allysewn beanie

This past weekend I started working on Mr. Hoffman's Shield and Scroll beanie. It looks like this.

I never really liked how these beanies look. I know some people like them, but I think it's kinda embarrassing to wear so I never wear mine. Maybe I'm just overly self-conscious.
Anyway, I was supposed to cover the white sectors with light blue felt--YEAH. FELT. It brought back so many bad memories from previous felt projects (see my other entry, "Failure".) And I'm pretty sure the entire beanie is made out of some sort of felt, which was really hard to work under the sewing machine. So I had to hand sew it. It's probably better off that way, though. Things would have gotten really ugly if I tried to do it all by machine.
I also got to try embroidering by hand! The cat was kinda just for fun, so I took it off (the legs are weird and it doesn't really look professional. Really.. Would you respect someone wearing a little cat on his head?) If I'm feeling ambitious I might try and embroider the cousin sweatshirts! (We ordered it years ago and never actually got it done.)

The Final Product!

"Mr. Hoffman, do this *asian studio pic pose with hands under chin* so I can put you on my blog!"
"What? No. Why?"
"Please?"

"Wait can I see it to make sure it turned out okay?...Okay, tag me."

Sewme of the crafty things I've been up to

I haven't sewn for a while (although I do get to sew/embroider on Mr Hoffman's Shield & Scroll beanie, haha) and now, a lot of the time, I don't want to. Usually, when I sew, I just close the door to my room and spend the time by myself, on my floor, or at the sewing machine, cutting and sewing for hours, singing songs from Wicked to myself. I don't really want to isolate myself at home like that. I think I'd rather spend the time watching Arrested Development with my parents and fall asleep on their shoulders, or playing ping pong and getting dominated by my dad, who is surprisingly agile, or my mom, who just came out of surgery 2 days ago and can't move around, but still manages to own me so so so badly. Of course it feels good to run out of my room wearing something I just finished sewing and see the expression on my mom's face (WOW) but it's been good trying to find other crafty things to do that don't involve me isolating myself.

A little over a week ago, I made conversation heart shortbread cookies--not those nasty chalky tasting candies, to pass out at school before Valentine's Day. It's shortbread with food coloring, and the writing is done by a red food coloring marker, which was dying on me (no pun intended!!) the whole time.

Also. apparently nobody knows what S.W.A.K. means anymore. But it's not like anyone says that. I have never heard anyone say "swak," and I can't imagine a situation where anyone would. It's weird. Maybe it's just a conversation heart thing.

Another thing. I'm trying to make little clay things. I used to be really into clay a couple years ago (every time I made one I would announce to my family that I made a new little friend to play with) but I slowly stopped. But my friend at school, who makes amazing things out of clay and nail polish and anything artsy, inspired me to start up again.

Eve, rose, strawberry cake, and wildberry pop-tart. 

I miss pop-tarts. Kashi Go-Lean and Joe's O's just aren't the same as those overly frosted, just-out-of-the-toaster pop-tarts. When I go to college, I'm gonna buy pop-tarts, and I'm gonna be so happy. I used to love the strawberry ones, but I just searched pop-tarts on wikipedia, and there are so many new delicious-sounding flavors!!!

A milkshake in a tart?! I didn't think it was possible either.

mmmmmmm. This has to taste good.

Is it Eve or Eva?

And lastly, college stuff is coming out soon! I was going crazy yesterday in the halls at school when I heard people saying that UC Irvine sent out its acceptance emails. I spent at least an entire minute getting really excited, hurrying to pack up my backpack so I could check my email in the school library, before I remembered I didn't apply there. 

Still, exciting.

my life as an only child, sew far

I haven't sewn anything big in a while. I'm not feeling it right now.

But I made this ribbon flower:

I just followed this. I stuffed it in a bouquet of real flowers to see if people would notice. They haven't. And, I've tried making it again with my other ribbons, but I can't do it anymore. So I will not be making these for Valentines Day, as I do not know how anymore. Sew Sad.

Things are still sad at home, but my family is so much closer now. I definitely say that after every bad thing that happens in my family. But it has become even more true now. Even though we're miles apart. (guess where that's from!!!!)

