Crafting in Boston

I used to envision getting loads of things done on my trips but eventually gave up on that, realizing that I'm much happier to spend my time walking around a city figuring out what makes it tick and how it got to be the way it is today than I am to sit around the hotel room working on crafts waiting for my husband to get off work.

I spent a whole month in Boston this summer and when I was packing, I thought I ought to try bringing along a couple of projects in the hopes that I'd get something productive accomplished, being away from the distractions of home.  I decided to work on a smocked dress for my friend's new baby girl and went off to my local heirloom sewing type fabric store to get a few fabric options pleated.

The first week of Boston, I found Grey's Fabrics, a cute local store that was a short bus ride (or a long walk) away down in the South End.  Grey's specializes in cottons with really interesting and unique prints.  There were some neat retro designs and a lot of feed sack cloth reproduction prints.

I decided to sign up for a couple of classes for the camaraderie and fun of doing a project that someone else comes up (I did feel a little silly paying for easy sewing classes when I'm sort of a professional seamstress).  I picked the dog leash class and the tie class, easy projects with instant gratification!  Even though they weren't groundbreaking projects, I had a blast and got a little of my years long sewing burn-out worn off.

I like the soft aqua pattern of the outside and I like the orange reproduction feed sack fabric lining even more!

Another great reproduction feed sack fabric!  It's so pretty I hate to use the leash and dirty it!

I also learned that she rents time at the machines for a few bucks an hour and was excited to be able to come in and work on my little dress.  Even better is that I learned they had sewing evenings every Wednesday where people would come and drink wine and work on their own projects.  I was able to finish my two little dresses during the sewing evenings I attended and had a great time doing it.  I'd love to start something like that with my friends at home!

 One of the adorable vintage machines in the sewing area.  I used Beatrix most of the times I came in to sew.

The smocked dress I made for baby Hazel turned out beautifully.  I wish I could finish every project I start in under two weeks!  I finished it so quickly that the dress only just now fits her and she's had it since July!  The nice thing about babies is that if you make it too big, eventually they'll grow into it : )

 The smocking panel in progress (almost done actually)

All finished!  I designed the smocking plate myself, though it's hardly anything groundbreaking... there are diamonds and hearts in lots of plates!  Coming up with the design and picking floss colors are really the hardest part about smocking.

On a hanger for scale reference... it's a tiny dress!  There are matching tiny bloomers too (not pictured)

After finishing the purple dress for Hazel, I was on a roll, so for the last sewing evening at Grey's, I whipped up this one for another friend's baby with a cute fabric they had on sale.

Sick of Being Sickie!

In an extremely unfair turn of events, I woke up yesterday morning with pretty painful muscle soreness in my right hip and hand.  I figured I had slept funny because the night before I was up late working on homework like it was 1999.  Even though I'm taking just one class, I still feel compelled to wait until the day before to do my homework (a die hard procrastinator much to my mother's chagrin).

I started draping the dress around 7pm and I figured it'd be done by midnight (I'm a constant victim of my own magical thinking).  Right.  I finished my drape and paper patterns around 1 and then still had to cut the pieces out of my fabric and sew them.  I got to bed at 4:30am.  It felt like it took forever, but I think that starting from scratch with draping then patterning and ending up with a finished dress in 8 hours isn't too bad.  I'm pretty pleased with the dress though.  I need to let it out a tiny bit in the hips to fit me more attractively, but it fits really well considering that I used socks and felt to pad out my dress form (which is why there is t-shirt under the dress) to account for my weight gain since I sized it to fit me in college, several pounds ago : )  Thanks again for the dress form, Mom!  Squishy is still holding up well 8 years later!

"Designing" isn't really in my skill set, so I usually look around online for inspiration for my homework projects.  This week I picked a cute Lilly Pulitzer dress, minus the shoulder bow!  I didn't put enough flare in the skirt but I was worried about running out of fabric.

it definitely looks cuter on the Lilly model, but she's about half my size!

So naturally I figured that the sleepless night was to blame for feeling off yesterday morning.  As the day progressed, I started hobbling around and by bedtime, my upper arms, left hip, and left hand were starting to get in the game.  It took a while for me to muster up the motivation to lay down once I sat on my bed, and it really took some doing to get out of the bed this morning because of the pain.  I went to the doc and since I've been recovering from the other illnesses, it's hard to say what symptoms are new and which are old (other than the mobility issues).  So basically they took my blood (which is still ridiculously upsetting even though I'm nearly 30) and are going to check it for tick diseases, mono, and some other kind of bacterial thing.

