self-stitched-september update

So, hi. I am a week into this Self-Stitched-September thing, and also a week into school and fall hockey and having a hundred things to do. So far, everything (all at once!) is going great. Well, SSS is a bit weird. I thought wearing 2 self-stitched or thrifted items would be a manageable challenge; turns out it's way more than manageable. I have no photos to share (I'll get to that in a second), but I have quite easily managed to wear mostly non-new clothes. Yesterday, I went almost entirely non-new (black self-made skirt, awesome striped polo that I got a few weeks ago at Goodwill, awesome striped cardigan from a summer Goodwill trip). So this challenge has not actually been especially challenging, which shouldn't surprise me as I haven't bought new clothes (except for basic & on-sale items at Target) in probably 2 years. However! It has been making me think a lot more about what I wear, so that's good, I guess. It has definitely made me realize that I would really like to make some more clothing and finish refashioning some of the thrift store clothes I've bought recently. (I've found two different vintage wool skirts in the past few weeks!)

It has also made me realize I am not nearly as okay with my body as I thought I was. That sounds dramatic, I think, but what I mean is that taking photos (or, trying to take photos, really) of my SSS outfits was... calling it traumatic would be an insult to actual traumatic situations, right? I hate feeling superficial like this, but between the normal 10 pounds and the other pounds which are coming off SO SLOWLY, me on camera is not a version of me that I like. Soo yeah, I don't know. Probably there will not be many outfit photos this month, which makes me feel like a jerk. But there will be some, eventually? Maybe that will be the actual challenge for the month--wear at least one entirely self-stitched outfit that I actually like, in person and on [digital] film.

Yikes. I don't know. For someone with a blog, I really do not like talking about myself. Feelings, gross. The photo above is the cowl I just finished. Yellow wool/acrylic yarn, boring stuff but cheap. I entirely fucked up the cast-off the first time around, so I had to improvise. Totally messy, but it is technically a finished thing that won't unravel, so whatever. I will definitely do better next time. I've been a knitting fiend lately; in addition to this I finished my first Christmas present scarf, with five or six to follow. I'm determined to be prepared for Christmas this year; everyone is getting handmade presents this year! I'm making socks for a few people, so I'll need to learn how to make socks. I will totally have time to do that and the eight hundred other things I have on my plate, right? Right. This did not finish where I thought it would when I started, but whatever. Tons of things going on, but I'm keeping up with all of them. Self-stitched-September is a pretty cool thing, and with any luck, I'll have a few more self-sewn items to wear by the end of the month.

suddenly i am very busy and productive

I would like to talk about how productive I've been the past week or so, but I've learned that is a very good way to completely jinx myself and get nothing done for a week, so instead, here is a photo of something I made.



It has a polka-dot lining, which is pretty much my favorite kind of lining.



It is also one of a few zip pouches I made using a new construction method. I have been trying to figure out the perfect zip pouch for ages, and after going through at least four different methods, I think this is it. It's lined with twill, which is both sturdy and non-bulky and allows me to use lightweight and quilting fabric that would otherwise be unsuitable. Awesome! Now I just need to make 30 or 40 more for Craftacular next month.

stripes

Nathan gets back from a week-long tour today! Exciting. Aside from the first day or so, when I was feeling a bit lonely, this week has been ridiculously productive, both with sewing and with school stuff. This is one of the things I made; it might be the best bag I've ever made. I love it so much, SO MUCH. The exterior was originally two pairs of overalls (there's still a bit of denim left, enough for some zip pouches or maybe striped accents on other bags), and the interior is a white-on-yellow polka dot that used to be a sheet. I attempted top-stitching on the outside of the bag at least four times with two different machines; apparently top-stitching through four layers of denim is not actually a thing that can happen, at least not with my current machines & needles. (Maybe if I had a denim needle? I could swear I bought some the last time notions were on sale at Hancock. I should really organize my sewing room.) I eventually gave up on top-stitching, but I think it looks okay without it. I will likely list it on Etsy on Monday, though I am sort of hoping no one buys it so I can keep it.

