totchipanda

Loud coworker was grating on my nerves yesterday, she is just such an energy vampire and negative nancy. She came in all het up bc an escalator was out of order so she walked around the whole building instead of taking the hallway (that is, yes, largely boarded over for the construction which necessitated this detour in the first place) and it never improved. It's a daily thing, everything is stupid this and fucking that. Girl just shut the tuck up!

Train was majorly delayed on the way home. Two announcements of "major delays" but nothing else, and certainly no trains. After half an hour, I gave up and walked to the bus. Of course that's when a train came but I do not regret this decision bc it was a single car to serve the last 30+ minutes of people gathering. My stop wasn't all THAT bad, but the next one was by the bus stop and it was PACKED. No thanks! I got a nice little walk in on the edge of a storm.

Evening was spent watching fluff (animated movie and murder documentaries). I had pasta and sauce for dinner. Put on a set of stays (with help) and tried on the striped sack (with help). I think that iteration of the sack will be fine. Less work for me! Trimmed my petticoat waist and pleated it, then basted. Finished stitching one pocket hem and then did the other side. I am now prepped for hemming and waist taping. Then its FART JACKET time (snicker snort). Kittens did not fall out of the window and let me sleep.

Busy weekend. Mama M comes in tomorrow evening and we have Lion King show on Sunday. We have to squeeze in a visit for our friends' dog, he is 12 years old and his heart disease is finally catching up with him. He is coughing more and struggling with breathing. We told him back in early May that he had to make it until Mama M came in, and it seems like now that she's almost here, he won't be long for this world. Gonna miss that stinker.

Why as in, WHY am I knee deep into collecting the things I need to make my pet en l'air?

Who cares. It's been on my list for 7 years, I have almost everything I need (if not actually everything), why NOT get started? Just because I have no plans to wear it anywhere doesn't mean a dang thing.

Part of what precipitated this is that I've been toying with rebooting my blog on Wordpress. No one seems to blog anymore except for a few diehards but I really don't want to get into videos (except for a few topics that would benefit from a visual medium) and I still have lots to say on various topics. I can sneaky-log in to Wordpress at work (as sneaky as anything on a work computer is) whereas Blogger is tied to my Google account which I will *not* log into at work.

I haven't posted since January 2020. My therapist had asked me once if I had a blog because I was very passionate about writing and I had a lot of things to say. Sure, I said, it's focused on sewing but I don't have a lot of sewing to talk about these days. Any time I went to write a post for that blog, I just got dragged down by the weight of continuation. (Of course, thinking about it now, I COULD just pick up and move along exactly as if I was working on a new one. Well that's a consideration for future me.) Yesterday I started to collect some content ideas and the pet en l'air was one of them, which tickled my brain meats and here we are I suppose. Standing at the corner of "go for it" and "what even".

Anyway, the pet. Why did I even want to make one? I don't know, but when we were shopping in LA after CoCo '18, I bought silks for it. I picked out the embroidered bird fabric at Home Fabric first and then a lovely orange at the store three doors down where the owner treated us SO nicely we wanted to give him ALL of our business. That was right after my anxiety meltdown and about a month before I decided that I needed a break. I came back from my break almost 18 months later to my apartment flooding and COVID lockdowns. So... it wasn't a priority. I either tossed or sold my old pocket hoops and I did make new ones at some point in 2022 (I think), so that is taken care of at least. I also started the petticoat, where I have put exactly one needle's worth of thread into the side seam. I don't have enough left over for trim, but I should be able to make some bows and ribbons for the jacket. My plan was to seam it up on the one side and lay it flat for waistbanding before stitching the other side.

For the jacket, I'd always planned to use the Simplicity AD pattern. I've already used it and fitted it, should be easy enough to just lop it off at the length I can get with only 2 yards of main fabric lol. Now I'm wondering if I should refit it. Or try on the striped sack for an idea of if the shoulder adjustment I made for that one was sufficient. Decisions! Main inspo is of course Janet Arnold.

In other news I am having a little better of a body day. I am wearing the Scout dress and discovering how badly this actually fits lol. The waist is so big and feels terrible on my skin (my bike shorts don't come up high enough to prevent touching), the waist darts are so wide and too tall, the pocket openings feel too small. Just now I think I will have to take most of the waist area apart to refit it, it's SO irritating and I want to take it off and it's barely 9 am lol

Inspired by danabren, I made a banyan this weekend lol.

It was a VERY FUN rabbit hole to go down and I had a fabric picked out in my mind, so I went for it. It took me awhile to find it, being in a box I did not expect it to be in, and I did find another box of fabric that I'd forgotten about so that was good. I didn't know how long it was, and it ended up being almost 6 yards. Alas, it was unwashed, but if that was the only barrier to starting, I wasn't gonna let it stop me. Snip snip rip, bitch!

