If you were reading on our anniversary, you saw that Alan brought me to the book store. I didn’t find the book I was looking for but found this one instead, Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin.

I’ve never heard of it before. It was just luck that there was that one copy in the store and that I pulled it off the shelf. I opened the book and fell in love with this reverse appliqué swing skirt.

I sat there flipping through the pages of beautiful pictures. Stopping occasionally to read about beading, stenciling, deconstructing a t-shirt, and at the unexpected like a biscuits recipe and “loving” your thread. And right then and there I knew I had to have the book. I ordered the book and since it’s arrived I’ve been carrying it from room to room reading it.

There’s a paragraph in the first chapter where she writes about how in the mid-1990s a lot of garment factories closed with businesses moving overseas. It makes me sad.

Ok and here is where I go off on a completely different subject.

I read that chapter and in the back of my mind I think about a link my sister sent me, The Story of Stuff and how whenever I go to Target there is just stuff everywhere. Racks and racks of clothes made by cheap labor in other countries. Clothes we don’t need. Clothes that are inexpensive to buy. I think about how much time and effort it takes for me to make something and it makes me mad.

Do we care less about things when we don’t have to pay a lot for them? When they are easy to replace with more cheap stuff that we don’t need?

It makes me think of the documentary my friend, Veronica, recommended, The Corporation, and how big uncaring companies are everywhere. Companies that do not care about the world we live in or the people who live in it. And then I get mad that I shop at Target. That big stores have things cheaper. That food sprayed with pesticides is cheaper than organic. That I don’t even know where to find a mom and pop store for the necessities.

It makes me sad to think our country is a consumer country. We don’t make things anymore. We buy things. Our economy is based on how much we buy. The government is giving us a tax rebate hoping we’ll buy more stuff to stimulate the economy.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. It all just makes me sad, this fast paced life we live in where everything is easily had and easily thrown away.

And even though I think all this I can’t stop myself from wanting a play kitchen. Even after or especially after I quickly made a sucky drawn one for Isabelle.

She sits down and we pretend to have tea on it. So she thinks it’s a little table, not a stove.

I just don’t want to think about any of that anymore. It’s all depressing. I guess I’ll just sit down and sew all the sad thoughts away. Yeah. That’s it. Sewing. Hand made. With love. By me.

Posted by Kuky at 2:29 am in: Books yum BOOKS
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I’m having one of those days where I didn’t get much done. I thought about doing a lot but that’s about as far as I got, the thinking part. BUT I DID scan in the pictures from ISBN 9784579110438.

Here’s the picture from the book of the tank top I showed yesterday. I’ve altered it since then and…it’s so depressing, I’ll write about it tomorrow.

No. Actually, I’ll write about it now. The test tank top in muslin (thank goodness I made a muslin) as I mentioned before was pushing down on my boobs.

The empire style (is that what it’s called) part of it was sitting in the wrong area. It’s supposed to sit right under my boob but my damn boobs are so big I had to mush them in and it wasn’t fitting. The bottom half puffed out unattractively making me look pregnant. I didn’t take pictures of a side view because, oh my gawd, the horror! The picture, from yesterday, didn’t look that bad but in person, YIKES! So I altered it.

I thought I would add three more inches to the top half so there would be more room for the girls. Well it doesn’t smoosh my boobs down anymore. And it doesn’t make me look 8 months pregnant. But it’s still a little tight, just a tad. Then it dawned on me, to measure my chest. That’s when I realized, I’ve gained weight since I first purchased the book. Or to be more accurate, I’ve gotten bigger.

That’s why it’s so depressing. That’s why it doesn’t fit! I made the largest size, 13, and it still doesn’t fit!! Aaaarrrgggh!!!

So now I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I should alter it more to actually give me more inches around or just give up and try a different pattern.

But what’s the point? Maybe all the patterns from this book won’t fit since the largest size is 13. I really wanted to make pattern #13, the one above on the left, but it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of room in the chest area.

Maybe pattern #10, the one above on the right, has more room? I don’t know. Maybe I should measure the patterns.

Man, I’m bummed. I look at pictures of myself and am sometimes surprised that I look bigger than I imagined. Is that a weird thing to say? Well turns out I am bigger.

So yeah…don’t know what to do now. Oh I almost forgot the whole reason for my post. I got distracted by lamenting about my weight. Here’s what I meant to link to, the rest of the pictures from the book.

Oh I hate being pathetic. I had to give myself a laugh. I looked up “I’m too sexy” on youtube and sang “I’m too big for my shirt, too big for my shirt…” with a little head shake and everything. Yes I’m a goober, a big fat goober.

Posted by Kuky at 1:08 am in: Books yum BOOKS, Finished Project, Sewing
17 Comments

So you may or may not have noticed that I haven’t been sewing much. Actually, not at all since before Christmas. I’ve been in a sewing slump. I’m hoping this will get my sewing juices flowing. This is the book I bought the other day, the one I was so impatient for, ISBN 4391624206.

I’m thinking about starting with an alligator:

Or maybe a little sheep:

That is when I finally finish the never ending list of other projects I have lined up. Oh and because I don’t have enough to do (wink, wink) here are pictures of the rest of the projects from the book. It is so nice to see what else is in a book before you buy it, don’t you think?

Posted by Kuky at 11:19 pm in: Books yum BOOKS
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Ok let’s catch up on something non Isabelle related, since last month was pretty much all about Isabelle. How about some sewing from ISBN 4579111494?! Remember the little peek of the shirt/dress? Well here it is finally, the whole thing, finished. That peek was almost a month ago! Wow I’m sooo out of it. It’s taken quite a long time to get a picture of me wearing it.

