Patchwork Underground

You should NEVER do these things.

Here are five former bad habits of mine, for the world to see, in no particular order:

1. Not pinning.

Just like, not at all. Ever. Why?  Because pinning is for wussies. If things didn’t match up, it was because I wasn’t trying hard enough. (Never mind paying attention to the direction of my pins in relation to the seam - Pins? What pins?) When I started “experimenting” with pins, whole new worlds opened up to me.

I try to just laugh about this now.

2.  Winding more than one kind of thread onto a single bobbin.

I know, you only have so many bobbins. But when you do this – and you already know who you are – eventually you get to the break in the bobbin thread and it WILL snag and you WILL regret it. You’ll curse yourself for doing this to yourself (again) but then you’ll go ahead and do it about 100 more times before you finally knock it off. No one knows why.

3.  Smacking the presser foot down HARD.

It does make a satisfying noise. And you look like a badass to the uninitiated when you do this. However, the first time I did this in a professional sewing space I was almost crucified. Smacking the presser foot down is hell on the machine and wears out the lever mechanism faster. Doing this on someone elses’ machine is like flipping them the bird. Doing it to your own machine is suicide.  Don’t do it.  *Gently* and gracefully guide the presser foot lever to the down position.

4.  Never changing the needle

You only need to change it when it breaks, right?

5.  Trusting commercial patterns.

Pattern paranoia is healthy.  When I first started sewing, I blindly followed the instructions that came with commercial patterns. It said press, I pressed. It said baste, I basted. It said spin around 5 times and…you get the idea. I think it was Kathleen Fasanella at Fashion Incubator that said that sewing instructions for the big three – McCalls, Simplicity and Vogue – are written by sadists. I couldn’t agree more. Read their instructions if you want to know the least efficient, most painful way to possibly sew your pattern together.

Same goes with the sizing and the cover photo on commercial patterns. Every time, I wondered why my finished product didn’t look as cute as it did in the picture and why it was always too big on me even when it was the “right” size according to the pattern. When I first started sewing, I didn’t even know what a muslin was. Now I make a muslin of my pattern before I cut into my fashion fabric every time – and I always end up making significant alterations at that important stage. Imagine that!

This made my morning…..

These Lady Gaga cookies were made by FadedLines6 and Catatonicpatient - you can see closeups of each outfit on their flikr stream. Can’t pick a favorite - too many awesome ones.  I was happy to see that even when she’s fat and cookie shaped, Gaga still looks hawt!

I put my two cents in for Fave Craft’s monthly craft question this month.  The prompt:  What was your worst crafting disaster?  Click on the screen grab to read all of this month’s responses!

Do you have a craft horror story to share?  Bad craft gone good or good craft gone bad?  I love crafty melodrama so please feel free to share in the comments.  =)

<3 erin

P.S.  Stay tuned for the latest interview installment of “Crafters I Love” this Sunday!

Less than 2.5 weeks until I get my cast off for good!

I’ve been meaning to pimp my crutches for some time but inspiration really struck the other day when I was playing with the boxes of trim I talked about in my last post.  I can’t decide if the crutches say Japanese Lolita or Catholic Kid’s Funeral but this I do know: I frikkin’ LOVE the little pink birdy on the right-hand crutch.  She’s my little healing totem animal right now…

Note how well the pimped crutches coordinate with my new hot pink cast….

I hopped backwards on one foot to take this pic.  Purple heart for bravery!

So cute you almost want to break your foot, right?

So, I had just finished watching Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance music video (for the I-don’t-know-how-many-eth time) and I was thinking about how hard I could rock it in those 15″ heels she wears in the video.  I closed my laptop and stood up.  And then I fell down.  OW!  My leg was asleep and before I realized what was happening, I rolled over in my measly 3″ heels.  I was in denial for a day or so but eventually I went to the doctor - BROKEN FOOT!

Here’s what a broken foot looks like in a sewing room:

I went thrift shopping to dull the pain - got this awesome vintage Idea Book of Trims….

It made me realize that I heart freaky Kubrick-style ballerinas:

…and glassy-eyed girls in big hats:

I also learned what happens when you give a girl a Buttoneer.

The Idea Book of Trims made me realize that my trims are a freakin’ mess.  I have them in a bunch of disparate bags stashed all over my sewing room.  So, in the interests of organization (and further dulling the pain of my broken foot), I hobbled to the dollar store and bought storage bins.  Voila:

Coming up next: a tutorial for my scrap earrings!  Here’s a sneak peek: