Oh hi there!

I feel like my 'it's been a while" posts are the most common of all.  However, thinks will change.. I think.  I wish I could say I have been busy but that would be lying on the most part.  I guess I'll just post a short update on my life as it stands and then maybe post some things I had been working on.  So here's a few fun facts about my life since November:

- I GOT INTO PDP!  Finally, it's official (well, pending my criminal record check) I'm going to be doing the Elementary level Bachelors of Education program at UBC in fall.  I honestly thought I wasn't going to get in and was incredibly bummed about what life had in store for me in the next few years.  This is probably why I haven't really been working on many projects as of late
- I have taken up cake decorating in the last few months and it's really fun to see what I can make with a little sugar, butter and elbow grease.  Plus it's a great ego boost to bake for people and have them love it.
- I re-purposed a  dress, or redid it I guess.  It went from MouMou mayhem to cute!
- I'm working on another dress from a vintage pattern online, it's done once I get around to the finishing touches which are so tedious and time consuming!
- I'm also the go-to seamstress in the house and have fixed a bunch of my family's torn clothing.  Which is pretty high considering we're all adults. LOL.

So... that's it for now!  I'm off tomorrow and might catch up with some things.

So this is the dress I redid.  Before is on the left, and after is on he right!  Mind the hair.. I just got up from a nap.

Yoga mat felt naked.

I saw this cute idea a while back to make a yoga mat bag, not really sure where, but it gave basic outlines on how to measure and assemble the bag. It was a pretty basic bag with a handle, no zippered compartment or ties at the top. So after work today I went to the fabric store and picked up some fabric (not for this project) and a tonne of notions (zippers, buttons and what I can only describe as athletic strap material).

I found this cute dark grey and off white pineapple pattern at value village, one of my fave places to pick of fabric by the way. They have a full aisle of all sorts of fabrics in different prints an all sorts of strange lengths. The farbic is fairly thin, and maybe a 100% cotton, so it breathes. It was important for me to find a breathable fabric as I do Bikrams and DO NOT want to contain my mat into a heavily padded or plasticy type fabric. If you are as familiar with the stench of hockey year as I am, you will most definitely understand exactly why I am a fan of a little aeration in my life.

So, here's my brand new bag. Which I love. The pattern is crazy enough, and the style of bag is floppy enough to mask my virgin sewing skills. Plus I'm sick and am majorly lacking patience at the moment. I am pretty darn proud of the little zippered pocket I added onto it as it turned out really well with very little effort. I cut out a square, folded it twice, took a chunk out and then sewed up the corners so it wouldn't lie flat against the bag and would be able to hold more things. Generally when I go to Bikram I try to bring as little as possible, including clothing. (OWOW) ...Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Of course, what's a new bag pic with out my awesome mug in it. So I made Adam take a picture of me modelling my awesome new bag. He seemed rather confused but obliged. As you can see I left a tonne of room at the top; just because I felt like it. But actually it's a really good place to store a nasty stinky towel after the class, 'cause that thing gets HEAVY. (I know, yummy right?) Mind my yuckiness, I'm fighting the flu and couldn't care less about looking sexy, or even being in a good mood at that, so you guys have no idea how lucky you are about me actually smiling here. I added a bit of a draw string part into the top so my things don't fall all over the place, because sometimes I change into something else so that could also get a little nasty.

Basically I'm a bit in love with this bag, and would love to sit in my bed all night admiring it's awesome handiwork. Who needs a boyfriend when you have a fancy dance yoga bag to keep you warm.

Here's a little fun fact: the parents are in Florida and it seems my mother has relocated the iron in the last 4 years when I was too busy living on campus. So instead of ironing the seams and folds with an actual iron like a pro, I used my straightening iron which seemed to actually do a pretty good job.

Next up for me is 4 fabric covered cork boards I have been working on since the weekend. I will post them once I get around to sewing on the buttons and placing them on the wall of my embarrassingly messy room

-Hayley

Sew I'm trying something new..

I have decided to take up sewing in the last few weeks after a short return to the overly time consuming hobby of knitting. I had decided that I was going to knit the people in my life Christmas gifts, however, halfway though my one and only scarf I pretty much gave up because it was just taking far too long! So I decided to drag my sewing machine out of the crawl space and see what I could do with it.

My first project happened to be a '60s' skirt. This happened coincidentally when I found this cute pattern in Talize, a local thrift store while visiting a few days before Christmas. I also picked up some stretchy denim fabric whilst there, deciding this would be the fabric. While it did go rather smooth, there were a few hiccups amongst the way, mostly having to do with sizing... it's a used pattern that had been previously cut, and as I said before, is from the 60s. So I used the size I thought was mine and ran with it. Prior to this, I had ZERO idea how to read a pattern, hem, cut or even really sew. Total newbie right here. So of course my first mistake was to cut the hem line I had traced (oops). Because of this, I had to add a panel. However, this panel also made it a little big for me. So all in all, it came together well enough with few visible flaws. I sewed 3 white decorative buttons onto the left side to add a vintage feel. I personally think it's adorable.. I love vintage, and helloo, I MADE it!