In Which I Try Out Some C-Rowlz

   Why hey there again, how you doin? Didn't think I'd actually finish another post before October, didja? (Me either lol I'm pretty proud of myself!)
   So, waaaay back when, I did a post on me being a cheap-o and buying cheap-o mystery fabric and how I was going to make a dress out of it. The lady at Hancock Fabrics told me that they had no idea what it was. I don't remember what it was labeled as, but even I knew it wasn't telling the truth, and I am in no way a master of fabric content knowledge. But hey, super cheap fabric! Woot!
    And now, I give you Simplicity 1873:

I don't even know why I posed like this. I'm offering this voluptuos skirt up to the heavens maybe?

Most of the Cynthia Rowley Simplicity patterns I've seen have been super cute, and this one is no exception.

     Look at how cute that is! I went for view C, except I left off the little tab things and added the sleeves from view A.
    Yeah, it looks cute. Too cute. I've found that I normally can't wear clothes that are too frilly or cutesy because they make me look like a twelve year old. And that's way too easy to do as it it when you're a mere 4 feet ten inches of petite-ness, as I am. I did not keep this in mind when making 1873. I liked sewing the dress. I learned how to make sleeves and pleats. I used bias tape instead of facings (I hate facings). I hemmed the thing by hand! All in all, it turned out well. But I think it makes me look like I belong in the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy.
    First of all, sleeves were a bad idea. I was thinking that, for practicality's sake, sleeves were a good choice that would make the dress more wearable. It was the first time I attempted a dress with sleeves, and while they worked out fine, I just don't like how they look on me. They're actually pretty cool; they start out wider where they attach to the armhole and then these tiny little darts make them narrow at the bottom. But I think the sleeves are the main contributing factor to the overwhelming cutesy factor the dress exudes. Puffy sleeves do not make me look my age. Maybe I'll take them off and see if I like it more.

10 darts for 2 sleeves! I put alot of work into those suckers!

   This is me copying the pattern envelope's model. The pose looks just a liiiittle different on me haha. (Please ignore the red eye. I'm just too lazy to fix it right now.) Is it just me, or does the way the model holds her hands seem a little weird? I've only ever seen Barbie dolls hold their hands like that.
   Ok, so my neckline looks super gapey in this picture. And it kinda is in real life, so there's another dislike. But mainly, I noticed that Miss Model looks about three feet taller than me in this dress, and she rocks it. I'm willing to bet she would've been able to rock those sleeves too, And yes, she is wearing heels, but my black heels are currently out of commission :/ And I'm willing to bet that she'd still look Amazonian compared to me without the heels.So maybe this dress isn't meant for the short statured
     As you can tell, that skirt is pleated. I like pleats more than gathers. I wore a pleated skirt 5 days a week from 4th to 12th grade (woooooo Catholic School! Represent!) so that's what my mind went straight to when I was sewing the them haha. I thought the directions explained them pretty well, and that's saying something since normally, I get really confused really easily by pattern instructions. Maybe this means I'm getting better.

This is the skirt before pleating. This is the first full-skirted dress I've made, so I was surprised at how long it was. Yeah, yeah, I know: that's what she said. But more importantly, I'm glad I was a good little seamstress and transferred all those markings because normally I'm not a stickler for that, and if I hadn't, figuring out the skirt would've been a nightmare. And what're those little blob shaped things you see? Why yes, I did add pockets to the dress!
    Like the sleeves, the pockets are an element I'm proud of, but that aren't quite flattering. After I cut all my pieces out I noticed a perfectly pocket shaped scrap and decided pockets were practical and I might as well add some. I followed the instructions for Colette's Hazel,  which has you sew the side seam up to where pockets are, sew around the pockets, and then finish down the rest of the seam, and TaDa! Inseam pockets!
    I didn't put the pockets in the side seam though. For some reason, I decided to put them in the front. I put them in correctly and all, but it turns out that my placement wasn't the wisest. The pockets are fully functional, but...

