Finished Object: MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE

I did it!! I successfully defended my M.Sc. thesis! In fact, my committee members each told me it was well written and a good read! I'm not sure how much I believe that last point, but then I guess you need to take into account the amount of undergrad term papers they've just recently graded. :)

I looked pretty sharp in my Mariana Trench Dress, if I do say so myself! (Sorry for the crummy dirty-mirror picture. Forgot to get someone to take one earlier.) My supervisor was impressed when she found out I'd sewn it myself, and a friend said the magic words: "it looks store bought, not home-made at all"! The best thing, though, was that I felt and looked professional and confident in my appearance while up there, even if I was a giant bundle of nerves.

I treated myself to a new pair of shoes for the event, but I can't tell you how long it took to find some basic, grey (or grey-ish), low-heeled, non-bedazzled club shoes that didn't have cork anywhere. Thanks Fuss for the patience and sharp eyes while shopping, I probably wouldn't have noticed these without your help!

Do you know what the best part was? Despite all of my family being a province away, they were all with me up there while I defended. You see, I'm all about symbolism. It's the reason I wanted to wear something I'd made myself, since that dress represents new skills that I've learned during the last 3 years of this degree.

Allow me introduce you to the representatives of the people I care about the most, and send out my thanks for their unwavering support:

Grandma D: My Mom's Mom was represented by the diamond pendant necklace she gave me for my high school graduation in 1999. She is the most stubborn and determined woman I know, and while also one of the big procrastinators in my family, is excellent at Getting Stuff Done when needed. It was those inherited traits that got me through the final drive to finish this degree. Thanks Grandma!

Memere and Pepere: My Mom's Dad and Step Mom were represented by the gold earrings they gave me May 2008 as a thanks for assisting at their wedding. (Yes, their wedding - Memere decided that after 36 years of training, she was finally willing to marry the poor guy.) Love you two!

Mom and Dad: My wonderful parents gave me this silver watch Christmas 2004, and I rarely am without it to this day. And it even helped me keep to my presentation time limit!

Aunty Monda: My favourite great aunt was one of my biggest supporters, and unfortunately passed away this February. However, she was up there with me when I wore the gold spiral bracelet she gave me Christmas 2008. Thank you Aunty Monda, I wish you were here to see me finish this bloody degree (despite the procrastination)!

Dad: My Dad passed away in 2006, and because of that I wanted something extra to represent him with me when I defended. I had his electrician zippo sitting next to my computer as a good luck charm so that the bloody computer would behave and not freeze/crash/shut down randomly like it's been doing lately. Thank you Dad, because the computer behaved itself!

My Brother, TJ: Also sitting next to my computer, in case it did die and I needed to stab it or something, was the pocket knife that my brother gave to my Dad, which my Mom then gave to me after Dad died. Because the little brat went and took all of Dad's tools, so Mom didn't feel at all bad giving me a pocket knife that I'd would (and have) used. :) THANKS BROTHER!

Grandma C: The gold cameo ring is actually a stand in for another gold ring I left behind in Manitoba that was given to me by my Grandma C. Whoops! We'll just hand-wave that symbol, eh? Thank you for all the support, Grandma (I know you're reading this). Sorry for all the worries I've caused you. Love you!

My Mom and Step-Dad Ron: I couldn't have done this without my Mom and Step-Dad's support, especially this past winter when I needed to move back home. They are represented by the beautiful silver with aquamarine ring they gave me Christmas 2010. Love you guys so much!

Uncle Gavin: I never would have gone to university if it weren't for my uncle. He helped me out when I needed it, paid off my debts, helped me look into student loans and got me enrolled in university back in 2002. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him. So my geoscience ring (the one in the middle with the seismic symbols and crossed hammers), that I received when I graduated with my geology degree in 2008, represented my uncle during my defense. Thanks Uncle G.!


One of the most important lessons I learned through this degree was that my Family means the world to me, and are more important than almost anything else in my life right now. Thank you all for your unwavering support and love, despite the long silences and once-yearly visits. You're all the best family a woman can have, and I was proud to have you all up there with me when I finished my degree. I love you all!

