One of my first goals for 2019 was to make a garment from a commercial pattern. For some reason, I was developing a mental block against actually digging into the stash of easy patterns I’ve purchased from Goodwill and garage sales. I’ve made clothes for my son from PDF patterns online, and I’ve drafted my own patterns (with guidance from Melly), but I hadn’t yet taken my scissors to the antique tissue paper that is ’80’s-era sewing patterns.
As I suspected, I really had nothing to fear.
[Taken 14 August 2018]
The week before First Grade started, Connor and I enjoyed a bit of a staycation. On Tuesday of that week, we made our very first trip to the Indian Creek Zoo in Lambertville, Michigan. It’s basically a very large petting zoo with some exotic animals like giraffes, monkeys, and zebras.
That morning, I loaded up my modified Holga 120N (which I affectionately call my Holgamod) with Ektar 100, since I hadn’t taken the Holga for a spin in a few years. This was the best photo of the roll — most frames turned out underexposed, since much of the zoo was in heavy shade.
After a bare minimum of designing (read: uploading a screenshot of a couple of formatted cells in Google Sheets) and a $5 payment to Spoonflower, I now have some 50 custom labels to sew into my handmade garments this year.
I thought at first that I was biting off more than I could chew, but I really, REALLY wanted to sew most of my giftables this past Christmas.
I felt like I was figuring out zipper pouches pretty well, and who couldn’t use a pouch to keep stuff in? Pillowcases are a thing, too, and I’ve been getting better at appliqué, so there were lots of possibilities.
I made my husband a C64 zipper pouch for his birthday in November, and it turned out pretty awesome.
So I went for it. And it went well.
Happy Holidays from Aaron, Diana, Connor, and Mei!