Polka Dot Dress!

Eeeeeeee!! I'm so happy about this dress!! It's so polka dotted and girly and adorable! I have dubbed it my Minnie Mouse dress. This is a copy of a dress I saw while randomly trolling the internet, except for about $30 less. The dress was a simple enough shift with short sleeves, I can handle that! To the fabric store! After a bus ride to the fabric store (I love riding the bus, I get to people watch, and there are some pretty interesting people riding the bus), this fabric claimed me as its own and came home with me

Lurv it!

Doesn't it go perfectly with my puppy dog print socks? Haha.

Ze back. I'll admit, I was lazy and didn't put in a zipper when I realized I could pull it on over my head.

I am also super proud of this dress because I self-drafted the entire thing. I'm trying to enhance my pattern-making skills so that I don't have to dole out gobs of money on commercial patterns. I hate spending money, but when it comes to sewing patterns and fabric, I have a weakness.

I plan to strut around campus in this dress for my midterms this week (hey, at least something about midterms has to be cheery!). I have a Russian oral exam tomorrow, eek!

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I had an epiphany during one of my classes that sport management is not for me. It's not at all what I thought it would be- I thought more along the business lines but, in reality, it's mostly customer service, and I think that sucks. So, I'm changing my major. Before I declared as sport management, I wanted to be a medical examiner (don't get creeped out!), but I got scared off it because of the immense amount of schooling involved. After some pondering, I've decided to revisit that route. And, because Pre Med isn't actually a defined major, I can major in anything I want as long as I take the classes required to get into med school! Hoopla!

So, that's what's been going on with me, how about you? :-)

Fabric adventure!

So, today I went on a little adventure to the fabric store. Not because I really needed anything, I was just bored and wanted to get out of my room for a while. My roommate and her friend were asleep after staying out late last night and I really wanted to sew something but didn't want to cause any drama (I've had enough roommate drama- more on that later), so the next best thing to do was to go spend all my money on fabric that I will eventually sew into stuff. Here's what decided to come home with me:

Monkeys! Aren't they adorable?!

 

Flowers! I also love this color.

 

Plaid! My hockey team is having a barn dance in a couple weeks, and I have nothing country enough to wear. (A barn dance is literally what it sounds like- we all take a bus to a barn and learn how to line dance. I didn't want to go at first but then I heard that we're going with the men's hockey team. Somehow the presence of sexy male hockey players changed my mind!)

 

Green beans! This one is my favorite!

 

So now I have enough fabric to last me for a while... or at least until I get bored again :-)

 

Anyway, roommate drama. I am now on my second roommate. What happened to the first one? Well, she moved out and into a single room because she "needed her own space"- her words, not mine. I kinda saw it coming though, and to be honest I'm relieved she doesn't live here anymore. She had a habit of coming home late and turning on the overhead light while I was asleep and waking me up (and, knowing she woke me up, said sorry, but still kept me up with the light on for another hour). So yeah, she moved into a single room and I now have a new roommate. I must say, she is a lot better than the first one! Have any of you had crazy roommates?

 

 

 

Hello Yellow

Hey everybody! I know, I have been neglecting the primary duty of a blogger by not posting, but with school and hockey both starting up, my sewing (and therefore blogging) time has been seriously hindered. I did, however, manage to finish this cheery blouse just in time to wear it to class today. Picture this: me, walking across the quad in this lovely number at 8 am, while bleary eyed onlookers shoot me dirty glances, thinking "Will someone pleeeease tell that girl to turn off her shirt?!". Yes, this shirt practically glows. I like it. It's like my own little ball of sunshine. :-)

On to the details! Woot woot!

The back. I apologize for the somewhat awkwardness of the photos. Holding my iPad steady while posing and pushing the capture button is a lot harder than one might think!

 

Coll-ah! I love the asymmetry of it. So modern. And the buttons- I have a secret... they aren't really buttons! They're snaps! What?! There's something you should know. I am terrified of my button-hole machine. It has a mind of its own. I would appreciate it if it told me ahead of time whether it felt like being cooperative or not, but alas, it continues to be stubborn and inconsistant in its button-hole making. So I avoid it like the plague. Snaps, on the other hand, are so much friendlier. And you get to beat them with a hammer, and they still turn out the same every time! I'm in love.

