Polo because I have to.

No, I'm not pregnant.  I just am the victim of unisex clothing.

Ah, the work polo.  How I loathe you.  Whether it be unisex, only available in men's, or just strange women's fit, clothing associated with the work place never fit me.  I can't say that I blame them; my broad shoulders and long torso are not easy to accommodate.  But really, can't I have something that doesn't make me look like a box? 

My Dress Got Stoned

Remember this? Well, this:

Veggie Tales: Day 7

Our last day!  We went out with a bang with Eggplant Dirty Rice from Amateur Gourmet.  Our friend Michelle recommended it to us, and it was just as awesome as promised.  Thanks Michelle!



Veggie Tales: Day 6

For today's dinner, we decided to sort of make up our own recipe.  It turned out almost according to plan.  I've made gnocchi with mushroom sauce in the past, and thought it would be a good addition to our vegan week.  Apparently gnocchi has egg in it, so we used pasta instead.  Here's our recipe:

Veggie Tales: Day 5

Jacob says, "I would like more there to be more pig in your food, please."

Tonight we had pad kee mao (drunken noodles).  I enjoy pretty much any noodle dish, and Alissa suggests Thai every time we go out to eat, so this wasn’t a hard choice.  We don’t have a wok or a gas range, so conditions aren’t great for stir fry, but we worked with what we had.  Also pretend we made this on Friday so we can call it Stir Friday.

Veggie Tales: Day 4

Alvin and I made one of our favorites today: Eggplant Pistouille from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Alvin is a real big Julia Child fan.  He has several of her cook books and cooks from it regularly.  As far as I'm concerned, I'm a fan of anyone who uses that much butter in her cooking (but not as much as Paula Dean.  That's too much).  However, this one has no butter in it (and is vegan), but I still approve.

Dehydrating the eggplant

Veggie Tales: Day 3

Today's vegan dish was Daal, an Indian stew made of lentils and other vegetables.  Alvin found the recipe on the forum Something Awful, so I had him write this post:

When I was looking for vegan recipes, I wanted to find recipes that didn't involve substitutions or any gross fake meats. So we ended up looking at a lot Asian foods.  The main reason we're cooking vegan is to force ourselves to diversify more.  I've eaten daal and really enjoyed it (like all Indian food I've tried) but this was my first time making it.

The ingredients

Veggie Tales: Day 2

Today we made vegan dirt soup.  Or at least something that looked like it.  During the entire cooking process, we were really skeptical as to whether or not it would be any good or even edible. 

Skeptical Alvin

However, I'm proud to say that the Earthy Red Wine and Mushroom Soup from A Girl Called Jack is the best thing we've made yet.

Veggie Tales: Day 1

Today, we made stuffed "grilled" peppers from Thug Kitchen.  Despite my complete hatred of brown rice, they actually turned out pretty tasty.

Veggie Tales: Day 0

My boyfriend, Alvin, and I have been in a food rut for a couple of weeks now, so I made the suggestion that we try to eat vegan for a week.  Our excitement over our endeavor quickly faded as we realized that meant we couldn’t use butter, so we changed to vegetarian meals and continued to Google new recipes.  While I would love to rant more about food, here is Alvin to explain our first attempt:

Alissa and I decided to make vegetarian (and some vegan) food for a week.  Before that, we tried eating cheap because we’d realized we spent way too much on food, but that just resulted in chicken or pork every day.  I’d grown pretty sick of cooking the same things and wanted to do something different.  Alissa suggested we put it on her blog because it’s basically sewing.  Consider it a trial run for Noodlepoint, the food/sewing blog we’ll frequently talk about but never actually make.  We know the posts will need improvement, so we’d love comments and suggestions.  It’s a learning process.

Sari it's been so long!

My sari fabric

A lot has been happening lately, and I'm sorry to say it has taken me away from sewing a bit.  I recently graduated and became an adult, so now I have to work in order to feed myself.  I even made a big girl budget and everything ($25 a month for fabric... I tried to be mature about it).  It's all been a fun and different experience, but I'm starting to understand why people stay in school for so long.  Now I spend 15 minutes at the store trying deciding whether or not to buy 36 rolls of paper towels because it's cheaper, and then I come home and have to find a place for 36 rolls of paper towels.  Times used to be so much simpler.

A Simple Clutch

Not buying clothes for a year is going not so great.  I haven't bought any clothes, but I have bought an unreasonable amount of fabric.  So much so that I'm pretty sure I'm spending the same amount or more money on fabric per month than I was spending on clothes.   My house is littered with Joann Fabric receipts, and I have projects piling up.  I'm pretty sure if I quit school and just sewed, I wouldn't even have enough time to make all of these projects.  It's like go hard or go home Martha Stewart Style.

To remedy this, I was determined to create something out of materials I already had, and other than some interfacing I had to buy, I was successful.  And here you have it: a simple clutch.

Swizerland 2013 Trip

Lake Luzern and Pilatus

My First Client

I constantly get posed this question:

"So... how is that no buying clothes thing going?"

Answer: Fine.  I've suddenly realized I own a ton of clothes, so it's not really a challenge.

I know, how anti-climactic.  It's almost as if all my Banana Republic bargain hunting has been in preparation for this year.  I even recently purged my closet and sent a ton of stuff to Goodwill.  What does that mean?  Time for another challenge!

Homemade of Honor

Me and my home made maid of honor dress on the left.

As I mentioned in my glitter shoes post, I was blessed enough to be the maid of honor for my friend Mariela's wedding.  Their wedding was absolutely beautiful, and Mariela looked stunning.  I could go into detail, but one of the brides maids has a wedding blog much more successful than my I-do-it-myself-because-I'm-cheap blog, and you should just check out her post.

Glitter shoes and homemade glues

Why make your own glitter pumps?  In case the above picture isn't proof enough, this is why.

