this day was sew productive

Today I spent fifteen minutes just sitting at my desk, wondering if I had enough room for my sewing machine in my cozy corner of the triple that I live in.

I decided I did.

Stay tuned for more interesting updates that actually have to do with sewing!

I think this is my new favorite website.

That is correct. You can make fonts! It's really fun and so I'm going to make like 10 more fonts that don't look like they were created by a five year old girl. I'm going to make sophisticated, womanly fonts. And then I will update this blog again.

fontcapture.com

GO!

secret treasures in unit 1

I like it here.

Yesterday, I skipped class!

I know, right? What kind of college student have I become?!

I promise that I didn’t do this on purpose. I really wanted to stay ahead and be a gooood college student. I made lots of lists of To-Do’s and To-Read’s. They are color coded and written in pretty markers. I even like my classes! I open my eyes really big even though it dries out my contacts just so my professors think I am being very attentive. I nod in agreement sometimes. I use ACT and it makes my teeth feel good. I also go to an abs and back workout on Fridays to try be healthy and stuff! But I woke up too late and I missed class. And none of my efforts to stay ahead, not my lists, my markers, my big eyes, my ACT, or my abs and back class could help me.

The good news is that I missed Music27, and the lectures are about very basic things in music. 

The bad news is that Music27 starts at 11:00AM. And I accidentally slept in until noon. This is just embarrassing. But when I think about it, if anyone were to sleep through an 11AM class, it would be me.

OMAH. 

It’s times like this that I miss having parents to drag me out of bed when I can’t get up. Even when I get rug burns because my dad pulls my 5’7” body across the carpet in my room, through in the hallway, and into the kitchen. Man, I had it so good...

On Thursday, I woke up, looked at the time, and the first thing I thought was, “Aw man.. well at least I have something to blog about!”

So I am not as organized or put together as I thought I’d be at this point. I try really hard, but I’ll still make ridiculous mistakes. And I don’t need to set up everything perfectly in my new little college life. And when I do try, I will still miss my 11AM class. 

OH MAN. Can you imagine if my classes started at 8AM today?!

Anyway. Yesterday morning was a good reminder for me that I am not perfect, and even when I try to make everything work out perfectly, I’m me and I will still make mistakes. And that is okay because I will learn lots while I am here in Berkeley. wow I’m so excited to learn like a lotttt of new things. That’s what people do in college.

I live here.

Even though I missed Music27, I made it to my costume lab on time, later that day! I am in a stagecraft class and so I get to do costume labs twice a week. It’s fun! But mostly menial labor… like sewing on labels, sewing on buttons, and hemming.  Oh well. It’s not that boring. I'm learning a lot. Especially since I have always been really sloppy at sewing. And people say that costume lab will make me more meticulous and better at hand sewing. And it will make me care about small things that nobody else notices. I think I will like this!

hello, i'm going to college!!!

laptop case. let me know if you want one!

flannel lining. pretty mac.

Moving to Berkeley in five days!

This ugly yellow broom makes the dress work.

You need to feel this fabric. 

I saw it at Fabrix in the 99 cent/yard section, and after one touch, I went ahead and bought three yards without thinking. It was so soft! Anyway, when I went home, I completely regretted it. I didn't know what I would do with three yards of soft, flannel fabric, except make many identical pajama pants/shorts. Or make lots of little matching outfits like Maria did for the Von Trapp children. Neither of these ideas really appealed to me. I still have a lot of leftovers from the last time I went out and bought flannel. Flannel is not as useful as you would think it would be. 

So last night, I googled flannel dress and decided to try something similar to what the image results gave me. It's a little sloppy and uneven, but it feels soft and I like it. I feel like a mom when I wear it. And the broom only adds to the matronliness (A word, I looked it up.) of this dress. Ah! It makes me feel old. Like a college student! I can imagine myself wearing this dress in college. Carrying a broom. I am excited. I move in on August 22nd!

Pencil Bags for Everybody!

Hello!

I have not blogged in a long, long time. I have not sewn in a long, long time. But I did get to...

fly to Hawaii with friends for six days!

hang out at day camp with twenty two ghetto and now not-so-cliquey eighth graders that really grew on me and the messiest and nicest group of counselors ever!

celebrate my cousin's wedding!

schedule for my first semester at Berkeley!

go on the annual lam fam camping trip!

and now I get to relax, reunite with friends, sleep... and SEW!

Here is today's project:

and now, for the first time ever-- a tutorial! So now we can all have identical pencil bags. I like these because you can make them out of small scraps of fabric that aren't big enough for anything else. Also, if you go out and buy a yard, you could make a million of these pencil bags with just that one yard.  There's very little sewing involved, so you could probably make this by hand relatively fast. And they're really easy to make tutorials on...

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(1) Cut out 2 rectangles from the fabric you want on the outside of the bag (thicker fabric is better for keeping the shape of the bag) and 2 more rectangles from the fabric you want to line the inside of the bag. For a small bag, use 6"x8", for a large one, use 6"x12".

(2) Stack each lining rectangle (checkered) on top of the outer fabric rectangle (leafy.) Hem one long side in about 1/4" for both stacks.

(3) Sew the hemmed side onto the zipper like so!

(4) Flip over.

(5) Fold in half, sew along the side opposite the zipper, about 1/4" from the edge.

(6) Match up the part you just sewed with the zipper so that it lays flat like this.

(7) Flip over. Sew along the two open sides. Try to get the lines you sew to go perpendicular to the zipper at the zipper's endpoints. Yeah.

(8) Cut off the extra fabric from the sides you just sewed so it'll be less bulky inside.

(9) Unzip the bag, reach inside, and fold each corner flat (into a triangle.) Sew along the base of each of the four triangles. The length of the base will be the height of the pencil bag.

(10) Flip inside out and fill the bag with all sorts of little trinkets.

And the pencil bag I have been holding onto since 8th grade broke, so this one will replace it!

okay go make pencil bags for all your friends now.