 

 For these snaps, I cut out little circles of fabric with about a quarter inch larger radius than the snap. Add a few loose stitched around the edges, pull the thread ends until the fabric is snug around the snap, and voila! Fabric covered snaps!

 

It never ends! Tehe, just being silly. :-)

 

The pattern I used was the Asymmetrical Blouse 09/2012 #118 from the September issue of BurdaStyle magazine. Modifications I made: NO buttons! (snaps all the way!), and the cuffs were also supposed to have a slit with a button closure, but I just made them attached instead. Probably because I misread the pattern... or I'm just lazy...

And, finally, the fabric I used was a medium weight jersey (which I like because it doesn't fray and I don't have to finish the seams- see above note on laziness) that I got for a steal out of the precut fabric bin :-) I love cheap, awesome fabric.

It's hard to be in a bad mood when you're wearing a color this bright and happy, but I am just a bundle of nerves right now. For one of my classes, I have an assignment where I have to interview two professionals in the field I want to enter. The first of those two interviews, this one is with the manager of the ice arena, is in an hour and a half. Gah! I feel like I'm gonna puke! My parents texted me this morning telling me that I'll do awesome, so that makes me feel a little better.

Wish me luck!!

Adaptability

Well, as you can imagine, adapting to college life is a rather difficult thing to do, but I think I'm getting on okay. Haven't made any friends yet, but I just joined the women's club hockey team, so hopefully that will change soon.

All of my classes are great so far (until they start assigning buttloads of work, that is). My favorite so far is Russian 101, the one that I was most excited for. My teacher looks like Lisbeth Salander (from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- the Noomi Rapace 'Lisbeth' from the Swedish version not the Rooney Mara American one) so the moment she walked through the door, I went, "I liiiiike youuuu!". In my head, of course, or else that would be weird. Anyway, her name is Jasmina (pronounced Yasmina) and she's from Serbia, so she's doubly cool in my book. Anyone who looks like the badass Lisbeth Salander and is from Serbia is definitely cool in my book.

^like this except without all the piercings. Super cool! :-)

 

So yeah, I'm missing home right about now. I guess it's good that classes started and I have something to do instead of laying around my dorm room and eating all of my roommate's food. I've even managed to get some sewing done as well. I'm almost finished. I would've been finished last week, but the lining is turning out to be a pain in the butt! I had to put it down for a few days, and just picked it up again yesterday. Lots of hand sewing left to do, but I'll try to knock it out either tonight or tomorrow. And if that doesn't happen, I give you all permission to come and kick me in the butt until I finish. :-)

Movin' on in

All moved in! Woot woot! The room is bigger than I expected, which I guess is a blessing because some of the dorm rooms I've seem can be classified as closets. And, because it's a corner room, there are three windows. The additional natural light will help cheer me up once I start missing home. Yep, I'm a college girl now. When did that happen? :-)

A close-up shot of my desk shelf (and all of my food- you would be surprised how hard it is to find raisins in a Target. It's like they were hiding from me or something!)

 

And where, might you ask, is all of my sewing stuff? Did I abandon my beloved sewing machine to gather dust back home?

 

Nope! It's just stowed under my bed! The box on the left is full of my fabric stash and sewing notions. The middle one is my sewing machine. And the far right box contains my serger, iron, pattern paper, and my hammer (for putting on snaps- yes, I am the nerd that brought a hammer to school, sue me).

 

And today, I went on a little adventure to the library and fabric store. Pictured above is the first book I checked out in my college life- The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (looove it!).

 

The trip to the fabric store is a little more interesting, though. To start, I accidentally got on the wrong bus (the Yellowhopper instead of the Yellow- an honest mistake). Realizing my mistake pretty quickly, I got off at the next stop, which was right by the library. Seeing as the Yellow bus wasn't due for another half hour, I went to the library, hence the Silence of the Lambs.

 

When I finally got on the right bus, I got off at the stop GoogleMaps told me to, and found myself at the shopping center with no clue which way to go. So I picked a direction and started walking. Lucky for me, it was the right way because I found it with no trouble at all.