...well, it doesn't exactly work out with the pleats. But hey, now I know, and knowing is half the battle, right? ;)
    The thing about this dress is that I've had everything except the hem done since July. Then I took it to school where it sat in a box until sometime in November when I was like, why haven't I finished this thing yet? And then I wanted to be fancy and hem it by hand, which took hours.
    So all in all this was a super labor-intensive dress that I like, just not on me. But between all those sleeve darts, the pleats, and the hem, it took ages. Oh, and I even finished the seams with bias tape, which was also a first. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures, but let me assure you, it's there. And that took awhile too.
    I think I'm going to try taking the sleeves off. If I still don't like it I'll live. I learned new techniques making the dress and in this case, that's good enough. But if I can figure out a way to make it look good on me, it's gonna happen!

Mints and Mercados

*I definitely started this post at, like, the end of January/beginning of February. So that's why I'm narrating about Christmas break-- it was still recent then*

    Whoa dear, where has the time gone?! Apparently I'm just as bad at keeping up with blogging as I am with diary-ing...whoops. I was supposed to keep a blog last semester for a class and that didn't fare much better than this one. We were supposed to be updating it multiple times a week, and I think mine got six posts in all. Once again, whoops.
     I should've known that this would happen. I mean, how could I think that bad at keeping a diary + moving 6 1/2 hours away and starting college would somehow equal a well-kept blog? I did manage to sew a little last semester; I just never found time/bothered to take pictures or write about them.
    But some major sewing zen hit me over Christmas break! Basically, I had nothing else to do haha. So boy do I have some projects to show you!

   This, in case you didn't know, is Ava from Victory Patterns. I don't remember how I learned of Victory Patterns, but I did, and they have some awesome looking patterns. And now I can testify to their awesomeness, because Ava is amazing.
   I'm just going to go ahead and be honest: Ava reminded me of Colette's Macaron, and that's what initially made me want it. I'd seen pictures of the Macaron all over the interwebs and loved it. Ava was cheaper than Macaron though, and came with more options; you can make it a blouse or two different lengths of dress, cap sleeves or sleeveless. It even has optional ruffles for the neckline or sleeves. 
     So I bought Ava as an end of semester present to myself, figuring I'd just spend my extra printer money to get the pattern from Adobe Acrobat into my hands. At my school, we get $20 in printing money automatically figured into our account; printing a page costs 7 cents I think. I had a ton of printing money left over at the end of the semester, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to print a pattern. Well. This sucker ate up all that extra printing money and then some. On top of that, the printer was being silly and printed on both sides of the paper without directing it to do so. So I couldn't put any of the pattern together at all, because I'd have the one page but then the sheet I was supposed to attach it to was printed on the back of it. Grrrrrr. I went home for break emptyhanded; the car was too full for my sewing supplies and machine so I didn't expect to get anything done over those 3 weeks.
     But fate smiled on me. I convinced my sister to print out a copy of the pattern at work. She works at a school so printing off 70 pages at once was no big deal. Bonus: while taping the pattern together I came across a single permission slip for a movie day or something (apparently the 2nd graders were going to watch a PG movie instead of a regular G one...what's the difference between the G and PG ratings anyway?) And I FINALLY got my mom to let me use her Bernia. She's super protective of it even though she doesn't use it regularly. When she told me how much it cost I understood why-- it might just be the poor college student in me, but four figures is waaay more than I'm going to spend on a sewing machine anytime soon. I got mine as a birthday present but still know it's a cheapie Walmart one, and that's fine with me because I don't need anything fancy. But anyway, I managed to use my mom's machine all break without breaking it (BREAK; BREAKing it--so punny!), so yay for small victories! And I actually kind of like my crappy little Brother better, honestly. All break I couldn't get the Bernia's bobbin winder to cooperate with me; when I did get it to work the setup wasn't exactly the way the manual or my mom showed me to do it, but the bobbin was wound, and that was good enough for me! I'll give it this though: that Bernia is a quiet gently purring cat compared to my obnoxious constantly barking yappie dog of a sewing machine.

  Ok, enough backstory. Here are my Avas.

This is the first one I made. I hated it when I first tried it on. I was soooo disappointed because I worked really hard on the thing and even matched the zigzags at the side seams. And I finished the seams; nothing fancy, just a zigzag stitch, but normally I don't start a project with an "I'm going to finish ALL THE SEAMS and be legit!" mindset.

see? MATCHED THAT SIDE SEAM!

