Running and Dreaming

A few years ago I started running.  I hated it.  I knew it was good for me and I did it, but I hated it.  I started training for a half marathon when I moved to SoCal.  Then I hurt my ankle (like REALLY bad).  That half marathon was no longer happening (yes, I was totally relieved) but I told myself I would start running again after my ankle healed.  Yeah...  I kept telling myself that for the next year and a half.

BUT!  I FINALLY started running again a couple months ago.  And guess what?  I'm LOVING it!  Even while running.  Amazing right?  I ran a 5k at the beginning of October and I'm signed up for a 10k at the end of November.  I'm only up to running 4  miles (which realistically translates to almost 3.5 miles) but I'm following a training plan and am well on track to being able to run 6.2 miles before my 10k (hopefully).

I keep thinking that I should combine my new love of running and my love of sewing.  There are patterns for running clothes so why not?  I admit that part of me is fearful of working with the fabric running clothes use.  But conquering that fear might be as awesome as a running high, right?  

So, some patterns I've been looking at:

Fehr Trade Duathlon Shorts

These seem like the most practical of all the patterns I've found.  And what an awesome way to add my own spin with cool fabrics for the stripe down the side.  I'm discovering I like a certain weight of fabric while running and a certain fit, but somehow I can never find both preferences in a ready-made garment.

Papercut Patterns Pneuma Tank

I've been wanting this pattern ever since I saw Ginger Make's version.  I wanted it even more when I saw that Fabletics has a top very similar to it.  One of my friends (she's actually training and running with me) bought a running shirt at Target that also has a similar concept.

Greenstyle Women's Yoga Pants

I wouldn't run in yoga pants (even though that's what I started running in) but I need to start doing some cross-training (cuz I've got the weakest core (read flabby stomach)) and yoga pants would come in handy for say yoga or pilates.

Jalie Sport's Top (#2563)

On my list of to-do-someday is undergarments.  Sports bra seem so much less terrifying than underwire bras.  Also, the running tights/shorts are an added bonus to me.

Fehr Trade VNA Top

The design lines on this top are so cool!  To be honest, I prefer looser tops while running (cuz that breezey-ness they provide is a nice distraction when your lungs and legs are screaming at you), but maybe during the winter (HA! SoCal doesn't have winters) this top would be nice.

Your bonus photo for making it to the end- this is after our 5k (if you couldn't tell, it was a color run).  Our upcoming 10k isn't a fun event run like this, but it is right by the beach (I totally love the beach!).

What patterns are you dreaming of right now?  Any plans towards making those dreams reality?

Playing Dress Up

At the end of July an event happened around here that a lot of people went to.  My roommate was one of those people, her brother flew out here to be one of those people too.  Me?  I continued on with my life, blissfully ignoring this event and not seeing my roomie while it happened.  Anyone ever hear of Comic-Con?

While my roommate was trying to figure out her costume, she kept trying to find things that she could do with stuff she already had.  She was going to go as a female grey Gandolf, wearing a grey sweater dress, grey tights, grey boots and  buy a grey robe and hat.  I told her that was boring.  So she next thought to go as a character in a TV show she watches who only dresses in regular clothes- no one would even guess she had dressed up.  I finally stretched my imagination really far in an attempt to understand this nerdy event (I'm a geek, not a nerd, so sometimes it's hard to relate- hehe) and suggested she go as a character in this really nerdy TV show that all my nerdy friends watch (and the watching of this show is what makes me lovingly call them nerds)- Dr. Who.  

She went as River Song from Dr. Who.  River Song is apparently Dr. Who's wife but from what I understand, it doesn't seem like they always both know they're married and she tries to kill him multiple times and spends her days in jail but not her nights and was kidnapped as a baby and whatever...  That's the best explanation you'll get from me.  Apparently there's this outfit/dress that River Song wears in a series of episodes and so I thought it'd be easy to recreate it...  Until I started looking at details.  

It wasn't so hard to sew up, it was adjusting and readjusting the pattern over and over that was irritating.  It's a sleeveless shift dress with an exposed zipper and an uneven hem.  Right below the zipper the skirt is attached in a curved shape and made of multiple pieces then somehow gathered at the bottom with what looks like bungi-cord...?

I did my best-ish (as shown by my laziness in not taking out the zipper basting stitches).  We found a pattern that had a similar silhouette for the shift dress part and I went to town modifying it and hacking it up and taping paper onto it to make new shapes.