 

I waited for the return bus for 15 minutes and made the decision that it would be quicker to walk the 3 miles back to my room than wait for the next bus for god knows how long. I set off down the main road and continued that way for a while, but I still wasn't seeing any streets I knew. What to do? Call mom! She set me in the right direction. Whew.

 

What a long day! :-) Yet that was the most exciting adventure I've had here, so far.

 

 

 

Tweedy Vest

As I have mentioned in passing, I have attended strict Catholic schools for my entire life, so my daily wardrobe during the school year has been nothing but plaid pleated skirts and button-down shirts (all in pale, neutral colors, of course). And after a long day of school, I never feel like putting together an outfit, so I always slip into my go to outfit- sweatpants and a tshirt. Now that I find myself attending a non-uniform required school (yay college!), I want myself to look chic, cool, and stylish in order to attract cool new friends. So this vest is the product of my efforts to update and modernize my college wardrobe. Lurv it!

Doesn't this pic look so high fashion? Maybe that's why I like it so much. Proud of myself!

The fabric I used was a tweed-y suiting fabric a la JoAnn and the collar is some fabric left over from a yet to be finished garment. I ended up using two different lining fabrics for this vest. I was originally planning on doing all of it in the same matte black polyester stuff (extras from another project), but apparently I didn't have as much as I thought I did, because I only got 3 out of the 5 pieces cut. Slightly disheartened, I turned to my fabric stash, looking for a supplement, and what did I find? More black polyester lining! And I have no idea where it came from. The fabric fairy must have brought it to me! :-) The lining the fabric fairy brought is slightly different than the other stuff- it's kind of shiny instead of matte- but who's gonna ever notice except me? Thank you, oh wonderful fabric fairy! You rock!

Side back view

The pattern I used was from BurdaStyle magazine's August issue (Notched Vest 08/2012 #136). I knew I needed it the moment I saw it.

How much do I like this vest? ^This much^

Trying to hold the camera steady, lol :-)

I have also discovered Forever 21, aka my new favorite store. Yesterday, I was in Chicago with my parents, shopping because we had some time to kill. Out of the blue, or so it seemed to me, my mom recommended that we go into Forever 21 because she thought their stuff was just my style. Boy, was she right. When you want to buy one of everything in the store, you know you're in the right place. I think I'm smitten :-) I'm not a huge fan of shopping to begin with, unless it's for fabric or hockey sticks, but I could probably have spent hours in there (the shirt and shorts I'm wearing in the above pics are just some of my many purchases).

Tangent thought: I got this cute lil measuring cup at Crate & Barrel for measuring out the water for my oatmeal when I'm at college (I need precision when it comes to oatmeal, lol).

Goodies :-)

A couple days ago, I got an email informing me that one of the classes I had signed up to take this fall (Intro to Polish Culture), had been canceled because the teacher had a family crisis or something.  Seeing as Intro to Polish Culture was the one class I had actually wanted to take (all of my other ones are basically GenEds- boooooring!), I was a little upset. But, as I thought about it, I decided that this event must be a sign that I was not meant to take Intro to Polish Culture, but another, better class. To the internet! Since I'm interested in Russian and Eastern European culture and language, I narrowed my search to those criteria, and lo and behold, what popped up on my screen? First Year Russian 101, perhaps the perfect fit for my interests AND (and!) the perfect fit for my schedule. Hoopla! This was definitely a sign! Sign me up!

So yesterday, I got my textbooks in the mail (I love getting stuff in the mail, it's like getting presents) and I have been perusing them enthusiastically ever since. My parents have been joking that I'll be fluent before I even leave!

Here is the lovely, beautiful textbook <3 The title says Nachalo (don't ask, I still haven't figured out what that means yet :-) ). I lurv it. And it has a picture of Saint Basil's Cathedral on the cover, which I find to be the most beautiful structure I have ever seen (and I hope to gaze upon it and all its glory someday in person!)

It also came with this fancy audio CD. I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm sure it's pretty cool as well.

And there's also a workbook. The lined spelling exercises make me feel like I'm in first grade again, but without naptime. Bummer! :-)

Needless to say, I am so looking forward to this class, as well as my entire college experience. Only 12 days til move in day! What's up with that?!