I am off to Puyallup to attend the largest sewing expo in the country! I’ve been told there are 25,000 attendees!
If you are going, I’d love to meet you! There is a small gathering at the Sew Baby booth #500 at 5 on Thursday and at Sewitup.com booth #301 on Friday at 5.
I am bringing the PR Book proof with me to show to you guys. So excited!
So I admit. I think I am obsessed with sewing these days. I think it’s because I am too sick of winter and just desperate for spring. What better way to dream of spring than to sew some spring outfits right? What do you think of this one?
It’s Jalie 2921 Scarf Top with Burda 02-2010-104 Skirt.
The skirt was inspired by Dawn (cabinbaby on PatternReview) actually. Ever since I saw her whipping out her pencil skirts, I’ve been on the lookout for a pattern which would work for me. See pencil skirts don’t really work for me because I think they make me look too bottom heavy. In other words, they make my butt look too big. And I’d rather not have to put a slit for walking room.
So this skirt in February Burda fit the bill perfectly. It has all the features I like, A-Line, back zipper, yoke instead of a waistband. It even has pockets!
I can see myself making many more of these!
So what’s the count for this month? THREE garments. Not bad huh! Including the Jeans. And I have a new outfit to wear to Puyallup and my Belize vacation. It’s been a good month.
What am I doing here still blogging? Well folks Delta did it to us again! If you don’t remember our costa rica adventure, you can read about it here or not…
Last night as we were packing, Gagan logged in to Delta to check in online and guess what we find out. The flight has been canceled! That’s it. No email no phone, they just canceled it. How can you treat people like this? I understand it’s a tough business to be in but can you imagine people who didn’t log in to their accounts, packed their bags and drove to the airport, paid a ridiculous sum for parking only to find out that the flight has been canceled. Yes, I do, because that’s what happened to us last time.
They booked us on a flight reaching Belize on 15th and coming back on the 16th! NICE! I understand the systems are automatic but can’t they build any common sense into their programs that for a person going on a 4 day vacation going for one day does not make sense?
And guess what? The resort we were staying at has a “NO CANCELLATION” policy. Which means we lose the money!
And of course none of their phone lines were working. I won’t go into the details of last night because it’s just going to make me mad again.
After being on phone with Delta and the Hotel we finally managed to cancel our trip for February and re-book it for March. So it worked out (or so I hope!) in the end. It was sort of a relief because I’ve been so sick the last few days, I am thankful to be home and get better.
All’s well that ends well I guess. I’ve decided that today I need to treat myself with a pair of fire red patent leather shoes to go with my New Jeans! Got any ideas for me?
Tomorrow morning, really early (3 AM) we’re off to a 4 day vacation to Belize. Jealous? Don’t be… I’ve been home sick for the last two days with a terrible cold and backache. I am feeling a lot better today so hopefully by tomorrow it’ll be all ok but it sure does dampen the spirits. I was going to do some vacation sewing, but I’ve been lying in bed all day today. In a few minutes, I have to get up and start packing but I thought I’d part with a quick moong daal salad recipe.
Sherril, I know you like to try different things so this one’s for you. Anyway, I grew up eating this for breakfast but now we make it for dinner or a light lunch.
You obviously have to sprout moong daal for this yourself. Don’t be intimidated by the sprouting process. You don’t need a lot of tools. You just need to plan ahead. This is so nutrious and delicious you’re gonna want to make it again and again. Let’s start with the basics.
Moong Beans or Daal. This is what it looks like. You can get these at any Indian grocery store or a chinese market. 
Now the sprouter. This is what I use. A quart size mason jar. Take out the metal lid and cut a small circle from plastic canvas and stick it in and voila you have your very own sprouter! I can’t take credit for this idea. I read it somewhere online.
Closeup of the Lid. 
Simply put your dried moon beans in the jar, soak and sprout. Sproutpeople.com have really great instructions on how to do it. They also have lids and beans.
Once you have your sprouts ready here’s how I make my salad.
Chop one small onion, one red or green pepper.
I like to add Paneer to my salad to make it a little more substantial. If you don’t like paneer you can add a boiled potato cubed or feta cheese in the end.
Heat some oil, when it’s hot, add some cumin seeds, add your onions and if using cubed paneer or potato. Add salt and cook for 5 minutes. Add your sprouts, red pepper put a lid on and let them steam for 5 minutes.
Squeeze out juice of a lemon and add at end. Garnish with cilantro or parsley. I also like to add jalapenos or green chillies but add them only if you like your food spicy! Oh and I also add turmeric but you don’t have to if you don’t have any. It’s good antioxidants!
Enjoy! Really good and good for you. 
I’m taking my netbook with me but I doubt if I’ll have time to blog there. I may write about it so I won’t forget when I come back. And hopefully my corduroy and velvet will be here from FFC when I get back so I can get cracking on more jeans!