Lining was a medium weight cream linen that required extensive pressing first (it had been something like 11 meters when I got it, bunged the whole thing in the wash, could not be arsed to deal with it when it came out. This would have been like... 5 or more years ago. At least it was washed). Lots of help from Calcifer, naturally, especially with laying it out on the floor. Pro tip, be more precise in cutting than I was, and a larger surface to baste layers together is a good idea if you have access to one.

Long story short, I found the fabric at 10:30 AM Saturday, began cutting and ironing and whatnot almost immediately, and at 9:01 PM Sunday I had a finished and entirely hand-sewn robe. I took MANY breaks, naps on both days, silly games, dinners, scooping the cat box. My fingers are a little sore bc we're not used to such activities these days, but I regret nothing! I watched Sandman season 2 pt 1 (was delighted to find Jack Gleeson aka King Joffery in a brief role as Puck), some old faves, K-Pop Demon Hunters (very fun, bangin' soundtrack particularly if you like k-pop) (also OBVIOUSLY the ridiculous blue tiger is my fave), and some true crime documentaries. Very fun weekend, A++.

Now eyeing that manteau de lit. That would also be fun, and I have 2 yards of the cotton left. One of the fabrics that had been "missing" was my precious bird-embroidered silk picked up 7 years ago for a pet-en-l'air so...

Really need to make some trousers though lol.

It was too ding-dang hot to do anything but lay with as few of my bits touching as possible. I did make myself a pot of pasta to eat with the yummy ratatouille that I made on Tuesday, and that was plenty enough TYVM. I tidied up my table a bit and that was it.

Temps are expected to be MUCH lower today so I expect I'll feel less like dying. I have some eggplant to use up so I'll cook that. Time to Get Serious (tm) about the next project... if I could decide what it is. Ugh actually I have a good idea. I'm wearing the RTW pants today that give me Bad Feelings so definitely some pants!

Another weekend, another night of a 3 hour nap. Why does my body hate me so? Partly I think it was because Sophie decided to curl up on the bed with me, which she never does, so I slept lighter not wanting to disturb her. Alas. I woke up at 4 am and decided it wasn't worth my time to try to sleep again, but hoooooo boy do I have regrets right now. Thank the holy stars that coffee exists.

Friday, My boss kicked me out an hour early because I had one hour banked from when I was sick in March. Twist my rubber arm! I got straight into the car and went to the auction house (I had won a 12x18 cutting mat), and then to Walmart for groceries. I forget why I wanted to go to Walmart specifically, as I didn't get anything I couldn't have found at a different store, but whatever. I popped into 7-11 for a Slurpee too, and got home about 10 minutes before the sky opened up and there was a river running down the street woohoo!

Most exciting though, my pattern arrived! EEEEE! There were no English instructions, only French, but it was complete and factory folded as described. The lack of English instructions doesn't bother me at all, the illustrations are clear enough. My French is severely lacking, one day I must fix that.

On Saturday I pulled out the poplin and started cutting out the dress. It took a good long while because the kittens were stage 3 clingers and spent a goodly amount of time sitting on my fabric. I had to make sure everything would fit first, discovered one piece that I thought was poplin was a different fabric entirely, cut the skirt side/back first (the pictured skirt with the top is from the Liz dress, which I do not have, but I do have a gathered gored skirt pattern that I like), with Calcifer's "help", and I started sewing not long after. I even changed the serger threads from white to black and finished edges, who AM I?

Dinner was mashed potatoes and creamed kale (basically an alfredo sauce) which was tasty. Earlier in the day I had made granola, which was also tasty.

Yesterday I started sewing up the skirt as much as I could, and then it was time to do something about the collar situation which I had not prepared yet. I cut it from the bedsheets I'd salvaged some years ago, again with feline help. Pinned on the first layer of bias tape and decided to do a second as well, partly because there was a stain on the upper collar that would then be covered by it, and also because the collar is a statement itself, the double row of trim just makes it even more so. Later I cut the knot tie from a scrap of red silk and hand-stitched it. Currently it is just pinned in place but omg it's so stinkin' CUTE. Sleeves are up next, I just didn't want to uncover the serger again. Plus I need to run a whooooole bunch of gathering stitches, which should be perfect for my very tired brain tonight.