That was a really long-winded way of saying that I'm sorry I'm so boring and not crafty or projecty this week.  I started a blog because usually I'm working on lots of stuff and traveling all around - but not this week : (

Days 1 - 3

Despite being in full recovery mode from work and also trying to shake my wicked cocktail of flu and sinus infection, I dove straight into project after project on Day 1 of being a Housewife.  I didn't plan to do so many things, it just sort of happened as one success would inspire me to do something else!  I'm going to include the age of the projects as I list them out - I have some really old projects that I'm getting to!

Day 1:
I felt guilty about quitting my job and staying home, but also such an increasing sense of happiness and I felt the stress receding and tranquility and possibilities coming in!

I went to my first monthly neighborhood garden club meeting.  Several of the ladies asked if I was new to the neighborhood and I sheepishly admitted that we've been here for 6 years!  It was really fun and I'm looking forward to actually making some friends in the neighborhood.  I grew up in the woods with only a few neighbors, so I have no frame of reference for what it's like living in a neighborhood with lots of people.  Our neighborhood was built in the 50's and being at the garden club meeting (especially now officially being a housewife) gave me a real feeling of going back in time - though no one was wearing a nice dress and pearls : )

Projects:
- 4 years - dragged the extra roll of chain link fencing, roll of wire, and extra fence posts to the street... they were gone within minutes, and I wondered why I hadn't done it years ago! (I love the street fairies!)
- 3 years - dragged our old extra grill to the street with the extra propane tank.  The propane tank disappeared in minutes and the grill was gone within the hour.
- ongoing - weeded a flower bed in front of the house
- ongoing - got 4 paint samples for the shed which needs painting very badly
- 1 year - swept off the back patio area and got rid of all the broken pots and other trashy stuff

the patio afterwards, so pretty!

a close up of one of the tulip beds on the patio.  so cheerful!

Day 2:
Feeling great! (even though I'm still recovering from my illnesses)

Projects:
- new - planted petunias in my front porch flower boxes!
- 2 years - met with someone to see if they thought our lovely but falling apart pergola could be fixed up or was becoming unsafe and should be taken down.  He said that it could probably be fixed but we'd need to replace several columns and add more in the middle because the span is too much - he also was not pleased with the fact that it's held to the house with just 3 bolts attached to the fascia board (it's 20'x20')
- 1 month - ordered a magnetic sheet to put my giant pac man wall stickers on so they can become fun fridge magnets!
- 1 year - ordered a map and pins so I can put our travels on the map and laugh about all the places we've been to in the past few years (I know my dear husband will not want to see this project completed, he's tired of traveling)
- 2 years - screwed eyes into the frame of one of my grandmother's paintings and put wire on another, so I finally got to hang up two more of her watercolor miniatures!
- 3 years - finally shortened the living room curtains.  When I made them, I just folded some purchased curtains in half and sewed a casing and they've always been too long.
- 9 months - finally started the curtains for the master bath.  Last year we put pretty white and cobalt blue tiles on the floor and I've been wanting to replace the brown and orange curtains ever since!  I got one curtain done and left the other to do in the morning!

the living room curtains before and after... why didn't I bother to shorten them sooner?

Day 3:
I felt great as I soldiered on with the bathroom curtain project.  Curtains are SO BORING to make and I suppose that's why I never bother to do them right (until now).  I was really tired and I think that's from overdoing it on Thursday and Friday while still trying to recover from being sick.

Projects:
- new - started this blog!
- new - got pretty fabric to make covers for our ugly patio chair cushions!
- 1 month - sewed the button back on my knitted slippers (seems simple and not noteworthy, but I seem to never find the energy to do any sewing for myself, even as simple as sewing a button back on)
- new - got seed packets and trays and started lots of seeds... sunflowers, candytuft, shasta daisy, zinnias, sweet peas, and morning glory!
- ongoing - planted 5 new May Night Salvia plants with the two I already have
- 9 months - finished the bathroom curtains!

our bright and cheerful new curtains!