Neuroscientist + Curious Mind + Passionate Maker
Since 2020 is the year of stretchy pants and big sweatshirts, I figured I needed to join the trend and make myself a comfy quilted jacket too. This was a big and intimidating project for me. I don't have a lot of experience sewing jackets, and to make things even more interesting, I planned on... Continue Reading →
This summer I found the perfect summer PJ set for Ryan. Now I realize the fabric does this weird visual illusion, but go with me on this. I mashed together two patterns to generate the best possible comfortable PJ set for warm summer days. For the top, I used Thread Theory's Arrowsmith undershirt pattern, which is a free PDF pattern by the way. For the bottoms, I used True Bias' Hudson pant pattern. Match made in heaven!
After test driving the shorts in a woven cotton and then making a pair in knit, I wanted to have a basic denim short for the summer. I thought this project would be a great time to try out Art Gallery solid smooth denim, a quilting weight denim fabric. Details Pattern: Tammy's Tulip Shorts by... Continue Reading →
I've been focusing on getting out of my comfort zone lately. This means I'm participating in #mmmay17. Part of my participation involves sewing new clothes and trying new patterns. It has taken awhile, but I finally have a good wardrobe base, so now I can really start refining. This whole post and the clothes I made came out of no where. I had the fabric and my original goal was to make a nice summery outfit, but it turned into the best, most comfiest PJs you could imagine. Surprises are good!
I think my main take away from all of this is gaining the confidence to interact with the larger community of sewers and makers. I was always hidden and on the sidelines but now I feel like I'm good enough at sewing that I can participate. So success!!
This week was super rough. I don't normally work on campus and when I do I would typically take public transit to make the 1.5 hour commute less stressful. However this week I had a friend visiting to teach me about structural connectivity analyses, so I rented a car to be able to show them around the Provo / Orem area. I'm behind on this post because I would just wake up, drive to Provo, work all day, drive home, and have about 45 minutes before I fell asleep to do it all over again the next day. But I did get to wear quite a few cute outfits, so let's talk about those now!
Big news this week, it SNOWED here in Utah and not just up in the mountains but in the city too! We went from lovely spring weather, sunny, 75ºF to cold, snowy, freezing temperatures. Any fun wardrobe shenanigans had to be put on hold and I had to resort to wearing my limited cold weather clothes. I know I need more sweaters and long-sleeved stuff, but it wasn't until February / March that I finally found some patterns I liked. I will put off sewing winter stuff until after summer though.
This week was a good reminder of how sewing in a strange way is a really great stress reliever. I had a couple of bumps this week: FedEx temporarily lost a package of fabric for an Etsy order, my serger jammed with thread and I was told it would take 4 weeks to fix, I bought a 2nd serger, etc. I'm also dealing with some really frustrating stuff with our apartment complex and family health issues, so my patience has been really thin this week.
This week has been about getting into the routine of taking photos each day and then not spending the rest of the day fussing over my photos and captions. Why I choose to participate is to push myself out of the lovely introvert hole I like to live in and is a great way to review and evaluate my very small wardrobe. Mission accomplished.
When I saw Inês from La Folie in her Waterfall raglan shirt, I was immediately hooked! I've been keeping my eye out for a relaxed knit shirt that would work over leggings or stretchy pants and be totally age appropriate. The Waterfall raglan is utter perfection. Details Pattern: Waterfall Raglan by Chalk & Notch Fabric: Pop... Continue Reading →
HandmadePhD 