In addition, thank you, my lovely readers. Your patience with my long silences, hiatuses, and unfinished projects was very much appreciated! While updates will continue to be a little sporadic for the next few weeks, I will be posting again, I promise! :)

Update and a New Project!

THESIS IS SUBMITTED! I defend it next Thursday. EEP! In the mean time, I've mostly been spending my time relaxing a bit and working on my presentation, which I need to give before the oral examination.

I'm quite excited for the defense, for 3 reasons:

1) I can't wait to be finished! (obvious point is obvious)
2) I'm looking forward to discussing my research with people who have read my thesis and know what it's about. I want to hear my committee's input and see what suggestions they have to improve my text.
3) I get to finally wear my thesis dress!

Oh, and the shoulder bumps that I was so worried about? They were tamed by a couple passes through the washer/dryer, so yay!

I've also started a little sewing project. I'm attempting Simplicity 2599 again, but with some changes.

My coral ruffle shirt from the Wardrobe Contest 2010

I'm doing version F (with the elastic at the waist) in a black sheer polka dot and window pane...something fabric (feels synthetic to me), but am lengthening the sleeves, doing away with the facing and centre back seam, and adding a tie in the front instead of the ruffles.

Pseudo-redrafted sleeve, with original sleeve on top. Made it a bit bigger too!

Drafted pieces for the front tie. Back piece on top and front pieces below. Ties widen a bit at the end.

I'm excited to make this, but I'm not sure how to attach the tie in the front, where the two pieces meet. I'm going to have to look into how to do this on existing patterns, I suppose. If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it!

I'm actually at my buddy Heather's place (aka Fuss), using her cutting table and lovely (newer than mine) Kenmore! So sweet of her to let me considering she's stuck on a thesis-induced sewing hiatus herself! :-)

So I'm tentatively back. Still have thesisy things to do, and I won't be back home until July, so there won't be many posts yet, but I'm here, and I'll be posting! YAY! *hugs the sewing community*

Also, look what I found at a local Farmer's Market!

Thumb ring made from a fork handle!

Thesis Hiatus Extended

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note (because oh my gosh need to get back to writing) to let you know that my thesis submission has been pushed back to the 24th. Okay, yes, I'm procrastinating a bit, but I desperately miss the sewing community, and wanted to pop my head back in (briefly). I'm jealous of you all!

T-Minus 4 days, and counting. Guess I should finish writing my lit review, eh? Oh, and those pesky conclusions.

Instead of anything sewing related, here's an ESEM image of a framboidal pyrite mineral (the bright stuff - aka fools gold) precipitating on a piece of organic material that's adsorbing iron into its structure.

Yes, I know it sort of looks like a mutant foot. :)

Or alternatively, some flowers.

Happy sewing all!

SOP Public Service Announcement

Hi there, all you lovely sewists! I've missed you so, I can't even describe.

Sadly, I have some (minor) bad news: I'm calling a distressingly brief hiatus.

Our adventure started at an abandoned silver mine in the Canadian North. Well, actually, it started with our stupid hero stupidly deciding to go on to stupid Grad School, but they say hindsight is 20/20. I say hindsight is a actually some epic pair of awesomely cool night-vision x-ray super tracking binocular goggles, but what can you do.

The final draft of my entire Masters thesis has to be submitted in, oh gosh, two weeks from Friday, on May 20th. I've still got a long ways to go before then, so sadly I have no time for blogging about sewing.

The elusive aqueous geochemist, in her natural environment, a natural wetland in the Northwest Territories. Here she is, up to her thighs and elbows installing sampling equipment in 5 degree Celsius water, a process that can take upwards of 20 minutes. Note the bright colours and hard helmet, just in case a plane tries to land on her head. Also note the frozen extremities.

Now, if you were interested in arsenic mobility and retention in a natural northern wetland, well, I might have a thing or two to say about that. Although honestly, at this point, I don't think I want to babble on the topic in my spare time (what spare time oh my gosh!), so maybe not right away.