I only made one muslin and found that it was too tight in the hips when she tried it on.  I spent a few more hours modifying the pattern again and added just a smidge more than needed in the hips cuz I wasn't making another muslin.  I figured I'd just take it in a little if needed.  

Instead of doing a curved seam to attach the skirt, I did two angled lines meeting in the middle.  I was quite proud of my matching skills, even if my roomie didn't really notice or care.  It's the little details, right?

I had made a skirt similar to a handkerchief skirt to get the uneven hem, but the roomie wanted "pick-ups" (I call them bunchy things- hehe). Having already spent three days pattern adjusting, muslin-ing and making her dress, I wasn't going to do hand sewing too. I told her she was welcome to make them herself and I'd even provide the thread and needle.  

So she did.  She made her own "pick-ups" and didn't even complain about it.  She really is quite lovely to live with (she even does my dishes!)

I laughed when I saw how she made them tho.  No needle and thread required I suppose.  She was quite appreciative of her costume.  She also spilled super glue on it before she got out the door wearing it.  That has yet to come out- any tips for getting super glue out of fabric?

These are the nails she did for her costume.  She  is amazing at painting nails and I thought this was pretty cool.  There's an exploding Tardis in there (I guess that's a Dr. Who time travel thingy).  The nails are based off a Van Gogh episode of Dr. Who where Van Gogh actually paints an exploding Tardis- or so I've been told (haven't actually seen it).  Unlike last time I made a dress for someone else (the maternity bridesmaid dress) this was not nearly as painful to make or as time consuming.  It's interesting sewing for other adults and not just other adults' children.  Who knows if there will be more (adult) selfless sewing in my future?

Better Late than Never (Right?)!

Remember that dress I mentioned waaaaay back in April?  The bridesmaid one?  The bridesmaid dress for my friend that was seven months pregnant?  Well, three (almost four) months have passed now and 3(ish)+7=10 and guess what?  That sweet little girl is almost two months old now!  What does this mean for that dress?  That I never got over there to take pictures and the baby bump is gone so there's no point in trying to get them taken now.  I know, I REALLY need to work on my timing (but don't worry, my always-early-housemate is aware of this issue and I'm always reminding her we have seperate cars- hehe).

Anyway, I have a few pictures of my previously pregnant pal at the actual wedding I can share and some of the final muslin, but you'll just have to believe me about the nitty-gritty details.  Also- fair warning, this will probably be a wordy post.

So the pattern was New Look 6864.  The fabric was 100% polyester in Scarlett from Joann Fabrics, the main fabric was polyester satin and the overlay was a polyester chiffon.  I'll share my thoughts about polyester later in this post.

I started with a straight size 8 since my friend is normally a size 2 when not pregnant and I knew there'd be extra ease since New Look is part of Simplicity, a Big-4 company.  Well, that extra ease was not enough for mama and baby belly.  I measured how many inches I was short along the back where the zipper would be (and where the dress wouldn't close).  Taking those measurements, I added them to the given measurements for the size 8 and ended up all over the place.

The next muslin I decided bigger was better.  I cut a size 12 for the bodice, graded to a size 16 for the waistband and size 18 for the skirt, but I kept the length of all pattern pieces at the size 8 because that was the perfect length for her baby bump (does that make sense?).

This dress was way too big, but I was ok with that!  At that fitting, I pinned the back shut and all down the excess at the back of the skirt.  I pinned the extra on both side seams under her arms and it happened to line up perfectly at the bottom of the waist band so there was no need to grade down the skirt's side seam.  Now this part is real tricky- I took a Sharpie and marked along everything I had pinned- really hard, right?  At home I measured from marked line to seam line and marked that onto my pattern piece.  Because (pretty much every seam) had two Sharpie lines, one on each side seam/back zipper line, I ended up with two different measurements per pattern piece.  So I literally went in between the two marked lines and cut down the middle.

After cutting out my new pattern pieces I made my final muslin, but I was really hoping this would work so I took a chance and used some nice cotton- in hopes of this one being a wearable muslin.  It was, yay!  I only had enough of the cotton for the main dress, not for the the bodice lining.  I used a soft white cotton for the inside and decided to be persnickety with my thread.  The thread on the outside matched the main fabric while all the inside stitching on the white lining was also white.  Yeah, you see some pride sneaking out here.

Anyway, there was only one spot on the final muslin that needed adjusting, the upper right back bodice where it attaches to the neck band.  It was pretty easy to just adjust that by moving my seam line on the final garment.

