Project 22: The Colette Sencha blouse

Two for two on my fall sewing goals!  Woo!  Unfortunately, something tells me I'll miss my Minoru jacket deadline, but you know what?  I'm going to stay optimistic and hope that the fabric and pattern land on my doorstep this month.  I've stopped buying fabric for the time being because I want an iPhone November 1 (when I'm eligible for an upgrade) and I don't want to eat ketchup packets because I can't afford real food.  So far, I'm doing okay.  I went to Joann's today (and saved crazy amounts of money) and didn't come home with a single cut of fabric.  However, I came home with thread, stabilizer, batting, and rotary blades instead.  This may not excite you, but damn, it gets me all wound up!

Okay, on to the pattern review.  But first, a question: if you haven't made a Sencha yet, well, why not?

Pattern description
Button-back blouse with cap sleeves and waist tucks

Pattern sizing
0-18.  This is a 6, as the size 8 (my usual Colette top size) would've been too loose.

Did it look like the drawing on the envelope when you were done with it?
Yes! (I always consider that a success.)

Were the instructions easy to follow?

Oh my gosh, yes.  This shirt went from start to finish in about 2.5 hours.  I bought buttons today--that was the only thing holding me back from completing it Friday night.  

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

As happy as I am with the outcome, and the fact that it was a quick sew, I do have a couple things I'd alter:

• When I have it on (see below), there's a lot of extra fabric between my armpits and my bust.  I'm going to guess this is because I have such narrow shoulders.  I should look into working on that.
• It's very short!  I have a short torso and normally everything is too long on me, but I'll need a camisole under this to wear it to work.

I can't wait until I have a house where I can actually take pictures of myself.  This is BS.  Also this photo makes me look so hippy.

Fabric used

Woven in Poppy from Lotta Jansdotter's Bella line.  I originally bought this with a Macaron in mind, but I really like it as a Sencha.

Pattern design changes or alterations made

Very minor ones: I didn't catchstitch the inside of the sleeves or the back placket.  For the back, I decided the buttonholes and buttons would keep the placket in place, and on the sleeves, I topstitched the edges.

Would you sew it again?

I might!  I'd like to try the other necklines, with the tucks or the tie.  Maybe in a fancier fabric, though.

Conclusion

I think this is a great fall blouse!  Yay orange!

Yesterday we had big plans to go to a pig roast in Palmyra celebrating the new By Hand magazine.  Well, that failed after we sat in traffic on I-95 for what seemed like forever.  Please tell me why we live in a region with rush hour on the weekend.  Okay, turn around, get back on I-95 north--we decided to head to Sur La Table and Total Wine, and then up to Frederick to check out the area.  Neither of us had been, except to drive through on our way to Ohio.  It's such a pretty drive up I-270: once you're in Frederick County, the mountains come into view, and at this time of year everything is red, yellow and orange.

Downtown Frederick is a cute area with a sweet downtown.  I mean, first you have to drive through the ghetto to get there, but once you're there, you're fine.  We stopped in a record store and walked through the main strip, and tried to get dinner at Brewer's Alley but they had other ideas: our wait was over twice as long as they originally estimated and when we told them we were leaving, they weren't the most sympathetic.  By that point, I had been hungry for five hours, so we drowned our hunger sorrows in Five Guys.  Thank god for French fries.

Today has been busy: besides the aforementioned trip to Joann's, I also went grocery shopping and have been baking like a crazy person all afternoon.  I have a potluck tomorrow at work and offered to bring the desserts.  See below: doughnut cake (thanks to my oven being uneven, it got a bit too brown) (also I don't have a cake tester, which explains the knife mark!) and chai tea cookies, and I just pulled some pumpkin bread out of the oven.  Isn't fall the best?

Have a good week, everyone.  Hopefully I won't be a stranger as much soon!

Tuesday

If you read this blog, or just know me in general, you've probably figured out by now that I'm not happy unless I'm making something, whether it's dinner, dessert, a new skirt or a project in InDesign.  I like tangible things, which is probably why I enjoy "stuff"--I have five bookcases full of books, boxes of CDs in storage, and many, many more DVDs than I could ever watch.  Having these things, for whatever reason, also makes me happy--though I know that's an unpopular opinion and makes me materialistic.  Whatever.  I like books.

So I got a bee in my bonnet yesterday to bake.  And sew.  Oh, and work, because I still do that.  And despite the trouble with the bag (sewing through eight layers of fabric and interfacing is not fun), I was happy.  I was home, I was doing my own thing.  Offices tend to suck the life out of me; at home, I actually saw the sun (shocking) and had a little tabby who helped me along the way.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

Our weekly desserts are still chugging along in Casa Sposetta (slash-Regnier), but last week, thanks to Harris Teeter's weekly sales, we decided to switch it up.  We were all ready for Lemon Pie Bars: I had lemons, graham crackers and butter on my shopping list, and my zester was just waiting for me.  However, things didn't turn out that way.

Bourbon Bread Pudding

Did I tell you I bought the Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook?  I did, I think.  And did I tell you how sad I am to discover it once I've left Savannah, once I no longer frequent the Bull Street library right near the bakery, once it's no longer on my drive to and from work?

Bummer.