When our intrepid aqueous geochemist went back to do sampling a second time, some of her equipment used to draw ground water from a well failed to arrive. But that's alright, she just built her own bloody suction pump.

This thing needs to be submitted on May 20th for a thesis defense date in the first week of June - there is a 2 week gap between submission and defense - because my Supervisor (I call her super Super, because she's, well, super) is leaving for field work in the Northwest Territories in mid-June, and then on sabbatical right afterward. So uh, if I want to finish sometime before January, it needs to be now.

And here she is, using the RTW (ready-to-work) pump to sample a well in the first month of sampling. She preferred her self-made equipment better.

So I'm just going to be sitting in the corner, weeping quietly and frantically typing. Wish me luck, lovelies, I need all the help I can get!

Happy sewing, all. Lucky bugs.

Simplicity 2254 Muslin #1: Too Big!

Alright, no laughing at my disheveled/un-make-uped self and my horrid muslin. I seriously don't want to post these, but I suppose it's all part of the documentation process. In my defense, I'd been tearing out my hair all morning writing thesisy things, and just ran outside to get some photos during daylight.

So my Simplicity 2254 muslin is sort of looking like a disaster so far (and that's ignoring the colour and the fact that it's looking like some horrible scrub), now that I've photographed it, and I suspect that I should've done a 1 inch FBA instead of 2 inches. Wow, is it ever big. The photos really don't capture just how roomy it is in the bust. I wonder if there's enough ease in this pattern to get away with not doing a FBA after all? I think I'll just try reducing the FBA for now, recut the bodice, and see how it goes from there. It's all a process, right?

Oh boy, I'm sort of hating the sleeves, too. Maybe I'll slope them down from the shoulder to the elbow, reduce some of that slouchy fabric. Ick.

You can probably see how big the skirt is, too. I've recently gained quite a bit of Thesis Crunch Weight, and as a result, a lot of my tops just don't fit properly anymore. I cut the skirt a size larger, then tucked under and sewed the excess material when attaching to the bodice, just in case I still needed to grade to a larger size around the waist. Turns out that this was not necessary. I knew there was some ease in this pattern, but I think I underestimated just how much.

The excess material combined with the gathering in the front has the unhappy effect of making me look pregnant. Well, unhappy for me. My Mom was delighted.

Obviously I need to do a bunch of work on this bloody thing. And sadly, it's going to have to wait a little while. Turns out I have a major thesis deadline on my birthday, March 23rd, and I have a whole lot of writing to do in the mean time.

Wish me luck, on both the thesis and this (horrid) pattern. I think I'll need it for both!

A Quick Update

Just a quick, no photo update this week. I'm not sure when the next one will be since I'm under some major deadlines in the coming weeks, but I'm sure I'll break down and do some sewing soon.

I already made the first muslin of the Simplicity 2254 top. It uh...needs some work. It pretty much turned out how I predicted it would at the end of the FBA alteration post. I think I need to move some darts around, and cut a smaller size on the skirt part. I'll try to get some photos up next week and get your input (if I can ever find my camera, that is).

Now if only the thesis would stop interfering with my sewing!

Travels and Companions

I know I've been radio silent the last while, but I've been swamped with thesis and moving stress. Well, I made it home to Small Town, Manitoba, on the beast shown above. YAY SNOW!

Can't Blog, Thesis Will Eat Me...

Hey there all you lovely people reading my blog. I'm so sorry about the radio silence of late. Unfortunately I'm under some major deadlines with my thesis, and I just don't have time to blog right now, never mind sew.

I'm also going to be moving in about a month and a half, so I'm even considering packing up all my sewing stuff to A) get an early start on organizing my apartment, and B) help resist saying screw it to my thesis and spending hours and hours sewing. I'm holding out doing that for now, though, because sewing is a great break from thesis work, and I'm hoping to take some me time in the future which will hopefully include sewing.

So for now, I'll be taking a bit of a hiatus until thesis stress goes down to manageable levels. Although I'll probably be lurking around sometimes, reading about (and envying) all your lovely projects. :)

Happy sewing all!