Pattern Pyramid Pick Progess (De-80s-fying). And a Sewing Dare!

March 4, 2013March 5, 201342 Comments

So, to refresh your memories, I had selected the Very Easy Very Vogue 9647 from the winning Pattern Pyramid. There were two main reasons for this; one, it was in my size, two, it was touted as “very easy”.

Now, not sure if you can see from the picture or not, but this pattern is definitely very ’80s. Especially, the incredibly expansive shoulder pads. They are actually large enough to land a plane on! Seriously! And for those of you afraid to fly, picture a Kitty perched on each shoulder and walking around all day like that.

I wanted to try my best to De-80s-fy the pattern (yes, I coined that phrase, please feel free to use it and share).

This is what I came up with to bring it into this century while lancing the shoulder pad design detail: I opted to make the top half of the dress in B (the short sleeves) and the bottom half of the dress in A (the full skirt), while also shortening the dress to about knee-length. I’m using a periwinkle blue cotton voile that has a flower design embossed on it, and is almost sheer where the flowers are embossed. I thought it would be delicate and flowy and deter from that ‘boxy’ look. I then decided to sew an Obi Style belt out of the cotton floral fabric to cinch it at the waist while still keeping that light and airy look (as opposed to using a heavy leather / plastic belt).

So, these are my plans to de-80’s fy, what do you think? In my mind, it looks fabulous! 🙂 In reality, we’ll have to wait and see.

And, I have been charged with a Sewing Dare by Jagoda from FitNottoFit:

“Catja, I don’t know what your plans are for March, but I CHALLENGE you to make something from Ikea fabric. Hopefully something wearable, for yourself, not for the kitties. Do you accept?”

Yes, I accept! Although Kitty is a tad disgruntled. Here is my plan:I love Ikea fabric, but it can be a challenge to sew clothing with it, as it is mainly designed for home sewing projects. I am going to make Butterick B5285 in Version B and use this Ikea fabric pictured. The fabric design is: Malin Akerblom, 2010. The floral print is quite large and I’m hoping that with the addition of the pleats on the skirt, it will look like an abstract floral pattern.

Karen, from Did You Make That? made the same version (B) of the Butterick skirt in a fabulous fabric, check it out here. It looks terrific, so if mine comes out half this well, I will be stoked!

Sewing Bloggers United for a Meet-up!

February 27, 2013March 2, 201333 Comments

On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend my very first sewing blogger’s meet-up in Toronto, ON in Canada. I made Cake Pops for the first time, for everybody. They were a lot of fun to make, and I’m going to include the recipe at the end of the post.

Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow (who also made everybody colour coordinating name-tags!) and Adrienne from All Style and All Substance instigated (organized) this fantastic event for us, there were 18 of us in total, and I’ve linked to everybody in this post! We all met up in the Fashion District, at Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue and carried on to visit fabric stores in the area.Left to Right: Andi from How Unseamly; Kristian from Victory Patterns; Dana from Wardrobe Dysfunction; Adrienne from All Style and All Substance; Sarah from Pattern Vault; Anastasia, sewist.From Left to Right: Vicki from Another Sewing Scientist; Sandra, JustSew; Chloe from Button and Needle; Reethi from Weekend Crafting; Tracey, sewist; Debbie from Sew Debbie; Jagoda, FitNottoFit (in front).

Yours truly, walking alongside a mural on Queen St. W.

After this, we all met up at Tequila Bookworm, to eat, drink, exchange sewing stashes and be merry. And we accomplished all of the above, with gusto!Four people at the front, from left, Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow; Kay from Gently Down the Seam; Cathy from Seraphinalina and Kristin from K-Line.

Many of the attendees wore items that they had sewn themselves and it was such a thrill to see it all in person.

Everybody’s sewing stashes laid out on the table, waiting for the big exchange

Sewing Stuff I Brought

And Cake Pops

Vultures Sifting Through Sewing Stashes. Me, on the right, double-fisted with sewing loot! 🙂

Fabulous Stuff I Got

Thank you to everybody for coming out and making the day so successful. I had a blast and enjoyed meeting and chatting with all of you!

Recipe for Cake Pops

Ingredients: (makes 20 pops)

Cake mix (either make your own cake or use your favourite mix)
1 box instant pudding and pie filling mix
4 eggs
1 cup milk / almond milk / soy milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Icing (make your own or use your favourite ready-to-use icing)
1 packet flavoring for icing (I used strawberry)
3 bags Candy Melts (cocoa, pink and white)
Cake decorating sprinkles (in a variety of coordinating colours)
20 lollipop sticks

Instructions:

In large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, milk or milk substitute and oil. Beat with mixer for 2 minutes and pour into a prepared 9 X 13 inch pan.
Bake 30 – 35 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Divide cake in half and use only half for cake pops. Crumble cooled cake into crumbs with no large pieces remaining.
Add flavour packet to icing, and add 1/2 cup icing slowly to crumbs, combining until mixture forms like a dough. Form into tablespoon size balls, rolling in your hands until smooth.
Refrigerate cake balls for 2 hours.
Melt Candy Melts in separate small bowls until smooth. Dip one end of lollipop sticks into candy melts and then insert into the cake balls.
Wait until lollipop stick in cake pops have firmed, then dip cake pops into melted Candy Melts, varying the colours and layers.
While Candy Melt mixture is still wet on cake pops, dip into cake decorating sprinkles. Wait for Candy Melt mixture to dry on cake pops.
Eat.

And the Winner of Pattern Pyramid and Sew Grateful Giveaway Is……

February 18, 2013February 19, 201364 Comments

Oooooh, excitement has been palpable, here at Pattern Pyramid central. As most of you know, this original idea was started by Karen at Did you Make That? and has been kept going by other wonderful sewing bloggers around the world starting their own Pyramid! Here is the information about this Pattern Pyramid that I was lucky enough to win and to it, I also added a Sew Grateful Giveaway gift, consisting of a book titled “I Made It Myself“.

So, we began with printing out all the entrants, like so:Then, Kitty donned his track suit, and began warming up for the official officiating ceremony.Kitty likes to pace himself and start out slow. Okay, VERY slow, but he did not want to get ahead of himself. Before you know it, since Kitty is quite an impressive athlete, his warm-up turns into a frenzy of herculean feats. So much so, that it is often difficult to capture his powerful and agile qualities on film. Kitty tends to leap right out of camera view!!

Afterwards, when kitty was all limber, the entrants names were attached to the official Olympic Kitty Torch, like so: Kitty took his job very seriously, staked out the Torch carefully looking for his best port of entry.

Kitty approached from different vantage points, meticulously stalking the Torch, trying to mentally out-wit it. Begging the question, “Will Kitty actually pounce on Torch, thereby selecting a winning name???” Kitty “tests” the Torch, sizing up his opponent’s strength and skill. Just when you thought it was all only a mind game, Kitty GOES FOR IT!! AMAZING!!! Will these feats of unbelievable artistic athleticism result in a name being revealed??? Or will we have to do this all over again?? A tense yet exciting moment! Let’s wait and see….And, a name comes down!!!! Torn valiantly from the Olympic Torch by our very own brave Kitty. Well done Sir!!! Kitty investigates the winning name.And the winner is Kaitui Kiwi!!!!Congratulations to Kaitui Kiwi from The Curious Kiwi . We are all so Happy for you!! And Pattern Pyramid gets to travel, yet again, to the area of the land down under, all the way to Wellington, New Zealand! It is getting out its sunscreen now.