The Random in A Journey of Random Musings

If medical topics scare you, skip to the next post.

In this post I wrote about my upcoming surgery and how I was going to be out of commission for a while, but I would tell you all about it.

On Monday January 29, 2018. I went to the hospital to have an Open Myomectomy surgery to remove what I thought was 4 uterine fibroids. By definition, fibroids are benign tumors that occur in the uterus.  They can cause all different symptoms from bloating, to bleeding. Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths in the uterus that can develop during a woman's childbearing years.

I've been having symptoms of excessive menstrual bleeding, along with pain from cramps, intercourse, and vaginal exams. I also experienced bloating to a point where I looked visibly pregnant. This, I found out was from the fibroids expanding my uterus.  I also had weakness and tiredness in my limbs, especially my legs.  This was going on for years.  Each gynecological exam and ultrasound that I had over the past 3 years confirmed this diagnosis, but the fibroids were small, and not really a problem for me until the last 3 months before my surgery. I'm on birth control, and I forgot to take a pill at the time I would usually take it, and it caused me to bleed heavily, to a point where it scared me because I've never experienced anything like it. At that point, my doctor gave me the option of having a surgery to remove them.

There are many different ways to remove the fibroids: laparoscopic, open myomectomy, uterine fibroid embolization, etc. However,  because of the type of fibroids, and where they were located, I had to have an open myomectomy, which is the most invasive. The surgery itself is the same surgery as a cesarean section for pregnant women, but instead of a baby being removed, the fibroids were removed.  After the surgery, I spent 2 days in the hospital, because I had to pass gas and walk before I was able to be released.  Once I was discharged to my home, It took me 2 weeks before I left the house for the first time, and then another 2 weeks after before I felt comfortable to resume my normal activities.  In total, it took me 8 weeks to fully heal before returning to work. 

Fast forward to today, I'm back to full health, and ready to resume sewing, blogging and conquering this Journey of Random Musings.

When the Body Gets in the Way...You Coast Until it Moves

In my last post, I wrote about my 2018 plans to make a new wardrobe, along with my plans to participate in the 2018 RTW Fast hosted by Goodbye Valentino. Although I've been making some plans on what to start off with, and wanting to actually start sewing something, I've been hit with a road block of sorts. My Own Body.

In about two weeks, I will be having abdominal surgery, which will put me out of commission for at least six weeks. This means no sewing, no lifting, no doing much of anything but laying down and resting. Not fun at all.  I've known that I've needed to have this surgery (which I will blog about once its done) for a few months now, but it was recently scheduled and the date is around the corner. 

Since the surgery is abdominal, the side affects causing it has affected my sizing for many of the garments that are on my list of makes. While I am not a large person, I have gained enough weight as to not completely know how to fit my body.  This has made me leery of making anything that won't fit as soon as the surgery is over.

In the mean time, while preparing for the surgery and the resulting healing process, I have decided to learn as many techniques as I can during this time, so that once I am released by my doctor, I can start sewing. I hope that once I am feeling up to standing for large periods of time, I can make samples of the topics that I want to improve on.

Some of the topics that I will be doing more research about include:

Button Down shirts- more specifically how to sew collars and yokes. I need collared shirts in my life, NOW!!!

Pants and Jeans- Getting the fit right, since this is what I wear 99.99999% of the time. The goal is to finally make a pair of jeans

Pockets- I love the look of welt pockets, but I'm terrified of cutting into an already made garment

Tissue Fitting- I've been making clothes using knit fabrics for the longest time, however, what I want to evolve my style into requires that I make the leap into woven fabrics.

Between Craftsy, YouTube, and the rest of the Interwebs, along with my growing reference library, I know that I can learn and make so that my wardrobe will astonish even me.

See you in the next post!!!

The Year That Felt Too Short and 2018 Plans

Its amazing how times flies by.  2018 is only a few days away.  With work and life, blogging just got away from me. Instagram and Facebook made it extremely easy to forget about actual blogging. In 2018 one of my goals is to make more time to blog. Even though it feels like I didn't make anything this year, I actually made quite a lot of things.

Over the past year I made about 5 crafty items and about 25 clothing items. Most were for me, but there were some that were made to give away.
Here's some of those makes.