Oh, and this is one of the machines I used during my top-stitching attempts.



It's a Singer 239. I bought it last summer for $25 at a thrift store up north, but this was the first time I actually used it. Winding the bobbin was ridiculous--I ended up winding it on my Janome. Threading took forever, but once I figured that out, the machine ran fairly well, though it smelled a little funny. I can't tell if there's something wrong with the engine or if the smell is just from using the machine for the first time in probably twenty or thirty years. I'll probably take it in to be serviced whenever I can afford it. I think it might be good to use for quilting, if I can find a vintage walking foot that isn't too expensive.

purple + blue

I'm working on a new quilt! Exciting stuff. It's made entirely from thrifted fabrics so far, though I'm still not sure what I'm going to use for the backing + binding. Planning ahead is for suckers.

Seriously, I haven't even figured out what the layout of this soon-to-be quilt will be. I'm pretty sure I want to do half-triangles, though I have no idea which design I'll use. Two options are pictured, and I also have been wanting to do a pinwheel quilt for awhile now, though I may give up on the triangles entirely and just stick with squares. (But that's boring, right?) The blue flower fabric is vintage quilting fabric, I think, and the purple fabric is probably garment fabric. I only have two rather oddly-shaped remnants of the purple, so in order to get the most use out of it, I'm cutting mostly 6" squares, but also some 4" squares. Originally I intended to just cut everything out, make a bunch of half-triangle squares (there has to be a better name for that), put it all together, and hope it was at least baby-quilt sized. However, after seeing this post on 36 Shea, I'm thinking maybe I should add some white? I have a few different pieces of white fabric that I could recycle--backing for a set of drapes and fabric from a bedskirt--and it would be nice if I had the option of making this lap-quilt sized. I obviously won't be copying the design in the post exactly, as that would be so disrespectful to the anonymous woman who made it, but I'm glad I saw that post this week. When I'm designing quilts, I tend to forget that adding solid color blocks or sashing is an option. We'll see; probably I'll finish cutting out the purple + blue flower fabrics and then see how I feel.

Of course, just like I do every time I make a quilt (because I have thus far been unable to ever plan ahead, ever), I am second-guessing every decision and permanently convinced I'm going to waste all this fabric and end up with something awful. Because I'm a crazy person! Actually, no, that's not fair, I am doing far less worrying on this project, mostly because I know what to expect by now. I have pretty much decided that I really need to start choosing a design first and then choosing fabric, but I am also okay with the fact that when you're recycling thrifted fabric rather than buying it new, you have to be flexible and figure out what's possible with what you have.

what did i get myself into

So! Things are happening. I did some sewing this week, though I have very few photos to share as I stupidly forgot my camera at my parents' house. But still, sewing happened! Awesome.

I went to an amazing show last night. I missed the first band (Stacian) but Manic Zamboni and Bzybodies get better every time I see them (NB: both started out awesome) and Possible Fathers was pretty great. Bzybodies is one of Nathan's bands, and I don't want to get all cheesy or whatever, but every time I see him play, I'm kind of blown away by how great he is.

Today has been less awesome! It is getting super hot again (kill me now), and I finally had some time to sit down and work on my thesis proposal, which reminded me how much work I still have left before it'll be ready to submit. And then I'll still have to write the thesis itself! (Kill me now again.) But at least I'm actually getting some of that huge mountain of work done, I guess? I stopped by the studio arts & craft center on campus, and apparently I can stop in whenever I want to work on sewing, so that's kind of amazing. They have AC and large tables, both of which my sad little sewing room lacks. The Madison Craftacular is now less than a month away (which I just now realized and okay I'm sort of freaking out), so it'll be nice to have somewhere to work on super-hot days.