Weekend Baking

I've instituted a new rule in our house called Naps and 'Zerts.  The name is based on this:

However, the idea has nothing to do with Pawnee.

I made a strawberry cake last week while Nick was napping after a busy Saturday morning of errands.  I realized that being alone in my little kitchen, listening to music and measuring out ingredients, really centered me.  (I know how dumb that sounds.  I'm ashamed.)  I rely on sewing usually to calm me and satisfy that need to create, and I also cook every night, so I'm no stranger to my kitchen.  But there was just something about doing this alone that really helped me chill out.  I'm not normally on my own schedule at home--either I'm making dinner in the hour between my getting home and Nick's arrival, or I'm waiting on him to finish making pizza so I can clean up (on the weekends)(side note, how can one man make such a mess with flour?).  Either way, there are outside pressures, none of which were present while I was alone with my cake batter.

So I figured I'd start enforcing naptime.  Sorry, Nicholas, but it had to be done.  Honestly, he doesn't mind, because I'm not bugging him to go with me, and then he wakes up and there's food!  It's like magic!

This weekend I made a cake while he was awake (I know, I'm already breaking my rules) but I made muffins the next morning before he woke up--so I guess it counts.

Coconut-lime mixed berry cake

Ingredients all laid out--yes, I do that.

Chocolate espresso banana muffins

The coconut-lime mixed berry cake was Nick's choice, and he likes it, though his one gripe was that he can feel the berry's seeds while he eats.  Everyone feel sorry for the boy with the cake.  I chose the muffins, which are a recipe from Baked bakery (found here) and they did not disappoint.  We originally had 17; we are now down to eight.  I made them yesterday morning.

Anyway, I really like having goals and projects, if you couldn't tell.  I have earmarked my cookbooks (Flour bakery, Mad Hungry, Back in the Day bakery, A New Turn in the South...) and I hope to keep cooking for the foreseeable future.  Stop by my cubicle--maybe you'll get something!  Also to make sure I don't weigh 400 pounds.

Whatcha baking?  Care to share a favorite recipe?

Project 3: Simplicity 2215, View D, and Cake!

There's so much on my mind right now, both good and bad, and I want to turn a lot of it into blog posts but then I think, who would read that?  I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't benefit from a few girlfriends to just bounce ideas off of.  Nick doesn't care about pattern sizing or blogs; he doesn't notice if I paint my nails or if my hair dries weird.  I know one person shouldn't be everything to another, but that's where we are right now, and the boundaries are slowly disappearing.  (You don't even want to know what we talk about after work.)

So anyway, it was a long weekend, and I gotta say, not a terribly exciting one.  It was cold this weekend, so our hibernation plans were mostly achieved.  However, Saturday proved productive, once we actually got out of bed and out of the apartment: we managed to buy $130 worth of groceries (good lord) as well as some slightly-needed kitchen items.  When we got home and unpacked our food and fun things, I immediately thought of how nice it will be to someday have room for casserole dishes and espresso makers, for loaf pans and pitchers, and how we won't have to have these things spill over into the living room and onto the stove because there simply isn't space.  I hope that by this time next year I can stand next to Nick in our kitchen and not have to contort myself around him to get to the fridge or close a cabinet before I can open the oven.

A Week of Fail

I know I should be positive, but after the week I had creatively, I was completely disappointed in myself and my endeavors.  How did I go from spitting things out left and right the week before to ruining everything I touched?

So let's just sort some things out, shall we?

I decided to work on the Purl Soho Braided Handle Canvas Tote for me and my cousin.  This is what theirs looks like:

Beautiful, right?  Modern, clean, simple.  Even Nick liked it.

And these were mine:

Um...yeah.  Not so much.  The handles bunched, the corners came out messy, and the bias tape did not want to be sewn to that duck canvas no matter what I did.  It was a mess.  I gave up Wednesday night and left it alone until Saturday evening, when I decided just to get through both of them and move on with my life.  They will be sent to Goodwill.  Such a shame, but such is life.

Also I've apparently inherited the family curse for bread baking.  My mom can bake anything in the world--her pie crust is to die for, and her meringues are always perfect, despite living in Florida.  Yet, she cannot make anything bread-based.  Her rolls always burn, her breads don't rise.  It's sad.  But I thought I'd be safe when I attempted the Smitten Kitchen Braided Lemon Bread.  First of all, everything on that website is beautiful and wonderful and perfect.  Second, I thought, okay, doesn't look too hard.  I can do this.



Hers, in all its golden glory

Well, the dough never rose.  It just sat there in its greased bowl, looking more like cookie dough than anything.  I went back through the ingredients--nothing was missed.  I read the directions--I followed every step.  What happened?

I have no idea, but I threw it out Saturday morning, after over 24 hours of "rising."  It was so disappointing.  So I went to Giant, grabbed some Pillsbury bread dough from a can, and attempted to replicate it:

It certainly isn't the same, but I didn't want the filling to go to waste, so I had to do something with it.  Nicholas liked it, so that's all that matters.

Finally, I don't have a picture of this failure, but I'm working on the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress for my parents' neighbor, and cut out her dress yesterday with the pattern going upside down.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough for me to finagle it and make it work, so I had to order another half a yard.

Can I get a collective ARGH! for last week?