    But since I'd spent a bunch of time on it I decided to just finish it up anyway. And once I finished it, I was suddenly in love with it. It was a great feeling, trying it on again, expecting to be disappointed but instead being all, WOW. Hot damn I made this, this is awesome!
     I was able to get it over my head without the zipper's help, so this baby is zipperless. And yes, it's quilting cotton, but I don't care. The minty green zigzags were one of the only things to catch my eye the night I went to Hancock Fabrics, so they came home with me despite their fiber content :)
     Pretty much the only thing I don't like about how it turned out is the neckline. It's doesn't lie flat, but it's not bad enough to discourage me from wearing the top.

     I didn't match the zigzags at all the peplum seams, because there are six of them total and between you and me, I forgot to buy extra fabric to match everything up. Yeah, I forgot to do that for all three lengths of fabric that were destined to become Avas, even though they're all prints. Somehow I managed to avoid disaster though!
     Let's move on to Ava #2! First of all, look at this print:

it's darker in person

     Normally, I'm super timid about wearing prints. But I love this one sooooo much! It's a corduroy, which I'd never sewn with before, but it was a breeze to work with.

 OMG this fabric made me love prints. It kind of reminds me of Carnival-- Brazil Carnival, not carnival de US, with popcorn and bearded ladies and other carnies. I'm not sure if this is overly stereotypical, but this is what I'd want ot wear shopping in a street mercado somewhere in Latin America.
    The pink is a knit, I'm not sure of the specifics. I was when I bought it, but I soon forgot. I was careful to remember to zigzag the upper bodice and the part where the upper and lower bodice connect.
    This dress was actually meant to be a gift for one of my sisters. I was sad to give it away; I honestly wanted nothing more than to keep it for myself. Well, it turns out it doesn't exactly work for Ally, so now it's mine! And now I feel bad for hoping I'd get to keep it because I got what I wanted and Ally got no dress :/ But then again, I love this thing. LOVE. IT.
   Ok, you might've maybe noticed that this baby is a teensy bit short. Ok, it's pretty short. That's one of the reasons Ally didn't keep it; she's a bit taller than yours truly. It's almost too short for me, but I love it too much to let it keep me from wearing it. And in my defense, Ally is still a tad short, so I thought it'd work for her. I don't really know how it's so short; I made it according to the pattern, and normally I give things a super hem or chop off a good bit at the bottom. For reference, I'm 4' 10". Sooo if I were a normal height this dress would be unwearable. Pretty much the only time I've been thankful for being vertically challenged.
     And now that I think of it, the pattern comes with a tea length option, if that's more to your liking. Personally, I don't wear dresses or skirts that go below my knees; they make me about 2 feet tall. And hey, I'm young and free; I can get away with short dresses still.
    For sizing, I used the smallest size-- I think it's 0 (and I'm too lazy to go check, see what a professional blogger I am lol) for the bust and widened it to a 2 for the waist, making it the length of the size 0. It's a little loose in the waist, but nothing too upsetting.                                                         

back!

   And since this pattern has a circle skirt, know what it's great for?! TWIRLING THAT'S WHAT.

      It took waaay too many tries to get those pictures. Lotsa dizziness. But also lotsa fun :D
     Technically, it's not a full circle skirt. I didn't have enough fabric for what the pattern pieces needed, so I narrowed the panels at the bottom, making sure not to take anything off at the waist, so that it'd all still fit together with the bodice.
    Obviously, twirling doesn't help the length issue, I'll have to watch myself. Possibly wear a pair of Spanx underneath.
    I did a hand picked zipper for the first time on this dress, I used this Sewaholic tutorial. On my first try I did the stitches backwards. Like, instead of the tiny little pinprick stitches showing, the bigger ones were on the outside and the little ones on the inside. The tutorial was awesome though, I just read something wrong in there somewhere. I went back and followed it step by step and everything was peachy keen :)
     Hemming these suckers took foreverrrr. I used Gertie's tutorial for narrow hemming circle skirts, and it too was easy to understand and implement. I love all the sewing tutorials on the Internet; they're lifesavers:)
   Woah-k, this turned into a long post! I'll wrap up with a Like/Dislike list about Ava.
Like
-easy
-LOVE the sweetheart-but not-really neckline
-NO FACINGS (no me gusta los facings)
-twirly!
-lots of options/variations
-I'm sooo happy both prints worked well, especially I've never really done prints before. I'm pretty impressed I didn't completely screw them up.