This year I also participated in the #2017MakeNine, which is nine garments wanted to make over the year.  Of those nine patterns that I selected to make, I only was able to accomplish one.  I'm not giving up though, so I'm making a make nine plan for 2018, so that I can try again.  This time around, I chose items that would flow with my plans to participate in the 2018 RTW fast held by Sarah from Goodbye Valentino, as well as with my capsule wardrobe for work wear and casual wear that I began last year.

2018 Make Nine

Clockwise from top left:
Sewaholic Renfrew, Closet Case Files Sasha Trousers, True Bias Ogden Cami,
M6803, Workroom Social Drape 1001, Closet Case Files Ginger Jeans,
Closet Case Files Morgan Jeans, Closet Case Files Kalle Shirtdress, True Bias Hudson Pants

All of my 2018 Make Nine plans coincide with the continuation of making a new wardrobe that is my style and fits my body. I previously spoke about my wardrobe plans and the 2017 make nine in this post. So overall, while I didn't keep to my original plans for the year, I am happy with what I've made.


Here's to next year, and whatever crafty goodness that it brings.

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2017: New Year, New Sewing Plans

Now that 2016 is over, it's now time to figure out my sewing journey for 2017.  The first few weeks of this month were set aside to think about the direction that I want my wardrobe to go, along with what empty spots need to be filled.  Last month I received the Colette Sewing Planner in a subscription box that I received. I haven't begun to fill in my plans, but I will say that filling out the first few pages gave me a start of what I need.  There also is a hashtag #2017MakeNine where different sewists have chosen nine patterns that they would like to make over the course of the year.  I chose the patterns below for two reasons: I already have the necessary items to make the garment, and they fit the needs of my non-work wardrobe. Some of these items will probably cross over to my work wardrobe though. Even though these nine are what I really want to make this year, there are some others that may get made before any of the ones on my list.  

(L to R, Top to Bottom) Closet Case Files Kelly Anorak, Closet Case Files Morgan Jeans, M6886, Tilly and the Buttons Orla Top, Grainline Studios Archer Shirt, S1467 (Jacket); M6803, Liesl & Co Gallery Tunic, Grainline Studios Morris Blazer

As you may know, I've purged most of the items in my closet.  Most of the items that I chose reflect my current style and will replace what I have purged.  Style wise, I love to keep things as simple as can be.  I love tunics, and sweaters and blazers.  Some of the main items that I want to make are office friendly tops, because most of what's left is either too small or no longer in a wearable condition. The office tops are also able to be worn when I'm not at work. 

I also need pants, for work and for play.  The first set of work pants I've made were knit pants, some with elastic bands, some with just a yoga style band.  Eventually I want to make some tailored dress pants, which I can wear on an interview or to church or another event.  

Since I don't wear skirts very often, I have included one dress, possibly a LBD for those necessary occasions because everyone needs a black dress. 

That's about it for the 2017. I hope you will follow along with me on this journey.

The Anatomy of a Fail

Lets face it, we all have garments that are sew epic fails.  You know, those garments that are full of mistakes or don't fit.  Well I definitely have a few. Luckily the only person who knows its a fail is me. All of the most recent fails are due to fit.  I love the style, but something just didn't work out.  So instead of tossing it, what I've done was finish it to a point where it's wearable for me to wear to work. So far there's 3 garments, a top, a pair of pants and a dress.

The dress: M6885

This dress was originally made for a wedding I was going to, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It didn't fit, I spilled fray check on the placket and messed up the buttonholes. So for the wearable finish, I serged the hem and let it hang. I'm keeping it because the fabric is pretty.  I will eventually remake this one (eventually may be years away). I previously blogged about this dress here.

The top: Pamela's Patterns Perfect T Shirt
 I needed more work shirts, and I had purchased this top pattern at Camp Workroom Social. This time, I hemmed following the directions and used fusible web in the sleeves and the result was a bit too stiff for me.  Also, I definitely needed some more room in the bust area because the shirt kept riding up.  I think for the next version, I will try the darted front that came with the pattern.  I love this shirt pattern.  for my body type, It made it look like I had a nice shape, and camouflaged my tummy.