Alright! I have so much to do, so maybe I should go work on things? Yes, definitely. Oh, and the photo is of the two ducks that live at my sister's house. They also have five chickens! Moving to Milwaukee next month will be a bit of a change for her and her boyfriend.

back in mke and it is not quite so hot

I went up north last weekend for rather unfortunate reasons. We had to go to a memorial service for someone in Nathan's family, and my mom had knee surgery. However! The memorial service was super beautiful and I think brought some closure to his family, and my mom is doing awesome. So! Yeah. We are back in Milwaukee now, and it is now just normal hot, not brain-meltingly hot. (Meltingly isn't a word? LAME.) I was actually able to do a bit of sewing yesterday, which was super amazing and also kind of messy, obviously. I'm hoping to have 100 cat toys to sell at the Craftacular next month, and after working on them yesterday, I have decided that I need to work a lot faster. Also, I learned that cats can smell catnip stored in a metal filing cabinet, but they can't smell catnip stored in my sewing table's cabinet. Possibly because that cabinet smells really weird? Like new-car smell, except new-cabinet smell? I don't know, that's what happens when you buy discount cabinets, I guess. Anyway, my new favorite game is to shake the bag of catnip, watch the cats freak out and try to jump up in a vain attempt to claw it open, and then sprinkle a bunch of catnip around them and and watch them roll around in it, hissing at any person (or cat) who gets too close. Hilarious!

hey i am older today than i was yesterday

And the day before! I am now officially 26, and I feel much older. Suddenly I have an opinion about whether or not people should be on my lawn.

Here is a cheese plate! Nathan made it at about 1am on the morning of my birthday, because I was bummed that no one wanted to go out to the bar for birthday drinks. He also poured some 2 buck chuck for me and our house guests. It was awesome, as was the rest of my birthday.

hello i love you

Look, it's a squirrel! He was hanging outside our bedroom window a few days ago. I have absolutely no crafting or cooking or traveling or outside-my-house photos to share, but hey, isn't that squirrel adorable?

I've actually been doing some sewing lately (as the stupid weather is not so stupidly hot lately) but it hasn't been going very well. I've been learning a lot of things that will serve me well in the future but are really frustrating in the present. For example, deciding "f--k* it, I'll just wing it!" when you're altering a men's button down shirt for the first time and have zero idea what you're doing is actually, surprisingly, not a good idea! Especially when the men's shirt is not quite big enough to do what you want to do with it, and you end up taking apart almost the entire thing, and you decide "hmm perhaps I will turn it around, shirts that button up the back are adorable!" and then you make eight other stupid decisions to try to make it work, and also fitting shirts is hard and sooo depressing when you are perhaps frustrated by the size and shape of your, you know, self, and also sewing darts is so hard and why can I not properly draft a bodice sloper with an accurate bust point and on and on an on. Basically, learning things is hard sometimes! I do not like to be reminded that I am not actually that good at sewing clothing. (Yet!) For now, I have decided that I am going to not work on that stupid men's shirt refashion for at least a week, and in the meantime, I will sew some easier clothing (tank tops and shift dresses, I think) and also sew some quilts and bags and things I'm actually really good at sewing. I just found out I'll be able to participate in Craftacular in August, so I have approximately 500 things that I'd like to sew before then. So I will sew things I'm good at (or things that are easy) for awhile and then maybe eventually I will finish that stupid shirt.

And also, I will continue to enjoy my summer! It has actually been pretty great so far. Kira visited, which basically made my entire summer, and my sister is visiting this weekend to look at apartments (because she and her boyfriend are moving here, which made my entire year!!!), and Nathan somehow continues to get more awesome, and summer classes have actually been pretty okay (I'm learning how to create book indexes, which is seriously really nerdy fun), and yeah, things are sort of great. Awesome!

* (a) I think it's so dumb when people censor curse words on their blogs but (b) I realize that not everyone loves cursing as much as me, so maybe I'll do this for awhile? We'll see.

blue + white

Look, it's Delftware! (Delft ware?) I found it at a thrift store on Thursday. I didn't know what it was, but it said Made in Holland and it was blue and white, so I bought it. After a bit of research, I identified the bottom marking as Oud Delft, which is apparently good but not the best? I don't know. I don't really collect delftware or any other pottery, so this is all very new to me. It's not in great shape (bottom is chipped, interior is sort of cracked and stained) which means I will not feel bad at all about keeping it instead of trying to resell it. I really want to start a vintage resale shop (on Etsy or as a standalone site), but it so far it is very hard to part with the pretty things that I find. And also I don't actually know enough about glassware or pottery or anything like that to be able to properly identify whether something is vintage and/or valuable, so there's that too.