Ok you guys, this is how much I love you! I dropped everything and took some quick photos to show you the fit of the jeans. There are a few things I would like to change. For example, see how you can see the zipper pull from the front? It’s because a) they are pretty snug and b) there is not enough fabric covering the fly. Now, this is something I’d like to figure out how to change. Any ideas?
The flare is pretty substantial because I added an inch in length at the bottom because I wanted even more flare. But the photos don’t really show it. All in all, I LOVE THEM! And you know you did something right when a bunch of teenagers agree. I was modeling these to my friends here at the studio who run drawing and painting classes. The girls there exclaimed “YOU MADE THESE!”. They kept looking at it. Isn’t that the best compliment ever. I am so proud!
You know, I am going to try to control my emotions when I finally write the review tomorrow but I am noticing that as compared to the quick and easy projects I used to enjoy sewing before, I am loving the details in my last few projects. I sew only on the weekends, which gives me a chance to get away from PatternReview work and enjoy the reason why I started PatternReview in the first place.
My plan was to sew a little bit all week long but as I started working on these on Saturday, I just couldn’t stop. Who needs to eat, right?
Ok so last year I declared confidently “I will never ever sew jeans”. Well, whaddaya know. Three months later, I sewed ’em!
In my defense, I don’t wear jeans that often but that doesn’t stop me from buying them! However out of the 5 pairs of jeans I have, only one fits me like a dream and that’s the only one I wear. It’s GAP.. So it should be easy to find another one just like it right? Wrong! When I now go to the stores, none of the GAP jeans fit me either. Go figure!
So I decided… life’s too short to keep wondering if my own jeans will be better. Well guess what? You guys were absolutely right! Jalie 2908 is an absolutely awesome pattern. I never want to be without it.
This weekend I cut myself off from everything. I didn’t even turn my computer on for the last two days if you can believe that! It did take me one full day and a few hours yesterday (start to finish right from tracing the pattern to topstitching) to sew these.
But boy do I love them or what?
I can now truly see why this pattern is so popular on PatternReview.com. It was also the BEST pattern of 2009 and I can see it being in the list again this year. I mean everyone needs jeans don’t they?
I am too excited right now to even write a review. I have to add rivets today and I’ll write a full review on PatternReview after that.
Meanwhile here’s another photo.
This is also my February project for the One Garment a Month Sew along.
Related links: Jeans Tips and Tricks from PatternReview Boards
Gagan is giving me the best birthday gift ever! We are going for a quick vacation to Belize this Friday! I am hoping to sew a quick linen top before we leave. That’s also the reason I wanted to finish these jeans this weekend…
This week I decided to take a long lunch and visit the Textile Museum in Lowell, MA. I mean how crazy is it that there is a textile museum less than 20 miles away and I haven’t seen it! Diane volunteers at the museum so she hooked me up with the special exhibit coordinator – Diane Fagan Affleck. So this was “work” but also a lot of fun!
It’s not official yet, but a couture clothing collection is scheduled to be shown at this museum in August. I think this is a great opportunity for PatternReview to do something in conjuction with the exhibit. So we threw some ideas around and finally settled on a possibility of doing a fashion show where local PR members would want to show off their own formalwear. The museum curator or another guest could be the judge. I asked them to schedule some time for us in September.
The exhibit coordinator was very excited to learn about PatternReview as she sews herself. She told me that she made her wedding dress using 5 different patterns. How cool is that?
But the thing which I am really looking forward to is our group meetup in March. Tentative date for that is March 14th. They will organize a special group tour for us. There is a really cool 50s aprons exhibit going on right now. I also requested them to give us their classroom for a few hours where we could gather after the tour and bring our own aprons to show.
As I walked from room to room I thought how much you guys would love this museum! I mean it’s textiles, what’s not to love? The museum takes you on a journey from the early 17th century to modern fabrics. While I did enjoy seeing the rayon and space age fabrics, it’s the history which really captured my interest. How women dressed back then, what kind of fabrics were used, the hand crank sewing machines. The hand stitched dresses.
Diane pointed out that the sewing machine wasn’t invented until 1830 so all the clothing was probably sewn by hand before that. There are amazing dresses in there, all the textiles neatly swatched and labeled. If I had the time I could easily spend 2 hours or more in there.
This place is a hidden gem and I know you will love it!
Watch out for more news regarding our meetings at the museum. I am even thinking of inviting Kenneth King for a day here. They have a great classroom which we could really use.
I’ll let the pictures do the talking…
Complete Photo Set on Flickr with labels
Loom: circa 1865!
Fabrics were sold in a general store back then
There are many more photos in my Flickr set with descriptions. But the real treat would be to go there together in a group and exploring it.
Needless to say, I came back home very inspired, excited and my mind is right now spinning with ideas for the future.
I hope you will join us for our group tour on March 13th. It’s going to be a lot of fun! Post here if you can make it.
American Textile History Museum (Web Site)
491 Dutton Street Lowell, MA 01854
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