Dislike
-skankalisciously short
-the neckline on the top (I've realized it works better when I cut  the neckline/ sleeve bands a little shorter than directed, then stretch them to fit. Prevents gape like a BOSS)
-I feel like the dress is more for fall, so I have to wait allllll summer to wear it. Boo.

New Idea and a Slight Buffy Spoiler (but not really because that show's 15 years old)

     I realized today that this blog is almost starting to turn the way of my ill-fated diaries, and I don't want to give up that easily. My original idea for it was to make it completely about sewing, but I don't really want to take pictures of half completed projects. But I'm also not a complete-a-project-every-single-day type of gal either, and I'd like to write more than every week and a half or so (I'm sure to get even less done  once school starts). And I guess I could share all my research and findings about sewing, but I want to do more than just post a bunch of links. AND I'm not really one to make fall palettes  or inspiration boards, and I could care less about keeping up with fashion. So I've decided, hey, this is my blog, I'll do what I want! So I'm pretty much going to be blabbering on about whatever else I want in addition to sewing. Let's just say it's the "Ditches" in these Stitches and Ditches, since lots of it's probably going to turn into whining anyway.
     Speaking of whining, I had the most craptastic morning today :/ On the way to work, I dumped half my coffee all over my pants; spilt water all over the place once I got to work; accidentally dropped a washcloth in the trash can; the men's room that I got to clean was horrendous (come on guys! I told my manager they didn't deserve a bathroom and she should take it away); my ipod was dead and had to suffer death by country music while cleaning; and I left my wallet at home, didn't eat breakfast, and thought I wouldn't be getting a ride home til 6.

soak in those healing powers!

     Okay, that was a ridiculous amount of whininess; I'm sorry. But you have to admit, it was a rough morning. But I'm actually in a really good mood now because 1) my friend covered my lunch bill 2) not only did the barista at the Starbucks where I was planning on bumming around not care if I bummed around without buying anything but 3) she gave me a free coffee! She's the best person ever, polar opposite of Hipster Barista! Awesome Wentzville Starbucks barista lady, I hope the karma police repay you with something awesome. A cup of black Starbucks coffee isn't really super expensive or valuable, but it was so incredibly nice of her! I even had a little coffee already since at work we can only give out coffee til it's three hours old, and there was some from 11 this morning that I relieved them of, but she still gave me awesome Starbucks coffee! I'm just really touched because she didn't have to at all but she did and it's great to see nice people. And also, hey! Free coffee! I should write her some fan mail...or sew something for her....hmmm
     Alright, now for something maybe a tad bit more on the topic of sewing. Many blogs I read are filled with projects inspired by tv or movie outfits. There's the Sew Cinematic sewalong and the Sew Weekly's had an Oscar and a Mad Men challenge, and I do believe they've had more of that type, but I can't find them right now. But I've tried to plan a project based on a tv outfit and honestly couldn't really think of any that really stuck. I've admired outfits as I've watched the shows, but never searched them out or made a good enough mental note. I love Zooey Deschanel's style though, but then I just ended up googling pictures of her to see her outfits, and I'd really rather think up my own creations that painstakingly search out a random cute dress I see Miss Deschanel wearing.
     I realized two seconds ago that I'm pretty much admitting to the world that I'm a pretty lame sewing blogger and fashionista-sewist. Whatever, at least I'm being honest. Aaaaanyway, I've been working my way through Buffy on Netflix, and realized that since I'm religiously watching the show, I might as well watch out for clothes I'd want to copy. And then I realized that until like season 4 Buffy's set in the 90s, and oh dear, 90s fashion...oh dear.

really Buffers? You gonna scare  Dru away with your shapeless hips?

