12 Years Later...

It has been 12 years since my last post. A lot has changed, obviously - I am a mother now, married, work in tech, moved to a new province, own a home...so on and so forth.

Over the years, I have almost completely lost touch with my creative self, particularly my sewing self. This is not because of motherhood; it happened long before then when I quit attempting to earn a living through sewing, art, and crafts and chose to "get a real job."

I am at the point now, 12 years later, that work has sucked the life out of me, and I can no longer bear it. I need to get back in touch with my inner seamstress again. Luckily, I hang on to things. Deep in my crawl space, tucked away in a dusty plastic tote - my collection of Colette sewing patterns has laid in wait.  

Thankfully, when I started this blog 13 years ago, I had the good sense to trace the patterns instead of cutting them out. They are all still pristine and ready for use in a new era (and a new size).

This brings me to my point - I am dusting off the "Complete Colette Sewing Challenge"! Over the next few months, I intend to start sewing a new wardrobe in time for summer, making my way through the entire Colette pattern collection, as I had initially set out to do 13 years ago. 

However this time, a few things will change:

• I am moving up from a size 0 to a size 8!
• I am not working to a deadline - I will just enjoy the journey, however long that is.
• That said, I don't have time to trace out all the patterns, so I will be cutting them out 😱🤞
• I am going to thrift my materials. Sewing is a very expensive hobby!

I'll be starting with the beginner patterns, and first up will be the Sencha blouse. Time to get started!

 

Happy Sewing!

Happy New Year (and News)

Happy 2013 everyone! I know you're probably wondering where the heck I've been. Well I've gotten a new job. A new fulltime job in my field and am embarking on a new chapter of my life. As exciting as this is, it is also a bit bitter sweet. I know work 6 days a week and won't be able to to sew regularly.

I still plan on making all my patterns and posting pictures and words about them, but unfortunately I will have to do it much more sporadically. I know all of you out there can understand how much time goes into sewing and how difficult it can be to balance it with work.

But it's not the end, I still love blogging and I still plan to keep this blog going in a more personal way. I want to share snippets of all the things I love as well as sewing, maybe even with the occasional video post.

So I'll see you soon!





Thanks for everything!

Holiday Report

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas spending time with family, eating great food and hopefully opening a few great gifts. I have been busy playing with all the new toys I got - I'm coming to you live from a new computer and I've also been reading non stop with a new Ereader. Santa was definitely good to me this year. There has been a lot of lounging and relaxing and not enough sewing so it's time to get back into the swing of things.

I want to do something different today. One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was a gift certificate to a fabric store. I've already been o use it and I wanted to show you guys what I got. The gift certificate was for $50 and as you can see that went a long way.

I couldn't help but get a couple quirky prints. I'm thinking the star satin blend for the Sencha Blouse and maybe the knit flowers in a Renfrew Top from Sewaholic.

I love the coral/orangey color of these fabrics. The first one, a polka dot chiffon I thought would be perfect for an intimate take on Cinnamon. The stripe cotton I thought would make a great Ginger.

Lastly, another polka dot. This is a very delicate and sheer cotton but I thought, with a lining, it will make the perfect Peony.

So now that we've had our holiday rest we have to snap back into our regular routines and for me, that's sewing. I hope you've all been enjoying the Ceylon Sew-Along and have made good progress with your dresses. There will be a new post with pictures and a new to-do list in the days to come.

Finally I wanted to ask a question to any reader who has made the Lady Grey coat. I had what I think was a brilliant idea the other day for my coat when I go to sew it, I want to use a vintage Hudson's Bay blanket I have as the fabric. My blanket has  couple of small holes in it but it is a King size and I think it would make a great Lady Grey.

My question is, is the fabric of the blanket too thick to use? I know the pattern calls for a more medium weight wool but I have my heart set on this idea now. If any of you have any advice please let me know!

That's all I have for this Boxin Day, see you soon everybody!

Ceylon Sew-Along Day 1 Complete

Hey everyone, so I hope your darts and gathers are coming along nicely. I have finished mine and have a few photos to show you but I must warn you: they are terrible! I couldn't beat the clock and get everything finished before sun down but I really wanted to show as much progress as possible for this project, so I was forced to take pictures using god-awful ceiling light. I hope you can forgive me!

They are nearly invisible, but here are the sewn darts at the Back Yoke D and Midriff Back F.

Here are the gathers at the Bodice Back B.

Here we have the gathers on both Bodice Front A pieces.

Here is one Skirt Front G piece with gathers complete.

So we have finished the first part of the Ceylon Sew-Along. Our next tasks are going to be:

• Attaching the Midriff Front E to the Bodice Front A
• Attaching the Midriff Back F to the Bodice Back B
• Stitch Back Skirt H together at center seam
• Join Skirt Front
• Join Skirt Back

I know this list is a little heftier than day one but I know we can do it! So good luck and happy sewing and I will see you back here soon with updates on day two!

Ceylon Sew-Along Day 1

Hello everyone, hopefully by know you've managed to get everything done on our before-sewing-to-do list and are now ready to start sewing your Ceylon.

Today's first steps are easy, we a just going to:

• Sew Darts
• Make Gathers

Easy enough right! So we have darts at the Back Neckline and the Back Midriff, and we have gathers at Bodice Front, Bodice Back and Skirt Front. Alright so that's our attack plan, Now Let's go!

Ceylon Sew-Along

So because time is slipping away this month, I thought this would be a great excuse to do a Sew-Along, spacing out the components of the Ceylon over the course of a couple weeks. I have cut my pieces but have done nothing else, so I'd like to start the sew-along by getting all those interested in joining in to gather their supplies, trace their pattern, make their muslin and cut their fabric! We will start sewing the finished dress on Monday. This gives you about four days to complete the above To Do list. I'm excited to share with you more pictures of my progress and hope it will be helpful to you when constructing your Ceylon as well.

Although I fear I may only complete two projects this month (EEK), I'm confident I will make up for lost time in the remaining months and that this little Sew-Along is fun way to make up for it!

So go gather and I will see you back here Monday for the first ever Complete Colette Sew-Along! See you soon!

Slowly But Surely

HO-LY COW!! December has been incredibly busy for me. With all the Christmas shopping, holiday gatherings and extra hours at work, I've hardly had time to sleep let alone sew. At this rate I fear I might not finish all my projects for the end of the month.

I do have one thing to show you, my finished muslin for my Ceylon dress.

 I made it a size smaller and it fits great. I decided I would make only one all black dress during this adventure, and Ceylon is it. I'm going to be using a black viscose that I already have yards and yards of, and I am going to go out and find the buttons for it on Wednesday. I am going to have to spread out all the components of Ceylon over several days in order to fit it in and may plan of attack for today is to cut the pieces from my fabric and apply the interfacing. So any who's following along, that's what we got to do!