Anyway. I am settling into summer, which is nice. I'm mostly caught up on school, I've done a bit of thrifting, and I'm hanging out with Kira tonight and tomorrow! Exciting stuff, dudes. I hope you're doing well too.

a few words about knitting with plastic-bag yarn

1. Are you sure you want to? Don't you have a friend with a dog who needs the 300 million plastic bags under your sink?

2. Really? You don't want to try fusing it so you can sew with it? Look, here's a tutorial from Etsy! Oh, who am I kidding, fusing plastic bags sucks too.

3. Okay, that's not fair. Fusing plastic bags & knitting with plastic bags are both fun. Infuriating, but fun.

4. Here's where I'm at so far in my [possibly insurmountable?] knit shopping bag project:*



Let me tell you, those first few rows suuuuuucked. But then it got less sucky; my shiny silver thrifted knitting needles helped, for sure. (Though the silver is starting to flake at the ends, which makes me sadface.)

5. That's actually pretty much the only advice I have--the first few rows suck ass because plastic bags have zero fucking give, so every damn stitch is a struggle. Ha, you can tell I'm annoyed, look at all those curse words! But really, the first few rows suck, but if you keep going (and try to keep the tension as loose as you can**) it gets much less annoying. So stick with it! (Or quit, whatever makes you happy.)

6. There was one other recommendation I had, but fuck if I can remember it... I've been cutting pretty wide strips of plastic, which I think will end up making the bag more sturdy. There's a bunch of good tutorials for how to cut bags and prepare them for use as plarn (pardon me while I vomit, but that word just makes me crazy). Really though, just cut off the handles and the bottom seam and then cut them into strips that are 1" wide. Or wider, or maybe less wide if that's what you're into. Tie those strips together and start knitting. I do a slip-knot*** kind of thing that makes a pretty seamless knot. Oh, and use grocery bags! You could probably use other bags, but grocery bags are so easy and you or someone you know has 500,000 of them cluttering up their house.

7. Also, you should be smarter than me and find an actual pattern to use instead of just winging it. I really need to learn how to increase stitches, I bet that would make it way easier to knit a shopping bag without a pattern.


8. I think that's it?

*I am not even going to show you the terrible things I made when I tried fusing plastic, but trust, they were awful. I have been considering trying it again though, I have a seriously ridiculous amount of plastic bags under my sink.

**Unless you usually knit with a low tension (loose? knit loose? is that a thing?), then probably just proceed as normal. But seriously, plastic has zero give, so do yourself a favor and keep the tension loose.

***Did you hear one of the guys in Slipknot died? I saw that on some gossip site and spent at least seven minutes reminiscing about my poor music taste as a youth. Oh Slipknot and [other band names redacted so you will still be my friend], why did I waste so much time listening to you?

you should really go to the West Allis farmers market

So living in Milwaukee is weird sometimes. I'm not talking about actual day to day living here, as that is mostly boring/the same as everywhere else. Or at least every other mid-size postindustrial decaying American city. What was my point?

Yes, okay--Milwaukee, specifically people's attitudes towards it. In short, they are rarely positive. I know several people who actively hate it, some of whom live here. One of my sister's work friends apparently called it a 'shithole' recently. This happened right before she visited a few weeks ago, but her friend said it before Tracey mentioned visiting me. It just sort of came up, apparently? That is probably a fair representation of the general opinion of Milwaukee in the Midwest.

And you know what, I get it! Well, sort of. I'm not going to get into Milwaukee's problems, both historical and current, and I am really not going to get into how uncomfortable it makes me when Wisconsin residents from outside the Milwaukee metro area (read: mostly white people) talk about how the city with our largest population of African-Americans is just completely awful.