But Oz still loves her :)

 I'm not a fan of overalls on non babies/toddlers/construction workers/miners. Really, even the construction workers usually can't pull them off. And how's Buffy supposed to open a can of whoop-ass in overalls? Willow's I can kind of accept, because she's the adorable bookworm. I myself am a bookworm and can't ever see myself voluntarily putting on overalls, but hey, the 90s. Actually, searching for that picture taught me that Willow apparently had a closet full of the things. K, acceptance revoked. And Buffy doesn't even seem to be enjoying the comfiness of her overalls. Then again, I'm pretty sure it's from an episode where she's all depressed because Angel wants to kill her and, more importantly, doesn't love her anymore. I'm not giving her a pass for them though because she wears them in a later episode where she has her Angel back :P
     So that was my Buffy fashion rant observation: 90s = coal miner style. Well, and David Boreanaz looks goooood in white!

even though I don't think he's posing as Angel here, I'm pretty sure it proves my point. and yes, the pic did need to be extra large.

 Holy StudMuffin McDreamy, Batman! That face AND he's got the Byronic hero vibe goin on AND they named him Angel? Why didn't Axe get him as their spokesperson?! You know what? I'd probably become more accepting of overalls if Angel/David Boreanaz vouched for them. It's pretty safe to say the man would look good in anything.

third time's the charm!

     Ughblegh, zippers hate me. I just put a zipper in that cute little Simplicity dress for the third time...grrr. Although it was actually my fault. I decided I didn't need no 18 inch zipper; I'm not tall or anything, 12 inches is plenty!
     12 inches meant it couldn't zip the waist seam open. For some reason I didn't realize this until I was trying to step into it and couldn't get it past my knees. I figured no biggie, I'll just slip it on over my head. Well, I somehow got it over my head...I did not get it off over my head. I got it off by (rather ferociously) seam ripping one side of the zipper out. I was, as my sister put it, a slave to fashion. Hey, you live you learn, right?   So then I thought if I could just lower the zipper a couple inches I'd be fine because it had ended right at the waist the first time. I figured I could put an extra hook and eye at the empty space at the top...nope. Still not enough room for these hips. But at least this time I wasn't stupid enough to try it on like that again! See, progress.

approximately my expression when I break a needle

     So I just got the proper length zipper today and now I can actually try the dress on! Excitement! Now I just have to finish the neckline, hem it, and decide if I want to attach the sleeves or just make it sleeveless.
     I'm really happy the zipper went well this time though because I made a Tshirt today (1st time sewing knits!). I got ballpoint needles and a double needle for topstitching and everything and I got the shirt together pretty easily. Then I broke my only double needle putting twill tape in the shoulder seam. I got it yesterday! Gah, I was so devastated I just sat there and cursed for about three minutes straight. So zipper success was really a pick-me-up. I'm glad I ended my sewing endeavors for the day with a success.

Mystery Fabric: Magic or Mayhem?

     I am a thrifty person. That's the nice way of saying cheap! I absolutely hate spending money. When I have to hand over large amounts of money, I take a deep breath and do it quick-- just like ripping off a Band-Aid.

...do you have layaway? can i work the bill off? sell my firstborn?

    I do this quite often in the fabric store. Sewing isn't, after all, the cheapest of hobbies. It requires fabric, thread, zippers, pins, shears, patterns, a sewing machine isn't a bad idea; not to mention all sorts of other little odds and ends a beginner probably wouldn't dream of. Horsehair braid? Hem tape? Bias tape? Twill tape?!  GROMMETS? And holy crap, you're supposed to use different needles for different types of fabric?!
     Buying sewing supplies is a hard process for committed cheapos like myself. BUT.
     I do try. Cheap notions aren't a big deal; bigger things are opportunities to put coupons into action. Sometimes Hancock Fabrics has 99 cent pattern sales. I spring into action I tell you-- limit 10 per customer? I won't leave with under 8. I'm on the email list for Joann's and Hobby Lobby, and every couple of weeks I get a Hancock Fabric booklet with all sorts of lovely sale info and coupons. Sidenote: Hancock Fabrics has the best sale names and they have sales going on pretty much constantly. Seriously, Sassy Saturday Sale? (which I'm pretty sure is every Saturday) How can you beat Sassy Saturday? Anyhoo...
     Pretty much all fabric I buy is on sale/clearance. Scratch that. I never eva buy full priced fabric. In case you haven't inferred, Hancock Fabrics is my go-to sewing store. I don't know if every Hancock Fabrics is the same way, but mine has a bunch of folding tables grouped together with signs calling you to spot the sale or something like that.