Now, the final garment.  It. Was. A. Pain.  I don't like polyester, Sam I Am!   I do not like it in a boat, I do not like it with a moat or goat or a house or a mouse or on a train, plane, in the rain- however that is supposed to go.  Polyester does not press, like, at all.  Polyester satin and chiffon shift around sooooo much and be careful with your pins cause they leave marks.  Also, it doesn't press.  Did you know it's virtually impossible to get a decent crease or seam allowance to stay on whatever side you want it on because it doesn't press.  I'm pretty sure I had cartoon thunder clouds around my head from my frustration and growing irritation.

There's one part on the skirt where it's gathered and attached to the bodice that some of the skirt fabric got caught and stitched into the gathering.  It almost looks like a pleat.  I tried to unpick it so it could be redone nicer, but the fabric wouldn't cooperate and played hide and seek with my stitches- so a pleat added into the gathering it was!  I think (hope) I'm the only one who noticed.  I also decided to be lazy on the skirt overlay and not adjust the tension for the thinner, sheerer fabric.  The result was slight puckering that I hadn't even worried over until I saw the dress on my friend while standing up with the other bridesmaids (in their pucker-free J-Crew dresses).  Lesson learned I suppose.

 The chosen dress had a deep V/notch  in the neckline but because of the heavy. thick fabric, one side had a hard time staying up and not flopping down.  The solution to this became to sew the top of the V together to create a keyhole.  It was a nice detail that many ladies noticed and commented on (positively, I might add- hehe).  I've also come to discover that I cannot sew zippers that have been pinned into the dress.  None of my seam lines will match.  I HAVE to hand-baste my zippers in to get matching necklines and waist lines.  It's a pain while I'm doing it (unless it's embroidery, I'm not a fan of hand sewing) but totally worth it in the end.  One last thing- hook and eyes.  They are mischievous little notions.  Anyone have any tips for sewing them in easily or at least neatly?

All in all, it was a good experience and ended pretty well.  I didn't think I would do anything like that again anytime soon, but that was before I realized the difficulties I have saying "No freaking way!" to people.  Cuz, ya know, I totally made my roomie's Comic-Con costume.  But that's a story for another day.

A New Kind of Insanity

A friend of mine at church got engaged late last year.  She approached me a couple months ago about sewing some stuff for her wedding, which I laughed about and moved on.  She's very persuasive, because I currently have the fabric she's chosen for her wedding that needs something done to it.  It's not difficult, but there's a lot of uneven, raw edges which must be straightened out and hemmed.  There's probably about 10 pieces total, but some of them are rather lengthy.  Seeing as how her wedding is in less than 4 weeks, I thought I should probably get started.

I have another friend who is going to be a bridesmaid in that same wedding.  She's almost 7 months pregnant and the bridesmaid dress she ordered off of Etsy hasn't arrived, nor can she get the seller to contact her back.  She originally asked me if I would be willing to make her bridesmaid dress (which I laughed about and moved on), but somehow I now have the pattern and fabric for her dress.  

The pattern she choose is not a maternity pattern, and the smallest size it comes in is size 8 (she's a size 2 when not pregnant).  It's New Look 6864 by Simplicity, a choose your size, choose your style type pattern.  I'm not the most experienced or knowledgeable sewist, so there's a lot of prayers going into this! 

Again, these 10 pieces for the bride and the bridesmaid dress for the momma-to-be (for the second time!) are for the same wedding... next month... less than 4 weeks away...  I'm also working my normal job while attempting to accomplish these multiple projects.  I think I'm insane, anyone want to second my opinion?

My goal is to accomplish 3 pieces for the bride and one muslin for the bridesmaid dress each week.  My current (probably inaccurate) calculations is that by keeping with that time-line, I should be able to just add one more piece into the last week to complete the 10 projects for the bride and fit/adjust the bridesmaid dress at least twice (I know, there's a GOOD chance I'll need to do three muslins) before cutting out and sewing the final dress.  

To top it all off, the friend/bridesmaid with baby #2 on the way is having a baby shower the weekend before the wedding and I REALLY want to make something for the sweet baby girl and her adorable older sister.  I've seen so many cute Noodlehead divided baskets (like here, here, here- seriously just go Google it!) and I'm really wanting to buy the pattern and make it for my friend (then fill it with cute baby girl clothes and diapers- of course).  So what does one do when short on time with too many projects?  Start a blog of course!  I officially welcome you to my chaos.

P.S.- Any stories of similiar bouts of insanity are welcome, I would love to be distracted.  LOL