One problem with sewing is that often the easiest projects aren’t the ones you wear most often. There’s actually a widely-accepted term for this in the sewing blog community: you sew too much frosting and not enough cake. In other words, you focus all your efforts on making the kinds of clothes that are special, oddball, Read More…
Category: Homemaking
In Praise of Slow: A Book Review
Remember that I mentioned the slow food movement with reference to sourdough bread? It’s one of those things that I’d never heard of until recently, but once I heard it the first time suddenly it was cropping up everywhere. Hence, I read this book, which is about slow everything – the Slow movement, to be Read More…
Estonian Lace Scarf
I finished a recent knitting project: a scarf. It’s blazing hot right now, so hot that I completed the last of the knitting with my hands directly in front of the fan (it’s impossible to knit with sweaty hands), so this will probably not get an inaugural wearing until cooler weather. This was made from Read More…
Practical Sewing
I’ve started sharing more of my sewing projects here, but one temptation in getting to ‘show off’ your creations is the temptation to focus on little details, complex construction and fitting. I’m going to share a project today that has nearly none of those things! This is a skirt I made, the first time around, Read More…
Homemakerly Thoughts
Recently, PhD events have meant that, for a while, I have a lot more time on my hands. For a few months I have been in some kind of occupational limbo, and though I have a part-time job, other than that I have felt that ‘homemaker’ well represented a large portion of my role for Read More…
Maxi Dress
This dress is a recent project which I planned for a while but saved for after I handed in my thesis. I wanted it to be something I took my time with, rather than filling the role of stressed-out sewing as some garments do. In the final result I love this dress, and so far Read More…
Overdressed: A Book Review
I recently read Overdressed by Elizabeth L. Cline, a book which according to its subtitle is about the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion. From reading reviews beforehand, I knew it was a book about how the West buys its relatively inexpensive clothing, and the global systems which support the industry: about ‘fast fashion’ as the Read More…
Sourdough Update
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about making sourdough bread, and promised to update on the results of my attempt. I’m pleased to say that I’ve made several successful loaves of bread since then. Here is my first one. Its major flaw is the very tentative cut across the top. I was afraid to Read More…
A Course in Sourdough Bread
My thesis has been consuming most of my time for the last few weeks, so housekeeping has been minimal. However, now that I am in quite a final stage (yikes!) of my thesis, I felt relaxed enough to catch up on things today, including laundry and some potted plants and getting my sewing machine fixed. Read More…
Pattern Drafting and a Blouse
I haven’t mentioned it yet, but since the new year I’ve been drafting my own sewing patterns. My mom gave me a pattern drafting book called Make Your Own Dress Patterns for Christmas, along with a fitting session to get a basic pattern fitting me well so I could use it as as a sloper (a basic Read More…