What I will talk about instead is one of the awesome things about Milwaukee, namely its numerous farmers markets! I went to one today! The one in West Allis, specifically. Which, ha, one of the awesome things about Milwaukee is not actually in Milwaukee's city limits! But there are at least four other farmers markets in the city, one within walking distance of me which doesn't start for another three weeks, dammit. Anyway, I went to the one in West Allis today, and while it was sort of tiny, especially compared to the Dane County Farmers Market (stupid Madison), but it has a ridiculous amount of flower vendors, some awesome ladies that sell a wide variety of herbs (Cook With Herbs website; they seemed really excited about their recipes when I talked to them, so probably they are worth trying), a tamale vendor who actually sells vegetarian tamales (which are rare like... something that's rare! whatever, it's late), and an awesome woman who make the most delicious veg spring rolls I've tasted in ages.

So, uh, in conclusion, Milwaukee does actually have some cool things? I am possibly/probably going to go to West Allis every week, just to eat tamales and spring rolls. I'm pretty excited about all the herbs I bought too. I got three (!!!) kinds of basil (sweet, Thai, and cinnamon), two kinds of mint (Korean and mojito), lemongrass, and rosemary, Vietnamese coriander, and culantro, which is used in Carribbean cooking and apparently tastes like cilantro but is not stupid and impossible to grow like stupid, stupid cilantro. I completely forgot to get chives, which are really easy to grow, but I guess I can do that next week. I already transferred everything to planters (made from quart yogurt containers!), so I am feeling pretty good about my container garden. And about summer, still! Awesome. I hope your summer is going well too.

things are happening

Today has been super awesome. I woke up early, made coffee, and dealt with some emails and other things. Nathan and I went out for breakfast at Cafe Hollander (meh) and then went to Goodwill. I found 3 cardigans (!!!) plus a bunch of t-shirts that will be good for refashioning. Possibly they will turn out awful, but possibly not!

 I made a bandanna for Nathan, which took roughly 334 hours. Well, the bandanna took about 2 minutes to make, but it was preceded by at least 579 hours of messing with my serger (threading/rethreading/messing with settings/changing needle plates/etc) before it would do a rolled hem. But I figured it out! And made a bandanna! No photo though, the hem was sort of wavy; possibly a tension issue? Whatever, it is a bandanna and Nathan is wearing it at work RIGHT NOW.

I also finished binding the armholes of a red tank top I started sometime last year. Slow-going, and sort of frustrating as the tank top is too big and will probably not be worn outside the house. It's really not worth ripping out a bunch of seams to resize it, as the fabric is just awful, but it's lightweight, so it'll be fine to wear around the house on stupid gross humid days like today. I still need to hem it; I'm thinking this would be a good time to practice doing a blind hem.

Exciting! Seriously, I am excited about sewing. This summer is shaping up to be amazing. I've got a bunch of organizing to do over the next few days, and then I can start working on some sweet projects I've got planned. More on that soon.

DONE

I turned in final grades yesterday afternoon, which means I am officially done with spring semester. To celebrate, I went out for dinner and was in bed by 9.

I ran some errands this morning--including mailing an Etsy order (!!!)--and then spent some time cleaning the house. (I get very confused when I don't have schoolwork to do. Which is not even actually the case, as I have a thesis proposal that I'm supposed to be finishing & submitting by the end of the month. Which is the end of this week. Crap.) I also started a new knitting project! This will possibly one day be a shopping bag; so far, it is just sort of lame. Knitting with plastic-bag yarn (sorry, PLARN, ugh why do they think of such stupid words for things) is not quite as awesome and it sounds. But! I'm going to end up using 50-60 plastic bags (or less? or more? I don't know.) instead of throwing them away, so whatever I guess. It definitely feels good to do some crafting. I think tomorrow will be more knitting and possibly some serging. And oh, probably I should work on that thesis proposal.

ugh

Here's a photo I took at a rest stop. I forget which one; somewhere in Wisconsin off of I-94. Exciting! Taken with my phone with fxCamera, an Android app. I have since figured out how to take photos that are actually rectangular, like real Polaroids. Real fake Polaroids.

