Wherein I Describe My Latest Return to Sewing

By some sort of fluke, I did some sewing on the weekend. It was lame sewing. It was near disastrous sewing (in that way that only technical things that one has ignored for months can go). But it was a step in the right creative direction. I've been so busy with work and holidays and reno planning that knitting's really been my only jam. And, while I'm still deep in the yarn stash-busting weeds, if my house is going to stay in one piece till mid-summer, I'm onto to working the fabric stash angle.

Here's what I did:

• Nearly wrecked a pair of $170 jeans that I needed to hem and narrow (legs were bells). Somehow I forgot that one should turn jeans inside out before doing things like determining how much side-seam to remove and then actually removing it. Then I took off too much fabric - allow me to reiterate that I cut the jeans from the right side?!?!? - and I had to fix things on the fly. I honestly don't know what planet my brain was on as I performed this task. On the other not-so-fun side, these jeans - which sat around for 6 months waiting for me to hem them - fit too snugly for my liking when I finally tried them on. I've almost come to terms with a sombre fact (though it's taken 3 years): I'm going to have to be hungry in order to stay thin - at least at this time of my life - because I am not going up another dress size without a drag-out massacre. Moreover, I intend to go down one. Can't dwell on this right now. My stomach is rumbling and I want wine I won't drink. Fucking middle age.

• For my child, I altered a hideous, white sweatshirt with the phrase "Who Am I" written on it. No question mark. This is a sentiment I can get with, these days, on my kid's behalf. Apparently the shirt was too long to be wearable (at regular sweatshirt length) so I cropped it. After spending 15 minutes trying to rip out the serged hem between the hem band and the t-shirt body, I finally just cut one piece from the other and then cropped the bodice / re-serged on the band. It worked out alright, though it was risky. Can't say this was the most creative thing I've done all week.

• Sewed my new labels into my new, finished stash-busted knits. Didn't do a very good job and I dislike every single one. Good news is that you have to know what doesn't work in order to determine what does.

• At this point, I couldn't stop myself. I was on such a roll of mediocrity, it seemed the perfect time to pull out my Jenna Cardigan pattern and alter it (on the fly) to a V neck, while simultaneously lengthening it to account for my current dimensions. 

So I put down my challenging to lay-out fabric (it's got a raised cable pattern) and proceeded to cut each piece in one layer, neglecting to consider that the left front is a mirror-image of the right-front. Did I mention I only had one yard of the fabric and I bought it a year ago? Thank God the fabric was wide, cuz I just managed to fit the extra piece. Oh, and since I made up the V neck with, ahem, adventuresome abandon, I didn't have enough fabric for a one piece band. I came up with a seamed work around. We'll see if I called it right, because at that precise moment, sane Kristin knew it was time to step away from the sewga room.

All in all I had some fun between the moments of cursing. And there's nothing like sewing to make you aware of your body. I'm taking Friday off with an aim to sew all weekend. We'll see if I stick to that plan, but something tells me that I will.

Next up: Some new bra reviews! Spoiler alert: I nailed it on the fit.