(like the rod stewart song)
i'm an elder millennial living in the bay area who loves dark beer, the environment, and sewing for the tiny humans in my life.
All tagged aunt maggie sews for herself
a few years ago i made victor a rugby shirt from this beautiful knit fabric i had purchased at britex.
as previously mentioned, i recently made a goal to sew more things for myself. so on my birthday a few months ago I took the day off work and made trips to my two favorite fabric stores in the east bay: a verb for keeping warm and stonemountain & daughter and got fabrics specifically for this purpose.
one of the patterns on my to-sew list was the lark cardigan, which is an adaptation of the lark tee from grainline studio. i believe the first time you sew a pattern it's best to follow the instructions and hold off on any alterations or hacks. so before I embarked on the cardigan variation I thought it best to make a basic lark tee with the lightweight grey knit I picked up at a verb for keeping warm.
after my fantastic experience with my first dropcloth sampler (more on that here and here) i was excited to try the second one my sister had sent me: the color wheel.
happy 2016 everyone!
one of my favorite stores in the bay area, stonemountain & daughter, has declared 2016 to be the 'year of the indie pattern' and is kicking off #indiepatternmonth today. as a long time patron of independent pattern companies i love this.
let me say that again for emphasis: i love this.
i've previously extolled my love of oliver + s, the crown jewel of independent patterns, and expressed my goal to sew all their styles. but in the spirit of the new year i wanted to share some other indie sewing patterns that have caught my eye and i want to sew in 2016.
happy holiday week everyone! I've just about finished my dropcloth sampler and want to show you.
after six years my longchamp finally died on me last january. however I had been preparing for this day and already had a successor picked out that was unique, reflected my quirky personality, and big enough to hold a laptop: the merchant & mills oil skin bag.
whats that you don't know about merchant & mills?
have I mentioned lately that the bay area has the best weather?
then again i spent the first quarter decade of my life in the mid west and northeast, so perhaps i'm easily impressed.
since i no longer need cold weather gear, I've developed a fondness for what i call 'san francisco scarves' or infinity scarves made from cotton.
today i'm wrapping up the series on my favorite home made gifts by talking about things you can make for housewarming, hostess, and girl friends.
two years ago our friends joe and kathryn got married and i decided to use the occasion to make myself a new dress.
i found myself wanting something special so i went to spoonflower, a site i had read provided a lot of the fabric for the little things to sew book by oliver + s.
it was amazing. i spent hours looking at prints before ordering a few swatches. once they arrived i quickly settled on the teal serpentine and placed an order for two yards in cotton sateen.
when i moved to california two years ago i had grand dreams of refurbishing or making all our home furnishings.
i was going to find a vintage school map and hang it as a funky piece of art, put $75 worth of anthropologie hardware on a $50 dresser from craigslist i lovingly refinished while listening to podcasts, and of course sew any and all fabric components of the decor along the way.
these days i am a wiser woman and have come to realize just because you can make something it doesn't mean you have to. so today i am going share my thoughts on what is worth it to make vs. what is okay to just buy.
because of our age vic and i go to a lot of weddings these days. because we meet in college (same freshman dorm) a lot of these weddings have the similar guest lists.
last fall we had three weddings, three weekends in a row, all on the east coast. by the time we got through the second (our fifth of the year) i was so sick of all my dresses i couldn't bear the thought of wearing any of them the next week, especially when half the guest list would be the same.
so i did the logical thing and decided to make a dress 100 hours before the ceremony.
sometimes aunt maggie needs to sew for herself. now in general i prefer to sew for kids over adults for a few reasons:
have i mentioned nora and etta are quite girly? well they are. i however am not. so it's a constant struggle to find fabrics that are sweet enough for them but not too saccharine for me.
when i saw this amy butler lark print at stonemountain & daughter i instantly knew two things: a) nora and etta would love wearing it and b) i wouldn't mind sewing it. so i picked up a few yards and waited for the right inspiration.