For my mom, who can't eat anything rich, cheesy, spicy, spicey, fried, fiberous, or tomato based, and my dad, who can't eat anything fatty, salty, meaty, or starchy, and us kids, who want to eat something that will not taste like garbage, Daniel and I made turkey noodle soup and grilled vegetable sandwiches. If you can think of anything else we could have possibly made, you are incredible.

Sew Scawy!!

NOTE: This post is not sewing related. But for some sewing news, I sketched out my senior prom dress. I think I'll work on it next weekend!

Since forever, my family has had two phones-- upstairs and downstairs. The upstairs one, on a separate line, belonged to my grandma, but nobody ever used it. All of us were always downstairs, except when we slept. Even my grandma's friends called her on the downstairs phone. From time to time, the upstairs phone would ring, but we assumed the calls were from telemarketers and didn't bother picking up the phone.

We canceled the phone line for the upstairs phone after my grandma died. But from time to time, it would still ring. This went on for months, maybe even a year. There's not supposed to be a number that leads to our phone anymore. It was spooky. I even had a couple dreams where I picked up the phone and my grandma or God would answer and tell me what to do...

Eventually, my fearless mother answered the phone. It was some computerized thing about credit cards. Disappointing. I guess it wasn't that spooky of a phone after all. We unplugged it.

So that was like three years ago. 

A couple nights ago, I was up in the living room, sitting next to these weird Chinatown underwear my grandma bought Sarah. (They go up super high and have a zippered pocket to hold money and things in. I think I could sew one, but do not worry. I never will.) I'm so lonely. Sew lonely. My parents were asleep and no one else was home, so I was just sittin. That's what I do now that I am (for this month) an only child. Just sitting here under a fuzzy, next to weird underwear. 

So it's totally silent, and then, suddenly, I hear this really annoying ringing sound from upstairs. At first, I assume it's Daniel's annoying key finder, which beeps when you whistle, or when it senses any high frequency sound. But Sarah and I dismantled the key finder and hid it downstairs a while ago. I listened again, and it sounds more and more like the upstairs phone. Even though the phone is UNPLUGGED.

At this point, it's past midnight, I'm freaking out, silently, and the hallway leading upstairs looks really scary. THE PHONE IS HAUNTED. There is no explanation for this. The phone keeps ringing for about a minute. And then it rings a couple minutes after, and it doesn't stop. 

At this point, I'm through with being quiet. I start shouting "It's ringing! It's ringing!!!!!!!!!!!" 

My mom comes out and, somehow, knows exactly what I'm referring to. She goes upstairs, picks up the phone, which is not ringing anymore, reassures me that these things happen (THEY DON'T!) and goes back to bed. I consider going to bed, but then I figure I would much rather blog about something like this. I start the first couple of paragraphs.

Then Sarah and Andrew come home and discover it was Sarah's friend's cell phone, which she left upstairs, and which happens to have the same ring tone that our upstairs phone had. Really, what are the odds?

I'm not sure what to make of this ending. It's not nearly as exciting or crazy as I was hoping for, but that's okay. For the rest of this month, I'll probably still be just as alone late at night, and I'll probably find other things to freak out about, or other weird articles of clothing around the house to mention in my blog. But at least I can take comfort in the fact that my upstairs phone is no longer haunted.

Sewwww Done with Finals!

Hello!

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog lately. I promised myself I wouldn't sew during finals, so I had nothing to blog about (sad, I know...) But now that finals are over, I decided to go a little crazy and try making a shirt with SLEEVES! I wanted it to look sorta like an American Appearel V-neck but lower quality. The fabric was only 99 cents/yard, so there's no way it will feel as nice or soft as the real thing. But I wanted to try it so I could start learning how to sew casual clothes.

Especially now that I am a second semester senior, I have time to have fun and have sewing parties and learn how to sew more complicated things.

Now I realize that what you see below is a little gross, but I am posting it anyway!

I think we look similar, minus my skin color.

Wait what the heck. I look really dark. I can hardly tell where my lips are. This is absurd.

