Auto Sewing, Practical Plans, and New Labels

For once, my time out of camp didn't fly by.  I'm not sure why, usually it feels like I blink and it's time to go back to work.  It's not like it was boring or tedious - I had a fantastic time filled with friends and parties and skiing and chilling with The Boyfriend.  It was just...perfect.

I even had time to dig out my disaster of a sewing room (again) and do a bit of sewing.  I'd really just planned to cut out another version of my Linden in a solid purple ponte knit, and save the sewing for when I get back from camp.  But then The Boyfriend went to hockey, and all I remember was wondering into the sewing room to find a marker and suddenly there was this sitting on my sewing table:

Not the true colour.

Seriously though, this pattern goes together in no time.  There's six seams there: two for each raglan shoulder and one on each side.  After that, there's the sleeve cuffs, hem and neckband (which I didn't get to).  That's it.  Granted, I haven't attached any bands to this.  I was going to, but then The Boyfriend arrived home and distraction!

Not quite the true colour either, but closer.

My auto-sewing brain apparently choose to add some clear elastic to the raglan seams, probably because the cross-grain stretch along that seam seemed (heh) excessive, and thought this would stabilize it a bit.  I hope so, anyways.

This is going to be my January piece for Make a Garment a Month (MaGaM).  Their theme this month is 'something new' (or...something like that - I can't get on FB at work to confirm), and this definitely isn't a new pattern to me.  But the one thing I want on my other version of this top is a breast pocket to tuck my ipod or hair pin into, so I'm going to try my hand at adding a small zippered pocket. I've never done that before, and I think this stable knit should be able to handle it.

I'm tentatively planning on doing a lot of basic and very wearable garments this year that have little details (pockets, embroidery, maybe trims) to add more interest.  I want to challenge myself, but I also need wearable cake instead of pretty frosting!

The true colour, at last!  Silly camera.

Oh, and I found my 2015 labels!  I'll be adding a bit of this rainbow ribbon on garments and maybe some accessories to indicate the year it was made in.  Fun idea, eh?  I keep thinking about having proper labels made, but "Things I Make.  Plus Rocks" doesn't fit very well, and I like this idea better.  Plus it's much cheaper!

Do you add labels to your garments?  I found that my Linden really needed one, because there is very little difference between the front and back.  And it looks cute!

Plotting a Sewcation and Spazzing out in Camp

TWO MORE DAYS TIL FLYDAY!!  TWO MORE DAYS TIL FLYDAY!!

No, I'm not excited at all.  I love my job, but there's only so much of it I can do at one time, and 3 weeks straight (that's 252 work-hours, but who's counting) with no days off is definitely it.


To get me though these last few days, I've been plotting a sewcation!  And boy have I bought the patterns to prove it.

Source

First item on the docket is to test sew Steph's latest inspired creation, the Sea Star Tunic.  I have no idea how this funky puzzle of a pattern will go together, but it sounds like a fun experiment!  While I know I should go with something practical, I'm sort of thinking that it'd be fun in some sort of sheer, like a pretty chiffon in some wild print.  Hmm, choices choices.

I've also downloaded the Rosy Ladyshorts, by Cloth Habit.  They're so pretty, and look like a fun and quick pattern.  I just hope I can find decent fabric in town. 

When I was down in Edmonton this summer, my buddy and I went fabric shopping (well, I went fabric shopping and she encouraged me to buy everything), where I finally tracked down some swimsuit fabric.  I have a bunch of it now (but no photo yet, sorry!), but no pattern to go with it.  WELL NO LONGER.  I've jumped on the Bombshell bandwagon, despite some misgivings about that straight line across the hip bit.  I like it on everyone who's made it though, and it's a lovely pattern, so I'm just going to trust in the pattern and go.

 I'm also considering this tankini pattern by Jalie Patterns for some of the fabric. I have some wild hot pink and black arrow fabric which would be a lot of fun as a top.  Or bottoms.  OR BOTH!  Ack I wanna show you the fabric!  Soon, my pretties, soon.

What else...oh!  I also bought the Linden Sweatshirt by Grainline Studio this time.  Mostly because I'm bloody cold in my office and it looks like a great sweater pattern.  I have a great, sturdy purple knit I've been hoarding, and this might be just the project!  Ooo, I also have an argyle-printed grey knit I've had for even longer...can you say colour-blocking?!

For some reason, I feel like I bought another sewing pattern sometime in the last three weeks, but maybe I'm thinking of the 3 or 4 knitting projects that have made their way into my hands...

(Why yes, there has been a lot of impulse shopping this rotation, why do you ask?  I'm just glad to have refrained from the yarn ordering bing I nearly did the other day...)

And none of this includes all of the patterns I already own want to sew up.  Like another version of Grainline's Archer.  And...I don't even remember, but there's a lot.

COME ON PLANES COME AND GET ME I WANNA GO HOME AND SEEEEWWWW.

(I might be going a little camp crazy)

She Lives!!!

Most of the yarn I panic-packed for camp knitting this rotation.  Each ball was a surprise as I unpacked them.

And by 'she' I mean me!

So I'm nearly two weeks through a three week rotation in camp.  After only one week off before hand.  Yes ladies and gentlemen, that means I'll have worked 5 full weeks out of the last 6!  BLECH.  And half of that with the camp plague, to boot.  This place is a little petre dish.

Between the workload, crummy internet, and crummier health, there hasn't been much desire to blog lately.  But I have kept steadily onward with knitting.  Yes, more knitting - it's the easiest thing to bring to camp.

See that pile of yarn above?  It's what I panic packed for camp the morning I left, directly because I realized how quickly Christmas is approaching, especially for someone who makes most of her gift.  YIKES!!

I don't really have much to share right now.  I'm lucky I was able to get the one photo into this post with this slow internet, and I'm a bit scared to hit post.  But I am alive!  (Which feels a bit surprising, considering the back-to-back colds/flus I got earlier this month.)  And man, I cannot wait to get home, clean out my disaster of a sewing room, and sew. 

I'll babble more about my Christmas knitting soon.  And possibly a rock post, because boy did I ever find a pretty one underground the other day!