2018 Make Nine

January 1, 2018February 13, 2018by Patricia5 Comments

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has had a joyful holiday season. After the rush of Christmas (when I just may have made matching Christmas pajamas for myself, my husband, my son, and my nieces), it’s nice to have some chill time. I’m spending some time in the mountains, hiking and skiing and hanging out in the hot tub. I didn’t bring my sewing machine with me on this trip, but I have taken some time to reflect on my handmade wardrobe and think about my sewing plans for the new year. This year I thought I’d take part in the ‘gentle’ maker’s challenge put out by Lucky Lucille/@homerowfiberco to set a goal of 9 projects to make in the new year. This is mostly an Instagram-based challenge, but I thought I’d expand on that with a long-form blog post:) So without further ado, here are my Make Nine goals for 2018!

1. Lonetree Jacket

Lonetree jacket_combo

This is a pattern by Allie Olson of Indiesew (find it here). While I still love my Minoru jacket that I made a couple years ago, I’m ready for a new casual jacket – one with lots of pockets! Continue reading “2018 Make Nine” →

clothes for me, ruminations

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

September 16, 2016December 5, 2017by Patricia5 Comments

Seasons of Sewing

There’s just something about the changing of the seasons that gets me all excited about sewing and cooking and doing new things. It’s the excitement of a whole new crop of fruits and vegetables to enjoy (apples and pears! butternut squash!), and a whole new wardrobe of clothes to sew and wear (jackets! long sleeves! corduroy and flannel!), and a chance to visit and hike places that are just too deathly hot in the summer (Mt. Diablo! Pinnacles!). Even here in San Francisco, where many argue there are no real seasons (oh, but they are wrong!), I’m starting to feel the season turn and I am ready. I made an apple pie for Labor Day weekend. Now I’m planning my fall sewing in earnest. But before I move on to next season… Continue reading “Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall” →

ruminations

Taking Stock and Weeding my Stash

April 23, 2016December 2, 2017by Patricia5 Comments

Here’s a question for all you sewers (or sewists, or seamstresses, or tailors, or whatever you choose to call yourselves) out there –

How big does your (fabric) stash get before you deem it too big?

For me, that time came a couple of months ago. My big plastic bins of fabric had overflowed, and I had extra fabric piled on top of the bins and stuffed in bags under my sewing table. My ‘sewing room’ is in our finished basement, shared space with The Husband’s ‘office’, our ‘laundry room’, and our ‘storage room’. Needless to say, space is limited and the chaos was driving me crazy. Continue reading “Taking Stock and Weeding my Stash” →

ruminations

Winter Sewing Plans – 2015/2016

January 22, 2016December 2, 2017by Patricia3 Comments

Back in September I posted a list of my Fall Sewing plans. I had a whopping 7 items on the list! I’ve managed to finish most of them, with varying degrees of success. I LOVE my Minoru jacket and my Akita top and wear them all the time! Ditto for my new Josephine. The Moji pants get a bit less wear. The Hollyburn skirt is another great wardrobe staple – I don’t wear skirts all the time, but I do wear them a lot more than dresses. And then there’s that Sorbetto. ahem.

I enjoyed having a plan for my sewing projects, so I decided I’d do another one for winter!

Continue reading “Winter Sewing Plans – 2015/2016” →

clothes for me, ruminations

Coming Soon: Moji Pants

October 12, 2015December 2, 2017by PatriciaLeave a Comment

Took a break from sewing for some field work in Gothic, CO. I’m both exhilarated and exhausted from the trip!

View this post on Instagram

Field work in #gothicco what an incredible place!

A post shared by Patricia Fox (@foxthreads) on Oct 8, 2015 at 10:10pm PDT

But, I’ve got my fabric cut, and even started sewing up my Seamwork Moji pants before I left, so stay tuned!

View this post on Instagram

@seamworkmag #mojipants cut and ready to #sew #wip #fallsewing

A post shared by Patricia Fox (@foxthreads) on Sep 27, 2015 at 5:18pm PDT

clothes for me, ruminations

Fall Sewing Plans – 2015

September 20, 2015September 30, 2015by Patricia7 Comments

I’ve been inspired by the Colette Wardrobe Architect series and Sewaholic’s Summer and Fall sewing plans to do a bit of planning for Fall. I always have ideas of what I want to sew floating about in my head, but it was nice to sit down and plan out a whole ‘season’ of sewing. And to put it on my wall to keep me focused. Plus, I recently went on a fabric shopping spree, so I knew I had to buckle down and make some concrete plans!!

So here is my list for Fall Sewing: Continue reading “Fall Sewing Plans – 2015” →

ruminations

10 Surprising Things I’ve Learned About Sewing

September 13, 2015September 13, 2015by Patricia2 Comments

It’s been just over a year since I started to really sew. I thought I’d share some surprising things I’ve learned so far.

80% of sewing isn’t sewing. It’s pressing, pinning, cutting, tracing, pressing, sewing, pressing,…which brings me to…
Learn to love your iron. You will be spending lots of time with it.
Same goes for your stitch ripper. Seriously. In fact, you probably need at least two or three of these, for when you break one during an angsty stitch ripping episode, or (on a more positive note) when your sweet husband offers to help you rip stitches out of a long, long, messy seam.
You can use a rotary cutter for just about everything! Wow, this one was a joy to learn because when I cut with shears, my pieces are always so messy. Just keep a bunch of spare blades on hand.
Another (sewing) life-changing one: 95% of the time, you don’t need to pin your pattern to the fabric before cutting. What?? You see, there are these cool things called pattern weights. And if you don’t have those, use your phone, the tape dispenser, and your son’s ‘volcano’ sculpture.
Swedish tracing paper is the bomb. It’s sturdier than tissue paper and less stiff than regular printer paper. It’s easy to store your traced patterns. You can write on it. Heck, you can even sew it if you want.
Planning is half the fun. You get to look a pretty pictures online, browse though fabric stores, dream up the perfect color combinations, and decide on which variations and features you want.
Even I can be artistic and creative. I think it’s just human nature. I’ve never thought of myself as a particularly artistic person, at least in terms of visual, creative arts. I am a geochemist. I’m good at math. But sewing has really brought out my artistic side, and I’m enjoying it.
Constructing a garment is like putting together a puzzle; some garments are simple puzzles, and some complex. It makes me look at everything I wear and buy in a whole new light.
Sewing is not so hard. No, I’m not an expert seamstress. Yes, there are plenty of things I don’t know how to do. There are things I have to do poorly three times before I do them well, but it just takes practice and a bit of guidance. Lucky for all of us who are learning to sew, there are many resources at our fingertips – tutorials, videos, online classes, and the like. And a great online sewing community to turn to for inspiration and advice!