Making things; Vogue 8020

Posted on May 10th, 2009 by Sacha Chua

I’ve been writing a lot about sewing lately, which might surprise you if you came to this blog for tips on Emacs or Drupal. =) It’s the way my life works–I focus on things, but the set of things I focus on evolves over time. I still have lots to write about Drupal, social networking, and virtual assistance, but I have to confess I haven’t been tweaking my .emacs lately! =)

Anyway, sewing. I enjoy picking fabrics and imagining what to do with them, and then convincing the fabric to look like a reasonable facsimile of my intended result. For example, I picked up 5 meters of the adorable blue fabric below (100% cotton; the white flowers are glittery), and I’ve been making a dress following Vogue’s V8020 pattern (also pictured below). I’ve made it with a V neckline instead of a rounded neckline (yay options!), and the only things I need to do to make it wearable are to sew in the zipper and fix the hems.

And then I’ll have a pretty dress to wear at my get-together this Saturday. =) Sure, the seams are a little crooked and puffy, but I made the dress, and I’ll just get better and better with each thing I make.

The fabric’s also available in pink, but I thought that might be too jeune fille. I sound five years old, and I don’t need to look it. Blue takes a bit of that edge off, and the simple, non-frilly lines of the pattern further modify the effect of the print.

New this time: diligently marking all seamlines, making a princess-seamed top whose fit I actually like, making the first dress I like. This will be my first time to use ribbons, too!

More posts about: sewing // 2 Comments »

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/6223

http://www.daysstories.blogspot.com mom

Both your grandmothers would have been proud of you. My mother used to sew my dresses, while your papa’s mother knitted sweaters for you and your sisters. Maybe domestic talents like that skip generations (mine). ;)
http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua

Maybe I’ll sew you matching mother-daughter dresses, in purple, with matching bags. <laugh>

On This Day...

2013: Monthly review: April 2013 — Last month, I wrote: April will be more about slowing down and following up, I think. But this is good. [...]
2012: Sketchnote workflow — I like sketching notes of books and presentations. It forces me to squeeze the information onto one page, and the [...]
2011: Rails: Paperclip needs attributes defined by attr_accessible, not just attr_accessor — I wanted to add uploaded files to the survey response model defined by the Surveyor gem. I’d gotten most of [...]
2010: Quick guide to domain names — Having your own domain name means being able to use the same e-mail address or website URL for as long [...]
2009: Weekly review: Week ending May 10, 2009 — From last week’s plans: Work: Merge development changes into release-4 Work: Build event calendar system Work: Get feedback on presenter guide Work: Attend speed [...]
2008: You have received a painting from Sacha —
2008: I need a faster web host — My site’s been slow for a while now – so slow that even I don’t have fun flipping through it. [...]
2006: Refreshed — Whenever I slow down and let the universe tell me what to do, it gives me back something amazing. I slept [...]
2006: Linux Caffe — I’m sitting in the Linux Caffe working over a wireless connection, having just polished off another cup of their excellent [...]
2006: Books at the Linux Caffe — I’ll be writing another blog post about the Linux Caffe, but here’s a list of the books they have along the [...]
2006: BBC World Documentary on free and open source software in developing countries — Seen on the Toronto Linux Users Group mailing list: http://www.apdip.net/news/fossdoc From the announcement: “Coming Soon: The Code Breakers Ã¢Â€Â“ a BBC World Documentary [...]
2006: Stretched — I’m starting to feel a little stretched. Too many nights with too little sleep, too many blog entries that are just [...]
2005: Colored index cards — I love posting my productivity ideas because every time I do so, I get comments suggesting even better ways to do [...]
2004: Etask: Gantt charts for Emacs — http://www.reneweichselbaum.com/etask.html Wow, pretty! I should check this out…
2003: Smartphone — - Developing apps for the Microsoft smartphone I wonder if I can use it with Linux… Would the ppp trick described at [...]

sacha chua living an awesome life