Anyway. It is May 10th, somehow. The end of the semester is in sight, but it still seems so damn far away. I am finally over the flu, I think, and let me tell you, getting the flu right at the beginning of finals sucks exactly as much as you would expect. There are a lot of things I should be doing right now; I guess I'll go work on those?

good morning

green/blue, originally uploaded by marinatina.

Today is going to be productive.

shoot me now

Can you spot the problem here? I just finally realized that all of the work I've done this morning was wrong and pointless. Trying very hard to believe that doesn't say something meaningful/symbolic about my stupid life right now.

endurance

Very beginnings of a cross stitch project, inspired by that piece of Hmong embroidery. Longer story there, but I'll get to that some other day. I am trying very hard to focus on the idea of endurance, specifically the building of it. Don't feel bad for my failings, just focus on doing a little better/more each day. I don't know if it's really working.

things that are awesome

1. Coming home to this:



2. While waiting for the delicious baked pasta to finish baking, I decided to do a tiny bit of sewing. Weird! I experimented with some scrap knit fabric using my old machine, and it went well, so I sewed the seams of a knit tank top I cut out two months ago.* It went pretty well, I think! No puckering, seemingly strong seams; I am completely unsure how to judge whether I sewed it correctly because knit fabric is stretchy and weird and everyone else is so nervous about knits that I am too, kind of? But I think maybe it's going to be okay? Also, the fit is pretty good, though I need to finish the seams and then hem the bottom & armholes** which will hopefully take care of the weird puckering at the bust. I could probably have also cut a size smaller,*** and I hope I'm not tempting fate by getting excited before it's completely done, but yeah, positive sewing energy!


*holy shit, winter break was two months ago?!
**Do you hem an armhole? Is armhole the right word? What's an "armscye"? Any sewers out there?
***WHAT?! Smaller size? Weird.

SEWINGSEWINGSEWINGCLASS

I signed up for a sewing class! It's six weeks long and focuses on garment sewing. I've sewn clothes before, mostly through figuring things out as I go along, and I'm super super psyched to have someone show me the right way to do things.

Of course, the first week of the sewing class had to be the same week that I took my new machine in to get serviced. (BTW, I highly recommend buying a machine at Milwaukee Sewing Machine, or probably any local store. One year warranty, including a free tuneup, and they extend the warranty another year if you take a class about how to use your machine. I put that off forever, so I'm taking it next Friday when I pick up my machine, which happens to be a day before my original warranty would've expired.) So, this week I'll be sewing on Grandma's machine! Little bit nervous, as it was starting to act up and skip stitches right before I bought my new machine. Probably it needs to be serviced, but somehow I've never been able to justify spending $80 to get my second sewing machine serviced. I'm sure it'll be fine for this week though; I think we'll just be going over basics, which will possibly be boring but hopefully will teach me some new things. I'm just excited that I'll have an excuse to sew at least once a week for the next month and a half.

FLOWERING

I am trying to live in the moment more. I don't know what that has to do with these flowers, really. Something about paying attention to my surroundings or something? I don't know. Kind of an okay photo, though I wish I had paid more attention to the floorboards when taking it. As it is, it makes me a little dizzy. That 'live in the moment' thing though, that's really something I've been thinking about a lot lately, or consciously attempting to think about & incorporate into my life. I've been doing yoga nearly everyday, which is quite nice. I've been trying to focus more on enjoying the process of things like reading for school, cleaning, and grading. It's quite difficult to enjoy the process of grading, I've found. I wish I could say that I've been working on enjoying the process of sewing (or any kind of crafting), but that would be a dirty lie. Maybe this weekend? I need to get my Janome serviced, so I'm thinking I might mess around with my vintage Singer. Anyway, yes, I am trying to live in the moment, but also paradoxically pay more attention to the long-term. I feel like the past six months or so have been heavily structured around getting through the day rather than any kind of long-term planning or preparation, and I am a bit tired of that.

Okay. Anyway. Back to enjoying [...] the process of reading & writing.