 I spot those bolts' socks off. I spot them from a mile away. I spot more bolts than someone watching a lightning storm. I spot them so hard they don't...know....what spotted.....them? OK, the point is, that's where I find my fabric. My cheap, wonderful fabric.
     Now some of that fabric is just ugly, and no one wanted it, so they're trying to get rid of it, duh. Some are just little remnants. Some have little flaws and stains. And some of that fabric is unidentified material that doesn't look half bad, to my eyes or wallet. Attached to the bolt is a note about unknown fiber content, which I'm sure correlates directly to that non-heart attack generating price. I have a bunch of this kind of fabric.
     As far as I can tell, knowing the fabric is important so you know how to take care of it/not burn it while pressing. As far as sticking to fabric suggestions for patterns, I use that for general guidelines of how heavy or stiff it needs to be.

$3 a yard?! the Wizard of Oz has tampered with these prices!

     So for me, mystery fabric is magical, hands down. Magical in that I get it for cheap. But I feel like more experienced sewers/sewistas/peeps who sew would frown on this mentality and say it's more important to have specific information about your material so you can determine if it's right for your project and take proper care of it.
     Is there some vital information I'm missing that makes mystery fabric untouchable? I really don't care too much about knowing exact fiber content anyway; I've seen burn testing mentioned as a way to determine it, but the thought of burning anything (aside from candles or tiki torches) I spent my dinero on kind of makes me cringe.
   The reason I've been pondering this is that I'm using a Mystery Fabric in my next project, Simplicity 1873. Hopefully my dress will be half as cute as Miss FlowingBlondeLocksandEightFeetTallLegs's. But you can bet I won't be wearing it with that little coy half-hint of a smile. Nosiree, I'll be jumping for joy if I can pull this one off.

What's Up, Buttercup?

What kind of blog name is Stitches and Ditches anyway?! Oh well, it sounded kind of catchy at 3 am this morning when I made it. 

     Please be patient with me, internet, whilst I try to figure this whole blogging thing out. Hopefully it doesn't turn out anything like my ill-fated diary attempts when I was little. I'd write an entry then forget about it for a year. And lose the key. And then find the poor book under my bed one day and pry the lock open using a bobby pin (Nancy Drew style!) and then repeat the whole process. But anywayyyyyy........

my 10 year old self

I've been thinking about starting a sewing blog for a while now, and since I have a pretty new laptop and shiny little digital camera now I can try!  
I don't know exactly when I became interested in sewing. My mom sewed tonsss of my siblings and my clothes when we were little so I've always been open to the idea of making clothes yourself. Then Stumbleupon took me to The Sew Weekly and I was immediately hooked. So many pretty clothes! Every week! I think I found Gertie through Stumbleupon too. Once again, hooked. She's hilarious and sassy and awesome and makes the most breathtaking vintage-y dresses!

 

 

so...much...sewing knowledge

It's crazy how many other sewing blogs I found after finding those two. Each one just leads you to more and more awesome sewistas! I'm like Hercules trying to kill the hydra; I'm all, "I'm just going to look at a few Sew Weekly posts." Then one of the posts has a link for some sort of awesome tutorial, which I HAVE to follow, and that tutorial will mention some awesome project or other. Which I could totally ignore, except they put a PICTURE of le awesome project, and it looks so legit and pretty and I want to make legit pretty things! So I have to check it out, you see. This can go on for several hours.
     Eventually I transitioned from obsessively reading sewing blogs to obsessively reading sewing blogs and actually, you know, sewing. I've made a couple of dresses and tops with varying levels of success. Hey, I can put an invisible zipper in and used bias tape successfully last night, so I'm not doin too bad, I think.
     So this blog will hopefully be an account of my sewing adventures. Wish me luck, blogosphere!