In other news, I need to do something with my hair. There is simply too much of it and it hinders my ping-pong playing abilities. This morning, while I was waking up and getting ready and all that, I looked at my hair in the mirror and saw something white. "What could it be?" I thought to myself. Not dandruff. Not flaky enough. Not food. Didn't eat anything white yesterday. I usually don't get food stuck in my hair. So I reach for it, combing through my hair. And out tumbles a small, shiny...

 

...PIN!

IN MY HAIR!

ON MY HEAD!

I don't know how it got there.

It could be because I use the carpet on my floor as a gigantic pin cushion, or it could be because my hair is out of control. 

You decide. <--Guess what movie that's from!

Why Sew Serious?

NOTE: I created this blog for a couple reasons, but one of them was because I wanted to include cool sewing puns (actually, just the same one over and over again) in the titles of all my posts. This time the title doesn't really relate (I won't be linking sewing to The Dark Knight, sorry.) But this does have to do with sewing...

I'm a terrible shopper. Shopping makes me bored, and when I'm bored, I go into youngest-child-hypermode. Just ask my family--less than a week ago I was pretending to be the hamburglar, stealing all the tennis balls so they would stop playing a very boring, long game of tennis. Robble robble.

Because I don't like shopping, I've never taken the time to figure out how to dress very well. It's not like I thought I was so cool that how I dressed didn't matter, cuz I kinda cared--just not enough to be a really intense shopper. So it was really nice when I learned how to sew because then I could dress how I wanted to by just making things for myself. And that's what I've started doing. It became really fun. Every project, I would try for something a little more ambitious. It started with a sun dress for the summer, then another dress for a dance and a wedding. After a while, I ran out of occasions and seasons that demanded new clothing. But whatever, I sewed myself clothes anyway because I thought they would be fun to wear. Here were some of my goals:

1. Make all my own wardrobe (or at least the tops) so I wouldn't be dressed in the same brand names and colors as everyone else.
2. Make my senior prom dress... and save a lot of bank in the process.
3. Never shop again (or keep it to a minimal, and just make everything I want to wear.)
   
4. Create a cool blog where I can post all my sewing creations. (Hey...)
   

Now as you've probably noticed, I've been writing in the past tense... like things are different now. And, well, that's what I'm hoping it will be. I, like my cousin Nate, have read The Irresistible Revolution and I want to figure out how to be a different kind of seamstress. I can admit, my endeavors in sewing, though few and extremely basic, have always been pretty selfish. I mean, yeah, I saved money and I don't really shop a lot, but I don't shop just cuz it bores me, and I spend the money I saved on myself in other ways. (I think I spend it on going out to King of Thai almost every Tuesday these past few months, which is totally unnecessary but I just do it cuz I get bored of bread and hummus for lunch. Plus, everyone else in the Social Studies office is doing it, and I don't wanna be lame or not spirited on King of Thai Tuesdays.) I haven't really tried to learn how to read patterns or sew correctly because I always just assumed I'll only ever make clothes for myself. In all the hours I've spent sewing, I've never even tried to sew clothes for other people. So here are some of the goals of the seamstress I'm hoping to become:

1. Learn how to sew for other people. (So far, I can only make clothes for myself cuz I just hold up the fabric to my body to know how much to cut and keep trying it on over and over again. It's the most inefficient, sloppy way of sewing ever, and I will settle for it no longer!)
   
2. Make clothes for people who need some (I can think of two girls already!! Know others?!)
   
3. Use the money I save less selfishly (and foolishly...) Still gotta think about what I will do with the money, though.
   
4. Make less clothing for myself. I don't really need it. Sewing clothes takes me a long time and I don't want to spend all my time working on articles of clothing for myself just because they make me feel a little cooler.

So, (or should I say, "sew,") this is exciting. Stay tuned for what else is going on, and leave comments! You have NO idea how much I look forward to comments, or how pathetic I sound when I complain to Sarah about my lack of comments.

Dress #4

Hi. Happy New Year!
I was really excited after I finished this one! I think it's my favorite so far.
I need to learn how to take better pictures. And I needa figure out what to do with my face. Otherwise I'll end up cutting off my head in like all my pictures...

Details on the white part of the dress:
Sorry this one's a lame post. I don't have much to say. I just wanted to post this dress before I forget (btw, I wanna name my dresses. All cool dresses have cool names. So.. IDEAS?)