So I ended up altering the pattern just a little. I didn’t shorten it but I took in the sides a teensy bit around the waist so it wouldn’t be so sack like. I don’t know how this is usually done. I just winged it. I’m sure there is a better way of doing this because the way I did it makes the fabric pull a little strangely where I altered it. But I’m quite happy with it. That’s why I made it again. That’s right. Another incarnation of this pattern, shortened and the waist unaltered. But I don’t have a good picture yet. I’ll get around to it eventually…maybe next month. In fact I still have a few projects that need pictures taken. Yipes how did it all get away from me?

So, what to sew next? I’m thinking about one of these next three projects. They’re all from ISBN 4579111494 as well.

I’m really leaning towards this one, project 26.

Ahhh so much sewing, so little time.

Posted by Kuky at 7:28 pm in: Books yum BOOKS, Finished Project, Sewing
4 Comments

I made the carrot cupcakes and success! Well almost. They didn’t come out wet sodden messes but they didn’t poof up as much as I was expecting. They are, however, delicious. I don’t even need the frosting. Yay! Less work for me. I only frosted two of them.

And also, YAY, I got three new Japanese craft books. THREE. As if I needed more. Alan actually asked me why I don’t take Japanese classes since I have so many books. Yeah why don’t I?

So where is the picture of the new books? Here. One picture for you. Of one book, ISBN 4579111494.

Am I being mean and teasing you? No. So why only one book? I had this brilliant idea of taking pictures of each project to share with everyone. That way you’ll know if you like it before you buy it. But damn that took a long time. There are 28 projects in this one. TWENTY EIGHT!

The light was bad and Isabelle was all underfoot. As a result the pictures just turned out a mess. But I had decided it was a brilliant idea so refused to give up. I then tried taking the pictures with a tripod. Still didn’t work. I would not quit. I ended up scanning them all in, all 28 projects. Then I laid them all out six to a page because I didn’t want to upload 28 pictures. (I believe I have my account set up so you can click through to the larger size.) And when I was done, I WAS DONE. Too tired to scan the other books. Too tired to finish this post properly. Another day. sleep. now.

Posted by Kuky at 3:14 am in: Books yum BOOKS, Food
7 Comments

Last month we were in the bookstore and I was flipping through Bend the Rules Sewing. I decided to order it from Amazon to save money. Well you know I HAD to take advantage of the free shipping so I ordered Sew What! Skirts too. At the time, I was pretty excited because I was eager to sew some skirts for myself. Well it’s been over five weeks and the books FINALLY arrived today.

I didn’t notice when I was ordering but the skirt book wasn’t in stock for 4-6 weeks. And when I got the email saying when it was going to arrive I didn’t want to cancel it because I was saving money. So every time I thought about the books I’d kick myself thinking about how I could drive 10 minutes away to buy them. Now so much time has gone by that I have other projects that need fixing first before I start something new.


Not as if I could get much sewing done anyways. Drawing, yes. On the computer, yes. Reading, yes. But sewing. No. Too much concentration required. I don’t want to stop every few minutes. And why would I be stopping so frequently? Why Isabelle of course. She is being a regular little monkey. She’s getting into everything. She figured out how to get into the playpen by herself. One day she was playing near it and I had my back turned. When I turned back around she was inside. I was so surprised. But I figured she was nice and safe once inside so no worries. I turned away and next thing you know she got out by herself!

Ok she’s not a magic flying baby. It was by the couch and she was lowering herself in and pulling herself out by grabbing onto the arm of the couch. She’s gotten quite adept at using things to help her get up higher. I think the scariest was when she climbed on top of the ottoman that was sitting on top of her toybox. I worry she might fall on her head. And of course I can’t be sewing if I need to make sure she doesn’t break her little head open.

Posted by Kuky at 1:08 am in: Books yum BOOKS, Family
5 Comments

Here are some more pictures from our busy weekend. We went to the Kidfest in Concord. I would say it’s for kids a little older. Isabelle is too young to jump around in bouncy houses with older kids. Or I should say we are too overprotective. But she still had fun. We walked around, listened to music, had festival food, and watched Isabelle enjoy herself. I could share a bunch of pictures but I’ll restrain myself and only show one…ok two. I’ll spare you the ones of her eating, us trying to give her cotton candy for the first time (aren’t we great parents? she didn’t want any), and her fascination with the Chinese lion dancers.

And after the Kidfest we stopped by the used book store right there and I found some old books. I love old books. Have I ever mentioned that? I found a sewing book from 1945 called Sewing for Everyone for $1.98. The other book, which I could not find a published date for, was in the children’s section. I have no clue what it’s about. I just liked the cover. And I figured I could read it to Isabelle when she’s older.

And since I’m talking about books, here are the books I bought when we went to Japantown.

Isbn 4309280463, on the left, is for me!! Finally a book for me! I love this apron skirt, this dress, and this top is so sweet.

I actually saw the other book, isbn 4418051244, the last time we were in Japantown for the Cherry Blossom festival. I kept thinking about party dresses for Isabelle and how they make the inside, under the dress. So since I couldn’t get it out of my head I knew I had to get it this time. Ooooh and it has some boy clothes as well!

Posted by Kuky at 6:35 pm in: Books yum BOOKS, Family
2 Comments