Why make your own glue?  ... Yeah, I don't have a link for that.  [Edit: don't ever make your own glue.  See information at the end of this post.]

While perusing the pinterest, I found this glue.  Now, when I found the pin it said "cheaper and better than Mod Podge," to which I responded, "hell yes, I'm that cheap."  If you haven't been introduced to Mod Podge (yeah, I see that link in there that says why you shouldn't make your own Mod Podge.  I don't want to talk about it), it's only the glue that holds together the universe of craft.  Do it yourself-ers use it for absolutely everything. 

Braided Scarf

As usual, the weather is flip flopping here in Texas, and after a week of weather in the near 80's, it has dropped to the 50's.  What does that mean?  Scarf time.

I saw this scarf on Pinterest, and at first I thought it was cute, then I thought it was odd, then I thought it was too long, then I thought it was cute, then I decided 2 hours on Pinterest is enough and I need to do my homework. I started my homework, and then I spent the next two hours making this scarf.  If you are a senior in college, you will understand this.

How to make circle ruffles

Photo credit: Kyra Malicse

 You know, I try not to be too too girly, but one day I decided I needed to make ruffles.  Really.  Stop pretending you don't think they're cute.  I had to do a tango demo for my club, Texas Ballroom, and nothing I owned was right.  In December,  bought a new dance dress, but it just didn't feel tango-y enough, for lack of a better phrase.  It was a beautiful emerald green dress that was nearly floor length, but to me it just seemed more suited for waltz.

I already own an asymmetrical black skirt, so I pulled it out.  I was pretty grossed out at the horrible craftsmanship of one year ago me, so I threw it on my bed and started over.

Long story short, I made a new asymmetrical black skirt with a slit up the short side.  The long side went down to my knee and the short side went to mid thigh.

I modeled the ruffles I wanted to make after this skirt.  In order to avoid looking like a curtain, I chose to make circular ruffles rather than gathered ruffles.  I also chose a pretty thin flowy fabric so it would move with me for those sharp tango movements.

Dresses for Tehya

A couple of months ago I decided that Tehya is wonderful and beautiful, and she needs a dress.

First of all, I was being a little selfish.  Basically, I was tired of thinking of clothes to put on an amazon woman (myself).  Looking at my 5 foot and 2 inch friend, I can see so many possibilities.  Boatneck dresses.  Cute short cocktail dresses.  Things that aren't v-necks.  The list could go on, but I'll just stop being creepy.

The thought instantly came to me.  I wanted to make Tehya a one shouldered Latin dress with an asymmetrical hem with sort of a wing on it, for lack of a better phrase.  This might seem like a a really detailed instant thought, but when my imagination is given something that isn't a girl with shoulders like a swimmer, it just runs with it.

As an aside, when I say Latin dress, I mean ballroom dance Latin dress.  For those who don't know what that means, it means being really sexy and awesome on the dance floor.  Familiarize yourself.

In case you couldn't tell, this looks nothing like her body type and a whole lot like mine.

So anyway.  I drew some pictures, told her about it, and she got really excited.  Then I got scared.  I am in no way qualified to make this dress.  There's like no way she's going to like it, and then she is going to hate me for the rest of forever.

Reasons four and five

I found these labels in my sewing box today, and it made me a little bit sentimental.

These labels were made for my grandmother from a friend.  My grandmother moved to the United States with her husband and three boys from the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

Picture of a clock tower in Bern I took on my last visit.

T-shirt refashion

Number one fact you must know about me.  I hate t-shirts.  Those free ones that you get a million of when you're in college?  Hate 'em.  I have broad shoulders, and if anyone out there reading also has broad shoulders, they know what I'm talking about.  They just make me look ridiculous like I'm being choked by my own clothing.  The only reason I own them is because I try to show a shred of school spirit now and again.

So a couple of days ago I found this miracle tutorial on how to turn your crew neck t-shirts into v-necks.  Yeah, okay, it's still a t-shirt, but I'll actually wear it.

This tutorial is impeccable.  Great directions.  Easy to follow.  Here's how it went for me:

The first entry

Hi,

My name is Alissa, and I'm in way over my head.

On January 1st, 2013, I embarked on a one year mission.  A mission to make all of my clothes for a year, rather than buying them.  Some of you may be thinking (especially those who thought this was a blog about hot chocolate and are totally not in the right place), why can't you just... not buy any clothes for a year?  Well, you see.  I just can't do that.  I, along with millions of women in the world, have a clothing addiction.  I love putting new pieces together and bargain hunting for the perfect sundress.  To me, it is more like an art form.  Some of you who have actually seen my outfits are probably just thinking "art form... this girl just wears a lot of cardigans."  Well, they are well thought out cardigans, okay?

After many years of solving most of my problems with retail therapy, I have decided to embark on this mission for several reasons.  First of all, hopefully I'll save some cash.  Buying patterns and fabric isn't as cheap as it used to be, but given the amount of time it takes to actually make clothes, I'm hoping to spend less over all.  Second, I want to get better at sewing.  The word "seamstress" in the title of this blog is a bit of a misnomer.  Whenever I try to put a zipper in a dress, it just looks like I was in a fight with a viscous coyote while attempting to sew.  Finally, I want to appreciate the things I own and stop my habit of buying clothes when I don't need them.  I suppose that sounds a little counter intuitive since I'm still going to be increasing the amount of clothing I have, but it makes sense to me.  Each of the pieces of clothing I make will come from inspiration and become more than just something I wear.  They'll be something I remember.  Plus, if I just made a blog about not buying clothes for a year, I can't imagine it would be that entertaining.  "Day 35... I had a dream a gang of cardigans were dragging me into a J. Crew..."  No.  We don't need any of that.

So here it goes.