Also yesterday, I decided to start a new audiobook while I was sewing, and I am enjoying it SO much, I spent most of the day listening to it! The book just came out and I'd been eying it in the bookstores M and I had gone to, and when I logged into my audiobook app to finish a different book I remembered that I had credits, so I used them! (The credits were purchased earlier this year, but since that was 3+ months ago, using them now meant the books were "free". Girl math!) And wow it's a good read. When I took a break from sewing to contemplate the stripe trim of the collar, I knit a few rows and kept listening. So good.

My library book is due on Wednesday and I don't think I can renew it as it is also a new release, so I started reading it last night too. I told myself I wouldn't do that this time, waiting until the last day to read it, but here we are. Tomorrow is Canada Day so I will have plenty of time to read.

Re: who AM I? above, I was thinking about how I had to take a break from sewing after CoCo '18 and when I picked it up again almost 18 months later in laaaate 2019, I had started to spiral about if I did X, then I needed do Y and Z and also J, K and L too, and quickly nipped that in the bud. I had decided to consider more about HOW I sew and not WHAT, which meant taking time to do things like basting and seam finishes. That fell off more over the past few years, but I was reminded of it again when I started serging. So I think I will start doing this more again, even when the extra steps seem like so much WORK and why do they even matter. They DO matter. They matter to me as a tiny little way to show up for myself and my work.

Finished cutting pattern pieces and taped them all together, with PLENTY of help from Sophie. She wanted pets, so she was being super duper cute by rolling onto her back and patting my arm with her paw, but she didn't want to sit still for pets so I mostly worked around her. There are plenty of tape spots with her fur trapped beneath them. I want to trace off the pieces to make a mockup before I start on the dress I have in mind.

It's been a weird week for clothing. I do need to do laundry, but I also just don't want to wear anything I currently have, especially pants. I want dresses, but I've mostly made sundresses (not work-appropriate). I want skirts but the one is wool (delicious, delicious wool) and the other was modified two summers ago and is now too big. Plus I'd like to fix up the zipper, it is definitely not my best effort lol. I made it as a dress in 2009, took the bodice off 2023, have since lost a couple inches. I braved the closet today, namely bc its one of the Forbidden Doors and getting the kittens out of it can be real tricksy, and am wearing the top I made a couple months ago and wool trousers. It's OK. Clearly need to be pushing this wardrobe building kick I'm on.

Finally sat down with my Monopoly money last night. Couldn't find any envelopes, but I flung the pieces around and that was fun. I started by pulling my current balance + tomorrow's deposit, and then went through my app and sorted the paper until I had accounted for everything and could see what I had left. It was helpful, actually, bc I had a number in my head that was NOT the number the money represented and now I can act accordingly. I want to find a little toy cash register (or I guess a lockbox would be OK too) to put the money in. Make it more fun for me lol.

Survived yesterday! I got home, plonked myself on the couch, and did gloriously nothing. I watched some movies. WHAT movies, I couldn't tell you. (Thinks for a moment) I watched Juno and Cinderella, aka things that I've seen a million times that did not require my attention whatsoever. Dinner was half a bag of chips.

Around 9 I thought OK this is a good time to move to the other room, I'm starting to feel like I could sleep for the next three years. Started to do that but of course that triggered some energy, so I collected up the last of the knit fabric (less left over than I thought, but still plenty for a shirt) and put it away, then took the scraps out from a project 2 years ago and laid out a Rita blouse. Currently considering taking apart the old dress and making Rita into a dress, since the old dress is a shapeless sack that, while adorable, does not suit me. The sleeve situation was tricksy with the remnant but I set it aside and told myself this is soooo not a today problem. Then I decided to print out another pattern, so I did that. I'd left all the various tabs open so hopefully there would be less faffing the next time I wanted to print. Limited success. Absolutely did not want to be trimming pages with my hand the way it was so it just got put on the table and I walked away.

Into bed and lights out. Solstice a few days ago means we're still getting tons of light and sunset is still around 10pm. I finally put everything down and conked out around 1130. Slept about 6 hours, which is not NEARLY enough, but at least it was a straight 6 hours without waking up in the middle. My hand is MUCH better today, still a little sore and I still need to be careful with it, but improved. I really must have slept on top of it or something while I napped.

Early AM half-asleep thoughts: I messed up my budget (slightly) until mid-July, whoops. My friend sent me a video of the most adorable cat on the internet, Baby Corn, "budgeting" for his new couch since he's a big boy now and outgrew the last one. (I'd already seen the video, and voted that he should blow his earnings on the best couch.) This morning I randomly thought about all of the Monopoly money in my house. I have a 1960s version of Monopoly Canada that my dad had found a pack of money for at the thrift store. No game, just money. I've added it into the game itself (I think) once the kittens knocked the box off the table and it needed to be sorted before being stored again. Baby Corn is the financial role model I need, apparently, because these two thoughts connected. I can't have actual cash for budgeting since it just... goes away, and virtual budgeting is limited success atm. But what if... what if I used Monopoly money. I could have a visual representation of what I have that doesn't have any actual value so can't be spent willy-nilly. I'm gonna consider this today, I think.

