Well crap

That's not a good sign on your first use of new knitting needles.  Luckily I caught it before too many stitches were dropped, and some crazy glue fixed those right up.  Not very impressed though.  :\

Goodies in the Mail!

Getting this in the mail totally made my day!

Clockwise from left: cute little round zippered bag, silk thread, twin needle, clear elastic, mystery grey binding (same as blue?), and hug and snug binding.

Thanks for the goodies Suzy!  It was fun receiving mail from Australia!  :D  I'm excited to try out the different bindings and clear elastic - I've never used either and don't have access to them here in Yukon (until I finally breakdown and start ordering supplies online - that day looms closer and closer on the horizon).

Happy sewing (or, as I'm obsessed with lately, knitting) everyone!

Update: Supplies and Thrifting Fun

Itch to sew…rising.

Sadly, despite having a project all ready to start, I haven’t been able to do any sewing. That's because I am now in another Manitoba town, far away from my sewing machine. But that’s alright, it just gives me a chance to pick up more supplies!

Especially since pretty much the entirety of my sewing supplies are still in southern Ontario.

First off, I checked out this cute little fabric store located on Main Street. While I didn’t get any fabric (as if I need any more potential projects to distract me from thesis writing), I did pick up some supplies, including fabric chalk, pins, bias tape, rivets and piping (for one of the tops mentioned here), and a few other do-dads.

After the fabric store, I checked out the local thrift store, and boy oh boy, did I hit the jackpot! Never mind the adorable denim trousers and casual dress jacket in exactly my size, this place had a beautifully organized sewing section. They had tonnes of fabric and notions! Guess that’s the bonus of hitting a thrift store in a strong Mennonite community.

I picked up a whole whack of pretty (and some pretty ugly) buttons, as well as two large pieces of fabric. So much for not distracting myself with more projects.

The white and yellow striped fabric is actually a large cotton/poly blend top sheet (in excellent condition), and I sort of want to make a shirt-dress with it. It’d have to be lined, of course, but I think it’d look really lovely. The other fabric is a woven shirting-weight fabric of mysterious origin, and I have no idea what I’ll do with it yet.

Sure is lovely, though. Possibly a blouse? A light-weight skirt? I may even have enough of it to make a dress!

Oh, and I found this really ugly (but with great potential!) shirt dress pattern. It’s very obviously from the early ‘90s, but I like the fuller skirt on it. I’m torn between making up this pattern (view C, with alterations to modernize it a bit), or picking up McCall’s 4769. Hmm… Any thoughts? Maybe alterations at this scale is a little too much for me, and PR has many adorable reviews of the pattern. Sadly, there is none for this vintage(?) pattern. Eh, we'll see.

Thifting is pretty awesome in my books, mostly because I'm cheap (I'm from the Canadian prairies, we're sort of known for it), but also because I believe in reusing rather than wasting resources on new (usually inferior or disposable) products.

Do you thrift shop for clothes or sewing supplies? Or do you prefer to only use new fabric/supplies/clothes? Any particular reason why?

Introducing Mabe TwoToo the Dress Form

Look at what I got for Christmas!!! From the Grandma that I named the last dress form after and whom I gave the sewing room shadow box to.

This is all not helping me focus on thesis writing at all.