Bitten by the bug (again!)

Posted by on Jan 16, 2012 in Blogging, Sew | 11 comments

With the start of a new year, I made a promise – the weekends will not be spent with work unless strictly necessary.

This was a promise to myself, first. Late in November I had a photoshoot scheduled with my photographer, Valerie. We were supposed to re-shoot tons of things – all my sock patterns, all my shawl patterns… and on the Saturday I woke up with gastritis and unable to stand up. That’s some scary stuff. I have suffered from gastritis here and there, mostly when I’m stressed. While it’s uncomfortable (dull ache in the stomach when eating, minimum appetite), I can keep going with it. But this time my bones were bust. My hips screamed whenever I tried to stand up. That weekend, photoshoot cancelled, I slept over 30 hours in 2 days. I was exhausted.

That, plus the need to ensure my relationship lasts. Sure, we’re getting married and love each other to no end, but the fact is, I was spending ALL of Saturday and ALL of Sunday working. I needed to wake up and realize that we need time together at the weekends.

We’ve adjusted certain things – now we split our shopping between Saturday and Sunday, which makes us go for walks, trot around the shops and not worry about work all the time. I’ve also, as admitted above, stopped all-but-required work on weekends. I will read emails, not respond until Monday. I will do a bit of social media marketing, but not constant tweeting/Fb-ing. I will do other crafts to keep my hands busy so I don’t go crazy, but will not work unless I have a looming deadline.

I’m pretty good at keeping deadlines given that I knit so fast (the VK jumper in sport-weight yarn was done in 4 days), so that shouldn’t be a huge issue. And so it is that I’ve rediscovered sewing.

A while ago, when I was still working at the haberdashery shop, I purchased some Vogue sewing patterns when we had the sale, and one of them was this…

I so wanted to make it, and you’d think finding wool to sew a coat from, living in the UK, would be easy? Nope. So I waited.

When we decided to get married in March, when it’s still definitely winter in here – I saw another opportunity. Once I bought my dress I knew I couldn’t use a very colourful fabric for the coat, and on my Los Angeles trip I found the fabric – black wool, thick enough to be a coat, and with sparkles!! I got my buttons from the same place too, and those ARE a real show-stopper.

This really crappy photo taken from my iPad shows you the progress...

The lining is houndstooth black and white – I was going for a plain lining, but Brian (who knows me very well) said “well… it’s not like you’re going conservative in the dress, the coat, the ceremony… why not go out of the ordinary in the coat lining too?

And he’s right!

Now of course I’ve one of those SEW ALL THE THINGS moments – I realised I have a whole dress cut and ready to go, I wanted to make a certain shirt, a skirt, a top, a pair of linen trousers…

ALL. THE. THINGS!

Do you sew? What other crafty bits are you into?
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  • Alexis Russell

    It sounds like your husband had a very Handmade Ryan moment there. ;) I wish I could sew, but I think I have a bit of a patience problem when it comes to learning the basics. Love the coat & lining, can’t wait to see the rest!

    • http://www.rockandpurl.com/blog Ruth Garcia-Alcantud

      LOL he does have Handmade Ryan moments, especially with my designs “Hey girl, I see why you tried to balance that pattern there….”

      The basics are actually the only things you need to get you started, seriously – sewing is all about learning the pressure to apply to the foot and holding the fabric in place. Once that’s embedded in you, the rest is just play!

  • http://woollythinker.wordpress.com/ woollythinker

    I don’t sew. I’m so jealous. Technically I *can*, or at least I have done with reasonable success, but… I hate it. I keep trying to get over that, but I just hate it. Such a pity: I would dearly love to be able to make my own clothes, to my own specifications. Knitting is fabulous but slow, and you can’t knit everything!

    • http://www.rockandpurl.com/blog Ruth Garcia-Alcantud

      That’s such an odd thing – you strike me as the meticulous person who would sew and would do it to perfection! Any pointers on why you hate it?

      • http://woollythinker.wordpress.com/ woollythinker

        Ha! Well, for starters, I’m actually not that meticulous, not when it comes to crafts. I’m impatient as hell. I want perfection, but I don’t want to put the time in. So that’s a big frustration right there. Then, there’s the cutting out issue: I’m bad at it (see “impatient”), and I hate that if you make a mistake in cutting out, you’re pretty much screwed. Knitting is much more forgiving – you can make it up as you go along, find ways to fix or improve. And then, worst of all: the machine. (I don’t get along with knitting machines either.) Machines are not my friends. I always seem to get snarl-ups, no matter how careful I try to be. I hate that there’s this BEAST in between me and the actual fabric, and I have to try and figure out exactly what it needs to get the right tension etc etc… plus there’s the fact that sewing requires its own chunks of space and time, I can’t just pick it up in front of the tv…

        Basically it all comes down to: it’s not knitting.

  • CambriaW

    I don’t sew, and I’d like to learn so that I can have pajamas that fit me (the 6 feet tall issue, lol).  When I moved to New England, my mother sewed five pairs of flannel pants so I’d stay warm at night, and 10 years later, I’m wearing through the last pair :)

    Recently, I’ve gotten into cooking from scratch, and canning food (mostly fruit spreads).  It’s another obsession!

    • http://www.rockandpurl.com/blog Ruth Garcia-Alcantud

      Oh, you should definitely give it a try! My machine was a cheap one (£59 if I’m not mistaken) and it’s still going on strong after 4 heavy use years – I bet a friend has one you can have a play with and learn to sew from before you buy yourself one. Pajama pants are also SUPER easy to make, there’s lots of patterns out there for them :)

  • http://www.ShopYarnLove.com/ Katie @YarnLove

    In college, my sister-in-law and friends nicknamed me the Textile Princess. Every once in a while, if I do something impressive it gets upgraded to Goddess. Things I do related to fibers and textiles: sew, quilt (I’ve even owned a long arm quilting machine, but had to give it up when I got pregnant with my twins. There’s no way to run one with a belly that big!), knit, crochet, spin, and dye.  I’ve also worked in a small sewing boutique. Now I’ve gotten myself into the knitting/crocheting/yarny end of things. I wish I had more time to pursue all my interests, but for now, I’m happily dabbling in them all. One day, when I grow up, I’m going to learn to tat and weave. Also drive sports cars, but that’s not really textile related.

    BTW, I love your coat wool! So pretty & it’s to die for with that houndstooth lining.

    • http://www.rockandpurl.com/blog Ruth Garcia-Alcantud

      Wow, a long arm quilting machine…. I’ve never seen one of those IRL, I’ve cut and sewn the blocks for my quilt but now am stuck as to what to do next!

  • CraftyDiversions

    Awesome! Congrats! I can’t wait to see! Sewing your own things make everything so much more special (provided that you don’t over commit yourself). I made my own coat once, with several muslin alterations to fit my boobs, and granted it was a lot of labor, I couldn’t be happier. I made my coat with a very coordinating and fun lining fabric. I love that yours will be in houndstooth. I may have to make me a houndstooth-lined coat or skirt!

    • http://www.rockandpurl.com/blog Ruth Garcia-Alcantud

      We’ll be patterned sisters :) I think I tried to keep everything very small for the wedding out of fear I would over commit, you know us crafty people would do!

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