Part of what spurred this was realizing I hadn't accounted for some automatic payments, but I DID account for a large one later in the period. I'll have to move that large one to the next period bc I won't have enough to cover it (even if its the kind of payment that I get most of it back, it won't be enough to cover the smaller ones, and also is the last one of the cycle so there's nothing to draw from) which means I can stop worrying about groceries. I WILL learn all this eventually, it's just a slow process with the fluidity of money and pay cycles.

I forgot! On Friday night Calcifer used my upraised knee (so propped to save my feet) as part of her Indy 500 race course, and left three scratches on it. They were very sore and delicate! "I'm mad at you!" I told her. I've been wearing dresses and other above-knee items to prevent them being touched (and also because I just do not want to put those RTW pants back on).

Later, I noticed she had something in her mouth. "What is in your mouth?" I asked as she dropped it. It wiggled, and she picked it back up and ate it. Earlier, she'd also terrorized a spider in the bathtub. So I guess I can forgive her for taking care of my two least favourite bugs. She's clueless about ants and beetles, but more than 6 legs, she's got it covered.

Sewing was a wash yesterday. I did go ahead and lop off 1/2" at CF tapered to nothing at the sides, did rather a hack job of it, and immediately sewed the small CF waistband wrong. Twice. Called it then and there, the longer bands were NOT going to go well.

Another sleepless night thanks to this stupid organ, punctuated by a most malodorous smell. I typically ascribe those smells to my weed-smoking neighbour who stands barely past my window and stinks the place up, but this had an added layer of a petrol refinery and it permeated the entire back side of the house. Did a skunk wander by and have to discharge its back end at something? I've never smelled skunk spray that was fresh. It took like an hour to clear out enough to open the window again. The sun was definitely rising as I attempted to sleep again. At least this time my dream wasn't deep enough to pull me back so firmly into sleep when my alarm was going off.

But more unpleasantness awaited me. Was reading on the train, as I normally do, and my body suddenly decided it didn't like, not one little bit. I managed to make it to a station, got off and immediately plunked my butt down on a bench. I started looking for the nearest bin bc I was about three seconds away from puking. When my motion sickness decides to rear its head, it does so ferociously! Not helping at all is that I am also dehydrated enough to be dizzy when my head changes positions, and I've been having trouble focusing through my glasses, looking down more when I don't need to and getting that awesome reading lens watery effect. I'll have to get a pair without the reading portion for travel like this.

Anyway, I am super tired and still not feeling like my tummy is settled and I really need a drink. Send good thoughts, it's gonna be a long day.

Oh yes, and tomorrow's plans are the new How to Train Your Dragon movie with M! That will be fun. I expect my pants to be finished this weekend.

My heart was a damn liar and the hockey season is over. At least Florida didn't win it in our house. It was a better game too, the Oilers were really trying, but Florida was just that much better and their goalie is disgustingly good. I would be so thrilled if he played for us but he does not and so I am annoyed by how good he is lol.

I was grossly hot when I got home so it was an immediate strip down and into the shower. Then I wanted to wear my new dress, so I did. The skirt is large enough to pull things off of other surfaces when I brush by hehe. While the game was on, I moved some of the fabric bins around, and somehow forgot that I had inventoried the blue ones? I really ought to label them or else my fabric "catalogue" is useless now that I've forgotten which one was which.

But it allowed me to find the length of green cotton that is stained, so it was the perfect fabric for the Ginger pants. I dropped the end of it off the table edge and only remembered a few minutes later that the cat fountain was there, and sure enough, the end of it was now SOAKED haha. But I could still cut out the front and all the waist area bits, which I did. I had enough for cropped pants, which is perfect. Tonight I will cut out the back legs and then get to work. Debating if I want to make it into a jumpsuit, since the legs could not be cut side by side I have a length of uncut stuff down the center. But I already cut the waistband so... no. But I could use that extra for another mockup, probably. It is not a very pretty shade of green.

Also need to do laundry, I have been putting it off for a really long time.

This morning, picture this: I have flipped the blankets down into place. Calcifer leaps onto the bed and into the corner made by pillows, and starts digging at them like she knows something is underneath. Sophie jumps up and onto her with such force that she goes right over and for a moment, they are just a ball of fur and legs and tails. Two kittens is definitely the way to go <3