doing: january 2015

celebrating NYE outside of the house {and not in sweatpants!}

tweaking my new blog template

planning a wedding prep trip to the mitten

gathering addresses for save the dates

trying to convince greg to elope

writing cover letters

running out of brain power to write blog posts

figuring out what I want to be when I grow up {or the next few years :/ }

driving to work still {lame}

sleeping in ‘til 6am

struggling through my jam-packed work days

eating way too many conversation hearts

bribing myself to meet my 40 miles this month #runningishard

snacking on: chickpeas and bbq sauce {really!}

chickpeas {aka garbanzo beans} and bbq sauce.

seriously. that's it. no, really. really simple and super filling.

gluten free and dairy free too.

right from the can, just rinse, add sauce, and heat. ridiculously quick and easy.

 greg thinks it's weird, but he should be happy i'm not asking him to make me a BLT instead.

hello january 2015

last month was a crazy, whirlwind of sewing, sewing, sewing and uh, more sewing, lots of quality time with my sewing mo-chine. so, this month is gonna be filled with lots of computer time.....

+ save the dates: it's 2015, no more excuses. last year was the year of everyone else's wedding, this year is the year of our wedding. we should probably give people an official heads up update: these are 75% done, the snowstorm last week delayed some of the supplies needed to finish, but envelopes are addressed and everything else is ready to go

+ update bloggie: big plans and big ideas last month to do this, but stitching, christmas, and crazy-busy work days dropped this one to the bottom of the list. the original plan was a little ambitious {as usual}, so i'm working on a scaled down version that should be much more do-able update: after tinkering and toying with the test blog {and still attempting to do far too much at one time}, i gave in and just updated a&n with a basic new look. i can still add the other bells and whistles later ;)
 
+ run 40 miles: this is another goal that was put on the back burner last month. after a long day of driving around boston in cold and yucky weather, the last thing i want to do is go back out into the cold and dark. although, this MMM post has got me inspired to get out and enjoy it update: welp, i ended up with only 59% of my goal finished. boo. mostly single digit temps and monster snowstorms are a lame excuse.

stitchin: frosted pewter rennie {patterning hers}

you can check out the inspiration post here

i started playing around with the faux suede that i was sent, and while perfect for  his doublet, it was too visually heavy and stiff for her dress. i attempted to source new fabric locally, but matching grey fabric in terrible fluorescent lighting is more than a headache.....{this one's too brown, this one's too blue, wahhh!} so taffeta and faux duponi fabric samples were ordered.

even though i can flat pattern and design in my sleep, there's no need to reinvent the wheel. so i dug through my newly organized pattern stash, and found this lovely Simplicity 3782. it has a low and square neckline and the corseted, cylindrical shape we're going for, so only a few {ha!} tweaks were needed. 

once i had all of the pattern pieces cut out and ironed {quite a task in itself, thank you exacto knife!}, i started in on the bodice for view a {with the shoulder rolls}. but, i couldn't wrap my head around the adjustments with the way this pattern bodice was constructed, so back to the tried and true McCall's 6097.

this pattern already had a higher back, so i made the front into a single, longer piece, reworked the waistline from front to back, and narrowed the front shoulder.  then added some channels and steel boning, and tada!

the bodice insides are done :/ pattern matching {and a lot of swearing} came next.

 otherwise, the last modification request was for a 2-piece dress. it's much easier to get in and out of a skirt and bodice combo, and much easier to construct it all in 2 pieces anyways. {ummm, you want me to gather allll of that skirt and attach it where?!?!?!??}

stay tuned, sneak peeks of his are coming soon!