Matching with My Dog

 I made this beanie that has my name on it , and with the rest of the yarn I was able to make my dog a snood.  He loves it. Lol.

 

It's kind of too big for him.  Still contemplating redoing it.  Either way, he hates it.  But he's so cuuuuuute.

Dress Pattern - Butterick 5982 (ongoing project) updated #3

Been pretty busy and fell off the dressmaking project.  Started piecing together the skirt.  Pretty straightforward, but had to make pleats.  Glad I bought these fabric pencils.

I stopped at the basting.  The next step is putting the bodice and skirt together.  Gimme a minute. lol

Dress Pattern - Butterick 5982 (ongoing project) updated #2

Constructing the Bodice

After finally cutting out the pieces,  the next step was to start piecing them together the bodice, as well as creating darts.

Darts! What are darts?  Watch 5 hundred youtube videos on how to sew a dart and you're set!

I'm not quite sure if these darts will suit me best, but I'm just going to follow the pattern and worry about it later.  Besides the darts, everything else seemed pretty easy peasy.  I just had to repeat my steps for the lining.  Then, sew the lining to the fabric right sides together, and turn it right side out.

Putting lining in a dress is twice the work, but its looking more and more like a real dress, you guys.

Other Sewing Things That I Learned While Making this Bodice:

- Staystitching
- Understitching (I didn't know there was so much extra stitching involved in making a dress!)
- Also, as someone with no boobs, I don't need no freaking darts.  I mean, I do but not as much.  And for that I am thankful.  (less work!)

Dress Pattern - Butterick 5982 (ongoing project) updated #1

Fabric Choice and Pattern Cutting 

So after I finished figuring out the pattern pieces,   I had to choose some fabric.  I decided since its my first dress, and I had no idea what the hell I was doing, I would pick a fabric that was safe.  By safe, I mean something that wasn't too expensive (because what if this dress was an entire fail?) but something that wasn't too crazy (like, I'm not going to buy a discount fabric that had like, owls on it.  What if this dress turns out really well but I can't wear it because I hate owls??)  So I stuck with a black broadcloth because LBDs are a classic.  I found this pink lining in the remnants bin (it turned out to be 70% off and I got a whole yard) and thought pink would be cute, minimal, with a small pop of contrast to the black.

As far as cutting out the pattern pieces,  everything was pretty straightforward.  I just followed the cutting layout in the instructions, making sure I knew where the grainline and the folds were where they needed to be.  I put some painter's tape on the right side of  each of the pieces of fabric because when it comes to solid color fabrics, both sides look the same to me.


Mistake #2:  I didn't pre-wash my fabric.  Meaning, if I ever wash this dress, there's a big possibility that it might shrink.  Dammit.  Like I literally thought about it right after I cut out ALL the pieces.  Luckily, the sizing is a little big, so maybe it will magically shrink perfectly to my size?  Oh well.  I'm not going stress about it, I'm just going to keep telling myself that this is a learning project and its not a big deal.  If this project really does fail, I'm going to buy myself a new dress. :::shrugs:::

Up next: constructing the bodice. :-O

Installing a Zipper into a Travel Neck Pillow

I bought this travel neck pillow a while back after my inflatable one had a leak and wouldn't inflate anymore.  I was kind of excited to see this at Target, since I've followed Design Love Fest on insta for forever.  It's everything that I was looking for in a new neck pillow: memory foam, polka dot print, soft, adjustable strap, and a clip so that you can hang it on your bag.  The only thing that annoyed me was that it didn't have a zipper installed so that I can remove the cover and wash it.  Knowing how gross airplanes can be, a removable liner was necessary.  The wash instructions for the neck pillow was just to hand wash only.  But I kept thinking about if I did that, and the memory foam absorbed the water and I didn't let it fully dry,  I would be stuck with mold and mildew within the pillow and etc etc.

Anyways, paranoid-ass me thought I could do either two things: make myself another lining with a zipper to cover the neck pillow OR just rip the seams of the original lining and install a zipper into it.  I decided the latter because the only reason I bought this pillow was because of the fabric design, so why would I cover it up?

Anyways, long story short (sorry!) I installed a zipper into this cute ass pillow and now I can wash the lining and think of all the airplane bacteria that's not embedded onto my face.

 This zipper came in a 5-pack that I bought at Daiso of all places.  So worth it.  If I can install zippers into everything I would.  Like how I wish I could install pockets into all my dresses.  (I probably could, but I'm lazy af.)

Following a Dress Pattern: Butterick 5982 (Ongoing Project)

So I purchased this dress pattern last year, and never started it. Until now!  Ever since Hancock Fabrics closed (RIP), I haven't been into doing sewing projects since I would have to drive across the bridge to go to Joann's. This project is a long time coming, so I'm glad I broke the seal and took a look at this pattern.  Unfortunately, I had already messed up before even starting it!  I bought the wrong sized pattern!  And since it has been a while since I purchased it, and also I'm too lazy,  I had to look at the smallest size and trace 2 sizes down with a pencil.  Already this extra step is annoying but at least I learned something.  For some reason I thought the pattern had all the sizes on there, but it did not.

