my dirty laundry.  i mean who wants to see your filth?  it's embarrassing.  so, i made myself a little cover for my laundry basket, something i've been intending to make for the past 2 years, hehe.  better late than never!

nothing too complicated.  double layered natural cotton canvas with 2 flaps which tuck into the handles of the basket.  i put velcros on the flaps 

so they can stick up to the body part of the lid

to keep the cover on top of the basket and not drooping in.

i topstitched around the top to tie it into the shower curtain, next to which the laundry basket sits in my wee bathroom.

puppy #6

last puppy, hopefully for a longggg time.  my fingers hurt.  whew.  i saved the best for last.  this puppy is for stef's high school friend's baby's 1st bday.  max.  he's a cutie.  here's the puppy as i'm sewing on the ears.  peekaboo!

shirley dug the color combo.  i agree.  i did a terrible job on the nose.  not gonna lie.  not gonna zoom in for you.  nope.  secret.

main body color on the tail!  hehe so cute.

the contrast fabric is hilarious.  it's leftover from the bballin' bugs bunny flannel of the pj shorts i gave jimmy years ago.  stef's got a great sense of humor.  i picked this just for her, hehe.

happy bday, max!  i guess i'll forgive you for stealing my thunder on my bday  =)

fabric shopping

for someone else... is... such... a... tease!  it's no secret that i could run my own fabric store, so when emma and i went to the garment district to choose 2 jersey knits for me to remake one of her melted dresses, she was on strict orders to prevent me from buying ANYTHING.  dude, even though i've been sewing seriously for 5ish years, i still have never really been to the garment district.  (i have enough fabric, remember?  so well-behaved, hehehehe)  at the top of the subway is a giant sewing needle and button,

along with a statue of a dude on a classic sewing machine!  i was a tourist in my own city!

we hit up paron fabrics and fabrics for less, 2 stores that the sewing bloggers i follow frequent.  (ok, secret is out, i read a lot of sewing blogs hehe.)  emma, who is between 5'10 and 5'11, and i had very different views in the store apparently.  she'd pick out some fabric and ask me my opinion, but i could never see to which one she was referring.  she thought i was nuts, so i took an eye-level pic to demonstrate:

yeah, fabric stores are not intended for shorties.  but, imagine my bliss at being surrounded by so much fabric!!!!  none of which i could buy, of course.  it was fun though.  emma is prewashing her fabric for me (she has a washer and dryer in her new apartment!  lucky girl!) and then i will start her dresses after mom's bday present.  omg, time is ticking.

another pic of the bday boy.  love you, bday boy!

montanny and the birth of the bunny

i'm back from an epic hiking trip in montanny with shirley!  goodness, it was stunning.  i flew into southern oregon so we could start the road trip together.  we went through portland, past mount hood (see below, the tiny white mound next to the white sign in the center of the pic, destination of my next hikey trip!!!)...

through coeur d'alene, a sleepy little lakeside town in the skinny part of idaho (goodness, the lake was huge and so pretty!  i picked up some killer buffalo jerky here for the road trip.  gonna have to order more online!)...

then up to glacier national park in northern montana (i hiked 17 miles on the first day, shirley did 20, i thought i'd lose my right knee, the good one!  we stayed in a modern log cabin here!!!)...

then we stayed in bozeman and took a road trip down to the grand tetons (below is a pic of a hike i did around half of jenny lake)...

and the western half of yellowstone park (geyser country... actually my least fav part of the trip)...

back through missoula, mt (a pic of folks rafting down the clark fork river- looks fun doesn't it???)...

back through spokane, washington (we dined at the davenport hotel, so posh!)...

and finally i flew home on a red-eye from portland.  most importantly, i arrived back in nyc and ct on aug 10, the 7th bday of the bunks!!!!  reunited!  here he is in his bunny bag enroute to nyc.  so cute isn't he???

and final note:  i also did not buy any new fabric while in montana!  #stillwinning!!

my turn at cold weather clothes

after making dad a million pairs of fleece pants, it was time for me to make myself a pair, seeing as the green monkey flannel pj pants i made myself a couple years ago is wearing very thin in the knees.  as a pattern, i used the same old pair of pj pants that i used to make the 3 pairs of kenya gauze cotton pants.  why mess with something that works, right?

i scored this flannel a couple years ago at joann fabric's black friday sale for something like $1.25 a yard.  for you non-sewists (ok that's like all of you except shirley, hehe), this is ridiculously cheap.  i bought 1.5 yards, so this pair of pants cost me $1.88!!!  i made a faux drawstring for the front:

i tried my best to line up the stripes on the sides... until the hips and booty part, at least.  not bad, right?

and the back.  nice lined-up v's!  (i need to learn some photography, yo.  these pics are so blurry.)

i serged the insides and topstitched each seam for extra stability (i've been known to split the booty of my pants).  quite proud of the quality of these pjs.  the fabric for this project was also cut this spring.  ashamed!!  making good progress on my stack of old projects!  last up is the last puppy, for my friend's friend's baby.  his bday party is on my bday.  little guy is #stealingmythunder

round 2 of dad's super thick fleece pants

remember when i made dad thick fleece pants exactly like this several christmases ago?  well, he didn't like them.  didn't like that there was no cinching in the legs.  (REALLY, dad????)  mom usurped that pair and made me take in the pant leg width a ton (they were super wide because i used size medium of a standard sewing pattern).  ain't nobody in my family that wears mediums.  we're small folks, hehe.  in fact, those were the fleece pants i sported for the month i was at home post acl-reconstruction surgery.  they were amazing, although huge.  my full leg brace could fit in the pant leg!

i still had a ton of that super thick fleece and since the rents like to keep the house at frigid temps, i decided to use the rest of the fleece to make dad another pair of sweats, in the style of the other 2 pairs that i already made for him.  with cinched legs...

for some reason, whenever i hang pants on my front door, they look so short!  hehe.  this fleece is super thick.  stitching the waistband was a nightmare.  i broke a pair of my twin needles =(

here's one of the cinched legs.  i sew pretty straight, don't i?  i'll take cinched legs over cinched sleeves any day!  so much easier!

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!