sewing journal


welcome to my sewing page! i've gotten very into sewing and mending in the past few years; it scratches the same 'repetitive action with a tangible result & room to experiment with more challenging things' itch in my brain that coding does, i think. sewing and mending things for myself is sometimes the primary act of self-care i can manage — it feels like i'm doing a favor to my future self, in making something that she can wear and love for a long time, and in that favor is the promise that there will be a long time ahead to love things. that feels a bit grandiose for what usually amounts to darning holes in socks, but this is my website, and i'll be grandiose if i want to. besides, wearing things i've mended always feels a little bit lucky.

to-do list

add pockets to: yellow shirtdress, pink shirtdress, black tulle skirt, pink checkerboard circle skirt, pink denim jacket

add lining to pink shirtdress to make it less see-through, or make a light underskirt to wear with it

undo waistband alterations on pink checkerboard skirt (accidentally made it too small); add buttons maybe?

working on

sept 16 2023: my grandma is teaching me how to sew on a machine! for a first project, i'm making a pink skirt. so far, i've sewn the pockets and the back of the skirt, and basted the zipper into place.

completed projects

march - september 2022: strawberry quilt

pockets added to: cherries dress, pink cowgirl dress, pink 70s dress

click the crab to flip him!

sept. 02 2023

made for my friend e.'s birthday! i used abby glassenberg's casey the crab pattern & edited the face a bit. this was my first time sewing a stuffed animal with a pattern (and my last, patternless attempt at sewing a stuffed animal is... better untalked about, as it ended up just laughably bad) & i love how it turned out.

i think i could've put more stuffing in the claws and been a bit neater with how the curves turned when i flipped the claws inside-out. the examples in the tutorial are definitely neater, but they're also made using a sewing machine, while mine was by hand, so i guess it's bound to be a little more imperfect! i don't mind the imperfections overall, though.

e. named him bartholomew (barth — not bart — for short).


fabric: yellow polka-dots & solid red-orange leftover from strawberry quilt; floral from creative reuse store
time: probably around 5-6 hours all together
pattern: casey the crab (free)

november 2023 - ???

in progress

a meandering sort of quilt project! i'm making this mostly from scraps i've gotten at my local craft supply thrift store — they have a big bin of various bits of fabric that i love digging through, and i've found some really neat pieces in there. i don't have a real plan for how this will come together; i'm just making blocks whenever i feel like it, and eventually it might turn into something, or it might not.

to photograph / add:

strawberry quilt

darned socks

embroidery

pockets