The Pants: Style Arc Barb Pant
The pants were a fail because they were too many alterations needed to make them fit.. I also cut them at what I now know was a size too big and too wide in the leg.  Luckily for me that I own a serger and it took two swipes to get them to a comfortable size.  I used a knit elastic and serged it to the super low waistline.  After wearing it once, I had to take it in a little bit because the pants kept falling off as I moved.  I definitely know that I won't be making these pants again, as I have many pants patterns to make.

These three garments showed me that there was nothing wrong with a fail, and that I can only get better at garment making. I can't wait until the next makes.

I went to Camp Ya'll!!!

Camp. Workroom. Social.

My first sewing related retreat and it was a success.  For those who are not aware, Camp Workroom Social (CWS) is a 4 day retreat held by Jennifer of Workroom Social, which is a sewing studio in my home town of Brooklyn, NY.  I've known Jennifer for a while through the Sewing Community in NYC, so I was aware of CWS before this year. Last year I found out too late to participate in the inaugural year, so I promised myself that I would go this year.

CWS this year had six different tracks for students to choose from.  This year's tracks were Fit, Shirtmaking, Bra Making, Jacketmaking, Hand Sewing, and Surface Design.  By the time I signed up, most of the classes were sold out.  I ended up signing up for the fit class, because of the classes that were left to choose from, this class was the one that seemed to fit into my sewing journey.

Fast forward to October 14, departure day.  We left from Penn Station in Manhattan on chartered buses up to the YMCA Frost Valley Camp in the Catskills. It was about a 4 hour ride. Once we were checked in at the camp registration office, off we went to our assigned rooms.  There were 6 women to a room.  The swag bag was amazing.  We received a CWS badge, a copy of Upper Case magazine, a seam ripper and a headlamp from Singer Sewing Machines, who was one of the sponsors. After we got settled and had dinner, it was time for class orientation. After orientation it was time for the Pajama party. In our Facebook group, many of us decided to make the Carolyn pajamas by Closet Case Files to wear to the party.  I only made the pants because I don’t wear. PJ tops. That will be a later blog post.  The party was amazing, and it was really cool to see the Carolyn in different fabrics. Another amazing thing about Camp was that I got to see many of the indie patterns that I currently have or lusted drooled over in real life.  I also got to fangirl over all of the teaching staff, who are all people in the Sewing world that I follow and admire.

Melissa Watson and Pamela Leggett were the instructors.  Both were well versed in the Palmer Pletsch tissue fitting method. For this class we used the M7279 Fitting Shell pattern. I had the book "fit for real people" but I didn't understand it fully.  I was measured to find the right pattern size, which for me was a 14. After prepping the pattern tissue and trying it on, the tissue began to mold itself to my shape. By the time I cut out my fabric, I was amazed at having a garment that fit me perfectly with no drag marks. It was as if a lightbulb went off.  Now I want to sew all the things. Learning to fit myself was the push that I needed to cut into all of the fabric that I own.  It also allowed me to understand my body to see how the adjustments work in relation to ready to wear garments.

Through the 4 days of camp I got to meet some amazing campers from all over the world.  At the end I didn't want to go home because I found my tribe. Being with this tribe opened my eyes to all that the sewing world has to offer.

Our lovely Camp Director

My first Full Bust Adjustment

This is me!! This is the first well fitting "garment" ever!!

The final pin fitting, Excuse the hair.

This shirt was made by the shirt making class using pieces from each shirt that was made during class.
This was given to the YMCA manager as a thank you from the whole group.

Back of Shirt.
The back pocket was to hold his Jokes

The Carolyn Crew at the Pajama Party

The Camp Staff taking a group pic

This group of women are awesome and so very talented.

The Final Serenade before it was back to reality.

Blogging: What Next?

No I am not quitting my blog.

This blog has been up for a few months, I've posted a few times about my makes, but now I am at a loss of what else I can and should talk about.  My mind is going in so many different directions what to do. I need help, but know not where to begin.  I need ideas. I would like this blog to be informative, with a hope that it will be able to assist newbie sewers/sewists navigate this world.

Some Ideas that I have are:

Facebook groups
buying used items online
Pattern Hauls
Machine reviews
Fabric Buys

Although this blog is primarily a sewing blog, I can post about other topics.

If anyone has any tips, websites, or knowledge on how to make my blog better, please comment and let me know.

Until Next Time