As far as following a pattern, I have done so before, but this is the first time that I'm following a pattern that isn't a one-size-fits-all sort of garment.  The last time I used a pattern was for an apron.  So as far as sizing, I didn't really have to be precise.  Since this is a new thing for me, and I know it is a project that will probably take me a while to complete, I thought I'd make blog posts about my experience. I'm pretty much learning a lot as I go, and watching youtube videos on the pattern-following process along the way.  It would benefit me if I have this experience on record for future reference, so HERE. WE. GO

So instead of cutting out the pattern straight from the pattern paper, I decided to trace it onto another paper and use that.  The reason for this was I figured its a very classic dress, and I might want to make it more than once.  If I cut it straight from the pattern paper that was given, it will not last that long since the paper is so thin.  Also, what if I need to make one in a different size?  What if I spill coffee on the paper and it disintegrates?!  What if my dog eats it??!  At least now, I have an og copy just in case something like that happens.

Anyways,  tracing 2 sizes down, and then transferring the pattern to another piece of paper was a project in itself, so so far that is all I did.

The pattern is the Butterick 5982 dress.  It includes 3 styles: One is a sleeveless boatneck dress.  The second is the same thing, except the skirt has 3 tiers of color.  And the last style is the same as the first but with a v-neck and short sleeves.  It also has a pattern for a matching belt with a cute little bow in front.  I chose to do the first style.  To stay organized, I wrote down which pattern pieces were needed for that specific style, and how many fabric pieces were needed to be cut from each piece (including lining pieces).  The pattern pieces already include seam allowance, so I didn't have to worry about figuring that out. (yessss)

If you are tracing a pattern onto a different piece of paper, it helps to run a highlighter onto your specific size so its easier to follow.  I used a tracing wheel to transfer the cut lines to the paper.  You're supposed to use carbon paper as well, but I didn't have that on hand, so I kinda had to hold the paper up to the light and see where the marks were on the paper.  Lol!  Just another item I needed but didn't have so I had to make it work somehow.  :::adds carbon paper to Daiso shopping list:::  I was also careful to transfer all the pattern notations so I don't mess it up.  Some stuff I don't understand, but I guess I'll look it up later.

'Til next time!

Gilmore Girls-themed Bachelorette

For my best friend's bachelorette, we headed to NOLA for the weekend.  It was such an amazing trip.  NOLA is definitely a place I would revisit, just for the fried chicken alone.

Anyways, the bride to be is a huge Gilmore Girls fan, so she requested a Gilmore Girls theme for her bach.  Challenge. Accepted.

At first I thought incorporating Gilmore Girls into a raunchy bachelorette weekend in New Orleans would be weird, since there didn't seem to be an obvious connection between GG and NOLA (EXCEPT ZYDECO). But I realized I was just overthinking it.  Not everything has to blend together theme-wise in a bachelorette party.  A bachelorette party is just a regular party but with an inflatable penis added to the mix (and in this case, penis straws and penis candles (also, I can't believe I just said penis on my blog)).  

Whenever I searched Pinterest for Gilmore Girls bachelorette parties, there wasn't that much content specifically for a bach, but just for regular viewing parties.  So to be honest, I'm posting this on here and adding it to Pinterest to fill that Gilmore Girls-themed bachelorette void.  To keep with the theme, but make it personalized for the bride,  I made Team Dean/Logan/JESS buttons, but photoshopped her face onto the pins.  Not enough Team Jess fans like me in our party tbh, but its okay.

We also wanted souvenir shirts for the occasion.  If you search bachelorette party shirts online there would be cute ones that say "Bride Tribe" or even NOLA themed ones like "Bourbon Bach " or whatnot.  All of those are cute and all, but me being me needed something more personalized, and something that went with the theme.  So I designed Kirk shirts!  But instead of "Babette Ate Oatmeal",  I made it refer to the bride saying YAAAS.  (If you are wondering what font Kirk uses for his shirts and his films, its Arial.)

Here is the Kirk shirt reference.  Is he underrated? I think so.  I think he hustles hard but still manages to be an idiot and like that about him. lol.  Anyways, I love Stars Hollow.

I loved them so much.  I used uberprints.com since I've always used them during my coaching days and had no problem with them.  My only con about the shirts would be the fabric wasn't as soft as I wanted them to be compared to the shirts I ordered from them before.  I also had an issue with one shirt having the design smudged, but customer service was great and they sent me a replacement shirt.  Delivery was really fast for custom shirts, especially when you order digital screenprinting.

As far as other Gilmore Girls theme bach ideas, we decorated the airbnb with Luke's diner images (you can print out the "No Cell Phones" sign online for free).  And the first night in NOLA was spent ordering hella takeout and watching all the wedding/bach-themed Gilmore Girls episodes (the airbnb we stayed in had Netflix!)  Always over-order food, that is the Gilmore way.  Also, its a really good idea for bachelorette weekends anyway because leftovers are a great late night snack.